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The 2017 Acceptance Thread


The Girls' Mom
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Ds got accepted into two more schools and both with good scholarships - Ohio Wesleyan and University of Puget Sound.  However, as much as he liked UPS in particular, we just paid the deposit at Allegheny College, which has been his first choice.  He's so excited  :001_smile: and selfishly, this mom is thrilled that he'll be within driving distance instead of nearly 2,500 miles away.  

 

Allegheny was the first school to accept my son and the first school he visited. It stayed at the top of the list until the bitter end because he loved the warmth of the staff and students. He said no place made him feel more welcome than Allegheny.  Also, the fact that their merit scholarships aren't tied to GPA is fantastic. I wish your son all the best.

 

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Allegheny was the first school to accept my son and the first school he visited. It stayed at the top of the list until the bitter end because he loved the warmth of the staff and students. He said no place made him feel more welcome than Allegheny.  Also, the fact that their merit scholarships aren't tied to GPA is fantastic. I wish your son all the best.

 

 

 

Okay - I have to share my Allegheny story.  It was the last of an 8 college tour.  We were exhausted.  Allegheny was not the best fit for oldest ds.  But - we had a scheduled tour and interview.

 

A pretty blonde haired, blue eyed girl took us on the tour.  It was uneventful.  We were tired.  We got back to the admissions office to wait for his interview.  I was honestly ready to start the final 6 hours home.  I asked if ds just wanted to go home, without doing the interview. He was in a daze.  I kept calling his name. In la la land, ds asked, "Did you see her eyes?  I couldn't stop looking in her eyes."

 

It was soooo unlike him and she was soooo not his typical type.  It was a funny moment.  I told him that her eyes were not a reason to consider a school and that he'd grow tired of them quickly and asked again if he wanted to skip the interview and go home.  Eventually, he joined me - physically and emotionally.

 

These days, he denies the entire event happened.  :lol:

Edited by lisabees
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All 5 University of CA campuses that he applied to have admitted the kid! Final yes from UC Santa Barbara came in today. I think he will get a separate reply from the College of Creative Studies math program. Should hopefully be a yes too since the faculty wrote to him asking him to apply.

 

ETA: The College of Creative Studies sent an email acceptance to the CCS math program!

Edited by quark
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That is lovely that she was accepted despite their worries about the requirements!  You might just want to check that there isn't going to be a hitch with her officially matriculating.  Sometimes the people who do the admitting and the people who issue the diplomas don't communicate well with each other.

 

Nan

 

Good point, Nan. I will verify.

 

However,  I probably worded my original post poorly. It's not that she did not meet their requirements (she well exceeded them actually), we just didn't have the SAT II, AP tests, or college courses that they want as proof for unaccredited homeschoolers in ALL of the CPC (core curriculum requirements) courses. In Georgia, high schoolers have to take an end of course test in certain subjects to pass the course and graduate. UGA is essentially using the AP or SAT II tests as verification that those courses were taken/passed. My dd took no AP or SAT II tests. Her ACT English and Math scores met the requirement for verification in those subjects, but we did not have any outside tests or dual enrollment courses for the Social Sciences requirement. 

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Good point, Nan. I will verify.

 

However, I probably worded my original post poorly. It's not that she did not meet their requirements (she well exceeded them actually), we just didn't have the SAT II, AP tests, or college courses that they want as proof for unaccredited homeschoolers in ALL of the CPC (core curriculum requirements) courses. In Georgia, high schoolers have to take an end of course test in certain subjects to pass the course and graduate. UGA is essentially using the AP or SAT II tests as verification that those courses were taken/passed. My dd took no AP or SAT II tests. Her ACT English and Math scores met the requirement for verification in those subjects, but we did not have any outside tests or dual enrollment courses for the Social Sciences requirement.

That doesn't sound like a situation that would lead to the sorts of acceptance/matriculation problems that UMass has. : )

 

Nan

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Dd is in at Emory. It is one of her top choices but I honestly think finances will keep it off the final list. We'll see :)

 

ETA. Dd just got an email saying she has a merit scholarship for 15,000 a year. I'll check tomorrow and see what that means for the bottom line. Maybe it will make the top list after all.

Edited by Attolia
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DD is in at Rice with a very nice merit scholarship.  I am so happy for her that she has received so many awesome decisions and scholarships but she was assuming she would get rejected from half of them.  We are feeling overwhelmed and afraid that the final decision will be sooooo hard.

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Good problem to have, Attolia. There is a poster on CC right now whose Dd is heartbroken. She only has 2 acceptances (UWashington and Cal Poly and the UWash does not include direct admit to engineering.) and the rest are rejections. She is #1 in her class of 600. :(. It is a rough yr over there for a lot of kids.

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Good problem to have, Attolia. There is a poster on CC right now whose Dd is heartbroken. She only has 2 acceptances (UWashington and Cal Poly and the UWash does not include direct admit to engineering.) and the rest are rejections. She is #1 in her class of 600. :(. It is a rough yr over there for a lot of kids.

 

I am certainly worried about the rest of the week and its rejections in waiting, but so grateful that ds has two very good choices so far.

 

In fact, he told me he just got notified from Rochester that he got the second best scholarship; he is on waiting list for the Handler (100% plus $5,000 in research).

 

So - he has received more in merit aid than I previously posted.  Whew.

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Dear Son is accepted at Oberlin, Bennington, Lewis and Clark, waitlisted at Colby and Reed...O frabjous day, callou, callay! 

 

Yay!!!  DS graduated from Oberlin in May.  Let me know if you have any questions.  He had an amazing experience and is working there now through July.

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Good problem to have, Attolia. There is a poster on CC right now whose Dd is heartbroken. She only has 2 acceptances (UWashington and Cal Poly and the UWash does not include direct admit to engineering.) and the rest are rejections. She is #1 in her class of 600. :(. It is a rough yr over there for a lot of kids.

 

 

It is an awesome problem to have.  We are incredibly grateful. I just know DD will have a hard time deciding.  She assumed rejections would help sort that out.   

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DD is in at Rice with a very nice merit scholarship. I am so happy for her that she has received so many awesome decisions and scholarships but she was assuming she would get rejected from half of them. We are feeling overwhelmed and afraid that the final decision will be sooooo hard.

 

Woo-hoo!!!! We were all huge fans of Rice! Our ds also got nice merit there. A couple of great things about Rice (IIRC) were a lower overall price point and that loans in packages were LOWER than Stafford loans. Many perks to a large endowment and a relatively small class. I was also a huge fan of the residential college system. Ds, however, couldn't turn down his "dream school," and he has absolutely loved it and has had great success there. It took him about a ten days to make a final decision. He had applied to eleven and was accepted to nine. Narrowed it to his top three pretty quickly, and then went from three to one.

 

Hang in there everyone! The end is in sight!

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DD wrapped up her notifications yesterday. In the last week she was invited into Fordham's Honors program, wait listed at Williams, and turned down at Pomona and Barnard. The last one was tough because it was her top choice.

 

Now she has 4 to choose from with her least favorite almost full ride. Two of the 4 were low on her list but are on the East coast which is now a plus. DD now needs to figure out whether she needs to see those two prior to deciding.

 

This is not going to be an easy decision. It is like she is starting over.

Edited by Arch at Home
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It is an awesome problem to have. We are incredibly grateful. I just know DD will have a hard time deciding. She assumed rejections would help sort that out.

It's a good problem to have, but I do understand the agony that goes into picking and choosing, especially with choices that are very different from each other (and each with s set of cons.) Saying goodbye to schools is tough. My daughter is still feeling angsty a year later about a couple of roads not taken.

Edited by Gr8lander
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Woo-hoo!!!! We were all huge fans of Rice! Our ds also got nice merit there. A couple of great things about Rice (IIRC) were a lower overall price point and that loans in packages were LOWER than Stafford loans. Many perks to a large endowment and a relatively small class. I was also a huge fan of the residential college system. Ds, however, couldn't turn down his "dream school," and he has absolutely loved it and has had great success there. It took him about a ten days to make a final decision. He had applied to eleven and was accepted to nine. Narrowed it to his top three pretty quickly, and then went from three to one.

 

Hang in there everyone! The end is in sight!

 

 

I really don't know much about the school.  Only dd has visited.  She loved the residential college system as well and Rice's set up is what convinced her to also apply to Yale (also residential college system).  She was adamant that we visit if she got in because it is her absolute #1 choice among the schools she was able to visit, she simply isn't sure she can be that far from home :(   

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I really don't know much about the school. Only dd has visited. She loved the residential college system as well and Rice's set up is what convinced her to also apply to Yale (also residential college system). She was adamant that we visit if she got in because it is her absolute #1 choice among the schools she was able to visit, she simply isn't sure she can be that far from home :(

I remember our discussing this before and remember that she hasn't spent much extended time away from you. It definitely should be a consideration, but I bet she will be fine!

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DS was accepted to both Carthage College and Campbell University with academic scholarships.

And was also not only accepted at Queens University of Charlotte ( private DII school) with a generous 4 year academic scholarship BUT he has also committed to the Men's swimming program as well!! It's been a good week here :)

Edited by allySW
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DS was accepted to both Carthage College and Campbell University with academic scholarships.

And was also not only accepted at Queens University of Charlotte ( private DII school) with a generous 4 year academic scholarship BUT he has also committed to the Men's swimming program as well!! It's been a good week here :)

 

 

Congrats!  Queens has a beautiful campus.  We love the Myers Park area and the large trees.  Charlotte is a great city.

Edited by Attolia
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Dd is already a freshman, but she's applied to transfer, and just found out she got in to UMass Amherst. :)

 

(And yes, they tried to tell her she needed to take the GED.  :glare:   Even though she's completed a full year of 4-year college (w/ a 4.0 so far) and had a ton of DE credits as well.  I had to remind them they changed their official homeschooler policy last year and said 27 DE credits would be considered 'proof of graduation' in lieu of a GED.  Somehow the Transfer office hadn't changed their policy to align with Freshman admissions.  I got them to fix that).

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 Did I miss a post about whether your ds got the Rochester scholarship or have you not gotten that info yet?  Does your ds have more decisions coming?  So exciting :)

 

Thanks for asking!  Yes, I did update. :)  DS is on the waitlist for the Handler, but received another scholarship.  The letter we received the other day said that they will notify financial aid of the scholarship.  I'm a bit confused, though, because if added to the current grants, it is above the cost of everything.  We'll see what can stack and what cannot.

 

Attolia - I am thrilled for you and your dd!  Doing the happy dance for all of the great news here!   :party:

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Thanks for asking!  Yes, I did update. :)  DS is on the waitlist for the Handler, but received another scholarship.  The letter we received the other day said that they will notify financial aid of the scholarship.  I'm a bit confused, though, because if added to the current grants, it is above the cost of everything.  We'll see what can stack and what cannot.

 

Attolia - I am thrilled for you and your dd!  Doing the happy dance for all of the great news here!   :party:

 

 

All of dd's schools so far have replaced grants with the merit aid. Most removed her loan first and then replaced the grant so that was great.  I think some will remove work study and loan and then remove from grants/need aid?  It doesn't hurt to ask  :thumbup1:  Good luck.  Maybe he will get Handler.  My brother got a full ride scholarship from a waitlist, so you never know :)

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In at Carnegie Mellon! Not sure about aid yet.

 

Congratulations!  My dd just returned from a college tour that included a trip to CMU.  (It also included a fairly hilarious interaction with a weirdly over-the-top brown nosing applicant.)

 

Compared to the other schools she's seen, CMU seems like a really good fit for her.  What school did your student apply to?  What about his application do you think impressed the committee?  

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This is what he seems to be finding among those he knows who get into med school (from his school).  They don't have to be nearly as accomplished.  They need to have hooks.  One of those is having doctors in the family.  Another is a good backstory.  He has neither.

 

 

He is still 100% contemplating his options.  He presented us with several ideas this past week (after getting that second waitlist rather than an acceptance).  We'll support him with any of them, of course.

 

 

 

 

Creekland:  I wanted to reach out and encourage your ds to apply again next year.  I know so many people who have taken roundabout ways to med school.  I didn't apply until I was out of college for 2 years.  A good friend of mine applied after she was out of college for one year.  I worked with a guy who trained for 3 years to be surgeon, before dropping that and retraining as an ER doc.  I'm not even sure he practices medicine now anyway.  My own brother trained as a pediatrician, then decided he wanted to be a pathologist instead, so he trained again for that.  Another friend (wow, I seem to know a lot of doctors) trained in an MSTP program and didn't even enter academia, just private practice.  

 

He can spend this year continuing his research, building up some more interesting experiences (as if he needs any!), and reapply, minus the bad advice he received.  

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I worked under a resident who used work in the diamond district before deciding to become a surgeon.  Another colleague worked as an engineer before going to med school.  I have another friend who only went to med school after doing some other job I can't remember now but it was definitely completely unrelated to medicine.  

 

ETA:  I know another guy who trained in internal medicine, then got his MBA and became an entrepreneur.  

Edited by daijobu
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Congratulations!  My dd just returned from a college tour that included a trip to CMU.  (It also included a fairly hilarious interaction with a weirdly over-the-top brown nosing applicant.)

 

Compared to the other schools she's seen, CMU seems like a really good fit for her.  What school did your student apply to?  What about his application do you think impressed the committee?  

 

DS applied to the College of Science as a Math major.

 

Hard to tell what impressed the committee.  He has always had math and science interests and currently takes graduate level courses at U of Penn. He attended SPARC, a math camp at Berkeley.  His world record and travels and youtube channel helped, I would imagine.  He has an interest in effective altruism, which was discussed in his essays.

 

FWIW - he never visited or had an interview with Carnegie Mellon.

 

What probably makes committees pause are his essays and the fact that he's graduating early.  While his essays are very well-written and thoughtful, they are very serious.  He doesn't have much of a sense of humor.  It's just who he is, as much as I encouraged him during the application process. :)

Edited by lisabees
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DS is accepted at Dickinson College with merit scholarship. He hasn't visited yet, so we're considering going down there in April. He's sadly rejected at two of his top three choices and waitlisted at the other one.

 

Congratulations to your son on his acceptance to Dickinson; I hope he'll enjoy his visit.

 

I'm sorry to hear of his sad news and hope that happier days are to come.

 

Sending commiseration to all who may have received disappointing news.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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DS is accepted at Dickinson College with merit scholarship. He hasn't visited yet, so we're considering going down there in April. He's sadly rejected at two of his top three choices and waitlisted at the other one.

 

Sorry about the rejections/waitlist, but just wanted to let you know, kids I know who went to Dickinson loved it.  I hope your guy does too (or gets in off the waitlist at that school).

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Congratulations to your son on his acceptance to Dickinson; I hope he'll enjoy his visit.

 

I'm sorry to hear of his sad news and hope that happier days are to come.

 

Sending commiseration to all who may have received disappointing news.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

Sorry about the rejections/waitlist, but just wanted to let you know, kids I know who went to Dickinson loved it.  I hope your guy does too (or gets in off the waitlist at that school).

 

 

Thanks. We're regrouping and working on a positive outlook. I think he has to assume he will not get in off of any waitlists. And I think Dickinson looks like a really good option. It might not have been his first choice, but I think it will be a good match for him.

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Thanks. We're regrouping and working on a positive outlook. I think he has to assume he will not get in off of any waitlists. And I think Dickinson looks like a really good option. It might not have been his first choice, but I think it will be a good match for him.

 

If he does really well at Dickinson but still holds regret, he could apply for a transfer, right?   :grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

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DS is accepted at Dickinson College with merit scholarship. He hasn't visited yet, so we're considering going down there in April. He's sadly rejected at two of his top three choices and waitlisted at the other one.

 

Agree with Creekland.  Dickinson is a fantastic school for many kids.  My cousin's kid just graduated with a degree in Russian and is now attending Harvard.  Carlisle is a cute town!

 

I hate to hear about his rejections/waitlist.  It can be such a bummer for our kids.  My hope is that all of our kids find a school where they can be very happy.  

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Thanks for all the encouragement for my ds! It's possible that he could transfer, but I'm really hoping that he likes Dickinson. So glad to hear about others good experiences there! He's been looking forward to going to college for a long time, and I hope he not only learns a lot, but has a good time.

 

 

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As expected, dd was waitlisted at Vandy.  It was a last minute idea to apply there and she didn't visit or interview so she would have been truly surprised by an acceptance.  Since her interest is so low, she didn't accept a waitlist position, hoping to give it to someone with more interest  :thumbup1:   

Edited by Attolia
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Good problem to have, Attolia. There is a poster on CC right now whose Dd is heartbroken. She only has 2 acceptances (UWashington and Cal Poly and the UWash does not include direct admit to engineering.) and the rest are rejections. She is #1 in her class of 600. :(. It is a rough yr over there for a lot of kids.

 

Wow, that is not very encouraging, huh?  Gosh, really tough.

 

 

In at Carnegie Mellon! Not sure about aid yet.

 

Yay!  DS is interested in CMU, too!

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