DS got the NSHSS mailing as well. Don’t they know we all talk to each other about these things!?! 
S came back from an interview for a SUPER-SUPER REACH (lottery) school. I confess to having been a little puzzled about this interviewer. The interviewer asked S to send him a copy of his entire common application and supplemental essays. He wanted to have the same documents admissions will see. I don’t know how common this is, but S sent it right away. I thought it was odd …
Turns out that S loved the interview and interviewer. The interviewer complimented S on his essays, especially his common app. The application allowed the interviewer to know S before seeing him. The interview turned out to be S’s opportunity to share more details about him and his story. It was really nice to have feedback from someone who doesn’t have skin in the game. S loved it. The interviewing process has turned out to be the best part of this whole process, so far very interesting people 
@Waiting2exhale - we also toured Spelman and this is my take on it: The campus is BEAUTIFUL. The lawn is so perfect it could be a golf course. Or country club. Our tour guide was very well versed in everything Spelman. The presentation and Q & A before the tour and admin when we went back for additional questions left us with this impression: “We are awesomely awesome and if YOU’RE awesomely awesome, we might be willing to let you grace the halls of our awesomely awesome school. If not, we don’t have time for you.”
D did not apply.
Yes, @sseamom, sometimes that is the impression the much-hailed places leave you with. We’ve gotten that exact impression twice, with two different kids at two different times from Yale. We just walked away.
The girls at Spelman did not find my coif up to snuff, I suppose. I wore hair cut as short as my eyebrows, lace skirts down to my ankles, and combat boots. They were in designer jeans and lipstick.
As for your daughter, she sounds like she is all DO. I rather think they would learn to understand what awesome looks like were they to find her on their campus.
Super Congrats to all receiving acceptances, scholarships and having good interviews in the last day or so!
We too are still receiving a ton of college mailings and emails too. It is discouraging to imagine the amount of paper and cost of printing and postage that goes into all that recycling. As much as being inundated with emails annoys me, I’d rather that then see all that money going straight into the garbage. Some schools send thick pamphlets and even bound books! I am all for advertising BUT does it really pay off to enough to cover the cost of all that waste?
We also received that NSHSS yesterday and I heard exactly the same thing…if you have to pay for the “honor” its no honor! So in the trash it goes.
We are still in a holding pattern (waiting on the few remaining EA decisions) but D has another interview on Snow Storm Saturday morning…UGH…and they are not rescheduling! So we will brave the snow, cold and wind and trudge into the city! After that D is still waiting on 2 more lottery school alumni interviews and then its the long haul decision wait until the end of March.
D is working diligently through mid terms week with much less ado than ever before…not sure if this is a good thing or not. Maybe she is just more used to the routine…I do not know. She did says she thinks she is doing well on all of them so far (so fingers and toes crossed) that we can wrap up this first semester as positively as all along and then relax a bit until its AP Exam time.
One of the schools D applied to sent a really nice email reminding her to send her mid year report with the wording “once they are available” in bold. She liked that so much better than the super reach lottery school who just assumes that everyone will be able to send their mid year report by 1/5/16 even if their semester doesn’t end until the third week in January. So as her extremely efficient (and very inexpensive - I work for hugs) executive administrative assistant, I will send an email to her GC (at the end of the quarter) reminding him to send them and that there are two schools that D applied to that are not on the CA, and therefore probably require a different procedure for sending.
Ugh hoping the snow isn’t too awful for you D’s interview @lvmjac1 Where do you have to go?
DS has actually moved beyond just snail mail or email and is now being called by one college. They were making sure he knew about Honor’s visit day and asked if he is planning to attend. He is already signed up but if weather is nasty we likely will not make the 4.5 hour trip (one-way). It is a month away but I still think he was flattered that they called.
Wow! @Cheeringsection I’m assuming he applied to this school. Hopefully you’ll be able to make the trip.
Good luck to your daughter @lvmjac1
Thanks @readingclaygirl, we have to go to some office building in or near Times Square. We’ll take the train in and then the subway to the location. It shouldn’t be too bad and then we’ll try an have a nice lunch and then come home. I try to make all these college tours, trips, interviews,etc. as fun and memorable as possible. It has taken up so much time that I’d rather remember the many fun things we tried to include into this journey instead of just remembering the drudgery and stress of the process.
Thanks @carolinamom2boys! @Cheeringsection that is a new one…calling to make sure your S knows about Honors visit day…that is great! That must have really made your S feel good!
Also received the NHSHSS (double A, xyz whatever) mail…guess when we didn’t join last year they may have thought the invitation got lost in the mail, so they wanted to give us one more chance to pay for the privilege. So out of curiosity, does anyone know that the membership fees go to? Is scholarships for funding studies or what? I didn’t take the time to read the information before I threw it in the trash,
We did not receive the NHSHSS. DD opted out receiving any promotional mail when she took any kind of tests. So we had less than five promotional college package through out the process.
She did another interview today which lasted 1 hour and 30 mins. She liked today’s interview a lot. So I guess it was worthwhile. The interviewer works a couple of blocks away where I work. So it is nice, I and DD went home together when the interview is done.
This Saturday will be tough for us too because my D2 will take middle school entrance exam on Saturday. The school send us an e-mail saying that if weather is not good, there will be make-up test next week. Anyway, I don’t really want to send D2 to the school even if she is accepted because it is located on upper west side in Manhattan. It will be a real challenge for D2 if she has to commute.
Sooo, I just spent some quality time crunching numbers for the four schools D has acceptances to so far. I personalized the COA (room type and meal plan she would want, average plane flight cost four times, used same book cost for all and made it on the high side for an engineering major, and used the same amount for extra stuff - food beyond cafeteria, local transportation, personal items, clothes, gifts, etc). Then I subtracted out what we agreed to contribute, school merit aid, Stafford loan, and work study.
Holy moly! I’d played with the numbers in my mind, and I’m not sure why I didn’t realize how BIG the difference is between them. D did apply for additional competitive scholarships at the two most expensive colleges. And course, we have lots more schools left to hear from. Overall, I’m feeling like I got caught-up in the what-ifs when I should have been a mature, realistic grown-up. Ugh, being a grown-up sucks.
@readingclaygirl, my CC user name is related in a way to High School Musical, but I didn’t know about the Reunion movie.
@labegg, is that a new profile pic? Very nice!
@palm715, it’s those plane rides to and from Hawaii. Maybe we can arrange a four-year house swap to bring your prices down…oh yeah, I guess I have to be a realistic grown-up too.
@EastGrad let’s politely decline this grown-up business. I’m trading it all in to star in a John Hughes movie. High School Musical isn’t an option because I can’t sing.
@readingclaygirl, yes he applied and it is a school on his short list.
@palm715 so sorry about your sticker shock. I am afraid to sit down and run those numbers because even in my head the differences are huge. We should have more data in a week or two that will allow me to do those calculations fairly accurately. Not looking forward to it, but it will need to be done.
Good luck to all battling the elements to make progress with this process this weekend. Stay warm and safe!!
I’m NHS moderator at my school.
In spite of the warning I post on my website every summer, each year I get some kids who think that the NHSHSS mailing is THE National Honor Society. They shell out $60, then are stunned when their names aren’t read at the NHS induction ceremony. And I have to explain to a disappointed mom and dad that the school didn’t supply NHSHSS with their child’s name or address or-- this is important-- grades. And that while it may be AN honor society, it’s not one honoring their child’s academic achievements. It’s not THE National Honor Society.
And I quietly chuckle (as so my own kids) every time I see an NHSHSS bumper sticker.
@kittymom1102 The most an interviewer has asked S for is his resume. He was glad of that since it gave him a jumping-off point for a couple of things. Not sure what he’d have done if she’d asked for his Common App. I think it would have made him a bit nervous.
@lvmjac1 We’ve been donating the thick booklets/books to the high school guidance office, which seems fairly pleaed to have them. They’ve set up a library of sorts with all the spam mail that previous kids have brought in and the sophomores and juniors are welcome to take anything that strikes their fancy.
Good luck to those in the path of snow! We’re not, but with the drafts coming in around the edges of sketchily-sealed windows, it sure feels like it at 5 am. God bless the inventor of duvets.
@palm715 it can be hard to let go of some of these schools. In my family, seems harder for me than for D16 actually. She has always been a frugal sort.
We have unpleasant news of a different kind–furnace died yesterday so there goes $5000.