I hate the waiting too. My D23 is the kind of kid who likes to prep for change. That said, my S21 had to make a change (no fault of his or ours/change in college housing situation announced after May 1) after committing to his 1st college. Quick phone calls to 2nd choice found that his spot and scholarship money were still accessible. He never visited the college where he wound up, but it’s clearly where he was meant to be. Things have a way of working out. (If faith is part of your life, lift up the decisions to Him.) Hang in there, everyone!
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I saw parallel advice from @BeverlyWest upthread, and can I just say that this is my third go-round on the college admissions treadmill, and I basically headsmacked when I saw y’all’s posts with an “I can’t believe I never thought of that hack!”
So yeah, old dogs apparently can be taught new tricks. Thanks, y’all!
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Remember to cancel if she goes to Denver. They will charge you! Believe me.
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Good idea on the flights, too. Though if my kid ends up at U Miami, I have a feeling he’ll be on some empty planes coming back to the PNW on Spring Break. Everyone will be going there.
Thanksgiving is the biggie. Experienced parents book the day that the schedule opens. The longer you wait, the more difficult (and expensive) it is to get a flight. Don’t assume that a school has the entire week off. Some schools only have Thursday and Friday off. Always check the school’s academic calendar before booking flights.
Edit: On Feb 10, SWA opened flights through October 4, 2023. On March 9, they will open their schedule for sale through November 4, 2023. Thanksgiving flights may open sometime in April.
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Yep. I have reservations already made for orientation, move-in, parents weekend, and some other random weekends because right now the prices are cheap. I’ll see later if we end up needing/wanting to go visit any of those random weekends. Easier to cancel than to get one later. Also learned from previous parents it’s better to book directly through the hotel site than 3rd party. One place cancelled a bunch of third party reservations right before parents weekend last year. They put them up somewhere else, but much farther away. Those are apparently the first reservations to get dropped if they overbook.
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I made hotel reservations months ago near two of the colleges my daughter applied to for their admitted student days - both schools that she won’t get decisions from until the end of March. She found out and made me cancel them - told me it was bad luck! I listened - I don’t want her to hold me responsible if it doesn’t work out! (This thread made me just go back and check - plenty of rooms available, both in big cities).
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That is honestly adorable. 
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Yup. No jinxing!
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I’ve done the same with D20 and now S23, and I couldn’t agree more with your advice. In fact, many hotels keep an eye on the local university’s announcements for family weekend since that typically isn’t on the academic calendar in advance. We notice that as soon as the date is formally announced, room rates at the nearby hotels for those dates increase 50-100% overnight.
Last month I booked a few dates at a hotel near S23’s university for August orientation/move in. I took a couple guesses based on dates from the last two years because I knew I could cancel, and I’m glad I did. Last Friday the university formally announced move in dates for first years. The hotel I booked has now doubled in price for those days! It’s ridiculous how much they mark up those rooms.
ETA: And definitely book with the hotel directly. One hotel near D20’s campus is infamous for overbooking and then canceling some people who booked through another site. Every year at family weekend they use the same excuse: a pipe broke on one of their floors. It’s become a joke at this point.
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It’s been four years since we moved D19 in, and Covid meant that everything since then has been kablooey. By the time it was sorted and back to normal, she was happy in her off-campus housing and hasn’t moved since.
All that is to say that I’d forgotten. And now it’s too late - I just checked the hotel we’ve booked for Pitt’s admitted students weekend, which was cheap enough (booked ages ago). It’s double the price for what I think will be move-in weekend, even though the dates haven’t been announced.
But I don’t mind staying farther away. The actual move-in is always so choreographed, and he will want us gone asap anyway, knowing him. We’ll be lucky to get a last lunch or dinner in.
Not that he’s committed or anything! Still one RD outstanding, and three other visits to do.
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Still waiting on 5 decisions here. Also waiting on financial aid decision from one of the admits to see if it’s affordable. This waiting is hard!
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I sort of wish they wouldn’t send admission decision without financial aid package. We’re in a similar position with a safety. Haven’t been there yet and waiting to see if it’s worth visiting/even an option.
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Good advice on the hotels. We were just in Boston for an admitted students day this weekend and it was very expensive. I told D23 that if she wants to be there, she will most likely need to get a job for spending money. I feel like her job should be studying but - she is a very good worker and the past two years her jobs have given her days more structure and she’s made some nice social connections on top of being paid.
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Yes, I’ll do that.
We live close to one college and a relative lives close to another. If 23 chooses those schools, we have no worries about hotels.
Yet I have no idea what 23 will choose. The schools are “narrowed down to” all the schools that have sent acceptances. Lol!
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That’s awesome. From where we are sitting in the NE, high test scores and NMF will have not helped and all and arguably hurt a little for our kid and some of his immediate peers. For the safeties, the scores were unnecessary to get admitted and didn’t help merit aid enough to be meaningful (even for at least one school that promoted typically providing full tuition for NMSF). So while it didn’t hurt, it didn’t matter — GPA and ECs alone would have gotten them admitted. For any of the reaches, it won’t have helped enough to matter. And for a couple of the matches, it may have hurt (along with unwillingness to commit to ED) because of yield protection. Not sure either the test scores or the NMF status will have helped a single bit, with the state school or any of the other NE schools, or CA. Granted, for the kids interested or willing to apply to some of the schools that specific target large merit for NMSF that would have been nice. The one ours applied to claimed to give it to most then provided reduced aid that still didn’t make it as attractive as the state school.
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That’s a shame. For my kids (here in the south), high scores and NMF have meant multiple full rides plus extra money. We are very fortunate. But they only looked at those types of schools.
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S23 made his final decision- he will be a Triton at Eckerd College in St. Pete, Florida. He had visited back in October with DH but we had a brand new puppy at the time so I stayed home. He knows all of the research and time I have put into college stuff the past few years so wanted me to see the school before he committed - he thought I would notice if there were any glaring problems.
He wasn’t too interested in the admitted student weekend so we drove over this week to do a normal tour. It is about a 3 1/2-4 hour drive for us so not too bad. It was a great little trip and it was so nice to have time alone with him. He had fun showing me the town and the campus - I loved seeing his excitement for everything after years of him not caring too much about school.
The campus was beautiful - the buildings are not exactly pretty but the grounds are amazing with water everywhere, a beach, a marina and lots of green spaces. What I think makes it a great fit for him is the size (2,000) because I think he needs small classes. I also like the 4-1-4 schedule where they have the three week January term. His favorite thing is that he can fish right off campus. 
As we toured he was jokingly pointing out all the spots for snook and saying he wondered if the school would let him throw a bait pen off the dock. 
Here are his final results (GPA 3.12 UW/ 3.95W, 1320):
FSU - Rejected
USF - Accepted
FGCU - Accepted
UNF - Accepted
U Tampa - Accepted w/merit
Eckerd - Accepted w/merit
Roanoke - Accepted w/merit
Sewanee - Accepted w/merit (if this wasn’t so hard to get to it may have been tied for 1st)
Charleston - Accepted for spring semester - have to go abroad for fall
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Congratulations! The trip sounds wonderful, and the campus and school. Nice work on helping him through this. I love that he recognized your knowledge. 
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Curious why you think not helpful for matches or reaches? If a school has 75 to 80 percent admitted students with scores, as some of the most selective schools do, then submitting scores is definitely an advantage. Add in that some schools may prefer test optional among certain demographics- first Gen, athletic recruits, low income — and submitting high scores becomes even more of an advantage for kids not in these groups.
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