<p>I have totally put off talking about finances until all the offers are in. All I have told her so far is that she is in charge of those extras. Going to concerts, plays, movies, etc. She has worked the past 2 summers in order to make money to put in the bank. Anybody else out there procrastinating on discussing the money issue?</p>
<p>I will say that this son’s packing list for college was CONSIDERABLY shorter than his criteria for selecting same!</p>
<p>orygunmum – We have pretty much made it clear from the beginning that finances would have to be part of the application and decision making process. I wish it weren’t so; but since it is, we thought we might as well be up front about it. We also made it clear that she didn’t have to choose the absolute cheapest school, but if she does, because it’s the school that gave her the most merit aid, and she does so happily, we won’t complain!</p>
<p>Thanks, HarrietM & #TheoryMom! </p>
<h1>TM, watch your son completely love the school when he goes to audition! I am trying to give S2 permission to relax now and enjoy the rest of his senior year–easier said than done, I think!</h1>
<p>Whats everyone doing for Spring Break–anything fun/creative/relaxing?</p>
<p>Well, those of us who haven’t picked the school yet will be dashing off to look at the contenders!! </p>
<p>School was just cancelled for tomorrow just now–best news my DS could have received! I heard him on the phone “dude, that’s so good because I’ve got so much homework…” then back to the IM’ing and other nonhomework activities…sigh! But I’m happy for him actually–a snow day is such a treat! And to find out this early in the evening–bonus!</p>
<p>Spring break, what’s that?? Well, H & I were going to do something special for our 20th, but I guess it will just be a bed & breakfast off campus while D does an accepted student day…</p>
<p>For those of you in the snow, have fun, looks like we are going to miss it totally (and crazy weather ALWAYS happens here the first week of March)</p>
<p>S1 and S2 have different breaks, so I don’t think we’re doing anything much this year.</p>
<p>CountingDown, I loved your son’s spreadsheet, my S2 couldn’t believe he put it in Excel, though I don’t think he thought his priorities were off. S2 is not a numbers guy at all. S1 had a similar set of interests though I don’t think he did enough homework to have even known how to rate schools in the same depth.</p>
<p>CountingDown, your son’s list was very thoughtful and sounds really appropriately individualized, although it might be hard to rank the scores on some of those criteria.</p>
<p>My daughter and wife will go to Florida for her spring break (private schools in New England have their breaks starting in a week). My son will be hard at work on his novel and may drive up to Montreal with some friends back from college for a couple of days. He’ll turn 19 this week and the drinking and gambling ages up there are 18. He made a bit of of money on each of his previous trips to the casino, so I imagine he’s keen to try again. We’ll agree on rules for alcohol – in the house only and not at bars or restaurants – and gambling – pick a limit and walk out when you’ve lost that much.</p>
<p>For one long weekend, I’ll be here working by myself. No school visits for us until April. No financial aid, unfortunately no merit aid at the schools to which he has applied. So, we’ll wait until April.</p>
<p>hey y’all! Depending on the FA offers and incoming acceptances we will either be in Central CA, Montana and/or Texas for at least a part of our spring break 4/6 to 4/10. </p>
<p>I don’t remember who made the comment about casting a wide net a few pages back but I hear ya! The decision making process becomes far tougher and perhaps more expensive when you have so many acceptances from which to pick. </p>
<p>I have asked the girls to make a pre FA final three ranking this week. I think I know what they will say but it will be interesting and good to be able to perhaps just cross one or two off thier lists. Then we can throw the remaining schools back into the hat once the FA offers come in. TwinE has already crossed one of her 7 acceptances off her list but is still waiting on those final two decisions. TwinK is still waiting on 3.</p>
<p>mathmom, S2, my history guy, will not use Excel to decide where he goes to college – trust me!
Shawbridge, S1 didn’t rank the criteria, but gave each category a numerical weighting based on its importance to him, then a number from 1-10 based on his perception of each school’s strength in that category. He multiplied the weighting times the strength and got a number for each category. Then he added up the totals for all categories for each school. Hope that it explains it a little better…</p>
<p>He visited all three of the schools three times, stayed overnight a couple of times at each, talked to profs, IM’d with friends who were attending, sat in on classes, talked to grad students, etc.</p>
<p>with 15 schools I started a spread sheet some time ago. Although it helps keep the info organized, it doesn’t help with the decision since each school is so different from the next, but it helps when trying to remember dates, cost, visit days etc.</p>
<p>Spring break here will be kid free. Son is heading on a choir trip to the big apple. That week, I will be deciding several deserving kids’ scholarship chances (I am on a scholarship committee) and believe me I will definitely know empathy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile son has come down with a killer head cold, right before his audition of course, so we may end up canceling our trip to the college in Idaho - or at least canceling the audition. Maybe we can still do the college visit.</p>
<p>CD, that is what I guessed he was doing – I meant to say that it was probably difficult to give what he’s calling strengths in some of the categories. I actually wrote a book 20 years ago with a chapter that explains how to do simple multivariate assessments of preference like what your son did. [It was not the best-selling book of all time].</p>
<p>Snowing like crazy here today, no school. Probably there will be no mail delivery, rather frustrating, when you are waiting to see what the mail will bring!</p>
<p>We were braced for crazy snow but only woke up to about 4", though they say more’s on the way. S1 and S2 are both home, but H went to work.</p>
<p>Snow day here, which means:
- Graduation is now the same night as my niece’s wedding.
- All the entertainment for the all night Grad Party will be charged at the higher weekend rate.
- I have to do more fundraising.</p>
<p>So, my CC friends in the northeast, I’m sorry to announce there will have to be one more snow day. I appreciate your cooperation.</p>
<p>You won’t get any argument from my kids, chintzy!</p>
<p>Chintzy, how frustrating! Seriously, it makes no sense to move the graduation…can’t they hold the graduation on the scheduled day and have the kids “show up” for the make-up day? My S’s all night graduation party is actually weeks before his graduation.</p>
<p>Condolences on the snow for all of you; we enjoyed 85 degree weather this weekend, and the glorious warmth reminds me of why we put up with the miserable traffic.</p>
<p>The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting when the mail arrives. My fingers are crossed for everybody!</p>
<p>hope you all stay warm and don’t get too much snow. it is a chilly 50 in South Florida today, (while very sunny) and you know we Fl folks actually find that to be cold. </p>
<p>cd- I applaud your rigor in evaluating schools. (you could market that) Last year my s (freshman at Washington and Lee in Va) applied to 12 schools, and just getting all the finaid/IDOC ppwk in was a headache. Good luck to your s.</p>
<p>historymom–sounds like you have double duty exponentially. good luck with your college visits…hope they are fruitful and enjoyable.
I am fortunate my d has pretty much decided on New College of Florida–we visited there last week and she felt very much in her element in the natural campus on the bay, and she finds the individual learning contracts ideal for her. She sat in on a developmental psych class where the prof used videos of her own kids for discussion. She told her b/f her decision and it is great to see her empower herself to make her decision for herself. Last night she suggested we cancel our spring break trip to North Carolina, UNC so I think its a go.</p>
<p>lindz
I’m jealous
wish my S had liked NCF - that is <em>my</em> kind of school – unfortunately not math oriented enough for my kiddo to look more than a glance</p>