Well, to give a little support to @1dadinNC, I also had the impression from the above quote that things were dire, that ASKMother’s son was gonna end up at a community college or something (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but later we find out that there are several full-tuition offers from safeties and an almost-full-tuition from a target.
Let’s all remind ourselves of CC’s directive: 3 reaches, 3 targets and 3 safeties where you can afford it and your kid would be happy to go.
All that said, I know the stress is immense and I know how our kids can end up convinced that they are failures because some inscrutable and unfair process did not end up in the acceptances they worked for all their lives.
It’s hard to realize that doing everything right is not necessarily going to result in the wished-for result. Life sucks sometimes.
. He’s fine with his list and it is what it is - either he’ll get in or he won’t. Either he’ll get good FInAid or he won’t.
I’m glad the student has extraordinary opportunities. It sounds like there may be more coming that are “beyond extraordinary” but when I first read this and knowing the student stats, I was thinking - a guarantee needs to be in the mix - but as it turns out it already was.
I don’t think anyone has ill intent. We all think differently and some think if you have an auto merit at big money, anything else is gravy but you’ve already won. Just another perspective that’s out there.
I think it’s just a difference of understanding the communication - no one on either side is wrong - it’s hard to interpret when you don’t know someone - that’s all.
I get it, my son has a full ride offer from a safety and solid offers from other safeties. If he doesn’t get into his target or reach schools, will we be disappointed? Yeah! While he has a great back up option, it’s not where he wants to go. These kids work so hard to achieve a certain level and they do want to see that reflected in their acceptances.
Well we can just chalk up the conversation as the perfect example of why electronic communication is failing our society and causes undue anxiety and ill will towards people who most likely deserve neither. (And we wonder why this generation is so stressed and depressed and angry all the time!)
And I do apologize that it seemed to some like my son had zero options other than community college (not that there is anything wrong with community college) but considering his AP course load so far and his testing stats it would (in our opinion) be a waste of time for him, especially since he is 100% confident he knows what he wants to study in college (and has even thought of a Plan B if he gets into course work and hates it!) I probably could have tempered my ‘spiraling to a depression’ to be more like ‘feeling a little down and nervous’ … and I also assumed that applying to safeties were a given - both having them and getting into them hence the term safety.
Anywho, onward and back our regularly scheduled discussions… I’ll start - who is waiting on January EA decisions? We have 3 that should come through by the end of the month.
My son applied to 3 EA schools. He heard from one in Dec (UMass Lowell). Still waiting on WPI & Clark. Clark is especially aggravating because they released a portion of their EA decisions in December, and haven’t released anything else for weeks. We know several people who received their acceptance in Dec; haven’t heard of anyone denied in December. And while Clark emailed people who did not get a response that it didn’t mean anything, it was just who they had gotten to so far, it is hard not to feel like it is a bad sign.
We’re at the end of acceptances for D23. She applied to 13 schools in total! Only waiting to hear from Furman and Sewanee, both of which should be in the next week or two. Then the really hard part begins!
Hi MAmomto4- I hope you hear soon. I have been thinking about your son ever since the Proletariat Hall joke. I am really rooting for him to get into the places that you both feel most comfortable! Hang in there.
Waiting here for EA on WPI and Northeastern, both promised to announce this month. I’m in the fortunate position of having my D23 be at least reasonably excited about nearly all the schools she applied to (7 out of 8 ain’t bad, I say!)
The only one D23 really would feel a little let down to attend is Stony Brook and even there it’s only because it’s here on Long Island and would feel like she hasn’t “gone” anywhere. She knows as far as our in-state SUNY options go, Stony Brook is the one for CS regardless of what part of the state we lived, but I can understand why she’d be a wee bit bummed in terms of the “college experience” standpoint. But she’s got acceptances from Pitt and Case that both fall within acceptable budget after merit, which brings the stress level down considerably as she waits for the rest to roll in. She knows she has good options at this point, even before the big reach schools come into play.
Waiting on USC EA, then Northeastern EA, both long shot reaches (since he would need merit), and probable deferrals.
At some point we also hope to hear from the Canadian schools (UBC, Toronto, McGill).
Then waiting for March… UW and the UCs and Cal Poly.
His favorite acceptances so far: CWRU with $33K merit, UMN with $15K merit, and Oregon State with WUE and Honors. These all have good things going for them and are serious possibilities.
