High School Class 2013: Picking Colleges..Check in Here!

[lurkernj]

How on earth have I not seen this thread.

Our past year has been consumed by visiting and applying for colleges. This is our first rodeo and we're feeling our way through all of this.

I did the FAFSA this past weekend and it was really easy. I was surprised they don't want home/mortgage info along with retirement savings.

We needed to do the CSS profile for two schools that had to be applied for early, and that was much worse as they needed all of that other stuff. They even wanted to know what my younger son has in his bank account.

I've only read the last page of this, so I'll go back and check some more out, but here's where we are at, at the moment: We applied early decision to DS's number one choice/reach school(UPenn) and got denied, but got accepted to the safety school(Rutgers). We have 5 more applications that we are waiting to hear from(Boston University, Northeastern University, Brandeis, Tufts, and Wesleyan University), but I'm not expecting any news until later March as they all said April 1 (though I've heard it's usually mid/late March).

All of his school choices (except the safety) are in the $55k range, so if he doesn't get some money, he isn't going to be able to go.

Oh, and he wants to study bio-chemistry (he's a science nerd).

[ugadog99]

Welcome, lurkernj! Your S has some great schools on his list!

Profile is definitely more frustrating than FAFSA. We don't have to do Profile anymore, thankfully. I will be working on FAFSA for both the girls soon.

Wishing your S the best as he waits on the remainder of his decisions.

[TLuvsD]

Good Luck and best wishes to all who are waiting for college decisions. We were waiting last year, D is a happy college freshman. Enjoy this nerve racking time, all too soon they will be off at school Do your best to not "talk college" until you get some decisions. Be there when the mail/email arrives if possible. Keep your emotions level, it will help your kid (ok, I completely failed at this one for her top choice--DH had to come home and open the mailbox, I just couldn't do it. Happy news, but I just couldn't be the one to open the mailbox.)

One thing I didn't think of early on was how to include the college info in the grad announcements.I didn't know this was "done" until I received a couple. I ended up doing a photo card from Smilebox (you can do the same thing from a number of places). Just a picture of D with the information (Minnie Mouse will be attending Disney U majoring in happy, smiling faces). In some cases I included them with the more traditional invite/announcement, in some cases I just mailed the picture. In a couple of cases, D included it with her thank you. It worked for us!

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Well, my DD got accepted to her #2 choice today! At least, that's what I think the large envelope that says, "Congratulations" on it means! It'll be interesting to see her reaction--this was her #1 school (Loyola), but she's been having very mixed feelings about being so far from home. Plus, BU just seemed perfect to her. We won't be hearing from BU until March, so we'll just have to see how things pan out.

On a good note, Dh has finished the FAFSA and the CSS, finally. The FAFSA really wasn't too bad, but the CSS was very involved.

I had never thought about grad announcements including the college information. Of course, DD17 is my oldest, we've been way out of the loop. I would say the announcements are better for parents' friends and family, versus Facebook, which is what the teens will all use.

[lurkernj]

Originally Posted by ugadog99

Welcome, lurkernj! Your S has some great schools on his list!

Profile is definitely more frustrating than FAFSA. We don't have to do Profile anymore, thankfully. I will be working on FAFSA for both the girls soon.

Wishing your S the best as he waits on the remainder of his decisions.

Thanks ugadog. We've tried to get him to apply to some mid-range schools, but he says go big or stay home. Rutgers is ranked 25th in the nation for it's biochem program, so he says if he can't go where he wants, he'll just go there(it's 10 minutes from our home).

Originally Posted by BuzznBelle'smom

Well, my DD got accepted to her #2 choice today! At least, that's what I think the large envelope that says, "Congratulations" on it means! It'll be interesting to see her reaction--this was her #1 school (Loyola), but she's been having very mixed feelings about being so far from home. Plus, BU just seemed perfect to her. We won't be hearing from BU until March, so we'll just have to see how things pan out.

Congrats on your daughter's acceptance! BU is at the top of my son's current list, he loved it when we visited in the spring, and just loved Boston in general. Sucks that we have to wait so long. Unfortunately, all 5 of our pending applications won't have responses until late March

[tar heel]

Mentioning where he/she is going to college is a perfect thing for the student to include when he writes his/her "thank you" notes.

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

Originally Posted by js

My dd is finishing her first semester at Muhlenberg and loves it.
The school is bascially split into sciences/theatre (she is a bio major).
She said everyone is very friendly and all get along regardless of the major.
I was worried the school may have been a bit too small for her but she never has complained. She received the tuition exchange scholarship, which we knew before she applied since they did an early read on her, so it was a no brainer, we applied ED and she had her acceptance about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving last year.

Good luck to everyone! It's a fun and stressful time!

My dd was accepted Early Decision. We did the early read and they came up with the money we needed to send her there. She is thrilled beyond belief. She will be majoring in Dance and English. Any suggestions on the dorms? She is thinking of Walz and Brown.

She had applied to Ithaca (accepted early action), Binghamton, (early action - will hear this week) Purchase, Geneseo, and University of Richmond. I know we have to decline all those, but she still wants to know if she was accepted or not lol.

[PrincessKsMom]

Do kids have less of a change of being accepted to college if they go in as "undecided"? It seems most people's children on this thread know exactly what they're going to school for yet my daughter (class of 2014) is completely undecided and probably will apply that way. We're looking into NJ schools (in state) and wondering if there are some more likely to accept her if she applies as undecided than others.

Thanks.

[marcyinPA]

Originally Posted by LOVETHATMOUSE

My dd was accepted Early Decision. We did the early read and they came up with the money we needed to send her there. She is thrilled beyond belief. She will be majoring in Dance and English. Any suggestions on the dorms? She is thinking of Walz and Brown.

She had applied to Ithaca (accepted early action), Binghamton, (early action - will hear this week) Purchase, Geneseo, and University of Richmond. I know we have to decline all those, but she still wants to know if she was accepted or not lol.

Congrats on her acceptance to Muhlenburg! Great school! I live in the neighboring city

[Christine]

Originally Posted by PrincessKsMom

Do kids have less of a change of being accepted to college if they go in as "undecided"? It seems most people's children on this thread know exactly what they're going to school for yet my daughter (class of 2014) is completely undecided and probably will apply that way. We're looking into NJ schools (in state) and wondering if there are some more likely to accept her if she applies as undecided than others.

Thanks.

It's a crapshoot and depends a lot on the individual school, the student, etc.

I will use Virginia Tech as an example. Engineering at Virginia Tech is VERY competitive. If you are a good student, but not good enough for Engineering, the school will place you in University Studies (undecided). If you are an applicant and meeting the minimum requirements of the school, but you really WANT to go to that school (say Va Tech), it sometimes better to pick a less popular major for that school versus going in undecided. My friend's daughter did this. She picked English because that's not a crowded major at that school and she had a better chance of getting in that school as an English major than an "undecided" because "undecided" was getting a lot of high scoring kids placed into it that didn't quite make it into engineering. It's a really convoluted process and you have to be very familiar with the school's stats, how you match up as a student, and what the popular majors are.

My son has applied in many different ways. He has been accepted into Engineering at West Virginia University. He doesn't have the scores to realistically get into Virginia Tech so he applied to a major at Virginia Tech that closely matches his scores/grades but isn't necessarily what he wants to do. If he does good his first semester, he can move into the major that he wants. I think, at least at Va Tech, even "undecided" is pretty competitive. But there are some schools he applied to that he did choice "undecided." Did I make that confusing enough?

[punkin]

Originally Posted by PrincessKsMom

Do kids have less of a change of being accepted to college if they go in as "undecided"? It seems most people's children on this thread know exactly what they're going to school for yet my daughter (class of 2014) is completely undecided and probably will apply that way. We're looking into NJ schools (in state) and wondering if there are some more likely to accept her if she applies as undecided than others.

Thanks.

My DD applied undecided and got accepted to all but one of the schools to which she applied. I don't think it matters in the least.

[tar heel]

I think the only place it matters is at technically oriented schools like Virginia Tech. At my son's liberal arts university, students aren't expected to declare majors as freshmen. They are admitted to the university, not to particular programs.

[PlutoPony]

There are a couple potential downsides to going in undecided when you really want a competitive major like engineering.... in order to graduate on time i.e. in 4 years in many engineering schools, you pretty much have to start out in E-classes from the first day. And at most schools there IS a difference between "regular" calculus or chemistry and "engineering" calculus, chemistry, physics, etc. Just be aware that not starting in your school to begin with may extend your college career

Also, the schools we've looked at did not guarantee that you'd be able to transfer into a different program, especially a competitive one like engineering. That's not to say you're stuck if you start in one university school / major and decide it's not for you, but typically the university schools that are difficult to get into to begin with are also harder to transfer into.

This definitely seems to vary by school so YMMV and ask at those schools you're interested in.

[PrincessKsMom]

Thank you all for your quickly replies. No change of DD EVER wanting to transfer into engineering. Since she's little she's thought about marine biology, culinary school, an arts degree...it runs from one extreme to the other. I think we'll just have to take it on a school by school basis and see how it goes. Maybe an English or Business degree? It's almost like reading a good book -- I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[tar heel]

Aren't we talking about applying as "undecided" instead of actually choosing classes. Those are pretty different topics.

There are a number of fields in which it's helpful to start taking classes immediately because of the number of requirements and prerequisites. Both of my older sons were in those kinds of programs: one in engineering and the other in studio art.