I totally get this, but the trouble is that Harvard is mass mailing the good news about their financial aid to students who have no realistic hope of being admitted. Kids like my D19 get it and feel like they are practically getting a personal invitation to apply. Then I have to weigh in and burst her balloon and then she wonders if I “believe in her.” Call me cynical but I think that Harvard has a twofold purpose. One is to spread the news that they’re generous with financial aid. But the other is to keep their super low admission rate. If it was really all about financial aid, they should target their information more narrowly.
@Corinthian Hm. Can you just tell your D upfront that she’ll be getting lots of emails and that the schools send them without knowing anyone’s stats? Tell her that all of the emails (until she has a personal relationship with an AO) are just marketing!
@carolinamom2boys yes, have considered Clemson but not sure if the merit would make it as reasonable as some of his other options. Otherwise it would definitely check off all the boxes for S19. His cousin applied for engineering there this year but we haven’t heard if he made it in.
Good idea @homerdog
@mountainmomof3 Clemson’s merit qualifications are spelled out pretty clearly on their website . Good luck to your nephew . He should hear within the next week or so
@carolinamom2boys yes - i really appreciate when merit is spelled out. It seems like Clemson OOS merit tops out at $15,000. Generous but not sure if it will make sense for him. He has been really intent in trying to not just make his budget work but go as far below as possible. He may be more frugal than the rest of the family combined…
Thankfully there are lots of great options out there so he will find his spot somewhere!
Thing about Harvard is that it’s a reach school for literally everyone. You can have a 36 and a 4.9 and still be rejected from there.
I understand being responsible with money. It does too out at 15,000 unless you’re one of the lucky chosen ones for the NSP program which is a full ride . I think that there is also a study abroad stipend . Good luck to your son . I’m sure he’ll find lots of good options.
@ninakatarina , S is a senior and applied to 2 safeties EA (and yes, it did feel like early wins :-), plus one can apply to the Honors program at a “safety” which may make it feel like it’s less “beneath” as @mom2twogirls referenced. S also applied to 3 matches, and 4 reaches. So far, in addition to the safeties, he has gotten in one match and one reach for a total of four acceptances so far.
@3SailAway the “reach” S got in felt like more of a “match” from the start, so I would advise trying not to be too intimidated by “reaches” if they feel like a good fit. Some reaches may be great matches. Still waiting on five in March, but I agree that it feels good to both S and the family to get some early acceptances.
@mom2twogirls I have sworn off online dress shopping on more than one occasion. Most recently, last fall for Homecoming. Found a dress similar to a Sherri Hill she’d tried on, measurements from the chart matched her size. But I ordered 2 sizes just in case. The smaller one just swam on her, there was no way to alter it enough. So I returned them and paid the restocking. But then I found a dress she loved for prom and Prom Girl had a sale around Black Friday so I caved and tried again. This one fits close enough and she is so excited about it. I’m glad we took the chance this time. It’s hard to find affordable dresses in our area so that’s why I keep trying online.
We did Facebook swap dresses last year for both girls. DD’19 was very happy with hers. DD’17 agreed to the one she got partially because she felt guilty for having the girl meet us at the mall so didn’t want to say she didn’t want it after all. I didn’t find out till later but I didn’t let her buy another one. She’s actually going back to prom this year as a friend’s date so I took her shopping Saturday and made sure she was thrilled with her dress this time. She found one at Dillard’s.
Between the two girls, by the end of next school year we will have gotten 8 Homecoming dresses and 6 prom dresses!
Prom dress shopping - I’ve found another reason to be happy my girl decided to become a boy. I’m a strange person. I absolutely hate dress or clothes shopping for myself. I can’t imagine how annoying it would be with my kid.
@RightCoaster SNOW DAY HERE! :))
…but we did get about seven inches between 2:00am and 7:00am and it’s still snowing. Fine. Both kids have plans to go sledding.
I’m jealous of the snow. We’ve had 4 “dustings” amounting to maybe 1.5 inches total. 62 and rain over the weekend. No thanks!
So my son had his Junior Focus day, which was supposed to include 4 college planning sessions. He spent one session on ACT/SAT prep (he’s finished testing so that was useful). Another one was spent in the orchestra room practicing because his chosen session ran out of space.
He did attend an admissions panel session where he came away with the impression that no one cares about test scores? It was GW, Georgetown, USC, Elon and “some other school.” That seems strange because Georgetown requires 4 different test scores. Apparently one girl dominated the Q&A and said “I am pre-med” every time she opened her mouth. Oof. That’s all I got out of him.
son19 has had a pretty easy last 2 weeks of school. He has had time to take a few SAT English/Reading practice tests and said he’s doing better. He learned a few " tricks" to help him figure out how to read the sections and find the answers faster and more effectively. So that’s good, he has about a month until he retakes it again. He’d like to just be done with it. Envious of your kids that have finished already, that would be a big relief.
@eh1234 I went to a college planning day recently and all 3 of the college admissions reps downplayed the importance of the sat/act. I think they say that not to freak the kids out or hurt kids feelings. The panel consisted of a large state university, a LAC school, and a directional school. They all repeated holistic admissions over and over again. The only thing they said repeatedly was keep your grades up!! They couldn’t stress that enough. Of course I sat there cynically knowing it really is all about the combo of gpa/test scores. You need both, especially at more competitive schools with less than 30% admit rate.
Aaaaaaand the calculator is missing, just in time for the ACT tomorrow. I’m glad I asked him to make sure he knew where it was last night, now I have time to get a backup. Annoying, but predictable and can be fixed.
@bjscheel promgirl opened a store in Secaucus NJ - about 45 min from us so it’s been mayhem.
@RightCoaster @eh1234 On the one hand I see the point that GPA is paramount for a huge number of schools and a mediocre GPA isn’t saved by a high test score. But that doesn’t mean that test scores are totally meaningless, especially for some large publics. For example, at our local public university, Arizona State, merit aid is very formulaic. They have an online calculator that I’ve been experimenting with. The variables are GPA, class rank and SAT/ACT scores (also state of residence). As far as I can tell, class rank changes don’t actually move the needle. But if I put in my D19’s GPA (3.5) and test score (SAT 1430) she gets $8K in merit aid. (Being NMF would double it to 16K.) I’ve figured out that to move it up to $10K, she either needs 20 more points on the SAT or to improve her GPA from 3.5 to 3.7. Honestly at this point in the high school process (6th semester) it’s more do-able for her to get 20 more points on the SAT because that’s one focused test. To get her GPA up to 3.7 at this point pretty much requires straight A’s for the rest of high school. That would be nice but I’m not counting on it!
Also @eh1234 is USC the one in California or South Carolina? The one in CA is reputed to be very stats driven. I don’t know about the one in South Carolina.
Yesterday I texted DD to make sure she brought her calculator home in case there was a snow day today, so she would have it for ACT. We got home and before supper she realized not only had she not brought it home, she left her math homework at school too. It’s 11 miles to school and no guarantee the doors will be unlocked as there were no home activities last night.
So, first she found her sister’s calculator so we knew we had a backup for ACT. Then she found a pdf of her textbook online. It took a while to get someone to answer her on Snapchat which problems were due, but it happened. Crisis averted.
No snow day today, barely got anything, and overnight so far sounds like 2 inches and no wind so hopefully that’s not enough to cancel ACT?? She is skipping cheering at the game tonight, coach said it was okay.
@amandakayak that would be so awesome! We have Dillard’s with a handful of affordable dresses, and then the boutiques with $400+. Prom Girl at least has stuff from all price ranges, so it would be nice to have a place like that where you could try on first.
@Corinthian It was definitely the California USC. I think @rightcoaster is right about not wanting to freak the juniors out about test scores and I agree that GPA is the most important thing (hopefully S19 absorbed that message). He just seemed kind of down since his test score is stronger than his grades (which are more than decent but not exactly dazzling).
Holistic or not, I don’t think Georgetown is looking for anything over 1000 on the SAT and any old subject test scores. So yeah, they might have given some kids the wrong idea. He’s more likely to apply to schools with firm test score cutoffs for merit aid, rather than to the mysterious (and often too expensive), extremely holistic schools anyway.
These missing calculators are making me feel second-hand stress. I need to just fork over the $120 for a backup and then buy a dozen or so of the weird TI compatible chargers. (Son’s calculator was dead yesterday when he had a precalc quiz and physics test and the latest charger has disappeared)