If you ask 10 people, you might get 10 answers. I will give you mine. I think it is always a good idea to have a plan and an end game in mind. You say Physics. If the goal is to become a public school teacher, then going anywhere will do. If you want to do a PhD at a reputable school – and frankly, for PhD and postdoc work the reputation of the lab far exceeds a school’s reputation – going to an undergraduate institute that will give him access to high quality research will definitely not hurt. To get high quality research experience, one needs to be at a school that has well-funded research programs. Now if the goal is to go to medical school or high finance, the answer changes drastically. Hence, having an end goal is important.
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Look for no loan schools and if they fit the bill, applying ED is a great idea. I would also recommend reading the fine print of the contract. Some say that affordability is a good reason to back out, some do not. In my experience through two cycles and those of kids that are in our immediate circle, typically NPC riding in between mid to low COA is what it works out to be. Except for the very tippy top schools, a call to the financial aid office and a subsequent appointment during say a campus visit or so can give you pretty firm numbers/preread numbers. Remember that most schools are desperate for students and a high yield situation through ED is a great outcome for them.
That said, my kids were EA/RD kids for different reasons. One needed to be close to home and went to UNC and the other was chasing merit at a few schools. He is at Bama.
Just curious, why is he uncomfortable revealing his top pick? I have noticed with my D24’s crowd, most kids are very open about their college picks, and others hold the information very closely and clearly don’t want to reveal anything. Just wondering what motivates the hesitation to say anything too specific…
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His top pick is Cornell so I think he’s trying to protect his feelings if he doesn’t get in ED. Also, most kids around here stay in state, and he doesn’t want to get into that whole conversation with his parents’ friends.
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Fun tool I happened upon to see # of grads in a given major. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/jonboeckenstedt/viz/BachelorsDegreesAwardedin2022/Dashboard1
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At the time, my college was not a top public school. I’m of the opinion that the individual who hustles and makes the most of each situation will get what the envision. I turned out ok and I joke to my kids now I can send them to an Ivy. It’s a nice feeling because it gives my kids the space to be ok with our public school or if they get into a lottery school. We are fortunate that our UC’s are awesome colleges. It’s massive and big but the kid who hustles will still make it.
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She is also a 3.0 student, going test optional, and limited to CIC schools that have an art major that are in new england, so she is not a candidate for no-loan schools. That said, she has talked to the regional rep (and will again) and plans to let him know that while she isn’t applying ED, if she got in and got the CIC waiver, it would be an immediate yes. If we were “write a check” people, it would be her ED, but because of her lopsided stats - distinguished grad in fine arts but core classes drag her gpa down - it’s not a guarantee.
S24 came home last night and casually mentioned he just became a member of the NHS. I am assuming it is too late for that to matter/be added if all his applications are in, correct? I told him to email his admissions people at his schools to check.
I think that’s one of those - unless they can show they’ve done something activity wise - I don’t think it moves the needle one iota.
If it’s just because he hit a certain grade point average, it’s a great confidence boost for him.
But it’s not going to impact his admission.
Now if he’s in the group and they do an activity - tutoring kids, cleaning up parks - whatever - then that matters.
So I wouldn’t worry that it’s left off.
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Yeah, when AOs have mentioned things not requiring an update, they often seem to use examples of honors like this, or AP Scholars, and so on, as things they would actually know anyway from the rest of your application. I don’t think they would be offended if you did an update anyway, but I think they are trying to give kids like this comfort that they are not missing out if they have already applied without such an honor being listed.
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I get that question EVERY day from my mother… ummm he hasn’t even submitted his first application!!! Ask me next April 30!!!
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Actually, you might want to make that May 2. I recall there being some students who really waited until the last minute to decide!
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One of my older kids decided at 11:45 pm on May 1. Is there a head exploding emojii…
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yes there is 
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I completed the CSS profile today, but I haven’t submitted it. The issue is the colleges list. I had a call just now with the College Board, and they said that the list needs to be complete at the time of submission. Per the representative, I can’t add colleges later or submit another CSS profile with additional colleges. In other words, once we submit the profile, D24 won’t be add any additional colleges that she may discover down the road, which means no financial aid for most colleges. This seems harsh to me, but what do I know.
D24 is planning on applying EA to a school on November 1, so we’ll want to submit the CSS profile around that time. While we have a fairly good sense of the ten or so schools she’ll apply to (pending ED), the list isn’t necessarily set in stone. It’s $16 per school, so we have to be somewhat discerning. Has anyone encountered this issue? Did I get the right information from the College Board rep?
I don’t want to give you bad information, but I am 99% sure that you can go in and send more reports later. I feel like I did this for DS19 most definitely.
I submitted ours yesterday. Hold please and I’ll sign in and see if I can theoretically add a school.
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You can definitely add a school. On the Dashboard page for the CSS Profile, under your school list, there is an option to “Add a College or Program.”
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That makes all the sense in the world. I suspect that the rep was mistaken. But, just to confirm, did you already submit that particular CSS profile?
BTW, I also spoke to a financial aid rep at Williams this morning to confirm feasibility. Williams’s financial aid really is best in class.
Hope your college search/application process for your budding creative is going well.
Yes, already submitted!
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Agree about Williams FA.
She’s doing well - down to about 7 or 8 schools, plus two safeties. And who would have thought … she has changed gears and only plans to do art on the side, or at the very most as a minor. Major now? Neuroscience. Or Psychology. Now if she would only write her essay!
Hope yours is going well also!
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