$850 a month for a janky room in a shared condo near campus. It would be easy to go higher than that. My 23 year old college graduate daughter has stayed on the central coast but found cheaper housing about 15 minutes up the grade in Atascadero.
I was going to say that $850 feels like a bargain. The last I paid rent at the range was 20+ years ago in SF for my studio in Hayes.
Near Cal, its common to pay $1500+ for room-sharing agreements with 2 other people.
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Weâre looking right now and $850 would be an absolute bargain.
Sorry, I donât want to bog down the thread with SLO rental conversation. My apologies.
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We might have gotten lucky with $850 plus utilities. My daughterâs freshman roommateâs mom bought a condo, then rented the rooms to her daughterâs friends. It was super weird and dingy, but it housed four girls well.
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This is a great idea!
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That should be built into the list of colleges to apply to, though, yes?
(Or, FTM, whether to apply to college at all, as opposed to some other form of postsecondary education.)
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YesâŠbut (for us at least) there is so much uncertainty around the whole thing it is hard to know when youâre making decisions about applications in August what will be appropriate the next August. How much maturing & skill building will happen over the next year? How will the kid handle the stresses and uncertainties of senior year and the college application process? What does the kid himself want? And then the uncertainties about the schools themselves & the experience there. It can be hard to get that information early in the process.
S23 applied to a few different schools that had the potential to be a good fit. (And for him one of the things that meant was only applying to schools within 45 minutes of home. Schools further away could have been cheaper, and maybe even academically and socially a better fit, but the risk of the distance wasnât appealing to him.) By May 1 weâll have a better idea which of those schools have a higher chance of being a good fit (as well as, of course, which ones are even options).
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There is so much uncertainty in the process and it is a huge leap of faith for every student going off to college and their parents. 
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I was originally going to reply that OSU is great! I lived in corvallis for many years and itâs a wonderful place to go to school.
My niece 25 has had her focus on OSU since 8th grade. Sheâs talented at volleyball and has spoken to the coach several times.
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True. That uncertainty is the case, though, all the timeâas @beebee3 noted, itâs still going to be the case after our kids have headed off to college, and as someone who has a kid graduating from college this year, it continues at that point, as well, and Iâm certain beyond.
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Agreed. Iâm not advocating that every kid simply attend whichever school has the lowest price tag. Some kids really would get lost at Big State U, some unique programs are worth a higher sticker price, sometimes the culture/climate/size at the cheapest school is just a bridge too far, etc.
In fact, S23 will be spending most of his 529 for undergrad since his chosen school is the perfect fit. (But unlike D21, he will graduate with a terminal degree (B.S. in engineering), so no need to have 529 $ left for grad school.)
So, absolutely: every kid and situation is different. The only thing Iâm opposed to is parents and kids feeling pressure to pay for schools that they canât afford, especially when itâs primarily for name-brand âprestigeâ. I know way too many millennials stuck with crushing educational debt. Seeing it now play out again with Gen Z is like watching a slow-motion train wreck that I canât stop. Hence my CC soapbox on this topic 
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Both D18 and S23 changed what they thought would be best for them from the time they applied until they committed. Sometimes there is huge growth during those first few months of their Senior year. I am grateful both cast decent sized nets so they can evaluate their choices as they mature.
S21 had his heart set from the time of his application. Although a few schools did tempt him to change, he ultimately attended his top choice from the beginning.
It can be helpful for some to choose a variety of options because fit may change.
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100% my D19 was still deciding up until the last day. For her the accepted student days were super helpful at getting a feel for not only the school but her potential classmates. For my S23, he cast a pretty wide net (18 schools) also including a few schools that were added just to provide some options as he gets a better idea of what he wants.
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I also saw a significant difference in my kidâs stress level when he decided he didnât have to take courses and spend weekends trying to up his score taking the tests again. Some of his friends had to go through that.
Now this is just getting ridiculous. Itâs getting into McSweeneyâs parody territory.
December 15:
today (December 15 ) is your final opportunity to apply Early Decision II to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
December 16:
Your talents could make you a great match for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a top-tier university with a reputation for innovation. That is why we are giving you extra timeâuntil midnight tonight --to submit your application even though the deadline was yesterday.
December 23:
We hope you are still considering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as the next step in your academic journey. Please note that the deadline to apply is January 15.
January 16:
Your talents could make you a great match for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a top-tier university with a reputation for innovation. That is why we are writing to inform you of our extended January 31 deadline to apply.
Today, February 3:
We have not yet received your application to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and we know how busy this time of year can be, so we have secured a special deadline extension for you. You now have until February 15 to apply to Rensselaer.
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At this rate, they might extend the deadline past May 1. 
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I am seeing this now with my niece. She has almost full tuition at a great school that was her safety, on her same coast so MUCH easier and cheaper to fly back and forth, etc. She got accepted into an east coast school that has much more âprestigeâ into a program she did not apply for, and zero money and she is about 99% sure she will attend this school instead, simply for the name. It is killing me. But I guess she is not my kid and there is nothing I can do.
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Some do!!
The test optional was a wrinkle for sure. I had a D19 with a 34 ACT and solid GPA but could have been better unweighted. Then I have a D23 with a 31 ACT and a bit better unweighted GPA than D19. D23 had 2 more APs than D19. We did suggest D23 work over the Summer to get a better score, but we didnât mandate it nor did she do a prep class.
At one school D23 got the highest merit on the chart(range chart) which is now GPA. She wouldnât have qualified for that merit back in '19. D23 did send in an app with no test score to a T20, but did not get in.
I do feel that test scores are still important especially for merit and T20s. Still schools somehow look at the entire picture and use the word holistic to make decisions. I definitely donât claim to know how to crack the code. In my small sample size of 2, D19 had better stats, but I think D23 had an overall better resume look. D19 stopped her sports senior year. She didnât have leadership positions in clubs or sports. She went from 5 APs Junior year to 3 senior year and didnât take Calc. D19 worked a ton and made lots of $$$. D23 on the other hand was two time captain of a sport and played 4 years. Held a couple other leadership positions in clubs. One for multiple years. D23 showed more of an upward progression in classes with more APs senior year than junior, plus she is taking Calc BC.
I just think the whole process is a crapshoot. You put out a bunch of apps and scholarship apps and see what sticks. D19 ended up at MiamiOH. D23 matched her merit there, but will probably not attend.
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