<p>Congratulations Esteemom!</p>
<p>Someoldguy - Love your stories from the times of Pitt the Elder! LOL You are too funny. </p>
<p>DDHM - Thank Goodness you brought the donuts. I was getting sooo tired serving GreekMana all of that Ouzo! </p>
<p>Wahoo - Say hi to everyone in the basement. 
BUT, stay on deck with us. I need you to help me with these drink orders! ;)</p>
<p>Esteemom- Congrats! </p>
<p>MTNest- Thank you for all of your help with Pitt thus far. Hope I can solicit more advice from you in the future. I’m SURE I’ll need it! Ditto FLYMe…</p>
<p>Got a super nice email from someone Step-D and I met with last summer at Pitt. He’s a one reason Step-D selected Pitt and he is excited to have her aboard. Makes me feel like she really did land in the perfect place. :D</p>
<p>wherenext - yes my daughter is visiting alone. She has done it before and is an old pro at it by now, hahaha. How did you guess about the windy city? Hmmm…have we met before?</p>
<p>kelbee - you are right - there is so much joy in these posts. Even joy for those of us “undecideds” being waited on hand and foot on the SS…</p>
<p>Ahhhhh, yes, ouzo and donuts. The breakfast of champions. (What? I went to state school. Don’t judge.)</p>
<p>Glad some of the kids are making decisions, and landing at the best place for them.</p>
<p>Keeping everyone in my thoughts who are:
- still visiting - some for the first time, and
- needing to get FA/scholarship information to make decisions.</p>
<p>I originally had two other SNs but never used them…one was descriptive more for our first DD, and then realized I’d probably be here for awhile, and should incorporate two DDs, hence our2girls :)</p>
<p>I’m planning on staying here when our DD’13 is in college, to hear all the great things going on with all the kids. I’ve also ventured over to the parents thread of the hs class of 2017…if you have rising freshmen in high school, come on over. There are already a few of us from here that are also now there :D</p>
<p>laurendog - you should be headed to Atlanta this weekend…are you going? Making it to the Final Four doesn’t happy very often. I think I should go and start supporting my D as a soon to be Michigan student…oh wait, I have to pay a fortune for her to go there OOS don’t I…dang!!</p>
<p>nerdyDad - I have been having the same FA concerns re: dream college. It’s not that we can’t make it work, exactly. But there isn’t as much wiggle room as I’d like for changes/emergencies. And DH is no help because he’s star struck by the amount of the aid and it’s blinding him to the amount left. Not that it’s a huge amount – but is it huge to us? <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>megpmom - can you get a “certified original” diploma from the school?</p>
<p>Longhaul - do you mean the actual lottery or a scholarship lottery? Just wondering where to send the pixie dust. It’s so hard to weigh the relative merits against money…</p>
<p>LOL someoldguy… daft here!</p>
<p>Congrats on the award, DDHM!</p>
<p>I do not eat the ears first. I save them for last. I’ve always been a save-the-best-for-last kind of girl.</p>
<p>Definitely with you on the hangout, Haystack - bar or other.</p>
<p>Kennedy - I can’t wait to find out what she decides!</p>
<p>megp - congrats on FA working out!</p>
<p>wherenext - sorry, I took a night off to debate with DH over FA!</p>
<p>esteemom - congrats on Georgetown!</p>
<p>For anyone who’s out of sorts over the misleading user names, let me assure you that I am celebrating. Always :). There’s always something good going on.</p>
<p>confetti, I totally feel you on the money situation. The dream school in the dream town is doable, but there are better offers at other, really desirable schools.</p>
<p>It’s official, D will attend NYU this fall. I would raise my glass but my sigh of relief wont happen until mid summer when she passes her predicted IB scores. Still, I’m so proud of this kid. Her hard work paid off.
Congrats to all of our kids!</p>
<p>My name is kinda misleading. I am not in AZ. But I used to live there and reeinaz rhymes ( I say Ree in A Z), whereas reeinpa does not.</p>
<p>Confetti - sounds like you are dealing with the same decision making as at our house - although ours may have a bigger difference in price tag?</p>
<p>First choice school BU C K NE LL (didn’t start off as dream but D really loves it now) with some scholarship but still COA of $48K vs. De n i s o n (one of her 2 safeties) at approx. $15K COA (private but in home state, a college she visited several times and really, really liked - though when we went last Friday she was a total crank) </p>
<p>We won’t go into debt at “dream” but there will certainly be no extras and D will take out federal loans and there would be more pressure for her to work during school year…and I’m not sure there is really that much qualitative difference between the two…</p>
<p>Sigh…we are letting her choose as we told her initially that we could make full pay at a private work if we had to…</p>
<p>Confetti, NerdyDad & Momofzag - that is where we are too. First Choice for S13 is A U, only got need based, but it is a great fit for his major & Internships which he REALLY wants. Then he is torn between C U A or St. A’s. Lovely schools, but not as desirable. Debt from St A’s after 4 yrs is under $10K & debt from C U A under $20K - but C U A is in DC. Won’t mention the debt from A U.</p>
<p>So torn…reminds me of that line from Romeo & Juliet “What is in a name?”.</p>
<p>DDHM, your post 23014 is hysterical! I love your creative writing style. Anyway, I’m sorry it was so difficult for you to catch up. We had no idea we were going THAT fast. We servers were so busy…serving…that we failed to notice you waving us down. ;)</p>
<p>Laurendog, I think you mentioned something about meeting up at Pitt, and I don’t remember if I responded, but that sounds like fun. Mtnest, if your S decides on Pitt, you have to join us, although will you be there anyway because you have an older student there???</p>
<p>H and I looked at each other yesterday and commemorated one week of knowing where our D is going. That’s how good it feels, so the rest of you have that to look forward to down the road.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all of you who have posted good news, and hugs to those of you who are still struggling.</p>
<p>Just got an email from a mom at D’s school. Kid is an amazing student from what I’ve heard. WL at both top state schools. I’m quite stunned as she had a solid record and both girl scouts and girls’ state too. She has a great option, one I think she will love, but you just never know…this has confirmed, yet again, the importance of loving thy safety…</p>
<p>FlyMe: Thanks, and no problem. I’m resting comfortably on deck now, in a lounger cause DS13 is only 99% sure of M I T; he’ll send in his acceptance after attending CPW (alone). </p>
<p>Had a 102 degree fever last evening, so not looking forward to flying to Philly on Thursday. DD13 and I are attending P E N N’s ED student Preview Day. (Anyone else to be there?) She’ll be thrilled to be with people who know the difference between P e n n and P e n n State. Few of her classmates have even heard of the Ivy League, most only know of Harvard, some HPY and maybe Columbia. She remains the only student in her school’s history to have been accepted to any of the eight, so I’m proud of the kid. She worked her … buttons … off K-12 to do this.</p>
<p>By the way, for those of you in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, why do you call your public colleges Penn State rather than Penn Commonwealth? Aren’t you not a state?</p>
<p>Well, wth I will jump onboard SS Indecision with you all - been on this cruise, disembarked but there’s always another kid to follow. Dd has 7 options (HMFR redirects on 3 more) with a +/- $30K/yr swing in price between the most expensive and the least. Two of the best rated for her major are actually the lower price options so I think it will be down to either Pitt or CWRU. This dd is known for her indecisiveness so I’m just going to pull over this lounge chair and try to pickle myself until the 30th because that will be when she’ll pull the trigger.</p>
<p>DDHM, From wikianswers - </p>
<p>"With regard to the United states, a “commonwealth” is “a self-governing
autonomous political unit which has voluntarily associated itself with the United
States.” One example would be Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>True commonwealths have a certain degree of government separate from the United
States, and their citizens lack certain rights and responsibilities as compared to the
citizens of US states. For example: Puerto Ricans do not pay income tax to the IRS;
they have no voting representation in Congress; and they are not permitted to vote
in presidential elections.</p>
<p>Four US states are known as “commonwealths”: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Kentucky. Clearly, none of the restrictions placed on Puerto Rica apply
to these states, so the difference for them is one of name only. They are not true commonwealths since they are, in fact recognized as states by the US federal government with all the rights and responsibilities pertaining thereto." </p>
<p>I live in PA, but am not from here. PA can call itself a commonwealth, but apparently it is not!</p>
<p>y’all talk a lot, lol.</p>
<p>Last letter came in today and it’s an accept to the number 2 dream school, SLC. But holy buckets, this school is expensive!!! FinAid covers tuition, but all the rest is STILL outrageous. Didn’t realize when I posted earler that MoHo (aka Hogwarts) was a spring admission until she got home from Chicago choir trip… FinAid is basically a full ride, and FinAid came in from the UofM and StKates and the state flagship came in cheapest, imagine that!</p>
<p>I need a shot, this is gonna be a long, long, long week or two.</p>
<p>Congrats to all the successes and hugs to the WL’s and redirects. 
</p>
<p>so…I am trying to find a way to lounge on this cruise…but for me…I have to pace up and down…not sure a drink is safe at the moment…I may just sway overboard! I feel a bit like DD should just love the schools she got into…didnt we origionally say “dont apply to any one that you wouldnt want to go to?”…the cost of each one are really not that different, maybe 8-10k difference, and that is whatever aid she got…so that factor, while helpful, is not as persuasive as it might be…I’m telling my DS just to apply instate to the biggest schools! I dont know if I can take another ride like this…even though, I am completely confident she really cannot go wrong!!</p>