<p>Hi all. It is great to get a wave of positive news on the college front. Scholarships, acceptances…So exciting! And I’m sure such a relief with all the unpredictability we’ve seen.
Like mosb, we are in the midst of a blizzard. My office is closed, which I don’t think has happened in the history of the company (it’s a major corporation). The streets aren’t plowed at all, I can barely get my front door open, and the snow has started up again. Fortunately, we have not lost power and it’s nice and cozy here. Schools are closed and both my kids are home (still sleeping) so I’ll take a few breaks from work stuff and make them tea and lunch and maybe squeeze in a board game or two. With everyone’s schedule, having everyone home together has been an rare occurrence, so I am enjoying that piece of our weather situation. No going out today!
To others in this weather area, please take care.</p>
<p>I have to agree that through the tragic events in our community I am reminded that my 19yo is happy and healthy here at home where I can love him and enjoy him. No, he’s chosen not to be in school right now, but there is time. He’s working. Every day is a gift. He will move out, take the next step in his life, and I will miss him terribly and be very glad for these days we had. Days to sit quietly with his brothers at school and have conversations about topics I would never have imagined him caring a peep about two years ago. After a few difficult years in high school, this time of healing in our relationship we actually laugh about those days. He laughs at himself. I have to think if he were in school, we would have missed this step. When he’s 40 I don’t think it will make a hill of beans of difference between being in school this year, and being in school next year. It will matter that we have had time.</p>
<p>That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!</p>
<p>Prying myself from my warm and cozy world here at home. No snow on the roads today, just a lot of cold, messy, cruddy grey mess, and things to do. Sometimes being the grown up stinks!</p>
<p>Continued warmth and safety to those in the midst of this storm.</p>
<p>Ah well, woke to a leak. Ice dam backing up on the roof coming through the top of the window. At least is isn’t the roof. It leaked straight through to the basement by the time we found it. Someone was supposed to come over this week and rake the roof but he didn’t show up. H feels he is too old and he is the only one in the house with an income he keeps reminding me 
Awaiting a call back from the roofer to get on his schedule.</p>
<p>No school for 2 days in a row, this is crazy. They are going to have to make up AP work on some Saturdays now. Oh well.</p>
<p>Here is hoping everyone stays safe and good news continues to flow.</p>
<p>
My biggest fear. We haven’t had ice dams in probably 12-13 years. If I had remembered we would have raked the roof before, now we have huge chunks of ice all along the edge and I don’t want to touch them for fear of damaging the roof. We used to have those electric cable thingies we used on our old house, no idea where they are now. This is sons 5th day off this year. His school doesn’t have to make up the days (and as a sr he probably wouldn’t have to anyway) but I am concerned about all the class time he is missing in his AP classes.</p>
<p>MM- get better soon and don’t feel guilty for taking a little down time for yourself when you can.</p>
<p>Snow day here as well, but b/c of the icy roads. I hoped that some work will be done on the scholarship application, but no luck so far. Speaking about filling in the blanks… This application has 6 or 7 essays and sections similar to CommonApp to list activities/jobs/etc. Those sections are extremely limiting, it’s such a pain to fit anything there and you can’t attach a resume. So, I put myself In charge of filling in the activities charts as well as the regular name/address boxes. I am exhausted, I spent several hours trying to shorten positions/awards/etc and it still looks ugly on the print preview. And all that is needed from S is 7 essays. Is it too much to ask? </p>
<p>Congratulations to all new acceptances and scholarship $$$. </p>
<p>MM – do take care of yourself. </p>
<p>Everyone - stay warm and safe.</p>
<p>You’d think I would learn to post here daily so I’m not playing catch up. But here goes nothing.</p>
<p>Flmathmom- Good luck to your son on Olin. Very exciting!</p>
<p>Madbean, lacrossemom and proudmom- Sorry the hoped for $$ didn’t come through. </p>
<p>Ami- I’m sorry for your Dad’s health issue and your son’s disappointing news. </p>
<p>AmandaK- Congrats on Miami and the $$. Great news!</p>
<p>MilitaryMom- Please take care of yourself!</p>
<p>Congrats Puma! Hope they are flying him somewhere warm!</p>
<p>Blue, I love hearing about your son and his love of robotics. You have a way with words. Maybe because you love the subject. </p>
<p>Congratulations researching4emb! Great news about Dickinson. Your D already has two great choices! But more importantly, did the cast list ever get posted?</p>
<p>MOSB- Glad to hear from you and hope you are doing well. Thank you for your thoughts about my friend. I learned today she is facing serious surgery that they hope will buy her two years. She is already a cancer survivor and we thought it was licked so we are all shocked.</p>
<p>I’m sorry your D is hurting momjr. It is hard to see them suffer. D is mostly over her break-up. At the point where she is noticing all his faults. I just hope he doesn’t try to get back together with her. That off and on thing is soooo painful.</p>
<p>Pepper, I hope you are enjoying that cup of coffee and a chat with your son. Sounds lovely!</p>
<p>Hope everyone in the path of the blizzard is staying warm and safe. We have avoided most of the big weather this year. Got our share last year. Here its just gray and blah. Time to bring in some forsythia branches to force. Spring is coming!</p>
<p>@keylime, I feel your pain. I’m in charge of filling out the activity sections of Ds scholarship applications as well. Amazing how time-consuming it is. We have made a decision to skip the scholarships that offer “low” rewards (less than $1000). And, if D doesn’t already have an essay that can be tweaked to fit the requirements, we generally pass on those as well.</p>
<p>lurker on this thread with an anecdote about apps.
Friend’s twins were denied/deferred in their early round. Over Christmas they did 36 more apps betw. the 2 of them. This in addition to whatever was on their original lists. I don’t know how the colleges are going to figure out how many to accept/WL, etc.</p>
<p>To put some things in perspective. S received a letter from USC- they said admissions decisions wouldn’t be out until March, but to let him know, there were 22,000 applicants who applied and were eligible for the major merit scholarships (out of the 40K who applied). They are choosing finalists from a group of 1000 of which he is not one.</p>
<p>Couple of things to say -
Wow, that is a lot of eligible applicants
That is a lot of applicants in general for under 3K spots
I think it’s great that they are letting people know. S was not waiting for this, but if he was it would give him time to look elsewhere for merit options.</p>
<p>for those of you hearing about UMiami scholarships; there is someone over there on their thread who is val of his class who did not get offered one; kinda weird if you ask me, but I guess UMiami is playing some kind of yield game with scholarships this year…</p>
<p>Pepper and BI - thanks for sharing your stories about your sons.</p>
<p>Idinct - I don’t know what an ice dam is, but it doesn’t sound good.</p>
<p>Be on the lookout for an email in your child’s college inbox from CB with the subject “Your next step for financial aid”. It is a request to complete your IDOCS along with your ID #. Very important.</p>
<p>For those not fed up with filling out scholarship forms, here’s another one for you [REAGANFOUNDATION.ORG</a> | GE-REAGAN FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM](<a href=“http://www.reaganfoundation.org/GE-RFScholarships.aspx]REAGANFOUNDATION.ORG”>GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship Program | The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute)</p>
<p>For those who enjoy reading about higher education, click on [Universities</a> On The Brink - Forbes.com](<a href=“Universities On The Brink”>Universities On The Brink)</p>
<p>Hello all. I’ve found this thread most helpful. It’s hard to break in when there’s so much to read–I’ve read back some but don’t know that I could ever read it all!</p>
<p>First, congrats to all who have heard from their schools and their merit aid! It’s a stressful time for me, and I think my DS is handling it pretty well. He’s the biggest procrastinator which of course adds to my stress. He waited until midnight Jan 30th to submit 5 of his 9 applications It was a day early only because he had planned out his entire day on the 31st and I told him he wouldn’t have time! So now it’s procrastinating on the scholarships–I’m looking forward to the end of February and the end of these deadlines!</p>
<p>He’s gotten accepted into two of his 9 schools so far. Honors college for one-waiting to hear if he’s a finalist on a full-ride scholarship. All others are RD, although he did get a “thumbs up” postcard from W&M which is a great sign. Hopefully I won’t go totally gray before April 1. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the great posts and letting me know it’s not just me! :)</p>
<p>VAmom, congratulations to your son on the acceptances and ‘thumbs up’ postcard from Wm & Mry! Positive feedback is amazing while your student makes that long wait. Great school!!!</p>
<p>On busy posting days like this it is hard to recognize by poster’s name all your great news (yay) and sad news (so sorry). With more posters coming forward (welcome!), it’s getting harder to keep up! But the more the merrier. All voices add to our very supportive group. I have been moved by many postings here.</p>
<p>@rodney–thanks for the updates on U Miami–do you have a student there? </p>
<p>Re: merit $$: Thought I should take a little minute to make clear that I am really understanding of how each of these private U’s use their merit $$ to fashion their classes and while sometimes disappointed, I never feel angry at their decisions. Wish it could be different, of course, when it doesn’t go our way. 
And I’m really rooting for all the kids who get acknowledged. I know how wonderful such a scholarship is because S1 was very fortunate. But here we are with S2 and I would love him to have similar opportunities. Why can’t moms have the super-power of making life fair? LOL!</p>
<p>Meantime, thought S2 was done with application essays, and now he’s being asked to apply for 2 UC scholarships requiring–yes, more essays. Will it be worth his time? I’m getting weary–so how must he feel? </p>
<p>Stay warm, dear storm-endurers. I’m joining researching in doing a little gardening in the warm sun today. Not that I’m rubbing it in.</p>
<p>LeftofPisa, thanks for asking! D didn’t get a starring role in the play, but she got a good comedic part, and those are her favorites, so she’s happy. It was a win-win day yesterday.</p>
<p>madbean, is it worth asking nicely if merit aid is a possibility? I’m wondering if we might try asking one school for a little more, to make it more competitive with the other school’s offer. They’d probably say no, but no harm in asking… and I hear sometimes it works, if they have a little money left to play with.</p>
<p>madbean: no student at UM; (unless you count the kids I “counsel”)…just an observer over the years of how the school has changed…</p>
<p>Greetings from the frozen tundra of Missouri. Tomorrow will be Day 4 this week of no school. Day 8 for the semester. (Semester began Jan. 5.) First day this week was ice, Day 2 and 3 snow, tomorrow is temperature-related. Record wind chill 75% of the district waits for a bus, most a block or so from home.</p>
<p>The seniors are laughing about it because graduation day won’t move. K-11 can and will add on days. But senior parents that I have talked to today are worried about preparation for IB and AP tests. Those dates don’t move, whether you’ve had snow days or not. Our son will take three IB and two AP test. That’s a lot of college credit hanging in the balance. </p>
<p>I WISH I could report that he had made progress on research fellowship and scholarship essays. His friends (through 4-wheel drive vehicles) hung out here yesterday; today at another house. Baking cookies, playing games, building Legos. Tomorrow, he’s going to work. Our street and all roads he needs to take to get there are clear. </p>
<p>Spring cannot get here soon enough–except for those test dates!</p>
<p>FlMathMom - Thanks for the Reagan Foundation link and the Forbes article. The Reagan scholarship looks like a good one for DS to consider. The Forbes article was interesting.</p>
<p>If you want more info regarding ice dams, just ask. I am in property management and have my hands full with ice dams and all of this lovely winter weather that just won’t stop. Idinct - good luck with your roof and gutters. There is no easy solution other than a nice thaw.</p>
<p>DS got an email from OSU Honors advising him his Honors Scholarship application is one of 2,080 submitted for the top 60 merit awards. That’s less than 3% of the applicants so it is a real long shot. We find out if he gets called for an interview late this month. They will interview about 200. The top 15 get a full ride Presidential Scholarship and the next 45 get a full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>Spent 3 hours this evening with the CSS profile form. I would rather fill out a dozen FAFSA reports. The CSS form is brutal! I will spend another hour or so digging up information to complete the form tomorrow. Haven’t figured out which cars to list as they are all a part of our business fleet (mostly vans and pickups). I can’t believe that some schools want to know what vehicles we drive along with their cost and age. </p>
<p>Sorry to vent. Welcome to the new posters/former lurkers. I was one fairly recently as well. Glad to have found this thread as it has a lot of useful information and suggestions.</p>
<p>That part about the cars- which ones we drive on the CSS PROFILE. I first did this form in 2005 with my son. We were stationed in Europe and one of us drove a 2001 Tundra and the other an older Mercedes that we bought from someone getting rid of it when they were leaving the COntinent. No, it wasn’t a 50K vehicle, more like 2K since the following year, we sold it for slightly more than 1K. </p>
<p>Then I did the form again this year- guess what_ we still have that 2001 Tundra. We also now have a 2004 Hyundai SOnata. What this is supposed to tell anyone anything, I don’t know. We obviously haven’t been buying new cars lately.</p>