@mstomper Same happened to us with Ole Miss. Called school and said that any awards would come directly from Financial Aid Office and they always run behind the admissions letter. Sure enough about 7 biz days later got the award letter with all the merit scholarships she earned and it said that she may earn more after further review. All awards would be handed out by March.
@Dragonflygarden : I believe the financial aid form/taxes filing is the same for most who already have a child in college. So, as you said, the new applicant is the one for whom the January dates are most important.
Finally got my tree decorated with ornaments from all of his schools represented, and it became very real staring me in the face.
^^^ Cool! Wish we could see a photo.
just put out all the framed pictures of my DSâ16 from baby to Senior picture on a side table in the living room. Older sister said âso, whatâŠnow he gets a whole table to see himselfââŠDS said âweirdâ. But it is really fun and a bit of nostalgia to see how heâs changed and grownâŠand soon out the doorâŠsigh
We just left the photographerâs after getting Dâs Santa photo done. Weâve always gone to see âblack Santaâ and both this Santa and the photographer have watched D grow up. The photographer is the guy who took her senior photos so he was very interested in her college search. D will probably be home in time to do a photo next Christmas, but it did seem like the last one tonightâŠ
I really like the idea of getting a Christmas tree ornament at all the schools that we visited (n of course didnât hate). I really wish I was on this forum sooner - so many great ideas. I bet your tree looks great @carolinamom2boys!
@drmom123 I got a frame when S14 n D16 were born that had openings for pictures every three months until 2 years old n then every year until 18. Itâs great to see how each child has changed and or stayed the same.
@lvmjac1 I canât take the credit. Iâve always bought each of my sonâs a new ornament each year and when we were touring College of Charleston last summer, DS16 asked if he could get one to commemorate the college search, and weâve gotten one from every other school since.
Thanks for the info, @catholicmom3. Itâs not as if thereâs any doubt the scholarship will be offered; it will be nice when itâs official, though.The Temple offer came with the acceptance letter, but it was much less than heâll get from Ole Miss.
@fretfulmother what a light you are to this poor kid! I would suggest that you do help the boy. Schools will tolerate late recommendations- up until the end of January. Counsel him to choose better recommenders. A grammar/usage check of his essays would be great, as would be advice to answer the two big questions: What will you contribute to the school community (and the school reputation when you graduate)?, and what does the school provide that you can leverage to achieve your goals/dreams more efficaciously than if you did not come to this school? He really does still have time (as long as Naviance does not go on autopilot) to influence further outcomes.
Hereâs a question born of curiosity: if one is deferred, can one ask to have portions (LORs, or even essays) replaced in oneâs application, or can one only augment what is already there?
Congrats to your son on Princeton, and fingers crossed for something closer to home!
@ItsJustSchool - Thank you so much!
OK so an update on that boy⊠I was on lunch duty last Friday and went to the table that contained that boy and my son and a bunch of my former Chem students. I invited them all to a âhelp finishing the RD before breakâ for this afternoon (today Wed). Several of my former students (who have gotten into places, though not fancy places, but theyâre not quite as heavy hitters grade-wise/score-wise) eagerly said they would be there. That boy said, âI donât know, I donât really feel like itâ. (Which is also what he said when I suggested adding more colleges to his EA or safety list also in a group with my DS and some other kids a few months back.)
So it looks like Iâm giving a session today but I successfully made it a general activity that (argh) wonât meet my original goal.
In additional annoying news, a colleague of mine who is the one who wrote what I suspect was a weak letter for that kid, heard that I was offering some work time together and said to me, âwhy? youâre not a writing teacher,â which I thought was unnecessarily rude. (GC said it was a fine idea btw, so this guy is just being petty for who knows what reason.)
Thatâs an excellent question re. replacing chunks of the application during deferral, and I have no idea what the answer is! (Iâm also eagerly awaiting answers to many of the good FAFSA questions weâve heard so far on this list including the one about, if you think youâd just get merit at that school, do you have to fill it outâŠ)
My niece applied to college last year. She had questionable essays and got rejected from Barnard ED in spite of virtually perfect scores. I asked her about her LoR and she said that the teachers had been hesitant and demurred at first but that she asked again and talked them into doing the letters. I was appalled! Her mom (my sister) went to a great college and should have been more on top of this. However, we were able to help her get new/better LoR in time for the RD cycle. But since this boy at my school is totally not under my purview, thereâs a limit to my meddling. 
Re schools closer to home - LOL that would be Harvard and MIT which are each less than a mile from our house. Those need a good dose of luck!!!
@fretfulmother Unfortunately , you got exactly the response that I expected from your sonâs friend . Perhaps this attitude is why he got less than stellar LORs. In order to be educated, one has to be willing to admit that one doesnât know everything and that one still has things to learn . It sounds like this boy is unable to do that . It may also have been reflected in his essays making him a less than desirable candidate. As hard as it will be, do not offer any more help. If this boy manages to get accepted anywhere, Iâm afraid heâll be in for a rude awakening.
In terms of your coworkersâs snarky comment, it sounds like he suffers from the same condition of know it all itis. You exercised greater self control than me . I wouldâve asked him why he was concerned . Then I wouldâve reminded him that you are a college graduate capable of reading, pointed out that he should considerate offering assistance some time and proceed to quiz him on the periodic table. What a pompous buffoon.
@fretfulmother and others who are wondering about fafsa for merit only scholarships. I wrote the assistant dean of Student Development/Director of Alumni, Honors, Career Services and Student Financial Aid for of my daughterâs colleges about that specific question. The answer was that no FAFSA was needed for merit only scholarships. It seems like that would be the case regardless of the school but you could confirm by email with the school(s) you are considering. I got the answer from from the assistant dean in a less that 24 hours.
I am really impressed by your attempts to help the friend of your son.
Congrats to all who have received good news recently. It is our busy time at work so I am falling farther and farther behind in these posts.
Also good news for my daughter - she is in to the honors program at Ohio State and got good scholarships worth about half the coa from the university.
Congrats @Themommymommy
Re: meddlingâŠIâve tried and tried to offer assistance to kids whose parents are not familiar with the process and how to come up with a college list that also includes financial safeties, but nobody wants my help! I ran into one of the kids yesterday and he rattled off the list of colleges he applied to for engineering. I donât think any of the schools are known for guaranteed merit scholarships for stats and it might be too late at this point to add schools as the deadlines for priority consideration for scholarships may have passed. He didnât even apply to any instate options. His parents are close friends of mine so I worry that there will be some frustration and difficulty when a decision has to be made.
@Themommymommy, congratulations to your daughter.
Its hard to hear that your kidâs friends are not making the best decisions in the application process. My D has one friend who is very high in class rank but whose SATâs arenât quite at the same level. She has been deferred by both EA schools she applied to and is now panicking. Iâm surprised because these schools arenât super selective and we thought these were both easy admits for her. I donât think she has even applied to a safety yet, as she was counting on one of those two coming through. I have talked to my D about what I think this girl should do. My D agrees and I hope she and her friend are talking, but I donât have a close enough relationship with this girl myself to say anything directly.
My D is actually in an uncomfortable position among many of her friends because of this process. She has been accepted everywhere and is just trying to decide. But most of her friends were rejected and deferred by their EA and ED choices. D was trying to keep it quiet and then my BIL (husbandâs brother) posts on her facebook page âCongratulations on getting accepted everywhere you appliedâ D was very upset.
@carolinamom2boys - Thank you! Oddly, that coworker is a science guy as well. I think he was just being a bozo for no good reason. I smiled to read the phrase âpompous buffoonâ and it will give me the inner smile in dealing with this fellow today! Also, I fear you are correct about the underlying issues with my sonâs friend.
@Themommymommy Thank you and congrats to your D!! That is a great scholarship from (t)OSU!
@RyanG1207 Yes, so frustrating. The financial (or otherwise) safety is so important. I think it was @AsleepAtTheWheel who reminded me about the benefits also of a rolling admission safety. The boost from good news carries over into interviews, confidence, even performance in classes. I cannot believe how many kids donât follow advice to start safety applications (and submit them) before knowing what the early round will bring. The lack of awareness also carries over into how they view my DSâs news about getting into P - i.e. figuring heâs âdoneâ without paying attention to issues of FA or comparing/negotiating $$ etc. I know some families donât care about the money angle, but surely some of these families should.
ETA: I know some kids didnât have access to the advice, and Iâm not judging them at all! Iâm thinking of my DSâs classmates who know perfectly well everything that he learned in Guidance and from parents and teachersâŠ
@me29034 - weâre in a similar/parallel situation! Oh, I can imagine how your D felt about the FB post. My son isnât telling anyone at school that he got into UMich precisely for that reason. Apparently this has been a generally bad year for our school⊠Something like 90% deferrals from UMich, and almost everyone deferred from the lotteries. Luckily, UMA is coming out right about now (takes a few weeks for all departments) and I hope that will give some relief for kids to have an option.
@me29034, @fretful, there is nothing wrong with your kids being excited or happy with being accepted to where they applied. They didnât get in by hurting their fellow classmates. @me29034 Your BIL didnât do anything wrong either. Their friends should be happy for your kids.
I hear you on the trying to keep a low profile on the whole situation. My son has a few friends who aimed very high for ED and are now scrambling to get RD apps in. I was a little surprised they didnât do s batch of EA apps just for peace of mind. Also, on his one deferral, his friend for outright rejected and on another acceptance, his friend got deferred. So, while he is of course happy, he doesnât want to talk too much about it all.
Of course there was no guarantee our strategy would yield the results we hoped for and we are very glad it did. Having said that, this forum really has helped is be realistic about things and refine our strategy. It really really does help to do research and hope for the best, but plan based on that research.