<p>FYI: I just saw that there have been some other very helpful posts on the crimina offense issue that you may want to read. The thread is <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1098533-son-cited-minor-consumption.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1098533-son-cited-minor-consumption.html</a></p>
<p>Another free piece of advice. If, unfortunately, your kid is a victim of a crime on campus, tell them to call the “real” police (dial 911), not the campus police. This goes triple for a girl subjected to sexual assault or similar by another student. On the other hand if your kid is part of the problem (drinking, drugs, vandalism, random hi jinks) see if you can keep it within the control of the campus police and NOT the real town or city police who will often have lots less tolerance. Also tell your kid to never never never say anything to the police if arrested, just keep repeating “I want a lawyer”.</p>
<p>
Isn’t our country trying to dig its way out of the mortgage loan mess caused by people buying houses they could not afford and banks lending money imprudently? The thought of a repeat of this due to college loans is frightening. If it happens, the banks won’t even have collateral to sell.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the very wise legal advice. My son turns 18 today so it is the perfect opportunity to discuss these issues.</p>
<p>OWM – Thanks! And you’ve conquered quoting…on to the next challenge!</p>
<p>The Adcoms must be losing their minds right now…small wonder they make mistakes. Drowning in a sea of paper, each one carrying the hopes and dreams of some youngster. Brutal for everybody. Just a couple more days, y’all. Hang in there. </p>
<p>Holliesue – Will they hold your mail until you can get the box fixed? USPS.com may have a page for that.</p>
<p>Novelisto - thank you for that laugh! I don’t think the EFC people are that zen, I imagine something like Dr. No and his minions.
Thank you everyone for the sentiments on ds’ rejection. We thought it was a shoe-in, and therein lies the problem. I agree, I think we, as parents probably take it much harder than the kids. Ds admitted that he should have been more involved in the whole process of selecting colleges (DUH!), and now wonders if we got it all wrong. I wonder that too, ALOT. Although I know that is useless at this late date. Ds is seeing all the B- and C- level classmates getting into the same colleges and when he tells people where he’s considering, they tell him “don’t go there, everyone goes there…” or “that’s your safety right?” So he’s apologizing to me that he should’ve worked harder, done better…I really don’t think that is the problem. The odds on these merit scholarships are tough. The obvious thing is he didn’t do anything wrong. He held up his side of the bargain, I feel like I’ve let him down. I really shouldn’t have left my job to stay home, though that seemed like the responsible thing at the time.<br>
Sorry about Vanderbilt - I hope something else comes through, that is another bank buster.
Pepper - here have some dark chocolate!! Yep, I think the hormones are at work here too.</p>
<p>Fat Tuesday’s countdown is:</p>
<p>MIT (March 14th) - 6 days to go. Great blog on the MIT site regarding admissions decisions.</p>
<p>The big “H” and other ivys - 22 days to go based on the March 30th at 5 PM announcement date and time. Almost down to 3 weeks.</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 23 days to go.</p>
<p>It’s exciting to see that we are making progress!</p>
<p>Novelisto- right now the snowbank is holding the mailox erect. My dh assures me he has a temporary fix planned to manage things until the ground thaws and he can dig a new hole. Ah the joys of country living!! I did suggest having our mail held as an option, but since the mailbox is ‘standing’ I’ll hold off until absolutely necessary. The post office is 10 miles from our house!</p>
<p>AmandaK: Wow, I hear ya! I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving the workforce to stay home with my kids. Now, I’m wondering. College costs would be a lot easier to handle if I had been working all these years. I, too, wonder if I’ve left mine down because the decision here will come down to money. Scholarship money is hard to come by!</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear about the honors college and scholarship disappointments. Here’s hoping that good news is right around the bend.</p>
<p>Congrats on those likely letters! </p>
<p>OWM: Glad to hear that the little guy is home!</p>
<p>Happy Birthday to FLMathMom’s S!! I have to learn how to do color :)</p>
<p>Sorry to hear the bad news about scholarships. Like owm said, we’d love to “fix” these for our kids, but we can’t. We can only help them get through it.</p>
<p>Was on the shutterfly site - but only briefly. Great pictures. Great to attach faces to the names we’ve learned over the past few months. Will get around to posting pictures there sometime soon - but our schedule this week is absolutely crazy. S is in a play this weekend with rehearsals all week. Basketball playoff are also going on. D has an orchestra concert and sports awards. To top it all, I have to head out of town for a week on a business trip. I am going to miss my CC fix next week - will have to try and keep up on the iphone! But if the last couple of days are any indication, I will be hopelessly behind.</p>
<p>Novelisto - thanks for the recommendation for Edys slow churned ice cream. Will try that sometime - not really what I should be doing, but hey, if it helps, I am all for it :)</p>
<p>Amanda - I don’t think you should be second guessing yourself on the stay home/work aspect at all. Your S will thrive wherever he ends up - “bloom where planted”. Keep repeating this - and keep stressing this to him. These kids can and will do well at most of the universities out there!</p>
<p>More congrats to those with good news. Happy Birthday FLMAthMom son.
I think there are so many of us are in the “donut hole” on FA (we have too much to get need based, but the EFCs are ridiculous) that the merit aid available is highly competitive. Another crap shoot with essays!<br>
AK -I can sympathize. It does not seem fair that a kid who did not work as hard/take the same rigor gets the same acceptances. I am sure we all wonder what we might have done differently. But, by simply being here, we are informed and helpful for our children.<br>
I think that almost every mother in the country questions her choice on the stay home/work for $ question. I did the flex time thing and half the time I feel I got it right (some income, mostly able to “be there”) and half the time I don’t (I am exhausted and I walked away from a far more interesting and lucrative career to a “compromise” position).
I say “no regrets and hand me some chocolate!” We have rounded third base and are heading for home!</p>
<p>Dear Avon - Could you add Chicago (March 19) to your countdown list? It would really brighten my day to see that moving up the calendar.</p>
<p>FLMM- Happy Birthday to your S!! Any plans?</p>
<p>AK- You know you did as well as anyone picking and choosing colleges. As I mentioned when discussing S’s deferral a few days ago, how can one predict, especially when it isn’t all about numbers? And all we can look at are the numbers and hard facts. So you do your best, throw the app over the wall and wait. My S got a lousy merit award from one school that was based on his SAT/GPA. he took a test for the scholarship competition and scored higher than 500 other kids and now has a pretty good scholarship from the same school. And they are looking (well at least they say they are) for more money. So they finally “got him”, but it took that one test for them to appreciate him. If only a bunch of other schools would “get him” I could do my happy dance and he would have more choices that aren’t dictated based on what the cost will be. </p>
<p>I hope in a year when we all look back and reflect we can say that all our kids made good choices and are in a good place, even if it wasn’t their first choice.</p>
<p>I am just now catching up with everyone as we lost power on Sunday and got it back late yesterday. Took a lot to organize for dealing with the cold/dark and then get everything back in place when power came back.<br>
I agree with bkcsmn99 that I have learned so much here that I have been able to share with D and H.
One recent oddity in this whole process, my D’s reachiest reach just sent her a brochure on their program yesterday and all the benefits attending would give her. Huh? This is their first communication to her, their decision date is this Saturday, and she already applied. It is unlikely she’ll get in, so the timing is strange to say the least. She just tossed it without reading it. She figures she will decide what to do if she gets in.
Novelisto- the monks did a bang up job on the most recent “financial aid” offer we got. Only unsubsidized loans? I don’t think so.
Amanda- I hear you about second guessing what we did/did not do for our kids and how it affects college choices. When I was bemoaning that I had not done a better job in helping D find safeties that she would actually be happy about going to, she totally dismissed it. She said that I had done everything and more necessary and the choices will all be fine in the end. I am sure your son will say the same thing. You made the best choice you could at the time, who is to say it would not have worked out worse for your family if had made another decision.
More and more we are looking to “what’s next”, not just enrolling in college but what D wants her life to be like after college. It puts these times in perspective.</p>
<p>FLMM: Happy Birthday to your son. </p>
<p>AmandaK and others, I am a terrible second guesser, and it is a waste of time and energy. I’ve been following your stories for a while now, and I can tell that the parents on this thread are caring, dedicated parents who have done everything they could for their kids. We’ve all done a lot of research and educated ourselves on this lovely admissions process. Unfortunately, the process is unpredictable and changes each year. You did the best you could with the information available. Your kids all worked hard, did test prep, pursued their passions and wrote countless essays. Things will work out in the end. Well-adjusted kids can be happy in many different situations. I’ve known many kids who had to compromise based on finances, and it always works out.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear of the disappointments…please, though, don’t second guess yourself AK. I think it’s fair to say that all of us are here by virtue of the fact that we’ve left no stone unturned. This process is really and truly inscrutable at times. </p>
<p>Congratulations to those holding likely letters and scholarships, and welcome to new lurkers. There is a lot of collective wisdom on this thread. We’ve all benefited from sharing here.</p>
<p>OWM: Am I the only who sees a hidden reference in the MIT blog? I think the double rainbow is a good sign (no pun intended). Glad your grandbaby is better…what a scare.</p>
<p>My apologies but I had tons of catching up:</p>
<p>Yays to everyone who got good news and boo to those who didn’t. </p>
<p>We had a nice week last week - boychild was inducted into NHS. It was one of the goals he announced Freshman year when DH & I were just hoping the move to his new school would mean he would have more choices than community college after he graduated. Then the Jazz Band came in 6th place at Berklee’s HS Jazzfest on Saturday. </p>
<p>Still waiting on two schools and a few FA packages from others but I think it will come down to a choice between those two schools and one he has already been accepted to.
He will be very happy to go to the one he’s already into which makes the waiting for the last two not so bad.</p>
<p>college for three:
</p>
<p>That thought crossed my mind and my son’s. How many of the 11,700 applicants used a double rainbow reference in their MIT essays? And I certainly hope there is a pot of gold at the bottom of one of those rainbows!</p>
<p>Our son lip synched the double rainbow song/video for the male “beauty” pageant at school. He mentioned the essay reference to his MIT interviewer and a current MIT student who encouraged him to keep it in the essay. He will probably do the lip synch again at an auction (buy 6 hours of labor from a student) to help pay for his mission trip to New Mexico this summer. We still have the props and costume, so why not recyle?</p>
<p>Quoted by 325…
</p>
<p>Fat Tuesday’s enhanced countdown is:</p>
<p>**MIT (March 14th) - 6 days to go. Great blog on the MIT site regarding admissions decisions. 
:)</p>
<p>UC (March 19th) - 11 days to go. That’s less than 2 weeks. :)</p>
<p>The big “H” and other ivys - 22 days to go based on the March 30th at 5 PM announcement date and time. Almost down to 3 weeks.</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 23 days to go.**</p>
<p>It’s exciting to see that we are making progress!</p>
<p>@olderwiser, I’m really crossing my fingers for your son that he gets into MIT. When D and I attended the local reception for the kids who were accepted during EA, D was a bit apprehensive about what she would find. Being a girl, she feared a room full of monosyllabic guys with no interests beyond numerical equations and electric currents. She was thrilled to find that was not the case. The kids (guys *and *girls) were great! Very down-to-earth and friendly. Passionate about their interests, but also keenly aware and open to the interests of others. If we did not have to wait out the finaid packages from MIT and other schools, she probably would have signed the paper that very day. We are looking forward to the next reception – this time with kids accepted RD. Hope your son gets good news come next Monday!</p>
<p>Thanks AvonDad for the countdown. It is definitely starting to get interesting!</p>
<p>Thank you AvonDad! Seeing Chicago in your list makes it seem real.</p>