<p>coralbrook–some schools will reconsider merit aid after application, some will not. I would have her call the admissions office and find out what their policy is on that. We had a couple schools on our list that would consider your grades all the way up to May 1st, some that considered nothing extra after application, some would consider new information (test scores as well as GPA changes) up to the application deadline.</p>
<p>@coralbrook: Re my post #2093: I scanned a copy of my daughter’s most recent and awesome new grades, and emailed it directly to my D’s regional admissions counselor for the college, to get the ball rolling, and made the “ask” then. Her high school sent its official copy later, of course, but because schools are giving away dough RIGHT NOW, I wanted to make the ask ASAP with the Admissions folks. You might want to consider doing that immediately.</p>
<p>Jane,
Thanks so much for that tip. I have her Grade Report which shows the 4.0, but I don’t have an official transcript showing the increase to cumulative GPA of 3.54. Should I rush to the school and get an official transcript from them and scan that?</p>
<p>Or can I just scan the Grade Report and assume they will believe the new GPA that we mention in the email?</p>
<p>@coralbrook, I’d just scan and send what you have now, with your cover note pointing out the newly calculated GPA. The idea would be to get them started doing what they need to do to give her more dough. And a call to the admissions office wouldn’t hurt either, to make sure they’ll actually consider this new info. As someone above said, every school does it differently. Some will reconsider, some will not.</p>
<p>I’m going to keep this updated so everyone can learn from my attempt.</p>
<p>Scanned mid-year grade report which shows 3.8uw and 4.0 weighted, along with the very nice citizenship ‘outstanding student’ marks she gets from all her teachers. Then I wrote the email pointing out her upward trend and her new cumulative GPA 3.5. Mentioned that we noticed on the Net Price Calculator that 3.5 would receive a merit award. Since this is one of my daughter’s top two choice schools and we are struggling with our financial decision, we would like to know if there is any chance she could get the merit award for her GPA.</p>
<p>Sent this to her regional admin rep. She replied back within 4 hours and said she had forwarded the request to the Director of Admissions who reviews everything on a case by case basis and promised he would get back to us within 1 week!</p>
<p>I’ll keep you posted</p>
<p>Oh, and I am NOT LEAVING the 3.0-3.3 parent thread even though we are trending up. I just love this thread. She still has a 3.2uw :)</p>
<p>Coralbrook- keeping fingers crossed!!!</p>
<p>Yes, coralbrook, we look forward to hearing the outcome. How nice that you rec’d a reply back so quickly! Sounds promising!</p>
<p>Good luck Coral! Let us know when you hear the result</p>
<p>I never heard of an Enrollment Manager either-- it makes sense though.</p>
<p>Question:
My cousin has received FA forms prior to admission notification for her D. Do colleges send out FA requests to all applicants? Or, is receiving FA requests a good sign? Both of my kids applied ED and EA so I have no experience with RD. Thanks.</p>
<p>To NPRMom-- Yes schools my older kids applied to RD did request FA forms prior to admission and that was unrelated to whether they were eventually accepted or not. I think they want everything there in case the student is admitted. Since some schools don’t send admission results until April 1 it would be too late to then start FA forms and have the student respond by May 1st</p>
<p>HL–been meaning to check in. I just want to preface this by saying, well, different strokes for different folks. What would be a <em>fabulous</em> school for one kid just might not work as well for another. DS did not love Guilford, liked Wooster a lot (although his brothers not so much–see what I mean?), and also did not love OWU. He also had me postpone the trip we had planned to Susquehanna for this weekend. I just don’t want this to color anybody’s opinions/upcoming trips/whatever. We also got a FA package from Susquehanna–seems like it was only a few days after we submitted FAFSA. No real help beyond the initial merit aid except a few loans and work-study.</p>
<p>There are several schools DS has been admitted to that we will probably not visit (that pile up in Vermont), so at this point I’m really thinking it’ll come down to Montana (which we will visit at the end of March) or Wooster (where he could play soccer). Such different schools, such different experiences, and I guess I go back into thumb-twiddling mode until after the MT trip and a re-visit to Wooster in early April. <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>Finished up our Federal taxes yesterday and went back in and corrected our FAFSA (did not want to wait 3 weeks to use the retrieval tool). Resubmitted FAFSA and even though we made a little less money than I had estimated, our EFC went up $1! Oh well, I was hoping it went down. :(</p>
<p>In holding pattern waiting to hear from UMass as to whether they will let my son out of Undeclared limbo and into Engineering and waiting for FA info from UConn.</p>
<p>We’re in a holding pattern here, waiting on FA and two applications still. S has an overnight at one school next month. It’s funny that it was my favorite for him for a long time but his enthusiasm for a different school has been infectious. He got an email over the weekend from his fave offering him a free class of 2017 shirt. Part of me is hoping that the FA offers will make the final decision easy. Right now, there are 3 front runners out of the 6 acceptances he has so far. One that he’s waiting to hear from might make it 4.</p>
<p>MyLB… if you wouldn’t mind elaborating a bit on your impressions of Wooster. My DS 14 has it on his list and we going out for a visit in March…although they are on spring break unfortunately. He will get a tour and interview but will not get to visit classes or talk to anyone in the theater dept.( his intended major). It’s a school that has somehow resonated with DS all the way over here in CA. He is a very bright, independent thinker, curious, social, and likes to learn by doing. I feel he would really blossom at a school like this. You can pm me if you like as well. </p>
<p>HL… would really like to hear from you as well when you get back from your OH trip. My DS is also going to visit Kenyon and Oberlin.</p>
<p>5boys–I’ll just put in a quick-and-dirty on the OH schools I’ve visited and then PM you with more Wooster info. OWU was a close #2 for my oldest (to Denison). Nice, normal kids. Good stats on post-college employment/grad school. Our tour guide was a senior there and his little brother a freshman (from Boston). I was reminded last week, though, that some of the academic buildings are lovely but the dorms (IMHO) are pretty ugly (except the shiny brand-new one they’ll show off). Not poorly maintained, just 60s-era architecture.</p>
<p>Kenyon is maybe the most beautiful campus I’ve seen (okay–except maybe Miami of Ohio, but different sized schools). Definitely artsier kids but also tougher admit. I believe Oberlin would be even harder.</p>
<p>I like the looks of Wooster more each time I see it. I remember not loving it five years ago, but that might have been because we’d been touring all of these traditional red-brick-buildinged campuses. Wooster’s buildings are mostly cream brick, and actually quite lovely. Also–there’s a new, gorgeous athletic center that opened Jan 2012. (Kenyon had a brand-new one back in 2008; Denison built one while DS was there; OWU needs a new one!) You’ll have to wait for HL for any Hiram info!</p>
<p>Hi all-</p>
<p>I figured I would chime in on the OH schools since we visited them last Spring Break, and then did repeat visits to OWU and Case a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>Case- Great setting but you have to be up for a fully urban campus. It is unmistakably in the middle of the city and it isn’t self contained within the city either. Kids looking for that will love it; kids not looking for that will probably be a little freaked out by it. Love the architecture overall, and the history of the buildings. Even though Case is trying to build up its humanities population, it is still very much a STEM school. Your kid also should know that there are a sizable number of grad students, which increases the size of the school significantly. My D loved Case the first time but coming back a second time, with a more honed view of what she thinks she wants (and a more realistic view, perhaps, of the fact that she is actually going away for real, soon!) she decided that she can imagine going there as a Grad student more than an undergrad student. I think Case has a lot to offer and has supports in place but it is clearly a hard school. Each students gets five free hours of tutoring PER WEEK and there is a freshman forgiveness program in which a freshman can drop a class at any time during their freshman year (ie- outside of drop/add time) because many students go into certain classes (probably like math) and find that they are over their heads and need to go back a level.</p>
<p>Wooster- I really liked Wooster. It’s small, as are most of these liberal arts colleges, but it has a great vibe. The kids are not “all one type” and they seemed happy. The different groups seemed to blend well. Loved the Arch and the traditions surrounding it. I’m a little surprised how they keep talking about their Capstone project like it is exclusive to Wooster- a number of schools on my D’s list have something similar. Every student we asked help from was more than friendly and forthcoming- we didn’t talk to one kid who wasn’t kind. 
My D wasn’t as taken with it so, while accepted, I don’t think she will attend, but I like it a lot and I think the education is probably quite good.</p>
<p>Denison- We both got an Eh feeling from Denison. I have no idea why, really, but nothing about it really stood out at all. The tour guide was just all right. The “interview” was done by a student of the school and my D said it was quite awkward as the girl seemed unsure of what she should do. The students seemed fine but we didn’t see a lot of enthusiasm or joyful faces. They weren’t unhappy- they just seemed detached. Academically, Denison has a very good reputation and my D did apply. We haven’t yet heard but I don’t think she plans to attend.</p>
<p>OWU- Oh, OWU. Overall, it has been an on again, off again love affair. The first time we went, last Spring, we were both completely taken by it. I wrote a visit report so you can get some info there on that. A couple of weeks ago, we went again, this time for a scholarship competition. My D cooled to the school a bit this time. There were several factors for this. Perhaps most importantly, she has another school she REALLY likes and consequently, she was viewing it with a much more critical eye. Secondly, because she was there for a scholarship competition, she was able to see and meet the other kids competing who might be in her class next year. She felt as though for many of them OWU was a safety school and this bothered her. (Please don’t take this as bragging. It is not meant to be AT ALL. My kid is no genius, especially by CC standards.) My Dh felt that the buildings were poorly maintained. This doesn’t particularly bother me-- I am much more bothered by schools who build tons of super shiny new buildings that I am funding with my tuition money-- but there’s a difference between not new, and in disrepair and looking through his eyes, I could see that he had a point. OWU was by far the least well MAINTAINED school that we went to (and we’ve done like 14 visits.) My D had sat in on a class last spring and loved it. This time she sat in on a class again and reported that about half the kids were using their phones/texting during class. The teacher was preparing students for a test by reading a test question off an index cards and then calling on a student to answer it. D said the students seemed disengaged and that it felt very “high school” to her. She didn’t understand why they weren’t attending when the teacher was pretty much reading the test to the class. :-/ I still like OWU and I do think my D could attend and be very happy there. There are lots of options for really standing out and grabbing opportunities (like Theory to Practice.) </p>
<p>We never made it to Miami University of OH because we were pretty much burned out and ready to go home. </p>
<p>My D should hear from her first choice sometime in March. She got a verbal thumbs up when she went last month but until the paper is in hand, the wait and the stress continue.</p>
<p>Any questions/thoughts? Fire away!</p>
<p>This waiting is pretty hard. We’re on mid-winter break right now. No school all week. </p>
<p>Still waiting on 5 schools and, of course, all of them want mid-year transcripts sent. Two of the schools e-mailed with a 2/18 deadline for the transcripts. Son stopped by guidance office last week to talk to them about it and I followed up directly with the secretary who processes them. She assured me last Thursday that she’d faxed a copy to the two schools and sent them electronically. </p>
<p>Here it is the following Wednesday, two days past the two schools’ deadlines, and guess what? Neither has received the transcripts and the common app doesn’t even indicate that it’s been uploaded. So frustrating. A different school sends out responses next Friday. Clearly the transcript won’t get there before they make a decision. </p>
<p>Son’s GPA went up very slightly but with 6 AP courses, I’d say that would look good. Did I mention how frustrating this is??</p>
<p>Until I came to CC I had no idea Ohio had so many colleges. And they all sound so wonderful. Why do you think Ohio has so many?</p>
<p>DS accepted to Marlboro yesterday, but no mention of merit $, although he qualifies according to the website. I’m concerned it is too small for him, and I’m not sure we are going to have time/$ to visit.</p>
<p>We are also off to OH this weekend to visit Wooster (waiting on decision) and OWU (accepted with very nice $, in fact, most he’s gotten from any school).</p>