<p>SteveMa could you please clarify what you just posted? I must not have had enough coffee yet this morning. </p>
<p>If a student receives outside scholarships, they go to the school in addition to merit aid but if there is needs based aid, it just reduces that aid? Is that right?</p>
<p>Outside scholarships: Both D1 and S2 had outside scholarships. It varies how the school handles it. But the “financial aid guy” at S2 school explained to me that at his school, the parents EFC was set. The student is offered a financial aid “package” with free money, work study and loans. The outside scholarship takes away first from the loans, then the work study and then finally the free money, but the parents EFC stays the same. I am not sure if that is how all schools do it.</p>
<p>My son’s scheule is starting to fill up with local interviews and info sessions. It’s a good idea to start checking the sites of colleges you’re interested in to see if they’re coming to your town. Oh and make sure you shake out magazines and catalogs (especially the junk ones that go straight to recycling) that come to your house. Our mail carriers like to stick envelopes and post cards in them when they bundle the mail.</p>
<p>Good reminder, reeinaz - our mail carriers do the same. I don’t think it is intentional, but they sort them into bins and just stuff everything in as it comes. </p>
<p>D’s schedule is filling up both with local interviews and with some overnights. Her sports schedule always seems to conflict with evening info sessions. One LAC had a visit scheduled at our HS, but it was cancelled. That adcom, who she met last year, had told her he would be in town doing interviews, but when the travel schedule went up, he is not listed to be in our area at all! She was also contacted by a local alumna of another LAC to do an interview. She had completed a part 1 of that school’s application on their website, but was surprised they made the effort to reach out to her. Oh, and another LAC’s traveling rep is on maternity leave, so she will do an interview during an overnight there.</p>
<p>re scholarships - I think most schools only readjust the financial aid part and several said that it came off of work study or student loans first, but at one of the schools on D’s list, they said that they re-evaluate the whole package if you have outside scholarships. They weren’t specific though on how it would change, so I don’t know if it would a dollar for dollar reduction on the whole thing or not.</p>
<p>reeinaz, good point - we have to fit in a few interviews and I need to look for any local visits…</p>
<p>D came home from the ACT thinking she did well, even on the science section which all the CC kids are complaining about on the ACT prep thread. We’ll know in 3 weeks, I guess…
Only 20 sat for the test at her location today! I’m just glad she’s D.O.N.E</p>
<p>I made her a cake with “Way to Go” on top to celebrate the end of testing.</p>
<p>Ezily: D said she thinks hers went well too; proctor was great about keeping them notified of time (unlike last time!) and she was able to answer all questions in all sections. She noted that one science section was really tough. Guess we’ll see in 2 1/2 weeks!</p>
<p>RobD- that’s always great when they feel good about the test! 
extra nice they gave good time warnings. my D said her proctor only gave a 1 min warning and she happened to be in a room where the clock was broken. She’s concerned because she had to guess the last few of the science and reading portions. <em>sigh</em> … She came home and signed herself up for the October test. LOL!</p>
<p>Ezily- awww a cake!!! that’s such a sweet idea. :)</p>
<p>Oh I forgot about the testers today. Hope they all did great!</p>
<p>Congrats to the testers!!! I think S3 decided to try the ACT one more time (to get hopefully increase his English sub-score) in October.</p>
<p>He had his first cross country meet of the season today. It is very hot today and he wilted a little in the heat, which he has a tendency to do, and he was disappointed in his time, but he did get a medal. </p>
<p>He has been writing various essays. Nothing we are 100% happy with yet, but he is trying out a variety of subjects. So I think progress is being made.</p>
<p>My D also took the ACT today and came home feeling good about the test. She did say the last passage in the Science section was tough though. I’m so happy she felt good about it. We are crossing our fingers for a really good score in a few weeks.</p>
<p>Crew is gearing up- they have a varsity only regatta in 2 weeks! and 2 more later this fall.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, new and old! I have been so out of the loop—probabably since mid August. So, no catching up on all the old posts! My DD took the ACT for the first time “to try it” today. No studying. She said afterward-“I wish I had taken this earlier…and studied”. She said she thougth it was easier than the SAT and found today’s science section hard. She said she didnt finish the last reading of the science. She also said “I wish I had done some practice tests”. Maybe she’ll take one in October? She is taking the SAT for the second time also in October. I have no clue what to suggest to her. She is also beginning to really work on her essay and thinking about planning interviews. PHEW! I was so worried in the summer that she would not do this stuff. Happy to be back and reading the posts! Hope all is/was well with everyone. And, welcome any new people. It is a great group.</p>
<p>I haven’t posted on this thread but have been very active on the Drama/Theatre board. My DD will be a technical theatre major, so that’s kind of a different thing altogether. My older DD was the academic one, so I’m comfortable with all that involves. However, I’m learning the theatre schools are unique. In a way it works good for us because this daughter is non academic, has a 504 for ADD/visual perception issues/math disability. She took the ACT again today, but I’m sure it won’t be much of an improvement over last time. Thankfully, her colleges look more at her portfolio and interviews than her grades and test scores. Sigh…then we have to worry about financial aid.</p>
<p>My cousin graduated from Vassar in the early 2000s. His passion was technical theater. He is now a lighting producer for off Broadway shows. Maybe Vassar would be an option.</p>
<p>We haven’t looked at Vassar, but maybe we should. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>DD texted me after the ACT today and said she didn’t think she improved her score. I hope she’s wrong about that, but either way she’s finished with testing. Scores should be available 9/24 I think, and thus far, her scores have always been available right at midnight. The question is when she should look: midnight, just before school or after school…and I guess I’ll wait until she looks first. Ugh.</p>
<p>Like DrMom, I’ve been off for a while too. I read a few pages back but not the whole thing. Great news for so many, I’m so happy for you all! D took ACTs again today. She did great sace science last time, guess we will see if it could have possibly improved this time! school is having senior class meetings with them so I hope she will finally settle down with these applications. Happily she does not have many as she’s narrowed it down to 4-5 schools, maybe 6 but two are outliers and are ED so if she gets into the other four EA I think she will be done. I’m so glad to see everyone moving along with this process!</p>
<p>Hi 'rents!</p>
<p>So, today my friends and I drove up to a high school 45 minutes away because there were no testing centers in my area…which is really weird, anyway…and we took the ACT. This is my second time taking it, and I wanted to improve my math and science scores. To prepare I took practice tests, looked at all of the tips I possibly could, and studied a lot. I don’t think I did any better on math, and I have absolutely no idea how I did on science. IT WAS SO DIFFICULT. Oh my goodness. I don’t know what the heck ACT thought they were doing, but it was horrible! I think I raised my English and critical reading scores, though. I think I wrote a good essay, too. I don’t know if it will top my 10 from last time, but hey, whatever. I’m just happy I’m done with the ACT (: I take the SAT for the last time in October and then I’m FINALLY done with standardized tests! I’M SO EXCITED.</p>
<p>Morning All
I heard the ACT science was uber difficult…if you had AP Chem and AP Bio it helped…but the test was over the top…what are they thinking…these are HS students after all…</p>
<p>Really bad bad storm here yesterday…lightning almost hit the house…but the power stayed on…hope those involved in the storm are ok and no damage at your house :)</p>
<p>Essays are getting refined and apps going well…and why am I so nervous?..isn’t she the one going??..I guess it’s the fact that we want to see them where they want to go and with the right aid to make it possible for them…
So Here’s to the Lucky 13 ers!!!
May the Odds be Ever in their Favor :)</p>
<p>Wow…that ACT science always seems to be a doozie.again, I hope everyone did well on it. </p>
<p>S is making decent progress on his essays. The main CA ones are done. The big essay has been edited down to 523 words and reads much better with 100 less words than the original. His supplemental essays for his November EA schools are nearly done. I was happy that he got a fee waiver for one of them in the mail yesterday so that’s $40 saved. I sent his SAT scores to the 2 November schools that didn’t already have them. I’m thinking they’ll be ready to go by the end of this month, then we can focus on the December EA schools before moving on to his RD reach schools. Transcripts aren’t sent until 10/1 at the earliest so there’s no real rush to submit anything before then. His school’s back to school night for seniors is Tuedsay so we’ll be getting the current info packet on this year’s application process then.</p>