Parents of the HS Class of 2011 - Original

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
3521

<p>I seem to recall that if you fill out PROFILE first then you can essentially auto-fill FAFSA.</p>

<p>Grownup homework on my list:</p>

<p>1) Health insurance. Our open enrollment period is in October, which is long before we will know where D1 is going. I can still look at the schools on her list and figure out if our current HMO plan would cover her in those locations, or if she would be out of network. That might influence our choosing to go back to a PPO plan. Also, see if schools require purchase of insurance or not.</p>

<p>2) Even if you’re not applying for FA, check to see if the school requires the FAFSA or PROFILE for merit aid. Call schools to see if not applying for FA freshman year limits FA for subsequent years.</p>

3522

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<p>yikes
I didn’t even think of this one— we are in a PPO…I guess I need to check it out and see if we need to make changes–ours adjusts in the beginning of the calendar yr…</p>

<p>As far as the Fasfsa goes–it is really messed up–I wodner if they will have fixed those cells that dont work right–the one web site with the info on the Fafsa had a work around on it—
we took the fafsa to the acct–and told him what the EFC was–he said it seemed way too high and even as an acct–was wondering what the difference in some of the definitions/cells were…
Get it wrong and it will cost ya!</p>

3523

<p>Son visited Princeton. Didn’t love it, was a little put off by the eating clubs and the preppy atmosphere (claims it came through even in the summer!). Having said that, he will certainly apply. Seems sort of pointless to visit schools of that level, as they will obviously be on the list, if he is fortunate enough to get into more then one in that stratosphere, he can decide among them, but oerwise… Tour and session filled mostly with tourists, really don’t get the interest…especially in the info session.</p>

3524

<p>Just a word about health insurance. Think hard before you drop your child from your insurance and have them only covered by the school’s plan. (Not that any of you are discussing that.) A certain percentage of kids (and I think it’s larger than any of us know) don’t make it in college, so then their insurance goes away. If they were to develop a chronic condition during that time, it might be hard to add them later.</p>

<p>Also, thank the Lord that the law is changing so that insurance companies have to cover our young adult “kids” whether they are students or not. Son has a friend who was told not to come back to his college - he didn’t party or anything - he’s just not the brightest tool in the shed. His dad’s insurance only covers him if he’s a full time student. Well he’s not anymore…and he’s an insulin dependent diabetic.</p>

3525

<p>^^ Missypie–that is such a sad story–
however the reality of the insurance industry and chronic conditions…</p>

<p>We will be keeping our kiddo on our insurance–and doing whatever the school has–
want to keep kiddo covered.</p>

<p>^^Aniger–why apply to Princeton if the fit wasn’t there–So many uber select schools at that level and that dont have that eating/club prep feel…its time an moeny to apply to someplace your student really doesn’t like…</p>

<p>IMO I am telling kiddo to not apply someplace kiddo wont be thrilled–hoping to stave off the “poanic apps” kwim? Not saying your student is panicing–however this whole app thing has too much panic and hype to it all kwim?</p>

3526

<p>Fogfog, this wasn’t a strong dislike, just a bit of a reservation. I guess I am not sure this one summer time half day visit is remotely enough to dismiss such a great school. I guess, also I am not sure there are really more than a small handful of schools at PRinceton level (and he is probably applying to most of them). Reality is, admission at that level is such a lottery, that you really need to maximize your chances by applying to lots of schools at that level. At least that is my view… Of course kiddo’s willingness to do the app supplements will limit it… App fees are not a big deal to me, a relatively cheap lottery ticket…</p>

3527

<p>Hi All–Just thought of something to mention
Facebk had am major breah of security and if your profile or your students had the search feature open to everyone–it is very likely the profile has been compromised.
That said–
I went into kiddos profile privacey features–and they were changed to fully open! We routinely check them and keep them Friends only etc…and its a big paint o keep restricting them over and over
Also there is a “convenience” feature FaceBk has put in so that their “partner” sites recognize FB people–
Both kiddos and my profiles were checked open/allow–which we did not do. Had to change that too. I know its a new feature–and am kinda ticked about it–as its not like FB asks permission…</p>

<p>so be sure to check your profile and that of your student…
I will look for the link and post it–the article appeared in PC workd or something like that–I saw the news item late last night…</p>

<p>Here it it…</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100729/tc_pcworld/thefacebookdatatorrentdebacleqa[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100729/tc_pcworld/thefacebookdatatorrentdebacleqa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3528

<p>Anytime fb has a new feature the default will be “we are going to show your naked rear to the world”. You have to go in and set it to “no, I’ll keep mine covered, thank you.”. Even if you change your settings the pages are cached and are out there.
Although this is being reported as a security breach, it is simply an example of what can be legally obtained.
Along the lines of Fog checking family member settings, if you haven’t reset them since fb did the privacy interface overhaul, check them and reset as necessary. As usual the defaults are not what you had previously. I check my kids frequently. I’m pretty uptight about it… Which is funny that I’m on here!</p>

3529

<p>I’m not jumping all over you, Aniger, but I’ll tell a little story about my D1. My H and I are U Chicago alums, and for years she said she “figured” she’d go there, too. She was a top student, and it was definitely worth looking at. </p>

<p>I took her to an all-day tour, open house, panel discussion, etc. I waited until the end to see what she thought, although I noticed she nodded off during the info session, a very bad sign, don’t you think? </p>

<p>She said, “It’s so noisy here. I don’t think I’d like such an urban atmosphere. But I’ll apply anyway - it’s such a great school, and I might not get in at my other choices. I can always transfer.”</p>

<p>I said, “No you won’t. You need to find schools you really like. And you won’t apply somewhere when you’re already thinking about transferring after just touring the place. If you want a place to start at and then transfer, don’t waste this kind of tuition money. You can do that just as well from UW-Madison.” (We are fortunately that our instate flagship/her safety is that kind of school.)</p>

<p>She was kind of shocked, because I rarely was so adamant. But I felt strongly that she shouldn’t apply anywhere she didn’t want strongly to go, not matter what the quality or the prestige. There are too many schools, too many great schools. </p>

<p>That very day I drove her to Northwestern, with its quieter, more suburban campus. When we turned the corner on Lake Shore Drive, she said, “Yes, this is what I think of when I see myself at college.” After that, we concentrated on top schools in more suburban locations - Brandeis, Tufts, etc. </p>

<p>She is a very happy rising senior at Tufts. She didn’t need UChicago if it wasn’t a good fit. I think your son can find many, many wonderful top schools that he feels more “right” about than Princeton. I won’t be so harsh as to say don’t have him apply - obviously I don’t know enough - but I do hope it’s only one among a list of other schools he feels really excited about.</p>

3530

<p>Another little point: I have a friend whose father is affiliated with a very prestigious university. Several of the grandkids have thought about applying there, because of “grandparents’ brag rights,” that kind of thing. My friend’s D toured the school and said it just didn’t feel right to her. They weighed whether or not to apply, just to make the grandparents feel happy (not that the grandparents were pressuring, just that they’d get a kick out of a grandchild at the school, or even that they were interested). </p>

<p>I asked, Would she go? No, she didn’t want to. Then what was the point of applying? If she got rejected, everyone would feel bad, and if she got accepted and didn’t go, just how would that make the grandparents, or anyone, feel good? The grandparents weren’t the type who would live off the “My granddaughter got into XXX!” for the rest of their lives. They wanted her to be happy.</p>

<p>We all figured out from this experience that “brag rights” are a very foolish basis on which to make this kind of decision. Some kids do apply to place “just to see” if they can get in, but I do hope that they feel they’d strongly consider going if they did get accepted.</p>

3531

<p>^^That’s where LuckyBoy is right now. He doesn’t want to apply to a bunch of schools just for bragging rights because he now has a very strong preference for one school (he’s working there now at an academic camp and having a great time). He knows he needs to apply to two or three additional schools, just in case he should change his mind, but he’s got friends and non-family adults telling him to apply to XYZ, ABC blah blah blah. </p>

<p>He’s a high stats kid who does NOT want a high pressure environment. Dh and I just want him to be happy wherever he ends up.</p>

<p>He has to have a plan mapped out before school starts.</p>

3532

<p>I don’t know if Tufts is on his list, but my D has found it the perfect blend of extremely capable students and a relaxed atmosphere. People achieve just because that’s their natural proclivity, and competition is very mild. At the same time, it’s a bustling university; she didn’t want a small, family-like LAC, found those too confining.</p>

3533

<p>Well, we are back from a one week family vacation to Philly that followed a week the boys used to travel to 9 schools. The school visits definitely worth it. He has visited 15 schools over the past year. I will sit down with S sometime over the next few days and reorg “the list.” There was definitely some reshuffling and at least one school fell off the list. It was a big safety which will probably offer merit, but I think it is off for good. The one LAC he visited, W&L was a huge hit. He loved, loved, loved it. I think it is his #1 choice and a big reach GPA wise for him. He also liked JMU in VA. Folks in VA are so lucky to have such great schools close by. I am thinking we should have had more LACs on the list, but he was adament about a good finance program with a trading floor. S strikes me as a person who would love a “classical education” but he thinks differently. If we had more time we would visit some more LACs but sadly we are done til Dec. </p>

<p>We had him start his essay on the trip home. It is very rough, but I hope by the time school starts up in Sept, it is good enough to ask his teacher to read. He still has some thank you notes to write to those who interviewed him.</p>

3534

<p>oh, btw, at one info session S & H attended they were told that the school wants to see a very rigorous course-load sr year. Very rigorous. Do not drop math for chorus or art or whatever. If you drop one of the major five (math, science, eng, lang, hist) it had better be for something just as rigorous. S will probably not apply to this school, for other reasons, but H & S both said the school implied we have plenty of kids applying who work their butt off and get good grades, if you aren’t working your butt off don’t bother applying. </p>

<p>They also said the adminissions rep did not easily tolerate questions asking about stuff readily available on the web site or questions about things she had already explained. “as I said” she would reply. They got the impression, it was not a touchy feely school (not that S is looking for that).</p>

3535

<p>Mamom- I wish we could have both W&L and JMU on S2s list. Those, with Wm&Mry, had to be left off because of his major. They are great schools! VA residents don’t get any help at W&L as it’s private, other than the location. Only 20% of it’s students are residents. Glad your son liked them. For anyone who is JROTC, VMI is also in Lexington and is beautiful! Not a match for S2, again due to major.</p>

<p>Make sure you put your reviews on campus vibe! :)</p>

<p>We have been told to keep the five core classes through sr year as well. If you are going to drop foreign language it needs to be for another academic class that will add value to your application. APComp Sci or APPsych, probably okay. Yearbook or Weight Training, maybe not the best choice. I’m not saying these classes are not fine, I’m saying taken in place of one of the five core areas they are not your strongest choice. That’s what we have been advised as well.</p>

3536

<p>{quote]We have been told to keep the five core classes through sr year as well. If you are going to drop foreign language it needs to be for another academic class that will add value to your application. APComp Sci or APPsych, probably okay. Yearbook or Weight Training, maybe not the best choice. I’m not saying these classes are not fine, I’m saying taken in place of one of the five core areas they are not your strongest choice. That’s what we have been advised as well.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Exactly. Thankfully, although S did drop Latin he is taking AP Eco instead. the rep said that even if your school says you only need 3 years of a certain subject, you had better be taking four or have a good reason to not be taking 4. </p>

<p>Oh, another thing this rep said was they do not recalc GPA. Even though some schools do not weigh AP and honors classes, the GPA is what is is to some folks dismay. They said they know who does weigh classes, but she basically dismissed it and made those kids (not weighed) feel like they were screwed. She did say for merit scholarships theymay give those kids with unweighed GPA’s a .2 credit but other than that is wasn’t a factor.</p>

3537

<p>I think I know where you were, it sounds very familiar :wink: If this is the case, based on what I have seen in previous admission cycles they do an excellent job of leveling the field in GPA, they honestly do know which schools have which grading scales, who weights, and frankly which schools are weighting and giving out As like pop tarts in first period.</p>

<p>My son knows the cards are stacked against him at a lot of schools. Be it residance, cost with no hope of FA, or admissions that are just insane. He’s picked a small group of schools to apply to. I think he’ll do fine. Will he be sad in 10yrs that he didn’t take a shot at the Ivy League? I don’t think so. If he changes his mind before Dec and wants to send apps up north, shoot for the moon buddy, it’s your dream!</p>

3538

<p>^Yup, our S understands that while we can afford to send him to any school we probably will take into consideration cost. We expect with his high SAT/ACT scores he will get merit at some schools. We have learned a lot and figured out that you don’t necessarily have to break the bank to get a good education. S is OK with that. Except for a few of the schools he has visited, he is OK going to any of them and he has enough safeties (academic and financial) that he will end up in a good place whatever happens.</p>

3539

<p>Does anyone know if the Common App comes out at 12 a.m. tomorrow or what? It sounds geeky but I’m pretty excited!</p>

<p>The process begins in hours!</p>

3540

<p>^^
One day 3 hours 37 minutes and 19 seconds according to the countdown timer on my web browser. I remember going through this with my S two years ago, only that time the Common App opened July 1! Now I feel like I am a month behind this time :(</p>