<p>Have you heard? What is it all about?</p>
<p>My D2 is going to a Posse weekend retreat. I'm not sure what this about.</p>
<p>Is it in competition with Questbridge?</p>
<p>Great program-if your daughter is selected, she is looking at a full ride to which ever school she selected with a great group of kids from your metro area. S’s school, Grinnell, has Posse students each year and they are a talented group. In his freshman year, the student body president was a Posse student.</p>
<p>There was just recently an article in the NY Times that mentioned the Posse Foundation:</p>
<p>[Beyond</a> SATs, Finding Success in Numbers - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/beyond-sats-finding-success-in-numbers/]Beyond”>Beyond SATs, Finding Success in Numbers - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Their site:</p>
<p>[The</a> Posse Foundation](<a href=“http://www.possefoundation.org/]The”>http://www.possefoundation.org/)</p>
<p>Definitely an opportunity that your daughter should pursue! As mentioned, if she is selected, the tuition to a great school is awesome. Apparently, if not selected to be a Posse kid, the other finalists are all on a list given out to the schools who use the Posse program, and are many times recruited to those schools anyway.</p>
<p>Can I hijack a bit? Not the Posse program but S just got an invite to participate in a similar summer program and if he does, the college that nominated him will give him $12,000 to attend that school. The program conflicts with another commitment he has but I think we can work that out, maybe. This school is currently #3 on his list of schools he wants to attend, a distant 3 but he liked it. Even with the aid at this school, overall costs will be roughly the same as his #2 choice and if that is the case, he will go to his #2. If this school comes up with better money, he will go here…assuming his #1 doesn’t work out for admissions/money–reach school for him. It’s a safety school but they have the program he wants and the program itself is very good. </p>
<p>At first we thought this was a “everyone gets it” kind of thing but further research shows that not everyone can attend. You do have to be nominated by the college to attend. We will have to research further but with the automatic merit aid and this program, he will have a bit over 1/2 of the costs covered for this school, putting the rest of the costs in our “acceptable” range. So, what to do? We are not done looking at schools. This school could easily be replaced by another school if he finds he likes another school better. The cost for the program is minimal $300. If the program was any other week during the summer we would send him. That particular week is just very difficult. So, do you send your kid on the off chance he might go to this school? I would say that there is a 99% chance he will get accepted to this school and probably 98% chance he will get into his #2. #1 choice is probably 25% chance based on their admissions data.</p>
<p>Bard hosts a Posse program. What a great opportunity. Good luck to your daughter.</p>