<p>Our GC also expects the kids to say which schools need midyear transcripts. The form he had to fill out asked for the “postmark deadline” – but we didn’t find any kind of submission deadline on any of his schools’ websites. They all say things like “as soon as first semester grades are out” and ours should have just been finalized, so he just wrote ASAP for all of them. We’re assuming schools he has already been admitted to don’t expect to receive them? I don’t remember us having to “order” them with DS1, so we didn’t have to figure all this out.</p>
<p>Got all of the CSS completed except for one line which I will complete at work tomorrow and submit during the day. That means I don’t have to spend all of tomorrow night on CSS! I will be happy to hit the submit button and get it over with for D. Of course, I then have to complete the IDOCS for some of her schools and their forms for businesses are worse than FAFSA and CSS combined! D has one scholarship interview scheduled and is looking forward to it as it is with her first choice of her 3 EA admits. She is still waiting for March 31st as her first overall choice releases their decisions then.</p>
<p>Congrats on the OOS UNC admit and to all of those having positive interviews.</p>
<p>SS Indecision departs in just 60 days. More sailing information coming soon. </p>
<p>DS received another piece of the puzzle in the mail yesterday. A nice scholarship to Marquette! At this rate we’ll be on the USS Indecision for the world tour. </p>
<p>Our school automatically sends mid-year reports to all schools to which a student applied, unless they are informed of a rejection. Seems like a logical policy and it takes one thing off the kids’ to-do list!</p>
<p>@2014novamom, I think that must be what our school used to do.</p>
<p>I just emailed the admissions office of a couple of DS’s EA schools to ask if they wanted midyear reports for admitted students, and just heard back from the first one (WPI) saying they DO require them. So I emailed the GC to tell her to add those schools to DS’s list of schools to send reports to.</p>
<p>For our school (mega 2000 kids), there is no connection between GCs and students. All the kids get their mid year reports. if you need an extra report, we pay $5 fee. My S’s GC doesn’t even know to which schools he applied except that when he asked for a reference, for one of the scholarship, he was asked to bring his UC application. So GC’s reference would be based on his UC application.
I believe for UC’s, transcripts are due by June, July time frame.</p>
<p>S2 is on the scholarship trail now - sending in two today, that I think he has a good chance with. I’ve identified over 30 that he can apply for between now and June; he probably won’t make them all, but I think half of that is doable, as their deadlines are spread out. We are looking at probably a $20K gap for his first choice, Tulane, where he is an early admit, so every little bit helps. I am a teacher, and my union rep told me about a nice little $1K AFL-CIO scholarship with a deadline today, and the rep got all the paperwork on his end done and back to me. He is submitting another today to CengageBrain for $2500, which required an essay, but I think he did a good job. If he can just keep plugging away at these and come up with another $10K, I think Tulane may be doable. I didn’t get my W2 until yesterday, so taxes cannot be done with my tax guy (ours are complicated and he gets us every deduction possible, every year) untiil next week at the soonest. Unfortunately Occidental has a Feb 1 deadline for FAFSA and CSS, which means estimating and altering - pain in the neck! I wish they would just be Feb 15 like the other two for FAFSA. </p>
<p>Just a heads up…Some colleges are still having difficulty receiving material through Common App and Naviance, so you may want to follow up with individual colleges.</p>
<p>This is rather depressing.
CSS was submitted yesterday and I went back and recalculate all the schools’ net cost using the figures from CSS. Only 2 will give us need-based aid. And those 2 are the 2 most selective schools in the country and not expecting D to be admitted. I think when I did the net cost calc the first time, I underestimated our income/saving and didn’t include 529’s for sibling.</p>
<p>Oh well, at least some of the schools on my D’s list are offering merit and the in-state schools are good alternative and she’s willing to attend any of them.</p>
<p>Yep, it is depressing. Had to have the conversation last night with D that even if she is accepted at one of her schools; she most likely can’t attend since she has learned she will not be awarded a merit scholarship. We tried hard not to have many of these on her list. She was curious about her cousin, who attends this school, & I had to share that her aunt & uncle took out a second mortgage to afford it & we are not willing to do this. (And it probably still wouldn’t cover it!)</p>
<p>go2girl just got the news that she is a finalist for the Vanderbilt Ingram Scholarship! We are thrilled beyond measure. Like many of you, our EFC is too high but our income too low to take on the burden of a $60K price tag! There are 17 finalists–not sure how many will get the scholarship as it seems to change from year to year but it’s another step in the right direction. I should be able to sleep tonight!</p>
<p>To all with good news congratulations. This is the time that the process really gets going with news coming in each week. Yesterday my D received a full-ride to a safety she will not be attending. I will try to use that scholarship to leverage any money from the college she is attending. It doesn’t work for all colleges but I figured there is no harm in asking. </p>
<p>go2mom-Congrats on the Ingram. I love Vanderbilt and took it hard when my DS was rejected 5 years ago. If you have to go for a visit be sure to visit Jack’s near the Ryman Auditorium. The best BBQ in the world. </p>
<p>Chrysanthmum and Crowlady-our house is filled with robotics talk and in fact this weekend is a lock-in so I will not see my DD until late Saturday night. I know they build 3 prototypes for the shooter and are deciding between two of them. I know the catapult was one of the designs. The robotics team sophistication amazes me- they have incredible mentors and like Chrysanthmum’s DD have learned so much. I happened to catch an email exchange between my DD and her mentors/teammates and had no clue what they were talking about. When she comes home from robotics I ask her what she did that day and my DH and I just smile and have no clue what she just said. I tease her that she is going to take the robot to prom because she spends so much time with it. My DD is captain of basketball team and it happens at the same time as robotics so usually she is in the robotics room in her uniform. </p>
<p>My DD will compete in the Las Vegas regional which is the day before her admitted students day. Thank goodness I used points for my flight (she takes a bus) because I was able to redeposit them. I am also thankful Southwest began a non-stop between Vegas and Atlanta because there is one late on Sat. night which gets us to Atlanta about two hours before admitted students starts. I imagine my DD and I will be asleep through half of it. </p>
<p>Like others I laughed when I completed our FASFA and saw once again we do not qualify for aid but as a middle class family have not been able to save the full cost of college despite cutting everything extra out. I work for myself and really cranked up my workload this spring and will try to save as much as possible. My DD is applying for private money like crazy. With our savings we will have enough for this first year and half of the next. Fortunately her college guarantees scholarships for sophomore girls and she can do study abroad which significantly cuts the price. </p>
<p>I had a heart-stopping moment when my DS called on Weds to tell me that two cars collided and both crashed into his car which was parked while he was in class. Last week his car was broken into. I feel like Ohio State has a target on his car. In the six months it has been towed; broken into and now hit by two cars in one day. Luckily we have insurance and Tripple A. After 4 hours on the phone I had everything arranged. I just hope the car is not totaled because I got a great deal on it in 2008 and could not replace it today for the same price and do not have any money for a new car. Both my car and my DH’s car are 12 years old and I think we are due before DS. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone in the days to come. Stay warm. I really feel sorry for all of you with so many snow days. Out here in California we are worried about a drought. It has be shorts weather. </p>
<p>Congratulations go2mom!!! Vanderbilt is my S’s top choice. He only applied to the Cornelius Varbilt scholarship though since the Ingram didn’t seem to be a fit for him. Beast of luch to go2girl. =D> </p>
<p>Sorry. I meant BEST of LUCK! 
</p>
<p>I don’t contribute here very often but I thought I’d share something we found interesting. My S was contacted by an alum of his favorite school to set up an interview. In an ironic twist, the alum is a professor at the school S will likely go to if he does not get into the favorite.</p>
<p>@austinareadad That’s definitely different! One wants to impress an interviewer, but not so much that he’d prefer to keep the student for himself! (Not saying that WILL happen, of course, but it sure is “human” to think it!)</p>
<p>Creekland, he is worried that he won’t be able to impress this UT professor (UT is the second school) very much at all, as he is a well regarded faculty member in a highly ranked department, so I don’t think he’s concerned about being too impressive! S is pretty sure he won’t mention the irony to the prof, though he was thinking it could possibly be used to inject a little levity into the discussion. </p>
<p>Congrats to go2girl…surely you’ll get something good…if not the whole pizza!</p>
<p>good news on the home front here…DS today got accepted (after an initial deferral) to university of Michigan Engineering…apparently got the offer after enough of the initial admits had to opt out for ED admits elsewhere </p>
<p>also DS notified of selection as semifinalist for Centre College Brown Fellowship Scholarship…another essay for DS to formulate… </p>
<p>So, my DS has dual citizenship with Canada, and is applying to the University of Waterloo. For engineering they do admissions primarily based on the average of 6 specific academic courses, one of which is 12th grade English. Which due to the fact that our school is semestered, my DS just started this week. So I suggested to our GC that she tack on a comment on the midyear report that he’s only a week into English, but he has 100% in it so far (that won’t last!) – she might actually go for it 
Anyhow, I’m sure we’ll have to send them midyear grades again when he has a real English grade, but our third quarter ends in April and I’m hoping we’ll have a decision by then, so we’ll probably send grades at the half-quarter. </p>