For fun: if you have a high school senior where are they planning to go to college or

[AnnieW625]

Title says it all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zansu]

Mine plans to drag out his decision-making process as long as possible.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Waitlisted at top choice. But seems happy with his fallback. Waiting to decide though. His back up school extended the deadline to accept until June 1


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[California]

Mine is still deciding. He’s really drawn to a small liberal arts school with an excellent premed program. His trip to visit got canceled. This is so hard.

He just got offered a scholarship to San Diego State University that would make it cost $75k less than the liberal arts (over four years.) But they won’t share their data on medical school acceptance rates so we’re guessing the rates are low. Plus he’s got UCLA, which would be my first choice! I think he’ll probably end up at the small school. But ouch on the $75K difference!

[AnnieW625]

Mine is still deciding. He’s really drawn to a small liberal arts school with an excellent premed program. His trip to visit got canceled. This is so hard.

He just got offered a scholarship to San Diego State University that would make it cost $75k less than the liberal arts (over four years.) But they won’t share their data on medical school acceptance rates so we’re guessing the rates are low. Plus he’s got UCLA, which would be my first choice! I think he’ll probably end up at the small school. But ouch on the $75K difference!

Go Aztecs! SDSU is my alma mater! It is an amazing school. I had a great time there in the late 90s. I had grant money from the state of California and I got an amazing education for less than $10k out of pocket. I think there are pluses and minuses to UC vs. CSU schools, but I was very happy with my choice to go to SDSU.

I found this article interesting so he should think about what kind of atmosphere he wants in the classroom. All of my friends who went to UC schools ended up with almost all large lecture hall classes their freshman year; I had four (although two were distance learning classes so there were never the full 200 people in the lecture hall) in four years, a large class was 65 people, but most were about 30-50.
https://www.abc10.com/mobile/article...3-d274b49405e5


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[California]

Annie, the lower division classes at SDSU are much larger now. Class sizes, access to professors, and competitiveness vs collaboration are the reasons he’s changed his focus to smaller schools. He attended a month long summer science program at a UC, and the current college students told him the pre-med track at UCs is brutal. Highly competitive, huge class sizes for the first two years to weed out students, and less access to professors and advisors. SDSU seems to be less competitive. But it’s also huge and their pre-med office staff couldn’t answer any of my questions because they aren’t able to work with all students who are o the premed track. He did get into the honors college at SDSU, which has its own dorm and advisor. If he wasn’t interested in pre-med SDSU or a UC would be our clear choice.

The smaller liberal arts college is much more collaborative, small classes, professors all know the students, great research and clinical opportunities, and their pre-med advisors have all been amazing. He got a very generous scholarship but it’ll still be a lot of money.

If only I had a crystal ball!

[jenmcadams]

My daughter just made her choice and it's definitely different than she had planned, but I'm so happy for her.

We don't qualify for financial aid, but as a widow and a business owner, I was nervous about a private school price tag. We were just starting to get serious about saving when my DH passed away and our backup plan was always that if we weren't able to fund college out of savings/our current business, I would go back to work and my earning potential would be high enough to pay for school. His sudden death and me going back to work to pay the bills meant that wasn't an option. Over the past five years, we've been super fortunate that our business has continued to grow and I'm doing ok financially, but it's still hard to fathom spending $75K/year for private school, so when D started looking at schools, she focused on a mix of schools from a selectivity perspective and her list was heavy on schools that give merit. Given the hunt for merit $$, her list was long and the process was super time consuming. At the end of the day, she was admitted to almost all of her schools and got merit at most. She also was nominated by her high school for a special program run by a foundation here in CO called the Boettcher Scholarship aimed at getting the top kids to stay in-state for undergrad. The process started with 1500+ nominated applicants and a 40+ page application. She moved on to the semifinalist stage (300), then the finalist stage (100), and finally found out a few weeks ago that she was awarded the scholarship. Between the foundation and the individual schools, being a Scholar results in a full-ride (all tuition, fees, R&B, books, stipend, study abroad fees) and the school she chose to attend, University of Denver (DU is a mid-sized private) also will fund her tuition for a 5th year Masters degree. The cohort of scholars are an impressive bunch and the programming they do for them, both at the individual schools and as a whole scholar group across the state, is pretty amazing.

At the end of the day, she had some amazing merit offers at small liberal arts colleges and mid-sized schools ranging from women's colleges (Bryn Mawr, Scripps) to co-ed liberal arts schools (St. Olaf, Conn College) to mid-sized privates (American, Tulane, USD) to our state flagship and she was even admitted to her dream school (Claremont McKenna, also my alma mater), but it was too tough to turn down a scholarship worth almost $300K. I was super open with her about the finances and when she put together her list we spent a long time talking about the different scenarios and whether she'd be ok turning down one of her reach schools for a lower-ranked, but better financial option. She's a strong student, but an average test taker and while her resume is super impressive (she spent a summer studying in Amman with the State Dept as a 15 year old and had an unreal, paid internship with CityYear as a 16 year old), I didn't actually think she'd get into CMC or any of her reach schools, so didn't think she'd have the decision to make. There was a day of mourning the reach schools, but ultimately, the Boettcher is too great an opportunity and she loves DU. I know she wishes it were located a little further away , but the programs she's interested in are strong there and she'll graduate debt free with a BA and Masters and I'll have more $ to help with grad school (+ I agreed she could keep her car while at school and I'll kick in for greek fees and even set aside a little cash each year, so she'll graduate with a nice little nest egg to travel with or put a (small) down payment on a condo).

I never though she'd end up going to school in-state, but I have to admit it does make me feel better that (assuming they get to go to college in the fall), she'll be closer to home if something happens

[Jeanne]

My daughter just made her choice and it's definitely different than she had planned, but I'm so happy for her.

We don't qualify for financial aid, but as a widow and a business owner, I was nervous about a private school price tag. We were just starting to get serious about saving when my DH passed away and our backup plan was always that if we weren't able to fund college out of savings/our current business, I would go back to work and my earning potential would be high enough to pay for school. His sudden death and me going back to work to pay the bills meant that wasn't an option. Over the past five years, we've been super fortunate that our business has continued to grow and I'm doing ok financially, but it's still hard to fathom spending $75K/year for private school, so when D started looking at schools, she focused on a mix of schools from a selectivity perspective and her list was heavy on schools that give merit. Given the hunt for merit $$, her list was long and the process was super time consuming. At the end of the day, she was admitted to almost all of her schools and got merit at most. She also was nominated by her high school for a special program run by a foundation here in CO called the Boettcher Scholarship aimed at getting the top kids to stay in-state for undergrad. The process started with 1500+ nominated applicants and a 40+ page application. She moved on to the semifinalist stage (300), then the finalist stage (100), and finally found out a few weeks ago that she was awarded the scholarship. Between the foundation and the individual schools, being a Scholar results in a full-ride (all tuition, fees, R&B, books, stipend, study abroad fees) and the school she chose to attend, University of Denver (DU is a mid-sized private) also will fund her tuition for a 5th year Masters degree. The cohort of scholars are an impressive bunch and the programming they do for them, both at the individual schools and as a whole scholar group across the state, is pretty amazing.

At the end of the day, she had some amazing merit offers at small liberal arts colleges and mid-sized schools ranging from women's colleges (Bryn Mawr, Scripps) to co-ed liberal arts schools (St. Olaf, Conn College) to mid-sized privates (American, Tulane, USD) to our state flagship and she was even admitted to her dream school (Claremont McKenna, also my alma mater), but it was too tough to turn down a scholarship worth almost $300K. I was super open with her about the finances and when she put together her list we spent a long time talking about the different scenarios and whether she'd be ok turning down one of her reach schools for a lower-ranked, but better financial option. She's a strong student, but an average test taker and while her resume is super impressive (she spent a summer studying in Amman with the State Dept as a 15 year old and had an unreal, paid internship with CityYear as a 16 year old), I didn't actually think she'd get into CMC or any of her reach schools, so didn't think she'd have the decision to make. There was a day of mourning the reach schools, but ultimately, the Boettcher is too great an opportunity and she loves DU. I know she wishes it were located a little further away , but the programs she's interested in are strong there and she'll graduate debt free with a BA and Masters and I'll have more $ to help with grad school (+ I agreed she could keep her car while at school and I'll kick in for greek fees and even set aside a little cash each year, so she'll graduate with a nice little nest egg to travel with or put a (small) down payment on a condo).

I never though she'd end up going to school in-state, but I have to admit it does make me feel better that (assuming they get to go to college in the fall), she'll be closer to home if something happens

Congrats to her! This is amazing and she made the wise choice. I'm happy for you as well. Once less thing for you to worry about.

[Globetrotter]

jenmcadams, wow, those are some impressive extracurriculars! No wonder she had those offers. I’m sure it’s a huge relief for you!

[Globetrotter]

Mine is still deciding. He’s really drawn to a small liberal arts school with an excellent premed program. His trip to visit got canceled. This is so hard.

He just got offered a scholarship to San Diego State University that would make it cost $75k less than the liberal arts (over four years.) But they won’t share their data on medical school acceptance rates so we’re guessing the rates are low. Plus he’s got UCLA, which would be my first choice! I think he’ll probably end up at the small school. But ouch on the $75K difference!

Nice! The small liberal arts college kids seem to do well with medical school acceptances. DD opted for a slac - not premed But she plans a doctorate and she has had research opportunities (pre covid) that she probably wouldn’t have had at a large UC, and the teaching and mentoring is really fabulous, and she has more or less been able to take whichever classes she wanted, but yes the price tag. I hope They have a good virtual admitted students program.
DS is a Junior and we were supposed to do college tours next week, but I noticed that the SLAC’s have decent online virtual information sessions. One of them even has 15 minute one on one chats with admissions officers. It’s definitely not the same thing but they are trying.
Best of luck with the decision!