my son is filling out the finacial form for Universtiy of washington st louis and it is not the fasfa it is their own form It asks for wages and mentions W2’s I am self employed so it is already listed under my income gain do I also list it under wages seems like it is counted twice any tax people out here
@Ynotgo Many articles available but here is a pretty straightforward article on the topic.
http://www.consumerreports.org/health/help-your-college-age-child-in-a-medical-emergency/
Welcome to the new folks – the more the merrier!
Apps status
D has no apps submitted yet and five due on 11/1! 
Luckily only one of those requires a supplemental essay. D and I had considered her CA essay done, but after going back and forth she’s decided to ask her 10th/11th grade LA teacher to give it a look. This is the same teacher who gave her a copy of the LoR she wrote which I thought was a great reflection of who D is as a student. The teacher has already offered to help with the essay and I’m really glad D finally decided to share it. She will be submitting one no-essay app this weekend.
LoR gifts
I think D will just send a nice thank you note. Our school district policy is that they allow “token” gifts, but even those are discouraged. If we do go with a gift it would be chocolates.
Sports
Oldest D never did a sport, just dance dance dance. I think it similar benefits. She found a very supportive community, improved her not-so-great social skills, and learned how to work in a group situation. D17 has been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu for ten years and Muay That and Crossfit for a few. All are at the same studio which has great coaches and mostly good students (a few bad apples here and there). It’s been a very positive experience for her. Now I just have to hope she doesn’t drop out of college to become an MMA fighter! S18 has tried a couple of sports (BJJ and fencing), but only lasted a couple of years in each one. He’s naturally more social and more of team player than the D’s, so I don’t feel like he’s missed out on anything.
Facebook
I’d join a private fb group, but I’d want it to be vetted in some way. Years ago I was part of an online group for pregnant women whose due dates were the same month as mine. We got to know each other and shared pics and so forth. One newer member slowly started to get creepy and I’m pretty sure s/he was not a pregnant woman.
As self employed you wouldn’t have W2. Maybe 1099 forms if independent contractor.
I would ask exactly what’s required but they probably want tax returns with schedule C for business.
sports: @snoozn, That’s funny, my older girl is all dance all of the time. Younger daughter primarily does martial arts. Neither has ever participated in competitive team sports.
Thanks for the link, @paveyourpath – I’ve sent it to DH and will make sure he reads it.
Some progress was made here yesterday! Still no apps submitted, and I don’t expect “Submit” to be hit until (hopefully) a few days before Nov. 1. So yes, we are in the same boat as @thshadow and others.
Progress:
– He submitted his side of the NMSF application. His GC told him that if he had it finished by Monday, that would give the school enough time. He used an essay from his Naviance Brag Sheet, and it fit perfectly at 544 words. He likes that essay (about what he learned about himself from his summer program), so I think he will reuse it at varying lengths elsewhere.
– He submitted Part 1 of a Nov. 1 EA app (and I paid the app fee).
– He finished writing the essays for Part 2 of that app and cut them to the correct length (except the additional info section). I’ve looked them over, and we sent them to the person who will review them (GCs don’t do that here) along with a few questions.
– He emailed his interviewer for that school with info about what times work for him, so hopefully he’ll hear back soon.
– I sent dual-enrollment transcripts from 3 colleges to the 2 EA colleges. I’m going to wait on the others to see where he actually applies come January.
He still has 2 Slideroom supplements to start for the 1st EA school; that could take awhile. There are so many pieces to these applications!!
He still has another Nov. 1 EA app to start. That’s about 5-6 essays plus finishing the Common App essay. I think it doesn’t need Slideroom supplements, though.
The progress came at the expense of skipping the UCLA Open House. UCLA is coming to his school next week, so perhaps that will be useful.
I’m not expecting any college app progress today, since he had 2 ECs to attend, extensive problem sets for his two UC classes, and wants to watch the debate tonight. Monday isn’t a holiday here.
No HS transcripts or LoRs appear to be sent yet, but those aren’t due for 3 weeks. I’m planning to hold off on being uptight about it until Oct 26 or so. From what I’ve read, DS’ 2 EA schools are fine with LoRs and transcripts taking a bit longer to arrive, so long as all the parts the kid needs to submit are on time.
@Ynotgo The medical POA would be helpful in the event of an injury or illness. Once your child turns 18 they are legally an adult and no one will talk to you about them even in the event of an emergency, and even when you are the emergency contact.
Just last month, before my D went back to college (5 states away), she visited her allergist. Their office and the doctor told me that all medical information has to go through my daughter from now on. While I understand the concept, I do believe that this is a process and our children do not magically become capable adults at age 18. I reminded them that if they wanted the bills to be paid, they had to send them to me. We will see how it works with the doctor’s office trying to reach D while she is in class all day and has insurance questions.
@longwood my kids’ doc feels along the same lines as you do-they said the info goes to the kids once they turn 18, but they’ll call me first because they can “never get in touch with college kids” Lol. One of the reasons I like this doc is that she’s very pragmatic and so is her practice. I need to make sure D17 does the medical power of attorney, I’ll ask her grandpa to do it as long as she’s ok with it (I can’t imagine she wouldn’t be, but it should probably have an expiration date like when she graduates from college).
D17 is pretty much finished with the common app, we have to find out what year her grandfather graduated from Northeastern, and since he doesn’t have a phone and MIL periodically “forgets” to answer her phone (because she’s mad at me for some random reason), she has an email in to grandpa that we hope he answers, otherwise we’re just going to have to guess based on his birthday.
She pulled Drexel from her list as her other safety, said there’s no point and there’s no way she’d like it better than UA.
Her Common App essay is way over, so she’s green-penning it tonight. She saves me for final proofing. She’s working on the Olin questions but feels a little intimidated by them-from my perspective she just doesn’t want to toot her own horn, from her perspective she doesn’t want to sound like Dr. Evil.
@snoozn I was also part of a group for moms with similar due dates and we had an imposter in our group! So strange! I really do have a child graduating this year!
I like this group here with its active users and lurkers. A closed group just wouldn’t be the same. I also like all the National Merit talk, and Alabama talk, even though neither apply to me. It’s what folks are involved with right now.
@Ynotgo – It is easy and important to get a medical POA for your 18+ year college child. Forms available for each state online. (I am an attorney though just used simple, online (notarized) forms for this.) Hope we will never need it, but we have heard too many horror stories re parents not being given information and/or decision-making authority re their college children. Everyone should consider a medical POA when sending kids off to college.
Young college students are one of my favorite demographics in family practice.
Me (on the phone with 18 y/o who recently saw me on spring/winter/summer break and who is now back in college) - “Hey X I would like to explain your test results to you so we can come up with a follow-up plan.”
Student - ok cool!
Me: --explains results, talks about possible diagnoses and plan
Student- --thoughtful pause, asks a question or two and then “could you text that to my mom or call her? Because she’s going to ask me agazillion questions and I’m about to go into class/club/the game and I don’t want her blowing up my phone” :))
ED application and EA application submitted!!! <:-P
I am officially a nag free mom 
Congrats @greeny8. I think you should get an icon to add to your photo (is that called Avatar?) We could have one for the Alabama folks, one for everyone with an app filed, one for everyone with an acceptance…
Here we sit at 11:18pm revising the essay that will be submitted tonight before bed for NMSF. It’s not great, but am not sure how much that matters for NM. However, I was foolishly hoping that perhaps it could suffice as the CA essay for the GT 10/15 deadline. Nope. No school on Wednesday…leaving time for another long day of parsing every word.
Congrats to @greeny8! @CT1417 – we are on same timing as you. Just submitted NMSC essay and app. Essay seems to be pretty much ready for next week’s CA submission, though supplements need work. Many comments here have me very worried that schools are not as automatically on top of all this as we would expect. Yikes.
@DMV301 – Confirmation of submission email arrived at 11:58pm.
I was actually very pleased with his GC who sent me an email earlier this afternoon commenting that she did not see his teacher LOR requests in Naviance. Now, she had already written to me & him after hours Friday to say that she had submitted her LOR and to remind him to process the teacher LOR requests…and he still had not handled it until she sent the reminder note today.
She is brand new to the role of GC, so I am happy to see that she is more than on the job! I think my son’s (lame) reasoning for not submitting the teacher LOR requests is because he knew that one teacher would not be submitting on time for GT on 10-15, but that is OK as GT has a document deadline of 12-1. Nonetheless…he should have processed the request via Naviance.
Onward…to bed!
@vandyeyes Thanks for the clarification with the language requirement for engineering at 2Lane (avoiding overzealous CC users with canned searches for their schools). Forgot to mention that exception, since we are not longer focused on engineering (my daughter originally, 12 months ago, was focused on BME).
Interviews: My daughter has one with a Case alumni this week. She’s very excited. This will be her 3rd interview, and I think she’s found a comfort zone.
Apps: No movement for a bit. Was going to use trip to 2Lane to provide input for the “Why Tulane” essay, but now it’s no longer necessary. CA Essay is complete pending a final-final review, then should be pulling the trigger for Case Western and maybe another that has no supplement. Working to finish a competitive scholarship app this week.
Marching Band - Final competition was tonight. Senior night in a couple weeks! She’s so sad, but glad at the same time. It’s the end of a major 4-year commitment, which isn’t easy. (I’m doing a happy dance, since it won’t get in the way of any late EA or regular RD apps! 
)
JOTN: Me and my daughter during the college search:
Person 1: Knock! Knock!
Person 2: Who’s there?
Person 1: Control Freak.
Person 2: Con…
Person 1: Okay, now you say, “Control Freak who?”
We have a new GC as well. No word re any of this NMSC stuff from that GC. Hmmm
DS finally finalized his Comm on app essay after several revisions. He has one EA app due 10/15 and it requires Teo short essays and he almost done with them.
DD is finished with her Comm App essay. Finally.
Now working on so many supplemental.
Loving reading Tulane reviews - I am from the Big Easy originally - now in NY. Went to Tulane Law School. I could see DS18 going there maybe. We’ll see.
DS 17 - is right now at 2 day Turning Tartan trip at Carnegie Mellon. His passions are electrical/computer engineering and computer science. So far he has liked the tours & info and campus as well. Going to a CS class (parallel computing - I am not sure what that is but hope he has an idea) and an engineering class (2 hr design class) (3 hrs of classes!) and hopefully will go see the maker space and learn about the IDeATe program too. Will get a fuller report. He told DS so far it is second only to MIT. He is not the most organized kid and I am urging DS to go check out what is offered for supports, guidance etc— apparently there are some. Good though to hear him say I could see myself here and joyful about going to classes today. We’ll see how he feels afterwards - I suggested he think about size (no of students), interactions with professor and overall pace and interest level. For the design class I wonder if it will be CAD or hands-on stuff or a combo - will be interesting to get his report as he is a bit of a connoisseur.