<p>Yes, do appeal the admission decisions at the pricier schools if you feel it is too much. I appealed and our parent contribution was reduced by $13,000. Was it a pain to do? Yes, definitely. Since we pay on the 10 month plan, that equates to over $1,000 savings per month!! Nothing beats a failure but a try - words to live by.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to all rolling admissions schools and her stats aren’t that great, so it was essential she apply as soon as possible. But after making sure she understood what rolling admissions was about, I shut my mouth. It wasn’t easy but I knew she was going to have to do it on her own and me nagging her wasn’t going to work. Then, thank god, a boy in her class had applied to a school on Sept 1 and got his acceptance in late September. All of the sudden, she was like “omg, he got an acceptance and I haven’t even applied yet!” She sat down and did her essay - which drove her crazy, I think for three days she didn’t write a word and then stayed up until 1am one night and got it done. And it was pretty darn good. And then she applied to all of her schools before October. </p>
<p>She filled out the applications but I was around to answer questions about some of the information they needed, and helped her organize what needed to be sent separately, what she needed to ask the guidance counselor, etc. I also helped her compile her list of ecs. But she did 90% of it. She has received four acceptances and the two other schools want to see her first semester’s grades.But thank god the applications are done.</p>
<p>But after all that, here’s the thing – once she got the apps done, THEN she shut down. She knew she had to keep her grades up, but it seemed like she fell apart for a while. Even the acceptances didn’t seem to make her happy; instead I think it all freaked her out - now it’s really real. She did get it together and saved (most) of her grades for the first marking period. I’m just hoping it’s not this way all senior year. She’s almost 18 and she has to be responsible for doing her work and keeping her motivation up. I’m sure as hell not going to be around to bug her when she’s in college.</p>
<p>Welcome to the world of senoritis SansSerif!! There is definitely a let down and a “what now” after the acceptances are in. As going away got closer, my D began to panic when she realized that college was no longer an ideal but a reality. Remind them that most acceptances letters say grades can’t drop substantially and that they do have to graduate - then let the rest of the year go as it may. You both are in a great position that you can go into the holidays without the stress hanging over your heads.</p>
<p>Merit money is another big bonus when submitting application early since college has more merit money to offer at the beginning then the pool goes down. My S got his 1st acceptance with 100% merit scholarship, 2nd acceptance with 2/3 and 3rd one with 1/3. Then when end of March came, all 3 became meaningless because of the Ivy acceptance.</p>
<p>Wish I’d read this a month ago. Sounds like a better tactic than my constant nagging of my usually very well-organized high achieving daughter who has been very sluggish in her approach to college apps. Partly due, I believe to her anxiety about the whole process. ( She’s the baby of the family). </p>