Yes and yes. As v3rnor said it’s school specific so check their policies. Often, schools that don’t stack scholarships may reduce any need based aid (because there is less need now, right?) by first eliminating the student loan and work-study (if those were part of the package.) Some schools will also require outside scholarships be paid directly to them, again check the specific policies.
Can’t you ask that question of the new scholarship provider? It would be a benefit if any loans and work-study were removed from the aid package (again, if those are part of the package) though.
As for the current school’s policy on adjusting future aid packages for inflation, you have to ask that too…need based aid will change based on income and assets from the qualifying year. Merit aid may require a certain GPA be maintained, etc. etc.
Prom was last night. It was so fun to see all the kids dressed up and so happy! It was typical June weather for Seattle- cool and grey. However, rain held off until today so I call that a win.
D24 is now at a cabin with 20 or so kids. They are there 2 nights as Monday is senior skip day. I’m nervous about the getaway especially since she has to register for classes at 6am tomorrow. I keep telling myself it will all be fine and that it’s wonderful that she gets these memories with her high school friends before they all scatter.
Parent of a 2023 kid chiming in with mattress topper experience - kid used it, needed it, but it did go in the dumpster at the end of the year because we had limited space in the car to drive home and once you take toppers out of the packaging they get big & unwieldy and hard to squish back down/pack. So sadly, we treated it as a disposable item.
Congratulations to all your kids & to you! You made it through!
Temper-pedic mattress topper will easily roll up into a zip up Frakta bag (just an fyi based on a lot of experience). It will be the only item in the Frakta bag if space is at a premium.
We have rolled up a foam topper as follows: fold in half the long way and slowly squish-and-roll like a sleeping bag. Then with the help of another person, get it into a kitchen trash bag and wrap packing tape around it to keep it from expanding.
S24 graduated Friday night. The weather was perfect and the ceremony was lovely. Lots of emotions afterwards. I think the fact that he is “done” and moving away has really hit him and he had a bit of a freakout - worried he picked the wrong school, it’s too far, maybe he picked the wrong major, etc. It was hard seeing him so worried and upset but I also can totally empathize b/c I was exactly the same after I graduated. I remember being really weepy at times during the summer, and I cried in the car the ENTIRE 8 hour drive to college so I get it. We are headed down there in a couple weeks for his orientation and we are also staying a few extra days so he can star the rush process (SEC rush starts over the summer). Hopefully he will be excited after being back on campus, meeting lots of new kids and can get a bit excited. I reminded him all these feelings are normal and I would be more worried if he was only excited to leave and not a little nervous about all the changes. Anyway, so now I am silently praying he finishes the gd math modules and takes the ALEKS test for the love of g_d before orientation.
So we hosted an end of year party for S24’s spring sport, and the weather held up decently so it ended up a nice gathering. Interestingly, one of the parents who came over also happened to be chairperson of our HS’s board, and we ended up chatting quite a bit about college admissions, both in general and this year. I was interested to learn how involved they were, and they shared lots of fun stories I am not sure I am at liberty to share.
But they did confirm that what happened in S24’s friend group was a class-wide effect–the ED/REA/SCEA round was just not good, they said the worst in a long time. And yet then RD went really well, and it ended up one of the best recent years overall.
It is dicey to generalize from just one HS, but I do wonder if all the chaos caused by FAFSA, colleges needing to feel their way through a new process in the wake of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, test optional in practice beginning to crumble at some colleges, and so on led to an overall caution by schools at the ED/REA/SCEA stage, which they were then able to remedy at the RD (and possibly waitlist) stage.
Very happy to report that, despite being ar a cabin with friends, D24 got herself up for 6am class registration and all went smoothly. She got all her first picks. Love that she thought to text me right away with the news.
Just to let fellow parents know, I used MindyKNOWS at my daughter’s college and loved them. They are like having parents on site, love them. They are at a bunch of campuses.
I have a very positive view of MindyKNOWS. I had signed up for an annual plan for the coming year when D24 committed to WashU. Then out of the blue she was admitted off a waitlist to her dream school, where unfortunately there is no MindyKNOWS service. When I reached out to cancel, Mindy personally refunded the fee without question - and then went out of her way to try to make the last minute switch more comfortable for D24 by facilitating an introduction to another entering student she happened to know at the new school. Such a kindness!
Praise all that is holy- he finished the ALEKS and got the needed score to place into the math course he needs for his major Now he just needs the Spanish placement which I hear is 20 minutes and not a huge deal. I am so relieved the math test drama is over.
D24 graduated, came home from project graduation at 5 am and crashed hard until about 11 - we are doing a party this coming weekend and then that’s a wrap. Her college has moved to phase 2 of housing, she is planning on going random but the app they use (starrez) shows compatibility matches and 2 students have already reached out looking for a roommate, and she was able to say no with a warm tone. (I am a big believer in going random, and in a season of having to make a lot of decisions and judgment calls, I like this one being out of her hands. )
I’m a big believer in random roommate placement for 1st year. Worked very well for both D20 and D23.
S24 has filled out his housing application and actually won’t know his housing assignment until he arrives to orientation. I’d never heard of that before but now we are all like, “Okie dokie, what’s the next step you need to complete?”
I roomed with a high school friend and it was a disaster. However, D22 did the roommate matching and met her 2 best friends. They have roomed together for last 2 years and will do so again In Spring after studying abroad. D24 has also found a roommate and I am crossing my fingers it works out. I think either random or matching can work or not but with the matching there are higher expectations going in which can lead to disappointment but it can also work out great.
It’s the first dorm registration day at UGA! My daughter’s roommate got a lucky early registration slot (10:30), so there shouldn’t be any reason that they don’t get one of their 3 top dorms. However, I’ll be at the vet during the digital drama, because our bichon is extremely sick–not life-threatening, but the kind where no one needs to hear details. Meanwhile, my husband has promised to go out with me somewhere tonight, after a slight tussle. He is a complete stick-in-the-mud, but he knows he has to step up his game since our main occupation is leaving the house in two months!
It looks like my daughter will end up with a random roommate. I was hoping she’d find someone in the matching, but she didn’t put much effort into it, really. S22 did not have a great match-up experience. He ended up with kids who liked to party a lot and watched sports loudly all the time. Just not his type of thing. So I was hopeful she would find someone to try to get a better experience.
C24’s last day of school was yesterday. For weeks, they’ve been coming home and saying “I’m so glad I’m graduating!”, but last night it really seemed to hit them that yeah, they really are graduating and that their life is changing in a big way.
They’re doing great – they’ve found a roommate for next year and have a group chat going with several first-year students they’ve met on Instagram. But I think they paused yesterday to really think about what it means to be done with K-12 and to be leaving that very comfortable routine behind.
D24 returned yesterday evening from her choir trip to NYC. Am happy to report that she’s learned that she never wants to live in NYC. Some other notable observations from the kid:
Her chaperone is the aunt of 1 of the other senior girls in the choir. Chaperone’s niece was a total brat the entire 5 days and hardly said a word to the aunt & would randomly wander off w/another girl and not tell the chaperone. Aunt was in tears at one point.
Other parent chaperones teased the aunt chaperone about not being able to keep track of half of her group of 4 singers. What the heck is wrong with some adults? Some of them never grow up out of mean girl mode.
Nobody told the singers that it was a 20 min walk from the hotel to the opera. By the time they got to the opera, D24 had bleeding blisters. Everybody protested the walk back, so everybody agreed to take the subway (like they should have done to begin with).
Bottled water at its cheapest was $5 for 1. Kid said 1 girl paid $11 for a bottle of water at one point.
Apparently, D24 thinks that NYC water tastes horrible.
D24 reported that “NYC is fun to visit, but I’d never want to live there. It stinks literally everywhere. All of my clothes smell like smoke. It smells everywhere like rotting garbage, pee, and sometimes poo. Like, it smells worse than the dairy farm on _street_sort_of_near_us.”
D24 thought the opera was just ok, but really loved the Aladdin and Back To The Future musicals.
D24 really liked the tour of Radio City Music Hall.
“Mama, everything is expensive in NY. The food is more expensive than Disney prices.”
“The church we sang in yesterday evening wasn’t air conditioned. What the heck.”
“The hotel room was tiny.”
“Apparently, NY is starting this thing soon where everybody is going to have to pay a fee in order to enter into NY, even if you’re not driving a car. Our bus driver was really mad about it.”
Meanwhile, D26 & I are sore from walking almost 14 miles on Sunday at Disneyland on her birthday. We drove back home yesterday. Sunday was awesome. Got to the Toy Story parking lot right when it opened and we left Disneyland when it closed for the night. Had a lot of laughs with our friends. It was great.
D24 has 2 days of downtime before heading off to Europe w/my sister for 10 days. Need to remind her to put a travel alert on her debit card before she leaves.
Under our bed, we have a time capsule put together by a certain kindergartner 12 years ago as they were finishing kindergarten. A shoe box wrapped in gold paper, patiently there all this time.
so I get it. We are headed down there in a couple weeks for his orientation and we are also staying a few extra days so he can star the rush process (SEC rush starts over the summer). Hopefully he will be excited after being back on campus, meeting lots of new kids and can get a bit excited. I reminded him all these feelings are normal and I would be more worried if he was only excited to leave and not a little nervous about all the changes. Anyway, so now I am silently praying he finishes the gd math modules and takes the ALEKS test for the love of g_d before orientation.
Now he just needs the Spanish placement which I hear is 20 minutes and not a huge deal. I am so relieved the math test drama is over.