<p>My mom has her mind set on me going to community college after high school, but I know I can get into a good university. I’m afraid that, when I apply to universities, she’ll throw away the acceptance/denial letters so I don’t see them. It might sound crazy, but she did it with my sister’s college letters (and now she’s attending the local community college).</p>
<p>Is there a way for me to find out if I got in or not without the letter? Can I just call the admissions office?</p>
<p>Wow… ick. Many colleges have an online “portal” that shows what has been received, and where they also post admissions decisions. But not all, some are still paper based. I supposed you can call admissions and talk with them about this. But realistically you will need your mom’s cooperation with things like the FAFSA, too. Are there any universities in your area – could you convince your mom to let you apply to those if you live at home for a year or two? Difficult situation… :(</p>
<p>Is her concern the cost? Or having you live away from home? Or something else?</p>
<p>Most schools have an admission website/ portal on which you set up an account. You can then check
your portal at any time to see if your application is complete or to see your admission’s status.</p>
<p>Even if the portal doesn’t show, sometimes you start getting emails that make it clear you have been accepted. But again… you MUST have your mom’s help to apply for financial aid. If her issue is cost, see if she will let you have CC as a backup plan, but apply to a few colleges that offer good FA to see if you can swing it.</p>
<p>@intparent
She doesn’t have a problem with FAFSA, but her main concerns are both the cost and me being away from home. I understand she doesn’t want me to move far away, but she’s not even paying for any of it. There are some universities near me that I could go to while living at home, but not any good ones, or ones that I’m interested in.</p>
<p>I’m relieved to hear about the portals/admission sites, though. Thanks for your replies!</p>
<p>I think I may be able to convince her if I show her some schools with great financial aid. She just seems really intent on me going to a CC - whenever I try to talk about a university with her, she gets mad at me.</p>
<p>Has she ever been on a campus visit? You might see if you can get her to go just check one out. Sometimes that helps… You could run the net price calculator for some schools and see how it comes out for you (but you will need her help for this). But if she does not want you to go away from home, that is a tough obstacle to overcome.</p>
<p>No, she hasn’t, but she doesn’t like going too far away/out of town, and since I live in the suburbs there are hardly any decent universities around here. I’m interested in a few downtown (Chicago) but she won’t go. Ugh.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about showing her the net price but haven’t yet, not until I find a college I’m interested in with good enough financial aid. </p>
<p>Thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>Well, if you go to a CC, you’ll have to transfer to a university in a few years to complete the bachelor’s degree.</p>
<p>Would she be opposed to you going someplace if you got a full ride?</p>
<p>Probably not, but I think the chances of that happening are slim.</p>
<p>You may be going at this a little backwards. Unless you’re looking at merit aid only, then you need to fill out FAFSA first before you find out what total need based aid is available. Running NPC helps but may not be 100% accurate. If you can’t get your mom to fill out FAFSA then the money discussion is going to be a little hard.</p>
<p>Kimm - I don’t know your entire situation but I know from experience that some families are reluctant to have girls move away from home. Another issue might be that your mother thinks that she honestly can’t afford the cost and is not knowledgeable about all the scholarships, grant, and loan possibilities especially for low income students. I would suggest that you have an honest discussion with your guidance counselor including your mothers position on these matters. At our highschool, the guidance department has Spanish language student/parent meetings specifically geared to adress the isssues that impede Latino girls from going away for college.</p>
<p>To answer your original question, if you don’t receive a letter from any given college by the posted notification date, you can call them on the next business day, tell them your letter was “lost in the mail”, and ask for your decision online.</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, you should have at least started the financial aid process by now–many universities’ deadlines have already passed or are coming up this Friday. You need parental cooperation to file financial aid forms, and you have to designate the colleges you applied to on the FAFSA and Profile. So did your mom cooperate about sending them in? If so, the only part she has to agree to is done. You can accept any offer you get. She has no power to stop you whatsoever–except for paying for college. She can refuse to pay. But if the amount is small enough, you can take out federal loans without a co-signer, so if you get a really generous offer you can take it.</p>
<p>When I’m persuading my mom to let me do something, I always enlist the help of her friends and siblings. Never fails.</p>
<p>If the letters are your concern, you could set up a P/O box temporarily at the local post office. But ultimately, your issue is bigger than the mail. You need to have a calm, reasonable discussion with your mother. She may not realize the options that you have both monetarily and scholastically.</p>
<p>Call the admissions office about a week after acceptances were to have been mailed. Tell them there’s a problem with your mail delivery, and ask them to confirm whether you were accepted. You can skip the backstory. If you were accepted, there should be follow-up letters coming, but you may have same problem of your mother screening your mail.</p>
<p>Acceptance is only one part of much bigger enrollment process. You still need parents’ cooperation regarding college cost-payments and financial aid application information. Did you check “need financial aid” on your admission applications? Did you target schools where you’d fit the +80% percentile profile of applicants, to make yourself a strong candidate for both merit and need financial aid?</p>
<p>Did you look at Dominican University and Elmhurst College too?</p>
<p>If your mother threw away your sister’s acceptance letters she needs to contact the postal service and have her arrested. From your description, you mother sounds like a dreadful person, and the sooner you can get out of the house, the better.</p>
<p>Just my view.</p>
<p>My mother-in-law did this to my H. There are some nutty folks out there. Thank goodness now you can check these things online.</p>
<p>In this day of electronic communication, private passwords and portals should suffice. That said, if they would throw away an acceptance, they might refuse to pay for school. Can you afford your own tuition? This is sad, if true. You said you are a HS freshman. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1401587-should-i-switch-out-honors.html#post14926436[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1401587-should-i-switch-out-honors.html#post14926436</a> Why is this a worry now?</p>
<p>Op is a high school freshman. By the time you are ready to apply to college, chances are that your older sister will be transferring to a 4 year school and your mom may change her mind later about you going away to college or going to a community college. </p>
<p>You will have to demonstrate to her that you are responsible and mature enough to live away from home. You will also have to help educate her on the financial aid and scholarship process.</p>
<p>Since you know now that money is going to be an issue, do your very best in school. </p>
<p>Study for the PSAT (which you will take in 10th grade). Use your 10th grade scores to develop a study plan to do even better when you take the PSATs (as a junior because these scores will help you for national merit scholarships/ national hispanic scholarships/venture scholars programs, etc.).</p>
<p>Make sure that you sit with your mom and your GC and put together a balance list making sure that you have a financial safety.</p>
<p>I guess I’m lucky. I live on an island, no bridge to the mainland, and neither university nor community college. My parents don’t push for community college as a cheeper alternative to university; commuting to community college as a full time student would require me either to get some kind of housing on the main land or commute by plane or boat. Even with the cheapest option, a 2 1/2 hour ferry each way, its still a $50+ round trip commute before the bus to community college. Taking a plane or faster boat bumps a commute to $70+ a day.</p>