<p>FMM - The honors application at our flagship was no extra cost - and covered several different honors programs (discipline-specific and interdisciplinary).</p>
<p>D is “undecided” for NMF. Seems appropriate. Given her list of schools, she will be able to make a first choice in early April that MIGHT get her some $$. All depends on who accepts her and if she gets the NMF money…</p>
<p>Not knowing where she may need to visit (and FLY) in mid April (not to mention where she will be moving in August) is quite hard for this type A, detail oriented, likes to plan ahead mom. I want to savor every day NOW while having a much better idea what will be happening in the near future. Also, wondering what the April airfares will look like…</p>
<p>Sorry, I thought songbird was done with auditions…wishful thinking 
Soon!</p>
<p>FMM - I’m really excited for your son about Olin! It is hard when they start to get tunnel vision. Bluejr applied to the honors college at our state flagship (you have to be invited to apply which seems odd to me, but okay). It didn’t require another fee, however it could not be done online. Filled out online, then printed, then snail-mail. My thought is like others here when schools make things a pain-in-the-rear, they are weeding out the herd. It was the same with his departmental scholarship application…had to be mailed. You can not tell me they don’t scan that stuff the minute it comes in their office!</p>
<p>BTW, I’m now in a very serious relationship with my Kindle! Absolute adoration!! Given how easily distracted I am right now I gave up on a couple of books I’d downloaded that take a bit of thought process (which I have zero to offer right now). I happily gave into some chick-lit and am enjoying every guilty giggle!! :)</p>
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That does s*ck. When you start this process its $40 here, $75 there but by the end it gets real weary pulling out my card to pay again for something else. I suppose with state schools they need to charge for everything. I hope he gets in. </p>
<p>We are having a hard time convincing S to revisit any of his schools. I think a revisit may shuffle a few around on his list (the order of which he won’t share with us) but he claims to like every school on the list and will happily go to any one of them, so I am not pushing him. </p>
<p>BI- I used to waste a lot of time online. Now I waste a lot of time reading. And I am also reading a lot of chick lit lately also. Can’t beat always having a book available anytime anyday. ;-)</p>
<p>I was all excited about 3 months until graduation until I realized that would mean that the school year ended in May! My son won’t even have his finals until the second week of June. Graduation is June 17th. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>Hard to keep up with everyone’s news! But congrats to the latest round of acceptances, happy visits, and sympathies for the bad news. We’re all in this together.</p>
<p>Son got his second robotics scholarship today - this one to RIT. Who knew when he started Robotics as a freshman that it would lead to cash for college?!</p>
<p>kathiep = congrats to your robotic scholarships!!!
Did anyone else feel the pinch with AP test costs? We get charged $88/per and ds has 4 this yr - $352??? Eesh, and the thing I know is he is not going to study for them, he’s got senioritis - didn’t think about frontloading all APs into Jr yr due to the effects of senioritis!</p>
<p>^ we have 6 APs to pay for…!!! just got “the bill” …last year was 4…!!! Having taken the AP exempts the Srs from finals.
Frankly other than rigor at admissions
…the school kiddo choose doesn’t do much with those APs…</p>
<p>It is however probably good for prep…</p>
<p>AP tests, application fees, score sending costs, visits, transcript fees, etc. It’s getting old here. D applied to 10 schools - we’re talking thousands. Not to mention vacation days I took from work. Thanks to the lottery that it is, she had to. Most of her academic peers are doing 15+. WOW.</p>
<p>It seems wacky to have to apply to 12 or 15 or more schools, but that is what we did.</p>
<p>To the NMF parents–I really agree that it is better to be officially undecided for now, for risk of getting locked into a scholarship at the wrong school.</p>
<p>My son picked up an early write letter from Macalester, and is going down on a paid scholarship interview weekend to Claremont McKenna (virtually an early admission), so things are definitely heating up. At least we are getting confirmation that we did not totally mis-judge the competitiveness of his list. I think it is becoming more real to him that his isn’t going to be here come September.</p>
<p>I have never been so happy to be fired as I was today … by D. She says now that apps and auditions are done, I am done, too. It’s all hers now. Great! I never asked for this job, you know.</p>
<p>I suppose I’ll come in handy for one thing or another, but I’m looking forward to getting back to my own life.</p>
<p>And I, too, will be glad to stop spending money on this process - except for putting down that triumphant deposit in a couple of months!</p>
<p>Many congratulations are in order, but yours is extra special, Emmybet! You have done an extraordinary job of supporting your daughter in something that she cares so much about. Now it has paid off, she appreciates it and you can get your life back. That sounds truly amazing. Congratulations!</p>
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<p>Congrats to your S!</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, my S does not seem ready to take over yet. I am concerned he will wait til the last minute to research and review and H is already getting very nervous. I have already been putting vital info into a spreadsheet and will continue to do so til I can make a decision. Whether that matches S’s who knows but at least I want to be educated about his choices.</p>
<p>Don’t doubt me - I’ll still be a closet employee, under the table, so to speak.</p>
<p>D has enough information to make a decision, and is a whiz at navigating websites. And there will be discussions about a lot of things. But I think she was sensing that I’m tired - we both agreed how exhausting the last few weeks have been.</p>
<p>And I’ll admit that I worked too hard - I didn’t want to be putting in so many extra hours, but I couldn’t help myself (anxiety is great motivator). Not CC, though: every minute here has been worth it, for what I’ve learned, the support I’ve gotten. She has benefited from that, too, and I thank everyone.</p>
<p>She doesn’t have her results yet - she may be highly disappointed when this is all over. But it has been a supreme learning experience, and she will go to a lovely school in the fall (whichever one it is).</p>
<p>On another note, D1 is getting a few nibbles for research internships after she graduates. It’s nice to hear her so encouraged.</p>
<p>LofP, wow! What a day your D (and you) had Sunday! Many congratulations to both of you, and I’m glad your audition season is at rest (for now, at least).</p>
<p>Pepper, Ohiomom and other NMF-interested folk: I went and read that thread Pepper posted a link to, and I now know why she got an ice-cream headache. As my dad would say, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick…but not by much!</p>
<p>Wow, I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole when I read this stuff. Not only do I not get it…it feels like sheer madness to me. What fiendish mind made up this maze of rules, requirements, and impossible to foresee consequences? (Was it the FAFSA/Profile people? The IRS?)</p>
<p>I’m going to leave sb’s 1st choice as it is. Tomorrow I will re-read the scholarship offers she already has in hand and see if I can figure out a better strategy.</p>
<p>We are making progress here! Over the weekend and today, she narrowed her list of 6 down to 3 (the 3rd being the conservatory, so if she doesn’t get accepted there, the list is down to 2)! Hard to see those other 3 go…there was something she (and I) liked about each of them, but her decision-making process and rationale are really sound, so I’m happy and excited to see what the next round brings.</p>
<p>Blue, so happy to hear you’re enjoying your new kindle! </p>
<p>Kathiep, congrats on those robotics scholarships! Sorry to hear about the late-ish graduation. But on the other hand, songbird graduates in exactly 3 months, and I don’t feel ready for that. Senior year has slipped through our fingers, I feel. While we were so busy applying, essay-ing, auditioning, driving, re-visiting…it’s just slipped away. Not happy about that, though I think a good outcome for her over the next 4 years will definitely be worth it.</p>
<p>I expect to be one of the more traumatized Moms next fall, but still, it will be so fun to continue to check in with all of you and hear how your kids are doing. I’ve grown quite attached to them!</p>
<p>Happiest of first birthdays to OWM’s little guy!</p>
<p>Got my K-1 at 7PM.
Finished tax return.
Redid FAFSA. It is now FINAL.
Put together IDOC. Will mail tomorrow, only two days late, but it is DONE.</p>
<p>Tomorrow - redo the Profiles, then I’m finito!!!</p>
<p>Whew! hard to catch up in here–congrats to the good news"ers", fun to read.</p>
<p>Argh, working on verification and other finaid worksheets/phone calls around here…very slow going.
Anyone else seeing even MORE mood swings with their kid?, sometimes I don’t even know who she is --but then, with my fun female middleage physical/emotional waves she probably doesn’t recognize me sometimes either!</p>
<p>I thought FAFSA was done when I filed it on January 31st. It turns out that I had to go back into the site and change the answers to two questions to have it finalized. Questions 32 and 79 are about student’s and parent’s tax return status. I had to change the answers from “Will File” to “Already Filed” It took less than a minute.</p>
<p>The better news is when I rechecked the one school applicant site that tracks FA submittals, they now have everything checked off incldung FAFSA which was the first thing done and the last thing confirmed by the school. Just made it for their 3/1 deadline!</p>
<p>If you submitted your original FAFSA with “Will File” checked and you have now completed your returns, you may want to go back and update your FAFSA profile regarding your filing status.</p>
<p>Applause to all you who are done, done, DONE! with your FAFSA profiles. </p>
<p>MOSB-- this is system is too evil to have sprung from any single brain…it took the combined efforts of thousands to create, none of whom ever spoke to any of the others!</p>
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<p>LOL. one “improvement” after another. of course none of these folks had kids going to college. </p>
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<p>No, but I have a boy. He seems to go with the flow, always, no matter what. That sometimes concerns me, get excited about something…anything. Although, he built a potato cannon with a friend over vacation and I do see a twinkle in his eye when I allow him to take a potato to shoot off. No mood swings though. Maybe he sees the drama coming from his 11yo lis sis and it scares him. Heck it scares me.</p>
<p>Less than 3 months til graduation. Yikes. What happened to my diet? How much weight is it possible to lose in 12 weeks?</p>
<p>AvonHSDad: Thanks for the reminder to update the FAFSA. So, after we officially file the returns, I will need to go back and update to “filed”? We owe big bucks, so won’t file the returns until the last minute. On 4/15, after I drop it off at the post office, I’ll need to update the status? Whew…another thing to remember.</p>