<p>Congrats to go2girl on being a finalist for the Vandy Scholarship and congrats to 2018Dad’s dd, too!</p>
<p>Spygirl emailed her thank you notes since that’s how they had been corresponding. She only had one on campus interview and I believe she emailed a thank you for that as well. </p>
<p>Had Spygirl’s 18th birthday party over the weekend and it was nice to see a group of smiling and much more relaxed second semester seniors. </p>
<p>DS had <em>three</em> schools that wanted CSS Profile by Feb. 1 so I submitted both FAFSA and Profile with good estimates. Lehigh wants tax forms by Feb 15! We’re still waiting on some 1099s so I’m not so sure that’s going to be possible. I’m going to email and ask if they want a “best estimate” (should be very close to final) on time, or if they can wait a little longer for the final copies, if it looks like we won’t be able to complete and file by then. I can print out and sign the forms on the 14th but they may not be identical to the ones we ultimately file.</p>
<p>Some students do very well on local scholarships; however, most do not. Local scholarships tend to be small and are seldom renewable. However, $1k is book money for the first year.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that outside scholarship money has to be reported to the college our children decide to attend. Schools will treat that money differently. If the only award a student gets is pure merit, then great. The local scholarship will likely further reduce costs. It there’s a gap, the scholarship can probably go toward the gap. If there’s work study or loans, the local scholarship may reduce those offerings. But there are schools out there that will reduce institutional aid in the amount of the scholarship. Regular followers of the fin aid board have seen lots of posts to that effect. Some schools will not allow need to be exceeded with outside scholarships and adjust their own packages accordingly. </p>
<p>Quick (and stupid) question…where on the common data set can one find the graduation rate percentages? I have searched and searched for this info for one particular school and am comining up with nada… L-) </p>
<p>spritle, you could also look at <a href=“College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics”>http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/</a></p>
<p>Aack - made a decimal point error on the FAFSA. Our EFC is currently at $800K!!! Now I have to wait 3-5 days to correct. Should have checked that prior to filing 
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<p>thank you @slitheytove - that is much easier…now to try to find out what would make a percentage kind of low?</p>
<p>@gertrudemcfuzz - If that figure came up for my EFC, after I picked myself up off the floor, I would head straight to the liquor cabinet…</p>
<p>LOL - I can’t believe I didn’t check it before submitting. I had submitted an estimated one last month which came out just where I expected, so I figured the few minor changes I made this weekend wouldn’t have much effect. But when you enter $1.8 million instead of $18,000, well, all bets are off.</p>
<p>So great to see SO many acceptances and all of the scholarships! Our GC has been very good to bring up the community scholarships available in our state. I just don’t know if I can encourage daughter to do another essay on top of some of the honor’s college essays she is finalizing. It was so nice that our in-state honor’s college (ASU Barrett) had their application available in September. Nice to have that one completed and accepted to. Great news today that a school she was deferred from in December she was ACCEPTED. A lot of happiness in the house this afternoon. Now the wait to hear about merit. So glad that we are at 57 days and counting.</p>
<p>There is only one community scholarship that my son qualifies for, sadly. Most of them require you to be a resident of the next city over from ours, both of which feed the school. Most of them from the school are for athletes although there are also two band scholarships- but he didn’t do band either. </p>
<p>We’re in the same boat – nothing we’ve found yet that DS is qualified for. My older DS found two that he was qualified for, one of which wasn’t awarded his year (and the other he didn’t win).</p>
<p>@go2mom- Congrats to your daughter. That is great news!! </p>
<p>Congratulations go2mom, crowlady. It is so nice to hear the positive news. </p>
<p>There are a few local scholarships in our area but the competition is also high. D applied to a few. </p>
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<p>We are in the same boat with Lehigh. The earliest I can even file with IRS is the 13th or 14th due to a form that is not yet available. Got my CSS filed with them with 10 hours to spare on the 31st! I was able to work around the need for the 1099’s by getting everything online and doing a few calculations that matched up with last years results. I’ve come to realize that the FA staffs have a bigger crunch to deal with than do the Admissions Departments. D still has interest in Lehigh but I think it has slipped a bit as she is in the running for a nice merit scholarship at Villanova. She will find out later this week if she makes the next cut for the scholarship.</p>
<p>We keep saying that we’ll file FAFSA. It’s basically finished, but something always comes up in our household. Right now, Son '14 has the flu, so he’s an unhappy camper. He was sort of hoping to get a jump on the local scholarships, but not when his head is pounding. Oh well.</p>
<p>momreads - Hope your DS is feeling better soon! And congrats to go2mom’s DD!</p>
<p>We’re having the calm between the storms today. It’s beautiful now with the sun shining on the snow in the trees but I doubt there’s going to be school tomorrow. I told DD to make sure to pick up the three local scholarship applications she qualifies for in guidance today and to bring home whatever she needs. I’m hoping for no school for her as she won’t get home from school until about 9 tonight!</p>
<p>I started another spreadsheet with scholarship due dates, requirements and essay questions. I’m hoping seeing all the essay questions set out together will enable her to use essays for more than one scholarship. Or at least be able to tweak them to fit. She’s already received one scholarship and got news yesterday that she’s moved on to the state level for another one so that’s wonderful. I don’t know if that means she will win something at the local or district level if she doesn’t at the state level but I guess we’ll see at the end of the month. Then if she moves on, there’s another essay to write!</p>
<p>And last week she got news she’d been accepted to Marist with a Presidential Scholarship! She’s excited as she really liked it when we visited. No word on Honors Program there but I’m not really sure how it works there either.</p>
<p>Taxes being filed today in hopes of being able to transfer figures to finalize FAFSA and do CSS prior to February 15 deadlines. Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Now if we could just get rid of the snowstorms!!</p>
<p>It is truly amazing how much work is involved in getting every form in besides just doing your civic duty of paying taxes! I was recently at the dentist and my hygienist also has a senior. She told me that her school’s counselor told the parents that the kids should submit all the FAFSA and CSS information! I feel for kids who don’t have the proper information or parents who don’t know where to look. I remember when my friend shared info on College Confidential. I’m so glad I found it! What an amazing resource! Besides all of the great information, I feel like I am in the company of supportive friends. I know how hard we have all struggled to advocate for our children, prod them, research potential opportunities, comfort them, and try to remain calm and love the kid on the couch even when they drive us absolutely mad! My son is such a different student than my daughter and thanks to so many of you, I know that I have to adjust my strategy and expectations. Getting yoru first kid through this process has been such a huge learning experience. i know all of these kids will be successful, despite whatever obstacle may come there way, because they have such supportive parents. Kudos to all of you!</p>
<p>Lehigh is currently my DS’s first choice, based on how “at home” he felt when we visited. We met several nice profs and nice students. But I am concerned that the financial piece will not come through. </p>
<p>Is anyone else getting tired of all the snow days this year? We usually have maybe one missed day a year. We are on number 5 today. 8-} </p>
<p>Congrats to go2mom’s DS for making it to finalist stage at Vandy! WOW! And to all the other brilliant kids who are getting in their favorite schools and collecting scholarships along the way.</p>
<p>So ready for a decision! We’re down to 6 - still waiting on results for one of those, and waiting on scholarship info for most. Received a scholarship yesterday from UMich! Not near enough to make it affordable yet, but it’s a start! I just passed along a website to DS for him to research scholarships since he’s out of school today. But he’s procrastinating about doing that as much as I am about finishing my taxes! :-w (I love these new smilies!)</p>
<p>Hope everyone stays safe and warm!</p>
<p>We’ve had way too many snow days - 5 already and I’m expecting another one tomorrow if the weather forecast holds. We’re supposed to get ice…</p>
<p>The pulled our Feb vacation (fine since there are already several days off), and all but Good Friday of Spring Break. Then we’re also going into June now rather than an end of May graduation. The only question at this point is how far into June. The long range forecast, if correct, will have more snow days next week too.</p>
<p>When I called my guy yesterday, he was downright bored at home. (Work was off for him too due to the snow.)</p>