<p>PS thanks for calming me down a little it!</p>
<p>Aiy yai yai !</p>
<p>vanmo1 - Welcome to the waiting room.</p>
<p>Welcome vanmo1!</p>
<p>mamom: thanks for the best laugh of my day. Giving up snow shoveling for Lent!</p>
<p>I don’t know what to give up. I haven’t had fast food since New Year’s when I started the community Pound Plunge. I have lost 10 pounds so far this year to go with the 20 I lost last year. But I couldn’t do it without two Diet Dr. Peppers throughout the day and a dark chocolate Dove Promise after lunch and dinner. So I’m not giving up soda or chocolate. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Tomorrow is Tapping Day for NHS. Our son gets to tap a boy who has been his friend since second grade. He is very excited. The students tapped last year (30 girls and 5 boys!) bring breakfast for the newcomers. The ceremony is March 29. In our ceremony, the NHS members select four students to speak–one each for the four characteristics of an NHS member: character, leadership, service and scholarship. Our son told us tonight that he was selected to be the scholarship speaker. He is very thrilled.</p>
<p>Count me in for Lenten sacrifices–I’m giving up all sugar and treats. I did it last year and didn’t cheat once–let’s see if I can do it again. DS, who lives for his salami sandwich every day at lunch, brings peanut butter on wheat bread instead. He said he can’t imagine a worse sandwich, especially the wheat bread part! I dread to think what his diet will be like next year at college…</p>
<p>So since d has decided that economics is one of her most likely majors, she has taken another college out of the running. It had very weak economics department and I really wasn’t so sure that it was the right type of school for her. Now the only thing is, she doesn’t have that many left. Which is the big reason she is not sending no’s out until she decides a yes. Only three are really, really no;s. Two others, including the one above, are, at least, temporarily taken out of the running while she awaits news on the last three and visits two more that are still in the running but need visits. Two of the ones she is waiting for she has visited already though one will need a revisit if she gets in. I don’t consider a summer program where there were very few actual students (and those she did get along with very well) only a few professors (and she liked them too) but the food wasn’t good and the fellow high school students weren’t good so she is inclined no is necessarily a good choice. This school may be an actual no if they have decided not to renew yellow ribbon program but so may some of the others. We will be enquiring about that after financial aid offers come in and she has decided that such a school is a possibility. No reason to bother anyone if she isn’t going there anyway. Same with her disability services.</p>
<p>MM–amazing job you are doing with everything going on and another thank you for the service and commitment of your husband and family.</p>
<p>I see others are going through the hurdles of reminding their kid to GET those recc. letters and REQUEST those transcripts–here comes another scholarship app! D1 has been somewhat better about it lately except for not keeping an eye on the calendar.
She didn’t say too much about the scholarship interview except she knew 9 other students would be doing the interview also. </p>
<p>Not givin up anything 
but cheering all of you on</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>what an honor, he should be thrilled.</p>
<p>Vanmo - I don’t have any better suggestions than the ones you’ve received but welcome!</p>
<p>OWM - during Ash Wednesday mass yesterday, the priest suggested “adding something” instead of giving something up. The examples he gave were going to mass an extra day a week, signing up for church activities you don’t normally do or even listening to the local Catholic radio station on your way to and from work. And congrats to your son on being selected as one of the speakers! Our NHS induction ceremony is similar and its very meaningful to hear from the kids on these topics.</p>
<p>Mamom: My nephew did apply EA to one school, but he was deferred. Last week he was rejected by a school they considered a safety. The are only considering schools in commuting distance of home, so the choices are limited. I keep remindering my sister that he can always go to a CC for a year or two and reapply. They think that he would do better at a LAC. I really hope that they hear some good news in the next few weeks.</p>
<p>proudmomof2, the last several years, we have also tried to ‘add’ something during lent. last year D and I gave up complaining. It didn’t work 100% of the time - but it did make me aware of when I needed to just smile & nod and keep my mouth shut. </p>
<p>I wish I could give up worrying - but no chance of that this Lenten Season - HA!</p>
<p>OWM, congrats to your son! And good luck to flmathmom’s son on his scholarship interview today! I am looking forward to the awards ceremony and meeting another CC’er.</p>
<p>Morning All.</p>
<p>MM Want to add to all of the heartfelt hugs and warm wishes for a great assignment and with it much appreciation for your DH and family’s sacrafice and service. You are all so very very appreciated.</p>
<p>Van welcome to the group. We have a great group of supportive parents here. You have gottn good advice. </p>
<p>For us, I mailed the IDOC 2 days ago so it should arrive today. Our deadline is 3/14. I corrected the FAFSA last night and will mail the corrected PROFILE to the U today.</p>
<p>I did notice that the PROFILE shows which schools get the report if you are printing out the confirmation report for corrections. Also, one U asked about cars and such, which another school didn’t ask…so the other U gets that info on the corrected copy as well.
The AGI was down significantly from 2009, and we had a few other changes…several things I missed including in the fall for the estimates as well…</p>
<p>Question—Since the 2010 is supposed to be the base year for our 2011 grads…why is Profile including 2009?</p>
<p>Thursday’s countdown is:</p>
<p>**MIT (March 14th) - 4 days to go. Just one more weekend to wait! :)</p>
<p>UC (March 19th) - 9 days to go. Almost down to a week. :)</p>
<p>The big “H” and other ivys - 20 days to go based on the March 30th at 5 PM announcement date and time. Now less than 3 weeks to wait.</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 21 days to go. Only 3 weeks to go.**</p>
<p>MM - </p>
<p>Glad to hear your daughter is considering economics as a major. I loved it. In that distant past, the requirement for being an adept computer programmer in two languages to be considered for employment at somewhere like the Federal Reserve (does anyone remember COBOL or FORTRAN?) sent me running to law school instead of grad school in Econ, but I think Econ is a great basis for understanding the world we live in, world history, politics and just about everything under the sun. Best of luck on her decisions!</p>
<p>Do your school’s AP classes do t-shirts in anticipation for the AP exams? Ours do. I don’t know if every class does one, but the ones my kids buy have always been clever. D came home yesterday with one that said “AP Psych Ward.”</p>
<p>3257 - Yes, I remember BASIC, COBOL & FORTRAN, punch cards and paper tape; stacks of 5 1/2" floppy disks without wizards to install a program, no hard drives just two floppy drives to run Visicalc, no networks, huge B&W monitors and the fight with my boss to get a color monitor and years later a color printer on a network, WYSIWYG (which I tried to explain to my son the other day), no icons. Ah…those were the days. I wish I still had my Apple II+. I could sell it to a museum.</p>
<p>For those in public service or planning to take that route - The College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA). CCRAA enables anyone with qualified federal loans to pay back their educational debt on a sliding scale based on their income (Income-Based Repayment). It also established the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, offering loan forgiveness for those working in the public service sector. If someone stays in public service (which includes nonprofit organizations) for 10 years, the remainder of the federal debt is forgiven. This forgiveness program is not just for lawyers, but also nurses, teachers, police officers, civil servants, and countless others in public service jobs.</p>
<p>Another storm coming with warnings of anywhere fron 4 to 16 inches of wet spring snow tonight and early tomorrow morning. The weather forecast keeps chaging as they just don’t know what track the storm will take. These kids don’t need another snow day as they are already over their alloted days off. (For those of you in sunny Florida and Socal this may seem odd but this winter has created a lot of problems for a lot of northeastern school systems this year.)</p>
<p>If we get hit, the storm may then head east towards PA and upstate NY again. Looks like there may be more snow to keep those mailboxes propped up!</p>
<p>S got a letter from one of the local scholarship competitions yesterday. While he didn’t win the top county scholar award, he did win for his HS and will receive a small award and recognition at the senior awards night in May. At least its something and is in the right direction.</p>
<p>I have lost track of all of the individual events that have been posted but I do want to give kudos to the new NHS members. S was inducted last year and was elected as the Chapter president this year. It has been a very good leadership role for him and he was able to use his experiences in a couple of his essays for both apps and scholarships. Now we just have to wait a few more days/weeks to see if all that hard work will pay off with acceptances.</p>
<p>Here’s hoping that Washington U will announce today or tomorrow for those of you waiting on their decisions from St Louis.</p>
<p>missypie, re AP T-Shirts–a couple of years ago, my son’s AP Bio class made a shirt that had a picture of Chuck Norris or someone kung-fu kicking a fruit fly. The caption said “Putting the STUD back in STUDy.” It’s hilarious! I still laugh every time it’s in the laundry.</p>
<p>I don’t remember what my son’s AP Bio t-shirt said, but it was something geekily clever. It was the only one he bought that year, even though AP Bio was not exactly his best subject.</p>
<p>
About 6 years back we had similar problems with back-to-back-to-back-to-back hurricanes which created problems with impassible roads, no electricity and schools used as shelters. No matter where you live, Mother Nature keeps you on high alert.</p>
<p>Avon - congrats on your good news. Hope it’s contagious.</p>