DD received a call from U of Tampa this afternoon asking if there was anything they could do to help her to get her application submitted. Tampa was an early contender that went on her Common App list for a while. I call these calls “Hail Mary Calls”. DD2016 ended up at one of her “Hail Mary Call” schools. So it does work every now and then! But it is proof to me that some schools are tracking when they are added to someone’s Common App list and the app never gets submitted.
In honor of our wintery mix in Houston today…DD found out she was accepted at U of Colorado. This was the “Mom’s choice” school that DD decided she really liked after meeting them at a college fair. I am holding out hope for this one but am giving it 5%odds.
Congrats again on CU @labegg. It’s my DH alma mater. Great school. They prepared DH well for the business world. He would love it if S18 goes there. Now, we just need that acceptance.
Does anyone happen to know if we can claim educational expenses on our taxes (SAT/ACT, application fees, and maybe even visit expenses such as hotels)? DH was asking and I had no idea to even consider that. Just thought maybe someone here might know.
Congrats on CU @labegg - a fun school and DS has a good friend whose brother goes there and loves it.
School here is on for tomorrow as of right now. Today has been a nice, lazy day. D20 and friend have watched Netflix and eaten junk food all day. Track season starts tomorrow so hopefully they won’t hate themselves for it. S18 went to the gym to lift and is now at work. Did not ask about scholarship apps. Oh well.
I spent time today researching photographers for senior pictures. We plan to take them in April once DS has chosen a college so we can get one shot of him in college shirt. Also want the traditional one of his graduation gown flung over his shoulder and holding a cap. I am sure he could care less about senior pics but this is one thing he WILL do for mama.
Up here in MA, another ‘mild’ storm called for, 3-6". S18&D21 are in a private high school, midterm week and their school closed. Probably didn’t want kids stressing during exam week. Study day for Thursday is canceled, they’ll test Thurs and Fri. S24, public middle school still on. We’ve missed so many days his last day is currently, June 27th, so the district is definitely praying storm is light and they can open. We get FA for Providence, mailed, tomorrow. Hoping for good news!
@Booajo I am hoping not to visit, or re-visit too many. I am really hoping it is narrowed down to 2-4 and that she will do longer visits there. My D applied to 14 schools. I really don’t expect her to get into all. Plus I am assuming the financial aid package will make some NFW.
We only have one possible a flight away but even the ones a few hours away get costly with hotel rooms, time out of work etc. I can only board the poor dogs so many times in March/April
No, as far as I know, application fees and such are not qualified education expenses for education tax credits.
Once our kids attend college at least half time as a degree seeking student, up to $4,000 of QEE (tuition, qualified fees and books) can be claimed for the AOTC (max $2,500) for four years, if you qualify income wise (and I think you might have to file married filing jointly).
Our county has been much more cautious the past few years with snow days, and typically after 4 of them the kids have to extend past the end of the originally-planned school year…except for seniors since graduation dates are set by then :). So, DD is hopeful for many snow days since it won’t impact her calendar. What she doesn’t realize is that some of the make-up days this year are set during spring break, rather than after the official last day of school. So, if they go past 3 snow days (the county took one away), seniors will feel the impact for the first time. Oh well! At this point she’s been loving a few delayed openings and early closings.
We are eagerly awaiting the last decision, which comes out by Feb. 1st. The issue is that DD desperately wants to go there more than anything else, and every time she tells people it’s her top choice, they make the comment “Oh, you’ll get in there with no trouble!” Unfortunately, that’s not true since it’s the state flagship and has gone from what was a safety school back in the 90’s to a very selective, well-ranked university now. Her stats are strong, but nothing is guaranteed (as many have noted here). It frustrates me when people make the comment that she’ll definitely get in, because she hates when people make comments like that when there’s a chance she won’t. She’s been through the same thing endless times with musical auditions, where she gets a good role but not the one she wanted and everyone thought she’d get with no problem. But obviously college is a bit more of an impact than a character role.
On top of it all, I just realized she will likely find out the decision the one time this year when I’ll be out of state for work :(. Her brother will be back in college by then, so DH will have to handle things if the results are bad, and it’s going to hit DD hard. Ugh, I know many others go through this, with good and bad results, but it’s tough to wait when you know it’s going to have such an impact on your child.
Okay, end of venting…have a good night everyone, and stay safe if you are in the storms coming across the east coast!
@lifegarding, sorry you won’t be home for your D’s big college notification day. I hear you about the “sure you’ll get in” comments…obviously the people are just trying to be nice and aren’t trying to add any stress, but hearing things like that over and over can contribute to higher hopes and then a bigger letdown if she doesn’t make it.
@lifegarding , I think you’re speaking of our flagship, UMD? If so, we are living the same anxiety here. DD has 6 other acceptances from good universities all around our area, but UMD is the #1 choice and she’s on pins and needles. We hear the same comments, especially from people who went there “back in the day” and have no clue how much more selective it’s gotten. Yes, DD looks good on paper vis a vis their stats, but with 30,000 applicants, anything can happen.
@traveler98, against many parents wishes they have started the Thursday after Labor Day weekend the past 2 years. Add in a bunch of holidays, snow days, you get almost July end dates. Oh yea, and schools don’t have a.c.!
@Booajo , we are in the same boat with college visit challenges. We are/were hoping to spend the first week of April (our Spring Break) visiting schools that we hope will be options, but we won’t find out until 4/1 for some of the schools whether S18 is even admitted! Since we’ll be flying from CA, it is impossible to plan appropriately on such short notice. He might have to end up missing school later in April to visit, which is far from ideal.
@DiotimaDM , love the story! It reminds me of being with my dad when I was young - he helped lots of people in similar situations using similar techniques, except that they were stuck in sand instead of snow/ice.
Hope everyone stays warm with the weather! We just got home a little while ago. The Pittsburgh flight had to be d-iced before we flew out. And Atlanta was shutting things down due to snow, according to airport news.
June 27? That’s horrible! Especially for teachers. Hardly any break after post planning, before it’s time to come back!
@Astro77 yes, UMD College Park. I mentioned tonight that I might be out of town when she gets the notification, just to prep her for it since I rarely travel for work. I also suggested that if she didn’t get in as a freshman for some reason, she could start at one of the other schools that accepted her and consider applying again as a transfer. Her reply was that if they don’t want her, she’d rather go to one of the others that’s already invited her to attend anyway.
Last application done!!! Keeping with his recent procrastination trend, the submission was on the last day of the extended deadline, but at least it’s done.
DS doesn’t seem to want to plan to go to any admitted student yet (he has several acceptances) – seems he wants to see how everything shakes out in March to know his options. I hope we have the time to go back to a few schools before he makes a decision. Getting admissions decisions through March and having only a month to enroll feels tight to me. I wonder if he’ll feel stressed, relaxed and/or excited about the end part of this long process!
Good Morning! Congratulations to all those who have been posting great news and those who are in the “We know where he/she is going” category. Have not been posting as I have been busy with booking trips ( I am a Disney travel planner and once the New Year hits it is busy season) and getting my daughter to complete school scholarship stuff.
She finished that last week and I am on the fence about having her apply to locals as the reward seems small for the effort and in the schools she has already received merit/aid from it will be deducted from aid. That said the schools left to hear from will most likely not have merit. Just don’t think I can go through her applying to more of anything…hard enough to have her check the portals of the 12 schools she has. We have been missing some financial aid messages due to her lack of diligence so some tense moments have transpired. All set now but last week I called every aid office to make sure they had everything and number one choice so far was missing the CSS ( submitted 10/4). This also played into a scholarship she is applying for. Got it back on track but I would advise everyone who hasn’t already to check with every school in consideration. D18 now has a nice goggle doc with dates to check her portals so I can just check the doc to see if she did and stop the nagging.
Hope everyone has a great day…we have more snow but schools are on (New England) so another fun day of driving.
Oh @labegg that will be interesting. Was it you, or was it someone else here who posted at the beginning of the school year that they heard this was a pretty common thing so they were making their kid apply to a couple of schools within easy driving distance? I think that was great advice.
For us, it will either be a 19 hour car ride, or a 9 hour trip door to door if she flies - connecting flights, TSA, and drives to/from the airport pack on a lot of time.
@labegg …and everyone else! It’s one of the first things our guidance counselor tells his families - that kids have all of these thoughts of going to schools far away but, when it comes time to decide, a huge percentage can’t pull the trigger and end up within three hours from home. I think that’s usually just fine with parents.
