Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
8620

Which is not the same as having too much money.

I let my daughter keep those HS and community scholarships.
Explained to her that the 529 can only pay tuition, text books, room and board - but not provide extra spending money: bus/subway, fuel, outings, neighborhood student hang-out, concerts,… Soon they’ll wish they had a little extra balance on their debit card! Here’s the chance to reap in a few tangible rewards for 4 years of hard work.

Dito - my daughter got a small University fellowship that paid for the air travel to the summer semester abroad. She figured applying while being a freshman, she’d have zero chance – but turns out, most everyone apparently couldn’t be bothered to write a little essay and do the paperwork.

5 Likes
8621

I think you boiled it down right there! I know many kids who would be completely sincere and yet also glad it would reduce their workload and happy to give it up. I agree with others here that if it’s merit based, then there’s no guarantee that him not winning it will allow it to go to someone with greater need.

3 Likes
8622

How does he know that the scholarship will go to students who are more needy? It might go to a less needy student who made the effort to fill out the application.

How will this translate to when he is in the work force? Will he give up a pay raise because someone else is more needy?

3 Likes
8623

Required in-person appearances for scholarships and such are evil. Full stop.

10 Likes
8624

Power is back on!!!

I’m not sure the well pump made it. I’m going to give it a little more time to recover before I try calling people. (Last time it took 4 days and three people to find anyone in our rural area to help. All the older guys are retiring and can’t find younger people to learn the well trade and take over.)
It is snowing, but at least we are back to 67 degrees inside and have lights. Thank you for all the well wishes. We were wearing winter hats to bed last night, so it was getting dicey.

As to S23, still sleeping, covered in a rash, and I suspect with mono. I wrote to the college back on Tuesday that we couldn’t make it and didn’t receive any reply. Since the weekend starts today, I think I will write a different contact just to be sure they know. The trouble is that these smaller LACs of ours seem to invite hundreds (literally) of “top” students to compete for a few prizes. It’s more of a “come visit” weekend. D17’s weekends were only for the finalists, about half those who came were awarded full rides- not just tuition, and were arranged to be scrupulously fair. You knew it was worth your money and trouble.

Thanks again for prayers and good wishes. We are so relieved to have heat and (maybe) water!

12 Likes
8625

It is all part of the game. First, it is a good idea to know your odds before making the trip or even applying. I have seen plenty. Some had terrible odds and some had reasonable odds. Some schools use the visits as a marketing tool to get kids to make a decision with or without the scholarship.

I wasn’t a fan of the interview competitions where 300 or so kids get interviewed. I felt like that you kid is at the mercy of the interviewer of which there were many. Did he/she get paired up with someone they gel with?

I know at times the cost of these trips can feel like a lot, but if the odds are decent then the reward is big.

2 Likes
8626

I hope he feels better soon and that you get your heat back quickly!

It’s certainly a bummer that a scholarship would come down to a single weekend and that an ice storm and mono would rule out a talented student. Sounds like you are okay with it and probably have other amazing choices, though!

Sending you all virtual hugs and support.

3 Likes
8627

Got an email yesterday from one of the schools we are waiting to hear from. Their number of applications has gone up 136% in the past two years. They received over 21,000 applications and have maybe 750 freshmen. This is just insanely ridiculous.

4 Likes
8628

It is such a mess! I cannot imagine what it’s like for colleges to try to predict yield in a year like this one.

1 Like
8629

I have zero (really, less than that) sympathy for the colleges in this. They built their monster, they get to deal with it.

24 Likes
8630

Glad you have power and heat again. Hope S23 is able to get some relief soon. My S21 had an allergic reaction to antibiotics as a baby and was covered head to toe in hives…he was miserable, and it was a bit scary. Also I was stunned to get confirmation (via hives) that we’d been getting any actual antibiotics in him given how much he resisted that little plastic plunger full of pink liquid that supposedly tasted good. :wink: With power back, are you able to get a different antibiotic or any other medical input/help before the weekend hits? Sorry you’ve got so much going on at once but glad you are all warm and safe.

Ugh. I recall a few years ago Colgate went up 100% in just one cycle. My older kid ('21) faced some of this craziness (and also limited visit options as it was Covid-without-vaccines-yet for that admissions cycle), but this cycle with D23 feels even worse. My D is applying, as your D is, to mostly small liberal arts colleges, many of which are up 30%, 50%, and more in the past 2-3 years. I know we are facing rough odds…trying to steel ourselves for March (my D has 2 safety acceptances at this point, but March is feeling so unpredictable and mostly like everything in RD for her is a reach - she has SLACs on her list that she loves that are matches or even somewhat likely based on grades/rank/rigor/ECs, etc., but those schools tend to be need aware, and this will be kid #2 in college at the same time, so I think everything is a reach for D23 as she will get shaped out of some of those classes based on EFC). Sigh. Did the school that emailed you provide a notification date in their email update, at least? I see that starting to happen a little. Nice to get that little bit of certainty.

2 Likes
8631

My problem is that “the game” it’s all a part of requires so much privilege!

I mean, just to take an example I saw firsthand, my D17 was a finalist for the U of Alabama’s Blount Scholars back in the day. This cost us nothing, in monetary terms—they flew her in and took care of all of the expenses, even putting her up for an extra day at the beginning in recognition that travel time and time zone shifts from Alaska would create some cruel jetlag.

So it didn’t cost us a dime—but also, we’re at a socioeconomic class level that D17 didn’t have to work during her senior year of high school. But even if she’d been working a job that year it almost certainly wouldn’t have been one where taking time off to attend the Blount competition would have been met with such scheduling inflexibility that taking the time off would have resulted in being fired. (Not to mention that the family wouldn’t have really missed the income even if that had been the case.)

No, requiring in-person attendance for scholarships or admissions or programs is basically a way of saying “Sorry poor people, tough luck!” I get the value of in-person events, but it’s so much of a one-sided value—and not for the applicants!—for a chunk of the population that I wouldn’t mind seeing the whole concept disappear.

{/rant}

18 Likes
8632

I agree with the scholarship required trips. We did one at Baylor that cost quite a bit for us coming from Portland.

I’m also going to show some love for Hope College (on D23’s final list) who not only paid for flight, hotel, and a shuttle from the airport so D23 could visit, but did their full tuition scholarship interviews via Zoom.

10 Likes
8633

Could not agree more. These requirements are appalling barriers to access to such scholarships.

1 Like
8634

My son has several friends who went to Hope from his school. They all seem happy there! Some are likely to go this round also.

I agree the scholarship weekends are a burden. I don’t mind it as much for the ones that narrow down to true finalists before invites (say, a 35-50% chance of winning from those there for the weekend), try to schedule it on the actual weekend preferably Friday night and all day Saturday, and make it fair in terms of interview teams.

The last one we went to, at a school that I really think is best for S23, had hundreds of finalists for 10 awards. S23 had an ACT 8 points higher than the “cut-off” to be at the weekend. It was all fairly well done, and the adults in my group were impressed with it all, but then it took a turn when they seem to have randomly assigned students to interviewers because with hundreds of “finalists”, you cannot have the same teams interview all the students.

S23 was with two physical education professors (both female at a college with a male-dominated faculty.) He is not going to be an athlete in college and has little to do with athletics. It did not go well and put him off the school a little since he felt insulted that he didn’t even rate one academic interviewer. We adults are upset because it seems unfair on several levels, and we are involved enough in small LAC higher education to have seen that when the voting/discussion occurs, higher ranking faculty have more sway for the candidates they support.

We (self, husband, mom, biological father) all still hope he chooses this school with the merit he already has, but we cannot on any level understand what they were thinking. He is among the top students applying to this school and has connections to it. How did they not have him interviewed more appropriately? The answer, I think, is just too many people present without vetting them enough and narrowing it down before the weekend. We are not holding our collective breath for the results.

As someone said above, the college is using it primarily as a recruiting tool and only secondarily to hand out some scholarships, whereas families who paid money and took the time to get there are expecting it to be primarily a clear, fair competition. I have seen such weekends done well with D17, but that was at state flagship weekends for full-ride, named awards. Even in those cases, it cost money and time, but at least the chances to win were high and the structure was designed to be as fair as possible with all candidates meeting/being interviewed by the same committee.

1 Like
8635

Yes to all of this! We are well aware of, and have discussed with D23, our inherent privilege in being able to attend these interview weekends. And honestly in just being able to visit prospective schools at all!

5 Likes
8636

Actually it was Colgate :joy:. No update but I have the tracker someone here shared. I think Hamilton’s date moved up from that tracker.

1 Like
8637

My son last year got surprised by the Colgate news. By the time they updated their application numbers for the previous season, he’d already visited and had an interview and decided to apply. And then of course it got worse!

1 Like
8638

Ahh, well then the good news (I jest) is that this year’s situation is only about as bad as last year’s situation. College Class of 2025 was the first full admission cycle that was Covid-impacted and when Colgate’s applications shot up). Looks like it’s leveling off. So there’s that, at least. :wink:
Colgate Class of 2023: ~9,900 applicants
Colgate Class of 2024: ~8,600 applicants
Colgate Class of 2025: ~17,300 applicants
Colgate Class of 2026: ~21,100 applicants
Colgate Class of 2027: >21,000 applicants

2 Likes
8639

Any stats on number of applications hamilton received for 2027?

2 Likes