OT: Have any of you had a kid that applied to......Duke?

[August_West]

Not compared to Stanford.

Or Yale

 

[Marty Jackson]

We are compiling a list of potential schools for the younger son. As the list of factors grows, so does the relative appeal of Dook. But, man, it is tough to imagine one of my kids wearing a Dook sweatshirt. Has anyone else already been down this road? How did it turn out?

We all have kids that underachieve. Maybe have a heart to heart with your kid.
That might motivate him to do better.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I've heard the USMA or the USNA both have very generous financial aid.

I saw Washington mentioned in a previous post. Was that Washington University?
If not, based on the schools being thrown out, would be surprised that isn't on the list.

 

[Paesano]

Daughter currently waiting for her decision from Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest in NC. She has already gotten into UConn, BC, Villanova, UMD, and UVA. Also waiting on Georgetown, Vandy, and Ivy's. I am pushing for UConn though of course.

How many schools did your daughter apply to?!?! I was thinking 10 is already a lot to manage.

 

[Paesano]

I've heard the USMA or the USNA both have very generous financial aid.

I saw Washington mentioned in a previous post. Was that Washington University?
If not, based on the schools being thrown out, would be surprised that isn't on the list.

He would probably be OK with an academy. His mother, not so much. He will do Boy's State this summer. We'll see how he likes that. As for strength and conditioning, he could jump into Seal training tomorrow and do fine. Not sure if he will like taking orders.

If you are talking about WUSTL, yes, we are looking at it but I was actually talking about The University of Washington. Very good STEM and pre-med there. But, of course, very expensive for out-of-state.

 

[HooperScooper]

How many schools did your daughter apply to?!?! I was thinking 10 is already a lot to manage.

That's pretty much the norm these days. I think my son applied to 11 schools. My opinion is it's worth applying to a bunch of schools that you at least have some interest in. You just have no idea what some of these schools are looking for and especially at the smaller schools it seems to be a crapshoot. His top three choices were very similar schools with almost identical acceptance stats and he got into 2 and didn't get in to 1. Might as well give yourself more chances to get accepted.

 

[jleves]

Another question about Pomona. I found some data on political leanings of various colleges and there is also information out there about free speech policies. It looks like Pomona is more balanced than most schools. Did you find that to be true?

Honestly, it's one of the things I really liked about Pomona - it was pretty neutral when it came to politics. Same with any racial, social or gender issues. By the time I was going to college my family was pretty well off, but my dad grew up in Charter Oak Terrace in Hartford in the 30s and 40s, so diversity wasn't exactly practiced in my house. Going to a diverse and open minded college was eye opening in a very good way. It's a liberal arts college so you know it's generally going to lean pretty well left, but it wasn't overwhelming. It did take me a couple of decades to establish a more centric view of things.

 

[Hugo]

Hope he gets into Stanford. That place is impossible to get into. My son went to a pretty good public school that sends multiple kids to Ivies every year. It's a good school. In the last 10 years 41 kids have applied to Stanford. Not a single one got in despite lots of kids getting into Harvard, Princeton, etc. I have no idea what they're looking for.

It is the toughest school the country to get into. My granddaughter applied to Harvard, Penn and Notre Dame among other highly ranked schools, but thought Stanford was out of her league and although it was her dream school she never applied knowing that she just couldn't get in.

 

[chiller99.5]

Living in NC my kids were both involved in the TIP program Duke offers and did that for a few years each.The cost is prohibitive to say the least, my PCP who is a Duke grad couldnt justify keeping her daughters there. My oldest moved on through that program more into ROTC and became a Capt in the Army, the younger had good athletic skills and liked the academics at Campbell and the football program...lucky for me

 

[Brett95]

How many schools did your daughter apply to?!?! I was thinking 10 is already a lot to manage.

17 schools. I looked at it as an investment. Basically I can now use those schools financial offers against each other and negotiate for more financial aid. Sure, it costs some $'s to apply to 17 schools, but if that gets me another $10K from a school for negotiating, that is money well spent. So far, she is 5 for 5 from schools she applied to and she should get into at least another 6 of the 12.

 

[8893]

17 schools. I looked at it as an investment. Basically I can now use those schools financial offers against each other and negotiate for more financial aid. Sure, it costs some $'s to apply to 17 schools, but if that gets me another $10K from a school for negotiating, that is money well spent. So far, she is 5 for 5 from schools she applied to and she should get into at least another 6 of the 12.

I'll be interested to hear how the negotiating goes. What we've heard and seen in terms of a trend starting last year is that colleges are coming out of the gates with higher merit aid offers than in years past, but are far less willing to negotiate from there. Our daughter applied to 13 and has been accepted to 11 (including UConn) and is still waiting to hear from two. We're obviously happy with the acceptances and she's been offered some very nice merit aid packages at many of them, but so far we've had no luck trying to squeeze more out of any of them. Still waiting for a few to get back to us, but I'm starting to think we're not going to be getting any significant changes. Of course if you have truly elite student or one who excels athletically or artistically you will likely have a better chance, but that's not our situation. I've also heard that this change resulted partly from the fact that the CSS no longer lets schools know the other schools to which you've applied, so they are more in the dark about who they are competing with in terms of the odds of getting accepted applicants to enroll. Some of the schools have asked us to send them the offers from the others (which we have done), but others have pretty much made it clear that the offer is not going to change.

 

[Paesano]

Great discussion! Thanks for all the good contributions...