Parents of the HS Class of 2012 - Original - Page 1231

saintfan · 03-25-2012, 11:50 AM

I am so, so happy for you mspearl and D of mspearl!

absweetmarie: yes, I was able to access Grinnell's award and it is workable.
15k merit
$22,900 grant
$2,100 work study
3k subsidized loans

It leaves 10k supposedly to meet all billable costs plus books, incidentals and travel. The other key is the low loans to get the the number.

I am finding so far with the award letters is that the costs of attendance are not broken down in the award letter. Has anyone else noticed this. I still need to go back to calculate the actual, billable costs vs the discretionary spending.

It seems like way up-thread someone posted a link to their own spreadsheet. Was it ohiobassmom? Can someone repost that link?

absweetmarie · 03-25-2012, 11:56 AM

Here's the link, saintfan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...lZNYzFRa3BJd0E

Lark123 · 03-25-2012, 12:08 PM

Ms. Pearl, I am very happy for you and your D... I completely understand the feeling you are describing. It has all fallen into place - and not in the way you would have predicted a month ago, but in a way that makes you stop and say "but of course!"

Wow, on a related note it is a bit mind blowing to stop and think how many thousands and thousands of kids (and their parents) all over the country are experiencing such a wide range of emotions right now as this entire crazy college application process winds down for the 2012 high school kids. It definitely is a roller coaster ride - and when I think about doing it again w/ my 2016 kid, I don't think that having been on this ride before will make it any less overwhelming (different kid, different school, different highs & lows and challenges ahead). Hope those of your whose kids are still waiting get good news and that those whose news hasn't been so good can get through it without too much heartbreak - As I told D several times during the process, there is no one perfect school - there are many that would be great ones for you, so wherever you end up, that school will be the "right one." Hang in there - we are in the home stretch of this phase...

absweetmarie · 03-25-2012, 12:27 PM

Sorry, saintfan. I'm having trouble cutting and pasting the link. Original post was 17492. When I tried again by cutting and pasting the whole post, I tried the link and got the message (as I did with the link above does) that the doc isn't there. But when I went to the original post, it worked.

mimk6 · 03-25-2012, 01:07 PM

Congrats to the Mock Trial Champions!

Agree that CC is like having a private college counselor! We did not use one, but I think there are sometimes good reasons to use one. For example, we had a private college counselor come and speak at our school and she went over schools that were unfamiliar and had great programs. For someone with a kid with very specific interests, a private counselor might be able to steer them to gems that are not the "usual roundup". Also, a private college counselor might save a family a lot of money by steering a kid toward merit scholarships and/or helping a family negotiate better financial aid. Sometimes they can help a kid who is paralyzed with writer's block and whose parents can't help with essays.

gracieo · 03-25-2012, 01:51 PM

Hey Everyone! Happy Sunday Morning! Glad there is no mail today and we can all take a day off from stressing about what might be in the mailbox!

We did use an Educational Consultant, and I would highly recommend this option. I had looked at a million websites and thought about a million schools, but kept feeling like I might be missing a great option for my S. He has been pretty sure that he wants to study Engineering, and he was more focused on a smaller school - that's a tough combination to find. The consultant was very helpful in that search. She suggested a few schools that we never would have considered. Although we live in Colorado and she lives on the East Coast, we traveled east for a family event and met with her at that time. She assisted us by actually setting up all the tours and interviews for us - for schools in Boston, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida. That was so helpful. She was able to give perspective on which schools were similar to each other but why one might be more of a reach over another...which schools had overrated reputations, etc.

As we've been in the actual application and waiting process, she has been able to guide us about turning in updated grades, who to send them to and when. In fact, a few weeks ago, our GC at school sent in updated grades to a couple of schools, we then found out one of the critical grades - AP Physics - was not correct and the Educational Consultant was instrumental in making sure the correct grade was turned in on time. Had I been left to my own devices, I probably would not have realized how critical it was to get the corrected grade in that day - she realized that decisions were being made as we spoke.

My S is in a unique situation, he goes to a very small HS - there are literally 29 kids in his graduating class. There are 10 kids in his class that have taken all the same AP classes and been very competitive with each other all four years - they all started taking AP classes as sophomores, they are all on Student Council, etc...between student #1 and student #10 there is less than .250 difference in GPA. So, because my S is not student #3, he is not in the top 10% of his class, but our Educational Consultant has been helpful in explaining this situation, etc. Because our school is so small, our GC is pretty good, but just doesn't know that much about schools outside of our area (Colorado).

Anyway, along with using the Educational Consultant, I'm really happy to have found this thread and this community as well...I like having an outlet to vent my stress...I'm a wreck and my S seems to be cool as a cucumber.

Thanks, Gracieo

vlines · 03-25-2012, 01:56 PM

Quote:

I will echo what several of you said about CC being their "college counselor."

Us too! You all, and other posters that do not come to this thread are the most informative and amazing people and resources. You have my utmost respect and sincere gratitude for all you have done for me and my family.

We had one meeting with the GC of the school last year who assured us that my son would get in anywhere he was admitted, and money was plentiful. Luckily, I was not as confident about that as she was. So I pretty much knew we were on our own at that point. Or had to hire someone.

A number of local students hired a "highly recommended" college prep coach. Very, very, expensive IMO. But he did do more things than the typical coaches I am hearing about on here. He actually worked to market and package the kids. Strategically placing their names on websites, writing articles that would come up when the student was googled, making their accomplishments shine on their resume (not fabricated, but definitely embellished). Signing them up for different awards. Finding scholarships for the kids to apply to, and helping with those applications.

No way could I justify that cost. It actually kind of nauseated me, and seemed sort of pretentious in a trendy way. So we set out to "do it ourselves". So now, when those parents talk about the scholarships this coach helped their kids get, I remind them they have to subtract the cost of his services. For some of the students, it is now a wash, or even a loss. Not that they want to admit that! I will be interested to see what the final tally is at the end of the summer when all scholarships are in.

The only regret I have is that I did not have the skill/ability/foresight to teach my son how to embellish his activites to pump up his own resume for scholarship purposes. He was very honest, straight forward, and simple with his listing of his activites and awards. Silly me *or* naive me?? You can decide for yourself. Ahhh, hindsight....

What did we get by researching on our own and not paying for help?

Too many hours spent on CC
Sore throat from yelling, and back pain from pushing my own kid (LOL)
Lost free time proof reading essays, and helping son find others to proof read for him
Lots of new opportunites identified beyond the bubble my community tends to remain in
Lots of new "friends" made on CC
some local scholarships (some still pending)
a great college match with great merit aid
A happy student that will graduate debt free
parents that will keep retirement intact
money saved not applying to dozens of colleges that would not meet our financial need no matter what

The only **other** regret I have is that I did not find CC earlier, and did not realize the complete impact and potential of NMF. If I could redo my actions during DS's 10th grade year, it would be to push him to prepare for PSAT and ace it. I had no idea the options it would open for him. Again....hindsight, ~sigh~.

I only have one kid, so I only get to do this process once. Even with lessons learned, I would not really want to go through it again...so not a regret! LOL

mathinokc · 03-25-2012, 02:01 PM

No outside consultant here.

Our high school is small (140 kids in 2 grades) and the college counselor is does a good job. However, I have to admit that we didn't really use him that much. We met with him once last summer before school started to talk about the list of schools my D was interested in. He essentially blessed the list and the meeting was over.

I know he has relationships with people in admissions all over the country and I think he's an advocate for students from our school. He has kids list majors and schools they're interested in and tries to schedule visits from those colleges to the high school.

My daughter had friends read her essays. I proofed the non-essay parts of her application, but to my knowledge no adult ever read the essays. It's worked out okay.

GeminiMom · 03-25-2012, 02:10 PM

Congrats to Glido's D on the big Mock Trial win and BC acceptance!

Although our urban HS has only one counselor for 11th and 12 grades, we did not use a private counselor. The most helpful thing our GC did was to introduce me to the term "needs blind" at the end of my kids' sophomore year. While she was not deeply involved in their college searches, she did an excellent job churning out transcripts and recommendations for my daughters' various summer programs, college applications and scholarship and award applications.

Like many others, I did a lot of research myself -- mostly on CC.

Although I had considered myself to be fairly savvy about searching for and applying to colleges, this entire process was way more complicated and involved than I had anticipated. I am extremely thankful I have no more kids to get into college!!!

weatherga · 03-25-2012, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vlines

The only **other** regret I have is that I did not find CC earlier, and did not realize the complete impact and potential of NMF. If I could redo my actions during DS's 10th grade year, it would be to push him to prepare for PSAT and ace it. I had no idea the options it would open for him. Again....hindsight, ~sigh~.

I only have one kid, so I only get to do this process once. Even with lessons learned, I would not really want to go through it again...so not a regret! LOL

It's cheering to have company. All of the above is exactly true at my house. Only difference is that my only child is a D rather than an S. Darn it, she too could certainly have aced the PSAT, if we had just realized it was important.

LongRangePlan · 03-25-2012, 02:36 PM

We didn't use a private counselor either. And I had never heard of CC until last summer! For our older S, we just muddled through on our own. He ended up choosing his school because of athletic recruitment/partial scholarship, which I consider to be LUCK and I would never recommend anyone ever count on that, no matter how good an athlete the kid is.

Second S had the better grades, which made us interested in exploring more options. CC has been so amazingly helpful. Last fall I read a post about specific things you can and should do to be sure admissions staff at a top choice school KNOW it is the kid's top choice. S did all those things for the school he felt would be his first choice, and was accepted EA. He also got repeated phone calls and emails from current students at the school who work with admissions staff, and even from a couple professors in his major.

We're just waiting for one school now, then it will be DONE. I wish I'd known about CC when S #1 was a freshman. We would have done many things differently.

familyof3boys · 03-25-2012, 02:37 PM

Naive does not begin to explain my knowledge of the college admissions circus. Although I'm a bit embarassed to admit this, my son never even took the PSAT. (I know, right?)

DS had some friends over the Friday night before the test, and someone mentioned they needed to go home early because they had the test in the morning.

"What test is that?" I asked. Of course, it was the PSAT! Apparently, my son did not understand the importance of this "practice test" and, therefore, hadn't signed up to take it. You better believe that will NOT happen with sons 2 and 3!

I quickly realized that I needed to be my son's college counsellor from then on. While he did apply to a lot of schools (14), he was accepted to 11 so far, 1 WL, and 2 still to hear...

glido · 03-25-2012, 02:42 PM

Lark123 - I love your post re CC. I completely agree. We have learned so much from the kind and well-informed CC posters: it has made all the difference for DD. Thank you all so much. For all of you Class of '13, '14 and '15 lurkers, there is a lot to gain from navigating the cursor around CC.

chemusic · 03-25-2012, 02:43 PM

CC has been a wealth of information and perspective for me over the past 5 plus years. Luckily I found it in time for S1's journey. People on CC actually suggested the college S1 and now S2 will be attending. We weren't even considering it and actually I have no idea why we missed it. So I owe CC a lot and am trying to help people whenever I can.

Just to let you all know that I am reading and cheering and crying here with the rest of you even though we are so fortunate S2 was accepted ED1 to his first choice. I understand where you all are because S1 waited until the end of April to make his decision. It was much like other have said earlier -that everything just falls into place and you will know what the right school is for you. Some of the other options are eliminated or diminished and most of the time the right school emerges.

kleibo · 03-25-2012, 02:57 PM

I didn't use a college counselor, but I also don't have the funds to do so. However, if I did have the money, I might have used one. I don't begrude anyone from using a college counselor. And there are a variety of reasons why one might use one. I used CC and other information sites to learn everything I could about this crazy process and the financial aid process - BUT I literally spent hundreds of hours doing so. It was my choice and I'm glad I did all of it.

Giterdone - this is one of the major pitfalls many people fall into. They strictly go by their Fafsa and forget about the CSS. The CSS can really increase the EFC. Colleges are weird that way. If you put money into a 401K during the year, the college adds that money back into your income because they think you could have used that money for your childs education. I think colleges think that same way with houses that are paid off, they think you could have funded a savings for your child's education. That's why many people will only apply to Fafsa schools or schools that they know will give excellent merit or automatic merit (like alabama) with certain stats. The CSS surely throws a monkey wrench into many plans.