Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
5541

I’ve checked the school’s web sites and a couple of them clearly state no Fafsa needed for merit $$, just need based. Maybe his safety state school choice would need it, but the private school doesn’t need it. I’ll have to check, I couldn’t find the info easily.

Everywhere, all over the internet ,it says to fill the FAFsaout, even if you are a gazillionaire ( I’m not), just in case. I just don’t see the reason. I have the money in a 529 and in another account. I’m not going to need the aid.

@itsgettingreal17 I like your assessment of " I wouldn’t bother" :slight_smile: Makes it easier for me.

Do the overwhelming majority of applicants fill one out?

5542

Might be less than ideal, but for some of us, it’s the only possibility. For my family, for example, we live over 2,000 miles (by car) from the nearest US school with even a limited degree of selectivity. For others, they may have school or caregiving or whatever schedules that don’t really allow for taking a week or two off during the school year to tour colleges. So it goes.

5543

In part because you never know what you might get, but also because it provides access to federally guaranteed student loans for use toward whatever isn’t covered by merit aid, as well as federal work-study jobs.

5544

@jmek15 Interesting. I have heard they are good at determining who is applying there as a safety, but I thought that one element of this was tracking interest. Now I’m confused! Any idea how they determine whether it’s considered a safety? I know a lot of high-stat kids were waitlsted last season. It’s a shame for high-stat kids who really want to attend.

5545

Regarding summer visits of colleges - we have no choice but to do some of these but as school starts after Labor Day for my DS, we should catch a few colleges that are back in session. But to see the basics of the university & show interest for those where important to do we feel a need to go to thee whenever we can this summer.

5546

@Midwest67 Thank you for the UKy information. The amount of new buildings and dorms on campus, especially by Fall 2017 when D would look to start, is amazing. Hope you don’t mind, but I had a couple of questions. Is your D16 doing one of the LLPs? D is looking at a couple of the Honors ones, but might be interested in a couple others too. Has she been assigned housing yet? Also, regarding Merit Weekend, I love the idea of getting to register and get your ID so early. How hard is it to change that schedule if she tests out with APs from her senior year, since those scores won’t come out until July? Do you meet with advisers from your major to help set that up? Again, congrats to you and your daughter on a debt free opportunity.

5547

What’s your #1-ish school that has totally fallen off the list (BOD, SOS, WBOD, spreadsheet) since you’ve started looking seriously at schools for K17?

Ours? University of Minnesota. UMinn has announced tuition increases, and D17 states her desire to ‘not wear pants’. So, it’s gone. (Has a great program for her, so I’m a little bummed).

5548

@2muchquan imo it’s how much heart the student puts into the “Why Tulane” essay. That’s where the student can show that they’ve done their research and really connected with the school.

There is a CC moderator called Fallenchemist who is a Tulane expert. His advice to high achieving students who were distressed because they were waitlisted was to let Tulane know that it’s their first choice and they will attend if accepted. Tulane’s just protecting their yield numbers, after all!

5549

@RightCoaster do what you feel makes the most sense for you. In our experience though, as a full pay family, filling out the FAFSA did benefit both children with extra grants in one case (private) and an academic scholarship in the other (OOS). The OOS required the FAFSA for disbursement. The grants were unexpected and due to institutional methodology versus FAFSA EFC and that institutional non need monies requiring the financials.

Point being, why take the chance of leaving money on the table? You really do never know. We are very much full pay by almost any schools methodology on the surface of it. Our oldest, my SS, did not file the FAFSA his first year as his mother felt much the same as you do. The idea of “asking” for aid was beneath her as she felt the kids shouldn’t/didn’t need it. She was convinced to do so the following year by another parent (not us), though skeptical, and interestingly enough, SS was offered non need based grants that had not been made available before. The NPC would not have indicated, nor did the schools website, that this would be the outcome.

5550

@jmek15 Yes, have posted a few times, having FC respond. He was one of those suggesting a visit I believe, realizing not everyone can, of course. :slight_smile:

Great point about the “Why Tulane” essay. I think you’re right, that is a great way to show interest. I think one reason to avoid the waitlist in the first place is to increase your odds at the big merit awards. Not sure it would be a financial option to accept a spot on the waitlist.

ETA: Tulane did not take anyone off the waitlist this year, so there’s that.

5551

My son took Colby off his list. He likes Maine. Tough school to get into these days though,and i’d think he’d fall short with scores and gpa. Very nice place though, I think he would’ve liked it there. He eliminated all LACs from the list. He thought he might like to study econ and then go to law school. After reading more about how hard it is to make it in the law profession he decided to just stick to business. I didn’t realize the law profession was in a funk either until we researched it.

Probably for the best. Glad he figured out some sort of plan.

5552

@mtrosemom another happy dance for your S 4.0 <:-P

@RightCoaster I never filled out the FASFA for my D16 and I won’t be for D17. As you, we are in the minority and are blessed to not have to take out loans. Only you can answer those questions if it’s really necessary.

5553

@eandesmom Ok, point taken. I like to hear real life stories like yours. It’s kind of awkward asking people we know, so I appreciate the feedback I get from you all :slight_smile:

I guess we’ll fill out. Maybe with 2 kids in college in a few years the NPC will work better in our favor.

Hey it’s not beneath me to ask for " free money". Ha. I’ll take anything I can get.

5554

Ooh, this is a fun one.

Minnesota and George Mason looked perfect on paper, but both fell off after visits.

Bard and Wellesley had been high on the list but never even made it to the visit stage, just because of the vibe she started to get from their promotional materials and websites.

And Smith fell off the list for similar reasons, but has worked its way back on. So there’s that, too.

5555

@2muchquan, S doesn’t have a #1 school to fall off the list. He has taken some regions of the country off of the list because they are too far. He has also knocked a few lower level (for him) schools off the list after seeing more schools with better academics for him. He is a kids who definitely will grow where he is planted.

5556

@TimEnchanter @Midwest67 @Mom2aphysicsgeek University of Kentucky was in contention for DD’14 until the last day…she enjoyed the campus, the people were so friendly, and she met with a linguistics professor who made her feel very welcome. And of course the NM package was very, very attractive. I think Cornell won out only because it was so much closer, which is a big bonus, but I sometimes wonder if being in a department with more personal contact would have been good for her. She is getting great grades and all, but sometimes she seems stressed and she doesn’t seem to have much direction with respect to her summers and her plans after college.

Ah well, she’ll land on her feet. But I just wanted to second your good feelings about UK.

On HS grading: Our school also only gives numerical grades on a 100 scale. So I was really confused when I came to CC because at our school a 4.0 is 100, and on that scale, my older kids only had a 3.95 or so and how could they compete with all these GENIUSES who get 4.0 with so many more APs than we have available??? LOL. For AP courses, the final grade is multiplied by 1.04 and Advanced (but non-AP) courses are weighted by 1.02. And a 90 here is 3.5 as well. But yes, the colleges all recalculate anyway so it matters pretty little, in the end.

5557

FAFSA shouldn’t be that bad to fill out, especially since the 2015 tax return that will be used on the 2017/18 FAFSA which opens this October, is already finished (I assume, or will be by October) and you can use the “link to IRS” tool to import it into FAFSA.

Now I’ve heard people say that the CSS profile is another story.

5558

@TimEnchanter

Yes, she is doing the Honors LLP. She reported that at Merit Weekend, they were pushing the STEMcats LLP. D said she wanted to live in Honors and meet kids with a variety of academic interests, not just STEM. She just got a roommate a week or two ago; they found each other on social media. Completely different majors.

I’ve heard from parents with older students at UK that it is very easy to switch out the classes after AP credit comes in. D only took a few APs in HS, and is on a science track, so it doesn’t really apply to her (even if she does well on AP Bio, she wants to start at Intro Bio). She is going to take the CLEP exam for Spanish though, so she gets credit for placing ahead. Yes, she met with an advisor and is satisfied with her schedule, except she couldn’t get in Honors Bio and is on a WL.

We are a bit more hands-off than a lot of parents. I can’t even tell you exactly what classes D signed up for, or exactly which dorm she is living in. She’s handling most of it. So far, our interactions with the school have been very positive.

We are in an HMO for health insurance, so we will need a supplemental policy for UK. It looks to be about $2200 for the year. My understanding is we need to pay taxes on the room & board stipend. We were told the room and board $$$ goes into your student account, and can be used for living on campus or used for living off-campus (as an upperclassman).

It’s a 3.3 to keep the scholarship, which is a little higher than the 3.0 at other schools. Fingers crossed that works out.

5559

Re: Grading scales
For us, A- and A+ are both 4.0 on the GPA (5.0 if honors/AP/IB/DE). The + and - are listed on the transcript, and I’ve also heard that many colleges recalculate. The UC system doesn’t look at + and - in their GPA calculation, so that’s probably why our HS doesn’t. The local community college does have a 3.7 or so for an A-.

Our scale is similar to others: 90-92% is A-, 93-96% is A, 97-100% is A+. Teachers decide on their own whether they want to round or even have the online system compute tenths of a percent. Generally, our STEM teachers are better at working the online grading system than non-STEM teachers.

I’m glad they don’t list the actual class percentage on the transcript, because kids would be endlessly bugging teachers for extra points or to correct small grading and data entry errors. Considering that there is essentially no extra credit or curve in any subject and that a 95% is a pretty standard grade in English and History for “Looks good; I didn’t notice any problems,” I don’t know how anyone could get a 100%.

Re: College visits
I’m thinking that we may swing up to CalPoly SLO and down to UCLA and USC after school gets out. Some of them will be on summer session. UCLA doesn’t have tours scheduled, but USC and CalPoly do. Otherwise, I think we’ve toured what we need to in CA (except UCSD), and anything East Coast will have to wait for Accepted Students days if any. We don’t have a long fall break or anything.

Re: Applying early
S has two reach EA schools, but he will probably get deferred because they defer a lot of kids. I don’t think there are any schools on the list that he’ll hear back from until March. That will be a long wait! As far as I know, only one school tracks interest, and he isn’t really seriously interested in that one.

Re: Off the list
Well, none of these were ever #1ish, but I think there’s a good chance USC will come off the list after we tour. It’s probably too rah-rah sports-oriented and the kids we know who’ve gone there have been student gov’t kids instead of academic kids. NYU didn’t go on the list after he visited for an event–too urban. CMU didn’t go on the list for physics after a tour of that department; he still plans to throw in a Hail Mary application for computer science. There are lots of East Coast schools that have been considered but probably won’t be on the list because of the travel and weather.

Re: Final grades
DS still has 2+ weeks left and lots of projects to do, so we’ll see. There’s a group projects thread; he’s complaining about the same thing–teammates not willing to do work so he’s stuck with most of it.

-------Catching up--------
Welcome @novicemom23kids!!

Congrats to @dfbdfb’sm, @4beardolls’s, and @mtrosemom’s kids for getting all As!!

@MotherOfDragons Mead at a Ren Fair brings back memories for me…

5560

All US schools have fallen off my D17’s list. She is only applying to schools in the UK and Ireland. It was confirmed when this morning she said she was skipping the junior meeting for filling out the Common App. She will be using the UCAS form only.