<p>Can anyone help me find the thread about how scholarships are taxed?
I know it got posted here, and cant find it w the search feature…</p>
<p>did find this help…<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid;
<p>still looking for thread…</p>
<p>Novelista - We’re doing a similar cruise as a graduation gift, too! Our stop in Egypt hasn’t been cancelled, though. We have two days there, plus three in Israel, assorted Greek island things, and then we end up in Istanbul. We were pretty nervous about doing the final booking (we had to make the final decision in the last week or so), but we’re hopeful that things will be calm enough so we can do all the stops. And we figure if it’s not calm enough, our line will make the same decision yours did and switch out the ports.</p>
<p>WE were going to go on a really nice vacation as a graduation trip but our plans are up in the air. We are moving in June-probably near the end and we don’t know where. Can’t plan vacations with that and also with the slight possibility that our daughter will get into the nationals of her competition which is in mid June in a place still TBA.</p>
<p>So today, other than doing fifty million other things like packing for our trip, doing errands, going to the orthopedist, helping youngest with math, etc, etc. I had FAFSA fun. I noticed last night that our corrected FAFSA EFC was higher than our original even though our income had actually gone done by over 2K from my sketchy estimate in early Jan. I asked here and there were no answers so I called FAFSA. After a long wait where the counselor was trying to figure it out and then had to ask colleagues, it turns out that the algorithm the computer program uses has a fluke and it raises EFC with a small drop in taxable income and this is particularly true with military families where someone served in a combat zone. SHe recommended that I contact all the colleges with the info. So far, I have reached two of the nine she is still considering. I think I will personally visit the financial aid office at the college we are visiting on Friday and more calls and letters will be sent out next week. How fun.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, y’all. I’m thrilled to be going to Istanbul as well as Ephesus. But Egypt has a special place in all our hearts and we really hoped this would be the year! OneGirlsMom – What line are you on? We are on RCCL. MomofBoston – Thanks! I’ve heard great things about the city. </p>
<p>We thought about all the electronics for grad but we just replaced a dead laptop a couple of months ago. Besides, those things don’t last very long. Has anybody considered the watch/jewelry route? D got a class ring as well, so I suppose it’s just as well we decided on this trip last year!</p>
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<p>Did you read this article?</p>
<p>[Egypt’s</a> harassed women need their own revolution - CNN.com](<a href=“Egypt's harassed women need their own revolution - CNN.com”>Egypt's harassed women need their own revolution - CNN.com)</p>
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<p>Party - probably not. Son is not a party guy.</p>
<p>PC - depends on school requirements. His current one is pretty powerful.</p>
<p>Smart phone - For sure, but will wait to see what kids at school use. Right now we have pay-as-you-go dumb phones as they serve our current purpose.</p>
<p>Backpack/luggage - Son is a light package so thinking of buying a quality duffel/backpack to use to travel.</p>
<p>We will also be taking a 2-3 week family vacation. Will determine where after summer job sorted out.</p>
<p>We finally got the January test results, delayed by the 2001 name change the College Board just discovered - luckily, big improvement. I’ve sent them off via College Board to all 10 schools, but wonder if D should also e-mail the admissions offices. Do colleges automatically get new scores and update their information? Has anyone else done this?</p>
<p>You could scan the test report and email, saying that official test report is enroute.</p>
<p>32… Congratulations on the score improvement! I would suggest emailing each of your D’s admission reps directly. This means a little work finding their names and email, but very worth it. Might I also suggest a little note of update with any new news (awards, lead in play, things like that) and a sort of pitch about how much she loves X University and hopes her new scores will be considered with her file.</p>
<p>At this point in time, the reps are zero-ing in on their files. Personal contact can help–plus they usually send a return email saying how they will handle the new score data (whether they need to wait for official report or ask for some other delivery). </p>
<p>Don’t know if I mentioned this, but S2 got a birthday card (handwritten!) from his Tulane rep. Wow. This mom was impressed at the follow up contact.</p>
<p>325…
colleges only get scores the student sends…the SATs etc do not “update”</p>
<p>As for CollegeBoard…I called today to fix kiddo’s email–which has changed since last fal…Now despite my having the report in front of me, giving the correct CSS #, DoB…not to mention the whole file, Profile etc has been done by me…CB wont let me change the email. …saying there are no parental priviledges on it?! what the hay? Thats my credit card on every order, and every registration, report etc was done by me…yet nope.
sigh…</p>
<p>we are all tired here–I think we all need B shots! lol</p>
<p>MissyPie – You could probably have the same stats in Italy…Berlusconi’s up on charges. </p>
<p>We all need shots of something – I don’t know if ‘B-12’ is going to be enough!</p>
<p>Thanks, all, for your input. I don’t want to pester them, but want to be sure they factor these scores in - sounds like she should include this, the NMF and a few other things in one mass update ASAP.</p>
<p>Novelista - We’re on Regent. We wanted to get a smaller ship and a lot of stops, and their itinerary really worked for us. But who knows, it might change as the political sands shift!</p>
<p>^ We went w Regent in AK this past Aug…amazing ship and service…we were on the Navigator. 3 cabins together.
I hope we do the Baltics sometime…port intensive yet hear they are good ports worth it.</p>
<p>Swearword, swearword, swearword. D is not particularly changeable so we were feeling pretty happy with 3 viable college choices (still waiting to hear from 3 colleges and the other 4 accepted schools she has dropped way down the list for various reasons). Well now there is one- maybe- which she didn’t actually visit yet. One of the three she has always been lukewarm about. The third she visited today for a Presidential Scholars Day. Granted there were only 70+ there, and there was little time to interact, but in the simulated seminar class according to her there was little rigor and a “deficient knowledge base”. Small groups had been formed to come up with a definition of “person” without using the word human. Once groups came up with definitions, prof asked the whole group to identify similar or overlapping themes/ideas in proposed definitions of “person” that the small groups created. The students could not identify that maybe opinions/values/thoughts had some overlap nor that actions/deeds were about the same. She was appalled and now this school is way back down the list. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.</p>
<p>Thinking about graduation gifts ---- S has never had acomputer, although obviously we have (this) family computer. I feel a bit like another poster, if he HAS to have it, it doesn’t seem like as cool of a gift, but he is SO looking forward to his own laptop!
No one in our family has ever had a smart phone either. That sounds very useful, though. I’ll have to check with verizon about the cost of data packages.
Since we have two graduations, our plan is a family vacation trip- we are all looking really forward to it!</p>
<p>We’ll be having D’s party with one of her friends who has a muuucch better house for a big crowd. Shd be good since they have a lot of the same friends… lots of the kids do this and it helps by reducing the number or parties everyone is trying to get to.</p>
<p>The big grad party concern I have at this point is a video. Every parent I know is starting to gather pictures and think about music so they can create a video to play during their S or D’s party. Aaaagghh! I used to feel that I was pretty computer savvy but this whole video thing is already making me panic. Anyone know of an application that is somewhat dummy-proof?</p>
<p>D1 is not a party person, we’ll probably do a celebratory family dinner out or small family get together, and if finances/life is willing-- a teensy local trip. She would love and appreciate any of those, especially if any relatives send cash gifts!</p>
<p>No smart phones here, stickin with the basics</p>
<p>argh, one of D1’s acceptances wants a FAFSA verification, will have to wait a few days</p>
<p>proudmomof2, do you use a Mac or a PC? For a Mac, you can use iMovie to create the montage of stills and/or video clips. You can add music, have nice transitioning effects, the whole nine yards. I didn’t find it hard to learn how to use–of course, I also had D2 helping out (it was for her bat mitzvah). Then you can use the Mac’s iDVD program to create a standalone DVD containing the iMovie montage. That’s handy if you’re going to be using a different DVD player to show the montage. I’m putting together a montage of photos for a relative’s milestone birthday, and then I’ll hook up the computer directly to the TV and leave it running during the party. </p>
<p>My advice: start scanning the photos soon. It always takes longer than you think it will! And that’s less complicated than the montage. It’s very soothing, and you get to look at old photos of your child.</p>
<p>No party for D1, just not the thing here. We will take the family and grandparents out for lunch or dinner somewhere with superdelicious food.</p>
<p>For D1s senior party we didn’t do a slide show. I did put about 15 pictures from different stages of her life in frames and put them on top of the piano and mantle. I just used frames we had for the most part. I’ll probably do the same thing for D2.</p>