Excellent points!
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Thank you for sharing your impressions! Very helpful! I know he prefers a more traditional campus but is willing to consider a ācity/spread outā college if he can study in a cool city like Chicago. We wonāt have much extra time, but we are visiting Chicago 2/2-2/3 for the Trustee Scholarship competition at North Park and might be able to stop by the DePaul campus to check it out and get the vibe. I do think North Park might be the best fit and it does seem to have a nice campus, itās just not right in the cool part of the city. Might be the best of both worlds-a more suburban campus set apart from the craziness of the city but just close enough you can get to the cool parts whenever desired. I think the housing is available all 4 years at North Park but not positive. Thanks again!
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Thanks, and best of luck to your S23! Yeah, we werenāt able to visit Northeastern either - it is a point of concern. My D23 did their virtual online tour which asked for her email address, and we signed up on their web site for information. My D also submitted a digital music supplement (which wasnāt required, but optional because she applied for the CS + Music Technology major) so hopefully that counts in the interest department. I made a point of getting her to visit Case last year on our mini-road trip along with Pitt and Carnegie Mellon (one of her big reaches) because I knew they valued interest a lot, but Northeastern wasnāt really on her radar at the time we had the opportunity to do visits. Oh well, weāll find out soon enough!
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I meant to say she got six acceptances (outside local options) and only one of them did not meet our merit goals; the other five are. And we are awaiting six more. Also, chasing merit is complicated because S21 has a TE scholarship. We are only allowed one TE student at a time by our sending institution. In 2025, D23 could try for TE for the last two years. Eight of her schools would be eligible for TE apps at that time. Though, we realize, it is a long shot given the %'s.
D23 got admitted to UMASS Amherst today which means she is in at 2 of her top 3. She wonāt hear from UW Seattle till March. Basically sheās going to decide before then and then IF she gets into UW sheāll reconsider.
Sheās also giving more thought to make sure sheās ok with going across the country. I think we have one more trip to New England in our future for a couple Admitted student days.
So now Iām starting to think more about cost beyond the basics. For example, for some schools she would have to bring her car across the country and for others she would not. How much is that worth to us in time/money?
Do any experienced college parents have thoughts on costs of having a car? Iām thinking parking, mileage, wear and tear, and the time to drive it - possibly back and forth for at least a couple years. Not sure . . .
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The biggest expense could be insurance. We live in NYS and I get a nice discount on family car insurance through my teacher union. It would have been about $5000 for her to have her own car insurance if she were to register a car in New Orleans. She ended up taking over one of our car payments and driving the car from Buffalo to New Orleans. She has to drive back once a year to get it inspected here. A pain but worth the savings! Other states might allow cross-state registration (where a mechanic in another state can sign off on passed inspection) but we had no luck with that.
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S23 isnāt going across the country. He will be about 5-6 hours drive. We are not having him bring a car the first year. Parking is expensive and itās not close to the dorms. Plus, I recall what it was like for the freshman drivers when I went to school. They ended up driving to all the things and having a full car of people every time. Zip car seems much more budget friendly for the first year for us. Not sure how we would feel if everything was a flight away though.
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Weāve already told D23 thereās no way freshman year she would have a car; I agree that it just is a distraction when least needed.
D20 didnāt take a car to school her first two years, sheās abroad this year and it is still up in the air as to whether sheāll take a car senior year.
Pros: She could get herself to and from school.
Cons: Insurance, maintenance, (possible) repairs, $500 campus parking fee, increased risk of accidents, gas prices, peer pressure from students wanting to mooch rides
I donāt think we are up in the air anymoreā¦pretty clear nope for us. 
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I have experience both with UW/Seattle and college kid with car.
My older D attends college at Western Washington which is just about 100 miles from Seattle. Her auto insurance cost is substantially less by being within 100 miles.
It is difficult to have a car at UW. If my younger daughter attends she probably will not bring her car as there is a fair amount of restaurants/shops etc near campus and we could always get her etc. You will want to explore the cost of parking if she wants to go to UW, I donāt know exactly how much it costs but it is a substantial cost as parking is limited. There also are many restricted areas and wouldnāt be difficult to get a ticket if one is not attentive.
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Thanks all!
Our oldest D is in school in Texas and it hasnāt affected our insurance costs at all. I called and everything and it was no big deal. I wonder if it also depends on oneās insurance company?
For D23 she has a niche club sport that she MUST have access to. Itās so niche that I canāt name it for privacyās sake. But a big part of her school selection is influenced whether the sport is on campus or close by. For several schools on her list she would have to drive off campus to do the sport. Itās not ideal but as you know there are a lot of factors and trade offs in college selection.
Many of the schools that would be more convenient for her sport are either way out of our price range or too selective for her stats.
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Did anyone apply to the University of Utah?
S23 logged into his University of Utah portal today and it said āacceptedā. Last week it did not.
He did not get an email saying to check his portal. It also did not say anything about Business Scholars, which he applied for on the common app.
I googled when Business Scholars notifications would be released. Uās website said it would be in their admissions letter along with scholarship notification. S23 did not have a letter. Maybe it is on the way. It just says āacceptedā on home portal page. Anyone else have this experience?
Not with Utah but have had a couple schools do this then send the merit and other info later via snail mail.
Thanks. Good to know. S23ās other acceptances have had a link to the letter on the portal. We will watch the snail mail & keep checking the portal.
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Utah send a physical letter, which will likely arrive tomorrow (or perhaps in a few more days for the east coast). But the last few years they have sent merit details separately later on.
In previous years housing registration took place very early (you had to register in mid March) but now that deadline is at the beginning of April. Donāt miss it if you want to attend or you may be left without any on campus housing options. D18 attended and loved it there - let me know if you have questions.
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Kiddo just submitted her last application a little after 1am PST. Proud that she hasnāt taken any of these applications up to the last day or two. Feeling a little out of the mainstream in this thread where it seems like everyoneās child has applied ED or at least EA somewhere. I donāt think our daughter hears back until March from any of the 17 schools she has applied to. Granted 10 of those 17 are UCs/CSUs which all admit pretty late, but for the first time Iām wishing there was less time between submitting and hearing back.
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When my 21 applied and was accepted to Utah, we did not get merit notification until after housing opened up. I had to lose a deposit before I knew if we could afford it. Based on the numbers of the year before, we could. They restructured merit in 21, reducing it, and ended up elsewhere. It seemed like a great school to attend, but I was not overly thrilled with the whole application process with them.
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There are only 2 schools on my sonās list where I expect heād even think about bringing a car. Itās a crappy $1000 car so we donāt care if he takes it. But heās not going to want to unless he goes to RIT or Rose-Hulman. You canāt get to much of anything without a car at those schools.
Iām sure heāll get roped into being the chauffeur and DD all the time (he doesnāt plan on ever being a drinker). We wonāt pressure him to take it if he doesnāt want to, so he might choose to leave it for his little brother to inherit.
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Yes 2021 was a mess in terms of merit aid. Fortunately things seemed to stabilize in 2022, though Iāve never been that impressed with the billing and financial aid staff. Thereās an ambition to increase OOS enrollment significantly in the next few years and it appears thereās going to be a heavy reliance on WUE, we got a postcard saying that will be offered that if you have >3.4 UW GPA and live in a WUE state.
The better merit scholarships have always been more limited than at Arizona, and since dropping test scores (where they looked for 33+ ACT) require pretty much a 4.0UW plus a strong AP/IB courseload. Now they are structured around you getting residency after the first year, you can get the equivalent of full tuition but itās backloaded (you get $5000 per year in housing subsidy but have to pay a ~$15K OOS premium the first year). Unfortunately the full ride Eccles cohort scholarships which D18 won now appear to be pretty much limited to instate students.
SLC is a great place, a lot of Dās friends who came from OOS have decided to stay after college. The outdoor lifestyle is wonderful, skiing canāt be beaten and thereās lots of national parks to visit in every direction. Taking a car so you can go on trips at the weekend is very common. Despite the pandemic, D was able to go all over for skiing, climbing, surfing and backpacking and loved spending the summers there.
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Some schools do not allow first years to have a car on campus so May want to check the schools.
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My DS is also waiting on a Canadian school (Dalhousie). Heās pretty much a slam-dunk to get accepted based on stats, but they are holding up his review because they say they never received his HS transcript (which was actually sent before he submitted his application by the HS guidance office, Dal just ālostā it). The HS just sent it again.
My D20 visited and applied to McGill, but McGill is doing away with the lower international tuition for the Arts faculty (especially for CS which you could get an āArts and Sciencesā BA that was almost equivalent to the BS degree. It used to be a real deal financially, but not so much anymore.