Congratulations to those that have already received acceptance letters!
Hopefully the acceptances came from the first picks, and the search is done!
DD has stated that she will definitely be doing college apps this weekend, and has cleared her schedule. Unfortunately, it will be very hot this weekend, and the pool has been chlorinated and cleaned in anticipation of one last big swim. This would have been so much better if it was raining all weekend, instead of DD being tempted by the sparkling clean pool in 98 degree heat! Oh well, guess she can take a bit of a break at some point, right?
MarcyinPA, two years before the eldest went off to school, we put much of the savings that was in her name into her little sister's savings account. I think it was up to two years that the FAFSA can check back? Either way, we figured we would be able to get need-based scholarships or grants for DD, after all, we only have one income, pay a mortgage, had a car payment, etc, etc. Um, nope, no need-based anything! While FAFSA does not take all of a parent's savings into account, they do take some of it, and we are good savers, so that ruined any chance of need-based anything. I was fretting, because I was not going to empty our savings to pay for DD's college, but luckily she did get academic scholarships. Younger DD, I am not so sure about!
Unless you only make $20,000 per year and have 20 kids with no penny in savings (I exaggerate, but this is how it appears to me!), I don't think the FAFSA will put you in a favorable light. However, you still need to fill it out, because perhaps the school your child goes to will have different criteria for their financial aid offices. Either way, good luck to you! At times like this, it stinks to be responsible with money!
Ok, another college question. Are any of the colleges that your kids are looking at basing their GPA requirements on unweighted, core only GPAs? This is the one thing I am most worried about for DD, as it was what kept elder DD from full scholarship at her university (she had the ACT score, but took many honors and AP courses, which did not all receive an "A" grade, but were weighted by the High School). With unweighted core grades, she missed the full ride scholarship by just a few tenths of percentage point. For those that haven't gone through the college search before, it is something that might need to be asked when looking at scholarship qualifications. It was quite the shock for our family!
By the way, most schools bury this information on their websites. I will be calling the admissions counselors at the schools DD #2 applies at for the specifics of GPA calculations. Haven't done it at this point, because I don't want to be irritated yet! Arggh, things were so much easier 25 years ago when it came to college acceptance!