@thumper1 Sigh… I am not confusing the terms. Please reread my long post 36. While Hamilton says they are need aware for Jan admits I feel we slipped through the cracks.
Perhaps peruse the other threads that have discussed in great detail as all these points have been covered from a variety of viewpoints:
While what @Chembiodad posits in 33 is literally correct I feel we are missing the forest for the trees here.
A really really key point here is what @scrunchiee says in post 34. Hamilton has a very different program from Midd and almost ZERO students graduate mid-year. The London program is integral to being a Hamilton Jan.
And frankly, even Hamilton admits this, in the Hamilton Spectator:
According to Monica Inzer, Vice President of Enrollment Management, maintaining need-sensitivity and awareness in January admissions is necessary, because the College doesn’t want to “admit students for an option and program that they might not be able to participate in because of family finances.”
What she said Hamilton doesn’t want to do is exactly what has been offered to our family.
What @merc81 says about Hamilton funding a students time while at Hamilton is correct. Our aid package has a few small blips because of the Jan admit, but nothing major. The financial aid office at Hamilton has been a pleasure to deal with throughout the process.
I was at info sessions at both Midd and Hamilton recently. The way the Jan/feb program was discussed was night and day. At Midd, it was a planned part of the presentation. They talked about the box you can check or not check if you want to be considered for Feb. They talked about what students have done that semester before they matriculate, they spoke about the graduation. Then the tour guide spoke about it too. And the profiles of tour guides posted in admissions office, delineated students who were Febs. You couldn’t possibly miss that this is a program at Midd. At Hamilton, the Jan option was not brought up at the info session, even when the admissions counselor was discussing ED vs RD. Someone asked him a question about it and the response was something like, there are about 45 applicants we really love, but we don’t have room for them so they come in January, and some of them spend the fall in London. Then someone asked if they graduate in 4 years, and he said ‘I think so’. I also attended a Hamilton info session with my first child a few years back and the Jan option was handled the same way. Not mentioned on the tour either. Now it is a smaller program at H vs Midd, but being more transparent about it, would be a better approach.
So the school was need aware…and they determined that your need was something they could meet…so your daughter was accepted.
How is this slipping through the cracks? Did you think if you had financial need, your kiddo would not be accepted at all? That is NOT what “need aware” means.
The school clearly wanted your daughter to be a student there…but could not offer fall admission. It’s sort of a new thing schools do…and I’m guessing it’s based on anticipated yield and space…like in dorms. Maybe there is more space when Spring study abroad happens…OR when previous January admits graduate in December.
Anyway…congratulations to your daughter. Hamilton is a terrific school. She just has to wrap her head around what to do in the fall term. I’m guessing also that there will be a group of Jan admits, and the school will do,their best to acclimate them to the school when they arrive!
It’s a great school.
I DO understand what you are saying about the lack of finances for a fall term that is perceived as being essential.
To clarify @wisteria100 comment, there is NO box to check for a Hamilton Jan program. This has been misstated repeatedly on CC, it is NOT opt in. Honestly, if it were opt in 99.99999% of my issues with the program would be gone.
Unlike Midd (where a student can check Fall only, Fall or Spring, Spring only on the app) Hamilton does the choosing for you.
In our info session at Hamilton no mention was made of the Jan program, D’s interviewer was a Jan and never mentioned it, it was never ever mentioned on the tour. D applied ed1 to Midd, where her tour guide was openly a Feb, and it was spoken about in detail during the info session.
Admission in general at selective colleges is not opt-in. Hamilton’s January admission policy simply represents a special case of this. The implications on this thread with respect to ethics, and even transparency, elude me in this case. Hamilton cannot discuss all contingencies under all circumstances. If another college chooses to emphasize a program, that may indicate their priorities, but I’d regard this as neutral in terms of ethics.
@merc81 To accuse Hamilton of being unethical is a pretty strong statement, and one I do not feel I have made in this thread.
In describing D’s admittance as a Jan I have used terms like “an oversight” and “we slipped through the cracks”. I feel I have made it clear that I regard our situation as a mistake, not a lapse of ethics.
Regarding your comment
Please note that most mid year starts at comparable schools are opt in, such as Colby and Midd.
More importantly, while what you say is correct in the literal sense, I don’t think it addresses the essence of the matter. When offering a Jan spot the acceptance letter from Hamilton states “we recognize that a Jan start is not for everyone…” and they release you from your ED commitment. Parents posting about their Hamilton Jan admits have used terms like “surprised”, “shocked” and “blindsided”. Wouldn’t proactively mentioning a program that affects 10% of the first year students in tours or the info session be helpful? Shouldn’t people running the info session be equipped to correctly answer simple questions regarding the program? Clearly, there are several parents on this board who are dissatisfied with how the Jan program was disclosed - wouldn’t more transparency on Hamiltons part be an easy was to reduce friction? Wouldn’t allowing applicants to opt in for consideration for a Jan spot go a long way to easing a lot of conflicts?
In general, my comments in #44 are to counter @chembiodads repeated assertions that the Hamilton Jan program is analogous to Midds Feb program. This is simply not true. It is counterproductive for him to keep making this comparison. Even @Stacyisms, who has no dog in this fight, chimed in that the programs are wildly different.
Well, the word “integrity” had been used up-thread, so my “ethics” comment related mostly to that post, but I understand these topics can be difficult to disentangle, @4junior.
In terms of a response to some of your semi-rhetorical questions, I might answer Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. However, I’d still maintain that college admissions involves multiple contingencies, and the weight placed on the disclosure of these contingencies can be magnified by the perspective of individual circumstances. They’ll be skiing in cap and gown at some other college – I’m sure that’s true – but Hamilton states on their site that January admission is a possibility. It’s the latter I’d place weight on more than the cross-college comparisons common to CC.
As a personal reply, I wish your daughter had indeed not “fallen through the cracks” at Hamilton during a key time in her life, as I wish she’d gotten her ED1 choice. Let me say for now, though, that things could turn out very, very well for her, irrespective of these serendipitous bends in the road.
She would like to matriculate to the school she was accepted Early Decision by - Hamilton.
There have been more complications by this chain of events, and we prefer not to post them publicly. I thank you for your kind words, but at this point, we prefer not to answer your question as its a very complicated answer.