<p>They are and it will definitely help!</p>
<p>Hi all! I’ve been lurking for a while, and I just had a quick question about online classes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This year DD enrolled in an online school for middle school and high school students, to take a math class that her school doesn’t offer. It won’t be factored into her “brick and mortar” school’s GPA, and we were just planning on sending both transcripts when it came time to apply to colleges. It sounds like this could be a negative though… She is taking a reduced course load (6 rather than 8) at her regular school and then her online class. Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Jerekson,</p>
<p>I would believe that a student who was seeking out more advanced options than were available at her school would be looked upon favorably.</p>
<p>Jerekson–I agree, since the class isn’t offered at her school, I think that colleges would see that as a student seeking out opportunities. Does your state have dual enrollment options where she could take a college level class that counts for high school credit as well? If so, I would suggest looking into those because they will show up on her high school transcript. </p>
<p>As for 6 classes vs 8, that might be an issue for highly, highly selective schools but probably not for the rest of the schools, but a lot of high schools only have 6 class periods too so maybe not.</p>
<p>terinzak- I may have a different perspective on the application process that some other parents here. There are some schools that we have told my D that she is not going to apply to. My suggestion is: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Find out what your FAFSA will look like now. You will be able to get a picture of the amount of fin aid you will “qualify” for. This will at least give you a ball park. When I ran our numbers, we do not qualify any aid at any tuition amount. But our income is fairly new to us, so we have not been able to save the $200,000 plus we will likely need for private. </p></li>
<li><p>Look at the school’s treatment of merit awards - do they give them or are they need based? </p></li>
<li><p>Look honestly at your students transcript, ACT/SAT, GPA, rigor of classes. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Based on the above, we have told my D she cannot apply to private schools that do not give LARGE amounts of merit aid, and she cannot apply to OOS schools that do not give some amount of merit aid. </p>
<p>Those are just the constraints she has to live within. Example, she is not going to apply to NYU, although it may be a school she would like. Why? Tuition is outrageous, and they do not offer Merit. Therefore they are off the list now. </p>
<p>IMO, applying and seeing how financial aid works later could set you up for disappointment. In many cases you will know ahead of time. </p>
<p>Jerkson- I would think that 6 out of 8 classes may not be the best way to go. However, I had never heard of high school correspondence outside of this forum, so I don’t have much to go on.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>We have taken the same approach. Lots of really nice schools (Holy Cross, Tulane, Colgate, etc) have been pulled from consideration based upon their NPC data. We are making heavy use of the NPC’s to help guide us.</p>
<p>What’s NPC?</p>
<p>Also, welcome to the de-lurkers. :)</p>
<p>YDS, net price calculator?</p>
<p>That makes sense!</p>
<p>One thing I thought was odd was that for several schools, whether or not my kid lived on campus or commuted from home made little difference in the net price according to the NPC. They simply reduced the amount of the financial aid.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A lot of people think that living at home saves money but the cost of the car, insurance, food, utilities at home isn’t all that much less AND you reduce your aid package by quite a bit. It isn’t always less expensive to live at home.</p>
<p>SteveMA, right. So far, aside from the instate publics, I haven’t seen it make a big enough difference to justify my kid not having the full college experience by living on campus. And if he stayed at home, I also wouldn’t be able to reduce my lifestyle expenses to free up more cash to put towards college. I don’t think he’d be too keen on tuna fish and ramen noodles and basic cable :)</p>
<p>I need to keep better notes on the odd things I come across. I did one NPC and the broke it out separately for direct billed costs and COA. Also some, give both a net price after grants and a net price after loans and work study are considered. Some are very unclear as to what has already been included like student and family contributions and any self help like loans and work study. It took a while before I was noticing the differences in the calculators.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input! The school does have a dual credit program with a local community college, but the only math class advertised is College Algebra. We didn’t look into local options too much because we knew DD wouldn’t get her drivers license until December at best, so transportation would be an issue. I had the same concerns as you about dropping 2 classes for 1 online class, but for better or worse more classes would have been difficult for her to manage. It’s also convenient because her teacher’s office hours are normally scheduled during the last two classes of her other school, so with those two periods free she can attend if she needs to.</p>
<p>On another note, AP exams are approaching so quickly! Less than two months to go now…</p>
<p>Got our kids signed up for their AP exams this morning–the $$$$ are a ringing for all the year end expenses…</p>
<p>Looks like Pomona sent letters on March 22:
[Ringing</a> the Bell: Pomona College Sends Admit Letters For the Class of 2016 - Pomona College](<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/news/2012/03/20-admit-letters.aspx]Ringing”>http://www.pomona.edu/news/2012/03/20-admit-letters.aspx)
Following tradition, the Pomona College Admissions Office will ring the Sumner Hall bell 16 times this afternoon to announce that acceptance letters have been mailed to potential members of the Class of 2016.</p>
<p>Setting a new record, the Admissions Office received 7,457 applications for admission, an increase of 3.5%. For fall 2012, 956 students – 491 women and 465 men – were admitted.</p>
<p>I was hoping 2013 will be easier for D2 in terms of college admissions but I get more insecured as I read these acceptances. But No, it’s worse. UCLA has 90,000 applications. One girl that has 2300 with 4.0 uw GPA was waitlisted.</p>
<p>Steve MA - I hear you on the AP test $$$. Next year Step-D is taking only 1 AP class. She’s taken 2 the last 2 years, and I’d like her to take 2, but, as things stand, I won’t miss the 2 AP test payments next year! ha ha </p>
<p>I have to disagree (again) with those whom are limiting their kids from applying to certain places based on this NPC. I agree that having the child apply to 4-5 schools that seem financially unfeasible is probably not a great idea, but, in the case of the NYU example, why not have her apply if she loves it? You have no idea what kind of NYU specific scholarships she may qualify for. (I got scholarships in both my undergrad and graduate schools that I had no idea even existed!) </p>
<p>As long as the student knows that an ‘accepted application’ does not mean automatically that they can attend, I am sure the disappointment will be tapered if it doesn’t work out in the end. </p>
<p>In addition, I think we work really hard sometimes to keep our kids from ‘failing’ or ‘being disappointed.’ As someone whom never had a mis-step until the age of 25, that first ‘rejection letter’ from a placed I’d like to work completely threw me! I had no experience with failure or was never told “you can’t.” Trust me - it didn’t do me any favors</p>
<p>lauren, I see your point, but the kid can be disappointed up front by being told he/she can’t apply. 
I think each family has to make its decision. It seems like every year on cc, someone posts about NYU being a dream school but they didn’t get the money and is it worth it to take on lots of debt. NYU is known for not offering good FA packages, and if a family knows it needs a lot, I don’t have a problem with just taking it off the list. Of course, you also can be clear about what you can afford and just say, Go ahead and apply but unless you get XX in scholarships, it’s a no, even if you do get in.</p>
<p>Prom tonight! Anyone else exhausted from all of the preparation?</p>
<p>No prom around here. My boy’s a late bloomer. </p>
<p>The kid and I went to an info session and tour at Temple today. I was surprised by his reaction. He had a reaction!!! He felt like Temple was the kind of school where he could eat by himself without anyone inviting him to sit with them. There are too many students and he wants to leave the fast pace of city life. But, if he had to, he could make it work.</p>