<p>Congrats to your D on that stellar GPA, Zinc! And so glad you won’t have to worry about picking up a 2nd gig : ) </p>
<p>Dindune -Since DS is already at the U, I’m thinking your DD should have an advantage - your family is a known quantity which has to help!</p>
<p>UPDATE - I called down to the U this morning just to try to get a better feel for the scholarship weekend invite timing, etc, since I’m still pretty concerned about booking a flight before they go sky high. I explained the situation with our cruise timing conflict, being out of the country for the last two weekends, and Cristi Busto was definitely trying her best to help but I wasn’t able to get a good sense of where D stood regarding the different weekends… She asked about D’s stats and I did kind of get the feeling that in our case, a Singer only invite was more likely than Stamps/Singer…and Stamps is the only weekend we can make. With the latest increase in the U’s ranking, perhaps only the 36s are up for Stamps invites this year…But Cristi also mentioned that they would work with us due to our timing conflict with the cruise.</p>
<p>So I guess I’m even more confused than ever now! Cristi was really trying to help me figure out what to do re making airline reservations (since pretty much everything but Southwest is non-refundable nowadays, as far as I know, and Southwest flies into FLL only, leaving us to figure out that whole GoShuttle thing or that “tri-wizard train trip” that Zinc mentioned (Harry Potter reference, Zinc?) and she did say that she knows it is going to be short notice for booking flights so when the snail mail acceptances to the university were sent at the end of the month, she said she is going to immediately send email invites to the scholarship weekends at exactly the same time, in order to allow people as much time as possible to make travel arrangements, so that’s good news! She even checked the email address we had on file and asked if it was best to send to that one (D’s) or if she should use mine instead, which was super sweet! I know D will be checking the website regularly for updates for the last week of the month, so I didn’t ask Cristi to change the email preferences. D is so anal that she checks her grades online at school to see if her gym teacher has input the latest pickleball quiz score : ) so I’m not worried about her forgetting to check the U’s website 8-10 times a day that week! </p>
<p>Unfortunately, Cristi didn’t recognize D’s name or remember having corresponded with her this past fall, but I’m sure she talks and emails back and forth with a million kids each application season. I know D had emailed and heard back from Cristi about our inability to get down there for a visit this past fall, and D’s disappointment that she hadn’t had a chance to see the campus in person yet and I was here when she called down there once too. She also attended a local presentation the U sponsored here in the fall, and was sure to sign in. I’m hoping that was enough to display her strong interest (it’s going to be one or the other of the U of Ms, either the freezing cold wasteland currently displayed live on the Minnesota quad’s webcam or the gorgeous tropical paradise with the palm trees swaying right now on the webcam at Miami’s university station!) but now I’m not sure if it was to show interest… And I know you have talked about your feelings about the importance of making a connection, Zinc, so now I’m worried about that…</p>