OMG! I understand he’s fine with you skipping but still!
My D19 graduates on May 12 from WVU, S23 graduates Memorial Day weekend (what the heck). I cannot fathom having to miss one of them. Hugs to you!
eta - oh wait, so he’s going with you to D19’s Tulane graduation?
Well then, that’s better, lol, I thought you were leaving him behind.
Yes he is going with us to New Orleans and my mom and aunt are also coming. Not sure about my brothers yet but either way we can make a little celebration out of it at least.
For four years I was holding out hope that one of the schools might change their date - or thought maybe one would be in the morning and one at night and we’d get lucky with a good flight. Instead for the first time in years Tulane changed their time to the evening so we had no chance. 
He has insisted he didn’t want to go since freshman year - and he does hate being in the spotlight for anything so I think I believe him.
Tulane graduations sound like a lot of fun!
My son ('19) did the same thing with Georgetown SFS … he saw a screen shot of the envelope on USPS “Informed Delivery” and was able to learn his fate based on the amount of the postage (small vs. large envelope)
We have two graduations this Spring – Notre Dame Mendoza in May and D '23 HS in June. Not sure about a party, but if so, will be a 2-for-1!
McGill merit scholarships are completely stats-based (non holistic), and S23 wouldn’t meet the cutoffs for those. For UBC and U of T, some past students with similar stats have reported receiving scholarships, but we’ll just have to wait and see. McGill and UBC would be within our budget without a scholarship. U of T is a bit more expensive.
We almost had the same issue but got lucky with D23 graduation being on the Monday after Tulane’s graduation. However, we will be racing to get my D19’s house packed up and all the graduation festivities completed before Sunday morning! We are doing a combined graduation dinner in New Orleans as well because family can’t make it to both.
This is the first year that USC has offered early admission. In prior years, a select number of students qualified to interview for merit scholarships and were notified of their acceptance in January. A box, with an acceptance letter, was mailed to their home but it was never trackable on USPS informed delivery.
Does USC still send out the fancy boxes?
No, they stopped in 2020. The merit scholarship candidates received them in January but, by March, the pandemic had shut things down. The students who were accepted in March, 2020 eventually received their box sometime in the spring of their freshman year. After that, USC moved to electronic notification.
Note that Marshall students still receive a very cool box/gift from the department after they are accepted.
We’re also not too stressed or worried about the college application process. S23 didn’t even apply to reaches. I predict 0-2 rejections. I think what I most feel is anxiety about not having things settled yet. I am a planner and my son is a planner and we like to KNOW what is going to happen.
He has wonderful affordable public school options and some great merit offers already. He can attend parental employers (already admitted) for free or at a steep discount. We are all pretty sanguine about the whole process but I admit I will be driven nuts until all the aid offers are in and he can make a decision.
Part of it is wanting to get visits scheduled for the finalists – we won’t do that until we have workable aid offers. There are 3 schools we haven’t visited. If he doesn’t hear back on his tuition exchange scholarships for those until late spring, I’m guessing they might get dropped from his list entirely. Or we could scramble and visit. Only time will tell!
As for grad parties, I know my son won’t want us to throw one just for him. His friend group is really tight, so I’m hoping at least one of them will have one – there’s some good party houses in the group. Maybe we should get with a couple of the parents and make sure there’s at least 1 party planned that everyone can attend.
On the flip side, I’m slightly sad that we won’t be visiting schools this spring break. I was kind of looking forward to weighing options and so on. Minor quibble, but still…
S23 on the other hand has been loving life not having to worry about this anymore.
Dang, I’m gone for less than two days and there are 90 new posts in this thread?!?
p.s. Food is a necessity for life, so such concerns don’t even need to be a tiebreaker, it’s reasonable for them to be near the top of the list.
It was 100% trackable in my household.
USC was a ‘different’ beast as D17 got the early acceptance in January but was not invited to the Merit interview weekend but she did get the 1/2 tuition Presidential(?) for being NMSF. She also got Tuition Exchange which made it better than all the Merit Scholarships so thus not invited to interview.
Most meal plans I am familiar with are overpriced and under quality. Being off the meal plan is generally cheaper which is why Colleges require students to purchase the meal plan as much as possible. If you are in an urban area with many cheap options then get off the meal plan as soon as possible.
Quick little story about parents stressing out if your student gets in or gets enough merit$ to make it work.
I made my D19 apply to where she went. I did it because I knew there would be good merit$ and that I might be able to play that school against her #1. #1 choice didn’t come through with enough merit$. Had her write a letter to the school and include the other school’s offer. It was a sappy letter for sure. #1 choice increased the merit$ but it still wasn’t enough. Beginning of April senior year I had her go to the admitted students day and an open house for her then major. She liked it enough to commit that day. Fast forward and she graduates in May with a different major. I think she has had a solid 4 years. Much more ups than downs I think.
I honestly think college is what you make of it and with thousands of 18-22 year olds around there is fun to be had and you should be able to find your people.
In the end your student will find a good place to be. Will it be T15 who knows, but it sure isn’t the end of the world if it isn’t.
Still awaiting Tuition Exchange on most of his acceptances. He has decisions from only half of his applications so we are in the middle.
He passed a prescreen for U of Minnesota-Twin Cities and has a tentative audition in early Feb set. He knows people who go there and has friends applying there so it will likely stay on the list.
Currently he’s sitting on $602,000 worth of merit over 4 years. But even with that college will still cost about 100k. Crazy. (he applied at mostly private schools)>
My niece is waiting for exactly these two as well. Good luck!
My daughter is also majoring in animation and probably going to attend KCAI ( not 100% though) Its such a beautiful little campus if you haven’t visited.
Talked about honors program applications with D23 this morning (she’s been invited to apply to some of them). It was a palpable feeling of power for her to be able to say that you know what, the University of X isn’t offering me enough money to make it worth my while to put together another application for them.