Class of 2019 acceptances & decisions thread (updated 8/23/19)

[ldkgates]

I am a little late to this post, but thought I would add my daughter

Accepted: University of North FL ( Dean Scholarship) Auburn, Clemson,  Penn State,  University of Kentucky, and Berry College( Dean’s scholarship)

Will Attend: Berry College

Edited April 6, 2019 by ldkgates

[saw]

LIttle late as well but will add DS:

Results: accepted at Brown, waitlisted at UChicago, Stanford, Yale and Columbia, rejected at Princeton, Harvard, Amherst and Williams. Yup, no safeties or matches in the bunch. Not out of arrogance. Gap year was the safety.

Will attend; Brown, since that's the only place he got in lol.

Major: American history and music

What we learned: sibling legacy meant nothing, parent legacy seems to have required an EA application (heard that elsewhere for this school as well), and demonstrated interest counts for a lot in this case. Effectively, I figured DS stood no chance at Yale and Stanford at all, but I think the music got him the Yale WL and Stanford seems to like his secondary school. Very surprised by the sibling legacy rejections as both siblings do extraordinarily well at their schools. DS visited Brown twice, made sure the AdCom knew this, and spent a fair bit of time getting to know the music people -- not to boost his chances, but out of genuine interest in discovering whether Brown is a fit. Brown was in his top three so life is good.

What else I learned from legit experts I spoke with this past week about the WL: kids have been accepted to Yale/Harvard and rejected at Brown, a case where UChicago wl a kid they figured would get into HYP (didn't, but once UChicago knew that, he got off the WL) and it's all a bit crazy.

[kirag714]

My DD visited NYU yesterday for admitted students day, and committed this morning! So NYU it is! She's so excited and so are we. 

Why NYU? New York location (been a dream of hers for a very long time), excellent opportunities for study abroad, and since she's interested in a career in museum conservation it is a great location for internships. NYU also has one of the premier graduate programs in object conservation in the world, so she can get connected to that department now. She also loves the all-around exciting feel of the school - it literally buzzes with energy. Probable major - some combination of classics/archeology/art history/ancient civilization. 

So results for her are - Accepted: Fordham, Pitt, Clark, Lawrence, Franklin & Marshall, NYU; Waitlisted: Vassar, Hamilton, Wesleyan; Rejected: Swarthmore (ED), Barnard, Dartmouth. She's now so set on NYU that she's no longer pursuing the WL schools. 

Thank you to everyone who shared this journey with us! What a ride!

Edited April 15, 2019 by kirag714

[LeeK]

My daughter is a Questbridge finalist and Gates scholarship finalist. She was accepted, fullride plus, to Amherst College and waitlisted at Swarthmore. She plans to study computer science and music, maybe with digital art, neuroscience, psychology. Amherst will pay for her study abroad and private music classes, and even provide an instrument.

Like many schools she applied to, supposedly Amherst wanted SAT subject test scores for homeschoolers. I was able to successfully waive that requirement at all schools except Cornell Engineering (we'll accept her without them, but she must take them after acceptance.) At Northwestern I had to go to the Dean of Admission for a waiver. 

At Amherst, they waived them no problem, saying "we don't consider you a homeschooler" since she is taking two class at our governor's school.

We did not visit any colleges. Daughter said she would go wherever she got in and could afford. Amherst is part of a consortium and has an open curriculum. She wants to study in Singapore and they will have a joint program with YaleNUS there.

Amherst waived a deposit, and they also waived her freshman contribution of $1000.

We're very happy she ended up there.

If anyone wants to post their campus visit impressions, I'd be interested. She doesn't care; she said she'll be there soon enough and can see it for herself.

[GoodGrief]

25 minutes ago, LeeK said:

My daughter is a Questbridge finalist and Gates scholarship finalist. She was accepted, fullride plus, to Amherst College and waitlisted at Swarthmore. She plans to study computer science and music, maybe with digital art, neuroscience, psychology. Amherst will pay for her study abroad and private music classes, and even provide an instrument.

Like many schools she applied to, supposedly Amherst wanted SAT subject test scores for homeschoolers. I was able to successfully waive that requirement at all schools except Cornell Engineering (we'll accept her without them, but she must take them after acceptance.) At Northwestern I had to go to the Dean of Admission for a waiver. 

At Amherst, they waived them no problem, saying "we don't consider you a homeschooler" since she is taking two class at our governor's school.

We did not visit any colleges. Daughter said she would go wherever she got in and could afford. Amherst is part of a consortium and has an open curriculum. She wants to study in Singapore and they will have a joint program with YaleNUS there.

Amherst waived a deposit, and they also waived her freshman contribution of $1000.

We're very happy she ended up there.

If anyone wants to post their campus visit impressions, I'd be interested. She doesn't care; she said she'll be there soon enough and can see it for herself.

 

Congratulations to your daughter, and it is great to hear about her experience. You could be a great resource for the aspiring Questbridge applicants here!

Edited April 11, 2019 by GoodGrief

[LeeK]

I would be very happy to discuss Questbridge opportunities. My daughter was QB College Prep Scholar her junior year, which gave her a head start on the QB application senior year. She wanted the match (early early decision) but I messed up the CSS Profile financial documents so she didn't qualify.

It all worked out in the end, though.

[Shelly in VA]

Dd has decided to attend George Mason University as part of their scholars program! We are excited (and relieved) that she has made the decision! 😎

Where: George Mason University

Why: 4-Year Full Tuition Scholarship; acceptance to the Scholars Program (a selective program within the honors college that takes just ~20 students per year); location (proximity to Washington, D.C.)

Major: History, with a plan to pursue an advanced degree in either library sciences or museum studies

Edited April 15, 2019 by Shelly in VA

[Mom2boys]

On 3/13/2019 at 4:09 PM, Mom2boys said:

My DS was admitted to all six schools he applied to. His final three are:

Penn State - (Provost award)

Otterbein - (President's Scholar Award and talent award)

Western Michigan University - (merit award)

And we have a decision! Final financial aid numbers have been received and ds is Penn State bound! 

[Eos]

*

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Eos

[RootAnn]

Over 30 of our kids have made their decisions about (and, in the case of a couple of transfers, already started) college!

Some of us might keep our kid's decisions private, but I just wanted to point again to the first post. That list is a great testament to their (and our) hard work. It looks like there are a few instances where two Hive kids are attending the same college. While the kids might feel weird about networking, I hope the parents of current students reach out to the parents of the rising freshmen & the freshmen parents reach out to each other, too.

I'll keep updating as long as y'all need me to. Look for my "how are the parents of the new freshmen holding up" post in September . . . 

[Pronghorn]

We finally have a decision.

Where: University of Hartford (The Hartt School)

Why: quality professors in music composition program, diversity, reputation in the music field, large performing arts scholarship, not extremely far from home

Major: Music Composition

Edited April 21, 2019 by Pronghorn

[Arch at Home]

DD has decided to attend Smith College

Why: LAC; Women's college; size; Sustainable Foods Concentration; 5-College Consortium; diversity; level of academic rigor; neighborhood; one of the least expensive LACs

Major: Undecided.

[AStableBeginning]

DD got into:

Calvin College (Merit scholarship)

University of Minnesota (Merit Scholarship)

University of Oklahoma (Merit Scholarship) *She has decided to attend U of Oklahoma on a full 4-year Air Force ROTC scholarship to study Physics. Her Merit aid will cover room & board 🙂

University of Michigan (Merit Scholarship)

Missouri Science & Technology (Merit Scholarship)

 

 

[SkateLeft]

For something a little different... 

My son was admitted to Metropolitan State University in Law Enforcement.

It's one of our state's few POST board certified bachelor's degree programs.

[Saille]

We have a decision!

Where: Indiana University (O'Neill School of Policy and Environmental Affairs)

Why: They have the #1 Public Policy program in the country. Though they didn't offer the most financial aid, they were still in-state/near the top of the affordability list, and he was awarded a merit scholarship. He loves the campus, and already has some community there through the local UU church, which is walking distance from campus. He's hoping to help plan/increase young adult programming in our area, continuing the work he did throughout jr. high/high school.

Major: Undecided, but he's interested in public or nonprofit management, and may go on to law school.

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Saille

[littlebug42]

On 10/15/2018 at 11:23 PM, littlebug42 said:

For my dd:  

Kent State University (no word on merit aid yet)

Ashland University (merit aid offered but don't remember name of scholarship)

 

DD is going to Kent State University in the fall.  She did receive a Trustee Scholarship which covers about 1/2 of her tuition. 

Accepted:  Kent State, Ashland University and Wright State University

Why Kent?  She loved it there on visit last year.  She attended a Discover Theatre Day where she attended classes etc and just fell in love.  Not the most financially viable option she had but its where she really wants to be. 

Major:  Theatre Studies (Performance concentration)

Edited May 1, 2019 by littlebug42
more to say

[kokotg]

Finally! 

Where: Macalester College

Why? free bagpipe lessons! Just kidding. It came down to a few great LACs with more similarities than differences (Oberlin and Hamilton were the others in the top 3), but Macalester just seemed like the best fit for him. Strong math department with lots of new hires lately. Urban location set it apart from most LACs. Kids there seem quirky and kinda nerdy, but unpretentious and not overly sporty. Not the best financial aid package he got, but fairly close, and still manageable.

Major: likely math (depending on the day, he adds "and maybe physics")

[Nancy in NH]

DD decided after a great admitted student day visit and a 'shadow a student day' experience.

Where: University of New Hampshire

Why: full tuition, also several visits that kept giving more and more reasons to love it, close to home

Major: linguistics, possibly double major (French)

Edited May 1, 2019 by Nancy in NH

[linders]

Nothing like the last day. DS18 will be attending the Honors College at the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business with an intended major of finance.

In 2 separate visits, Clemson's business school was uninspiring. Wake Forest has a good business school, but not enough better to justify the cost. Other schools were already off the table, not having the major or not the right student body for him.

[Mom2boys]

13 hours ago, littlebug42 said:

DD is going to Kent State University in the fall.  She did receive a Trustee Scholarship which covers about 1/2 of her tuition. 

Why Kent?  She loved it there on visit last year.  She attended a Discover Theatre Day where she attended classes etc and just fell in love.  Not the most financially viable option she had but its where she really wants to be. 

Major:  Theatre Studies (Performance concentration)

 

We moved to Kent two years ago and love the town. I regularly attend KSU theatrical performances and am impressed with the quality of their shows. I hope your daughter will be very happy here! 🙂 (Did we connect on College Confidential?) 

[littlebug42]

9 hours ago, Mom2boys said:

 

We moved to Kent two years ago and love the town. I regularly attend KSU theatrical performances and am impressed with the quality of their shows. I hope your daughter will be very happy here! 🙂 (Did we connect on College Confidential?) 

I haven't been on College Confidential at all so didn't connect there.  She is really excited about Kent and I am very happy that she has found some place that she loves so much.  She loved the town as well.  She initially only looked at smaller schools for walkability and small town feel but she got the same feeling from Kent.  

[Kate in Arabia]

Ds decided.. not much of a decision 😉 , as it was his favorite/first choice all along...

Where: Bellarmine University, Louisville KY

Why: ticked all of ds' boxes: good program in his major-of-interest, good financial aid package, smaller size, close to family

Other important info:

Major: Communications

Financial Aid: University scholarships, a big one for public speaking (he was super-active in Toastmasters all through high school) and a smaller one for "cultural diversity" (I was always kinda dismissive of the idea that a school would choose people based on their cultural background, but they were clearly interested in ds in part because of his -- they worked a lot to sweeten the deal.. not a full ride, but close.)

Edited May 2, 2019 by Kate in Arabia

[Saille]

10 hours ago, littlebug42 said:

She initially only looked at smaller schools for walkability and small town feel but she got the same feeling from Kent.  

Looking back, I find that part of our college search fascinating! A well-meaning friend came to me at one point and said, "Are you sure he'll be able to navigate big schools? As a homeschooler, maybe he should be looking at smaller colleges." And I knew this was based on stereotyping, but at the same time she was someone I loved and respected, and she got in my head. So I asked my oldest whether IU, in particular, felt big to him. He kind of laughed. "It's not bigger than Indianapolis!" he said. I just about smacked myself in the forehead. Of course he's not relating to it based on school size! Why would he? After that I didn't worry about that aspect of it as much. Though I will say that his program is small and dynamic, and gives off a strong feeling of community when you visit. He also applied to live in a Living Learning Center, which will promote that small-community feeling if he gets in.

Edited May 2, 2019 by Saille

[RootAnn]

We live in a small farming community & DD was originally looking for a less than 5,000 undergrad college in a small town/city because she thought she would be most comfortable with those sizes. Our town has less than 4,000 people!

In the end, her top two choices fit neither of these criteria. In fact, one is a huge university (almost 60,000 undergrads) in a city of almost 300,000. Yet she thought it felt warm, welcoming, and not "too big." 

I think it comes down to being open to new places & then experiencing enough to know what you like. My dd#2 doesn't even want to look farther from home than she could commute. I think she might change her mind if she would be open to new places, but she isn't.

[Kate in Arabia]

50 minutes ago, Saille said:

Looking back, I find that part of our college search fascinating! A well-meaning friend came to me at one point and said, "Are you sure he'll be able to navigate big schools? As a homeschooler, maybe he should be looking at smaller colleges." And I knew this was based on stereotyping, but at the same time she was someone I loved and respected, and she got in my head. So I asked my oldest whether IU, in particular, felt big to him. He kind of laughed. "It's not bigger than Indianapolis!" he said. I just about smacked myself in the forehead. Of course he's not relating to it based on school size! Why would he? After that I didn't worry about that aspect of it as much. Though I will say that his program is small and dynamic, and gives off a strong feeling of community when you visit. He also applied to live in a Living Learning Center, which will promote that small-community feeling if he gets in.

 

I am an IU grad (BA and MA), woot!  In my case I remember distinctly wanting a large school.. I had gone to smaller private Catholic schools my whole life and I wanted the opposite for college.. I also lived in a LLC, and you're right it did foster an immediate sense of smaller community.. I am still in contact with several of the people I lived there with, 30+ years later.

[Saille]

7 minutes ago, Kate in Arabia said:

 

I am an IU grad (BA and MA), woot!  In my case I remember distinctly wanting a large school.. I had gone to smaller private Catholic schools my whole life and I wanted the opposite for college.. I also lived in a LLC, and you're right it did foster an immediate sense of smaller community.. I am still in contact with several of the people I lived there with, 30+ years later.

A TON of my extended family are IU alums! My kid groans every time his grandparents are mentioned, because he is not into the sportsball and they are die-hard fans. He will never hear the end of it. And while they did not overtly urge him to choose IU, ALL his Christmas presents were IU swag. 😄 

I visited when I was in high school, and I totally thought it was too big! I went all deer-in-headlights, and looking at it now I'm struggling to understand why/understand which route we came in on that led me to feel so overwhelmed. I ended up at Ohio University, which is about half the size. Both my older teens love their parents' alma mater, but OU doesn't have a competitive program for either of them, so thank goodness for IU. 

Cross your fingers on the LLCs, please! He's a direct admit to O'Neill SPEA, which should give him preference on his top choice, but I worry. 

[mamaJode]

Our oldest dd accepted into...

1. University of Florida (in-state full merit scholarship)

2. Florida State University (in-state full merit scholarship)

3. University of Georgia 

4. Clemson University (oos scholarships)

5. University of South Carolina (oos scholarships)

6. Furman University (scholarship)

7. Hillsdale College (scholarships)

She has mix of on-line, local homeschool group, self-made courses, and dual enrolled courses. Well, she only had 1 dual-enrolled course, Chemistry, which is the only accredited school she took a course from. I created a high school record book and made several copies and sent to some admissions & scholarship offices. In the book I had school profile, course descriptions, book list, sample of writings, and her resume. Also, she had a very good SAT score (94th SAT user percentile) but not super amazing. Also, we submitted her Greek National Exam results to a couple of admissions office since she did not have their required SAT subject test in foreign language. Both accepted this as meeting foreign language requirement though she did not take foreign language from a regionally accredited school. She also took SAT subject tests in English, World History, and American History. She did ok on these exams but not high percentile scores.

[ValRN]

MY DD made her decision.

Where: University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Why: It boiled down to UMich and Swarthmore College. She'll  be in the Residential College where she felt she can get a small college feel while still having all of the benefits of a large university. The Residential College will also allow her to have intensive study of a language (continue with German, add Russian and another critical language) and continue with music studies  while pursuing her major.

Major: Linguistics

[kirag714]

Quick update - DD was offered a spot off of the waitlist at Vassar! I wish that they gave us a bit more time to consider it (she has until Wednesday to decide, so a bit more than 48 hours), but I'm glad that they rectified their initial oversight of not admitting her (just a joke, but I was a bit surprised she wasn't admitted in the first place).  FYI she did not write a letter or anything, just filled out their form for the waitlist.

She's 90% sure that she's going to stick with NYU for all the reasons I outlined above, but it still counts as a "win" and an acceptance for her 🙂

[TonTRmom]

On 4/5/2019 at 11:26 PM, saw said:

LIttle late as well but will add DS:

Results: accepted at Brown, waitlisted at UChicago, Stanford, Yale and Columbia, rejected at Princeton, Harvard, Amherst and Williams. Yup, no safeties or matches in the bunch. Not out of arrogance. Gap year was the safety.

Will attend; Brown, since that's the only place he got in lol.

Major: American history and music

What we learned: sibling legacy meant nothing, parent legacy seems to have required an EA application (heard that elsewhere for this school as well), and demonstrated interest counts for a lot in this case. Effectively, I figured DS stood no chance at Yale and Stanford at all, but I think the music got him the Yale WL and Stanford seems to like his secondary school. Very surprised by the sibling legacy rejections as both siblings do extraordinarily well at their schools. DS visited Brown twice, made sure the AdCom knew this, and spent a fair bit of time getting to know the music people -- not to boost his chances, but out of genuine interest in discovering whether Brown is a fit. Brown was in his top three so life is good.

What else I learned from legit experts I spoke with this past week about the WL: kids have been accepted to Yale/Harvard and rejected at Brown, a case where UChicago wl a kid they figured would get into HYP (didn't, but once UChicago knew that, he got off the WL) and it's all a bit crazy.

Brown is at the top of my daughter's list.  It solidified it's spot there on our first visit.  Would you mind sharing the transcript style you chose? We are thinking of doing it by subject rather than by year. 

[RootAnn]

Just bumping for the 2020 parents to see the 2019 list in case they want to ask questions about a specific school's application/scholarship process.

In some ways, it is a short year & in other ways, it drags on (while waiting for decisions). Good luck to all the 2020 kids!

[kokotg]

Incidentally, my DS ended up getting offered admission off the waitlist at Emory's Oxford campus in early June (he didn't take it because the financial aid wasn't great--would have been tempting otherwise--and I wouldn't mind driving him 60 miles away in a couple of weeks instead of 1100!). Final count I believe was that he was waitlisted at 7 schools, accepted the spot on 4 of them, and then offered admission at 1. So getting off the waitlist DOES happen sometimes (even for kids who need FA at needs-met schools; we had heard that waitlists are almost never need blind even at need blind schools)

Edited August 14, 2019 by kokotg