<p>FLMM: Congrats on finishing! I took mine to the post office on Saturday and was quite pleased with myself for making the 3/1 deadline. Then, yesterday, I got an email from one of S2’s schools saying that it was missing. C’mon people…it wasn’t even late yet!!!</p>
<p>kathiep: Robotics scholarship…congrats!!</p>
<p>MOSB: I searched everywhere with S2 last evening for the darn NMF postcard so that we could fax a “new” decision of undecided. After some frantic digging through all files, it occurred to me that I had dropped the postcard in the mail after we faxed it – you know, just in case they hadn’t gotten our fax. I did find a copy of the postcard that we had faxed, so we used a little whiteout and sent the new un-decision. Now I’m concerned that the mailed postcard will arrive after the re-faxed postcard…who knows what will end up as the final choice??? You know, I just have to give this up.</p>
<p>Well, we may have messed up. I thought you didn’t have to fill in a FAFSA verification form unless you were picked to be verified. I guess I’ll call a couple of schools and ask about that.</p>
<p>I think I’m the one with the mood swings around here. Sunday I spent about an hour going through old pictures looking for one for the school to project on the big screen on graduation day. They take the baby picture and then the Senior photo and put them up when the kids are walking across the stage to get their diploma. So here I am going through these pictures and remembering how son used to bare his teeth thinking that was an acceptable smile, cub scout pictures and goofing around with friends, a vacation picture with his big brother (they’re six years apart) carrying him on his shoulders in Utah, and then, the one that made me cry, him getting on the school bus to go to kindergarten. I’m going to be a puddle on graduation day.</p>
<p>kathiep - congratulations on the robotics scholarships. Perhaps I should nudge 12 yr old S into robotics (thus far, both my kids have not been interested!)</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those who are done with the dreaded financial aid forms. I got through most of our taxes (except for one section where I need to figure out cost basis for several sets of shares that were sold). Aiming to finish this later this week.</p>
<p>Got through the medical procedure just fine - was not as bad as they made it seem! Thankfully! Spent the afternoon/evening on the couch groggy. But did get around to calling/chatting with a few prom dress sites. Turns out my D picked the one dress that’s discontinued and cannot be ordered online! Ugh. We are thinking of making a run to the bridal store again today and plunking down the big $$ to get the dress (hopefully, it will still be there!).</p>
<p>3 months to graduation - yes, time is going by too fast. I do see mood swings in my D (but that’s fairly typical!) - am trying my hardest to NOT get irritated/angry with her. Hoping to savor these next few months…</p>
<p>I have all my deadlines in place= this Thursday for a gown order, April 28 for a 100 word bio for the graduation (I really hope that d will have chosen a school by then since it is only 2 days from the deadline), and then May 26th for a 5 minute powerpoint. I also have to get busy with deciding who we are inviting for graduation. She gets a total of 35 people and I know she wants to invite some friends who are in speech and debate but not graduating either with her or not this year. We get so many guests (a lot compared to what we were allowed in college) because we only are having 10 students graduate at the ceremony. At least 4 are doing it somewhere else.</p>
<p>Feeling fortunate and relieved here, after reading everyone’s posts of frenzy and uncertainty. </p>
<p>S1 was accepted EDI to his 1st choice school as a recruited athlete. He submitted just a single app. Our CCS/Profile was completed in November and estimated FA award arrived just before XMas. CCS was amended in writing during early January to correct a couple oversights. FAFSA was submitted 1/4 using estimated data and then finalized on 2/18 after actual tax return was filed. Revised FA award came in last week… right in the range we had forecasted. Although more would certainly be better, at least there were no surprises. </p>
<p>All that remained outstanding as of yesterday, was to print and sign the Dependent Verification Worksheet Form, to reflect that S1 was not required to file a W2 in 2010. That is going in the mail today. </p>
<p>S1 applied for three scholarships…all longshots. He was not excited about writing the essays, and is even less thrilled with the possibility of making it to an interview round for any one of them. I told him if he did make it that far he had better put on his game face and embrace it like a championship game.</p>
<p>Less than 12 weeks here for graduation as well–May 22. And the Cotillion for Achievement Ball is two weeks from Saturday. On Thursday, our son has to turn in the bio form that will be used to introduce him at the ball. It asks for the college you will be attending. Hmmm…he won’t hear from MIT until five days before the ball and we won’t have FA answers until two weeks after the ball. Guess I can write either…or… and then alert the committee if he does not get accepted.</p>
<p>The Cotillion waltz lessons are Sunday afternoon. I have been wearing my “ball” shoes around the house for 30 minutes a day and they still aren’t comfortable. They look gorgeous but I may have to opt for comfort over fashion.</p>
<p>Need to finish the book that I am creating for graduation on blurb.com and work on a design for the graduation party invites before time gets away from us.</p>
<p>Son is relieved he only has two more local scholarships to finish up and fortunately he can recycle essays for those. (The “why fire sprinklers are a good idea” essay is done–thanks to an interview with our local fire chief! Helps that dad works in City Hall.) </p>
<p>We counted last night–40 days of school left until May 1. We didn’t count NHC induction day. (They do the ceremony twice because they can’t fit all the school and the inductee/member families in the auditorium. They all go to a luncheon afterwards and are excused for the day.) And we have three days of spring break in April.</p>
<p>Once he gets to May 2, he will only be in class four of the remaining 13 days due to AP and IB tests. The school only requires the students to go to the test and then take the rest of the day off to prepare for the next test. So, May is nine days of testing and four days of class before graduation. </p>
<p>It will go all too fast. Meanwhile, my stomach is beginning to churn about the MIT decision and our ability to make it happen if he is accepted. We’ve talked about both being a longshot for more than a year but when the decision finally comes…I keep praying that his heart and brain both understand the reality of the situation.</p>
<p>Wow- reading here is so helpful. Had no idea H had to go back and change tax filing status on FAFSA. We had a bit of a scare- got an email from RPI encouraging D to apply for financial aid and to submite CSS and FAFSA. Uh- we thought that was already done. A recording on the Fin Aid Office’s machine says oops- problems with dowloading FAFSA’s and they are working on it. Sigh.
Oh and EmmyBet- loved the phrasing of “putting down that triumphant deposit”- no matter where our CCers’ kids go, I am going to feel like it is a triumph.</p>
<p>Thanks Mamom. The process I outlined above was stressful enough… especially with the recruiting demands made of S1 (and the entire family…akin to chronic auditions!) in the preceding 6 months. I am truly grateful that he is pretty-much done. </p>
<p>D1 is a Junior now…so we are right back in the mix with her already… and I trust she will be a multiple app kid with very high anxiety …waiting for rolling and RD outcomes. There are also a couple 5th graders in the house…so we should be pretty good at this, by the time they are looking and applying. I sure hope CC is till around in 6 years… you guys have been so very helpful to this rookie.</p>
<p>Mamon, ask your son if I could please borrow the potato cannon. I just need it for a day or two while I finish up all things financial-aid related. I have a few particular targets in mind, and will return his wonderful device along with a 10# bag of potato ammo for his own use, no questions asked. Thanks!</p>
<p>Financial aid is a labyrinthine process…I mean, how many hoops do we have to jump through? I panicked yesterday that the IDOC wasn’t complete…thankfully, it went in the mail on Friday.</p>
<p>Robotics scholarships, completed auditions, more acceptances: Fantastic!</p>
<p>mamom: Maybe your son could just go into production and allow ccer’s to purchase our own potato canons…I can see that this could be very useful. I’d just ask to borrow it, as MOSB did, but I have more children to get through this process and borrowing it for a few days might not be enough. In addition to the various financial aid targets, I might find mine useful for the “plow guy” who has destroyed my yard this winter with his desire to shove all of the snow in my driveway into the middle of my front yard.</p>
<p>Anyone with NMF issues should call NMSC-they are very nice and helpful. My son’s first request was processed with a first choice school when I called yesterday AM. They told me to call back yesterday afternoon since they received a ton of faxes over the weekend. When I called back his new fax had been processed and he was and is back to being undecided. </p>
<p>Which is where he will stay-until he makes the final decision. I don’t even want to think about it until then.</p>
<p>My daughter is still home she really got hit hard with the stomach bug so stuck home again today-maybe I will clean? Nah, I certainly can find something better to do, right?</p>
<p>MaryOC–congrats on being done! but the rest of us wallowing through the finaid messes will need your encouragement that’s for sure</p>
<p>D1 is definitely struggling with senioritis…has to present senior project THIS Thursday and hasn’t even started a couple of final presentation necessities. Which doesn’t do much for my peace of mind but…perhaps it will be a good lesson to learn about NOT procrastinating before she gets to college.
She did finish another scholarship so yay bout that</p>
<p>MaMom – My D and her dad made a potato cannon several years ago and shoot it off for the neighbors on the Fourth. Did your S and friend build it from ‘Backyard Ballistics’? The hard part is finding the hairspray for a propellant…thank Goodness we moved to the South! </p>
<p>MaryOC – Congratulations…sounds like telling your S to approach an interview with the same passion as a championship game is a good idea!</p>
<p>Personally, I’m calling my broker to invest in Kleenex products. I think there’s going to be a major upswing in the market-share as all us Moms buy Kleenex for graduation. Oh, and who makes a good waterproof mascara? May want to invest in them as well.</p>
<p>This was actually a rebuild, he built his first one back in 8th grade. After numerous firings the pipe finally cracked and broke. He reused the ignighter for this one and thankfully had some leftover hairspray to use. During that 8th grade time period he built several different machines designed to fire/destroy/make very loud noises and I know we bought Backyard Ballistics. Not sure if that was the design he used though. Maybe he could start a sidejob selling potato cannons on CC. </p>
<p>Ohiomom- I am with you on the snow. We aren’t even bothering to shovel or snowblow anymore unless we get more than 3-4 inches. Except for the front walk, otherwise the mailman will skip our house and you never know when one of those big envelopes will be delivered. This has been a brutal winter.</p>
<p>OWM- My S also graduates May 22.</p>
<p>pepper - sorry to read your D is still sick. A norovirus has hit a lot of kids in our area, thankfully no one in either kids school had it yet. Hope she feels better Wednesday.</p>
<p>AP costs - I had no idea that some schools don’t pay for the AP exams. Our school does. Keeps their ranking high on Newsweek or USN&WR, whichever calculates rank by # of AP exams taken.</p>
<p>Have any of you tracked how much all this college stuff cost? Being a CPA, it’s in my genes. The non-trip expenses are just shy of $1,000 (7 schools). The four trips totaled ~$7,000 (Boston/California, Atlanta, Houston - all by my son, hubby & I plus Boston by son alone). EEKS!!</p>
<p>OWM - Our graduation is day before yours. I’d go with comfort over style any day.</p>
<p>Kindle question - I heard you get receive & send email on WiFi version. True?</p>
<p>I have a 3G version. Every kindle has an email addy to which you receive documents. I never tried to send email FROM the Kindle though. Here are some directions I have found for doing it. I think it is kind of cludgy though.</p>
<p>ohiomom24 - I am not sure if going back and updating for “Filed” status is required or not. It might have just been a coincidence that after I did that that the school noted FAFSA as completed.</p>
<p>I believe you can file your 1040 at any time and defer your payment up to the due date (April 18th this year) without any penalty or cost. If this is correct, you cauld wrap up the FAFSA right away. Please check with your CPA or with IRS to confirm this option.</p>
During that 8th grade time period he built several different machines designed to fire/destroy/make very loud noises and I know we bought Backyard Ballistics. Not sure if that was the design he used though. Maybe he could start a sidejob selling potato cannons on CC. </p>