@SincererLove S has not visited yet, but we do plan to get over there. He would have to get the competitive merit scholarships he applied for (not extremely likely) to make it one of the final contenders. The trick is convincing S to miss school to visit schools. We still have four he has not seen and I’m finding it hard to convince S and H a visit should be made before acceptance given that WUSTL is a financial long shot.
A couple of financial aid questions, I apologize if they’ve been answered already upthread:
If a college asks on its application if you are applying for financial aid, then it is clearly not a need-blind school, correct? Also, is it possible to check “no” (not applying for financial aid) if one has already submitted the FAFSA but not the CSS Profile? Our FAFSA indicated that we would be full pay even with two kids in college so I am wondering if there is even any point to submitting the CSS Profile especially to schools that are need-aware.
@Fishnlines29 My son had a tutor in physics last year and it helped tremendously. this year chemistry is like that, but he is doing great so I guess chem he is a natural. I will say the on-line tudor saved him. It was worth the money spent
I’m a scientist proving Murphy’s Law for 50 years =))
@mtrosemom Congratulations on ASU acceptance! <:-P <:-P
@CT1417 @whataboutcollege DS did Moody’s M3 challenge last year and is thinking of doing again this year. He was a last minute backup team member. lol. Did not know any preparation was done. ;
@itsgettingreal17 Could you send me the list of summer programs too? TIA :x
Congratulations on Honors college acceptance! <:-P <:-P
@Aida You can google “college name commondata.com” to find CDS data, then
under Admission > tab
search for “Financial Need”
and check if it says
“Financial need is a consideration in the admissions process” or ** not **
I would check Net Price Calculator for the school (again, google “net price calculator school name”) before deciding.
@Fishnlines29 The tutor i used on-line for two hours a week was not 100 a week it was cheaper than that. it was 50 an hour but if you signed up for two hours it was cheaper per hour My son ended with an A It was called school tutoring academy
@payn4ward – I have no details on the prep for Moody’s. No prep in past for JETS or AMC, so am not sure why Moody’s warrants prep. Perhaps the math geeks just want an excuse to gather?
@SincererLove Haven’t visited yet and was going to remove it from the list due to the various longshots but they sent my D a travel grant so she is probably going to visit. Just have to figure out if it will be her alone or her and mom. Obviously mom will have to pay herself. D could stay on campus but with mom they’ll have to get a hotel. Our neighbor is an architect for the firm that designed their new Admissions building and he’s been traveling a lot to STL so he should be able to give us some good tips.
@Fishnlines29 does your school have some NHS kids that need service hours? And are good in physics?
I would try and find her a tutor, and do the best she can.
She will have to take physics again in college, but C would look much better than D.
@hadmeathello I think U Alabama has a summer engineering program, you can probably ask the folks on the UA forum for more info. Not sure if it’s on their website.
^@hadmeathello I found it, it’s called SITE
Thanks @mommdc. That’s a good one too. Maybe next year! She will be a rising sophomore, so she’s too young for some programs, including SITE. I need to create a new spreadsheet!
@payn4ward I don’t believe there were any prep work involved. The school picked several senior and junior students ( I think based on math skills) to participate. They have to go for a whole day (like 8am - 8pm) project work either saturday or sunday (they have 2 teams). One of the teams ranked in the top ( can’t give out the ranking, otherwise, it will be apperent which HS it is :)). ) The other team ranked pretty good too, but not a nationally published ranking. D will definately do it again this year.
I think the credit card thing must differ by school because I use credit cards to pay for S13’s tuition/fees with no surcharge. In fact, I usually sign up for a new one of those cards that gives 50K miles or $500 cash back for a spend of $2K to $5K at the beginning of each semester. 
Check your instate colleges and universities for engineering summer programs.
My D is urm but no love from WashU other than mailers, but she hasn’t expressed interest. She is exactly what they don’t want, interested only if she doesn’t get in someplace better.
D called crying and crying. She applied for this local scholarship which is quite popular with D’s high school seniors to try for. Today, principal came into her class and announced two of the scholarship recipients. There were three students who applied in the class and my D was not one of the recipients. She was embarrased and humiliated when two girls stood up and received everyones congratulations because everyone knew who applied. To rub salt to the wound, the principal commented how these two girls worked very hard and deserved this honor and she felt like she didn’t work hard enough. She was bawling on the phone.
It’s nice that the recipients are acknowledged publicly, but I thought it could’ve been done differently. Just bummer.
@HiToWaMom Hugs to your D. That’s tough. It doesn’t help now but later when emotions aren’t raw, it might help to remind her that this won’t matter in a few months
So sorry for your D @HiToWaMom. That is so very hard. And @IABooks is right, it will not be that important in a couple of months. Here is to hoping that she gets some great other scholarships.
@HiToWaMom :(( :(( The principal could have said, all the applicants worked very hard and it was such a competitive this year… =((
Hugs to your D :x Stay strong! :x
@HiToWaMom – So sorry she had to deal with that. How ridiculous for the principal to put her in that position! I guess maybe I shouldn’t complain so much about our school that never announces anything positive (other than sports accolades) – no NMSF announcement, certainly no ceremony, and not even calling the kids in to let them know. No val/sal, ranking, gpa, latin honors, NHS, nothing. Maybe it’s better that way sometimes…
@HiToWaMom – I am so sorry to hear that happened to your daughter - the Principal it seems could have been more sensitive and I know it was painful for your daughter to go through this. Hope she can take stock in all she does well and the effort she puts in and try to set this aside. So many of these things are rather subjective and just not in one’s ability to control. But I understand that doesn’t make this easier right now. Cyber hugs being sent.
@HiToWaMom I am sorry that the principal was so tactless. Hopefully something even better will come her way as the year unfolds and this will quickly become a distant memory.