On FB, my mom comments a lot, too…but she always just repeats exactly what the comment before hers was! LOL
I love the classroom assignment about college finances/budget!
@jedwards70 wrote
You can set it so their comments aren’t seen on your (or your kids’) timeline. I get tagged with stuff and it goes to timeline review before it goes live, and sometimes I’m like, yeah, no, that’s not going on my FB feed!
You can also filter who sees what when you post. Although that sometimes can be more effort than it’s worth.
The girls don’t have any grandparents on FB, for better or for worse.
I am done with tennis until the fall-it was kind of sad hanging all of my tennis outfits up as I pulled them from the wash and being both glad to be done with tennis (that much playing is rough on my joints) and sad that I don’t get to see a lot of those ladies in person until next fall. But, having a break from tennis and school this month has worked out really well because the girls’ schedule has been nuts, and they’ve needed me a lot. And H is traveling a lot this month for work, so it’s good that I’m available (and needed 
)
This question is for all those chasing merit money: should we contact colleges to find out what rSAT score qualifies for consideration? (This only applies to those that offer automatic merit for stats or have minimum requirements to apply for certain scholarships).
^^I don’t know if they’d tell us. From what I’ve seen, they tend to be rather coy about saying who they give money to, and how much they give.
^^ it seems automatic merit will show in their NPC. At least in most cases. I have only one school so far that didn’t ask for stats in the NPC (and yet still shows a grant). In that case, I can only hope that there is additional merit possibility there.
As for applied scholarships I doubt you’d get any specifics beyond the general info posted on a schools website. That said, in the school specific forums you will see threads sometimes about the specific named scholarships and stats from kids who received, or didn’t which may be helpful.
@eandesmom We applied to some Profile schools. No divorce, but yes small partnership in a business. I got some good info from parents on the school’s forum here at CC about the accuracy of the NPCs, what happens to FA in subsequent years, etc.
Our D was not very happy when we ultimately told her she needed to accept the best deal on the table. Circumstances at work, plus ongoing medical expenses hardened our view and pressured our budget for college downwards. But she knew early on, and has had some months to adjust.
She was heart broken when she was accepted to a reach school that was going to be unaffordable sophomore through senior year. We could have vetoed the application, but she pressed, we warned, and she got hurt.
She was under a lot of pressure from school peers (private school, affluent area, she’s there on scholarship), and maybe the College Counselor, to have a more glamorous application list.
Good luck!
Good morning all. How’s the Facebook feed this morning @jedwards70? 
Oh, my. There are no words, except I am beyond grateful that my mother and MIL are not on FB because this is so something they might do. I shared this on a thread, can’t remember if it was this one, that MIL compares grandkids’ scores and expresses unhappiness that her favs don’t do as well as Spykids. She’s an SAT tutor so there’s no hiding the scores from her. We are horrified as are the parents of the favorite grandkids.
@CT1417 This thread has been hopping the last few days! I work from home so I can hop on when I’m practicing work avoidance.
@eandesmom: D’s college had an admitted night in Portland. The finance officer already had our info so we sat down and I explained that even though we are full pay, we couldn’t fully pay, lol. She worked it out so that the gap was met. Our plan is not to take loans unless it’s absolutely necessary, because we have to pay for D17. DD14 has an on campus job (which thankfully is not tied to income because ours went up this year) and works in the summer. Our deal with her is that she keeps and banks the $ from her jobs in the event something catastrophic happens and we can’t make a payment. She’s a saver and frugal with her money.
@itsgettingreal17: It’s not a bad idea to contact the school if you can’t find the info online, but I’d have your dc call.
I miss playing tennis @MotherOfDragons. I grew up in a sunny climate but now live where the closest tennis club is 30 miles away. It’s a fabulous way to stay in shape and I play in the summer on occasion but am so out of practice. Plus, slow and old. :))
@itsgettingreal17 I would suggest having your student contact the admissions depts and asking if they will changing their criteria for their scholarships, and if so, when will they be releasing that info.
I know Alabama, for example, typically posts its new scholarship thresholds sometime in July.
Fwiw, I don’t think it is an unrealistic question based on the new format and scoring change. IOW, I don’t think they would view it as an annoying question.
No fake grandparents, so fake kid is spared that FB embarrassment.
@itsgettingreal17 We contacted a few schools re: automatic merit money about this time last year, and were given an idea of when the Board would be approving scholarships for the new application season. Going off memory, I think all the schools had updated scholarship info by August.
@Midwest67 in what I’ve read so far, most seem to indicate the NPC’s were very good predictors. However, not all will say if what is shown is renewable or not and outside of meeting with the financial aid office of each school, I’ve no clue how to determine that unless it’s clearly a renewable merit award, which many are. Any insight into that area would be helpful.
@Agentninetynine that is good info though I dread the idea of negotiating post acceptance, we may find well ourselves in that boat. I can only hope to end up at a school that has some flexibility to work with us if needed. I truly hate the idea of limiting the search to only financial safeties. S might well be fine if we did, conceptually he is fine with any of them but I really would like him to have more options and not feel he has to settle without at least evaluating some other choices as I am unconvinced that any are the “best” fit though they would likely be adequate.
Something that may be in your favor is his major @eandesmom. Depending on the schools he’s considering, they may want to grow their department and may offer more money. There are so many variables. And you’re going about it the right way, looking at individual departments and the campus as a whole.
I need to work from home a couple of days this week and D has completely taken over my home office. It has become AP review central. There are AP books, flash cards, papers, etc. everywhere. Ugh! Guess I’ll have to find somewhere else in the house to work. I’m taking it back after her last AP exam next week however. 
@itsgettingreal17 Be warned…the AP study materials could soon be replaced by the college application binders, brochures, books, etc! I don’t expect to see my dining table until all of the applications are submitted in the fall. LOL
Good morning all. S has his last test of the year today. It’s a district and state English proficiency test that is new this year. He survived the APs, CBEs, class finals, and state testing. :)>- He still has more days of school, but they will be fun days, not stressful days. His Asian Studies class made sushi and his English class is watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I am jealous and he doesn’t really get Monty Python (couldn’t understand why the budget only allowed for one horse in the beginning of the movie and then they needed to pretend to be on horseback). I guess you had to grow up with Monty Python. And now that school is effectively over for S, I can start to nag him about studying for the SAT in June! <:-P
My Mom is on FB, but she is discreet and would never ever boast about test score that way. And the only time to use all caps is when you are EXCITED. Otherwise, it is shouting.
There is a thread in CC under scholarships where they list competitive full scholarships. One of the posts listed this - http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
@mtrosemom My 11th grader, 8th grader, and I are reading Le Morte d’Arthur. My 8th grader proclaimed it is the original screen play for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They can be hacked and hewed and they are only flesh wounds and then beautiful women “search their wounds” and off they go. She said there are so many random castles on a tiny island that is really just one big castlehood (ie neighborhood.). Anyway, she spends 1/2 her time laughing. 
We are ending the yr with watching the movie!
h
@eandesmom One parent on one’s school’s forum told us that barring any major change in the family’s finances or # of kids in school, expect the FA award to remain just about the same all four years, BUT expect tuition + R&B to rise. Other parents seemed to agree. If the school has an active forum, that is where I’d start with questions.
It was a reminder for us that we were not comfortable stretching by much at all. Our income fluctuates. What if we string together a few great years? What will that do to our EFC? What happens when we only have one in college, not two? The calculators were not kind.
As mentioned upthread, we put younger D through private high school on a merit + need scholarship. Every year, we had to submit detailed financial documents and then anxiously await our package. We found it stressful because we were stretching to put her through school there, paying out of current income and refusing to borrow. We were still trying to dig out after major setbacks (2008), and our reserve funds were on E.
Every year, tuition & fees went up at her high school, but our scholarship remained about the same. We did not think it wise to go through that, and stretch, for four years of college. Too risky for our family’s financial situation.
We are much more comfortable with a four year merit package that gets our net COA way below our EFC.
I hope that helps. Not sure I answered your question!
“We are the Knights who say Ni!” - love that silly movie. Spykid is watching Forest Gump in APUSH this week. A well deserved break from the craziness before finals.
@Midwest67 This has been our experience as well. It’s wise to prepare for this because tuition alone will increase at least 3 or 3.5 % each year. That’s been the trend so far. And if your dc is far away, airline fees may be higher and the kid may incur other costs along the way such as fraternity or sorority dues, parking fees for an on campus car and other unexpected costs. D pays her own sorority dues and all costs associated with it such as little and big gifts, dresses, etc. and there is no charge for parking but things do crop up.
Spykid’s only lottery school has come off the list. For some reason I didn’t realize that Georgetown was a tippy top school and that they offer NO merit aid. I must’ve confused it with another school. We’re full pay so that is off the list. Even if we were rolling in cash I can’t believe that an undergrad degree is worth $70K a year. And you know that cost will rise by the time the 4 years are up. Sadly they seem to be one of the few that offer the Foreign Service Officer school.