@Ballerina016 I am sorry to hear what happened at your daughter’s interview. Wish your daughter does not change her view on the school she applied because of an interviewer.
@readingclaygirl I teach my daughter’s math from time to time. Fortunately, I can teach AP calc BC level Sometimes it is a little tricky to teach a family member. I try teaching math very impersonal but sometimes DD feels not.
@LKnomad Korean culture used to be very similar. Unmarried children live with their parents until they marry. Even though married, oldest son was supposed to live together with his parents. Now, it changes very fast and not anymore.
DD sent out her last app a couple of hours ago. She had one interview today and will have two tomorrow. Interview season is busy and her 1st semester is still on going. There will be finals in two weeks. Her first interview done in November was not good and she felt a little bit disconnected to the school she applied. Her RD school interviews go well and keep her excited to the school.
@Ballerina, S just told me everyone he knows UCB Scholarship. Also sorry to hear about the interview problems.
Regarding portals, emails, etc… S happened to check an email he thought he hadn’t given to any college and found out that the day he checked it was the last day to sign up for interviews.
S finished first semester on 12/17. We are two weeks into the final semester.
Regarding FAFSA, so is it a problem if I wanted until it said it was processed, which was about 24 hours after I sent it or should I have waited 5 days?
S decided to apply to one last college today.
Welcome to the newbies, congratulations to those whose kids have been accepted.
Hurray for @cakeisgreat! What an example for your kids. Congratulations!
@Ballerina016, sounds like your daughter followed through with dignity. My guess is that she has made a good impression on the coordinator, which will be great. I hope she is assigned another interviewer and has a great experience.
@readingclaygirl, good for you for figuring out where you need help and then getting it. Understanding this about yourself now will give you a big advantage in college.
Last day of our second quarter, and D16 and S19 made it through once again. Whew. One more semester checked off.
I got the best news today; the daughter of my best friend since middle school got her first acceptance (and it’s her #1 choice) today! My BFF & I have not lived in the same area since high school, but we talk daily and have supported each other through all the ups and downs of parenthood. She is finishing a two year battle with cancer and raising her toddler grandson after her oldest child made a number of self-destructive choices. She is a teacher in an inner-city charter school and her husband is a police officer. They know better than most to not take any blessing for granted. This acceptance is not just a blessing for their D but for the whole family. I’ve learned so much from this dear woman over the years and was reminded yet again that celebrating the positive can banish a whole lot of negative.
@Ballerina016 what a difficult experience! I hope your D gets a better interviewer!
@cakeisgreat - That’s so cool! I don’t remember too many classmates from any of my random classes, but I DO remember the lady in her 60’s who was finishing up her degree. She inspired all of us.
@readingclaygirl - good luck to you! You’re smart to recognize that you need help.
D’s semester doesn’t end until the 28th. Everything seems to be on track for D. They don’t have finals or midterms, though in some classes they have exams. The all-school science fair is mid-February, and projects have standards in all subjects, so that’s a bit like an all-subject midterm for all of them.
@palm715 Thanks for sharing your friend’s great news regarding her D’s acceptance…and thanks for reminding us that throughout the ups and downs of this college application journey - we need to keep things in perspective and celebrate the many blessings we have in life! There are so many people out there in the world working to overcome much bigger struggles! I am so happy for your friend and her family!
@Ballerina016 I hope that the interview issue gets resolved soon.
Well done to all that have finished applications, exams, and other milestones along this senior year journey!
DS says he has his list down to 2 schools. The one we are visiting promised financial aid packages in February as long as FAFSA has been filed. The challenge will be trying to compare it to the other school’s package since it will likely come much later. It feels really good to be this far down the path.
@cakeisgreat Huge congrats on your acceptance! Business analytics sounds like a very sound idea. I wouldn’t worry about the youthful competition. Your maturity and life experience will be an asset to the right employer. If you can do analytics and have people skills you may even end up managing all those youngsters! It is just another form of parenting. If management is your thing. My mother stopped managing businesses and did training to service Xerox machines. She was 55 and everyone else was a 20-something young man. She called them the boy scouts, and they loved her.
@Cheeringsection It must feel amazing that the decision is narrowed down to 2 final schools. Still rather scattered here trying to chase merit money and honors programs before S narrows down choices too much…and I am not nearly as organized as some other parents on this thread with spreadsheets, lists, etc. that summarize the everything down to the tiniest detail.
My S is beyond burned out trying to keep up with (and complete) scholarship apps and honors apps for 3-4 of the schools he has applied to. Last night he had 3 hours to start (and finish) an essay for a full tuition scholarship application. The school will only be affordable (somewhat) if he is offered that scholarship. He hunkered down in his room and when he came out he said “I have no idea if it was any good or if it is what they are looking for, but they will definitely remember me!”. He would not elaborate further. I am worried that he is just so punchy at this point in the year and has no time or inclination to thoughtfully and thoroughly answer essay questions - but at least they will remember him! Then again, perhaps it was his best work!
@4kids2graduate Our family is right there with yours. Chasing the merit, waiting for financials and cranking out essays . I will be glad when the jumping through hoops is over and we can make some realistic decisions.
@4kids2graduate Sometimes the last minute essays are the best because they truly reflect a student’s core values and personality. Too much overthinking and they probably all start sounding the same and what students think the school wants to hear rather than what is in their heart.
My S16 finally got his second Berkeley LOR submitted just before the deadline. He did not contact the teacher until two days before the deadline and she had either overlooked or not received the invite previously sent via the system. I figured it was up to him to get that done. The letters are supposed to be optional and he has a vanishingly small chance of acceptance anyway. I’m impressed he followed through.
2nd Q is technically over now tho his art teacher will take any work completed on Tuesday. Then midterms next week. I arranged a tutor for Physics that S16 will need to pay for because his online grade was lower than a C. He does not think it necessary. @readingclaygirl I wish you could talk to him.
@palm715, isn’t it great when nice things happen for a good person? So pleased for your friend.
@Mysonsdad, my understanding is that once the e mail is received that the FAFSA has been sent to schools, then the deleting can happen.
@cheeringsection, what a great feeling to have the list significantly narrowed. Like @4kids2graduate and @carolinamom2boys, my D will be chasing money and waiting for decisions for a while yet. And we both have a hard time saying goodbye to schools, haha.
@crowlady, I hate having to follow up on missing LOR…or, rather, my D hates it. Her primary recommender does not like online recs, and tends to go for the paper option, which brings with it extra processing time and a degree of uncertainty about its arrival. She’s needed him for so many recs now though, and is starting to feel awkward about asking so much.
@carolinamom2boys I also can’t wait until “jumping through the hoops” is over!
I try not to dwell on all the hours and hours and hours of work that is going into multiple apps for almost every school. Ultimately most of those schools will fall off S’s list in the next couple of months for various reasons: not getting needed scholarships, not being affordable even with financial aid/scholarships, or vascillating level of interest if additional acceptances change the order of things. I try not to view it as wasted effort…but when they have NO free time now I feel so bad for my S!
Again, I feel like senior year has been kidnapped!
I need to rant… I have been very frustrated by scholarships. D16 has gotten those generic mass reminder emails to fill out scholarship applications from several of her schools, so I diligently review the available scholarships and so far she has not been eligible for any “extra” scholarships that she was not automatically considered for on application.
There is always some qualifying criteria that she fails to meet ie, she didn’t attend a catholic HS, she isn’t a resident from “____” state(s), she is not a minority, we are not an alumnus, we are not veterans, she misses the 3.5 GPA cut off with her 3.46 or she makes a 3.4 GPA cutoff and misses with her SAT/ACT scores, and more often than not our family income is too high, my favorite so far…she does not have a family member who worked for Harley Davidson.
Scholarships from state schools are often stat dependent and scholarships from private universities are often dependent on some random criteria.
I have always suspected that we would be footing the bill for pretty much the whole inflated pricetag. We have saved enough to send our kids to whatever school they are accepted. We only have ourselves to blame for not pushing her to get the extra few points on her GPA or standardized tests, although I would argue that 3.46 was a hard won effort on her part. We will not qualify for any federal financial aid (partially because we have saved). Obviously we could have forced her to attend an in-state school for lower tuition, but that it not the point. It just sometimes hurts staring at the tuition sticker.
If I were designing a scholarship I would create one for the hardworking “B” or even “C” student with no particular hook.
Like so many of you, we’re in waiting mode here. We are waiting on FOUR possible full-rides, though one won’t even be sending out scholarship apps until Feb. 1. We’re also waiting for D’s top school to send out the acceptance (or not), and any possible FA. D told me yesterday that if she had to decide at that moment, she has an order of preference for her top 4 schools, which are pretty much what I thought they’d be. For the other 6 she has no preference and she would choose any one of them only if the first 4 fail in some way.
I thought we were done with applications and essays, but her GC gave her 2 new applications for local scholarships the other day. One is rather significant and is awarded to students with D’s exact profile-GPA, intended major, service hours, etc. All three essay options are ones she’s already chosen for various college apps. It’s due in 3 weeks. so hopefully she won’t dither.
Do the rest of you spend your weekends based on your DC’s activities? Today D has both choir and dance, but not at all together, so we drive her to church at 10 for choir, then home for a few hours, then back up for dance. Tomorrow she dances during the service, so it’s all morning up there, and Monday she’s at the African American museum most of the day teaching the history/craft lesson she created as part of her internship. Days off aren’t really days OFF for anyone!
Took the words right out of my mouth. D did get one total shocker grant that we weren’t expecting, but it’s the principle that’s annoying me. Just missing out on literally ten score points and therefore spending a big chunk of today writing two essays to get an ‘alternate’ admission to the Honors college is my latest annoyance. Also frankly, my son has me to research and find the ways to play the game. Not everyone has that. It’s just such a messed up process in many ways.
I too am weary of this whole process & feel bad for DS and all the time he has spent this year on apps, essays, etc.
It is so difficult these days & it is hard not to think back 35 years at my senior year and how easy the application was. I recall filling in about 1 page- really just demographic information & that was it. And I don’t even want to think about the cost difference!
