to Poster CC Name: fromthesouth

Parents Forum
1

<p>You recently posted the following:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I am sorry about your situtation and I can understand your frustration, but your post demonstrates your very limited knowledge of the college admissions process, compounded with a very myopic view of college admissions and some bad misinformation. </p>

<p>I see that you are looking to apply to some very selective colleges, and you are wrong, in the fact that they only look at your race and will not take your situation into account.</p>

<p>However, I am going to tell you what you need to do:</p>

<p>Regarding Fee waiver, If you are entitled to free or reduced lunch at your school, you are entitled to college board fee waivers.</p>

<p>If you are not eligible for a college board fee waiver, if there are atlease 4 people (3 kids and your mom, then your will be eligible for NACAC fee waivers)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/CareerDevelopment/Resources/Documents/Feewaiver.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nacacnet.org/CareerDevelopment/Resources/Documents/Feewaiver.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There are no limit on the number you can use however, they have to be sgined by your GC and s/he must put on the school seal (they can be sent via snail smail . I beleive on the common app, they ask if you are using a college board or NACAC fee waiver- just click on NACAC.</p>

<p>Regarding your families medical expenses: If you are applying to schools that use the CSS profile or their own institutional forms, there is usually a space where they will allow you to explain any extenuating circumstances to your FA situation. They will consider medical expenses not covered by insurance when formulating a FA package for you.</p>

<p>When you return to school on monday, you need to have a good sit down conversation with your counselor and if you have not yet done so, let him/her know what is going on with you/your family. They are the people who will advocate on your behalf and will help put your family situation in perspective for the college. They will be able to tell the college that in spite of all the bumps in your home life, that you have been able to pull through. You will not have to use your essay to tell your “tale of woe” or extenuating circumstances because they can tell it for you. </p>

<p>But if you are not advocating for your self, to let your GC know what is going on, no one else is going to do it for you.</p>

<p>I hope this helps</p>

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<p>well it doesnt really matter now…applications have been due. </p>

<p>and to let you know just how great of a counselor I have…she doesn’t even know what the college board is, and when i asked her about the commonapp she just said “what is that?”</p>

<p>…</p>

<p>thanks for trying though.</p>

<p>another thing is…I live in a pretty rough place as far as the students themselves go…in other words she has situations more serious than mine she has to deal with because I’m pretty sure she knows.</p>

<p>yeah I probably don’t know much about the college process, you are right lol. i didn’t know what the commonapp was before I came on here…to be honest I didn’t know a single thing about applying to college. my school produces NO kids that go to even a top 200 school…ever…</p>

<p>they focus more on the CC kids and the LA Tech kids…</p>

<p>I asked for help with APPS from my GC and I was told “you can’t handle it? you are gonna get somewhere good just do it”…</p>

<p>also ummmmm pm? lol.</p>

<p>its cool though thanks for the advice and sorry for ranting earlier…it wasn’t Mr Tubbz that I was ranting about, just the overall situation in other threads where I see rich URM’s and URM’s with TONS more opportunities than I’ll ever have still get a boost</p>

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<p>Very often colleges will accept late applications. This particularly is true of private colleges, especially ones that are trying to attract certain types of people such as stellar low income students like you. Such colleges fully understand the lack of info and help from counselors that such students may receive through no fault of their own. </p>

<p>If there are any colleges that you’ve missed the deadline for that you would like to apply to, e-mail the admissions office, tell them about yourself – including your stats, honors awards and low income status, and why you weren’t able to apply before.</p>

<p>I know someone who got merit aid at a college even though the person applied after the deadline because the person hadn’t heard of the college before.</p>

<p>I also know someone who got into a top 10 university for grad school even though he’d missed the deadline for reasons very similar to yours: first generation college, low income background, and was attending (and excelling) at a third tier college where very few students went to grad school.</p>

<p>Sending you warm wishes and strong confidence that you’ll end up in an excellent school where you’ll be academically fulfilled and happy.</p>

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<p>fromthesouth –</p>

<p>Your assumptions about URM’s getting all the breaks may be keeping you in a mindset that holds you back from reaching for opportunities that are available to you. Remember that MattsMomFLA’s kid (white) got Questbridge while MrTubbz (AA) didn’t. If Matt had gone on the same set of assumptions, he probably wouldn’t even have applied for Questbridge.</p>

<p>Please listen to the advice on this thread. If there are some colleges to which you didn’t apply because of the cost of applications (clearly, Stanford was one of them), get in touch with those admissions offices right now with a clear, straightforward, not bitter-sounding description of your situation. Summarize your stats etc. as suggested above. Explain that you didn’t understand about fee waivers and couldn’t put together the necessary funds. Ask if there is a way, at this point, for you to have a fee waiver (If there is some small sum you could afford, you might offer to pay that.) and, where relevant, ask if you could possibly have a brief extension. This might not work everywhere, but it’s worth a try. Many colleges have admissions officers specifically assigned to different regions and who are familiar with the high schools there. You may well find admissions people who have a pretty clear idea of what things were like at your hs, and who will be open to your requests.</p>

<p>And be aware that the posters who are helping you come in different colors.</p>

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<p>fromtheSouth – I particularly suggest you get in touch with Hendrix College in Arkansas – not too far from home, since you are from north Louisiana. Hendrix regularly has extended application deadlines, they are fairly generous with financial aid, and they have admissions people who will give you very personalized attention and talk to you about your situation. Plus, it’s a great school.</p>

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<p>Fromthesouth
I am sorry you have to do this all on your own. I bet Dr H would think you have it better then most of our kids who are being “pushed” but I bet you know differently.
But you are on your own, so you need to go forward and talk to the colleges in which you are interested and make sure they understand your situation. If you have the stats to back you up, many will give you a chance to apply. But don’t wait. It is one of those nothing ventured, nothing gained, things. And hopefully you basically have your essays written. If you do, you can tell them you are all ready to submit but you just cannot afford the fees. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Fromthesouth,</p>

<p>As others have noted, many schools will accept an application that is a few days late, especially for a first-gen student. I was able to get an extension at flagships stat u for my nephew, whose story was not nearly as compelling as yours. (PM me if you want the details.) </p>

<p>As a practical matter, apps postmarked 12/31 for the 1/1 deadline won’t arrive on site until Monday 1/5. And even then, the admissions committee can’t read them all in one day, so what’s the hamr if you app arrives 1/12, and the committee doesn’t complete its reviewe of apps until later in the monthy?</p>

<p>Also, there are a number of schools with Feb. 1 and Feb. 15 deadlines. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Fromthesouth,</p>

<p>Did you read what Mr. Tubbz wrote? He was thanking the parents on this forum for their advice-- which he followed. Please follow the advice given to you by people who’ve been through this before. </p>

<p>I know of someone whose application fee bounced and was still accepted. One of my kids technically had an application that was a month ‘late.’ (I’m putting it in quotes because we did mail it on time, with proof of mailing but the school said it never received it.) The person who answered the phone in admissions told us it was too late. We drafted an email explaining that we had sent it, were very interested in the school and faxed it over anyway-- and my daughter was accepted with a really good financial aid package. (And I did write “we” because it was the only part of her applications that I previewed. I wanted to make sure the email showed interest and didn’t put any blame anywhere.)</p>

<p>So many of my daughter’s schools contacted me claiming they were missing parts of the application way past the deadline (things like recs-- one school even emailed us a week before decisions were due saying they didn’t have midyear grades and said the counselor said she was no longer interested in that school!!!) and dd got into ALL those schools (most were top-25, all were top50). Everything was mailed at the same time so I am sure the schools had things in triplicate, they were just missplaced. </p>

<p>The point is there’s no harm in trying. The worst they can do is say no. Sometimes you need to take a chance. Oh, and if you <em>didn’t</em> include your personal story in your application, write up a supplemental essay with it, making sure to explain that you overcame this obstacle (don’t make it sound like an excuse) and send it now. But first, have one of the very experienced parents on this board read it so you are sure it has the right ‘tone.’ </p>

<p>Don’t be your own worst enemy.</p>

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<p>I think that if you really want to apply somewhere, apply. Use the common app. If the system locks you out, and won’t let you send electronically, print it out and take it to the post office TODAY. Print out your fee waivers, take them to the GC so all she has to do is sign and seal them. Drop them in the mail monday after school.</p>

<p>What is the worse that can happen? They say no, they do not invite you to campus and shoot you or anything like that. If you don’t try you will never know.</p>

<p>Remember the saying, that God helps those who help themselves.</p>

<p>In the 300 posts you have accumulated in the past month, imagine the kind of help you would have received if you had started here and asked for help vs. some of the bs pots which netted you nothing. So even in your moment of ignorance, parents have still come to your help. Hello!!! this is your blessing! It is up to you whether or not you want to receive it.</p>

<p>You can continue to take the role of 'woe is me, no one is helping me", but where is it geting you. Life has cut you a bad break. But you can chose to live your life in a way that you are making choices or you can chose to live your life in a way that others are making choices for you. I am a witness, it is a beautiful thing to be able to make your own choices.</p>

<p>Yes, I have plenty of kids who have had bad breaks. I remember one of my co-workers jokingly callin my kids ducklings and asking me, “do any of your kids have parents because they look for you like you are their mother?” </p>

<p>She was shocked when I told her the number of kids I have in foster care, kids who have been physically and sexually abused, kids who are homeless, and kids with deceased or incarcerated parents. I am working with a kid during the 2.5 years he has been in high school mother was killed (by a guy she was dating) and the father is incarcerated for 37 years, his grandparents passed away he is living with one of his aunts. But guess what, he comes to school everyday, he gets amazing grades, holds down a job, plays a varsity sport and looks out for his younger brother. He is great in his sport and will most likely be recruited, but he knows that college wil be a life changing experience for him and his little brother. He has decided that he is not going to let the bad breaks he has had in life define him. So no matter how bad you have it, there will be someone who will say they have had it worse.</p>

<p>“I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man who had no feet.”</p>

<p>all the best.</p>

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<p>

Wow. Do you think you will be prepared for a college that isn’t in the Deep South?</p>

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<p>“Wow. Do you think you will be prepared for a college that isn’t in the Deep South?”</p>

<p>For you to have made such a statement sounds like you aren’t familiar with various parts of this country. There are uninformed counselors in all parts of the U.S. The same is true of highly informed counselors.</p>

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<p>Sybbie and Northstarmom are wise.</p>

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<p>We are not from the deep south … in fact, S goes to an excellent public school in a midwest suburb. However, his guidance counselor is U-S-E-L-E-S-S. I honestly have no clue what she does all day. I know for a fact that she has not met with my son (other than the initial visit I brought him to when we were looking at high schools - he had gone to a private middle school). He is now a junior. </p>

<p>My D attended a top private high school. The head gc at her school thought the sun rose and set on the state flagship. All info given to students & parents was based on what flagship U wanted. The kids who applied to common app schools were pretty much on their own.</p>

<p>Believe me, incompetent gc’s are everywhere.</p>

<p>Fromthesouth, please follow the wise advice here. Then post in April and let us know how it all worked out for you.</p>

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<p>We’re in New England. One of our kids had a GC who knew NOTHING and the other had a great GC. This was at the same school. It had nothing to do with the geographic location of the GC. I find the comment above made about “being prepared for a school outside of the Deep South” to be quite offensive.</p>

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<p>My daughters school did not have a guidance counselor. The last one left the summer before her senior year.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys, and yeah it is pretty hard trying to do everything on your own. And Shrink we’ve had guidance counselors change a lot so I guess that affects her I don’t know. </p>

<p>I’ll get in contact with the admissions officers as soon as possible. </p>

<p>Oh and about my posts, a large portion of them were actually trying to help people, usually by chancing them. I slacked off on a few of them though :P</p>

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<p>Sybbie, bless you for all the work you do saving kids’ lives. Literally.</p>

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<p>Here, here. Sybbie, you’re going to heaven. No question about it.</p>