Multiple replies in one post: And, of course, if it’s multiple discussions rather than multiple individual posts you’re replying to, you can divide up your reply with topic headers, like this one.
Here’s a second topic: Or at least, there would be if I had one to talk about here.
@illneversaynever I recall this moment on a few dance applications. Applying as a performing arts major is such a special process. Merde with the remaining applications and audition videos. Those are special too. Book extra studio time, even if you don’t think you‘ll need it 
What are your thoughts on applying to external scholarships? My husband, who (bless his heart) has not been involved in one second of the college planning other than filling out the CSS, has decided that S25 should apply to some external scholarship. One, through his employer, is completely reasonable and almost guaranteed. But the others involve a ridiculous amount of work with VERY low odds of S25 actually receiving the scholarships. One is for the sport that S25 has decided to discontinue this year. Kid already is relatively disengaged right now, and I can’t imagine the battle that will ensure between my obstinate son and obstinate husband over these applications.
I think it depends on the amount being awarded for the ridiculous amount of work and what your financial situation is. We did not have our kids apply for any external scholarships above the merit they were awarded at the school they chose. At this point of the year and with the massive burn out, you’ve got to pick your battles. An extra $2k here or there was not going to make or break us financially but could have been the proverbially straw that broke the camels back in terms of parent/child relationship! Every situation is different.
My thoughts exactly! We are a full pay family. One of the scholarships (for the sport that kiddo has discontinued) has a ridiculous list of requirements and a one-time $2500 pay out for THREE students. There is no way in hell S25 will win it, and it seems like a waste of energy to cajole him into applying.
This is a kid who has a 10 page short story due in two weeks that was assigned months ago and for which he has written SIX SENTENCES. No way he’s going to get extensive scholarship applications completed in time.
We’re not asking D25 to apply for any either. Most external scholarships near us look at need, which we technically don’t have. The amounts being offered - $500 here or there - just don’t add up for the amount of work she’d need to do. BUT try telling that to my parents who have lots of opinions about us “leaving money on the table” 
. Same people who, while well meaning, have zero clue as to the proportion of income that college costs now vs when I went 25 yrs ago. I try to tell them, minimum wage has tripled (in Va) since then…and tuition has gone up 10x!! Not even close. Grr.
First acceptance! Oregon State, mechanical engineering. Now we know he has a place to go.
(of course…his stoner friends from high school are also in at Oregon State, and he’s going to want to room with them which might be less conducive to studying. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, though.)
Same issue here. I’m suddenly seeing lots of scholarship “opportunities” but with low odds and with application exhaustion I’m struggling to push them.
What @COMom3 said. Shockingly, D25 has applied for a few external scholarships on her own, but we have not suggested nor pressed her to do so. After doing a few, my guess that she will stop now. She made a passing effort over Thanksgiving to do one, but the heart wasn’t in it and despite the little effort put into it, she never submitted it. Just the weight of doing the work and it hanging over their heads is not worth it.
I would think a part-time job (or more hours at one the kids already has) would a lot better use of time ..guaranteed money and work / life experience.
(agree the one at your spouse’s company is probably worth it).
We do have financial need, but are not having S25 apply for any outside scholarships (except for NMF). My understanding is that at many private colleges, your grant aid will just be reduced by the outside scholarship amount. And he’s not competitive for the REALLY big scholarships like Coca-cola or Cameron Impact. Instead, we’ve focused on having him apply to some schools where he’ll be competitive for merit scholarships (he did apply for some school-specific scholarships).
My in-laws keep suggesting local scholarships that they know about from their church. I know they think we’re spoiling him when I say that I am not going to ask him to write any more essays for $500.
Can I ask when you completed the FAFSA? Colleges are chasing us for it and we did it a few days after FAFSA opened–first time through this, the government sends the info to the schools on our list, right?
Same for us. Why make them do that much work only to have them reduce the need-based aid? It feels kind of pointless and benefits the college more than the student.
First time for us too. We completed and submitted FAFSA on 11/23. DS has a few application portals showing they received it (on or about 11/27) while others are still asking us to submit or not showing they have it at all. 
My thought on outside scholarships: most use financial need in the equation, even if they don’t explicitly say so. My older kid (HS class of 2020) applied far and wide to outside scholarships and received $0. This is a very accomplished kid by objective measures (had zero rejections; admitted to Ivies, T20’s, MIT, etc.) and we saw even local awards going to students who were less accomplished in every way except for “need” or nepotism. We have no financial need, and were full-pay at MIT. Some merit scholarship money would’ve been nice.
I believe this thread had the earlier discussion of declining enrollments. Thought I’d share an article out today: Why Is Enrollment Of 18-Year Old College Freshmen Down 5% This Fall?
"Overall, enrollment of 18-year-old freshmen was down 5% compared to last year, when it increased 3%. The decline was widespread, occurring in 46 states.
The enrollment decline was sharpest for white students (-10%), followed closely by multiracial students (-8.3%) and Black students (-8.2%). Asian (-5.7%) and Latino/a (-2.1%) students experienced smaller declines.
The results also varied based on how selective institutions were in their admissions policies. The biggest decline took place at “very competitive” colleges that accept at least half of their applicants (-8.7 %). “Competitive” institutions, which accept more than 3/4s of applicants saw a 7.4% decline. “Highly selective” institutions, which accept less than a third of applicants, dropped 3.4%, and the least selective institutions declined 3.3%."
Congratulations! Thats a good acceptance!
Congratulations! Are his friends also engineering majors? The OSU engineering Living-Learning Community ( Hawley, Buxton, and Cauthorn) creates a really great first year experience. They have access to a maker space, tutoring and academic support. All the first year engineering majors take the same classes so it creates built in study groups. Maybe you can convince him that he wants to live with the other engineering majors and visit his friends across campus?
Awesome! Congrats!