High School class of 2011

[Jeafl]

Haven't been on this thread in awhile but I finally have some updates! My son has been accepted at 4 out of the 5 schools he's applied to. He hasn't heard from the 5th school yet, and ironically the 5th one is his first choice.

So far he's been accepted at:

Marquette -- $40,000 scholarship (over 4 years of course)
Univ. of Iowa-- no money at all
Valparaiso University--$44,000 scholarship over 4 years
Purdue--no money at all

His first choice is Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I am having heart palpitations just thinking of him being that far away. He hasn't been accepted yet, but it looks good so far. They flew out a married couple to interview him and the interview went well. The couple said they would definitely recommend him for the engineering program. The biggest problem with this is that it is $55,000 a year! If he doesn't get a LOT of money from them he cannot go there. We just can't afford that kind of money.

It is heartbreaking to tell your child that his dream school may not happen. I guess he has to get used to disappointment at some time in his life, and it isn't like he doesn't have other options. I'm just sorry that Purdue didn't give him any money, but they are over $40,000 a year too.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Ugh. I think know this woman's sister. I chaperoned a drama club trip to the college that my daughter is interested in. We took 10 kids, the teacher and one other mom. The college had a senior theater major take us all around and our kids were thrilled--in fact, 4 of them made application before we left. Well, 4 plus. While the kids sat in on a theater rehearsal, the other mom was talking to an admissions counselor about HERSELF. That's right. This mom has made plans to go to the same school that her daughter will be starting at this fall AND...are you ready? You know it's coming...they plan to be roommates. I can't make this stuff up. I would have murdered my mother in her sleep if she had come up with such a cockeyed scheme. It seems the daughter is okay with this, more than okay. She thinks its a great idea! i don't know what they plan to do with the younger brother while they're both living it up at college next fall

Does anyone remember the Rodney Dangerfield movie, Back to School? This reminds me of that movie. I wonder if the poor kid has any idea what she is agreeing to with rooming with her mom

I am considering having a Sunday Brunch Open House from about 10am to 1pm. People could come with their families either before or after church. Possible menu items omelets, french toast, ham, bagels, fruit, etc.. What do you guys think?

This sounds like an awesome idea! I would love to do something like that, but I'd need to find a hall or restaurant to host it in- immediate family alone is more people than my house will hold

DD spoke to a friend later and found out this mother has quite the reputation for butting in to the sports team's activities and has to know *exactly* where her kid is, exactly *what* the kid is doing, has to speak to a teacher every time this kid stays after-school...

I'll file this under the heading "Helicopter EXTREME".
agnes!

Poor kid, she must be mortified constantly by her other's meddling. It's hard enough to be a teenager, without having a helicopter parent. I hope if I ever do anything like that to one of my kids, someone will point out my behavior and set me straight.

Haven't been on this thread in awhile but I finally have some updates! My son has been accepted at 4 out of the 5 schools he's applied to. He hasn't heard from the 5th school yet, and ironically the 5th one is his first choice.

So far he's been accepted at:

Marquette -- $40,000 scholarship (over 4 years of course)
Univ. of Iowa-- no money at all
Valparaiso University--$44,000 scholarship over 4 years
Purdue--no money at all

His first choice is Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I am having heart palpitations just thinking of him being that far away. He hasn't been accepted yet, but it looks good so far.

Congratulations on the acceptances
I hope your DS gets into his top choice and gets a scholarship and a great financial aid package to go with it.

 

[golfgal]

Haven't been on this thread in awhile but I finally have some updates! My son has been accepted at 4 out of the 5 schools he's applied to. He hasn't heard from the 5th school yet, and ironically the 5th one is his first choice.

So far he's been accepted at:

Marquette -- $40,000 scholarship (over 4 years of course)
Univ. of Iowa-- no money at all
Valparaiso University--$44,000 scholarship over 4 years
Purdue--no money at all

His first choice is Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I am having heart palpitations just thinking of him being that far away. He hasn't been accepted yet, but it looks good so far. They flew out a married couple to interview him and the interview went well. The couple said they would definitely recommend him for the engineering program. The biggest problem with this is that it is $55,000 a year! If he doesn't get a LOT of money from them he cannot go there. We just can't afford that kind of money.

It is heartbreaking to tell your child that his dream school may not happen. I guess he has to get used to disappointment at some time in his life, and it isn't like he doesn't have other options. I'm just sorry that Purdue didn't give him any money, but they are over $40,000 a year too.

Congrats to him (so far ). I am really surprised Purdue didn't give him anything. We have several kids from our area attending Purdue and many went there because they got some pretty good funds from them. Have you gotten the "official" package yet though? Some of the money they are offering is merit based only and the official offers often don't come until Aprilish because of the time needed to process things after the FAFSA forms are done. DS18 got his scholarship offers about this time of year last year but didn't get his total package from his school until late April.

 

[kbeverina]

I don't think it's weird either, but I've got grief from people saying I need to cut the strings, blah blah blah. But it's not like that, we just like to talk to each other every day...it's not usually a long conversation but I call her either on my way to work or my way home. We talk for usually 5 minutes or so and then say goodbye. She's always loved to talk on the phone though...

Oh well. It's one thing to be a sounding board, which obviously you are, and another thing to be trying to make her decisions for her. My son is just...a guy. No other way to describe it. Sometimes I say things like, "Well, you and your roommate will want to get matching comforters." just to see his reaction, which is a combination of eyes rolling out of his head and insane laughter.

Ugh. I think know this woman's sister. I chaperoned a drama club trip to the college that my daughter is interested in. We took 10 kids, the teacher and one other mom. The college had a senior theater major take us all around and our kids were thrilled--in fact, 4 of them made application before we left. Well, 4 plus. While the kids sat in on a theater rehearsal, the other mom was talking to an admissions counselor about HERSELF. That's right. This mom has made plans to go to the same school that her daughter will be starting at this fall AND...are you ready? You know it's coming...they plan to be roommates. I can't make this stuff up. I would have murdered my mother in her sleep if she had come up with such a cockeyed scheme. It seems the daughter is okay with this, more than okay. She thinks its a great idea! i don't know what they plan to do with the younger brother while they're both living it up at college next fall

Oh, wow--that's unbelievable! Not only can I not imagine rooming with my mother, I can't imagine what it would have been like to have someone's mom living on our hall when I was in school. We would not have liked that at all, so I wonder how the daughter's dorm mates will feel about the situation.

I wanted to ask y'all about graduation parties.

House from about 10am to 1pm. People could come with their families either before or after church. Possible menu items omelets, french toast, ham, bagels, fruit, etc.. What do you guys think? Any advice you care to give?

I think that sounds really nice--everyone likes brunch. We don't have a set plan. Graduation is 8am on a Saturday morning. We've made it clear to our immediate families that they shouldn't feel like they have to be there for the actual graduation (all our nieces and nephews are younger). So we'll have family and a few long-time friends coming any time from after the graduation to early afternoon. We're just planning to do a cook-out/pool party. If my son wants to have friends swing by, he can. If he wants to go with friends to other parties, he can.

We had a run-in with a crazy-*** parent today. The child (who is a HS junior, on a sports team and does a bunch of extra-curriculars) called DD about an academic team they are both on. Everything seemed ok until... The other student asked to put DD on speakerphone so the mother could hear all the details herself. Then the mother started lecturing DD about how this academic team is run and about what did the team coach mean in a particular e-mail and how they really need to send communications... the student ended up saying "Mom, agnes!'-DD really does know what she's talking about" in the background while Mommy dearest went to town saying how the team should be run and why don't they do this and why don't they do that...

I thought I was bad but the thought running through my mind after DD told me was "Hey lady, your kid is old enough to drive, will be out of the house in a year and a half and DD is not the Team Coach a *teacher* is. Call the damn teacher yourself if you're so dis-satisfied."

DD spoke to a friend later and found out this mother has quite the reputation for butting in to the sports team's activities and has to know *exactly* where her kid is, exactly *what* the kid is doing, has to speak to a teacher every time this kid stays after-school...

I'll file this under the heading "Helicopter EXTREME".
agnes!

I've said for a long time that the sports moms are the new pageant moms. My son has played sports since he was 5, from rec league up to travel and a regional development league, as well as high school. When he first started travel, I couldn't believe the maneuvering that went on by the parents. But the high school coaches do not deal with the parents at all. They will only deal with the player. They make that clear from the one parent meeting they hold at the beginning of the season.

Haven't been on this thread in awhile but I finally have some updates! My son has been accepted at 4 out of the 5 schools he's applied to. He hasn't heard from the 5th school yet, and ironically the 5th one is his first choice.

So far he's been accepted at:

Marquette -- $40,000 scholarship (over 4 years of course)
Univ. of Iowa-- no money at all
Valparaiso University--$44,000 scholarship over 4 years
Purdue--no money at all

His first choice is Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I am having heart palpitations just thinking of him being that far away. He hasn't been accepted yet, but it looks good so far. They flew out a married couple to interview him and the interview went well. The couple said they would definitely recommend him for the engineering program. The biggest problem with this is that it is $55,000 a year! If he doesn't get a LOT of money from them he cannot go there. We just can't afford that kind of money.

It is heartbreaking to tell your child that his dream school may not happen. I guess he has to get used to disappointment at some time in his life, and it isn't like he doesn't have other options. I'm just sorry that Purdue didn't give him any money, but they are over $40,000 a year too.

That's great news--hope he gets a really good offer at CMU!

 

[Jeafl]

Congratulations on the acceptances
I hope your DS gets into his top choice and gets a scholarship and a great financial aid package to go with it.

.







That's great news--hope he gets a really good offer at CMU!

Thanks guys! I hope a good offer comes in as well. My older daughter is graduating from Augustana in May, but is hoping to enter a doctorate program. She has an interview at Univ of Iowa this Sunday/Monday. It is all VERY stressful (for me!)

Congrats to him (so far ). I am really surprised Purdue didn't give him anything. We have several kids from our area attending Purdue and many went there because they got some pretty good funds from them. Have you gotten the "official" package yet though? Some of the money they are offering is merit based only and the official offers often don't come until Aprilish because of the time needed to process things after the FAFSA forms are done. DS18 got his scholarship offers about this time of year last year but didn't get his total package from his school until late April.

That's good to know! I will mention it to my son. The other schools sent their scholarship info within a week of the acceptance letters so he just figured he didn't get anything from Purdue. I will tell him to not give up yet!

Want to hear something strange? DS's best friend got a perfect 36 on his ACT, has a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0 scale, is on track and cross country teams, is in the jaz band at school, and does a ton of volunteering at his church. Would you believe he has gotten REJECTED from 3 schools already?? What more could a school want? He is a super nice kid too. I feel awful for him.

 

[MichelleVW]

Want to hear something strange? DS's best friend got a perfect 36 on his ACT, has a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0 scale, is on track and cross country teams, is in the jaz band at school, and does a ton of volunteering at his church. Would you believe he has gotten REJECTED from 3 schools already?? What more could a school want? He is a super nice kid too. I feel awful for him.

Where in the world did he apply?

 

[golfgal]

Thanks guys! I hope a good offer comes in as well. My older daughter is graduating from Augustana in May, but is hoping to enter a doctorate program. She has an interview at Univ of Iowa this Sunday/Monday. It is all VERY stressful (for me!)




That's good to know! I will mention it to my son. The other schools sent their scholarship info within a week of the acceptance letters so he just figured he didn't get anything from Purdue. I will tell him to not give up yet!

Want to hear something strange? DS's best friend got a perfect 36 on his ACT, has a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0 scale, is on track and cross country teams, is in the jaz band at school, and does a ton of volunteering at his church. Would you believe he has gotten REJECTED from 3 schools already?? What more could a school want? He is a super nice kid too. I feel awful for him.

WOW, that alone usually is automatic to most schools because then they can say we have x number of students with perfect ACT scores. A friend's son had a perfect ACT and almost perfect ACT and got into every school he wanted, EXCEPT his first choice, Stanford . He applied to several Ivy Leagues and other really top notch schools. He is in the engineering program at Northwestern now.

 

[SydSim]

Want to hear something strange? DS's best friend got a perfect 36 on his ACT, has a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0 scale, is on track and cross country teams, is in the jaz band at school, and does a ton of volunteering at his church. Would you believe he has gotten REJECTED from 3 schools already?? What more could a school want? He is a super nice kid too. I feel awful for him.

Poor guy Some schools reject kids with these stats because they feel that the kid is only using them as a safety, or back-up, if they don't get into their dream school. Not sayiing that this is the case here, just that there are schools that want to keep their actual enrolled rate somewhat close to their accepted rate, and they feel that kids with these type of grades can get into pretty high caliber schools, and wouldn't really enroll in their school even if they got accepted. I have seen it happen many times.

Now there are many kids who would turn down their first choice school if schools further down on their list gave them a GREAT offer (full ride, stipend, etc.). But there are also many that turn down a full-ride in order fo attend their dream school, even if they have to pay full price.

Just showing some of the thought processes behind these decisions.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Want to hear something strange? DS's best friend got a perfect 36 on his ACT, has a 4.3 GPA on a 4.0 scale, is on track and cross country teams, is in the jaz band at school, and does a ton of volunteering at his church. Would you believe he has gotten REJECTED from 3 schools already?? What more could a school want? He is a super nice kid too. I feel awful for him.

Where in the world did he apply?

Seriously??!!! Who would turn that down?

 

[ctinct]

Kids with perfect scores get turned down from the Ivies every year, too. (Of course, I don't know if that's the case with this student.) Wouldn't it be great if we knew what was behind the thinking in admissions office? Sometimes it might be a matter of where you live, or what your intended major is, or a rec letter someone wrote, or even, in need-aware schools, if they think you can pay full freight.

I think sometimes we (and by "we" I mean schools, parents, the media-everyone) do a disservice to our kids when we say stuff like "Oh, you're valedictorian. You can write your own ticket." It just isn't so.

True story-the valedictorian in my daughter's school last year applied to Brown and another Ivy. She speaks 4 languages, 3 of them fluently, and would probably qualify as a URM. Rejected by one school;waitlisted by the other. Nevermind that kids routinely apply to ALL the Ivies in the hope that they will get into at least one. (And, although I have no love for my daughter's guidance dept., and I certainly do think they should have advised this girl to apply to more schools, I can't put all the blame on them. They are overworked, so maybe they just assumed this girl applied to some safeties. I also think this student should have been more responsible and researched her options more thoroughly.) In any case, the rejections came in, and oops, this girl has nowhere to go. The state U is full. Someone pulled some strings to get her in, but---she did not get any scholarship money because that deadline was Dec. 1. Very sad, because she would have qualified for merit aid.

 

[golfgal]

Kids with perfect scores get turned down from the Ivies every year, too. (Of course, I don't know if that's the case with this student.) Wouldn't it be great if we knew what was behind the thinking in admissions office? Sometimes it might be a matter of where you live, or what your intended major is, or a rec letter someone wrote, or even, in need-aware schools, if they think you can pay full freight.

I think sometimes we (and by "we" I mean schools, parents, the media-everyone) do a disservice to our kids when we say stuff like "Oh, you're valedictorian. You can write your own ticket." It just isn't so.

True story-the valedictorian in my daughter's school last year applied to Brown and another Ivy. She speaks 4 languages, 3 of them fluently, and would probably qualify as a URM. Rejected by one school;waitlisted by the other. Nevermind that kids routinely apply to ALL the Ivies in the hope that they will get into at least one. (And, although I have no love for my daughter's guidance dept., and I certainly do think they should have advised this girl to apply to more schools, I can't put all the blame on them. They are overworked, so maybe they just assumed this girl applied to some safeties. I also think this student should have been more responsible and researched her options more thoroughly.) In any case, the rejections came in, and oops, this girl has nowhere to go. The state U is full. Someone pulled some strings to get her in, but---she did not get any scholarship money because that deadline was Dec. 1. Very sad, because she would have qualified for merit aid.

Did she have other activities to go with her grades? You have to wonder why she didn't get into at least one of them?

 

[cruisnfamily]

Just registered DD for orientation in June. We had already paid the housing deposit and sent in that application but we had to register her for orientation(and pay $165!) in order to officially accept the offer for admissions. So she's all set now....Florida Gulfcoast University, here she comes!

 

[linnylu]

I have a grad party question for everyone. My ds is in band and I know many of the band parents will be invited to the various grad parties. What is a good gift for me to bring for these kids? Some I know pretty well. Or is cash always best?

 

[golfgal]

I have a grad party question for everyone. My ds is in band and I know many of the band parents will be invited to the various grad parties. What is a good gift for me to bring for these kids? Some I know pretty well. Or is cash always best?

Cash or gift cards to Target, etc. You just don't know what kids will really need for their dorms, what they have already, what is allowed, etc. Every school is different.

 

[Jeafl]

Where in the world did he apply?

The two I can remember off the top of my head are Cal Tech and MIT. I just found out that he got accepted at Georgia Tech though, so that is good news.

 

[geffric]

I have a grad party question for everyone. My ds is in band and I know many of the band parents will be invited to the various grad parties. What is a good gift for me to bring for these kids? Some I know pretty well. Or is cash always best?

Cash...asked my son and he said cash.you cando a lot with it and can save it for when you get to school and want things there..

 

[DisneyNutMary]

I have a grad party question for everyone. My ds is in band and I know many of the band parents will be invited to the various grad parties. What is a good gift for me to bring for these kids? Some I know pretty well. Or is cash always best?

My stepson, who is in grad school now, always asks us for cash and gift cards for holidays. He prefers Costco cards, Barnes & Noble cards, Shoprite cards, and Visa gift cards.... you can probably see where he is going with this- B&N b/c he gets some of his textbooks from them, Costco for food and gas, and there is a Shoprite just of his campus (literally less than a 1/2 mile from his dorm) midnight beer....umm food runs.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

I have a fafsa question.... is there a way, other than contacting each individual university, to know if FAFSA info was sent to them? We filled it out first week of Jan, and as of last night, the Penn State website says my DS fafsa info has not been received yet. I don't know if I should call each school, call fafsa, or just sit tight

 

[golfgal]

I have a fafsa question.... is there a way, other than contacting each individual university, to know if FAFSA info was sent to them? We filled it out first week of Jan, and as of last night, the Penn State website says my DS fafsa info has not been received yet. I don't know if I should call each school, call fafsa, or just sit tight

Did you put the code in for Penn State? If I remember correctly (and this may not be right) it takes quite a while to process that and I don't "think" they actually are sent off until you have filed your taxes and select "filed already". Not positive on that though.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Did you put the code in for Penn State? If I remember correctly (and this may not be right) it takes quite a while to process that and I don't "think" they actually are sent off until you have filed your taxes and select "filed already". Not positive on that though.

I double checked the colde, and I have the right one... but I still only have estimated totals on there. I hope that is the reason. We plan to have our taxes done this weekend, as long as my brother-in-law is free.