High School class of 2011

[DisneyNutMary]

Hey, can I join this thread?
I don't know how I've been missing it since Aug, but this is my first time seeing it.

My son is a senior, and we are deep into the application process now. I've been over to the collegeconfidential.com boards, but I didn't find them to be the right "fit" for me, kwim?

My son is pretty focused on what he wants, and what he is looking for in a college. He narrowed his choices down to just seven before we visited any, then whittled that down to six. His applications are all in, and replies have started coming. His choices are
1. Penn State University Park, applied, accepted and working on the honors application (essays are killing him)
2. Univ of West Virginia, applied, accepted, and working on the honors application (I think this may be the one for him, he loved it there)
3. Arcadia University, applied, accepted, not too interested anymore
4. Hofstra, applied and waiting
5. CW Post campus of Long Island University, applied and waiting
6. Univ of New Haven, applied, accepted, and he wants to have another look before deciding.

I haven't read the whole thread yet, I wanted to join and sub, but I am going back to catch up. I am so glad to have a place with other senior parents to share our experiences.

 

[minkydog]

Woo-hoo! We just got back from a GREAT college visit.Some of you have followed our story of trying to get DD17 to at least consider a college other than the local tech school. Most recently she had a little meltdown in which she cried, "I"m too young to go off to college and my boyfriend will be staying at home!" Reason enough to send her packing, IMO.
Well, her Drama Club advisor is a graduate of Valdosta State(GA) and was able to hook them up. The school is about a 4hr drive, which DD has been saying is waaaaaayy toooooo faaaaar. Well, apparently when you're traveling with 9 of your best theater friends, it's not that far at all. They got to meet with the dept heads and some real students, sit in on a two classes, see a show and even picked up an Improv Troupe performance at 10:30pm. (Yes, we are exhausted!)

This trip was a great success, not just for my DD but for the other kids. In fact, as a result of this trip, 4 other seniors decided to apply! DD came home singing the praises of VSU. OMG. Considering that we nearly had to drive her with a whip and a chair, this is nothing short of a miracle!

 

[armomof3lvsdisney]

Woo-hoo! We just got back from a GREAT college visit.Some of you have followed our story of trying to get DD17 to at least consider a college other than the local tech school. Most recently she had a little meltdown in which she cried, "I"m too young to go off to college and my boyfriend will be staying at home!" Reason enough to send her packing, IMO.
Well, her Drama Club advisor is a graduate of Valdosta State(GA) and was able to hook them up. The school is about a 4hr drive, which DD has been saying is waaaaaayy toooooo faaaaar. Well, apparently when you're traveling with 9 of your best theater friends, it's not that far at all. They got to meet with the dept heads and some real students, sit in on a two classes, see a show and even picked up an Improv Troupe performance at 10:30pm. (Yes, we are exhausted!)

This trip was a great success, not just for my DD but for the other kids. In fact, as a result of this trip, 4 other seniors decided to apply! DD came home singing the praises of VSU. OMG. Considering that we nearly had to drive her with a whip and a chair, this is nothing short of a miracle!

Yea!!! That is great news!!

 

[ctinct]

I'd rather not say exactly. It's kind of *her* information to disseminate (or not). She only took the ACT once (this past spring) but liked her score well enough and just didn't want to take it again. Do I think she could have improved it? Maybe...but then again? maybe not and I don't have all these tests to sit for that she has to go through. Her SAT did improve by quite a bit & her ACT was well above the 90th percentile.

I think that the kids just get burned-out by all the constant testing, I mean, she does have 4 AP tests this May (eek) + a National language exam this spring as well.

Gotcha, Agnes. I think I had you confused with someone else waiting for ACT scores anyhow, but maybe I just remember you waiting for the SAT scores, which in your daughter's case certainly sound like they were worth the wait. I know what you mean about the testing. MY dd took ACT twice and the SAT twice. We got some info on a competitive scholarship that required two SAT subject tests. VERY competitive, so a long shot, but it was a completely free ride and there are a good number of them available. I wanted dd to give it a shot, but she said she just didn't want to take any more tests. I dropped the idea. I think most kids have the idea that senior year is going to be the most fun out of all the high school years, but for my dd, it's turning out to be quite stressful.

Funny story. One of dd's friends got an email from a college with the subject line "Your perfect for us." I told her she should reply, "Maybe I'm perfect for you, but YOU'RE not perfect for me." Geesh. Not the way to market yourself. I guess they didn't have anyone proof that email before it went out.

 

[agnes!]

Gotcha, Agnes. I think I had you confused with someone else waiting for ACT scores anyhow, but maybe I just remember you waiting for the SAT scores, which in your daughter's case certainly sound like they were worth the wait. I know what you mean about the testing. MY dd took ACT twice and the SAT twice. We got some info on a competitive scholarship that required two SAT subject tests. VERY competitive, so a long shot, but it was a completely free ride and there are a good number of them available. I wanted dd to give it a shot, but she said she just didn't want to take any more tests. I dropped the idea. I think most kids have the idea that senior year is going to be the most fun out of all the high school years, but for my dd, it's turning out to be quite stressful.

Funny story. One of dd's friends got an email from a college with the subject line "Your perfect for us." I told her she should reply, "Maybe I'm perfect for you, but YOU'RE not perfect for me." Geesh. Not the way to market yourself. I guess they didn't have anyone proof that email before it went out.

Funny story about that college e-mail. Maybe what's sad is the idea that they probably DID have someone proof it...

Oh, and I'm thankful to be remembered any way at all, even if it wasn't me . DD did take 3 SAT Subject Tests, June 5th of this year. Then the next Saturday she took the ACT. They do get overwhelmed with all the testing and essay-writing, at some point I would just shut down too.

DD's HS should be getting her complete Transcript sent out sometime soon...the only thing missing was her Counselor's Recommendation and DD had her interview with the Counselor this past Thursday.

I have *no* idea when we'll hear which schools she's been accepted to...the waiting is excruciating (for me...I'm sure it's worse for her). I do know the individual merit scholarship info takes awhile. I am so very very grateful that she got the 4 apps in and that they are *done*. Many of her friends haven't done a thing, or their parents will say "Oh Johnny only has some essays to finish"...ummm, don't they realize the friggin' ESSAYs are what take the most time?!? I am certain that DD probably put in a good 40+ hours into her apps, even though all her schools used the Common App since 2 of the schools required extensive additional essays.

I am hoping that she'll do a little bit more research today to see if there are any other schools she's interested in...maybe a good safety or two. Many of the in-state schools that have a good merit-aid program also have a December 1st deadline, so there's still barely just *enough* time for the school to generate their transcript if she turns in any new Transcript Request Forms on Monday.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

or their parents will say "Oh Johnny only has some essays to finish"...ummm, don't they realize the friggin' ESSAYs are what take the most time?!? I am certain that DD probably put in a good 40+ hours into her apps, even though all her schools used the Common App since 2 of the schools required extensive additional essays.

This made me think of a question I've had. Did your kids write one essay for all of the applications, or write a different essay for each school?

My son spent the entire summer working on his essay, perfecting it, double checking grammer and punctuation, counting the words. He sent this one essay with every application.
Then the info on honors programs and scholarships started rolling in, and each has a short deadline and require essays, some of them on really crazy questions.... now after putting his heart into one essay, he is pressed to produce about 10 more, equally impressive essays in a quarter of the time, while still juggling work, soccer, and a heavy courseload. I feel bad for him watching him grasp for the answer to questions like "Would you rather study abroad in South Dakota, Africa or Costa Rica? And Why?" He's like, um, none of the above Seriously, this is an actual question on the Schreyer Honors app for Penn State, so if your child is considering it, have him/her start researching now.

 

[Pinkpony]

My twins (both boys) have also finished their applications and now anxiously await for the postman to arrive each day! So funny, because they've never cared about the mail before now.

Of the five schools they've applied to, they've been accepted to four and have been offered nice scholarship packages to three of them (still hoping for number 4 and 5 to come through).

I noticed that many of you have applied to multiple out-of-state colleges. Of course, my boys would LOVE to go out of state somewhere, but we thought the cost of out-of-state tuition was cost-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Do I need to lift my ban?

And we wouldn't qualify for any financial aid at all; completely out of pocket or scholarships. And not the top tier scholarships, they're not National Merits.

We let them apply to one out-of-state school (BYU) but it's because the tuition is the same for out-of-staters as it is for in-staters. That's the only school we haven't heard from yet.

So can anyone enlighten me on paying for that out-of-state tuition? Over on collegeboard, it seems like they're all National Merits or scored a 36 on their ACT in order to do it.

 

[golfgal]

My twins (both boys) have also finished their applications and now anxiously await for the postman to arrive each day! So funny, because they've never cared about the mail before now.

Of the five schools they've applied to, they've been accepted to four and have been offered nice scholarship packages to three of them (still hoping for number 4 and 5 to come through).

I noticed that many of you have applied to multiple out-of-state colleges. Of course, my boys would LOVE to go out of state somewhere, but we thought the cost of out-of-state tuition was cost-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Do I need to lift my ban?

And we wouldn't qualify for any financial aid at all; completely out of pocket or scholarships. And not the top tier scholarships, they're not National Merits.

We let them apply to one out-of-state school (BYU) but it's because the tuition is the same for out-of-staters as it is for in-staters. That's the only school we haven't heard from yet.

So can anyone enlighten me on paying for that out-of-state tuition? Over on collegeboard, it seems like they're all National Merits or scored a 36 on their ACT in order to do it.

Easy, out of state schools WANT kids from out of state to apply so they make it attractive. Some schools will give scholarships to make up the difference if they want you bad enough. Also some states have reciprocity with other states giving them instate tuition. Also, don't discount financial aid, especially with 2 going off at the same time. If they both select schools that cost $40K, do you really have $80K to pay for their tuition each year? The cost of the school plays a big part in the aid package too.

 

[agnes!]

This made me think of a question I've had. Did your kids write one essay for all of the applications, or write a different essay for each school?

My son spent the entire summer working on his essay, perfecting it, double checking grammer and punctuation, counting the words. He sent this one essay with every application.
Then the info on honors programs and scholarships started rolling in, and each has a short deadline and require essays, some of them on really crazy questions.... now after putting his heart into one essay, he is pressed to produce about 10 more, equally impressive essays in a quarter of the time, while still juggling work, soccer, and a heavy courseload. I feel bad for him watching him grasp for the answer to questions like "Would you rather study abroad in South Dakota, Africa or Costa Rica? And Why?" He's like, um, none of the above Seriously, this is an actual question on the Schreyer Honors app for Penn State, so if your child is considering it, have him/her start researching now.

There were a lot of "supplements" (which is college application double-speak for "more essays...yay. goody.")
This is what DD did on the Common App:
Main essay (same for all - which ended up being 600-700 words)
Short Answer (same for all - 250 words *exactly*)
School 1 - 2 essays - or those "supplements" (500 words each)
School 2 - Used one essay from School 1, but replaced School 1 specifics with School 2 specifics
School 3 - One more essay(Personal Statement)
School 4 - nothing extra
So, a total of 5 completely different essays.

Also, when we toured Stanford last year, the Dean who talked to our group said to make sure you don't say for your Main Essay "Why I want to go to HARVARD" kwim? (Leave off specific college names in that Main Essay.) And yes, she did say you would be surprised how many Common Apps come in with that huge red flag on them.

agnes!

 

[geffric]

My twins (both boys) have also finished their applications and now anxiously await for the postman to arrive each day! So funny, because they've never cared about the mail before now.

Of the five schools they've applied to, they've been accepted to four and have been offered nice scholarship packages to three of them (still hoping for number 4 and 5 to come through).

I noticed that many of you have applied to multiple out-of-state colleges. Of course, my boys would LOVE to go out of state somewhere, but we thought the cost of out-of-state tuition was cost-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Do I need to lift my ban?

And we wouldn't qualify for any financial aid at all; completely out of pocket or scholarships. And not the top tier scholarships, they're not National Merits.

We let them apply to one out-of-state school (BYU) but it's because the tuition is the same for out-of-staters as it is for in-staters. That's the only school we haven't heard from yet.

So can anyone enlighten me on paying for that out-of-state tuition? Over on collegeboard, it seems like they're all National Merits or scored a 36 on their ACT in order to do it.

As agnes said many schools have reciporicity.. but it alsp depends on your state.. in ILL there is no reciporcity to other states and the state school is over $30k for instate students.. but u of iowa is less then in state illinois, Indiana instate pays $less but they give BIG scholarships for out of state students with certain gpa and act scores..

Private schools have lots of money for all..

 

[Pinkpony]

Easy, out of state schools WANT kids from out of state to apply so they make it attractive. Some schools will give scholarships to make up the difference if they want you bad enough. Also some states have reciprocity with other states giving them instate tuition. Also, don't discount financial aid, especially with 2 going off at the same time. If they both select schools that cost $40K, do you really have $80K to pay for their tuition each year? The cost of the school plays a big part in the aid package too.

My only knowledge on financial aid comes from my best friend. She has two kids, both graduated within the last two years, and both with high GPAs and ACT scores. After filling out the FAFSA two years in a row, they received no financial aid. And our income is about twice as much as theirs.

I see what you're saying, though. Basically, the higher the tuition and the more kids in college, the better the chance of getting some aid.

We have a couple of states surrounding us that give a little towards reciprocity, but not the whole amount. There's still a good-sized difference.

I guess maybe I'll let them choose a couple of out-of-state colleges to apply to and see what happens. We better hurry!

 

[Pinkpony]

As agnes said many schools have reciporicity.. but it alsp depends on your state.. in ILL there is no reciporcity to other states and the state school is over $30k for instate students.. but u of iowa is less then in state illinois, Indiana instate pays $less but they give BIG scholarships for out of state students with certain gpa and act scores..

Private schools have lots of money for all..

Thanks for the info...so much to learn!!!

 

[wilderness01]

There were a lot of "supplements" (which is college application double-speak for "more essays...yay. goody.")
This is what DD did on the Common App:
Main essay (same for all - which ended up being 600-700 words)
Short Answer (same for all - 250 words *exactly*)
School 1 - 2 essays - or those "supplements" (500 words each)
School 2 - Used one essay from School 1, but replaced School 1 specifics with School 2 specifics
School 3 - One more essay(Personal Statement)
School 4 - nothing extra
So, a total of 5 completely different essays.

Also, when we toured Stanford last year, the Dean who talked to our group said to make sure you don't say for your Main Essay "Why I want to go to HARVARD" kwim? (Leave off specific college names in that Main Essay.) And yes, she did say you would be surprised how many Common Apps come in with that huge red flag on them.

agnes!

So if you are applying to Harvard, you shouldn't use their name in the main essay? Why?

Or you shouldn't copy your essay and send them to different schools without changing the name? That is what I think you meant, but I'm not sure.

 

[geffric]

Welcome DisneyNutMary.. thanks for joining us.. just jump in..


wilderness01 what agnes is saying is that be very careful that you dont mention one school when sending an essay to another..

 

[disykat]

My son and I are honestly having trouble figuring out what to do with one of his acceptances.

One school came with info on his automatic merit scholarship, info on applying for financail aid, and information on when he needs to accept by if he is planning to attend. It made perfect sense.

The other school sent a letter telling him he is accepted and how to sign up for his school accounts so he can register for classes. Does he need to sign up for those accounts (three different ones that their students use) in order get information? Everything we see looks like those are accounts meant for students that have made their decision and are going there. He doesn't know if he wants to go there (especially since there was nothing about his automatic merit aid that he was expecting from reading their website) and it's sort of turning him off that they seem to be making that assumption! We can't find anything on their website about commitment dates, etc. Any ideas?

 

[agnes!]

There were a lot of "supplements" (which is college application double-speak for "more essays...yay. goody.")
This is what DD did on the Common App:
Main essay (same for all - which ended up being 600-700 words)
Short Answer (same for all - 250 words *exactly*)
School 1 - 2 essays - or those "supplements" (500 words each)
School 2 - Used one essay from School 1, but replaced School 1 specifics with School 2 specifics
School 3 - One more essay(Personal Statement)
School 4 - nothing extra
So, a total of 5 completely different essays.

Also, when we toured Stanford last year, the Dean who talked to our group said to make sure you don't say for your Main Essay "Why I want to go to HARVARD" kwim? (Leave off specific college names in that Main Essay.) And yes, she did say you would be surprised how many Common Apps come in with that huge red flag on them.

agnes!

So if you are applying to Harvard, you shouldn't use their name in the main essay? Why?

Or you shouldn't copy your essay and send them to different schools without changing the name? That is what I think you meant, but I'm not sure.

If your child is using the Common App, they can apply to several schools at once. Each college applied-to will have an app fee but all the information is in one place, makes it easy compared to the olden days when we had to send individual applications to each college that was applied-to.
My point about the Main Essay, and this is VERY important, is this...the Main Essay goes out to all the schools that the student is applying-to using the Common App, it cannot be edited according to the school. Supplements, however, are individually submitted to the schools requesting them. Do NOT state in the Main Essay "College XYZ is my dream school" IF you are also applying to any other schools using the Common App. College ABC will see that your student thinks another school is better...hmmmmm, I wonder how that will make them feel about the student's application.

agnes!

 

[Pinkpony]

My son and I are honestly having trouble figuring out what to do with one of his acceptances.

One school came with info on his automatic merit scholarship, info on applying for financail aid, and information on when he needs to accept by if he is planning to attend. It made perfect sense.

The other school sent a letter telling him he is accepted and how to sign up for his school accounts so he can register for classes. Does he need to sign up for those accounts (three different ones that their students use) in order get information? Everything we see looks like those are accounts meant for students that have made their decision and are going there. He doesn't know if he wants to go there and it's sort of turning him off that they seem to be making that assumption! We can't find anything on their website about commitment dates, etc. Any ideas?

We've had both of these scenarios happen.

The latter one you speak of, one of my twins signed up for the school accounts after getting the acceptance letter, the other one never got around to it. The letter offering them a scholarship came a couple of weeks later with the deadline date of accepting it. So in our case, it didn't matter whether you signed up for the accounts or not. Looks like the scholarship letter will find its way to you regardless. And, yes, they arrived the same day and were for the same amount. No difference.

Good luck!

 

[disykat]

We've had both of these scenarios happen.

The latter one you speak of, one of my twins signed up for the school accounts after getting the acceptance letter, the other one never got around to it. The letter offering them a scholarship came a couple of weeks later with the deadline date of accepting it. So in our case, it didn't matter whether you signed up for the accounts or not. Looks like the scholarship letter will find its way to you regardless. And, yes, they arrived the same day and were for the same amount. No difference.

Good luck!

Thanks! I was kind of assuming they will want him badly enough to send him more stuff (it's not a highly selective school,) but you never know. It just seemed like they were just tossing him in the student pool as if he had committed to going there.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

I noticed that many of you have applied to multiple out-of-state colleges. Of course, my boys would LOVE to go out of state somewhere, but we thought the cost of out-of-state tuition was cost-prohibitive. Am I missing something here? Do I need to lift my ban?

And we wouldn't qualify for any financial aid at all; completely out of pocket or scholarships. And not the top tier scholarships, they're not National Merits.

My son applied to out of state schools for 4 of his 6, we based applications solely on who was tops in his major- Forensic Science. Of the schools Univ of West Virginia's out of state tuition is one of the cheapest for oos students in the USA, I think they are 13th on the list of affordable tuition for oos students. As to the rest, we will rely heavily on scholarships and financial aid.
My son was National Merit Commended, so no automatic scholarships, but he is getting a lot of interest from the schools that were notified of his National Merit status. He is also spending a lot of time on Fastweb.com, he figures that since he is writing essays until the cows come home, he might was well continue. There are so many scholarships available for kids who are just willing to write an essay, and so many kids just pass them by because they don't want to write the essay.

We've had both of these scenarios happen.

The latter one you speak of, one of my twins signed up for the school accounts after getting the acceptance letter, the other one never got around to it. The letter offering them a scholarship came a couple of weeks later with the deadline date of accepting it. So in our case, it didn't matter whether you signed up for the accounts or not. Looks like the scholarship letter will find its way to you regardless. And, yes, they arrived the same day and were for the same amount. No difference.

Good luck!

Us too, schools all do it differently. You can usually see on their website when scholarship notifications go out. Only two schools sent scholarship notification with the acceptance so far, two sent it a week to two weeks later, and the last two will not even send acceptances until sometime this or next month. I feel like we are are pins and needles from now until after the holidays.

 

[cruisnfamily]

So help me out with the whole school aid/scholarship info.

DD applied to and was accepted at one of the state universities. The letter just basically said "you're in! Do the following: sign up for orientation, send in a deposit for housing" No mention of aid or scholarships. Do they automatically send you info on the aid and scholarships? At every single school? or is this something I need to call them about? Or does it not happen until after you fill out the FAFSA?

This will be my first one in college and I'm not sure how the process works.