@veggylover for my son’s grad party I made candy bar wrappers with his senior pic some graduation sayings/wishes and congrats to the class of… whatever you want - there’s a bunch of crafty people who put templates online that I used. Bought a box of candy bars from Sams Club.
@cd2015, @rhandco, @shellz and @amandakayak: Thank you for the ideas. I think party favor is a better description of what I am looking to do. Candy would work. I think I will do something simple to personalize it and give out a prize, like a restaurant gift card, for the two games I have planned.
Thanks AsleepAtTheWheel- my daughter’s school offers the same type of experience but she can’t go because she is already missing too much of her summer job due to orientation ( she will miss 3 days) and the fact that she moves in earlier than most and has to leave her job a week early. For her to attend the program we would have to move her in even earlier, and after a long discussion she realized that it would not be fair to the job. It’s sounds like a great experience and I wish she could do it.
S’15’s overnight orientation and 4 day Biology “kick starter” a month later, is mandatory. He had to tell his job “this way, or the highway…”
@giterdone - that’s nice that the Biology department offers that. I am already worrying that S will be lost in the huge CLA department - they don’t offer anything similar. We’re hoping he gets into the @Home LLC to help make friends quicker.
What a day! Today was graduation-15 really nice homeschooled graduates and such a lovely array of speeches from both students and parents. I only got teary-eyed at the beginning, but didn’t cry when my dh read our blessing, probably because we’re just so happy for our son and believe what we wrote-that he’s come such a long way and is a perseverer.
Next, we came home to find out that his Special Corporate National Merit Scholarship will be $6000 a year! We’re blown away by the fact that he got this. It may mean that we’ll need to apply his other outside scholarship to things like books, etc., since that will be made out to the school, as well. So, so, so thankful to God!
Lastly, we’ll go out and celebrate S15’s 18th birthday tonight by going out for sushi with family-yum. 
My sister is so supportive of me and our homeschooling journey. It’s a long way from over, though, and my third child is so. very. challenging. Not sure I’ll make it through alive! But for today, we celebrate! LOL
@sbjdorlo, congratulations on your progress. I calculate that for schools that meet full need (like Penn), there is often still about $6,000 - $9,000 of student contribution expected per year including airfare, books, etc. ($4k - $5k work-study + summer expected student contribution, and 3-4 round trips including EXPENSIVE year-end and maybe Thanksgiving plus computer & printer &c. for another $2k - $4k). I am calculating for next year. I know these usually do not count against EFC, so for any income, it seems that $6k - $9k may be needed at a school that meets full need. Is this what you calculate (with experience from your S1)?
I did not know your S2 received an outside scholarship- that is great! He can take his gap year with great solace knowing that he will be able to afford school. I am so happy for you!
@ItsJustSchool, it’s really hard to know at this point because when we did the financial aid this year, it was for two children in college. When my son attends Penn in fall, 2016, my oldest son will have graduated. Our EFC this year was about $4100 and we were (small) Pell Grant recipients.
The way I calculate costs is simply taking tuition, room and board and subtracting “free” money (need-based aid and outside scholarships) and what’s left is what we would pay. Penn gave us (including Pell) $59,440 in aid. They listed COA at $67,800, but that includes books and personal expenses. So, if I subtract maybe $3200 from that, I get $64,600. So, in theory, with the outside scholarship, we would be paying nothing for this year.
Having said that, I predict that our EFC will be around $7800-8000 next year because of lower income, but only one in college. So, if I’m guessing/figuring correctly, I was figuring on paying around $3000 a year or so of the billed amount.
With my oldest son, MIT is not as generous, but because of the outside scholarship, we have paid between $2200-and $3200 a year for the past three years. We’re deeply, deeply grateful.
The little catch at Penn was, at least for this year, they told us our son can only bring in $5800 worth of outside scholarship. However, I don’t know if that will change with a change in our EFC. He has another outside scholarship of $1500. If that can’t be used directly for tuition, room and board, I am planning to try to work with the scholarship folks to have them give it to the Penn bookstore so he can use it for books and supplies, maybe even a computer.
My oldest still has a small ($500 ish) bowling scholarship he must use this year. Being that MIT only allows $6000 of outside scholarship for us, I am going to try and get that scholarship sent over to the COOP at MIT.
@sbjdorlo, my understanding is that the EFC is immaterial. It must be paid as part of the formula, and the only way to reduce what the parents pay is for the student to earn money and contribute that to the EFC, or to spend less than the calculated COA.
I think that negotiating travel expenses assumed in the COA would be key. “T” (schlepp to Kendall) or taxi to the airport, airfare, and transportation from the airport to home in San Diego; AND factoring airfare for time of year. That is like $800+ RT in November and $600+ in December- not the $380 it usually is. I would also look at the book and supply budget and make sure the COA calculation has an adequate allowance (including lab supplies, software, and other media manipulation and musical equipment). Establishing COA seems to me to be key, because that will set the upper bound on allowed outside scholarship monies sent directly to the registrar.
It does look like $6k is a likely number, then. Is my thinking correct on this? I think the schools allow for scholarships to equal [COA less (federal aid + EFC)] and sometimes allow scholarships to reduce federal loans and institutional grant aid, but NEVER EFC. Also, sometimes excess outside aid can be applied to a computer, etc. Is this how others see it as well?
Thanks, in advance, for the clarity!
For MIT, the outside scholarship is applied towards the $3000 of loans and $3000 of work study that are in my son’s package. So, he has not needed to do either work study or to borrow because of that.
COA can always be fiddled with. My MIT son has literally spent less than $100 for books for his three years at MIT. Further, he always takes the cheapest meal plan, so his COA is always less than what their estimates are. I just got his package and they have about $3200 for personal + books and list his meal plan at around $5000, when, in reality, he takes the cheapest one, which costs around 3K. So, we end up saving a couple thousand off of COA.
For S '15, though, it might be that we’ll spend a little more on room in the event he wants a private, but we’ll still go for the cheapest meal plan since he’s not a big eater and will try to use the other scholarship for books.
So, even though it looks like scholarships don’t reduce EFC, in our case, we have paid vastly less than our EFC indicated.
Just sharing fun news! S3 just got his roommate assignment! He is living in an honors dorm and they must do potluck on roommates. The roommate has a major which requires studying (yay for that) and S3 says the guy seems cool (that based on a short text. Ah, boys!)
Today he went to 4 graduation parties, and they don’t even graduate until next weekend!
It’s getting real!
We survived our two week “gauntlet”!! <:-P D1’s UMinn graduation on the 17th, D2 and S’s 18th b-day, HS graduation last Thursday, and the family/friends gathering yesterday. Everything went smoothly, all the various grad speakers, etc. were excellent, and the celebrations were great even with a few weather issues. Still have some cleanup to do today but we might actually have a chance to catch our breath for a week or so. Then it’s overnight orientation session for S followed by intensive prep for his driving skills road test. If it ain’t one thing it’s another…sigh 8-}
It’s like a game of whack-a-mole. One thing gets solved or done, and another thing pops up.
Mine is still flipping about two tests next week, although I am not sure why other than to say that’s her personality. The next few weeks will be filled with finals, a final project, grad parties, prom, and eventually we will get to graduation. =D>
She " met" the kids who will be in her suite and she seems pretty excited.
@singermom4 I’m sure CLA will have many “mixers” during welcome week. I think CBS is the only admitting school with this summer requirement.
I’ve heard that Welcome Week is amazing and packed full for everybody. And I think LLC’s are good. S’15 requested to get into his too.
We have roommate contact here! @Barfly - as you said - boys and short texts. But at least we know there is a real person that will share the room.
Friday was prom…all these kids I was homeroom mom for, back in elementary school, and how they’re all glamorous and stuff. sniff I did the 1 am to 5 am shift for the post prom extravaganza back at the school…glow in the dark mini golf and swimming and inflatables and lots of door prizes. DS is still sacked out but I’m awake!
Next week: Senior Rec chorus, awards night, and DS 17’s state championship qualifier. In Track and Field, all the playoff games are rolled up into one do-or-die meet. Nervous times!
And weirdly enough our cable station has decided to put DS on now as athlete of the week even though football ended months ago. What about Track and Field? (Rooting for DS 17’s sport here.) Too bad we don’t get cable but maybe someone will record it for me.
It is all going so fast.
As for party favors, I really like the candy buffet idea!
I was gone for two weeks and came back to 135 posts! Oh my. I’ll catch up with the past post over the next few days. Congrats to all of the newly minted grads and to those who will soon be grads.
D had a busy couple of weeks. She turned 18, graduated and gave a very nice speech at the graduation ceremony, had a combined birthday/graduation party, and went with the family on a family reunion with aunts, uncles, and cousins on her Dad’s side of the family. A good time was had by all. Now she is working with her band to produce a cd before she leaves for college! She is also planning to work to earn college money (yes, she has a job) and hopes to get an internship at a radio station. She makes me tired just thinking about it all. It should be a really fun summer for her.
Visitor from Parents of HS Class 2016 here. Did you all freak out as much as I am now when it started to sink in that your kid could get a full-tuition scholarship, yet you still needed to find a way to pay for room & board, which seems to be the same price point at almost every college (so, there’s really no shopping around)? Just trying to find out how to get past this shock and make some hard choices about residential student debt v. commuter student savings. All ears!
@dyiu13 - I found the room and board prices to vary quite a bit (about 5K in some cases). The urban schools generally had higher prices. If your child is qualifying for full tuition then he/she may have a shot at full ride. Look for outside scholarships as well to defray the non-tuition costs.
Finally done here. D15’s graduation was lovely but way too long, in large part because of some alumna speaker who used the occasion to promote her new fitness spa (because there aren’t enough of them already in New York) and sounded like Sheryl Sandberg on speed. Now the process starts: roommate questionnaire was completed and I have to talk D15 through the practical stuff, like picking a meal plan and not using up all her flex dollars on Starbucks.