College tuition question

[MEM]

If folks stopped responding to the OP, perhaps she would go away?

I have trouble with the hyperbole in most (all?) of her posts. I have been in the field of higher education for 28 years at one of the most competitive private universities in the country and applicants who receive a 5 on 4 different AP exams are exceedingly rare. The OP's posts about his accomplishments just don't pass the smell test.

 

[Swan4Me]

Since we're correcting each other. I'd just like to point out that the words are "a lot".

as you can see-I highlighted LOT and meant to type it as two words

In any case -at the time, we were BLOWN away that DS had to have this very expensive computer. Totally worth the $$

 

[EMAW_KSU]

She does this all the time. She posts a "woe is me - we're so poor" song and dance and then sits back waiting for people to PM her asking if she has a paypal account.

What I can not believe is that people continue to give her money.



Tuition for college now.

Money for graduation watch for her son that got a full ride.

Plane tickets for band camp/trip to FL keys.


This reminds me about a story of a panhandler in Chicago that gets in his car and drives to his home in the suburbs after a day of panhandling.

 

[Alesia]

What I can not believe is that people continue to give her money.



Tuition for college now.

Money for graduation watch for her son that got a full ride.

Plane tickets for band camp/trip to FL keys.


This reminds me about a story of a panhandler in Chicago that gets in his car and drives to his home in the suburbs after a day of panhandling.

Like P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

 

[eliza61]

Can I ask, how do you guys know she's collecting money?
Isn't that against dis rules?
Why hasn't anyone reported it

my 2cents.

rarely do I track other posters so I dont know if op, has a history of asking for money. She didn't ask on this post and truthfully I must not be up on all forum code words but I just don't have the mental energy to "decipher" peoples post.

I've never seen a thread that I can recall from anyone asking for money, it could be that I don't give money to perfect strangers so it would not cross my mind to see her post as a cry for money.

Could it be that it is simply some one w hining about the cost of tuition and venting about a change in the financial picture?

Heck, I just got back from the vet for my dog & on top of the usual bill, they want me to kick out another 400 bucks to get his teethed scaled. I was going to ask a question about that but wow I'm scared folks here might think I'm asking for help paying for it. Could it be we are seeing a tad bit into thing?

Just askin'

 

[kamik86]

Wow I can't imagine that! And I wonder about the size and quality of the program.

Heck around here a B in freshman gym can send you out of the running for top 10 let alone Valedictorian.

I agree that the quality of the program was low (the size was also quite small only 85 students in my graduating class).

This was a school with no APs offered, no foreign language classes, no art classes of any kind (art, theatre, etc). It was a vocational school we spent half our time in normal classes (bare basics so that we had enough time in those classes for a diploma) and half in our shop of choice (mine was IT so I learned computer stuff, there were 8 others).

However since the school did better on our yearly state tests then all but one other in our county I have to believe that there are many many other low quality schools like this out there and thus many valedictorians that also didn't get perfect grades.

 

[kamik86]

That really surprises me. I went to a small high school in a tiny little podunk town in Indiana and we had 7 valedictorians, all of whom had 4.0 GPAs. There were also 3 or 4 salutatorians who had 3.99 GPAs. If any of them would have slacked off just a little, they wouldn't have made it. It honestly never occurred to me that there would be a high school where no one in the entire class had a perfect record.

The school didn't do just A, B, C but actual numbers 98, 99, etc. On a 4.0 scale many of us would have had a 4.0

 

[Alesia]

The school didn't do just A, B, C but actual numbers 98, 99, etc. On a 4.0 scale many of us would have had a 4.0

Ours used actual numbers as well.

 

[Swan4Me]

Can I ask, how do you guys know she's collecting money?
Isn't that against dis rules?
Why hasn't anyone reported it

my 2cents.

rarely do I track other posters so I dont know if op, has a history of asking for money. She didn't ask on this post and truthfully I must not be up on all forum code words but I just don't have the mental energy to "decipher" peoples post.

I've never seen a thread that I can recall from anyone asking for money, it could be that I don't give money to perfect strangers so it would not cross my mind to see her post as a cry for money.

Could it be that it is simply some one w hining about the cost of tuition and venting about a change in the financial picture?

There are many types of posts like this from her

and in the past the whining posts got results

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2099982

 

[imsayin]

If folks stopped responding to the OP, perhaps she would go away?

I have trouble with the hyperbole in most (all?) of her posts. I have been in the field of higher education for 28 years at one of the most competitive private universities in the country and applicants who receive a 5 on 4 different AP exams are exceedingly rare. The OP's posts about his accomplishments just don't pass the smell test.

According to the AP data, over 100,000 students achieved AP scholar with distinction, so it is possible. It doesn't specify the number of 5's so maybe that is rare.

The lesson is, educate yourself when it comes to college aid offers. Obviously the OP has had trouble distinguishing financial aid from merit. The colleges are clear on what will happen with outside scholarships.

 

[tar heel]

A kid doesn't have to make any 5s to be an "AP Scholar of Distinction."

MEM was saying she doesn't often see a kid who makes a 5 on four AP tests. That surprised me quite frankly. I thought the top students usually made 4s and 5s, meaning a kid who takes a lot of APs would be fairly likely to make that many 5s.

 

[crashbb]

A kid doesn't have to make any 5s to be an "AP Scholar of Distinction."

Ah, okay. The way the OP is written, it certainly sounded as if that was the case.

He is a AP Scholar with Distinction ( scoring 5 on 4 or more AP exams)

What is the actual definition?

 

[addicted2dizney]

 

[tar heel]

AP Scholar with distinction must score 3 or higher on 5 or more AP tests and have an average score on all tests taken of at least 3.5.

As far as I know this is not worth anything anywhere except, perhaps, on the DIS boards. I knew the answer b/c my son got AP scores in the past week and the various honors categories were listed on the score report.

 

[horseshowmom]

Now at Graduation it was a total surprise to us, he earn 3 scholarships. A smaller one time one of $200 ish, a National Honor Society on of $500 and an awesome one......$3,000 for all 4 years!!!

Now come the kicker: He must disclose to the school all scholarship monies earned. No problem. However now they are going to re-work (into a set program) his new numbers and the amount of the grants will be reduced thus leaving us having to get a small loan.

Bascially, all the hard work, essays, interviews, etc to earn the scholarships was for not because they are just going to take away funding.

Is this common? I do not want to appear to be ungrateul at all, but after stuggling finanacially for so long, it looking like college was going to be an great moment in his life.

If anyone has any insight please do pass along.
Thanks in advance.

Since I don't keep up with other posters, I'll just answer the question. Yes, it's common. My niece had the same problem. She won several smaller scholarships which were then deducted from what the university had offered. Her mother was upset too.

I think it may have had to do with need based awards. My daughter didn't have any of her award reduced by outside scholarships, but hers were all merit based as opposed to my niece having some merit and some needs based.

Regarding the rest of the posts, if the poster is trying to solicit donations, they should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[ctinct]

I think it depends on the school how they apply the scholarship money. My dd got many scholarships last year senior yr. in hs). What the school did in her case was to eliminate her work study first, which was fine with me, because paying the bill, that is actually money that has to be paid toward the bill upfront, and the student earns it back during the year--and most kids use it as spending money. She was able to find a job, anyhow.

In our case, last year they also decreased her loans, which was fabulous.

This year may be a bit different. Most of the outside scholarships she earned were one time only things. However , she was able to reapply for two of them. One we already notified the school about, and they just added it into her pkg. so that our out of pocket cost will be less. However, I also asked for a financial aid review and just yesterday was notified that they increased her grant. Coincidentally, we also received notice that she was awarded another scholarship for almost the same amount as our grant was increased. The way I look at it, if they take the increase in grant back, I'm still going to be paying the same amount, and maybe someone else who needs the money will now be awarded an increased grant.

Anyhow, I guess my point is, different schools apply scholarships differently, and it may even vary from year to year. It all still helps to decrease your costs; if they take away grant money, your scholarship money will probably replace it. Or, they may decrease your loans. If you are extremely lucky, they may not remove any aid, and it reduces out of pocket expenses. Either way, it's free money. Yeah, I know your child worked hard on the applications. Mine whined once or twice too, while she was writing all the esaays, assembling the portfolios, etc. But you know what? I had her calculate how much she earned per hour spent. That TOTALLY made her see that it was worth doing, even if she had earned fewer scholarships. Heck, if she had won just one $500 scholarship on twenty hours work, that equates to $25 an hour. I know of very few 16 year olds who earn that. Consider your son fortunate.

Off topic: If the admissions counselor who said that students earning four 5s on AP tests is rare is still reading here, can you give me a sense of how rare this is? I may need to give my dd an extra "atta girl", even if it was a year ago.

 

[disykat]

A kid doesn't have to make any 5s to be an "AP Scholar of Distinction."

MEM was saying she doesn't often see a kid who makes a 5 on four AP tests. That surprised me quite frankly. I thought the top students usually made 4s and 5s, meaning a kid who takes a lot of APs would be fairly likely to make that many 5s.

That surprises me too. My son took 10 APs and had 2 3s, 3 4's, and 5 5s. His 3.958 GPA didn't get him in to the VAL/SAL lineup. He was just one of a crowd at our school. He didn't get any merit help from our state flagship, but I'm sure those things are what got him in. He's just an average student to them. You pretty much have to have those averages to get in.

 

[disykat]

The other point that is interesting is the POV of the scholarship people.

I've served on local scholarship committees and we've made it clear that the scholarship will be applied directly to tuition only, trying to discourage the full ride students from applying. We also added language to give the student the option of accepting an award certificate instead of tuition if those funds were no longer needed. (ie student applied before receiving full ride)

It is discouraging, when so many students need help, to have your funds going to a student who wasn't going to have to pay it anyway. Essentially then your dollars aren't helping the student, but rather the school.

 

[jeankeri]

Our school's financial aid workshop said it was up to individual schools how they would rework their FA package based on scholarships received. Their advice was to check with each school's FA office to see if it was worth looking for scholarships, because in many cases (not all, but many) the scholarships would be used to replace money the school would be giving to the student. So, your son or daughter would be doing lots of work to maintain the school's endowment, not necessarily to decrease their work study or student loans.

 

[kcrew]

Wow, I have a rising sophomore so I am just beginning to sort this stuff so I find this thread very informational (not to mention amusing...ahem). So I admit I assumed that the gap between our "need" and reality could be supplemented with dogged pursuit of private scholarships. If I understand what I am reading though, that isn't the case at all? The scholarships just reduce our "need" thus less of a package from the college, netting in the same out of pocket? Again, wow. So is the only time such scholarships would be beneficial is if a) we would have zero need, or b) a student attends a school that is not committed to providing 100 % need? I am starting to get really, really scared.