High School Class of 2016/College Class 2020

[jetskigrl]

Well....DD got her first acceptance today. She was so excited because it was her 1st choice school (a private Art College). I think she changed her portfolio pieces 10 times before she was finally ready to submit them, LOL.
But we still have to wait until Financial Aid packages come out after the first of the year to see if she will be offered anything.
She still has two other private Art Schools and 2 state universities to hear from.

Any other responses coming in yet? Do most usually wait until after the FASFA is filled out to send notices?

 

[MomofKatie]

Well....DD got her first acceptance today. She was so excited because it was her 1st choice school (a private Art College). I think she changed her portfolio pieces 10 times before she was finally ready to submit them, LOL.
But we still have to wait until Financial Aid packages come out after the first of the year to see if she will be offered anything.
She still has two other private Art Schools and 2 state universities to hear from.

Any other responses coming in yet? Do most usually wait until after the FASFA is filled out to send notices?

Congratulations on her acceptance! It is so exciting to get that first one in.

As for when decisions come in- it all depends on what type of application and the school's policies. Some schools have rolling decisions- the students are notified as applications are turned in. Other colleges have Early Decision or Early Action, where students turn in applications by mid-autumn and they get their decisions by mid-December. Regular Decision applicants don't have to have their applications in until January, but they don't hear back until March.

Financial aid is usually awarded by mid March or so- merit awards can be decided much earlier, though. Need-based aid that is dependent on federal grant $$ gets decided on later. Schools must let prospective students and their parents know before the May 1st decision deadline so they can accept or decline attendance.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

DS was accepted to Northern Illinois University in October and was awarded a merit scholarship at that time, they have rolling admission. DD has received acceptance letters from Knox College and De Paul University. They're both early action with application deadlines of November 1 & 15. De Paul notified her only 3 days after the application deadline and offered her a very large scholarship. Knox's came a week later with another large scholarship offer. DH wanted her to wait until the letter from University of Chicago came, but DD told us on Thanksgiving that De Paul was her choice! So, housing deposits already put in for both kids and now DH and I are trying to figure out how to pay for 2 college educations at once. The running joke in our house is the kids will be living it up in college while DH and and I enjoy cat food.

 

[mjkacmom]

Ds17 got into his first choice, one of the top 3 universities in our state. Deposit has been sent! I was nervous, the average gpa if accepted students was 3.6, he only has a 3.4, but his ACT score was higher than the average, and he has solid extracurriculars. Two down, three more to go. From here on in, we'll have 2/3 in college until 2025!

 

[jetskigrl]

Congratulations on her acceptance! It is so exciting to get that first one in.

As for when decisions come in- it all depends on what type of application and the school's policies. Some schools have rolling decisions- the students are notified as applications are turned in. Other colleges have Early Decision or Early Action, where students turn in applications by mid-autumn and they get their decisions by mid-December. Regular Decision applicants don't have to have their applications in until January, but they don't hear back until March.

Financial aid is usually awarded by mid March or so- merit awards can be decided much earlier, though. Need-based aid that is dependent on federal grant $$ gets decided on later. Schools must let prospective students and their parents know before the May 1st decision deadline so they can accept or decline attendance.

Thanks so much! I don't think we will qualify for much need-based aid unfortunately. We are in that middle area where we can't afford a private school on our income, but we also make too much (I'm assuming) for Federal Aid. We will have to see what happens after we fill out the FASFA next month.

So I'm trying to keep my DD's attitude in check about this being "the" school until we get the official offer to see if she received any merit-based aid. Her acceptance came in an email from the admissions counselor that said to watch for the official acceptance letter in the mail, so we still don't know if she has been offered anything.
I told DD that while she waits on the other schools, her job now is to apply to every scholarship she can find.

 

[jetskigrl]

DS was accepted to Northern Illinois University in October and was awarded a merit scholarship at that time, they have rolling admission. DD has received acceptance letters from Knox College and De Paul University. They're both early action with application deadlines of November 1 & 15. De Paul notified her only 3 days after the application deadline and offered her a very large scholarship. Knox's came a week later with another large scholarship offer. DH wanted her to wait until the letter from University of Chicago came, but DD told us on Thanksgiving that De Paul was her choice! So, housing deposits already put in for both kids and now DH and I are trying to figure out how to pay for 2 college educations at once. The running joke in our house is the kids will be living it up in college while DH and and I enjoy cat food.

Congratulations to your DD also!! DH and I have been having those discussions on how to make this private college possible for our DD, but at the same time keeping in mind that a year after she finishes, it will be my DS's turn. I see a lot of Top Ramen in our future too, LOL. We have enjoyed a nice few years of being able to vacation with the kids though and I'm grateful for that. But as well as not renewing our Disneyland Passes (that will save us a ton), our vacation planned for next summer is most likely going to be cancelled as well. We will be back to the early years (when we were paying for full-time daycare, etc), when our only vacations were to visit family

Ds17 got into his first choice, one of the top 3 universities in our state. Deposit has been sent! I was nervous, the average gpa if accepted students was 3.6, he only has a 3.4, but his ACT score was higher than the average, and he has solid extracurriculars. Two down, three more to go. From here on in, we'll have 2/3 in college until 2025!

Congratulations to your DS!!

Oh dear, when you put it that way, it is really scary. If DD finishes in 4 years, I will have one in college every year until 2025 also (with the exception of 1 year).

 

[zoemurr]

DD just got her "Congratulations" email from SUNY Binghampton. Thank goodness.. it is her academic and financial safety. If she didn't get in there we were in big trouble. But it takes some of the pressure off, and I know she will be happy there if it works out that way. This is really happening isn't it.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Congrats to your children being accepted! My daughter needs to audition for the music program of her college choices in January & February so it will be awhile until we hear something.

 

[Mom2DDs]

My daughter got her first EA from one of her top 5 schools - Temple & the Honors Program. She's now waiting for her other EA which we should know on Monday afternoon. So proud of her!

 

[jetskigrl]

Well...DD got the Acceptance Letter in the mail from the private Art School and she has been awarded their President's Scholarship. It will cover about 1/2 of the tuition - bringing in line with the public universities that she is applying too. This is a huge step towards getting her to her 1st choice school!!!

Another question for those that have done this already. Do they take that scholarship into consideration when seeing if she qualifies for financial aid? Meaning is it based on the full tuition, or the tuition minus any school scholarships?

 

[MomofKatie]

Well...DD got the Acceptance Letter in the mail from the private Art School and she has been awarded their President's Scholarship. It will cover about 1/2 of the tuition - bringing in line with the public universities that she is applying too. This is a huge step towards getting her to her 1st choice school!!!

Another question for those that have done this already. Do they take that scholarship into consideration when seeing if she qualifies for financial aid? Meaning is it based on the full tuition, or the tuition minus any school scholarships?

Congratulations to you and your DD!

You will need to go on the school's website and see what their policies are on scholarships. Some schools allow "stacking" where merit and/or financial based aid granted by the school isn't affected by other scholarships that are awarded- for example, the school gives $1000 based on what they decide the student needs, the student gets a private scholarship of $1000, and they qualify for $1000 in federal aid, and the school allows them to add all those amounts together to reduce tuition and expenses by $3000.

Other schools don't allow for stacking. So, if the school determines that your student only "needs" $1000 in aid, and they get a private scholarship for $500 and federal aid of $100, then the school will only award $400 to the student, reducing their tuition only by the $1000 they decided was needed.

As far as I know, the FAFSA doesn't require you to disclose merit awards or private scholarship $$. So federal money isn't affected (I'm sure someone else will correct me if that isn't the case).

 

[punkin]

My DD hasn't even applied anywhere yet. I'm happy for everyone getting in already.

 

[luvsJack]

Any one else know any seniors having small meltdowns?

Some that seemed to have it all figured out have seemed to suddenly realized that they 5 months from graduation. A couple of moms said they just suddenly started crying and saying they didn't know what they were going to do. They feel like everyone else has it figured out and they just don't know. But a few weeks ago they thought they did! I feel so bad for them. I guess it made me realize the importance of the college visits. We took dd to a major state university just thinking it was a "checking out" because she knew where she was going for 2 years and she had no idea of a major. That day made a huge impact on her and she now has a plan. It was fun seeing her putting it all together.

Her meltdown came a couple of weeks ago. Its been the week of choir every year that I call "hell week" as they do a huge performance with the local university and spend every night at practice. On top of that she had an online final, her Eng IV essay due, a project for zoology. And then the online instructor slammed them with a huge number of assignments due that week. She curled up in my lap and cried. She has only done that 3 other times since she became a teen-once over a boy and twice due to family deaths. I just wanted to make it all go away! But she got through it and got everything done. I was proud of her!

Senior year! Whew!

 

[punkin]

DD had a mini melt down yesterday. She's not ready to go to college and wants to take a gap year. I'm not against a gap year, but that has to come with a plan - no sitting around the house and vegging. Nevertheless she will apply and we will revisit the issue when the acceptances start coming. I hate this. It's constant up and downs. Yesterday was bad, bu last week she was full steam ahead.

Oh, and I should add that the big Orchestra performance is this weekend. Yeah.

 

[jetskigrl]

Congratulations to you and your DD!

You will need to go on the school's website and see what their policies are on scholarships. Some schools allow "stacking" where merit and/or financial based aid granted by the school isn't affected by other scholarships that are awarded- for example, the school gives $1000 based on what they decide the student needs, the student gets a private scholarship of $1000, and they qualify for $1000 in federal aid, and the school allows them to add all those amounts together to reduce tuition and expenses by $3000.

Other schools don't allow for stacking. So, if the school determines that your student only "needs" $1000 in aid, and they get a private scholarship for $500 and federal aid of $100, then the school will only award $400 to the student, reducing their tuition only by the $1000 they decided was needed.

As far as I know, the FAFSA doesn't require you to disclose merit awards or private scholarship $$. So federal money isn't affected (I'm sure someone else will correct me if that isn't the case).

Thanks so much! They did assign her a counselor already so I may have DD contact her when we get closer to decision time (if we haven't already figured it out). I was just assuming that our expected contribution will be pretty high so what they are offering her in the scholarship will already cover the gap. It would be awesome if they don't take that merit scholarship into consideration when assigning financial aid and apply it to our expected contribution instead. And hopefully dd will be successful getting some other scholarships. Even with 1/2 the tuition paid, it is going to be tough for her to go to this school.

My DD hasn't even applied anywhere yet. I'm happy for everyone getting in already.

Luckily the art program that DD is attending now has college day and portfolio reviews. That really got her motivated to get started. Since her state university applications were due by Dec 1st, she got those ones done as well. But she is still dragging her feet on the other two art colleges since their deadlines aren't until Feb 1.

Any one else know any seniors having small meltdowns?

Some that seemed to have it all figured out have seemed to suddenly realized that they 5 months from graduation. A couple of moms said they just suddenly started crying and saying they didn't know what they were going to do. They feel like everyone else has it figured out and they just don't know. But a few weeks ago they thought they did! I feel so bad for them. I guess it made me realize the importance of the college visits. We took dd to a major state university just thinking it was a "checking out" because she knew where she was going for 2 years and she had no idea of a major. That day made a huge impact on her and she now has a plan. It was fun seeing her putting it all together.

Her meltdown came a couple of weeks ago. Its been the week of choir every year that I call "hell week" as they do a huge performance with the local university and spend every night at practice. On top of that she had an online final, her Eng IV essay due, a project for zoology. And then the online instructor slammed them with a huge number of assignments due that week. She curled up in my lap and cried. She has only done that 3 other times since she became a teen-once over a boy and twice due to family deaths. I just wanted to make it all go away! But she got through it and got everything done. I was proud of her!

Senior year! Whew!

{{{{hugs}}}} to your DD. It is such a tough time for them. In my DD's group of friends, she has some that fall in both those categories. Some just know what they will be doing and others are really struggling. Until this week, DD has been somewhere in between (knowing what she wants to do but not knowing if we can make it happen financially). And yes, my DD has been to the point of tears herself. The acceptance to this school is the first sign that she has seen that all the stress and craziness of this process is paying off. A little light at the end of the tunnel.

DD had a mini melt down yesterday. She's not ready to go to college and wants to take a gap year. I'm not against a gap year, but that has to come with a plan - no sitting around the house and vegging. Nevertheless she will apply and we will revisit the issue when the acceptances start coming. I hate this. It's constant up and downs. Yesterday was bad, bu last week she was full steam ahead.

Oh, and I should add that the big Orchestra performance is this weekend. Yeah.

{{{{hugs}}}} to your DD also!
I'm sure that she will get it all figured out.

LOL - I can't wait to go back and look at this thread in a year when all our kids get settled into college and remember what they were going through right now
Of course then we have to change the title of the thread to College Class of 2020

 

[HannaBelle]

DD had a mini melt down yesterday. She's not ready to go to college and wants to take a gap year. I'm not against a gap year, but that has to come with a plan - no sitting around the house and vegging. Nevertheless she will apply and we will revisit the issue when the acceptances start coming. I hate this. It's constant up and downs. Yesterday was bad, bu last week she was full steam ahead.

Oh, and I should add that the big Orchestra performance is this weekend. Yeah.

I am right there with you punkin! Our DD keeps saying she is not ready and has been getting really stressed out. She has not applied anywhere yet, but has intentions of applying to her 2 top choices over Christmas break. Her academics will get her in without question. I have made sure they are reasonably close in case she really does have problems her 1st semester. We have told her she has to go for 1 semester and if she hates, she can come home and go to a community college. I just really want her to have the "college experience" her father and I did not.

 

[DawnM]

Sure - the author was in college when he wrote it, so if someone's super motivated to save, I could see an 18 yo reading (it if they could fit it into their busy schedule). I think it'll probably mainly be parents reading it, though, realistically. I found there was a lot of good information in there that made a lot of sense to me.


Interesting - and good that you have counselors just for college! We don't have that, persay, and I haven't found our general counselors to be particularly helpful. But I guess things to discuss would be career choices, whether particular colleges would be a good fit academically and financially, looking at all the options, your DD's specifics like GPA and SAT/ACT scores, as in, which schools would she get into with them, etc. One thing our school did do was plot students' numbers on a graph with other kids from their school who've applied to the colleges they're applying to and see where they fit in, which was helpful.

Well, you are right about that. I am a school counselor (although I am not working presently) and we did very little training in college advising. In one of the high schools where I worked, we had 2 dedicated college counselors who took care of most of that. Then I became a "College and Career" counselor, but it wasn't what you are probably thinking. I worked with kids who were targeted specifically as possible candidates for first generation college bound. My job was to meet with students and parents and explain that college WAS even an option at all and how to work towards that end.

Dawn

 

[punkin]

I spoke to another orchestra parent at dress rehearsal last night. She hired a private college counselor for her son. Total cost: $10k. He just got his Stanford acceptance (I think he applied early admission/decision - I have no idea what Stanford has). Wow! I'm still in shock. My DD is making due with me and her high school counselor.

 

[Kimberlyann11]

DD got a rejection from her first choice school. I have mixed feelings about it. I hate to see her so sad, but I'm not sure it was the right fit for her to begin with.

She has two great choices at some really good state schools. It will be interesting to see what she decides.

 

[punkin]

DD got a rejection from her first choice school. I have mixed feelings about it. I hate to see her so sad, but I'm not sure it was the right fit for her to begin with.

She has two great choices at some really good state schools. It will be interesting to see what she decides.

I'm sorry she's disappointed, but anecdotally, my oldest DD did not get into her top choice, but she was ultimately very happy at the school she attended. It was a much better fit for her on so many levels. I hope in 4 years, your DD can say the same about her choice.