<p>Financial aid question: I looked quickly on the financial aid forum and didn’t see an answer to this but maybe you all know. Do schools calculate financial aid packages for each applicant or do they wait until they have a list of admitted students? It seems that it would be more efficient to just calculate financial aid for admitted students, but I’m not sure how they would get that done quickly enough after decisions were made. Then again, it seems that it would be a waste of time to calculate financial aid packages for 60% of the applicants if the school was only admitting say 40% of its applicants. </p>
<p>^^^I think that what usually happens is that the financial aid award is mailed with the acceptance letter. It doesn’t make sense to figure out aid packages for kids who can’t possibly attend.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say to everyone! Haven’t posted in a few weeks and we are just waiting on the scholarship stuff to come in, so not much news. Tomorrow is the first day of the last High School Semester! How time flys!</p>
<p>We are on the same schedule as OWM. We start school in mid-Aug and end June 1. However, seniors graduate May 21. We have 23 high schools in our district each with 600-700 seniors. There are very few places that can accommodate such a crowd so we all use the same place.</p>
<p>Our school is the first to graduate that morning. The doors are locked at 8AM (I think) and reopened at 9:20. The next school is at 10AM. There supposedly is huge gridlock, horrible fights and lots of tears as families are locked out. My parents live close enuf to come, but I don’t think the stress will be worth it. We have to get up at 4 or 5AM any way to get there on time. No way my parents will be able to handle it. They take pix and sell a video. It will suffice.</p>
<p>My son doesn’t even want to go. Sad! Hopefully the reality will be better than the anticipation.</p>
<p>amandakayak, thanks again for your scholarship snooping! And hope you got the sleep, more than one night would be best but sure hear you on appreciating even one.</p>
<p>FlmathMom–the graduation sounds quite a challenge, seems they could spread things out a bit more and make it a happier time for all…</p>
<p>FlMathMom: I can’t imagine how you can do a 600-700 student graduation in less than two hours unless it’s just an assembly line of diplomas handed out! That seems unfair to everyone. </p>
<p>We usually have 400 and it took two hours for my older son’s class. It included a procession, two choral selections, a speech from a teacher (voted on by the seniors), special recognition for the top 10 and individual diplomas.</p>
<p>23 high schools? How many days does that take?</p>
<p>We are on the same schedule here as amandakayak - school begins after labor day and graduation this year is June 10th, even though school isn’t out for others until 6/22.
Finals are the week ending 1/28, and the studying has begun in full force. In May there will be 5 IB exams, then float until graduation.</p>
<p>All the apps have only been done a couple of days, and I’m already tired of waiting! So glad to have you all to talk with!!</p>
<p>Like a couple of others, we have a graduating college S, too - so we will be doing alot of celebrating :)</p>
<p>cgpm - Our Alaska cruise was one of our family’s favorite vacations ever - it is so beautiful and awe inspiring as well as lots of fun! PM me if you have any questions, I would be happy to share what we did there…</p>
<p>We woke up to great news this AM - D has been accepted into her top 4 programs - to be honest, this was very unexpected, we were hoping that she would get in to 1 or 2 due to the limited number of seats and competitiveness of the programs. We are very proud and excited!</p>
<p>Each school/program has its pluses and minuses but all are well ranked. None of the programs/schools are a clear “fit/winner” (like an ED school) so it will be interesting to see how my D arrives at her decision!</p>
<p>We had our co-op start after Labor Day and so did the separate English Lit class that d is taking. Her graduation is June 3rd and I am supposed to be going to a graduation planning meeting this week. I also have to remind my h (who is away on a trip and will be away much of the time before JUne) that he needs to be converting photos of her pre-digital camera to digital photos for the slide show before each graduate (we will probably have about ten or twelve so yes we can do short slide shows for each). Then I have to plan a party for her separately- I am thinking graduation/moving/early 18th birthday. We are moving sometime in later June and her birthday will be before College (or first day of orientation?). That D is slow to make friends and really she has mainly made friends the latter half of last year but mostly this year. I know she won’t make any in our new location where she might be a month or slightly more before going off to college.
I also need to plan a separate party for younger d who is upset about the upcoming move and would like to have a going away fling for her friends. </p>
<p>That reminds me that depending on where and when we are moving, I may need to be separating older d’s stuff to go to college and things to stay here (or rather our new home whereever it will be).</p>
<p>Been lurking long enough! Congrats to all the good news so far. I’ve enjoyed reading and knowing we are all in the same boat. S has 9 apps submitted and we hear from our first on Friday. Need to do my FAFSA and Profile and I excel at procrastinating.</p>
<p>amanda- glad your d is feeling better and hope you got that sleep you wanted. </p>
<p>collegemaw - i would love to make a family trip this summer. It will also depend on money and S’s job. It may be the last we make as a family. ;-(</p>
<p>OWM- so did you buy the dress? Hope we get to see some pictures. </p>
<p>ohiomom - I think FA is calc for all kids offered admission. I can’t imagine they calculate it for all applying. Although for need aware schools maybe they need that info up front. So I guess I don’t know. </p>
<p>MomofBoston - congrats toyour D!!! </p>
<p>MilitaryMom - sounds like there is a lot of stuff on your plate the next few months. Good luck with the logistics. </p>
<p>rom828 - fingers crossed your S gets a yes on Friday. I am also very good at procrastinating. Especially in this wired world with internet and my Kindle. this weekend I will get FAFSA done…maybe.</p>
<p>Hi all;
Long time lurker, first time poster. I have followed all these threads with great interest for the last year, and want to thank all of you for the great wisdom and collective knowledge! It really is amazing.
Because of your help (and you didn’t even know you were helping), DS has had a great result in admissions. He is what you would call a smart slacker kid with test scores far better than his grades…in spite of that he has been accepted to 4 of 4 schools so far including the one he will attend. 3 of the 4 even offered merit scholarships. We would not have predicted that! So take heart, all you parents of similar boys!
Best to all in the weeks to come…and thanks again from this grateful mom.</p>
<p>ahappymom - Welcome, or a formal welcome! Keep us posted on happyson. If you’ve been following, you know some of the more heartwarming things are NOT college related. We love to hear it all. Congratulations to your son on a great admissions season and congratulations to you for helping him build a list of schools that would reward his merits. The schools ARE there…they just may not always be the most obvious.
Cheers!!</p>
<p>welcome happymom. Your S is like mine, high test scores mediocre grades. My S also got into schools with merit. Who would have thought? I wouldn’t have even guessed if we relied upon the GC. Congrats to your S.</p>
<p>Another snow day out here. Kids were thrilled - especially since this makes it a four day weekend. D is chilling with neighbors’ kids that stopped by and S is out skiing with friends.</p>
<p>Semester finishes towards the end of Jan for us. So, yes EmmyBet - a huge shout out in the first week of Feb works! </p>
<p>Graduation is on June 4th - outdoors in the stadium. Can be challenging, especially if it rains (and it always seems to!). We sat through the val/sal speech in the pouring rain last year. Haven’t made plans yet for a grad party - we usually have a big barbecue memorial day weekend and we might just use that as the grad party this time. It will just be the weekend before graduation and will work well since all our friends and family will be coming then.</p>
<p>Prom dresses - I wish D would think about that now - but I am pretty sure it won’t be until sometime in May that she will !! I asked repeatedly if she needed anything for the awards dinner this Friday - “don’t know” was the typical response. Until last night - she then decided she had to go shopping for something elegant and formal and it had to be last night. Fortunately for her, she did find something that works…</p>
<p>Snow day here too, just too much ice and I’m grateful they didn’t just delay open because of ds driving to school. There is a thread over yonder which begs me to ask the philosophical question: if you had a adult kid that was a real pain, ungrateful, spiteful…at what age do you cut the cord and kick their sorry butt out? Philosophically I know the correct answer is “I will always be their mother and want what is best for them and put their needs first before my own…” but really, is there a line? We are at the wonderful point of seeing nothing but promise ahead for our little snookie-kins. My neighbor had the boys from hell that set fire to hockey pucks and smash them up against the garage, who set fire to their childhood tree house, who both never left home or moved back in (one with his livein girlfriend), parent bought one a franchise so he would have a job, they never went to college, never joined the military, now mid 20s…I just wonder, when faced with the same, how would I respond. The thread I refer to, the adult kid has depression/anger issues so that adds the greater “mothering” need perhaps but… when is enough, enough for the mom to reclaim rights to her own happiness?</p>
<p>My friend has an aunt who has two sons in their late 30s who never left home. The dad is retired and the whole lot of them live on his retirement funds. The “boys” work a few hours a week. Apparently their house has become quite a mess over the years and my friend is afraid that one of these days she’ll see them on that Hoarders show.</p>
<p>Well, that certainly puts things into perspective!</p>
<p>Unfortunately it doesn’t wash away my anxiety over a letter from D’s EA school that came today, which I can’t open. It’s little … I know it could be a deferral, know it also could be an acceptance. Just have to wait. I was hoping somewhere on CC someone would be saying “I got good news from X college! I thought it was bad because the letter was small …” But no one’s posted anything.</p>
<p>Keep on swimming …</p>
<p>I said I was tempted to hide a scary small letter from D until finals are over, but I have more faith in her than that. This is not a school she’s dying to go to, but any rejection is a blow to one’s ego. Ah, well. </p>
<p>Congrats to all of the wonderful good news here. I do believe firmly that the whole crux of this process is the list, and without good advice you can’t make a good list. I’ve seen so many kids who have sold themselves way too high, and also ones who have sold short, or just thrown applications any which way.</p>
<p>I know D has a list that will work for her. She will have choices, and good choices, no matter what’s in that little envelope sitting right now on the kitchen counter …</p>
<p>Temperatures in the high 70’s here so no snow day for us. This is finals week for D. Next week begins the last semester of high school for her! I can’t believe how quickly it has come. I still remember the first day we walked together into her high school gym when she was still an 8th grader. She was amazed at how much bigger it was compared to her middle school gym. “Oh!” she said. “Is this where the big kids play?”</p>
<p>When my son was admitted to Oklahoma City Universiy, it was just a regular letter…I thought, “there is no WAY they would have rejected him.” It was the dullest acceptance letter I’ve ever seen (except that they offered a crazy amount of merit aid, so the text wasn’t all that dull.)</p>
Keep us posted on happyson. If you’ve been following, you know some of the more heartwarming things are NOT college related. We love to hear it all. Congratulations to your son on a great admissions season and congratulations to you for helping him build a list of schools that would reward his merits. The schools ARE there…they just may not always be the most obvious.