<p>Congratulations LINYMOM on Tulane and power back!</p>
<p>Congrats, Linymom! My son is a very happy freshman at Tulane. He’s enjoying his classes, made some great new friends, and taking advantage of NOLAs spectacular jazz scene. We are on our way there today for parents weekend (and to take him to hear some music he can’t afford tickets for himself).</p>
<p>Congrats LIMOM, Vitrac and everyone hearing good news and getting power back!!</p>
<p>Linymom - great news!! Congrats to you and your son… so far things are going as planned for him!</p>
<p>Glad to hear everyone’s power slowly returning and life getting back to normal.</p>
<p>Congratulations linymom and vitrac!! Happy to hear some good news!</p>
<p>Congrats Linymom! Glad to hear about the acceptance and power coming back.</p>
<p>Congrats linymom…have your son and vitrac daughter met. Could they both end up in nolo</p>
<p>This wait is KILLING me!!! S is in at his number 2, but REALLY wants to go to RIT. They aren’t even scheduled to begin reviewing ED applications until Dec 1 - which doesn’t constitute EARLY in my book. Then we will still have to wait a few more weeks to see if S gets the scholarship he’ll need to actually be able to attend.</p>
<p>AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Patience is NOT my greatest virtue.</p>
<p>Hi everyone. I am helping a financially strapped child from our high school with his college application process (neither of his parents went to college and we have a town organization that helps kids like this with time and money to get through school–not a lot of financial help, just things like books, computers and sometimes part of tuition–there are not a lot of these kids), and I need some help of ideas for him of colleges to look at.</p>
<p>He says he is interested in engineering and business and he is a low b student. So, anyone have any ideas that are either close by Philadelphia, state schools in PA, or privates w/in a 4 hour drive that might give a decent amount of aid. He does qualify for free lunches and other stuff at school, which might help him. Thanks. My knowledge is in the arts, not the engineering area. I will just be initially working to get college list, work on apps and then our group will help with FAFSA and other scholarship stuff. I appreciate your wisdom!</p>
<p>Phillyartsmom - what a great program. Have you checked in with the engineering forum under “majors”. It’s pretty hopping on most days.</p>
<p>Based on my experience, the engineering forum focuses on the obvious schools for A students, Duke, Carnegie Melon, MIT, etc. I i didn’t find it very helpful.</p>
<p>Do any of the Penn State satellite campuses offer engineering, or a two-year program to launch a student into engineering at Happy Valley? The PSU engineering program is extremely prestigious, as I’m sure you know. I don’t know the finances for in-state, but that’s where I’d start.</p>
<p>I love the program too, Phillyartmom. Would love to be involved in something like that here. So many kids don’t have the guidance they need. (My DH didn’t but somehow a friend’s parents gave him some direction when he was graduating from HS to at least get him started.) Can you PM more info about what the program? We have a very racially and socioeconomically diverse HS and this might be a great thing. Thanks.</p>
<p>I will look at the Penn satellites. Good idea. It is a program that is part of an organization called T & E Cares: tecares.org. (T and E are the first letters of the two townships that make up the school district). The org was started after Katrina when people moved into the area that needed help. It has become an organization that helps people in need in the area with school supplies, food at the holidays, clothes, cars, furniture, etc. For instance, we donated our fridge, washer and dryer when we redid the kitchen and people at that time were in need of those things. Some people need just a little help (until find a new job) or others have been in need for a long time. There is also a job board!</p>
<p>It is a very grass roots organization and brings a lot of people together. They also fund some homework programs, etc. There is another grass roots group too called FLITE (probably flite.org) that writes grants and uses the money it receives to fund school programs, some for T&E Cares. </p>
<p>The college program started because someone started helping a kid on their own and they knew the kid needed financial help. It got T&E Cares involved and a program has been growing over time. The organizers realized that while some of the economically disadvantaged kids could get into college with the help of the high school, there was no follow up, and they stepped in to help. So, there is someone to look over their fafsa’s over the years. Help with school budget, maybe help with a small grant. It is phenomenal! That first boy just graduated! It makes everyone so happy that they can help.</p>
<p>I feel like I am so lucky that I can help someone else with the knowledge I have gotten from this process. The financial part will not be what I am involved in, except to keep that in mind while we look at schools and determine what might be the best financial package at the end of this part of the journey!</p>
<p>Hope this helps explain it.</p>
<p>Thanks. What a great program. I will check out the websites over the weekend. Planning to spend it mostly at home since we now have to conserve gas (gas lines were ridiculous today!).</p>
<p>Phillyartmom - take a look at York College in York, PA. Good fit for a “B” student and seems to have generous aid on top of a fairly low starting price. I know they offer business, pretty sure they have some engineering programs as well.</p>
<p>Phillyartmom- What a great program. I would love to be involved with something like this. We have kids in our community that would benefit from it. If you have any information about how to start a group like this, please PM me. I find that it it more than financial. The student and his/her family needs advice and support through a process that we all know is stressful.
I’m not familiar with the PA schools. I think that for a child who is not likely to get merit aid or full need, the state schools are more likely to give the best FA package as states are committed to their residents first.</p>
<p>For a low B student, don’t overlook the CC system. I don’t know about PA, but in our area, this is the best and most economical route to a college degree for the student who is not strong academically or financially. As long as there is not a difficult family or social issue, there is no need to come up with room and board, which is not always covered by FA. I’ve known a couple of kids who have gone off to college with limited support, and come home to return to our CC. Often they have to work to repay the debts they incurred at a 4 year college but don’t have the degree because they could not finish. These kids could not succeed there without continued support, and there is more of it at our CC’s. Our state universities accept transfers easily and we have distance learning and extension programs that have made many classes available. If he does well, his options for completing at a 4 year college may increase.
I’ve also known some strong students in our area who choose this to reduce their college debt.
Encourage him to apply to any options that interest him, but include the CC’s as the financial picture of college won’t be known until late spring, and an early application will insure the best FA.</p>
<p>We always hear how difficult the engineering majors are. Is engineering appropriate for a low B student?</p>
<p>I just got a few BB&B coupons in the mail today. I wanted to let everyone know, who might not already (although I am usually the last to find out everything), that they never actually expire and you can save them up for when D or S go off to college.</p>
<p>Chardo, with my S an engineering major for all of about two months I can answer your question with lots of expertese (tongue in cheek). I think the question would mainly be why is that student a low B student. If it is a student who has real difficulty grasping math and science concepts then I would say it probably isn’t an appropriate major. However if there are other factors then I would think it would be worth looking a little deeper. My S2 who is home for the weekend and mentioned that he is really glad he learned how to study in HS. BTW at son’s school if kids do not test as being “calc ready” they have to take a lower level math first. Interestingly enough the profs said that they found that whatever math kids took first,(be it remedial or Calc 2 using AP credit to get out of calc 1) the way they performed in it was found to be a good predictor of how they would do in the program. </p>
<p>Momom2: I knew that about BBB and have saved coupons for years. What I just learned is that at least our DSW has that same policy.</p>
<p>Chardo, that question will be asked. I want to make sure that the student really does like math and feels that he will succeed in the program. I think his grades may be low for a couple of reasons. He is at an extremely driven and competitive high school, where most kids parents push (his are not similar); also, he has held many jobs while in school, where most of our kids don’t work, or if they do, they don’t start until later in their high school careers. We will be meeting on Wednesday, so I will know more.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the interest. I did not mean to hijack the thread.</p>