<p>Thanks Laurendog and Anniezz. Yes after the meeting, but the meeting was more a courtesy than a factor in the decision (I think). We came armed with her transcript and scores and were lucky enough to get them in front of the committee who meet daily I’m told. We still have to send over her official reports for it to be final. There were tons of kids there filling out apps… We didn’t get a chance to see the athletic facilities or the larger fitness centers. What were you’re impressions? And good luck to your step D!</p>
<p>SteveMa-hilarious. I think I did see you. LOL.</p>
<p>Great report SteveMA! I’m so impressed that you’ve been able to find these great little schools that meet your kids’ needs, that they really like, and that fit your budget!</p>
<p>I’m sure this will help other families too. :)</p>
<p>SteveMA- I know what you mean about Pittsburgh! The driving there/roads there = completely nuts! </p>
<p>Amazhon - We didn’t get to see the student athletic facilities (except for driving by a couple of times on the way to and from our hotel.) But, the football facilities are shared with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and as you might imagine, they are TOP notch! We did see a lot of students playing “pick up” games of basketball on the student courts and it looked competitive. :)</p>
<p>Congrats on all of the acceptances! I’m soooo jealous that your kids (and napalm!) have (an) option(s) already! It must be such a great feeling!</p>
<p>Senior year starts in three days. Three. Oh my goodness! This is totally crazy! I’ve been waiting for this moment for such a long time! I remember the first day of freshman year, standing outside of my school with the rest of my class shaking because I was so nervous! Now I’m a senior, I’m going to be a freshman orientation captain, and my friends and I run the school social-wise. It’s crazy to think how far myself and the rest of my class has come! We’ve been through a lot-between sports, deaths, faculty losses, and soooo many changes-but we have all managed to get through it! I’m excited that this is my last year. I already have less than 180 days with these people since there will be multiple days I won’t have to go in for because of senior privileges (hollllllllllaaa). I can’t believe it. I don’t think it’s going to hit me until I’m taking the little freshmen around the first day. I’m ready for a new environment, though. I’m ready to meet new people and take on new responsibilities. One step at a time. I’m excited for the college process. I know that I’m going to get into college, and I know that it’s only a matter of about a month until I have my first acceptance from my local state university.</p>
<p>It’s going to be a long few months, but we can do it! I hate to remind all of you parents, but senior year’s going to fly by. I know that it’s difficult right now since it’s college application season, but remember to appreciate every moment you have with your kids. We all know that in about a year all of us (I’m saying this as a student now) will be in our dorm rooms trying to get adjusted to college life. We can do it!</p>
<p>Congrats to all on the acceptances! School starts on Tuesday but still no schedule with teachers yet! I can understand why they didn’t release it earlier, less chance of complaints and requests for changes but come on, the school offices are closed until Tuesday! For a tech school, they have a tough time scheduling classes (lots of issues this year). I am sure the line at the guidance office will be LONG on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Happy Labor Day weekend! For those of you still waiting to start school, enjoy the last days before senior frenzy. Sadly I am the only one who’ll have to be productive in my house on Monday, as it’s a regular school day for me :(</p>
<p>Amazhon: Congrats on the Pitt acceptance! That is how <em>I</em> remember college acceptances to be back in the day: I applied to two on sight & was accepted on the spot. No stress back in 1981.</p>
<p>Steve: if it makes you feel any better, our GPS messed us up in Pittsburgh back in April. Luckily, I’d looked at all the maps before we’d left & <em>thought</em> we’d already passed where the hotel was while the GPS was trying to take us 5 miles out of town to the hotel. Those roads are tough!</p>
<p>D got her essay back from the English teacher with (I’m told) some minor edits & a very enthusiastic “great ending.” I think the plan is for her to finish the editing this weekend & upload it to the Common App. #1 school still doesn’t have their app available. And she’s got her first casual interview scheduled for next week. Rolling along…</p>
<p>School on Tuesday for us. It’s been a hassle with the schedule this year. I don’t recall so many issues with my other two. I thought seniors just got what they wanted first in line. Oh my. Still waiting to figure out how they are going to get one class crammed into the schedule. My son has been out to the school several times and I thank goodness he self advocates, since it would make me crazy if I had to deal with this.</p>
<p>The biggest issue plaguing me know is whether or not to ‘allow’ him to do ED or not. Aaargh i didn’t have THAT problem with my other two they didn’t want to be locked in that early. I know pretty much how colleges will “view” us financially now that we are on 3, but ED just feels so “final” to me (as it should I guess.) and I’m not sure if I’m willing to part with a couple thousand dollars a year should it turn out that way. It’s never about tens of thousands, it’s always about couples of thousands.</p>
<p>Common app started. No essays quite yet. One more try at the ACT in September. Senior pictures end of the week and of course it’s football season ( - so busy busy between the gym, practices, school, social life and games). Wowser the fall crunch is right ahead of us.</p>
<p>My daughter is rearranged her college list again. A few schools were dropped off her list. It kind of makes sense, I would have done the same thing, but I had to wait until she made that decision. She also changed her rolling admission admission to a college that I have to pay for application fee. But she said there is 25% chance that she would go to this one versus 0% chance that she would go the other school with free application.
She is waiting for school to start to get transcripts and LOR from her counselor.</p>
<p>UAH’s scholarship application is available beginning Sept. 1 (they still haven’t updated the awards page but I am assuming it will remain the same).</p>
<p>Just looked at UAH’s scholarship app. – it requires 2 essays and 2 recommendations. I thought their merit awards were automatic??? It will definitely be put on the back-burner as D has to finish all the other essays first.</p>
<p>My brain is tired MTnest–what school is UAH?</p>
<p>Final ‘formal’ visit today, Wheeling Jesuit. I love Jesuit schools. Campus is pretty, newer, 1960’s or so but still nice. The facilities are functional, not over the top but science labs, etc. have top equipment, etc. Saw 3 deer running around campus during our tour. Again, strong science school with 100% placement into Med School (and 100% into law school last year) of those that applied. Good association with the hospital in town. The town itself is just a few blocks from campus and had a real small town feel but has about 25,000 residents. It reminds me of an ocean front town, minus the ocean :D.</p>
<p>Both kids liked the school, DD more than DS, which I figured would be the case. The coach is AMAZING and DD would be very happy being on her team. She is like everyone’s favorite aunt and REALLY cares about her “kids”. You could tell that the team had the utmost respect and really loved her as a person. DD is a bit hesitant about the distance but not being 17, I think those reservations would go away after a few weeks on campus so I am not concerned. She places this school very high on her list and for me it would be a real toss up between this school and Truman for her.</p>
<p>For DS, I think Seton Hill is a better fit out here for him. I think the other school’s we have visited are even better fits though. I think Truman is the best fit for both of them though. DS has not been on campus, DD has. I think if we went back there and toured again, it would be their top choice. We may try to get back there before national signing day.</p>
<p>They each have about 10 schools on their list. I can see DS at 9 out of the 10 on his list and DD at about 8 out of her 10. I think they fell the same way. It’s nice to have choices. Now it will come down to dollars!</p>
<p>As for Pennsylvania as a whole, WOW it’s pretty. People here drive REALLY fast. We are at Gettysburg now and going to go into Philly tomorrow to tour Independence Hall, etc. and on Monday are going to do a horse back tour of the Gettysburg Battlefields!. Fly out late Monday. We are all very tired :D.</p>
<p>Back from a quick trip to NYC with my mom (74), sister and older son (20). We went to two marathon days at the US Open and then did some sight-seeing yesterday and went to a play. I left S3 home with DH and D2. It was a nice break for me from worrying about college applications. Two days until school starts. His summer homework is done but there has been very little progress on the essays.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in the Pittsburgh area over 25 years and there are still areas I get lost in.</p>
<p>Dropped S off for sophomore year at RIT today. I was worried about traffic through Buffalo/Niagara Falls region, but no problems at all! Left D’13 home to work on homework and start the CA so she can print recommendation forms to give to her teachers. She found time to bake cookies too.</p>
<p>Quick question: Does not being a US citizen affect scholarships options? </p>
<p>E.g. For Rutgers Presidential Scholarship, it states that you have to be a US citizen or permanent resident; my family has H1B visas so I’m not sure whether I would qualify even though we’ve been in the US for quite some time.</p>
<p>Another question (perhaps better asked in the fin. aid section due to it’s broadness)- at what point would you not qualify for aid due to assets? I entered spmer numbers into Duke’s NPC and it said my EFC was 20K but I don’t trust NPCs lol.</p>
<p>Submitted my alabama honors college app! So I’m done with all of my Alabama stuff, unless I decide to apply for the computer based honors thing. My goal for the rest of the weekend is to get good drafts of the essays for my instate app going. 3 day weekends are nice. :)</p>
<p>russgenious, as H-visa holders, you are considered to be here temporarily for work, and wouldn’t qualify for any aid for which permanent residency or other qualified status (ie, asylee) would be required. If your family has been here for a long time, you may qualify for an adjustment of status, but I believe the employer would have to sponsor that. Talk to the financial aid at Rutgers to get further information about how you’d be considered.</p>
<p>Haven’t posted in a while, but I just want to say congrats to all those with acceptances. School is in full swing here. D and I had an unplanned college discussion, away from our Sunday discussion, and it ended in an argument. Should have just waited until this morning. </p>
<p>She has the second draft done of her CA essay, and has started on some of the supplemental essays. She has removed another school off the list. Eleven on the list now, with a “maybe” beside one more. </p>
<p>Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. We are stuck in the rain from Isaac today, but tomorrow should be glorious.</p>
<p>Back from Pittsburgh last night, so here’s my report.</p>
<p>Traffic-Despite SteveMa taking the scenic route our travel in and out was painless except a bit of tunnel construction entering Oakland restricting one lane.</p>
<p>Hotel-The Hilton is a short walk from campus & they also offer shuttle service. We had lunch at the Holiday Inn which is behind admissions. Food was good at both places.</p>
<p>Admissions-When Pitt first hit my daughter’s radar I called admissions for information and I did not have a great experience. However, the personalized visit they planned for us was awesome. We’ve visited almost 20 schools and we felt truly welcomed. Some schools are great giving you information. Some schools you just feel like a tourist on your visit. At Pitt we felt they wanted to share their family with us. </p>
<p>Campus-It’s urban, but D likes that. The campus is clean and has a strong sense of community and pride. We ran into a former student from my Ds high school & a family on the tour from our area. Despite being a state school they had great representation from other areas. They say minorities represent 21% of campus, but it didn’t “feel” very diverse to us. When we asked we were told our ethnicity was closer to 7% which is pretty close to most of the schools we’ve looked at. They do offer many multicultural and diversity groups, that hold events from networking to volunteering to social activities. </p>
<p>Facilities-great! Nothing negative at all. Classrooms were good, although we did not see a lab. My D loved the dorms in the Towers. Food court, fitness center, laundry all on site. Buildings secure. She did make it over to Peterson where one of the larger fitness centers is and said it was huge. Hospitals (multiple) were within walking distance to campus. Forbes Avenue offers off campus shopping and dining. The cathedral of learning is one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen. Lots of construction including a new freshman dorm which excited D.</p>
<p>Academics-They offer a variety of majors. My D would have to ‘fine tune’ hers to get the specialization she’s interested in. We had an hour to kill and asked where her department was housed and were told there may not be anyone available to talk to her which seemed odd to me. Wasn’t sure if it was because it was 9am or a small department or appointment only. The number of research opportunities seems infinite. They have four Rhodes Scholars. D sat in on a Calculus class and said she knew what was going on. They offer the grad school program that interests her so there’s an opportunity to take advanced coursework. </p>
<p>Financial Aid-We’re out of state… So we’ll see. OOS tuition is 25k and housing is 10k. They do offer a variety of academic and departmental scholarships.</p>
<p>SteveMA - Just saw that you are heading into Philly today. Please note that there is a HUGE music festival by Jay-z today and many streets are closed! It should be very crowded although the historic area is not part of the music fest area. Just check the traffic reports for closed roads!</p>
We did see a lot of students playing “pick up” games of basketball on the student courts and it looked competitive. :)</p>