<p>Thanks for doing this, mamaduck! Great list!!</p>
<p>Ha, ha, Coral, I tried the same trick on my D to no avail! Actually, one of her two finalist schools sent an email last week essentially saying the same thing, and at the time I thought it was kind of too pushy, but now I’m saying whatever gets her moving…</p>
<p>Thank you, Mamaduck!</p>
<p>Coralbrook, that is a good attitude for your daughter! Work hard in her Freshman year and transfer. I think her dream school is worth the effort. </p>
<p>I’ll probably struggle for financing it because my daughters high school screwed up with inputting her GPA for CalGrant. I sent her to the office with over a week left to make sure they paper file, if postmarked the day she sent it in, we would have had it, if they failed to e-submit. </p>
<p>Yesterday, after 90 minutes waiting on the phone with CalGrant–I was told it was never e-submitted and it is NO guarantee they will give her it with the appeal for late submission. </p>
<p>That would have been $9,300–which is now THROWN AWAY. The woman at the records office at her HS refuses to return my phone calls. We did everything right and on time, and it was left in the hands of someone who just doesn’t care. You don’t know how sick to my stomach that made me feel.</p>
<p>mommawhalie, I would be apoplectic. Can you go to the supervisor of the records woman and have them call CalGrant on your behalf? I know nothing about CalGrant and if that would help, but the supervisor should certainly be made aware of the screw up.</p>
<p>They are out for spring break otherwise I’d be over there asking her why she was so inept. </p>
<p>According to CalGrant–the records office would have to send a letter with the school letterhead saying they did not input the GPA in the timeframe. Again, CalGrant said it was NO Guarantee they will process it. They said it was my daughters ultimate responsibility to ensure it was done on time. In a public school–do you really think they allow kids to stand there and not leave the office until their staff did it? </p>
<p>Sorry to be so cranky, Child Support Services couldn’t collect one penny of child support for the past ten years, I was told to collect it myself. I guess I am so frustrated by the “I don’t care mentality”. I am working my butt off to finance my daughters education and we relied on CalGrant to help finance it.</p>
<p>That sounds beyond frustrating. My D’s high school staff was ridiculous. My D was standing in the office everyday during EA period because they hadn’t sent transcript and school report. Their answer was all the colleges had extended deadlines because of Sandy. Hello!!! We are in San Diego and the school is in Orange County. They still dragged their feet until Nov 7th!!! But that still isn’t $9000. </p>
<p>Maybe they are still working in the office and you should drive there.</p>
<p>Sent from my Nexus S 4G using CC</p>
<p>^ well the only silver lining is that my daughter made the short-list of the 5 finalists for the Warner Bros. Animation/Hanna-Barbera Honorship. Its $10,000 and a 4 year paid Summer internship, starting after high school. She had her finalist interview on Friday and we are crossing, fingers, toes, arms, legs and eyes. Although $2,500 per year is not $9,300. At least if CalGrant is blown, she has it for next year as the Financial Aid office at her University makes sure they do it all by the deadline.</p>
<p>Thank you, Mamaduck! </p>
<p>I think I’ve realized what makes this thread such a glorious celebration. It’s the “come as you are” thread! That each one of our children has gifts and is good enough exactly as they are…and isn’t that the most profound understanding to have seen unfold before our eyes? Don’t we all just want to feel that way at our very core? We live in a world that is focused on our kids EC’s, tests, GPA, and things that truly only give a small snap shot of their magnificence. So this thread serves as a loud and celebratory message that our kids are heading off to the college they have chosen “as they are”…beautiful young adults with a whole exciting life ahead of them. It goes beyond pride…it’s about them, not us.</p>
<p>Anybody else going through this with your kid? </p>
<p>DS has been a bit down and testy lately. When I gently inquired as to why, he let forth with a TORRENT of frustration about how “everyone” at school is talking about deciding between college A, B or C (insert top schools’ names here) and he is “only” going to college D. He said he feels like such a loser, and how everyone thinks he’s either truly in the bottom of the class, or made a foolish decision. He’s suddenly incredibly unhappy about what he perceives as his classmates harshly judging him and his decision! </p>
<p>The U he chose (flagship U in a neighboring state) is a long-time favorite of his that fits him well on so many levels. He had 12 other acceptances, some from colleges ranked much higher than the college he chose. (Who cares, right?) He made a careful, deliberate and great decision, based on all the criteria that should matter. Fit, fit, fit. He did NOT consider what other students at his small and sometimes snooty school would think, and it seems to be haunting him right now as everyone is off to places near and far to visit schools way more exotic and way “better”. </p>
<p>We (H and I) told him he was SO lucky to have found a school he loved that fit him so well, and to heck with what other kids were saying or thinking about his choice. We suggested he create and adopt an “elevator speech” along the lines of “Yes, I chose the U over a dozen other options because it has the majors I’m interested in, friendly students I know I would fit in with, wonderful faculty, great school spirit, D1 sports, endless opportunities and is in a great college town.” “And it’s VERY different from [our HS]”. And besides, in a few months time it won’t matter what colleges his HS classmates chose: He’ll be on a campus surrounded by thousands of students who all “get it,” and love being THERE.</p>
<p>Any other advice? Are your kids feeling this a bit? </p>
<p>DS’s HS is unusually small, which exacerbates this issue. If he was at one of the larger public schools in the city, he’d have 30 classmates who all were headed to his college, too.</p>
<p>HL, love the “I see you” message! I’d forgotten about that from the movie. </p>
<p>Re: the sweatshirt idea. He’s been wearing gear from this school for 2 years! He was so excited about this decision, that’s why it’s so painful to see him have such low feelings about his classmates’ reactions. </p>
<p>This, too, will pass, I know. It’s just that I thought he’d be in the Happy Phase much longer!</p>
<p>Mommawhalie, I thought I’d posted this the other day, but apparently it didn’t stick. I too would be outraged by the mess made of your daughter’s CalGrant app! I hope someone can make that right for her. Good luck to her with Warner Bros $$$.</p>
<p>Jane, I’m sure it’s incredibly rare for anyone to be so certain of a big life decision that they never have a single moment of doubt or uncertainty. I’d assure him that this is normal. Within a few weeks, everyone will be settling into the idea of “their” future school, and concentrating together on senior year milestones, summer plans, and separation anxiety.</p>
<p>Jane,
It could also be a little bit of second-guessing his decision. </p>
<p>Just the opposite of what my D says… I keep asking her if some of her friends have chosen a college and she doesn’t even know which colleges they applied to. I guess they don’t talk about it too much at her school (which is probably much bigger). Although every now and then she’ll throw out some college that the val or sal is going to.</p>
<p>Mommawhalie,
Would love to hear an update on Cal Grant progress next week.</p>
<p>An update. Yesterday the letter came from Warner Bros. “We regret to inform you…” I could see she wanted to cry, held it in and went to her room. I know how bad she wanted this. We want the best for our children, and want them happy but she didn’t take this one well. Her GPA isn’t high enough for other competitive scholarships, and this one did include her portfolio so she was competing with CaArts students. Being one of 5 finalists still is something she can use on her resume, but that wasn’t what she wants to hear. Chapman offers talent scholarships somehow we need to see how that works…we need everything if the CalGrant screw up doesn’t go our way.</p>
<p>…just got a voice mail from the school while I was typing this. She, the Registrar claimed she uploaded it in February, but that makes no sense because CalGrant said it takes two days to appear in their system. It would have appeared, so something is a miss. She’s in the office today, so I will drive over there as there has to be prof it was done before the deadline.</p>
<p>So sorry mommawhalie-- you have definitely had more than your share of challenges through this admission process. Good luck with the CalGrant situation</p>
<p>Jane-- sorry your S is having problems with his classmates. I agree with Seattlemom, coral and others that all the seniors are dealing with the stress in their own way, and likely coming from a small HS class does make it worse. My S is more like corals D-- when I ask him what other students are doing next year, he basically responds “how would I know?” His HS is opposite of your sons in that almost the whole class attends either the local state U, the local community college or joins the military. Nothing wrong with that, but makes my S not want to discuss his plans I think </p>
<p>We are waiting on LMU FA appeal. If we don’t hear early next week I will have DS call. I am not optimistic, but we will see</p>
<p>Jane345–probably not surprising to have a bit of buyers remorse and to second-guess. My D was so prepared to not have a school to choose from that she’s pretty happy with the choice she made. It stung a bit to have many friends allude to its party reputation right off the bat. Your son just needs to power through this and it will be a good life-lesson for him. We live in a similar hyper-achiever bubble, but it always seems like someone is better off–so we’re used to it. Maybe you could google some famous alumni from your son’s school–every school has them-- or some of the groundbreaking research that’s been done there. It’s more for him than anyone else. Once he goes to orientation and settles in–he’ll be very happy with his choice.</p>
<p>Thanks, all, for your (once again) kind support and wise advice. I do agree that he will learn plenty from this stage of the process, too. 3rd quarter grades are out, and he did wonderfully again, thank goodness. Hope he can hold it together for the 4 remaining weeks (!) of class after spring break next week.</p>
<p>mommawhalie: Sorry about the Warner Bros letter, so hard to see our kids’ hearts break. Keeping fingers crossed that something can happen with the CalGrant.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to crash the thread but does anyone know of any schools that are still accepting applications? </p>
<p>Here are my stats. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1491520-help-what-schools-can-i-still-apply.html#post15804818[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1491520-help-what-schools-can-i-still-apply.html#post15804818</a></p>