Congrats to all with interviews and scholarship weekends! Huge Kudos to you fighting the financial aid battles.
MuggleDad, who is an incredibly busy guy decided to help with the financial stuff. I was so excited that I had one less thing to do. He submits FASFA, great. CSS profile. Great, Gets to IDOCS and he can’t log in.He waits a few days before he tells me there’s an issue. Obviously its my problem. Turns out, he put the wrong SSN on the CSS Profile. Now what? Calls to CSS Profile, IDOCs (no they aren’t the same office), and every school on the list. Some had wait times over 40 minutes. Some had bad 70’s music playing. 2 full days later and everyone is called and everything is straightened out. Interestingly some schools figured it out on their own, and some just ignored it and figured they’d get to it eventually. Darling hubby decides to try IDOCs next. Would you believe he feels the need to take care of that it midnight and puts the wrong birthday on one of the forms? More phone calls, more emails. Trying so hard not to cry (or laugh, or laugh then cry). 3 schools won’t talk to me because they haven’t requested that IDOC document yet, but they most likely will and then we’ll have an issue. Everything else is resolved. Oy. I spent more time putting out fires than he did with the original job. On the positive side, I’ve earned plenty of brownie points.
Semester 1 just ended here. I am hoping the stress levels are going to head downward now. Fingers crossed.
@MuggleMom My H would have been using his “favorite curse word” right about now if he were you! Hopefully it is all straightened out.
Our 1st semester ended the last week of January and report cards (all virtual now, of course) are out. D maintained her GPA, all is well. The science fair project looks like it will get finished on time for Saturday’s expo, but it had better all be done at school, because D’s driving class is in the final week so the instructor is scheduling them all for road driving after having to cancel some last week. D drives tomorrow, Friday and again on Saturday. Thursday is choir. There is no time for after-school work at all.
Still waiting on FA and honors decisions. Tap tap tap.
@MuggleMom, don’t feel bad, we have made our fair share of mistakes. I was working on the iDOC when I noticed that my 1040’s were not signed so I scanned in signed 1040’s. About two minutes later I realized I sent in the unsigned 1040’s. I also didn’t put S SS# on all the forms. I was doing my FAFSA update and when I signed it at the end I guess I accidentally sent it to the schools so now I have to redo it again once the IRS Retrieval Tool has my taxes. @sseamom don’t worry, there were enough cuss words to go around at my house last night.
I wish I had made D11 apply for a private and a state college when she was graduating. She didn’t have the stats to get in, but at least I could have had a practice run.
Dear @MuggleMom, please send the husband we apparently share this direction when you’re done with him. (on second thought…) No, it’s okay, my financial aid paperwork is done. I refused to let Mr. Petrichor help, and he knows better than to insist.
I tend to swear in French and Serbo-Croatian. Our kids still picked it up, but the other playground mommies didn’t know what they were saying so no one got ostracised.
@mysonsdad I am considering this time around the training session for S20 who will come from a homeschooling background and be completely disorganized. My S16 has handled most everything on his own with the exception of finances. With my younger son I will need more significant planning both academically and financially.
I would have been in the same boat- making mistakes & submitting financial documents with incorrect numbers so, I am thankful my DH looked things over & found my error. With that being said, we are still waiting on the 1099 to finish CSS.
On another note, I was on my way to the Post Office to mail yet another scholarship application when I passed my DS’s elementary school.
Had a minor panic attack- thinking “where has all the time gone?”
Got the “no thanks” letter for a full ride scholarship today (not the one she just interviewed for). I think the bad news is starting to flow here…We knew the search for merit would be tricky.
Oh dear, sorry @Booajo ! D got bad news today as well. She was applying for a substantial local scholarship and called to clarify what she should write in where it asked for the college name, since she hasn’t decided yet (the scholarship would have made it an easy choice…) The co-chair answered and told D that they no longer give scholarships to undecided students, only those who have committed to a school, so she should not apply. >:P
She was very disappointed, but is already onto the next app. But really, spell that out on the instructions, people, or it’s likely that many applicants are just wasting their time.
Oh @sseamom, how frustrating! Why would they put that limitation on the scholarship if winning it might help the decision making process?
Would anyone know when the schools who announce mid-to-late March typically inform about financial aid packages? Is it usually with the acceptance? I’m thinking it could be a crazy mad dash to figure out which schools to visit in April if we don’t know yet what aid they’re offering. I’d hate to spend a lot of money to visit a school only to find out that their package was paltry.
