Things are slowly moving along.
2 of 3 nomination interviews completed- final is Saturday
1 of 2 ROTC interviews completed
1 of 2 service academy interviews completed
3 service academy applications submitted
3 of 5 civilian college applications submitted
1 LOA from a service academy
2 of 3 fitness tests completed
Medical exam complete, awaiting waiver process
And I thought regular college apps were crazy!
Our local public high school does absolutely nothing for their students applying to college, beyond just sending transcripts/LOR’s through the portal. The counselor is so busy with students who really have needs better met by a social worker (homelessness, food insecurity, etc) that they just don’t have time for the college-bound. We sent our son to a private school locally and this was one of out reasons (though not the only one).
Thanks! Nice to get that out of the way.
2nd acceptance today! Rollins College, with $33,000 a year Deans Scholarship!
Congrats! My S25 also applied to Rollins but hasn’t heard anything yet.
Thankyou! I am sure you will soon. He applied Sept 20th, just before a cut-off based on emails he was getting. I think our kids are applying to similar schools! Your son got into Auburn too right, and we have kids at Trinity? Fun times!
Ha! Yes that’s funny!
FAFSA is open in beta. Apparently they want to solve any bugs before the official launch on December 1, so if you have any tech issues, this is why.
@murray93 - my kiddo has been doing the same thing. He even purchased a sweatshirt from the online college store… holding my breath until mid-December to say the least. That being said, I will confess to looking up youtube videos of dorm tours etc. for said school on the sly… so he’s not the only one counting chickens before they hatch around here!
@AnonMomof2 - wow, that is intense. Fingers crossed that your senior’s nominations come through.
When it comes to school support for the process, S25’s former school did not really even get started on anything until pretty much senior year. Similar to others, their focus is on addressing things better handled by a social worker than managing the college app process for kids, especially since most kids, if they are even considering college, do end up attending some of the instate options. In fact, they are behind the ball enough at the LPS that I received a report card yesterday for S27 who has not been enrolled there since 8th grade… said report card had no classes or grades on it of course, but come on - it’s been 18 months since he last set foot in the building and this is not a huge school (45 kids in his class). How hard can it be to delete him from a database??
S25’s new school’s guidance office is more on the ball and seems to do more with kids starting in sophomore and junior year, but we showed up late to the party and knew we needed to have a plan in place before he matriculated there this fall. I will say they’ve had a terrific list of colleges doing school visits this fall, and had my son transferred there earlier, I do wonder if his list would have been shaped very differently.
Having a bumpy entry into the final week before the break. He kind of bombed a presentation yesterday and is definitely dragging himself to school every day. The break can’t come soon enough and then hopefully he can pull it back together for the final weeks of the semester in December. I’m almost afraid to suggest he pick away at a few of his RD apps since he’ll have more time once his season ends this week…
I completed the FAFSA yesterday and noticed one glitch, but I’m not sure if it was browser related or a bug. On one screen, I could type out more than 1 character before it would jump to the next entry. I worked around it, but it was annoying. Fortunately it was just one screen. And the FAFSA is so much easier than the CSS!
Speaking of the CSS. I completed it just before my D25’s ED deadline. I was so proud of myself and then we got the notification about uploading documents to IDOC. I had no idea that applying to college would be so much work for me! I think I spend less time on my own college apps back in the day.
So I was just talking with my S25 last night - he got a 37 out of 50 on an English test on Hamlet. This is NOT the kind of grade he usually pulls in English, and he’s all up to date on his work, so WTH? Then he says - Mom, out of the class of 28, I got the second highest test score. Ohy. Ok then. We’ll just call that a bad test…
What the heck were they tested on?
My 25 also read Hamlet this year.
Agree. We are relying on ourselves and HS Counselor. My friend who spent $$$ has kids going to better schools, but that seems to solely be a result of her kids’ respective profiles, which were much stronger than mine. My guys are on a longer ramp, though S23 is certainly taking off and I expect S25 will too.
I asked D to work on the video supplement over the weekend but to nobody’s surprise she gave excuse after excuse why she wasn’t doing it. Yesterday after school I asked her again and she agreed to start it. Turns out it’s not just a quick up to 2 minutes video you upload but an entire 7 section separate application. She was so irritated at me for daring to ask her to do all that. She only had about 2 hours between getting home and having to go back for play practice. She did 3 of the 7. Oh well if you had started it over the weekend where you only had 2 hours of driving lessons and a birthday party to go to you might have had time to relax after school. I work weekends so couldn’t hover.
She then wanted to know why I even added this school on after the other apps were done. She has 2 small schools and 3 big schools and is leaning towards a big school but I don’t think big is good for her needs. The music schools are what she likes and wants to be surrounded by lots of good musicians and the new school is medium sized but with lots of strong musicians. She also hasn’t toured. Dec 1st is the deadline and I’m hopeful. Her private lessons teacher told her that he went to a small music program in a bigger regional school and people were surprised he didn’t try for a bigger name but he was happy where he was and by being the big fish he got a lot of opportunities and had a really great teacher. So we’ll see how this all plays out.
This is such a great way to describe some kids! It’s definitely how my D has experienced her academics.
Yes, yes! I’ve always said that S25 did things in his own time. He was late to sit up, crawl, walk but was speaking in complete sentences while crawling. He just does things in his own sweet time and then usually excels.
School year is DRAGGING for him though. He is so bored and disengaged. I don’t understand how he went from 3 to 4 hours of homework a night last year to almost none this year. And he’s a kid who doesn’t do well being bored. But hopefully he will be able to gear back up once college starts.
He is being patient about college decisions but I am not. I just want it settled. But then I will come up with a new things to worry/obsess over, I’m sure!
No idea, and it was multiple choice. Apparently the essay part comes tomorrow. But how can everyone bomb Hamlet multiple choice that badly? He said the average grade was a failing grade. That tells me somehow it was a really confusing test (or a teacher who doesn’t realize what he is and isn’t teaching). This is an AP Lit class, these kids did the reading and assignments and should be doing much better than that.
This speaks to me so much! My kid is chill, I am anxiously awaiting news. He’ll hear from two schools in December, one end of January, one end of February, one mid-March. The January one is his top choice and also super reach, December are choices 2 and 3, February is the one I wish he loved, March is the one that’s just on there because they fit his interests and he’d be happy there if that was the only one he got into, but it’s pretty much last. I wish the February school were earlier - it will be hard to fall in love with that school when, assuming he gets in, he’ll have months to fall in love with the others first.
And yes, if my pattern from last time holds, I will certainly begin obsessing over something else at that point. I WANT to hold on to this time before he leaves, and yet I can’t wait to get to the next milestone. I don’t know what to do with myself and I’m just glad that he doesn’t seem to be making himself as crazy as I am making myself.
I’m starting to see the writing on the wall that we are going to be looking at first choice school for $60k or second choice school for $30k. (We won’t hear from first choice until at least Feb but this is looking like the likely outcome). I’m not looking forward to going through that decision process. But for now….it is just waiting.
If you want your kid to consider cost/value for money then it’s much better to lay out the financial incentives now, before the decisions are in hand. Your 529 balance is $X, we will contribute $Y per year, you get to keep anything left over, etc.
Most of the decision making problems I’ve seen come when the kid has spent months only thinking about which college is nicer, and then the financial considerations are introduced at the last minute.
It takes a long time for an 18 year old to understand what an extra $120K can mean to their future lifestyle and career choices. My kid is still using her 529 for extra support three years out of college, while working as a ballet dancer, because she took the full ride scholarship and saved $100K+. She wouldn’t have been able to pursue her dream without it (most of her friends have already quit due to not having enough money).