I love how you did that @GertrudeMcFuzz ! My D is also decision-phobic (among other things) and I think it’s a great idea to go over all the pros/cons and work out a decision that she can practice living with before she actually has to commit May 1. I can see that being something that would really help her. :-bd
I hear you re decision phobia - my D had the hardest time deciding - lots of really good choices and total fear of what she might miss out on at one vs another. She decided last week on Bama.
I told her it’s tough for everyone and that she could change her mind up until May 1 which helped. This week I asked if she was sure about Bama as we are still waiting on some instate options - SLO . . . and UCLA. She said she was not going to flip flop and Bama was her choice. Anyways she has gone from phobic to complete clarity in a short span. Big decisions for 18 yr olds.
Congrats, @my2caligirls and @GertrudeMcFuzz!
@GertrudeMcFuzz, totally love what you did, too! We did kind of the same thing too with DD16. She had her heart set on Purdue but we live in Ohio, so we would be paying out of state tuition and the cost to attend Purdue would be more than $40k per year before scholarships. So we did a pros and cons including a financial analysis including total cost after scholarships and the 529 money I had saved for her which for out of state cost of Purdue unfortunately would only cover about 1 year. We were surprised Purdue had given only $10k per year given she was NMF and everything else she had going for her (35 ACT, valedictorian, extracurriculars, etc) and she had full rides elsewhere and when it came down to it, she decided she didn’t want to come out of her bachelors degree owing money, that she would go to UTD where it seemed UTD really wanted her. She would have owed something like $80k at Purdue after scholarships and what I saved for her. Not good. I wish I could have saved more for her. I have 6 kids and I have saved as much as I could for each of them. And she is doing really well at UTD and she seems happy.
DD18 was easier, she knew she wanted to go to U Cinci, she was NMF, and so she qualified for the Excellence scholarship at U of Cinci which covers tuition and room. No pros and cons study needed. She has already accepted.
So I have a deal with my kids that I will pick them up anywhere, anytime, for any reason.
My sophomore just text me if I could go across town to pick up her and three friends. One mom dropped them off at the movies, another dad (different kid) was supposed to drive them to a restaurant and the same mom was going to pick them up from the restaurant to go home.
Well, they are stranded at the movie theater (inside and safe) and my husband went to get them to take them to the restaurant. They thought the other dad could drive them but he couldn’t, unclear why - my daughter was not the architect of this outing.
I told her she was lucky they found someone around to drive them. Next time I will make sure I know every leg of the plan. I was under the assumption the mom was going to provide all the transportation (she’s a friend and very reliable, but she was busy since the other dad was going to take part of it).
Not sure where the breakdown happened, I’m sure I’ll hear more later. But I did tell her that asking for help is exactly what she is supposed to do.
Sigh. 8-|
@shelleee UTD offers such a nice package for NMFs, and I mean more than just the financial package. Great food, great dorms, lots of opportunities and support, etc. Wasn’t a good fit for my S, but I still have lots of respect and admiration for UTD. 
Yes, I agree UTD has been very nice for DD16. Their honors program and national merit perks have been amazing with the extra opportunities to see ballets, symphonies, etc., early registration, early dorm selection, special honors classes. I just wasn’t thrilled that Dallas is very far away from us in Cincinnati and she also had quite a nice scholarship at U of Cincinnati so she could have been closer to home, but she didn’t want to go to college where half the kids from her high school went. I just feel so helpless that she is all alone in case she needs anything we can’t get to her quickly. For example, she sprained her ankle very badly at 9pm one night her freshman year and called me crying and I just wanted to jump in my car and drive 14 hours that night and be there for her. Aside from that, I’m not a hovering Mom, and she is quite independent. But when she sprained her ankle, Campus health services was closed and her roommate would have driven her to the emergency room, but I told her not to because we all know that if you go to the ER, you will be there for like 5 hours (at least that’s been my experience). So she waited until the next morning. She apparently was awake most of the night, her ankle hurt so badly. First thing in the morning, she hobbled to campus health services, they did an X-ray, it wasn’t broken, but it had swelled up as big as a grapefruit (not an exaggeration, I saw the pictures and I’ve never seen an ankle this big). Her roommate went to Walmart and got her crutches because they didn’t have any on campus. I felt so awful I wasn’t there. When she got an MRI, it turned out to be a torn ligament. It took 8 months for the swelling to go down.
Well it has become official. Yesterday DS made enrollment deposit at U of L, accepted the GEMS offer, made U of L his first choice with NMSC, and shared his decision with family and teachers.
Having to rethink some vacation plans we made in June, since DS will have Brown Fellows activities and DD20 doesn’t want to miss all state choir. No complaints, I was hoping we would have this problem.
@LOUKYDAD wow that is all so awesome. A great big congratulations to your son who obviously worked to hard to get these great offers.
You should be and I am sure you ate so proud.
@LOUKYDAD I am so happy for your son and your family! What an exciting accomplishment!
Hope you all enjoy being through the Madness and he has a wonderful last few months of high school.
Realized this weekend since we have four schools left I can call them the Final Four and since it is March it is March Madness. My husband and I are big college basketball fans and while naming the final round of college selection after one of favorite times of the year is a little silly it has given me some much needed humor. Also I know I can pass the time watching the games and by the time we get to real Final Four we will know (or be really close to knowing) which direction this is all going in!
Long weekend in New England as we got whopped by the storm and lost power for two days. Way behind on what I needed to do as this was the weekend between trips I was going to get caught up on work, tax prep etcetera but now I am just praying that the forecast for Thursday changes from snow/stormy to clear so my daughter and I can get out on our flight on time for our Accepted Students Weekend #2…the southern chapter.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Thank you !!!
Just got hit by fraud. Bank sent an email about a low account balance. I checked the bank site (instead of just clicking a link.) it showed a massive transaction involving my card, in another state. I called the bank and started the fraud process.
Kudos to the bank for alerting me immediately.
Congrats to all!
Decision made here. DS is planning on making it public tomorrow. One of his teachers makes a production when a student has good news to share so he’s making his decision public then. So for now the decision is between DS, my husband and Amazon. (I had to get some stuff for senior pictures! Lol).
@LOUKYDAD lm late to the band wagon but wanted to say a big Congratulations to your S. So happy his hard work paid off.
@LOUKYDAD congratulations! @apraxiamom so,so sorry. Awful
Thanks all for the congratulations. Was joking with loukymom this weekend our role was kind of like Forest Gump when he said “I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day”. But I am so, so excited for him. He definitely put in the hard work for this, many times when it would have been so easy to take an easier path. And yes it is such a relief when the decision is made and you can take a breath from “the process”. Wishing all of you and your kids the same relief as soon as possible!
There was a kid in the BF program that talked about the application process. He was from MA and thought for a long time he wanted to go to Vanderbilt. He had applied to Vandy and kind of on a whim he threw in an application for BF at Louisville and was chosen for an interview. When he got accepted to the BF program, he was so sure it was for him that he never looked back. When the letter came from Vandy he didn’t even open it. To this day he still doesn’t know if he got into Vandy. I thought that was kind of a neat story.
I think I would have had to open the envelope at least!
In other anticlimactic news, DS got final scholarship offer from UK today. Did not get the Singletary scholarship. Well that kind of neatly solidifies everything, doesn’t it? Probably good for the soul to hear no somewhere in the process, and this is now about the most painless no he could receive. Or you could wish he was more like the kid above who didn’t open the letter.
I have resigned myself to an April final decision.
Congrats to @LOUKYDAD and @TexasMom18 ! Wonderful to see these voyages reaching conclusions!
Decision has been made public to much fanfare. We are #OleMissBound!