High school seniors and college decisions

OMG. ME! I am totally over it. We don't find out all his schools for another few weeks and he just got wait listed to his safety school! I am floored. I read the College Confidential and the school usually accepts people with way lower stats than my son's, but this year they had 15K apply for 1.2K slots. They could be way pickier than usual. I want it over with!

ETA: Here's what I ask when I want to decide if it's worth it: How many students get work in their career after college? You want above an 85%. My one DD is at 94% and her school makes that clear.

My daughter applied to schools with rolling admissions and knew pretty early on that she had been accepted to all the schools she applied to. Money was a factor for us as well and we had the same goal as you. She had one college that was her favorite and she really wanted to just say that she was going there, but we had to wait and see about the merit award they offered. She went there for an interview in January and had to wait until the end of February. It was a high fives kind of day when we knew for sure it was a go. She could have gone to a couple of cheaper schools, but they did not have good five year grad rates. The school she attends has a four year guarantee if you hold your end of the deal. That extra semester or year is ridiculously expensive and we felt it was worth it to send her where she is.

She also was accepted at a school that was capital E expensive. It was an amazing school and they gave her a really good merit award, but over four years it would cost about $55K more to attend it than where she currently is. She loved the school, but it would have required her to take out loans in addition to having to pay part of her tuition during the school year. She is a nursing student and knew she'd have good job opportunities no matter where she went to school. We talked to her about what her life would be like after college if she had no debt. She crossed the Expensive school off her list and felt good about that decision.

It's so much to think about to the point you start to wonder if you are overthinking it. My daughter is a junior and her school was the perfect choice for her. She mainly applied to private schools with a couple public schools. In the private school cost comparisons, with her merit award her school became the cheapest one to attend. She was recently accepted into the Navy Nurse Candidate program which means she already has a job lined up when she finishes school. She took advantage of every opportunity her school offered so that her resume experiences would stand out. She got into something that is difficult to get into. In the end, it is still the individual applying for a job. Your school matters, but it doesn't have to be the most expensive one.

My one son applied to two schools. Both were 'match' schools- got into his first choice, got a merit scholarship and he's done. His twin had a bunch of 'reach' schools, one safety and a coupe of 'match' schools. One reach deferred him into regular admission (from EA), his safety accepted him and one school that was on the border between match and reach turned him down - apparently they had an increase of 6K applications this year. So we are waiting on 5 schools - 3 he should get into, 2 are questionable (the one that deferred him and one other reach). He is of course my one who does not do well with uncertainty, and of course the fact that his twin already knows where he is going only makes it worse.

We are right there with you! 

I'm about to embark on this journey. Unfortunately ds has made it pretty easy in that his grades suck because of lack of effort.
So he will be going to a cc or trade school around here.

I'm tired of waiting.  Nov 15 (when we finished the applications) seems like a lifetime ago.  Calvin has gotten a yes from one college that probably said yes to everyone.  We are still waiting for 4 other answers.

I just went and read the statistics on the applications for Cal Poly and UC Santa Cruz.  Over 50000 applications for maybe 4500 freshman slots.  I'm not holding my breath for those.  I do wish Cal Poly had a part on their application that said:  "check here if you have 3 close family members who got 4 degrees at Cal Poly."  =-)

The money isn't a problem fortunately.

I was in your shoes a year ago. My daughter just would not make up her mind. It was driving me bonkers. She wanted to visit as many colleges as possible, regardless if she actually intended on going (she was accepted to a lot of schools). She just dropped out in January. I’m still pretty salty about the colossal waste of resources.

mcscrapper look forward to phone calls in the fall! Mine was so wishy washy and then the daily calls of “I can’t DO this mom!!!” Ugh. I love that kid but she really made it rough. I just wanted to tell her to shut up and study.

Sometimes I think colleges have created this mystique of seeking and finding the perfect college that you love. I know people who have travelled all over the country visiting colleges. Personally I think that there are other more important things to consider like will you need a plane to get home during breaks. Can you reasonably afford it? Is it a reasonable commute if you are not going away? Do they have the program you are interested in? I just event through the process with my DD last year, with my son this year. The private college that was the most conveniently located-since she never showed any interest in learning to drive-gave her a good amount of money so that it was affordable. The other private colleges were a bit hard to get to by public transportation although about half an hour by car. Private and dorming was a no go for me money wise, specially since they were fairly close? Ultimately she chose a medium sized state college because she wanted to go away and she is very happy there. My son is waiting on 3 more schools before he makes his decision. He wants to go away but not far so he will probably choose a state University. He is also interested in a city school in Manhattan that has a very good engineering program but they have limited dormíng and the commute from the suburbs will be al least an hour and a half each way. My kids only visited a couple of colleges and after that they felt they were basically the same. My son just applied based on their programs and practically had to be pushed into visiting the ones we did. And we visited after they accepted him. They both understood that there was so much money that we could reasonably afford and that it would be foolish to get out with a huge amount of debt.

I'm so over it too!

My dd got into Flagler College in St. Augustine with a very generous scholarship package. It almost covers her full tuition. She would live in a scholarship housing...off campus.

She also got into USF with an unknown at this point scholarship package. But she could commute saving money on living off campus.

She got into her dream school Penn State. They are giving her $16k in scholarships/aide. But it costs $44k to attend since we are out of state. They are also giving her a job. She would go into the Summer program so it would not include housing. She would have to rent a room somewhere til next semester. I just can't swing the difference & I know she's devastated. She is just not taking no for an answer.

So yeah I'm ready to be done. I'm gonna miss that kid so dang much tho 😣

*raising hand* Sick of it!

My senior is in a great position, with acceptances and good packages from two of his top 5 schools. He was also deferred to RD (he applied EA) by another of his top 5, accepted at a wonderful state school, and rejected by a conservatory that only has 2-4 spots a year for his instrument.

Sooooo that leaves 8 schools from whom we will hear on March 28. I asked his counselor if he should just withdraw those apps, since he's going to have a hard enough time deciding between the two gems that he's got, but the counselor said he should wait. If one of the other schools (and there are some Ivies) gives him a better package, he might be better off.

He will not get into all of the schools - the school where he got deferred takes most of its kids from the ED and ED2 pools, so they probably don't have many RD spots still open. We didn't allow him to apply ED anywhere because we have to be able to compare aid packages.

I'm sick of it taking up so much space in my head.

I'm also concerned about my other kids - my oldest is an academic superstar with sterling extracurriculars and test scores. We didn't have to have any tough conversations about "being realistic" because nothing is out of his reach. My other kids are very different students - equally wonderful in their own ways, but they will have to look for "right fit" schools in a different way. I sort of wish the academic superstar had been the last child, not the first (if that makes sense).

kate counselor is right you never know. Both of mine ‘stumbled’ into a real inexpensive option once all the scholarships were in. There’s actually money for them to go to grad school if they so choose

That is actually a huge relief to me!

I see what you mean. Maybe that’s the problem with mine, she was insistent that we couldn’t have an opinion because she didn’t need our money (when really she did). Still pissed about our experience