Political & Elections

My empty nest has the oldest home - now that he isn't commissioning, he is now back.  He has one class left to go in the summer before he graduates.

Middle one is graduating from college in 3 weeks.  It's possible he will be coming home, but he is desperately trying to get a job and stay near his college. Putting off grad school application for next spring or fall admissions.

It wasn't hype.  I will have to come back later with some basic stats.  Most of the kids have landed nicely.  Some...haven't.  It will be difficult next year to know how to advise with a few of the kids.  We will definitely be recommending more out of state and small liberal arts colleges as major options.  There is also the WUE program that offers discounted tuition for states participating in the program.  UC admissions were terrible.  I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel on those in the coming years, either.  

Fun trip - good idea!  My dear friend who has been dealing with her last one gone has done lots of weekend trips - about one a month.  She is also a smart cookie - has planned monthly get togethers for coffee with me and others for support.  

He will love it!  

How will you deal with the empty nest?  Both your babies have or will fly far from you! 

Congratulations to your son - so happy for him.  

If only the CollegeAdmissions were GF's. 

Goodluck.

And this is why I only applied to two schools :D.

One acceptance was easy to throw away haha :p

-- Edited by romanigypsyeyes on Tuesday 17th of April 2012 08:17:19 PM

I spent two hours last night hammering out the pros and cons on one of my student's accepted list.  She got into more than 10, really only likes 5 and of that number is agonizing about this decision! Sometimes the reasons why they decide is inexplicable.

Does he have a clear favorite between Bucknell and Lehigh, or still deciding?  

-- Edited by SamuraiLandshark on Tuesday 17th of April 2012 04:17:09 PM

One of my dear nieces had deposit checks made out to two different schools, the packets filled out and was standing in line at the post office deciding on her postmark date.  it was brutal.

Her parents didn't know where she finally decided until she got home.  It was between Georgetown and Duke.  We all thought she would say yes to Gtown, but it was ridiculous how prolonged a decision she made!

I am hoping your son figures out before then!

Was Dumbledore's Army at Bucknell? My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. Still not opposed to matching these kids up! I would probably deposit at Bucknell and hope for CMU. Either way, cannot go too wrong.

busdriver,

My impression of Bucknell about "diversity" is pretty much the same as Lehigh.  I am curious if your son has looked at the campus clubs at each school - usually on the activities page of each college website there is a listing of all the major clubs and organizations.  It won't tell you if they favor gamers or math nerds, but it can give you an indication how the campus rolls.

Some schools lean heavy on community service but others have downright quirky groups, supported by the Associated Students. 

Santa Clara seems pretty dull intellectually - but then you go into the campus student union, see that blackboard full of cool activities and think, hey, it's actually pretty vibrant!

I don't know much about Lehigh.  I have had several students visit Bucknell, none have attended.  That was largely for financial aid reasons, however. 

When does CMU notify from waitlist?  You will likely have to deposit somewhere and then if that is top choice, either ask for deposit back or lose it if CMU comes through.  

Also - if you don't have the Fiske Guide, nearly every Borders/Barnes and Noble does.  You can look at it while in the store.  There isn't a online version - it's kind of like Sparks Notes for college reviews.  Most of them have been accurate in my opinion, based on my experiences at each school + the experiences of students of mine that have matriculated. You don't have to buy the book at the store to look at it, either!

So...any opinions on this? We just went on a tour of the schools in the NE that my kid got accepted to. He ruled out Santa Clara and Seattle University as schools not as scholastic as the rest. He also just ruled out Fordham and NYU. Has it down to Bucknell, Lehigh, and Carnegie Mellon (waitlisted, but think he stands a good chance to get off).
Won't talk to us about it, which is really frustrating.

Our opinion is that CMU is definitely first choice, for reasons that he would fit it great there, highest rated school of the rest, brother attends, it is obvious. But waitlisted.

We (me and husband) liked Bucknell a lot better than Lehigh. Amazing, happy school, a little diverse, so beautiful. Lehigh has an amazing business program (kiddo was accepted into it, but doesn't really know what he wants to do), but it seemed like all we saw were jocks from the NE. I didn't think I cared about diversity, we're white, upper middle class, but it just kind of bugged me. Where were the nerds? What about the gamers? Does anybody come from more than 300 miles away? Why are they all white guys?

I can't get anything from the kiddo, he has 2 weeks to decide. But I thought Lehigh would be top choice and I just didn't get that warm happy feeling I got from Bucknell and CMU. I like a bunch of smart kids doing weird things and theatre kids performing. I just didn't see it.
AHHH!!! Any thoughts
?

Beware with Bucknell!  It has never been generous with merit scholarships/financial aid, in my experience.  

Too bad he isn't considering LMU.  If he ever needed anything, I am so close to the school!

It doesn't hurt to visit CMU.  Then he can know whether he wants to stay on the waitlist or not.  

Waitlist, So close, but so far. 

GL

Waitlist.  Damn.  At least there is a chance - if that is his dream/match school. 

How many more schools is he waiting on?  

I guess I'm glad we never felt we had enough extra money to put into a 529! We did start one college fund for the kids, put in $250 for each many, many years ago into USAA First Start fund. It's worth about $125 now.

That's pretty bad, longprime. Good thing it was leftover money.

It seems that it would be a great idea to start a college fund for grandkids, if you have extra money. Then again, seems like you don't want to put it in their name or their parents, as it's a long ways away, and one doesn't know for sure if they might need it instead for medical expenses or retirement. A lot can happen in so much time. Plus, things in the parents or kids names only count against them when the financial aid formula calculates. I don't think that many people pay full price for college, even with the prices going crazy. Just people going to state school that are not low income, and upper middle class and above kids going to private schools where they don't qualify for merit or athletic scholarships. Seems most everyone gets some sort of break. The cost of tuition seems completely unsustainable anyways.

Well, 1 hour and 12 minutes before we find out if our son got into CMU. Lucky he still thinks the answer is coming in the mail, and isn't sweating it like I am. Better not to know. I'm already practicing, "Sorry honey" and "Hey, guess what?" Samurai, I hope your kids are all doing well with their apps! So lucky you don't have to worry about this with the girl child.

I am fortunate to have only one year to pay for after this one. My youngest is a junior this year. Freedom is just around the corner. For me.

Here's a scary thought: what will my kids be facing when their kids get to college age? That's hard to imagine.

I've been thinking I should see if I can start some sort of ccollege savings plan now, even a small one, for the kids my kids will one day have.

I really do think it is a big problem if many kids from the same school apply to the same colleges

Had a discussion about this sort of thing just last night.

Many of the kids my son went to high school with ended up at the same college. My son went somewhere different.

When he got together with those kids the following summer he felt like he no longer belonged to that crowd. He felt like the dynamic of the crowd was the same as it had been in high school. He didn't feel left out. He felt as if he had moved on, grown older, but they had not (at least, not as much, relatively speaking).

Don't know if there are any conclusions to draw from this. It's just a single data point. But for me and interesting one.

He graduates in a little less than eight weeks. Yay him! And yay my wallet!

Funny, well, lots of good colleges in Pennsylvania. Actually, we only visited Lehigh because his college counselor strongly recommended him to take a look at it, and we only visited Bucknell because it was on the way from Lehigh to CMU, and we wanted to break up the drive. Interesting how things work out.

From my experience, not asking for financial aid and demonstrating interest can help an applicant quite a bit. Most families I work with do need fin aid and not all of them can do a visit to campus before they apply.  

Sometimes it is just the program the student is applying to - they may have lower grades or scores than another applicant, but all things considered, every applicant doesn't look the same on paper, no matter what the 17 year old CC students might try to believe or post.  Even if two students have the same GPA or same test scores, they aren't going to get the same recommendations or write the same essays as another kid or have the same exact extracurriculars.

There are impacted programs, too - one year I got all of my engineering students into a particular campus that seemed tough to get into - but not a single liberal arts kid at that same school.  

It's weird and cyclical.  In California we have so many kids apply to the same schools and ignore others, completely.  I haven't had a single kid I have worked with get rejected from UC Riverside, but I also haven't had a single one want to go there.  It's not a terrible school at all, but they are holding out for the cool campuses with a nice college culture and they don't see Riverside as a good fit. 

 

 

Congrats on Lehigh! 

Sitting on pins and needles worrying for some of my students.  It seems, each year, that the process gets delayed longer and longer. 

One of the kiddoes got waitlisted at Villanova.  Think it's the Tufts Syndrome rearing it's ugly head. Fortunately, has lots of good choices so far, but it's a school she was really interested in and had the academic and testing stats to get into to, according to their admitted students profile.

Hoping it all goes well and that there is more good news to follow for your son, busdriver!

I really do think it is a big problem if many kids from the same school apply to the same colleges, then it seems like they're competing with each other too. I hear what you're saying about the program too, that probably makes a big difference. You're right, unless one had access to all the applications, how do you really compare them to each other without knowing of essays, recommendations, activities.

When my older son applied to Carnegie Mellon, his counselor tried to say (in a nice way) that he had no shot, with his GPA. And I said well, someone has to be that lower left dot on Naviance, may as well be him (and it was). What is amusing to me is that this same counselor, very great guy, had the same opinion about son #2, for Lehigh, Bucknell and Carnegie Mellon. Well, no answer from CMU yet, but looking at Naviance, son #2 is the far bottom left dot for the other two schools. By a long shot. And if he gets into CMU, he'll be the dot transposed upon his brother's dot, in the far left corner. Heh!

-- Edited by busdriver11 on Friday 23rd of March 2012 07:36:45 PM

I'm so happy for your son, and, of course, for you too! Congratulations!!

Thanks, Artemis!

Actually, longprime, it's his #10 choice, so we're hoping it ain't all over so quickly. I'm sure he'll pick whatever the best school is that he gets accepted to, and if it's in his top 7, he's not getting a cent. Especially if it's CMU. Either way, merit money doesn't mean full ride scholarship, it just means a yearly pittance towards the big bill. Unfortunately. But anything is appreciated, of course.

That's wonderful news for both sons, busdriver! What a relief to get that first acceptance with merit money to boot.