@bali4president Nepal 
DS (RD) was notified of acceptance last week, big envelope arrived yesterday. Disappointed he wasnāt a Buntrock finalist, but he did get a Presidential scholarship. Also applied for a music scholarship as a non-major but was rejected on that front. Heāll attend an Accepted Student day to evaluate what his music options are. It seems that St. Olaf has become significantly more competitive over the last several years, both academically and music-wise. It was never a slouch school; it just feels more āeliteā.
It is definitely becoming more well known. My D high school is well known for music but is on West Coast. But I was really surprised at how many kids from her school applied and these are just the ones I know of in my Ds small circle of musical friends. I think more parents too are clued in on the many merit opportunities and overall less expensive tuition compared to other top LACs.
My D got in. VERY surprised. Was hoping D wouldnāt. Rather low ACT and GPA. Really good musician though which I think is why. We have pretty high EFC due recent promotionā¦ but have not saved over the years as income was lower for most of the time. Doing the sensible thing, community college for 2 years then public university. Not going into huge debt and neither is D.
Does anyone know when exactly the decisions are coming out?
@stikershok : for a strong student, cc+flagship may not be the most sensible solution as by going that route they forfeit all their merit scholarships.(An exception is California, where for publics most aid is state based and not institution dependent.) So compare costs and value, especially for students who want to major in Arts/Humanities/Social science (where peer interaction and degree prestige is most important for job placement) and premeds (med schools donāt like/donāt consider cc classes). Thatās not to say your child should go to St Olaf and definitely not that you should get parent plus loans!! But for an excellent musician there has to be an affordable choice between nationally ranked and CC.
My D got in this morning! Anyone else hear today?
Got waitlisted 
Totally scares me because this was supposed to be my safety but well guess I have to live through this month to find out about the rest
@MuaazAtif What are your stats?
my D got in this morning as well! @daffodilpetunia --any mention of merit? Ours was just a you got in letter saying need aid would come separately in mid-march. Iām a bit concerned b/c usually merit has been laid out in all of her previous online acceptances. We really love this place, but need merit and FA to make it work.
@CroissantMiser My daughter did get merit, $16k. It looks like our daughters applied to a lot of the same places.
International student, applied for financial aid. Sadly was wait-listed. How likely are they to accept students through the waitlist?
@dadof2d 1550 in the SAT (750 eng, 800 math)
7As and an A in Alevels (to scale, Cambridge requires 3As and an A)
8A*s and an A in Olevels
5760 hours of social work at 7cups
Mentored 160 interns
Manager at 2 and member at 2 NGOs
Head of a tedx event and 3 other events
Run my tedx club
Head volunteer tedxlahore
Winner of inter-province scrabble twice
Have a published book
Winner of littleart movie making comp. And indiewise convention
Team member basketball and volleyball
Headboy
Recorded financial transactions at a company
Ran the canteen for a year
EFC: Full
Aid required = full**
@MuaazAtif : the only safeties for international students who need financial aid are universities with automatic merit scholarships for stats. If you are interested in STEM, you can try and apply to UA Huntsville (itās in the middle of a research park and well-known for Engineering, cs, etc).
@BarryA: thereās no financial aid for international students taken off the wait-list. Whatās your parentsābudget?
So strange, it seems as if every international (even with high stats & overall great app) who applied for aid was waitlisted. @MYOS1634 Could you please share where you got the info that thereās no fin aid for internationals on WL?
@MuaazAtif Do you think you were put on WL because of the fin aid? I thought St. Olaf was pretty generous with internationals
St Olaf is generous for internationals but it receives hundreds of applications from very qualified candidates. Between giving $50,000 to one student, and giving $25,000 to two equally qualified students, the expenses is the same but the benefits for the college are twofold in the latter situation.
Even American students donāt get the same financial aid (or, sometimes, any) when theyāre put on the WL.
For an international, it may mean āyouāre qualified and we wish we could admit you but we donāt have the money for youā.
@MYOS1634 thanks this helps understand the decision though it is well disheartening. Are university applications still open though?
@totallyspies1 yes I think so because Iām sure I do fall upon the merit and did recheck my application today to see if I had made any crucial mistakes or the likes. Iāve emailed them all the same for the letter stated that I could ask for explanations
Congratulations to all accepted!
As for me, I got waitlisted as well 30 ACT, decent grades, applied ED too. Will definitely accept a place on the waitlist, and considering contacting the admissions dept. to express further interest (itās my 1st choice). I guess it was somewhat to be expected due to my low EFC.