<p>OWM, just so you know, I’m sending up that little MIT prayer for your son every day.</p>
<p>Mamom, congrats on that scholarship!!! $10K on top of other merit, that’s just excellent news! :)</p>
<p>For those of you with sons you will appreciate this. For those with daughters, you can just shake your heads.</p>
<p>If you have completed FAFSA there is an early question about being registered for Selective Service. The form basically says if you are 18 (our S turned 18 in late January) and haven’t registered yet, check this box, so we did.</p>
<p>As you can guess, he got his official Draft Card (sorry - I am showing my age) mailing today, just four weeks after filing FAFSA. It took that long to get the forms to the colleges after we submitted. It’s amazing how some “more trivial” things in Washington seem to work flawlessly and other things, like financial aid, seem to have more twists and turns to navigate than a roller coaster at Cedar Point.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant. I am off my soap box now.</p>
<p>mamom - Congrats on the scholarship!!!</p>
<p>mosb - thank you for the wise comments. I considered something a bit less civil when I read that post and I held back. By the way, what’s a 20 year old doing on the parents’ forum in the first place?</p>
<p>mamom - Way too go. Wave your magic wand over your your loyal cc friends so we can all report similar news.</p>
<p>I’m doing the HAPPY dance here b/c I am officially done with financial aid forms for this year. Ahhhh. Silly as this sounds, I’m thinking of doing it as a P/T job next year. For those who paid to have yours prepared, could you PM me and let me know what you were charged?</p>
<p>MaMom – Whoo-hooo! I guess you could explain to said Son that the MaMom scholarship requires something higher than a 2.0.</p>
<p>Military Mom – I will cross my fingers that you find out sooner rather than later. What a way to run a railroad, huh?</p>
<p>Avon- I am really showing my age when I say I remember watching the news to find out which draft numbers were drawn (that month or however they drew them) during the vietnam war. What a mess that was. Not sure how S feels about registering, but I think he sees it a right of passage to getting older and not a big deal.</p>
<p>mamom: Woo hoo!! I’m so happy to hear about kids who are successful in their search for merit money!</p>
<p>Mamom: Congratulations on the scholarship! I love signing on and seeing good news.</p>
<p>Militarymom: What a stressful situation for you and your family. I hope you get some definite news soon.</p>
<p>congratulations Mamom.</p>
<p>AS to whether we are moving into base housing or not= we don’t know particularly since we don’t know where we are moving. In some places, we may be required to live on base, Others, no, we either get a choice or there is no base housing.</p>
<p>congrats mamom!!! love hearing good news about scholarships!</p>
<p>congrats mamom; nicely put mosb
mm - thank you for your family’s service (ret. mil. spouse here)
hoping for healthy kids and lots of good news today - and some gosh darn sunshine and warmth - this winter is sucking the life out of me or could it be the 17 year old or the waiting?</p>
<p>proud momof2 here is the list of schools requring IDOC or CSS- the link is at the College Board <a href=“https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv[/url]”>https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>MOSB- re your post. D had to write an admissions essay explaing what she thought was the most important experience for all high students to have before going to college. She wrote about overcoming adversity, learning from mistakes blah,blah cakes. But she felt very strongly about the last part- a parenthetical addition noting that learning and using basic manners came in a close second. </p>
<p>Well it looks like D has a prom date- barring unforseen circumstances. Last year she and a friend (male) went with two other friends (both girls). Students at school were talking about prom this year and the male friend said he didn’t think he was going to go. My D just looked at him and flat out told him he was going and the following ensued:
Friend: Well I guess I have a date.
D: Yeah, unless something better comes along.
Pause
Friend: Right, like that could happen.
D, after looking around her very small class: Well, you got me there.<br>
Both ended up with big grins on their faces from all reports.</p>
<p>mnmomof2—> ☼☼☼</p>
<p>Congrats to all on their good news :)</p>
<p>mamom: That is such great news. What a great way to start March! </p>
<p>militarymom: we are also retired military but fortunately spent the last 12 of the 23 years in an active guard and reserve slot and did not have to move. Military families are resilient. I know you will hang in there and be fine.</p>
<p>We are done, done, done with scholarship apps! Our son spent 30 minutes last night and recycled another essay into one for an organization that my husband belongs to and yet another for the school PTSA scholarships. Everything else on the guidance office list requires “demonstrated financial need” and are probably not worth our time. We have concentrated on scholarships for achievement or those where we have some ties to the presenting organization. I hope some of his friends who need the financial help are applying for the others. It’s still my passion to one day coordinate that type of effort for the very bright students whose parents haven’t a clue about the process.</p>
<p>Have a great day everyone. Sun is shining here; only a few traces of last week’s 7-inch snowfall remaining. It’s March–lots of things will be different when this month is over!</p>
<p>Will read and catch up through the day. I just thought I’d give my cyber friends a laugh. My 19yo convinced me to lay down for a ‘nap’ yesterday around noon saying I didn’t look too good. I woke up at 7am…looked around having a total ‘what the heck’ moment, NO idea what time it was. Can you say STRESS? :)</p>
<p>Wednesday’s countdown is:</p>
<p>MIT (March 14th) - 12 days to go. Less than two weeks!</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 29 days to go. We are now in the 20’s!</p>
<p>kinderny- woohoo! Hope your D and her “date” have a great time. </p>
<p>BI- I think your kiddo knew what they were saying. Sometimes our bodies just some rest. </p>
<p>I let S skip one last scholarship app for a school far down on the list last night. Of course it was due last night. It didn’t make sense to push for something we weren’t going to use anyway. and S and I were stressed enough. but, shhhhh…I am not telling H. </p>
<p>I haven’t really seen a local scholarships to apply to, but I will keep looking and I am not having S apply to the huge ones where his B GPA will automatically put him out of the running.</p>
<p>So here’s a question for my esteemed colleagues - to visit or not to visit? Ds have seen all but 2 of the colleges on the list - just cursory visits, info session + tour, nothing specific to his-ever-changing-major(s). I am crunching numbers, waiting on more numbers - we know the choice will be 80% based on cost, 20% on fit/feel. Should we hold off visits to anything until the numbers are final or is that just going to be too late? Should we basically have all the financials by 4/1 or 4/15?</p>
<p>mamom - congratulations on the additional merit money. That’s just fabulous.</p>
<p>amanda - we are wrestling with the visit/not visit question ourselves. She has gotten into 2 schools - one she has visited before and another that she has never seen. We’d like her to visit both these now in March before the other decisions come in, but apparently, this doesn’t work with her schedule. Ugh - April will be one ugly stressful month.</p>
<p>Blue - good that you took a long nap. The drugs from my procedure the day before left me really groggy yesterday - I found myself in the sun room napping in the afternoon. Still felt sleepy early in the evening yesterday - sometimes, it pays to listen to your body!</p>
<p>We did get the prom dress last night! Made a trip back to the store, she tried on a couple more dresses, but it was never a choice - bought the dress she had tried on earlier and loved. Can’t believe that is done with pretty much just one trip!</p>
<p>A friend who also has a high school senior called. Was kind of interesting discussing their options. This kid has applied to a lot of state schools and a few private schools. He was deferred from one of the privates that D was accepted into and has a merit scholarship from - H said it was a bit awkward when that school came up in discussion. He did admit that D got in, but didn’t mention anything about the scholarship. We are having dinner with them this weekend - need to be prepared for more awkward moments like these :)</p>
<p>thank you for the sunshine 2ed!</p>
<p>AK - very tough question. We are done with visits until we know the choices (waiting on 7 decisions). However, we recently did visit a safety/already admitted that she really likes and the remaining schools she has not seen are of the crap shoot variety. I don’t feel like spending more time/money at places with <8% yield given that she has a very appealing workable option on the table. It’s a function of time, cost of trip, what is already available, and some emotional “gambling.” A part of me regrets that D is in love with her (already visited) first choice because a rejection will really hurt (for some period of time). All of me is grateful that we took the time and money to visit the stronger safety. I’d feel pretty awful about having gone, though, if she had left that school with the “I’d rather take a gap year” comment she made after local safety visit.</p>
<p>I’m also thinking a lot about the visiting question, but D doesn’t want much discussion about it (she’s a bit superstitious and doesn’t want to “jinx” anything with travel plans!). We’re waiting on 15 (crazy, I know) RD decisions. Half a dozen are huge reaches, others are good possibilities but still a bit of a crap shoot, some are quite likely. All are long trips and not all are in the same region. Add in the complications of husband’s unpredictable work travel schedule, my teaching schedule, D’s competition schedule for her EC during April (oh yeah, and she’s got school with 5 AP tests to prepare for!), and I know it’s going to be a total mess figuring it all out. Not good for my Type A, want to have everything planned, personality.</p>
<p>What I’d like is to be told to take a nap and not wake up until late March/early April when we can really start figuring some of this out!</p>