<p>Cur ( and cur-ella) Another comment from someone who doesn’t know your D (and in this case doesn’t know many of the schools I’m about to comment on;how useful is that ):</p>
<p>Many are concerned that your D is underreaching, and I think I understand your desire to stop the insanity, as well as maximize chances for merit $.</p>
<p>However, before I, personally, switched to the big time (Wellesley in soph. year; then UCB grad. and much later Stanford Bus. School), I went to a small LAC that was very much academically beneath me. I chose it because I liked the location (Boston area) and it was comfortable. I transferred out after one year, because altho I loved the friends I’d made, the academics were closer to my high school experience than what I had wanted and expected in the way of a challenge at college.</p>
<p>Had I sat in on a class or two, it would have been a crapshoot - one Soc. class was great, other classes were way too low level.</p>
<p>So, hoping D will be careful to choose an environment which will stimulate her.</p>
<p>The vagaries mentioned by mini and newhope33 are the reason I’ll allow D to apply to the uber-schools. If there was consistency , I’d probably use all of my parental skills to dissuade her from wasting her time and risking horrible disappointment. I’ve just got to find a way to continue to impress upon her that the only number that counts is the bottom line. If it is over $17k out of my right front pocket/yr it just can’t happen.</p>
<p>For a parent who never ever thought finances would be an issue in D’s choice, and especially for one that for most of their working years it wouldn’t have been an issue, this is a time of great waves of guilt and self-recrimination for poor prior planning, most specifically for my total failure to anticipate health considerations substantially lowering my income. My fault. I’m not passing the buck, and I’m not whining about it. I did it to her, and I’m trying my damnedest to correct it, as much as possible. That’s all that’s going on. Dumb dad-smart kid with dreams. But I am determined to “fix” it, LOL. You gotta give me that.</p>
<p>curmudgeon - Upon re-reading my previous post, I feel I may have given the impression that FA is completely random. “It’s Tuesday so today’s applicants get $12K merit and the rest in loans.” I didn’t mean that at all. I believe FA is variable, and that this variability can work to the advantage of top students. Identify some colleges that find your D appealing and FA will most likely take care of itself.</p>
Sounds like the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree in the doing a good job arena and maybe you do deserve at least in a small way to have such a great kid:). No matter the outcome she will know you supported her “dreams”. My guess, from watching my D - over time - act in such a way that it finally became completely clear she had been listening through all those years of world-class eye-rolling, is that Mudge-erella does understand your $17K constraint and understands that it is a health issue. But it will be her job to complain if she is a true teenager.</p>
On a much lighter, and far less embarrassing note, I was at the clinic earlier this week when a lady approached me and asked if I had been taken care of and when I responded that I needed to see a doctor about an ongoing problem , she asked “Which Doctor?” To which I replied “No. No. For now I think I’m going to stick with an M.D… I’ll save the witch doctor for later, but thanks for offering.” She didn’t seem to find me all that humorous.</p>
<p>My eyes are really rolling now! That sounds like something my husband would say in one of his more devilish moments - the times when I elbow him in the ribs and the offspring attempt to sink into the ground.</p>
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<p>Something tells me your daughter may or may not be complaining, but that she does and had heard the message, and is much more concerned about the cost than you think. The apple doesn’t usually fall too far from the tree - my guess is she has a strong sensible, practical streak, and is gearing up to write a whole bunch of essays.</p>
<p>I can’t take a hiatus from CC until her fate is known - 1 more year.</p>
<p>cangel, my wife and daughter cringe when the waitperson hands me the check and says “I’ll take care of that whenever you’re ready”. They know that I’ll respond as always by immediately handing the check back to the waitperson while saying, “Well,thank you. I’m ready now. Isn’t that so nice of you? I thought I was going to have to pay.” It’s still amazes me that they can both disappear under the booth like Copperfield on one of his better days.</p>
<p>Cur: here’s one far-out suggestion, for which I’ll probably get bombarded by others.
Don’t know much about the quality of education, but if you’re looking at Maine and basketball, is it worth considering the University of Maine? NCAA March-madness teams, average out-of-state cost $ 23K, merit scholarships of up to $ 7500 available for out-of-state students in the top 10% of their class with SAT of 1250 or above, five school bands.</p>
<p>O.K. Just one more and I’ll be over feeling self-conscious for my previous post.</p>
<p>Last night we were watching network TV when a Wachovia ad came on . It’s stars were an elderly dad ( a week or two older than me) and middle-aged daughter. Dad says to daughter that he wasn’t sure he had put aside enough for retirement and the daughter responds lovingly that “I’m in a pretty good place right now. Maybe I can help.”</p>
<p>D looked over at her mom and said, “You’ve got retirement, right?” Her mom responded, “Well,yes.I do.” It was then she looked at me and I said “Why do you think we call you ‘RP’ to our friends? It stands for Retirement Plan. Everybody’s got to have a plan. You’re mine.” D just looked at us in horror.LOL. So I said that in honor of the CC board and the new Star Wars flick I was going to change it to “RP-D1”. She did not appear to be that amused.</p>
<p>dadofsam, the BlackBears have been sending her info on their Honors College, as has UVT. We’re looking at all those options as well as the Honors Colleges at every small-ish flagship-from Idaho, and Wyoming to South Dakota . I appreciate all suggestions.</p>
<p>I think that Wachovia ad has kids worried. My D saw it and started discussing an article she had read that said our generation was not as thrifty as our parents and that the Generation whatever-it-is kids will have to support us. She and her brother are planning an Alaskan cruise for us–on an ice floe, I heard.</p>
<p>CURM - Not sure I am understanding your situation just yet lol - a bit confused here - but got a question here - have you actually done a FAFSA yet?? If so - you have a good idea of your EFC - right?? Or no?? If not - you may want to try doing a paper one and see how it comes out based in this years info - there is a way to figure a very close EFC. Many schools also use the profile AND their own way to determine EFC - which is usually in your favor as they use input the FAFSA does not consider - and also allows for explanation of certain things that are considered in the mix. OR have I missed something here??? </p>
<p>gotta add lol - W&L has huge financial attributes - oops not in the mix here but…</p>
<p>JeepMom, I know it is unbelievable but those forms and calculators bear zero resemblance to my life. For example only, I’m not posting this for answers ,just to show you the problem (and this is one of several equally complicated problems).</p>
<p>Profile considers home equity which by it’s very nature assumes a home value - a debt on that home. To that end they request a cost and date purchased of my “home”-the structure and land upon which it stands. My cabin was built over time and started out as a shed with no living area and was built for cash using my labor, manual laborers, and the occasional contractor. There was never a note per se on the cabin. </p>
<p>The cabin sits on hundreds of acres of ranchland that does have a note that existed prior in time to the construction of the cabin, and added to after construction and at a time we lived away from the ranch. It was not our homestead. It is now. The cabin sits on a few hundred acres of ranchland with an ag exemption. There is no surveyed out homeplace (no 1 acre, 5 acre or 10 acre tract).</p>
<p>When did I buy the home? How much did my home cost? What debt exists on my home? What is the market value of my home that can’t be sub-divided from the whole as it does not meet county sub-division requirements of road frontage, septic tank leech fields, etc.? What is the net equity in my home? Does the home include the barn 30 feet away? How about the out-building 150 feet away we use as storage for implements and feed? The horse pasture? The well that was drilled prior to the existence of any structure and is 2000 feet away and serves both the cabin,the barn, the pasture waterers and 4 neighbor families and cost $50,000 to drill? The 4000 feet of road to get to the house? The main road entrance and gate? How many acres go with the home? Do I get to deduct the $4.00 a foot it will cost to fence the home away from the ranch in the event of a sale, as a cost of that sale?</p>
<p>Are the acres treated for what they would sell for as a % of the whole or at an exorbitant premium per acre based on a fallacy that the home on the back of the ranch could be sold with a small tract of land? Is it all home, or is some of it investment real estate? What part? FAFSA considers it a family farm, but D has very few FAFSA only schools and they are usually cheap enough that our EFC and COA will be the same or close.</p>
<p>I am not looking forward to this , hence the emphasis on merit aid.</p>
<p>Yeah the Wachovia ad at my house was greeted by the kids with “Don’t plan on living THAT long”, for which the parental response is “No, we will be killed by headhunters while traveling in New Guinea, spending your inheritance - have a nice day!”</p>
<p>DD has come to terms with our eccentricities - according to her, her friends are convinced that I am the step-mother, but DS (age 13) is terminally embarrassed by us, Dad in particular. Dad’s worst faux pas is that he is active in son’s Scout troop, and many of DDs friends are the older boys on the troop - DH is thought to be really cool by the Scouts, hence “really cool” in the estimation of many of DD’s and DS’s friends - that evidently is the pinnacle of chagrin, to have a parent that you think of as wierd, old-fashioned and draconian thought of by your friends as too cool.</p>
<p>The question for your D is whether she’d rather go to a school like Vandy, Emory, Tulane, WashU–? Or a school like St Mary’s, State U, or Hanover.</p>
<p>Would she rather trade a country location for a more intellectual environment?</p>
<p>Because if she’d truly rather be at a less turbocharged school in the sticks than a turbocharged school in a city, this is her choice. It’s just… she sounds so turbocharged!!!</p>
<p>If financial safety = definitely can afford, financial match = probably can afford and financial reach = who knows?..</p>
<p>Maybe your list should be done like this </p>
<ol>
<li> Financial Safety/ Academic safety : Country (Hanover, HWS, or similar)</li>
<li> Financial Safety/ Academic match : <strong>City</strong> (Vandy or similar)</li>
<li> "</li>
<li> Financial Match/ Academic match/safety: Country (Lawrence, or similar)</li>
<li> "</li>
<li>Financial Match/Academic match: Country (Kenyon, Hamilton, etc)</li>
<li> “</li>
<li> "
(maybe even more of these)</li>
<li> Financial Reach or Match (?)/ Academic reach: Country (Williams, Midd, etc)</li>
<li>”</li>
</ol>
<p>CURM - hate to say it but you are gonna have to find some of those answers - as your DD’s not all FAFSA schools are going to want the profile/their own forms done for any aid at all - unless you don’t intend to apply for any at all and pay all of it upfront.</p>
<p>When we did fin aid for DS - we were in an odd situation as well - the school actually called us to clarify it - our home was devalued - compared to 2 real estate sources that the schools use for comparison - our home should have been worth 3 times what the value was - BUT we live within 2 miles of a super-fund site - thus the real estate value at that time was far far far below the national averages.</p>
<p>Sorry tho that this is soooo complicated for you - the answer is out there somewhere tho - good luck</p>
):</p>