I really can’t believe it’s been a year. A year ago in April we were visiting the college that my daughter ultimately chose. On our visit we were able to attend an activity run by an extracurricular club that she was interested in - and I could see the aha light bulb go on in her head that she could see herself at that school and in this group. A year later she is practically running the club. (Running for Vice President of the club this week- fingers crossed). Amazing.
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D23 just texted me the results of the housing lottery for her and her next’s year roommate.
They were able to get their preferred campus location, preferred dorm (yay!) while not getting their preferred floor (they wanted a higher floor). They thought they had hit a trifecta but someone else was able to grab the last room on their preferred floor just seconds before they tried.
All in all, they are both extremely happy and much less stressed!
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Admitted to St. Olaf with $26k merit per year today, the rest of the FA info will come in 7-10 days. The remaining two schools don’t notify for a few weeks. 
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D20’s best friend since pre-school is graduating from St. Olaf this year. She loves the school, has nothing but great things to share about her experience.
Can’t wait to hear all the options your daughter will have at the end and where she chooses!
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Back in Jan/Feb, my son applied to >100 engineering summer internships, and a few REUs (summer research NSF positions). He figured he wouldn’t get anything as a freshman, but wanted to give it a shot and also considered it good practice for next year. He met with his career advisor a bunch.
He did get a handful of interviews, which went well and were good practice, but no follow-ups. He’d resigned himself to coming home for the summer and working a typical summer job, and we were all excited to be together for a few months.
On Monday, he got an email from a company he’d applied to in Jan, asking if he was still available for an internship. He said yes, had his interview the next day, and was offered the job on the spot!
He’s a ChemE major but applied widely for any position that could possibly work. But this is an actual ChemE position (polymer manufacture). The best news is that it’s a half-hour away from home, so it’s like the dream scenario. My spouse has a former student who worked there and said it’s a great company that treats their interns well.
Each intern is handpicked by an engineer, so he has a specific person he’ll be shadowing. He thinks there must have been an intern who backed out last-minute. I asked if he thought he got it because he’s local, and he said the recruiter hadn’t even realized that until he mentioned it and was relieved he wouldn’t have to worry about housing. She said they were “very impressed” with his resume, but he thinks he was the first one left who said yes and that’s why he got picked 
.
However they chose him, he’s thrilled and feels lucky (and is VERY nervous). He has now learned first-hand that getting a position is something of a numbers game, which is a great lesson.
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i feel my 2020 engineering kid had a harder time finding internships than jobs. This is awesome for your son!
my D23 starts her internship on may 28; its part of her scholarship program at UNL. She wanted to look at other places, but this was just a great opportunity. She’ll be rooming with a girl from Montana Tech she found out in Denver all summer
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That’s awesome - first year is great. My son had no luck (covid) and the next year what happened to yours is what happened to him. Maybe someone fell through or not - who cares…but same thing applied to a ton.
Wishing him a great experience and most likely future summers will now be easier - and really easy if both he and the company want a return engagement. Employers definitely gravitate to those with experience.
Congrats on a great success story.
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St. Olaf aid is not what we’d hoped. Will hear from Macalester next week. Not holding my breath. Mentally preparing for plan C.
Adding- Husband pointed out it is not insurmountable. And if she worked and contributed towards tuition she could make up the difference.
I just wish schools would not count loans as part of financial aid. Just give that extra 5k. It could make a huge difference to someone and not saddle a young person with potentially 20k of debt when they graduate.
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What are your daughter’s feeling about this? Is she ok with working/taking out (Stafford, I assume) loans?
If I remember correctly, she took a leave of absence from her first school - if the numbers aren’t where she (and you) want/need them to be with the transfer options - is the first school an option at all?
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What is the gap? If it is ‘just’ the $5.5K loan it could make sense to take out the student direct loans, especially if it’s the difference between going back to school or not. What is plan C?
Most college grads won’t be financially crippled with the student loan debt of $27K, but I recognize not everyone may feel the same.
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I agree with the others that the federal loans are worth considering. We are also a small-budget TE family that qualifies for need-based aid most places. Our son does the direct federal loans and also works to earn 5-10K each year.
That gets us close enough to the cost of room and board – as long as we avoid loans beyond the federal direct, we feel fine about it. We ran the conservative numbers for his expected income/budget after graduation, and he can definitely afford the loans without hardship.
The only way we could have done any better was for our kid to attend one of our employers and live at home, which he was willing to do but really wanted to avoid.
Hope you get a better offer from Mac, but I just wanted to say that we’re doing exactly what you’re considering (fed loans + work), and it’s working out great.
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Thats great that you can do that, but my daughter is not sure what she wants to do or major in. She wants to work and help during school, we’ll figure it out, and hopefully can put off any need for a loan until the final year. We don’t want her to start her adult life in debt. Neither my husband or I had college loans and we want to give that same gift to our kids.
Oh, yes obviously it will vary by family. I may have been mistaken in thinking you’re faced with that option versus alternates that are no cheaper.
In my kid’s case the only way to get it cheaper was to live at home, so we decided it was worth spending a bit more for the opportunity to go away. You may have better alternatives and starting adult life without debt is indeed a great gift.
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deleted–wrong thread
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Have you considered reaching out to the school and seeing if they will increase merit? My daughter did that with another school last year (basically said it was her first choice but another school had offered more and it came out to be cheaper, and she would enroll in the school if they raised the merit). They raised it a little (not to the level we had from another school but it was a good faith amount) and she sent in her deposit that day. (Of course, she is transferring this year, but that is a different issue.)
We did that last year too with the same results. We hear this Friday from Macalester so are waiting to do anything until then.
I hope the end of the first year is coming to a good close for everyone’s kids! My son is finding it a time of mixed emotions. He’s transferring, so this is leaving “for good,” and he will really miss some of the friends he made this year. I’ve been proud of him, as he’s made a point of doing all kinds of things in New England these last two months since he’ll be attending school in-state in Ohio next year. He’s decided to see this freshman year as a “study away” experience
Like most students I know, he’s also feeling exited about the summer break in school work and a little nervous about the internship he has set up. So much change and growth packed into a few years!
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Tomorrow is the last day of the term for my son. I got a text from him at 3:45 pm that he didn’t realize one of his classes had a 1000 word reflection essay due tomorrow. ( As in, he had no idea he had to write a paper at all.) 
Since he also has two finals tomorrow, I figured there’s no way he would get that done, and he will probably need to “no record” the class. Then he texted me at 6 o’clock saying he had finished the paper. 
He says it is not his best work (!! of course not!!) and he still might fail the class, but I couldn’t believe he actually knocked something out in two hours.
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I just wish they didn’t put them in the aid package.
If you’re giving $25K and $5500 in loans, don’t say $30,500. Say $25K.
I’m sure something will work out - one way or another. Not sure what Plan C is and I don’t know the depth of your finances but hopefully there is something affordable, somewhere.
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Mine is transferring, too, and also has mixed emotions. She complained about the school all year, but I think it is comfortable, at least academically. She also has not heard back from all of her applications yet (although she has some excellent choices), so she is not certain where she will attend yet, which makes it hard to get excited about new possibilities.
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