High School class of 2011

[kbeverina]

We talked about Tulane, Loyola, Vanderbilt (toured there) and a ton of other private schools. She is very clear that she doesn't see herself in a place that would necessitate working on her studies 6 days a week. In her opinion, she has already endured "the grind" at her high school and she is looking for a more social college experience. I am thankful for her honesty. I wouldn't want to push her into a rigorous college experience, spend top dollar for a private academic school and then be disappointed at her effort and it's outcome.

Right now she is very angry at not being able to waltz right into Bama on a scholarship and our unwillingness to just write the check for the out of state tuition. She is finishing other applications but not putting tremendous effort into her personal statements. She may have to learn this one the hard way and it is very upsetting to us as her parents. She is very resistant as I bring up additional options for colleges. It's gonna be one long hard school year.

Thanks for the info on Bowling Green, it's very helpful. My son has been resistant, too, in talking about other options. He will probably apply early decision, but the business college is very hard to get into, so I want him to look at other schools, too, and he just doesn't want to think about that. He kind of takes it personally, like I think he can't get in, but I'm just being realistic. The salutatorian at a neighboring high school didn't get in to Tech or James Madison, but got into an ivy last year. It's so competitive right now.

 

[kbeverina]

Well, dd's first two applications were submitted this morning. They're not complete yet, because she still has to send her scores and such, but it was pretty exciting for her to hit that "submit" button. One was a an early ection school that will send its decision in early January, along with notification of any merit money. I can't recall when the other notifies, but it was also early action.

On another note, are any of your students resistant to doing anymore school stuff? Daughter's list is complete and she is quite content with her choices BUT....the other day we got mail from Washington and Lee University with info on their Johnson Scholars program. It is a full ride scholarship, not just tuition. I'm sure they got her name from the ACT testing people; while her score is in range, it is by no means in the tippy top strata. I think she should at least apply. They pick 200 finalists and fly them down for interviews, and then pick the winners from that group. I told her she has nothing to lose by applying. If not selected as a finalist, oh, well. If selected as a finalist, they pay for the visit, so she could have a chance to visit to see if she even likes the school. The problem? The school requires two SAT subject tests, which she hasn't taken. She doesn't want to do it. She is already taking the SAT again next Saturday (I'm kind of regrettting that one, because I don't think she will improve enough for it to be on par with her ACT score) and the ACT for the second tome a few weeks after that. I'm hoping she can improve that a point or two, even though it is already very good. Would you put your foot down and force her to take SAT IIs? I'm torn.

Wow--congrats to your daughter, Washington and Lee is a great school. Beautiful campus. I think katerkat went there, you could try sending her a pm for info if you want.

 

[johnsontrio]

We have made 4 college visits so far. DD17 is accepted at Valdosta State U. in south Georgia. It has a fantastic arts program, plus carries a lot of classes she's interested in (like Latin ) She visited a small liberal arts school in North Georgia, Young Harris College, which is well known for it's fine arts program too. Valdosta is about 4 hrs from home and YHC is 2hrs. The big plus for YHC is that it's about 6miles from the campground that our family loves so much, so she is pretty familiar with the area already.

However, now she says she doesn't want to go off to college. She wants to stay home and go to the local tech school "to get my basics." Actually, she really wants to go to Kennesaw State,which is about 4 miles from the house. KSU is very competitive because it's a commuter school in metro Atlanta, plus it's a large university.I don't think she's going to be happy at KSU, I think it's just familiar. Her GPA and test scores are not good enough to get in there, anyway. So KSU is off the table at this time. I am pushing her to apply at YHC, but so far she is lukewarm toward everything except KSU. DId I mention that there is no way she will get in to KSU?

My big issue is that I really think she needs to go off to school, at least for a year. I think the problem is she's afraid of separating from her friends and her brother. She thinks that her HS life will go on as usual. Her senior friends will go going away, but her junior friends (including the BF) will still be home. I'm thinking that if she starts out at tech school, she's going to miss out of the normal college life: learning to live in the dorm, taking part in activities and learning how to be an adult. My fear is that she will go to the tech school(which caters to mainly older adults) not like it, and think that she doesn't like college at all. She wants to major in communications and minor in dance, neither of which is offered at tech school.

I'm not sure how much to push her on this. On the one hand, she's already accepted to VSU so I *could* put some pressure on her to follow through, get her grades up and transfer to KSU. I really, really want her to go away to college. At the moment, I'm trying to just lay low. I've talked with her about it, but she just puts a wall up and doesn't want to hear it. I don't want to pressure her do something she really doesn't want to do but on the other hand do I just stand by when I think my child is making a college decision for all the wrong reasons?

I think it is so hard to know what is the right thing to do sometimes.. I see a lot of kids talk about going off to school and then chickening out at the last minute because they are afraid of the unknown. Your daughter seems like she wants to hold on to her high school life and the BF is probably a lot of that. Since she is already accepted at VSU and you're Ok with that, back off and see if she even follows up on the other applications. She may never get around to applying to the school that is close to home.

We sort of have the opposite problem here. DD wants to go far, far away.. While I think that DD does need to go away in order to grow up a little (she's had 2 very attentive parents stepping and fetching for her all her life), I'm not so sure that it is going to be all that she thinks it's going to be and we hate to have her go very far since she will be 17 until the end of her first semester. We don't want her to have to assimilate to college life and a very different culture all at the same time. I would be happier if she made the transition to college, was making good grades and then transferred to the school of her choice, once she was a little older.

I'm not sure college is going to be the fabulous experience she is expecting. I think she's thinking it's going to be like the movies; fun, fun, fun and making the friends of a lifetime. I'm not so sure she's going to like living in the dorm environment. I think once she gets a load of all the drinking and bad behavior that goes on, she'll want out of there. She seems much more like the type of kid that would go to school and work a job at the same time. She has never been the kid that goes with what the group is doing and she still hasn't ever made a BFF despite having lots of friends and being very social.

This is not easy... Keep us posted on what DD is doing.

 

[minkydog]

I think it is so hard to know what is the right thing to do sometimes.. I see a lot of kids talk about going off to school and then chickening out at the last minute because they are afraid of the unknown. Your daughter seems like she wants to hold on to her high school life and the BF is probably a lot of that. Since she is already accepted at VSU and you're Ok with that, back off and see if she even follows up on the other applications. She may never get around to applying to the school that is close to home.

.

Thanks for the encouragement. It is so hard to guide these kids, isn't it? I know that when i started college, I went to a large commuter school. It wasn't a good experience. I was very lonely. There was no campus life. I'm really glad that I visited another school that my friends were at so I could see that college could be a whole lot better experience than the one I was having. I transferred to a smaller residential college and was much, much happier.

I am trying to back off of this. I don't want to just push my own agenda. Sure, I think I know what's best for her--she's 17 and i'm 54. My big fear is that she will have a lackluster college experience at the tech school and think that's the real university experience. My oldest, DS24, did that. Went to tech school instead of a community college. He thinks he hated college because it was college. I contend that he hated college because he didn't have the freshman support or college experience that he had hoped for. And now he's convinced that college is for losers.

I will try to just lay low. DD is in at VSU and it's a great school, very well suited for her. Dorm assignments open up Nov. 1 and I will just quietly take care of that. If something better comes up later, we can always change the plans. Hmmm, I just thought of something--her drama teacher went to VSU. Perhaps he could encourage her...

 

[wilderness01]

When your child takes the ACT, did you submit the tests scores to any colleges or did you wait to see what the score actually was?

He received a 31, but wants to take it again. No colleges were sent the score.

Also, I have heard that 30 is the cutoff for any scholarship money? True?

This is all so overwhelming. I recently had to fill out Fasfa, not for him yet, and I didn't think it was too bad. We qualified for no pell grants, etc. I'm waiting to hear back from the school on the loan we are eligible for. The school said everyone qualifies for loans to pay back, it's just the interest rate that is the factor from your fasfa app. True?

My relative paid someone $1400 to fill out her fasfa. He was a financial planner. Why would she do this?

 

[missypie]

Also, I have heard that 30 is the cutoff for any scholarship money? True?

Each school varies. University of Arkansas will give in-state tuition to any student of a neighboring state that has an ACT score of 24 or above. It takes a 29 at University of Oklahoma to get really good merit money. Lots of schools have on-line calculators, where you can plug in your GPA and scores and they'll tell you about how much you'll receive. The super selective schools give little to no merit aid, because everyone would be deserving.

 

[smartkim]

When your child takes the ACT, did you submit the tests scores to any colleges or did you wait to see what the score actually was?COLOR]

We sent my DS's score to the top 4 colleges that he is interested in. I don't really know if this was necessary but thought that it couldn't hurt for them to have this information already.

 

[agnes!]

When your child takes the ACT, did you submit the tests scores to any colleges or did you wait to see what the score actually was?

He received a 31, but wants to take it again. No colleges were sent the score.

Also, I have heard that 30 is the cutoff for any scholarship money? True?

This is all so overwhelming. I recently had to fill out Fasfa, not for him yet, and I didn't think it was too bad. We qualified for no pell grants, etc. I'm waiting to hear back from the school on the loan we are eligible for. The school said everyone qualifies for loans to pay back, it's just the interest rate that is the factor from your fasfa app. True?

My relative paid someone $1400 to fill out her fasfa. He was a financial planner. Why would she do this?

Yeah, we won't qualify for anything on our own either, we're too rich . How did you already do your FAFSA for school for next year? I thought the forms for 2011 weren't available until January 1...

agnes!
PS - I'd pay someone else to do it (maybe not $1400, but still...) I hate forms and paperwork.

 

[missypie]

If you are too rich (us too! wish I really was!), why are you filling out a FAFSA? Does the school require it for merit consideration?

 

[wilderness01]

If you are too rich (us too! wish I really was!), why are you filling out a FAFSA? Does the school require it for merit consideration?

Not rich by any standard, we have just always worked hard.
I about fell over when they stated we weren't eligible for anything.

It is for me to go back to school this year for another degree and although we don't qualify for anything, the school made me fill a fasfa form out.

 

[agnes!]

Not rich by any standard, we have just always worked hard.
I about fell over when they stated we weren't eligible for anything.

It is for me to go back to school this year for another degree and although we don't qualify for anything, the school made me fill a fasfa form out.

Some schools require it even for grants/etc., plus I think it might be a requirement for almost any kind of aid(Federal and so on)...but I guess it all depends on where you're applying. We'll be filling it out...a useless exercise but don't want to *not* have it done and then find out it could have helped.

agnes!

 

[missypie]

Funny FAFSA story. A friend was unemployed for much of last year; his wife worked but didn't make much. They expected to receive substantial need-based aid and were surprised when school after school offered nothing. They finally called one school and they said, "well, with your annual income of $1,000,000 you obviously don't qualify for financial aid." Someone (the dad, I presume) must have been playing around and submitted the form without adding the real number. They had to travel to all the schools in person with tax returns,etc to straighten it out.

 

[smartkim]

To any of you whose child received full-tuition scholarship, if you don't mind sharing, what kind of scores did your child have? (ACT, GPA, class rank, etc.) Of course, ANY merit aid is helpful but full-tution paid would be outstanding. Just wondering where my DS stands in hopes of scholarship money. His scores are good but not at the top. I feel that he will receive some money but probably not as much as we had hoped for.

 

[missypie]

To any of you whose child received full-tuition scholarship, if you don't mind sharing, what kind of scores did your child have? (ACT, GPA, class rank, etc.) Of course, ANY merit aid is helpful but full-tution paid would be outstanding. Just wondering where my DS stands in hopes of scholarship money. His scores are good but not at the top. I feel that he will receive some money but probably not as much as we had hoped for.

Not my kid. BUT, lots of schools give one to a handful full scholarships...many invite their top applicants to come to the school for a weekend of interviews. So, if your child looks good enough on paper to be invited to compete, he doesn't have to have the best scores/stats to win.

Of course, I'm sure you know that the most selective schools in the country generally don't give merit scholarships, just need-based aid. So if you want a really good deal, find schools where your child's scores and grades put him in the very top of the applicant pool.

 

[smartkim]

That's the problem, I think, is that we don't know which school he would be eligible to receive a full scholarship to and he only has 4 that he is interested in. Of course, mom says he will go wherever he gets the best scholarship from! With it being anywhere from $40 to $75 per application, we can't just apply to every school. We would if we could though! Any advice is helpful!!

 

[missypie]

1. Study the website of each school. Many give a pretty good idea of what they award for what stats.

2. If the website doesn't tell you what the middle 25-75 percentile is, check princetonreview.com. That site wil tell you.

3. If all else fails, email or call the school. They won't commit to anything but there is a good chance they will tell you something like, "In the past, students with an ACT of X and a GPA of Y have received between $__ and $___."

 

[smartkim]

Thanks missypie. I wouldn't have thought to call the schools. I have looked on some of the schools' websites but it doesn't appear he will get full merit aid from any of the ones he is interested in, only partial aid (which we will gladly accept, just hoping for full). It seems like the high schools would tell you which colleges your child would be likely to get the most money from but they don't. It's like some big secret. I have emailed his counselor and he has talked with her several times but all she says is that he should just apply to the 4 schools he is interested in and that he should qualify for merit aid.

 

[missypie]

Does your school weight GPAs? Because if they do, be sure to ask the school if they award aid based on weighted or unweighted GPAs.

In my son's college search, here was the answer for three very similar schools:

A. Based admission on weighted GPA; scholarships on unweighted GPA

B. Looks at unweighted GPA only, for all purposes

C. Looks at weighted GPA only, for all purposes

None of this info was on their website. I had to ask.

 

[missypie]

One more thing. Even if a school's website doesn't tell how much it gives for what level of scores/GPA, see if they identify the amount of their "top scholarship." I looked at a few schools that cost $45,000 and their website bragged about how one top student would get a scholarship of $15,000. Well, if the TOP student only gets that much, they sure aren't going to give MY child enough!

 

[agnes!]

I just found out today the College/Career Counselor at DD's school (the things you learn when you volunteer) is leaving in December to accept another job. At least she is waiting until after the early deadlines and I don't begrudge her this great opportunity but...I have to admit it...yeah, I'm selfish and I'm just a little ticked-off.

The school hasn't advertised it yet, Lord knows if they'll even fill it.

agnes!