Revival of Middle Class Black Posters

[sydsim]

First post here for short time stalker What a great thread you have! I'm embarrassed to say that my D is only in middle school, but I am blessed to have found CC this early. I have learned so many new things (even though I went to college - but that was over 25 years ago). It's great to have this info ahead of time, that way i can help guide D's high school curriculum somewhat. Plus, after seeing how many colleges that people apply to, it would be nice to do some pre-visiting scouts during mini-vacations in a few years.
Quite often I would casually mention to D that she would be attending a specific HBCU when she went to college (when she was very young, she didn't realize that she actually had a choice )After reading CC for a few months, I started to realize that she'll probably have a better chance at $$ from many other colleges. I never realized how much tuition really was (shoot, mine was $3k/yr when I went)
Well that first post was pretty wordy!

[madville]

Welcome aboard! But be warned, as your D approaches her HS milestones, this site will become increasingly additictive, lol!

[SuperMom_I_Aint]

Sydsim, Wow! How cool that we rated your very FIRST post here. Yeah Baby! *grin* We d'shizzle!

Welcome, welcome! Wish *I'd* known about CC in middle school -- although truly, things seem to change so quickly in the world of higher ed. For example, financial aid initiatives at top LACs that once shunned the middle class in favor of 1st Gens and those below the poverty line, are coming 'round again (thank GOODNESS!), but diversity-driven merit $$ appear to be dwindling alarmingly. Thus many schools listed on the financial aid thread as awarding $$ for National Merit, National Achievement AND National Hispanic scholars, now offer that money only to National Merit, or offer lesser amounts to National Achievement/National Hispanic Scholars.

But hey, if there's anyplace to be on the cutting edge of higher ed news, it's gotta be CC! Hope you'll become a regular.

Shrinkrap, congrats on Pepperdine! FOURTEEN ACCEPTANCES!! (rolling on floor laughing). No wonder you didn't wanna fess up to how many schools your D applied to! Nah really, I think that's great, but please, PLEASE give us the low-down. What was her final tally of apps and to which did she apply?

[sydsim]

Thanks for the welcomes everyone. It's true that things will definitely be a lot different once D starts the college process, but thanks God that I have CC to keep me up to date! And how could I not choose this thread to begin my Cc journey? You all tell it like it is!

[prefect]

Welcome to CC sydsim. I didn't find CC until my oldest was a sophomore, and I'm sort of glad about that. Make sure you enjoy the middle school years before getting to caught up thinking about college. 3,000 for college. That would be nice!! If you go to financial aid forums you'll see tons of threads about what the expected family contribution is and how many people think it is unreasonable. If you haven't already started, make sure to save!

[prefect]

Shrinkrap,
Any idea about where your d will go?

[Shrinkrap]

What was her final tally of apps and to which did she apply?
Acceptances; UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, Smith, Mills ( $), Spelman, Scripps, University of Santa Clara ( $$), Pepperdine, Duke, Emory, Occidental.
Rejections; UCLA
Decision; looking like Duke ( lots of "people like me"...but drunk) , but maybe Pepperdine ( if $$) or Santa Clara...any advice?

[FLVADAD]

Great schools Shrinkrap! My family and I have visited Duke a few times. D1 was accepted there but took the full ride to UVA instead. I remember wife and I briefly considering paying for Duke - we were really enamored and thought it would be a nice fit for D. In retrospect, I can tell you that I'm glad we didn't spend the money. She had such a beautiful experience at UVA that I can't imagine it could have been any better elsewhere. It all really fell into place for her there. I was worried at first though. Even when we dropped her off I was still questioning whether or not we had done the right thing. But you know what? She never did. She never looked back once, never even brought up the subject. I think once they get wherever they are going, they just jump in, get involved and become far too busy to contemplate some other school at that point. So in her case no regrets among any of of us, and of course, I can only say this in retrospect, but the thousands on top of thousands we would have spent at Duke would not have bought us anything more than what we got for free, and maybe even a little less. However, I'm not sure we ever would have imagined that to be the case back then. Life can be funny that way, and picking between these schools, even funnier.

Now, D3 loves Duke and has been claiming it for the last few years. Um, one word for her: scholarship!! She's been working awful hard to get there too. So hard in fact, that even if she doesn't get one, I'd probably still try to make it happen for her, assuming she gets accepted. She still has some time to go before it's her turn though so who knows?

D2 is not interested in Duke but as you can see from my other posts, she's applied to most of the schools in VA and NC. As of today, she's been accepted to all of them. Unfortunately, the scholarships didn't pan out the way I hoped. So now we are looking at possibly paying full boat at some of these schools, or having her go to local State U for free + 9k per year in her pocket (what a deal!). However, out of nowhere, and completely unexpected, she gets a full tuition grant from Washington & Lee. We've never been there, but D liked it enough to apply, it looks okay to me, but the wife ain't really having it -- can talk about that one later, I guess.

The major thing we are trying to ascertain here, is value. Frankly, trying to place a dollar figure on the value of a given experience is very tough. So much of ones given experiences are really a product of the individual rather than a particular institution. Yet, certain institutions do have the capability of facilitating better experiences. No guarantee either way though, so how much money are you willing to gamble on that equation? My personal opinion is that there is little correlation between the costs of attendence and the value of most educational experiences. Nor am I one who believes there is substantial value in prestige as it pertains to an undergraduate degree. I mean, if you can get it inexpensively, I say great. But I don't think it's worth $100k -$200k more for the brand unless you are wealthy enough that such costs are irrelevant. Loans and such? Forget about it - usually not worth it if there are other alternatives.

However, putting a value on a B.A. or B.S. degree for a student who will be going to grad school, I think is fairly easy. The degree itself is merely a commodity for most undergrads. A degree from most reputable institutions can be the same gateway to opportunity IMO, and in that sense, economics should be used to influence choice. However, I think there are notable exceptions for students who might specialize in a specific area, especially in engineering technology and other sciences. Otherwise, it's just a matter of preferences and costs, not far reaching opportuniies beyond degree completion.

People on CC seem to forget sometimes that it's the person that counts most, not the school they attend. The schools don't make the students, the students make the schools. Don't you think it funny that the top schools take so much credit for the success of their grads, when in fact, they only accept the very best from across the nation in the first place? It's not as if they are taking average students and developing their talents more greatly. They only take the best from the beginning -- everything that follows is just a natural progression. However, the best can succeed from any number of venues - they don't need a top 10 school necessarily, and their parents certainly don't need to go to the poor house trying to make it happen. I pointed out to D that even our "lowly" State U' by CC standards, has produced Presidents of other colleges, the mayor of our city, senators, famous entertainers, etc.

So, those are the discussion we are having in our house right now.

[madville]

Just curious, are any of you who are counting on FA, planning on visiting the schools that accepted S or D prior to receiving FA offers? We are still waiting on FA offers from several schools S has been admitted to. Also are most of you accompanying your child at all or most of the schools your child is considering attending? Why or why not.

[Shrinkrap]

Occidental gave a little money; they are also paying for her to visit; I happen to have a sorrority meeting nearby, so I will accompany her. If Pepperdine gives aid we will all visit. We have visited neither at this point, but have visited most of the others. We did not visit the UC's other than Davis and Berkeley which are nearby. D went to UCLA on her own last summer, but I did a fellowship there...before she was born. In fact, she was born there! She visted Smith on her own as well, but we would have gone if it became a "contender" (= $$). I would have to say we were more into some visits then she was. Still true. Sigh.

[FLVADAD]

To answer the second part, we visited all the schools together. Although D's thoughts carry the most weight, we consider the selection a family activity and it's easier to help them talk it out if we have actually seen the schools.

[SuperMom_I_Aint]

Madville, I'm part neurotically overreacting, part just nosy but -- I think I posted somewhere on CC awhile back about my D's weekend invitational visit to a certain ivy. I put her on a bus, waved g'bye, and next thing I knew, she was calling me half-guilty about "ratting," half-terrified of her situation, when she found herself stuck at a drugs, alcohol & sex frat party w/a passed-out host and nowhere to go in the middle of the night in a strange town.

I KNOW that she'll be exposed to similar situations once she's on her own wherever she goes, but at least she'll have her own dorm room & key; giving her the freedom to leave and somewhere to go back to. Until then, wherever she visits, I go. It's expensive, but I don't ever want to hear my child's (oh man -- I mean, *adult's* ) voice sounding so scared and forlorn ever again!

Plus -- D's not the best communicator. *chagrin* She tends to be factual and concise, telling a story without all the dirt -- I mean DETAILS -- I need. So, I sort of like to see the campus, grab a campus paper for all the juicy gossip (who knew Yale had a "sex week" where porn stars gave lectures & demonstrations?!) and ogle the other admits myself.

Since H is a dud who doesn't like to travel, what else am I gonna do with my vacation days? Plus, the frequent flier miles & travel points are off da chain! *grin*

[madville]

Great points, especially about perusing the school newspapers. I should get a jump on it by reading online copies now. Just a little frustrating that some of the FA info is lagging behind the acceptances. Don't want to invest additional time, money and days from school and work if a school isn't a serious contender financially. We're going to visit UVa or Rice regardless because we think so much of what we've heard about the schools. But this will be the first and last trip without all the information in front of us.

[Texasmama]

Madville,
D is going to Northwestern for an admitted student visit. They are footing the bill. Husband and I will go if there are any empty seats we can get for standby on the plane. (I work for an airline.) But it looks very unlikely right now. We don't know how the FA will look at all and we are trembling a little to think that she may fall in love with it and then find that we just can't do it.
We live in a suburb of Houston, so if you have any questions about our town when you come to vist Rice, let me know.

[Mommabear2cubs]

Re: Follow-up on middle class AA male (from previous black middle class thread.)

who: AA male high school senior in inner city
what: Originally applied to Univ. of Penn, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, Univ. of MD at College Park and Howard. Harvard sent a reprersentative to his (and my D's) Upper School school campus this year for the first time in at least 5 years. The guidance counselor encouraged the AA male to apply to Harvard. The AA male was hesitant because he wasn't sure that he would "fit in" socially. He ultimately added Harvard to his list of schools.
when: He recently received outright acceptances at all schools except Columbia. Howard offered him a full-ride.
where: HE IS OFF TO HARVARD!
why: It's not going to cost his family as much as they thought it would cost to attend.
how: AA male is a wonderful young man with a terrific personality. He and my D and S met at a JHU/CTY event about 5 years ago so the local academically talented AA's could meet one another; they have been friends since then. Ironically, they all ended up at the same elite prep school. This AA male is extremely well-rounded. He has a B+ average, plays basketball, loves theatre and can't get enough of hip-hop. He also has a ton of commuinty service hours tutoring inner city youth. I don't know his SAT scores but as I mentioned in a previous post his SAT scores from 7th grade were at least high enough to allow him to be involved in the JHU/CTY program.

It's amazing just how "chilled" this young man was about the entire college admissions process. I don't really know that he even started with a preference for a specific college or "dream" school. He indicated that he would have been happy at any of the 5, then 6, schools to which he applied.

P.S. Skeewee to Silvermoonlock, Shrinkrap and Harmony2! I understand that our own Barbie doll (special edition) will be out for our 100th.