My grades are lagging behind what they usually are, and most of it is because it’s pretty hard material and classes, but also some of it is BSing homework assignments I fell asleep doing, or forgot about, or don’t really even care about. They aren’t bad, especially when you put in my weights, but there are some grades around 87-89 and I’ve never had lower than a 90 in a class before unless I knew I hadn’t handed in assignments yet. I’m just all around ANXIOUS because I feel like I’m letting myself go even though I feel like I’m working at the same amount or even a bit more than last year. Anyone else feeling this?
My parents are really frustrating me with my college search. My mom expects that somehow every non-Ivy school in the northeast will offer me full-ride merit scholarships because I have a strong profile, and she scoffs when I tell her how rare substantial merit offers in our region are. We had a chance in income between 2015-16 and 2016-17, and she’s concerned that colleges won’t reevaluate but hasn’t done enough research on FA at all. Without knowing specifics, I can’t help her. She also thinks that schools like Yale, for instance, would charge us MORE than our (devoid of circumstance, higher-than-actual) EFC on the FAFSA because of their sticker price, even though I’ve told her how HYPS’ generosity means the opposite is much more likely to be true. I keep asking her to run the NPC with the 2016-17 numbers. She hasn’t, and she thinks I’m being rude when I ask her to research and show me schools that fit her criteria because I’m not coming up with much.
I’m very interested in some schools that offer competitive merit (I’ve been looking into McGill and USC, for example), but she is extremely insistent on not having me travel by plane to college. She wanted me to apply to UMD, but my school has no idea how to handle the Coalition App and I am clueless on how to navigate it alone, not to mention that I have no interest in that type of school whatsoever, but she is still mad at me for removing it from my list. She now wants us to have a “family discussion” about the schools I’m applying to. She’s looking for a university that doesn’t exist and I don’t know how to get that through to her.
Just applied to another safety school 
When all I get in my emails are free applications, I mean I might as well apply if I don’t have to pay for the application and all.
Update: After I asked my mom to come up with schools that fit her criteria, she picked one, a school that many kids from my HS in the middle-bottom of their class go to because their parents are too wealthy for them to consider a state school instead. She told me that I’d surely get a full ride there… the highest award they offer is full tuition, meaning I’d still have to pay almost $20,000 to go to a school I have no interest in, even when my EFC at selective privates will likely be less than that. (I’d know for sure if she’d take the time to actually run the NPCs!) That wasn’t enough to convince her that her idea that there are “plenty of ‘middle’ schools in the northeast that will just give you a full ride” was baseless. When I asked her why she couldn’t find any suitable universities if they’re so prevalent, she just said, “Oh, I know they’re out there.” She also told me that a scholarship I was looking at is only awarded to one person (it’s awarded to 100+), and calculated McGill’s COA to be several thousand dollars more than what it says on the website.
This is just so upsetting. She keeps telling me blatantly, provably false information and refusing to listen to me when I tell her how warped her view is… She’s just making assumptions and claiming that reality supports it without actually doing her research. It makes me so jealous to see all these parents on CC who have actually made an effort to learn about their children’s college application processes – she assumes that she has the knowledge to dictate everything by nature of being my mother, but refuses to learn anything that would qualify her beyond that. I keep telling her to look up the schools. I keep telling her to run the NPCs. I keep telling her that things are important to consider in a college other than the fact that they are “close to home” (which is not even my own priority) and offer some scholarships. Safeties are not safeties if there is no chance under the sun that I’d go there, and she doesn’t seem to understand that.
And the commuter school is, apparently, back on the table for me. After spending years and years sacrificing so much to get the best profile I possibly could, all in the hopes that my strength as an applicant would allow me to get out of my house and finally escape a situation that’s been deteriorating my mental health for years. So much for that, I guess. I don’t know if I could survive another four years stuck here. I really don’t.
I’m starting to get really frustrated about college. I have spent my so many years working so hard to give myself a chance to get into really good schools. Now, it just doesn’t seem to matter.
My family is upper-middle class I suppose. However, we lie right on that sweet spot where not a single college in this country will give me a cent of need based financial aid…however, there’s no way my family can “afford” to pay the sticker prices at these schools. Seriously…my EFC is MASSIVE. And then I have these friends, with “stats” lower than mine, with less effort and less motivation, and they can get mountains of money from schools like Northwestern.
My best friend, yes my BEST friend…like I love her to death trust me…but she was talking about how her family filled out a financial aid calculator for northwestern and that it said she would be paying less to go there than it would to go to our main state school (UIUC). So…now she’s applying ED.
This is just really frustrating because I know I have a chance to get into places like that…well at least a better chance than she does…but I can’t apply because I know I can’t afford it. So here I am…trying to apply to schools that give out Merit based aid. But I’m still so afraid it won’t be enough and that all of my hard work…just won’t pay off.
@gopgal If Northwestern really is your dream school, don’t give up on it. You’re only basing your financial aid based on EFC right now; however, I’m sure that if you include your circumstances (ex: medical debts, job loss, loans, etc) on the CSS Profile or FAFSA, you may just be able to get a good enough financial package.
Just got into Alabama! Definitely wasn’t expecting a decision this soon. Like, they literally just received my transcript. I know that my GPA and ACT probably made me almost an auto-admit, but it was still pretty quick. My family is so excited. We’re planning a visit to Bama in January.
My parents won’t let me apply to Bama because they don’t want me going that far away (even though my anticipated ACT score would get me the full ride and my current SAT gets full tuition). Ah well.
I want to go to WPI so badd omg but im so scared I’ll be disappointed bc I won’t get enough merit money for it to be feasible or whatnot. I was refreshing myself on the school today for the WPI essay and I realized “those are my people, I have to go.” Ugh. Its hard bc I already have a full RIDE (NMF) somewhere else but like ugh
I’m putting the cart before the horse. I need to do my applications.
Hey everyone. This past week was homecoming/sprit week and it has been crazy! My school is small(237 in my graduating class) so we take senior pranks very seriously. Our theme was the purge so we targeted a class each day by doing various things such as putting zip ties on their lockers and removing scissors from teachers room. We also created our own carnival in the main hallway with games and food. So I’ve been exhausted all this week!
Also I’m super jealous that so many of my peers are getting accepted into state schools. I have no interest to apply to any of them, but I just wish my September ACT wasn’t canceled so I can be done with the application process early.
Who are you guys getting your recommendations from? I’m getting mine from my SAMS Robotics project leader and NASA coordinator.
@ak2018 Mine are coming from my junior year AP Physics and AP Comp Sci teacher, and my junior year APUSH teacher.
@ak2018 My physics professor, philosophy professor, robotics coach, and boss at my summer job (teaching lego robotics). Different schools require different things.
I’m also getting two more from my Pre-Calc and US History teacher. How many do you think is too many because I’m already getting four and I honestly wanted to get one more from either the Robotics coach at the middle school I’m volunteering at, the Robotics/STEM supervisor of the county, or my 8th grade science teacher who I volunteer for. I’ve known each of them for the past five years. @snowfairy137 @ski_racer
@ak2018 Im basing it off of what the school asks for/ allows. Im not sending more than 3 to any i dont think.
@ak2018 Well I have my guidance counselor rec, plus my chorus teacher/musical director that I’ve known for half my life, and my AP Lit teacher from last year, who is awesome!!! I’m only doing my GC and one teacher per school. I gave my English teacher one of my EAs (which is my top choice) and one of the state schools (my top choice of state schools) and I had my musical director do the other 3 (my second EA, my other state school, and my mom’s alma mater, an OOS)
ALSO: I have officially clicked submit on all of my applications! I just need to have my GC send my transcripts, and see if I need to send out any SAT scores (they’re on my transcripts and my application to some of the schools, so they might just take it from there instead of me having to send them officially and have to pay)
Friday the 13th sucked with a project and 2 tests, but I just found out our environmental club won a minigrant for $500! Now we’ll have more funds for bins and a water bottle filler ^^
We had our homecoming dance today and let me just say, 2004 called and it wants its music back.
@agentaquastar that’s awesome! My Environmental club raised money for a water bottle filter and it was installed the beginning of the school year. It’s such a life saver and convenient to fill up my water bottle rather than holding down on water fountain bottle.