They changed it from Expected Family Contribution to Student Aid Index because it was causing confusion. It's the number the federal government has determined your family can pay out of pocket for college...but any college that says it will meet need for all students uses CSS profile as well as FAFSA and has its own formula to determine need (which often but not always is similar to the SAI). At most colleges the SAI doesn't mean much (except in its relationship to Pell Grants) because most colleges don't claim to meet need. Most of the ones that do meet need package federal loans in (though some don't).

Not finished yet, but I just got to the part about Middlebury admitting 5/7 of its class ED. I'm very nervous about what ED is going to look like by the time my youngest applies. DS applied to Middlebury and got rejected...I didn't hear the stat about how overwhelmingly ED their recent classes have been until after that. Had we known, he probably wouldn't have bothered, given how vanishingly few RD spots are available. His brother's girlfriend just graduated from Middlebury, and she was deferred in the ED round and then accepted RD...so even with those few RD spots, they might favor giving them to deferred ED kids who they know are more likely to attend.

He finally committed ...it's Amherst!

My older son had one school that had no way to decline, and they didn't stop sending him stuff until fall, I don't think. I think he might have even sent an e-mail and it still didn't work (this was music school, so he definitely had at least let the music school know). So doing nothing will work eventually at least!

Still in a holding pattern here. I'm ready to be DONE, and I'm not sure exactly what he's waiting for. Occasionally I suggest he get in touch with one school or another about this or that if he's looking for more info, but he's not taking any initiative to do that, so...I think he's just having trouble saying goodbye to all except for one of them. Oh, speaking of FA--one school (that's not in his top 4) updated his offer to give him an extra $1000, then texted him to say, "yay! did you see this extra money?!" We know they gave him an extra $1000 because his pell grant is better than they estimated and they're getting an extra $3000 for him, but still nice of them I guess. But also still his worst FA offer.

ugh--I'm sorry! We haven't heard anything about money from his one public option...I think I know what it would look like, but I'd feel better if I saw it in black and white from them instead of trying to piece it together myself from assorted sources.

Sounds like he had a very good visit: met a lot of current and prospective students, had a good horn lesson, sat in on an orchestra rehearsal and then hung out with orchestra kids after, thought the campus was lovely, took a selfie with the Robert Frost statue....I was hoping he would be ready to deposit and we'd be all done, but sounds like no. I guess all of my kids are determined to keep the suspense going until the last possible moment. He has nothing particularly negative to say about Amherst, but I think he's still a little hesitant about music there and giving up the idea of real music school. He said wistfully, "if only I could move the UGA music school to liberal arts college..." Unfortunately, that's pretty much Oberlin, but he didn't get into the conservatory there...(it's also sort of St. Olaf, but with some caveats).

That is a non-sucky one! DS was always happy when he could use whatever the prompt was to write about music (once I suggested writing about the diversity/lack thereof in classical music for the now standard diversity prompt, things went a lot more smoothly)

sure! And once I get that "more tonight" update from DS I should have more to tell you 🙂

Late-breaking update! He's on the shuttle back to the airport now, and tells me that overall Amherst is "good 👍" !! Did not anticipate a thumbs-up level of gushing! Then he added mysteriously, "I can tell you more tonight." Well, yes, I would hope so.

He'll probably go to the one where his girlfriend is (he already turned down his only other offer), but he's still a little conflicted. I don't think there's really anything he could do to make his application stronger at this point except possibly get (and pay for) a masters, which he doesn't want to do. So it's probably now or never for grad school...at least in pure math.

oh, it's pretty much his highest praise! At least over text. I'm very interested to hear the details get fleshed out when I talk to him in person tonight!

Update: orchestra rehearsal was "good"

congratulations!

Hope he hears good news soon! Mine is at Amherst right now for admitted student days. Right this second he's sitting in on an orchestra rehearsal. His Dad and I both really like Amherst for him, so fingers crossed he likes it for himself, too. To be fair, my entire in-person experience with it consists of a tour and info session with my oldest kid 6+ years ago. So far I've heard that the class he sat in on this morning was "okay," the assorted panels and tours were "fine. like all the other colleges" and his horn lesson was "good."

I'm sorry 😞 No waitlist action here, either.

congrats to her on the thesis defense and good luck on the waitlists! My oldest is in the same position...he's either officially or unofficially waitlisted (i.e. "we've sent out first round offers and may be making more but can't say yet") at four schools now, including Vanderbilt--the place that told him he was on the shortlist and paid for him to go visit last month--so that one really stung. Does she have other options?

Yes! I was ready to book a flight and fretting about how expensive the whole thing would be (particularly since I'd need to take my 11 year old, too) when he noticed the offer in his portal. I don't get to see the Emily Dickinson museum myself this way, though 😞

Ahem. Mystery solved about why he got into Colby. He got his acceptance packet with a lovely handwritten note from his admissions counselor about how "as a dungeon master myself" she loved his essay. heh. He got in because of the D&D essay and this one admissions counselor's quest to bring nerds to Colby. Or something like that. Despite the lovely note, I don't think Colby is making the short list, which is shaping up to be UGA, St. Olaf, Emory, and Amherst. It all comes down to the music for him, and now we've got two schools with BMs and then two non-BM schools that seem to really love musicians and have interesting offerings. The orchestra conductor at Amherst reached out to him with just the nicest e-mail ever, telling him about music at Amherst and saying nice things about his music supplement. Similarly great communication and enthusiasm from music faculty at Emory. Which is why I'm currently at a Best Western in Illinois on our way to go see...Grinnell. Hmm. We'll see. I should perhaps have waited a bit longer to plan this trip (we're seeing St. Olaf and Lawrence, too. And we needed to be in the midwest anyway for the eclipse). Admitted student day at Emory next week and then Amherst is flying him up the week after that. Who else is still deciding?!

You owe me a dollar! With an unsurprising Brown rejection we are done! On to tough decisions!

Congratulations! We have some sibling rivalry going on here, too—mostly my college grad is bitter about this kid’s superior FA offers.

DS in at Vassar, Emory, and Hamilton. I remain stunned by how many amazing options he has. Last one is Brown tomorrow; not holding my breath for that one, but anything is possible!

It is weird about Colby and the CDS! I was pretty shocked he got in given that they're need-aware. With Oberlin I think he's just going to have to straight up ask what lessons and ensembles would look like for him as a musical studies major and see what they say. I know there are a good many non-majors at Vanderbilt that still do a lot at Blair, so who knows? Re: your last point--he e-mailed both the horn teacher and the orchestra director (who also happens to be a horn player) at Grinnell a week and a half ago about meeting with them, sitting in on a rehearsal, etc. when we're up there next week, and he hasn't heard a peep back. It's definitely a turn off, and it's making me rethink even visiting (he's already been there just before junior year and done the tour and all that--if he can't learn more about music there's not a lot of point in going; he already knows he likes it from a social/cultural/academic standpoint)

but is says less than 10% of the ones that have already been processed. I guess it's unclear how many they processed between catching the mistake and issuing that statement, though.

huh. How could it have only affected less than 10%? I would imagine the majority of students have some kind of reportable assets, even if it's just $500 of birthday money in a savings account or whatever.