Parents of College Class of 2018 (A.K.A., "Is this the line to the poor house?")

[Bluestars]

DD got her first acceptance!!!! It was online this morning. She does not know yet, though. Her dad and I decided to wait until she gets the big envelope to tell her. She never checks online.....Monday is her 18th birthday so it will be a nice surprise. Let's see if I can hold out until the envelope comes. She won't hear about the specific program she auditioned for until next month but at least she is in the school and that will feel good. This is the only school except our state school that she will hear from before March.

Hope everyone is doing well and happy weekend.

Congratulations to your daughter! That is exciting.

 

[Bluestars]

Holy crap.

We were so worried about DS getting into college after his accident and then his expulsion that we almost passed out with joy when he got accepted to his first choice of colleges.

Today he got a letter congratulating him on his direct admission to the School of Business. It's very hard to get direct admit and it really wasn't even on our radar. We just figured he'd try to apply in after his freshman year, which is what most people have to do.

Ugh. He's had such a rough year and this was just an amazing surprise for him. I could bust.

That's awesome!!

 

[bittybabygrower]

DD got two this week!! OU and Ohio Wesleyan, OW is offering a sizable scholarship, but I think her heart is at OU. So proud! OW is very selective for the field she wants to go into!

 

[PrincessKsMom]

Congrats to everyone!

 

[elgerber]

Holy crap. We were so worried about DS getting into college after his accident and then his expulsion that we almost passed out with joy when he got accepted to his first choice of colleges. Today he got a letter congratulating him on his direct admission to the School of Business. It's very hard to get direct admit and it really wasn't even on our radar. We just figured he'd try to apply in after his freshman year, which is what most people have to do. Ugh. He's had such a rough year and this was just an amazing surprise for him. I could bust.

Wow that is wonderful!!!

 

[elgerber]

DD got two this week!! OU and Ohio Wesleyan, OW is offering a sizable scholarship, but I think her heart is at OU. So proud! OW is very selective for the field she wants to go into!

I bet she is thrilled. Congrats to her!!!

 

[IDoDis]

DD got her first acceptance!!!! It was online this morning. She does not know yet, though. Her dad and I decided to wait until she gets the big envelope to tell her. She never checks online.....Monday is her 18th birthday so it will be a nice surprise. Let's see if I can hold out until the envelope comes. She won't hear about the specific program she auditioned for until next month but at least she is in the school and that will feel good. This is the only school except our state school that she will hear from before March.

Hope everyone is doing well and happy weekend.

Holy crap.

We were so worried about DS getting into college after his accident and then his expulsion that we almost passed out with joy when he got accepted to his first choice of colleges.

Today he got a letter congratulating him on his direct admission to the School of Business. It's very hard to get direct admit and it really wasn't even on our radar. We just figured he'd try to apply in after his freshman year, which is what most people have to do.

Ugh. He's had such a rough year and this was just an amazing surprise for him. I could bust.

DD got two this week!! OU and Ohio Wesleyan, OW is offering a sizable scholarship, but I think her heart is at OU. So proud! OW is very selective for the field she wants to go into!

Congrats to everyone! The acceptance and awards letters make snail mail so much fun -- like Ralphie waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin to arrive in his mailbox!

DD had a college letter sitting on the counter today and I knew she was going to be gone all day. I was tempted all day to open it, but I didn't. Then later on today I got caught up on this thread and couldn't resist that envelope anymore. I called DD and asked her if I could open it. It was a full scholarship for tuition and fees and enough left over to cover a couple of books or a parking pass! So whew! She is covered. She just submitted an application for the Presidential Scholarship which offers a bit more money, so hopefully that one will come through. If so, she can't take both -- only the highest one.

Tomorrow she is going to finish her essays for the BAMD application. Everything else on the app is done. It was quite a doozy for her to fill out. There's still one letter of recommendation (of three) that hasn't been submitted yet by the person she asked to write the letter. I'm getting a bit nervous about that because her application will be scrapped if that letter is not submitted by 11/15. She's already reminded the person twice and doesn't want to ask anyone else to write her a letter. I hope it wall works out or DD will have to ask someone else at the last minute.

I hope everyone enjoys their extra hour on Sunday!

 

[bittybabygrower]

Congrats to all our kiddies! It is so exciting but bittersweet at the same time! A whole new chapter to unfold!

 

[lvloopingbag]

Did anyone else have a child apply ED/EA by 11/1? Now the wait until the middle of December, which will seem like an eternity......

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Did anyone else have a child apply ED/EA by 11/1? Now the wait until the middle of December, which will seem like an eternity......

Yes, we are also waiting! And waiting, and waiting.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Chelley00]

Did anyone else have a child apply ED/EA by 11/1? Now the wait until the middle of December, which will seem like an eternity......

Our ED was Nov 1, but DS had to have his request into his high school before fall break started (Oct 11) and we got his decision last week.

 

[JeannieNM]

thank you for all the kind wishes for DD.

Congratulations on everyone's acceptances, scholarships, and applications being submitted!!!!

We can all wait together!

DD turned 18 yesterday. It was a weekend of celebration. Now I need a weekend of sleep.

 

[scrapquitler]

I have been dragging my daughter (kicking and screaming, as you might recall) thru this process very slowly. She's still not ready to really make any decisons, so Dh and I are forcing things along. We finally had to break down the common app and essays into steps and give her deadlines for completing each step. She has applications mostly ready (only one of the schools she's applying to takes the common app, another takes it but sent her some kind of priority application to use, and the other two use their own application). One of the schools requires a separate essay on a specific current events topic (Syria) for the application to be considered for the Honors Program. So we are still working on applications.

A couple weeks ago we visted one of the state schools. Yesterday we visited another one, and today we visited UConn. She has been happier with each school than the previous one. Saturday we will visit Rensselaer. She is going to apply to all four of those schools and see what happens in regards to financial aid and honors programs (and hopefully lots of scholarship money). She is leaning toward a Chemistry major, but that is still very much up in the air, and we are encouraging her to think of the decision of colleges as an open ended one at this point...she can always transfer later. She is still very young (just turned 17 a couple weeks ago) and is very nervous about making these decisions now.

For me, it's been hard to keep this as stress free as possible for her, and she has had a bad attitude all along. We wanted her to go to community college for a year to buy some time to make these decisions, but she doesn't like that option at all.

I hate that I'm feeling so negative about this whole process at this point.
Am I the only one dealing with this, or is someone else here experiencing the same thing??

 

[Bluestars]

Congrats to everyone! The acceptance and awards letters make snail mail so much fun -- like Ralphie waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder pin to arrive in his mailbox!

DD had a college letter sitting on the counter today and I knew she was going to be gone all day. I was tempted all day to open it, but I didn't. Then later on today I got caught up on this thread and couldn't resist that envelope anymore. I called DD and asked her if I could open it. It was a full scholarship for tuition and fees and enough left over to cover a couple of books or a parking pass! So whew! She is covered. She just submitted an application for the Presidential Scholarship which offers a bit more money, so hopefully that one will come through. If so, she can't take both -- only the highest one.

That is fantastic!

 

[Bluestars]

I have been dragging my daughter (kicking and screaming, as you might recall) thru this process very slowly. She's still not ready to really make any decisons, so Dh and I are forcing things along. We finally had to break down the common app and essays into steps and give her deadlines for completing each step. She has applications mostly ready (only one of the schools she's applying to takes the common app, another takes it but sent her some kind of priority application to use, and the other two use their own application). One of the schools requires a separate essay on a specific current events topic (Syria) for the application to be considered for the Honors Program. So we are still working on applications.

A couple weeks ago we visted one of the state schools. Yesterday we visited another one, and today we visited UConn. She has been happier with each school than the previous one. Saturday we will visit Rensselaer. She is going to apply to all four of those schools and see what happens in regards to financial aid and honors programs (and hopefully lots of scholarship money). She is leaning toward a Chemistry major, but that is still very much up in the air, and we are encouraging her to think of the decision of colleges as an open ended one at this point...she can always transfer later. She is still very young (just turned 17 a couple weeks ago) and is very nervous about making these decisions now.

For me, it's been hard to keep this as stress free as possible for her, and she has had a bad attitude all along. We wanted her to go to community college for a year to buy some time to make these decisions, but she doesn't like that option at all.

I hate that I'm feeling so negative about this whole process at this point.
Am I the only one dealing with this, or is someone else here experiencing the same thing??

She is young, so maybe deep down inside it scares her. Have fun visiting Rensselaer. We toured that school and it has a beautiful campus and some very good programs. My son is up in the air about his major too, so I think that's common. He goes back and forth.

 

[sk!mom]

I have been dragging my daughter (kicking and screaming, as you might recall) thru this process very slowly. She's still not ready to really make any decisons, so Dh and I are forcing things along. We finally had to break down the common app and essays into steps and give her deadlines for completing each step. She has applications mostly ready (only one of the schools she's applying to takes the common app, another takes it but sent her some kind of priority application to use, and the other two use their own application). One of the schools requires a separate essay on a specific current events topic (Syria) for the application to be considered for the Honors Program. So we are still working on applications.

A couple weeks ago we visted one of the state schools. Yesterday we visited another one, and today we visited UConn. She has been happier with each school than the previous one. Saturday we will visit Rensselaer. She is going to apply to all four of those schools and see what happens in regards to financial aid and honors programs (and hopefully lots of scholarship money). She is leaning toward a Chemistry major, but that is still very much up in the air, and we are encouraging her to think of the decision of colleges as an open ended one at this point...she can always transfer later. She is still very young (just turned 17 a couple weeks ago) and is very nervous about making these decisions now.

For me, it's been hard to keep this as stress free as possible for her, and she has had a bad attitude all along. We wanted her to go to community college for a year to buy some time to make these decisions, but she doesn't like that option at all.

I hate that I'm feeling so negative about this whole process at this point.
Am I the only one dealing with this, or is someone else here experiencing the same thing??

If you were visiting colleges near me, I'd think you were a real life friend of mine. My friend's DD is a top student so would likely be accepted wherever she wanted to go but she is very reluctant to visit or look anywhere and has no idea what to study. My friend finally took her to the state flagship school and her DD's response was, "this is fine, I'll go here." There is a community college as well as a small University locally but the one thing her DD is sure of is that she doesn't want that. For this girl, I think part of the issue is that she has studied ballet very seriously for many years. She has decided not to pursue dance but I don't think she's had a chance to really consider much else. My DD also has studied dance seriously but decided after Freshman year and an intense summer in Pennsylvania that she didn't want to pursue dance beyond high school so she's been thinking of what to do after for a couple of years.

I have two nephews also graduating this year and they both need more time to decide. They will both most likely spend a year or two at Community College to decide.

These really are big decisions for teenagers to make. It's easy for a thread like this to make you feel alone- Reading so many stories of college visits, early acceptances, and scholarships.

Good Luck!

 

[scrapquitler]

If you were visiting colleges near me, I'd think you were a real life friend of mine. My friend's DD is a top student so would likely be accepted wherever she wanted to go but she is very reluctant to visit or look anywhere and has no idea what to study. My friend finally took her to the state flagship school and her DD's response was, "this is fine, I'll go here." There is a community college as well as a small University locally but the one thing her DD is sure of is that she doesn't want that. For this girl, I think part of the issue is that she has studied ballet very seriously for many years. She has decided not to pursue dance but I don't think she's had a chance to really consider much else. My DD also has studied dance seriously but decided after Freshman year and an intense summer in Pennsylvania that she didn't want to pursue dance beyond high school so she's been thinking of what to do after for a couple of years.

I have two nephews also graduating this year and they both need more time to decide. They will both most likely spend a year or two at Community College to decide.

These really are big decisions for teenagers to make. It's easy for a thread like this to make you feel alone- Reading so many stories of college visits, early acceptances, and scholarships.

Good Luck!

Thank you I've been reading this thread and thinking it was just us in this situation. I had a long talk with the guidance counselor about this and she told me that she does often see the kids ranked near the top much more nervous and freaked out than the more middle of the road students, but she said that she hasn't really ever seen one of her students totally shut down like my daughter has. DDs grades and test scores are probably high enough to get her into whatever school she wants to go to, but she just doesn't seem to have the drive to make it happen. Yesterday at UConn, we asked her what she thought of it, and she said "yeah, it's nice. I can go here". It just makes me sad that she doesn't seem that excited about any of this. Also hard for DH and I to deal with this because we both knew exactly where we wanted to go to school and what we wanted to major in, and we both did Early Decision (which was totally binding back in the day) and had everything all set and finalized before Thanksgiving of our Senior Years.

 

[scrapquitler]

She is young, so maybe deep down inside it scares her. Have fun visiting Rensselaer. We toured that school and it has a beautiful campus and some very good programs. My son is up in the air about his major too, so I think that's common. He goes back and forth.

We know exactly what to expect when we go to Rensselaer, as my DH is an alum. She has been on campus many times over the years, and I think that visiting and applying there is mostly a competition that she feels with my DH. DH is trying to talk her out of visiting and applying because of the cost but mostly because of the location. The campus is pretty nice, but Troy is a very sketchy yukky town to be in. It wasn't very good when we went to school there in the 80s (I went to college in Troy as well, but not RPI), but it has gotten worse. DH was recently there and was completely disheartened to see how bad the city has gotten. DH also thinks the school doesn't have as good of a reputation as it once had, but I don't know if that's really true or not. I have no idea what will happen if we visit and she loves it, because we'll have some hard choices to make if that's the case.

 

[lvloopingbag]

We drove through Troy on our way to visit Williams and Amherst, and we thought the same thing scrapquitler....

 

[TLuvsD]

If it helps, a very good friend had a similar situation with her daughter. If it wasn't for the counselor at the school, it's unlikely the apps would have been finished. She's a happy freshman at a great school, but last fall was tough on everyone.

If you can get some apps in, apply widely and remember the final decision doesn't have to be made until April/May. Things change between now and then.

Good luck!