This is our family position. My kid applied to many UCs(LA,Berkeley, SD, SB, Davis and Merced), CSUs(SJSU, Cal Poly Pomona, SLO). If he gets a seat in Merced (and not any other UC or CSU), he will join there.
I keep telling my 2 kids that where you study matters little compared to what you do there. In this crazy world of admissions, I would consider any UC education to be a good investment.
I hear you. Iâm seeing a lot of that too - kids getting into schools EA that they had/have very little interest in. OK, so can you withdraw your app immediately so there is space for the kids that truly want to go here (but canât afford the ED financial risk) to be admitted in RD?
My S24 is the opposite declaring he ONLY wants to consider schools in the south b/c he is sick of snow and cold. I feel like I need to have him apply to at least one NE schools âjust in caseâ he has a change of heart a few months after the application process.
We have very similar lists. I wouldnât want to send my kid to Merced for 150k. Not that I think youâre wrong, but we have other options for the price. My kid could go to Alabama for free or Purdue for under 30k a year. He doesnât want to go out of state, but if we wind up digging that far down his California list, weâd opt for the higher quality great offers he has out of state.
My kid wanted to stay in CA only, hence didnât apply to many OOS schools. He likes Univ of AZ where he got admitted and knows the Fin aid and costs (~20k per year) and will make the call after touring his favorite colleges (where he got admission).
All the best to your son.
We will be doing this in July as Whitman is now my D24âs first choice, Iâm so glad I read about it here!
So many loyal Californians - my D23 did not apply to any OOS colleges. She wants to stay a Cali girl - at least for the next 4 years 
It doesnât work that way. The admissions office takes yield projection into account when making offers. So they know x number of applicants who are offered admission will ultimately not enroll. Thatâs already taken into account when offers are made - so an admitted kid withdrawing his/her application doesnât open up a seat.
My kid told me that he thought Merced was an interesting option where he would actually have a lot of opportunities. He thinks it is an up and coming school that will be respected much more in the future. But ultimately he didnât feel he needed a UC safety school, after he visited Oregon State and liked it a lot.
Speaking as a professor, (a) unless itâs a small LAC, the odds of this stemming out of a request from the admissions office for the professor to reach out are non-zero but quite low, and (b) most of us have enough of a sense of discretion that if we want the student to enroll where we work, weâre not about to send unfiltered information like that to the admissions office whether or not we were asked by them to reach out.
Thank you for calming my nerves.
Best wishes for a great number! 
I think itâs a hidden gem of a school (and would be swamped with applicants if it werenât in eastern Washington!).
Itâs a small thing, but one thing that stood out to me is the responses S23 or I received over the last year when adults would ask my kiddo what schools he was considering; heâd go down the list of many SLACs and there would be nods and smiles, yet once he said ââŠWhitman,â peopleâs eyes would light up and theyâd say: thatâs such a great school!
And even then, it often wasnât someone whoâd attended themselves - it could be their spouse/cousin/sister/co-worker/friend/etc. who went there and had such a fantastic experience that it had even rubbed off on them. People just had such warm enthusiasm towards Whitman even before knowing it was my kidâs first choice.
Just curious, what type of schools did they expect to get into? And, where are they ending up now? In our area, there are private schools that routinely send multiple kids to T20s and then there are other ones that do not. Even though they cost about the same.
In the past weâve frequently had kids get into top UCs, some ivies, top 20s, etc⊠Last two years have been rough. Valedictorians have ended up at Merced and Santa Cruz because they had no other options. Itâs definitely a cautionary tale to make sure you have targets and safeties youâd be willing to attend.
A big nope. If I applied, I would have paid THEM in order to apply, and I would not then fill out a survey to answer their nosy questions for FREE. If they give me back my application money? Maybe. 
Or you could send them an invoice for $75? 
Thanks for the link, funnily enough, I had seen your post in my âsearching for all things Whitmanâ on CC. Would you mind if I PMed you at some point if I have more questions? Congrats to your son!
Catching up on this thread and in many ways it makes me happy to not have a kid chasing prestige. He focused much more on fit. He knew what he was looking for and we narrowed down options based on what he thought was most important to him. We toured a variety of schools in the locations he was most interested in, some of which he was interested in and some of which we said he should see anyway because we were in the area. I know we were fortunate to be able to do that. Once he was on campus, he got a feel for what it was like. All this was done junior year so he was prepared to apply. He gained admittance (with some merit) to a school that is higher ranked for his desired major than the one he chose to go to. But when he was on campus, he really didnât like it. Where heâs going is a good school that checks many of his fit boxes. I think itâs a great school but itâs not the most prestigious for his major. He feels deeply that this will be the environment where he will be happiest the next 4-5 years. We saw it in him on the tour. There was a moment where it just clicked. We are banking on a good fit school leading to a happier and more productive student.
My kid very much wants to try out a new environment. His 3.3 gpa wont get him into our very good state flagship of UW-Madison and even questionable within his music major. And if he did get in, its still about 22k.
So we got our son to apply at U Louisiana Lafayette. Hes in and he should get their top merit award. Instate tuition plus an additional 8k a year off. Plus theres options for his music. So it would put us in the sweet spot of total COA 20k or less.
Hes learning he prefers a college of 5k or more students or close to a city.
So hes in at 7 schools now out of 16. Just has to get final financial aid awards.
Re grandparentsâŠmy family of retired teachers saved money for both my children from birth in 529 accounts. It wasnât huge, but it was a big help. One grandma made a point of giving certificates to each adult family member on their birthdays showing she made an extra $25 contribution to the 529 in their name! None of us need more âstuffâ anyway. We all agreed many years ago to opt out of Christmas presents for adults. If I am blessed with grandchildren, I will continue this tradition.
Re college selectionâŠone of my children turned down a âgoodâ UC and a highly respected OOS flagship for an inexpensive WUE with the right program. He also greatly valued the incredible outdoor recreational opportunities at the WUE. No problem finding âintellectual peersâ either. Plenty of smart kids are making smart choices, especially with Honors Colleges widely available. The other kid could have attended a very inexpensive WUE with a decent program, but ended up at a frightfully expensive private on the East Coast (made possible with merit/talent $ plus the help from the grandparents) which clearly had a superior program perfectly aligned with his goals and interests. Neither kid submitted more than 4 applications and each had a WUE safety which they knew was a sure thing for admission, affordable, and a good fit. 2nd kid ended up at a very prestigious school, but that was incidental rather than intentional. Both will graduate debt free.
i know my d23 wants a new environment. but our midwest state school is by far the least expensive. . . . and shes interviewing for a special co-hort group in a few weeks. Iâm not sure what to think. I know people say your state school isnt like HS. . . here, 2/3 of our stateâs population live in our area; sheâs grown up here, and knows kids from things. I can see how it really does start to feel small going to the state school.
SO i completely understand your kidâs desire to try somewhere new. I get it. 