<p>Idinct- yikes. Glad your S is OK. Definitely scary. </p>
<p>Emmy - Glad the Japanese girls families are OK. Visiting girl is certainly in a good place til she can get home. </p>
<p>MnMom- congrats to your D! She must be very proud of her accomplishments. </p>
<p>puma - Sorry about the issue your S has to deal with. I find some folks are just really inflexible. If they only knew how much more enjoyable life would be if they would sometimes bend.</p>
<p>Perfect ! >
</p>
<p>Angier, PHB and RMom - congrats on your kids acceptance to WashU!</p>
<p>Madbean - sorry to read your son didn’t get in to WashU. He will end up in a great place in the fall.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone again. H feels strongly about S getting out in a car tomorrow. I am ready to not let him drive until Christmas break. Glad we balance each other out. I agree the driving is one of the scariest thing about being a parent.</p>
<p>Congrats on the WashU and other good news. Soon all the decisions will be out there and we can really go crazy. Here is hoping there is some spring in Spring Break next week.</p>
<p>CONGRATS to RenMom and Aniger on Wash U!!! Great news!</p>
<p>Sorry, madbean, hope excellent news is coming your way! Hey, I guess it just did. Congrats on UCLA!</p>
<p>Idinct, so glad your son was not hurt! Scary stuff!</p>
<p>Madbean - Congrats to you and your son. My D was just accepted to UCLA also - in engineering. Is your S instate and engineering also? Wonder if that is the place where they will land? </p>
<p>Hold on to your hats. I can feel the ups and downs of college acceptances beginning!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. 
And congratulations to you and your D camathmom! We are instate but far from engineering. S2 was accepted to UCLA’s Theatre, Film & Television School. Not at all sure where he will land, but you are absolutely right–the roller coaster is really picking up speed around here.</p>
<p>Get ready everyone.</p>
<p>madbean & camathmom - High fives being sent your way from the other sunny state. So happy for your kids. Bask in the great news.</p>
<p>congrats camathmom
I love this thread. I don’t share my d’s successes with my “live” friends for the most part - partially to avoid bragging, partially to avoid some unfortunate benchmarking by others, and also to respect d’s privacy. But here, I feel like we are all cheering on each other’s kids and providing comforting words when needed. I like the info I learn about this whole process, but having kind companions on this journey is what draws me back every day.</p>
<p>This thread is somewhere you can relate to other people on our human condition.</p>
<p>God help those people in Japan</p>
<p>Indict–your son running into a pole reinforces my fears for my 16 year old son–driving but not quite ready to be turned loose–I am terrified of something happening to my kids.</p>
<p>My wife is from mexico and she can’t even visit with the horrible killings going on there.</p>
<p>It seems like nowadays people have to fend for themselves more than ever, with danger lurking at every corner.</p>
<p>Sorry–on a lighter note:</p>
<p>Spring break!</p>
<p>Love the ones you are with!!</p>
<p>Back to the subject on hand:</p>
<p>Tommorow FAFSA corrections maybe PROFILE</p>
<p>Idinct I am so sorry about the accident. I think your husband is right though-get him right back in the car. </p>
<p>Congratulations on the acceptances-sorry about the non-acceptances.</p>
<p>That IB situation is ridiculous-</p>
<p>Emmy glad your Japanese “kids” are OK.</p>
<p>Last speech competition for our son today. That also means the last Saturday of getting up at 5:30 to be at school by 6:30 to bus to a tournament, which he won’t miss. In honor of his last competition, he wore a gold vest and tie with his black suit. Don’t know if that makes his humorous interpretation more humorous, but he’s going out in style.</p>
<p>I just counted it up. Graduation is 10 weeks from tomorrow. To put that in perspective, New Year’s Day was 10 weeks ago.</p>
<p>Wow, owm - that made me think. Ours is 12 weeks from tomorrow. It really isn’t that long. Actually we saw a beloved teacher last night who is retiring, and when we asked him if he’s counting the days, he said, “No, but I know it’s close to 90, because I have some paperwork that’s due at the 90-day mark.” </p>
<p>So this is all getting very REAL.</p>
<p>Japanese girls are OK. Very concerned about the power plant issues, power, water, food, etc. in general. Worried about people they haven’t heard about yet (imagine trying to find out if “everyone” you know is OK - pretty daunting). Visiting girl still unsure of her plans to return. We’re assuming not for a couple more days. </p>
<p>Hurray for the new acceptances, and especially to madbean’s S and his shadow-and-sunshine day!</p>
<p>D is having a blast in her play, and all I could think last night was how lucky she is that she will definitely be able to spend the next 4 years studying this art and discipline that she loves. I’m so happy for her.</p>
<p>Congrats to everyone who received good news yesterday!</p>
<p>We had mixed results here. D was accepted to UCLA but then clicked on the financial aid offer… 
Horrible! It was the first finAid letter we have received (even though she has been accepted to 6 other colleges), so we were hoping to get some idea of what the others might provide. If UCLA’s offer was any indication, it’s going to be rough for us.</p>
<p>UCLA’s estimation of the parent contribution was about $5,000 **higher **than the FAFSA calculation (!) And, they were kind enough to offer all of our “aid” in loans (at a rate of 7.6%)! I was frankly shocked, but my D reminded me that the private colleges she has been accepted to stress a no loan policy for meeting need…</p>
<p>We’ll see. But, it was definitely a rude awakening for us. The silver lining of all of this could be that at least we have some clarity on where D won’t be going next year: UCLA. :(</p>
<p>We still don’t have an actual graduation date. We have been told that it will be some time between May 26th and June 3rd. Our county holds all the HS graduations at a local indoor/outdoor music venue. It’s nice because it’s convenient and has a huge capacity, but they won’t set firm graduation dates until the concert schedule is finalized. When D1 graduated in '08, they scheduled a Sheryl Crow concert during the graduation window, so my daughter graduated a week earlier than expected and her school missed the last 2 school days for seniors. At this point it would be nice to have a firm date.</p>
<p>Emmybet: I’m glad that your daughter is enjoying her show. I hope that the Japanese girls continue to get good news from home.</p>
<p>Dignified: Sorry about the financial aid disapointment. I agree with your daughter that you will probably fare better with the private schools.</p>
<p>dignified, UCLA uses only the FAFSA to determine the EFC, so that’s pretty weird. Where did you get the earlier info about your EFC - from your Student Aid Report after filing the FAFSA, or from an earlier estimate from using a FAFSA calculator? If it’s straight from the SAR, then it seems worth calling UCLA to find out why the difference.</p>
<p>About those loans - it sounds like they were telling you about the existence of the Parent PLUS loan as a way to meet college costs, but a parent loan isn’t part of a student’s financial aid package. It sounds like they basically didn’t offer your daughter any aid - could it be because your EFC is high compared to the cost of college?</p>
<p>That’s a disappointing beginning. I hope the other offers you get will be lots better.</p>
<p>Saturday’s countdown is:</p>
<p>**MIT (March 14th) - 2 days to go. Monday is just around the corner! </p>
<p>UC (March 19th) - 7 days to go. It’s jut one week. </p>
<p>The big “H” and other ivys - 18 days to go based on the March 30th at 5 PM announcement date and time.</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 19 days to go. We are into the teens.**</p>
<p>Son will be hearing from first choice school this week. Internally I am totally FREAKING out. Hopefully no one at home notices. Advantage of living with males. Breathe. Breathe. Will hear from remaining three schools during last 10 days of the month. OY!!</p>
<p>Son is at math competition all day - one of his favorite things so at least he will not be thinking about IT.</p>
<p>Dignified - Sorry about the finaid shocker, that was me a few wks ago, I always figured things would work out - merit would be awarded, some grant would appear and then when I only saw the $5500 in loans? Eesh, they really do believe I have a mattress stuffed with a fortune. Hope the next few are not shocking in the same way for you.</p>
<p>Have to credit those people posting on the “schools that give the most merit” - because they were right. Should’ve based ds’ entire list on them!</p>
<p>On the “To visit or not to visit” - we have UMiami. Open house and day of shadowing student = 2 days = $1K total (not including food - I don’t plan on eating!). Is that really worth it? I’m having a bit of a struggle. I seem to remember hearing something about how flight costs go down on Tuesdays and are highest on weekends…does anyone else have memory of that?</p>
<p>S2 was invited to a reception for “high-achieving applicants” to one of the U’s he applied to (!) this afternoon. At this point (he’s been accepted to 5 schools, received likelies to 2 including this one, got 1 no, and with 5 more decisions coming–plus the ramifications of all the merit & FinAid we have yet to receive and/or sort through), he is a little too dazed to want any more input. I, on the other hand, am looking for anything to help sort through the choices. My DH does not particularly want to spend all Saturday afternoon sitting in a hotel banquet room listening to presentations. </p>
<p>For me, though, I guess I’m just relishing the wins and want S2 to thoroughly investigate all his options. The particular college at this university that he has applied to is so specialized and small, there isn’t a lot of info on it on CC–amazing, no? LOL. So anyway, I’m up for it. Let’s see if my guys get into the spirit.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, Tulane is hosting an admitted students reception in Southern California. S2 just received his FinAid award (including the merit) and we were shocked to see they gave him an additional grant. Now makes this school much more attractive. :)</p>
<p>Sorry, dignified2, that you found the UCLA package so horrible. Are you instate, btw? </p>
<p>Fasten your seatbelts, everyone. The next 3 weeks are going to be a bumpy ride.</p>