Vassar today! I think at this point he kind of thinks of Vassar as a prettier but less mathy Oberlin, so, even if he gets in, they may be out of the running mostly because their decisions come out so late. But who knows? Carleton's waitlist letter just came in the mail today. I appreciate the sentiment behind actually sending it through the mail instead of only posting it online, but it made him grumpy all over again about it. It was also the NICEST, most straightforward and honest (basically, "hey, kid, you probably would have gotten in a few years ago!") waitlist letter out of all the (many!) he's gotten, which, again, just makes it harder to take. Turns out I wasn't the only one who was really into Carleton.

Awesome story--congrats to him!!!

No better way to make sure he ends up getting accepted and going somewhere else than spending a bunch on Penn State stuff! 😂

It really is a crapshoot when you hit the top 20 or so, no matter what your application looks like! At least for all but a very, very few clearly exceptional kids--the sort who already have likely letters from half the Ivies going into March. I keep trying to figure out what I'll do differently next time....I don't know if I'd change where DS applied if we did it over again, but I would steer his expectations WAY lower. He had the stats and transcript to be competitive anywhere, but I think in the end his extracurriculars weren't as strong as the rest of his application and that hurt him in the close calls. Although of course we'll never know for sure. But if he'd applied to half as many schools, he'd be looking at a way different/smaller list of acceptances to choose from right now. My next kid is likely to be stronger on ECs and probably at least slightly weaker academically....but he's only 9th grade, so it's really too early to tell. When the dust settles, he's going to be choosing between several excellent schools with financial aid that makes them affordable for us, and that's a truly wonderful position to be in....even though it's been a tough slog through a sea of waitlists and rejections to get here.

SOOO true! 😞

Wesleyan got tossed in at the last minute for us because they didn't require a supplemental essay 😂 ....I do think it would have been an intriguing choice for him, but if he'd gotten in we would have been scrambling to find a way to visit, so it's probably just as well. Fingers crossed for you for Vassar! We just have Vassar and Harvard (hahahahaha!) left and then we'll finally move on to the decision making phase.

ANOTHER waitlist at Wesleyan. This one isn't a surprise at all....but this is a LOT of waitlists (the count is 7 acceptances, 7 waitlists, and 1 rejection so far, I think).

I love having this thread for spewing angst, but I'm also a big fan of the acceptances thread right now, where you can ignore any bad news and just report the good stuff 🙂

We're having the opposite experience--surprise at how much variation there is in DS's packages. Putting aside the full ride he got and UGA (where pretty much every in-state student has full tuition covered, but where he didn't get any other scholarship money), he has 5 other schools so far, 4 of them are 100% needs met. There's a $10,000 a year difference between the highest and lowest offers (and the one school that doesn't guarantee to meet need is one of the best overall packages). Hamilton's the worst aid by far, which is sort of surprising to me (I had read that they're very generous and don't consider home equity in their formula). It's still within the range we had decided we could handle, but I have to admit I wouldn't mind him falling in love with Oberlin or Macalester next week instead 🙂 . He has merit + need based at every school except Hamilton; not sure if that's what's making the difference...I didn't think any of the schools really stacked merit and need based, but maybe some of that is going on? We also might appeal if his heart is set on Hamilton, but I don't know if it would help or not.

We might be doing the music school thing with my next one, so that I get to learn a whole new college admissions game 😉 . He's excited that his brother's looking at Oberlin now, because he'll get to see the conservatory while we're there.

DS accepted to Oberlin with John F. Oberlin scholarship (and very, very nice need based aid, too). His dad went to Oberlin, so that would be cool. We just rearranged spring break next week so we can make one of the accepted students days.

Welp, another waitlist at Carleton, but accepted at Oberlin with really, really good financial aid. Tough decisions lie ahead!

Thank you--he's excited! And that's great to hear, about your son!

I am WAY more nervous about Carleton than DS is. He just shrugged and said, "meh. I got into Hamilton." Apparently at some point along the way I accidentally fell in love with one school while I was cautioning him not to. And we haven't even seen it yet! Anyway, good to know that he'll be relatively okay if it's bad news, and I'm the one who'll be crushed this time! I have three more tries to get kids into MY dream school, after all 😉

Wow--what a great bunch of choices! Congratulations to her on all the acceptances and to you both on being DONE!

It looks like Hamilton only offers overnights for students traveling on their own....which is a possibility, but he's never flown by himself before and this would involve at least one late at night flight....if I go with him and he DOESN'T have an overnight, I'm not sure how much point there is to a revisit. He could sit in on a class, but other than that it'd just be the same tours and info sessions he's done already. And, yeah, he has DE classes to work around, too.

Anyone else totally overwhelmed at the prospect of planning visits in April before decision time? I was looking into doing a Hamilton one last night (he visited, but in summer without many students around), and I couldn't make any progress. There are just so many options, but all of them are some combination of super complicated and super expensive! And then he's never visited 4 of the 5 he has yet to hear from (and the one he did see was, again, just in summer); if he gets into any of those things get even more complicated. ETA: I have no idea how to prioritize: revisit to Hamilton, which he's seen before but is a top contender? Or first visit to Oberlin (if he gets in. knock wood. no jinxing!) which he hasn't seen but is probably less likely to choose in the end? And then there are wildcards that could throw everything off even more....

We have Vassar on Tuesday, too....I have some hope for it mostly because he's a boy, and that helps there 🙂.

@Arch at Home DS has 2 tomorrow and 1 on Saturday....then the last 2 next week. Is tomorrow one we have overlap on? Oberlin and Carleton for DS. Carleton's a long shot, but I'm REALLY hoping for it, partially because it's one of his favorites and I really think it'd be a great fit for him and partially because we're already going to see Macalester and St. Olaf next month, and he's going to be really grumpy if we're in the same town with no reason to visit!

I've been amazed by how much influence that common app essay has. I mean, it makes sense, because it's about all they have to make your kid stand out as a real person....but, at least at smaller schools, everyone seems to know what was in DS's essay and see him through that lens. Based on that, I think it absolutely can make the difference between an acceptance and waitlist/rejection at very selective schools that are turning down tons of qualified applicants. We had kind of the opposite experience, though, in that DS's common app essay was pretty good and his personality came through well, whereas he was burned out and over it with some of the supplementals and had a really hard time finding his voice in them. I'll almost certainly get some kind of outside help for my next kid in getting through the essay writing process; I really struggled with how best to help him this time around....

It's so hard. After waitlist number 5 last night, DS said, "I feel like I'm never going to be happy again." I feel like I keep telling him all the right things, but the only thing he hears is these schools telling him he's not good enough. Even though he knows rationally that that's NOT what they're saying and that, even if they were, they don't even know him, so so what?

It really is--so brutal! Best of luck to your daughter in the next few days--it's so tough to watch them disappointed, but it just takes that one piece of good news to turn things around.

@JazzyMom he had a top 4 in mind before we started getting notifications, and Hamilton was one of them (Williams, Grinnell, and Carleton are the others, so Carleton's still out there). Macalester is growing on him, though (and gave him significantly better financial aid than Hamilton, although Hamilton's still doable)--we'll see it (and Carleton if he gets in), along with Saint Olaf, in April. And we visited Hamilton in the summer with no students around, so we'll try to get him back up there, too.

DS waitlisted at Emory (both the Oxford and Atlanta campuses) and ACCEPTED AT HAMILTON! I don't know if I've ever been more relieved in my life than I was when he said, "hmm....there's confetti" tonight 🙂 . That should give him enough to power through the next few decisions, no matter which way they go.

DS accepted at Hamilton!!!! He's had 5 waitlists and 1 rejection over the past week, so we really needed this one to get him out of his funk. And one of his top choices, so even better!