<p>For anyone that might not have seen the thread, Kaplan has free ebook downloads on dozens of their books through 1/17. You don’t have to have a Kindle or Nook as these are free apps to download on your computer. I just downloaded about 20 books. There are a couple that still may be of use to bluejr (AP guides for classes this year), and many for lucky bluejrjr! There are also GMAT and MCAT books. Free is free and take up no floor space! :)</p>
<p>D just got a letter from Clark offering the presidential scholarship, 15K a year! Joy in our house.</p>
<p>And we take it as a good omen for the other pending applications.</p>
<p>Congratulations researching! Isn’t that one of her top choices? What a great feeling! </p>
<p>D got another acceptance and merit award today. Came MUCH sooner than expected. In fact I at first thought it was a very fancy package to say thanks for applying. But that would have been cruel! These early acceptances are definitely validating D’s choice to keep her non-auditioned programs in the safety/match range and the tried and true CC strategy to have some EA/rolling schools on the list. I hope you are right researching and its a good omen!</p>
<p>Amandakayak, I hope deadlines were met and your blood pressure has gone back down. </p>
<p>Puma, sorry to hear of pending cutbacks. Hope it all works out.</p>
<p>Thank you Proudmom and EmmyBet for your lovely posts. I am likely to be a mom thinking “If only you had…” as rejections come in. I am so quick to see my D’s flaws. Your posts are an inspiration to see the good as clearly. The world will give our kids plenty of reminders of their failings. And the lessons she learns herself will matter much more than any I told you sos from me.</p>
<p>Yay for r4emb’s D and LoP’s D!!!</p>
<p>Well, D just had a meltdown on today’s essays. Not surprising. Also has brewed herself a big headache, doesn’t bode well. Hey, that’s how these things are sometimes. She’s chilling right now, will go at it again later. I know her well enough that once she is at the fall-apart stage, she just needs some time alone to get her head together.</p>
<p>And if they don’t get done, they don’t get done. I think she will, though. She made a promise to herself, and it’s really not impossible (she has until 11:59, after all!). But talk about how to define “doing your best.” Sometimes it really does mean just what you can manage. I think many of us have finished a college semester with the attitude of “I don’t care what I get - just please let it be over!”</p>
<p>I will resist babying her, but honestly if she gets a “small” envelope in the next few days I might hide it until after finals.</p>
<p>Blue - this made me laugh!: Hey, at least you have something to mail!!! STILL waiting on bluejr… >:@ Thanks for the humor.</p>
<p>Anyone else amazed by the 35,000 apps to places like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. Just ridiculous! </p>
<p>Due to weather issues, both kids were stranded at home last night. They watched TV together and were talking and laughing the whole time. Such a blessing to hear it from the next room. We, especially the younger brother, are going to miss D so much next year!</p>
<p>wow…so much good news, congrats to all on the acceptances and merit awards!
EB-I am sure your D will get through this, but if she doesn’t…then perhaps it was not meant to be!</p>
<p>oops double post</p>
<p>Yup … midnight will come and go and the world will keep turning, for sure. And maybe she’ll be so mad at me for yelling at her (yes, I confess - did anyone see the flare go up over here? My patience goes out the window when I start hearing those “it just won’t work” comments).</p>
<p>Belated good wishes to Puma - I think you should let schools know of your situation, if you have clear info from your employer. Many of these situations can be negotiated personally. I’m so sorry your dealing with that kind of stress.</p>
<p>“glad” to share the misery of last minute apps but D is working all day so hers will be even more last minute–thank goodness she did work on them last night but I was gone til late so not sure how far she got. </p>
<p>Congrats on all the acceptances and merit awards! </p>
<p>Very grateful for what D has received so far but (2 out of 3 acceptances so far had nice merit scholarships) but we definitely will have to wait for financial aid packages and then will probably have to ask some nice CC folks to help us decipher them!</p>
<p>MamaBear, Researching, LoP - happy dance in your houses. Kudos to all.</p>
<p>Puma - time to start networking just in case. When one door closes, another opens.</p>
<p>BI - thanks for the heads up. I’m going to visit Kaplan now.</p>
<p>Any Texans out there? Might want to check this out [High</a> School Essay Contest](<a href=“http://www.srttexas.org/essay.html]High”>http://www.srttexas.org/essay.html)</p>
<p>Emmybet and ProudMom–Thank You-- your posts really hit home at a good time for all of us going thru this process. I need a gentle reminder nowadays sometimes to love and be proud of the whole kid and not just see the college applicant part of her…</p>
<p>Yes, “FAFSA”. I have my W-2, but DH and DS won’t get theirs until the end of January. I started trying to do the FAFSA using last year’s tax return as an estimate. I didn’t have to enter hardly any info about parental assets (checking account, savings, our pre-paid tuition plan, etc. etc.) and all of a sudden I was at the section to “sign and send”.</p>
<p>I thought I must have missed something because it didn’t ask me to input any of our financial info. At one point in there, it came up with a number of $51,000-and-some-odd dollars and said if our assets were MORE than that, to enter in various things. Well, if you don’t count our house and our (small) IRA and 401k, then we don’t have anywhere close to $51K, even if you include the $15,000 or so pre-paid tuition plan.</p>
<p>Was the $51K some sort of “cut-off line” based on our income perhaps?</p>
<p>I would start back through it and try to work it all out, but in about an hour, we’re off to DS’ soccer game . . . his high school team has made it to the finals of a 16-team local pre-season tournament. And it’s been raining all day here and it’s in the 40’s . . . oh joy. This is what being the mother of an athlete is all about! :)</p>
<p>Cheers for the early notification and $$ for LoP’s D!! What a great surprise! 
It is so validating for these kids. Big congrats also to r4emb’s D. That’s a wonderful honor to celebrate!</p>
<p>EmmyB, so sorry to hear about your D’s meltdown. Bluejr very, very rarely has them, but when they come…when he hits the wall he hits it hard and there is no going further. You just have to back up and rest. I think it’s a healthy thing for them to learn, even if it is crunch-time. With the headache a nap’s the best thing. Bluejr’s gotten migraines since he was about 8yo so I know how those can knock a kid out. Usually a shower and a nap will help.</p>
<p>mnmomof2 - glad the laugh helped 
I don’t mean to make my boy sound lazy, he’s really not. He’s been at school every night the last two weeks and there again since 7am this morning. His EC is really busy. That scholarship isn’t going to do its self though. His mistake was not doing it over break…I left it alone knowing he was really burnt out and needed a break…before his EC ramped up to double-time. Hummm, possibly a mistake on my part.</p>
<p>If anyone is looking for a cute/fun movie to watch with their teens, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is out at Redbox now and is really funny. We laughed our rear-ends off. For something that was pretty campy in concept, it was much better then we expected. Great for family movie night. I will say despite the video game references, it’s not for younger kids.</p>
<p>Blueiguana: Scott Pilgrim is the favorite of our son’s group of friends. They have dressed up as the cast of characters for both “favorite character” days during the Homecoming Weeks (football and basketball.) </p>
<p>I’m not sure how many pages I need to go back to get caught up. We’ve had another sandwich generation twist. I am now on the other side of the state with my mom. She told my brothers and me that she was having an “elective” procedure on her face to remove some “little stuff.” Turns out it was pretty major dermatological surgery to remove basal cell carcinomas. Three days worth of treatment. We found that out Thursday night when the surgeon called my brother to say she couldn’t “cut” anymore and that my mom would need plastic surgery (two skin grafts) to put her face back together. The surgery was Friday morning; I flew here Friday afternoon to be her nurse, chef, chauffeur and laundress for a week or so. She will need to heal for several weeks before the dermatology team decides the next course of action, probably radiation. The doctor had no idea that Mom had not told us how serious it was. She assumed we knew and wondered why none of us had be around to care for Mom between treatments. They lasted from 8:30 to 5 for all three days, but we had no idea. She has been using a driving service to get there and back. My mom is incredibly stubborn and thinks she can handle everything herself–at age 85.</p>
<p>So my husband and are son are home alone while I hang out in her senior community. Thankfully, last summer I made the decision to get a wireless card so if I had to drop everything to care for my mom, I could “take” my work with me. My mom does not understand the Internet at all. I noticed in her mailbox that the community is forming a focus group on “technology needs.” I should sign her up! She’ll tell them they need “that thing” so her grandchildren can use their computers. When my husband and I move into one of these places, it WILL have wifi!</p>
<p>I hope the scholarship applications get done while I’m gone. I am sending daily reminders about what needs to be done, but I envision father and son playing video games, eating chicken wings and slamming down cream soda.</p>
<p>tackled the FAFSFA last night. It is laughable what they say our EFC is…close to the full tuition at most the schools D applied to. Good thing she has received decent merit awards at all of them. Honestly I did not expect to get any needs based aid, but seeing it in black and white really hit home. This is when I am glad we pursued the strategy we did…D applied to only SUNY colleges and private schools where she was at the top of the applicant pool and would get decent merit. That is the only way we can afford private…no matter what FAFSFA thinks we can contribute!!</p>
<p>cgpm - Check out <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a> specifically Table A5 Education Savings and Asset protection Allowance. I assume the elder of you or your spouse is 52. Your assets under $51,200 are protected (not counted). Only your income is counted. You can calculate your EFC from the schedules therein.</p>
<p>Update: D is finished!! She took a break, cruised prom dresses on the 'net, let the Advil kick in, and then rode through the 2 essays! The first one was hard, I’ll definitely admit, one of those tough intellectual type questions. But she pushed through the edits and feels good about it. The other, which she was saving for “dessert,” was a totally fun romp through the imagination (her strong suit, as I’ve surely implied). </p>
<p>Both are submitted; fees are paid. We are OUT of Common App World!</p>
<p>This kid has managed 13 applications through a busy schedule of auditions, concerts, plays, 3 APs and 2 other hard classes, and a few medical blips. Oh, and raising her ACT this fall by 4 points. She should be very proud of herself.</p>
<p>On to theatre audition season - first one is February 8.</p>
<p>Yahoo EB- i can see the fireworks in NY all the way from WI!!! (And done with hours to spare )</p>
<p>owm - So very sorry to hear about your Mom’s ordeals and you being thrust into caregiver without moments to gather yourself together. Prayers to you and your family (especially to finish their work and clean up after all those buffalo wings!)</p>
<p>Yay EB! Son has a scholarship that he should be filling out but he JUST DOESN’T WANT TO DO it! Unfortunately, it’s a safety school that I think he would very much like but aid is needed. He knows, he’s just burnt out from the paperwork.</p>
<p>The other thing he’s reluctant to do is to re-visit colleges and sit in on classes or attending week-day accepted student events. He’s very worried about missing school because he knows that he’ll already be missing some days due to upcoming Robotics tournaments where he’s a lead player. I’m frustrated because I think re-visiting is the best way to decide.</p>