Couple of reasons for low participation:
Thatâs what weâll pay as OOS⊠SDSU. Which instate school costs that much?
UCs are 37-40k a year in state. COA at SDSU in state is 32k a year.
Miami of Ohio FB was very helpful especially before and during freshman year.
Wow, I guess OOS isnât that bad. Though on a national average, SDSU is less (tuition only) than most state schools.
Living expense is high, and for us, travel has really added up. We were just relieved when she pick SDSU over the UCâs!
itâs the cost of living that kills us in California. My daughter went to Cal Poly and the tuition in state is very reasonable, but the cost of living in SLO is rough. San Diego is probably worse. The UCs end up being 148-160k cost of attendance over 4 years in state.
Wow. Was feeling pinched because U Michigan instate was 30k all in per year. 120k for four years seems like a bargain.
(Reminder for context: âSo manyâ is 8, which in the context of CC is, of course, not a lot at all.)
I asked her, and it was mainly that she felt like if sheâd done better research into curricula at the front end sheâdâve only applied to 4 or 5, and that would have been enough. Also, she feels like applying to 8 was evidence that she is too susceptible to marketing pitches, and sheâs unhappy with thatâfor example, SCAD may have kind of the perfect curriculum for her interests, but she knew when she applied that the odds theyâd offer an excellent financial offer was approximately zero percent, but when they gave her an application fee waiver (their fee is $100!!!) she went ahead and applied anyway.
Congratulations on the Air Force Academy! My DS25 is in Air Force JROTC with his site set on the Naval Academy. He is currently working towards his pilotâs license, plays varsity tennis, volunteers at an Air Heritage museum, jazz band, JROTC Raiders, part time jobâŠ. he seems on the right track, but itâs nerve racking because he wants it so much. And I know we will be fighting for a medical waiver for past asthma (now outgrown).
(Setting aside the â8 is a lotâ conversationâŠ) On the flip side, what a great lesson to learn through this process! Better to head off into the world armed with the knowledge that marketing can impact everyone (even you) and being on guard against it, rather than presuming that youâre immune to marketing and then falling prey to an even larger / more dangerous pitch!
Yes, sounds like your son is on the right track! What I would say, and this might be obvious, is for him to keep his grades up and try to get a good ACT or SAT score. The academies require test scores and they seem to be very important. Also, when it comes time for him to start the candidate application, make sure he and you read through the candidate booklet and know all the due dates. Also, wrt the medical, just have your medical/pharmacy records available in case you need to provide them. But mostly, it would be to get things done as early as possible so that there is time to go through the medical process. You could also look at the Department of Defense medical standards to get an idea of disqualifying conditions. There is a great service academy forum thatâs like CC but specifically for the academies. If you have further questions, feel free to pm me.
S2021 is at UC Davis where the cost of living might be a bit less than at some other UCâs and we will pay around $140k for 4 years. So I would agree with your numbers, though my son has very nice housing and eats really well. You would be able to get the cost way down if your child shares a bedroom, lives with several people, cooks for themselves, etc. But if you are in Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Barbara, or Santa Cruz, the cost of living is very high. Not sure about Irvine.
It sounds like what she did was smart, not gullible. Itâs hard for a 17 year old to know exactly what theyâre going to want 6-12 months later. She gave her future self some options.
Iâm happy to hear that her concerns are about things like marketing and not her own worth academically. My question is pretty telling about me. Even as an older adult, my mind goes to comparing myself with others. Gotta keep working on that. 
Lots of people are learning a similar lesson about having not done âenoughâ research and adding some unnecessary schools to their lists, but unless she is worried about the application fees, I donât see why there is too much harm done in applying to 8 instead of 5. And she wonât look back and wish sheâd tried for SCAD.
I am not one that wants to fall prey to advertising for sure.
I look at college apps differently. There are hard and fast deadlines that are quite early in the scheme of things. I always encouraged my kids to just fill out the app and we will see what happens. As I said probably all too often we are merit hunters so I never worried about app fees that much. Sometimes you never know what will happen. In this game it is always good to have options. Both my kids went to and will go to schools that were not super high on their initial list but they have grown to like them and the costs worked out well.
The only schools I donât like throwing out an app to unless you are serious are the T20 because they want apps just so they can advertise the low acceptance rates.
Exactly. And even the on-campus housing costs can vary at lot at the UCs. There are more affordable on-campus options (ie, triple with no AC) at UCLA due to the fact that they have an abundance of housing and guarantee 4 years. Itâs more expensive at some of the other UCs, including Santa Cruz where thereâs a crunch. How many years of on-campus housing are you guaranteed at Davis? Itâs one of the ones we are hoping my D23 has as an option.
Anyone elseâs kid mostly do RD? This waiting is getting REALLY long in our household. 
My son applied to 12 schools total, 3 EA safety schools, and 9 RD match/reach schools (as ED just wasnât a possibility for several reasons). He submitted all his apps in October and November as required by his high school. We know that the waiting is almost over, but gosh, this is getting old. Heâs starting to feel like the only one in his high school who doesnât have any idea where heâs going. Anyone else in the same boat?
Yep, waiting on 12 answers in the next 4 weeks. Everything my daughter tried as EA came back deferred. Makes it tough to schedule if we want to go to any accepted students days; Iâve got notes as I hear of these days being scheduled for each school. She just wants to buy a sweatshirt and start to envision where sheâll be. Agree that many kids at her HS already know - ED, sports recruits, or local state schools that have already announced.
Weâre still waiting on 10. Itâs getting so old! Thereâs a map up in one of the high school English classes where the seniors add their names once theyâve committed. Itâs filling up fast and my kid is still waiting.
(Sometime lurker, first-time poster on this thread)
Iâve also not been on FB for years and would prefer not to return, but I am curious which schoolsâ FB groups felt which way, as Iâve observed your S23âs list has some overlap with mine:
Auburn, accepted
Texas A&M, accepted
Georgia, deferred
Tennessee-Knoxville, accepted
Elon, deferred
Furman, accepted
Florida State, accepted summer
Florida, rejected
Clemson, deferred/accepted summer
YES! My son is a spring athlete and April is going to be crazy with his senior season. Trying to make it to accepted student days is going to be really toughâalthough at this point I am just looking forward to dealing with this ânextâ set of problems. Agreed about wanting to buy the sweatshirt and start thinking about the possibilities.
@socalmom007 That map is hard! One of my sonâs favorite teachers does pennants around his room and weâre hearing a lot about that too. Trying to say that this too shall pass eventually, but ugh.