@Sarrip Congrats to you daughter. It must feel great to have a school close to home give such a significant cost savings.
@ChangeTheGame, this would be ideal for us as far as Iâm concerned. This was the first school she toured and it remained close to the top of her list since 2018. Traveling 5 hours one way has definitely taken its toll with her being in boarding school so this would be a walk in the park if she ultimately chooses this. The same day she received correspondence from Lafayette (also one hour from home) that she is a finalist for a scholarship (one of which covers full tuition) and they want her to come for a Dynamic Assessment Experience next month. She will attend, so we shall see. No matter what, itâs exciting to have this in hand.
Hey @Sarrip, so are any of her top options far away or are most them close to home? How are you dealing with the idle time before the RD round as a parent?
It has been weird in our household as my son is just waiting for a few financial aid offers as there is nothing left to do (my son is not motivated to look for any scholarships as he will just take Howardâs tremendous offer if his other top 2 schools donât match). So we have just started getting some things that he will need for the fall and plan to visit Howard soon.
My son and I have bonded in a different way for the 1st time during the college process (man to man) and while I am glad that it is basically over, I am having a little withdrawal because we are spending less time together and know the end is almost here.
AlmostAnEmptyNester
There are only 4 schools that rank above this new acceptance so that really narrows it down unless something else miraculous happens during this process. Two of those schools are approximately 1 hour away, 1 is under 2 hours and the last is in New England just under 4 hours away. I was a little on edge before this most recent decision but this makes everything OK in the world 
. Itâs a lot easier to wait for RD knowing that we have a great option.
DD has been looking and applying for scholarships because she wanted to increase the budget that we set for her education and assure that we were not in a position to deny her her school of choice should she be accepted. On the other hand I am a planner and prefer to send her to a school where we can afford and not have to be dependent on individual scholarships to make ends meet.
I totally understand the withdrawal. Once they are away I believe they learn to appreciate us in a way that they were not able to while at home because we were at their beck and call and made everything happen, we created that cushion and they needed for nothing. DD20 is my youngest and she has been in Boarding School so we have been almost empty nesters for almost 4 years. Those first months without her at home were really tough for me. Now, she comes home and we have a disagreement and I want her to go back to school .
I am happy to report that DC got a full tuition scholarship to University of Miami and got acceptance to UMDCP. So far we have at least 10 acceptances. I lost count. Still waiting for some RD schools and some scholarships. January went by really fast but we cannot make any decision until everything is in.
@holychild Congrats on your DC securing âthe bagâ at U of Miami and getting into U of Maryland College Park. Your kid is setting a high bar and can not wait to see the final haul of acceptances and where your DC ultimately chooses to attend.
@Sarrip Thank you for the reassurance on dealing with the withdrawal. I am sure I will get over it when my wife and I are vacationing on some tropical island with no kids:)
@holychild - Congratulations on the scholarship. I know that this must be such a blessing. I am happy to hear that I am not the only one whose DC applied to so many schools, some make it sound as if itâs a sin to do so. We all should have a lot to post about next month.
@ChangeTheGame - Yes, you will enjoy vacations on a different level. Iâm excited for you. Last year my husband and I dropped DD drop off at the end of August since she is a Proctor. September we were on the cruise ship on our way to Bermuda (thatâs another story because we never got to Bermuda but we enjoyed the cruise). We have to wait until we commit to a college and get the schedule before we plan this yearâs vacation. This is also why itâs important to be able to manage tuition because we still have to enjoy life ourselves.
Just checked in on this thread, so much good news! Congratulations to all for acceptances and choices.
@Sarrip OMG!!! Me and hubby are doing the same thing!!! Our plan was to drop DD off at school. Stay the next day and go on vacation the following day. Itâs been 5 years since hubby and I took a vacation alone, and we are sooooo looking forward to some alone time!
Do people ânot goâ to scholarship weekend. We are debating whether or not to go since there is also accepted student days as well and going may not be necessary if other scholarships come in and we decline University of Miamiâs generous offer.
@Sarrip yes people act like we are crazy for applying to so many schools., just like they thought we were crazy to spend what we did on test prep. We consider it an âinvestment â. You donât know what schools are looking for in any given year so what not cast a wide net so you will have many options come May 1. The Miami scholarship is worth $52,000.00 per year. Thatâs over $200,000.00 over 4 years. Why not spend the extra $75 on the application fee.
@holychild - if you have not made a definite decision by scholarship weekend and have not definitely ruled a school out, I would go. It will be a smaller gathering of students than accepted students days and I think will give some insight as to who some of his peers will be and perhaps an opportunity to get more of a feel for fit. DD20 has received a few presidential scholarships so far but this last one has left the other schools in the dust so we are no longer considering the first 4. We are now just awaiting RD.
When I first saw the term here on CC âthose who are chasing meritâ, I thought that it sounded somewhat derogatory but I was like, âdarn rightâ. You just never know what youâre going to get so why not go after $ that your child has worked hard for. While we are middle class, we did not have to pay for applications or testing (waiver) because we reside in an urban area, and DD is part of a community organization (The Wight Foundation) that assists minorities with entrance to prep schools. We are fortunate that she ended up with a full 4 year scholarship including travel expenses for herself and us, MacBook, allowance etc. This organization follows her and will be giving her book $ for college as long as she completes community service and gives back to the community. So we were able to apply to up to 20 schools with the waiver, pay no fees for SAT, ACT, CSS etc. I see it as a blessing and why not use it. So yes, we not ashamed of going after merit as the middle class suffers, we are not eligible for financial aid but are expected to pay college sticker price and still pay mortgage, car notes, eat etc or get deep in debt with loans.
My family skipped a couple of scholarship weekends, but we went to a couple of scholarship days at my oldest childâs top schools. There was one particular school that pushed attendance really hard, so we ended up turning down that offer, but the other offers were still on the table regardless of whether we attended the scholarship weekends or not. My daughter also contacted one schoolâs scholarship office because of a high school activity conflict and they completely understood.
You are among like minded thinkers here. My family have had some (especially at our mostly African American church) who thought we were crazy along the way, but our kids results speak for themselves. You and @Sarrip are role models as far as I am concerned and I always hope that families like yours share the âsecret sauceâ to your kids success (especially within the African American community).
Congrats to everyone on the great news!
@Sarrip my son did a fly-in for Lafayette and really liked it. If he hadnât gotten into Duke, he definitely would have applied for RD. He said he really like the atmosphere at Lafayette.
I agree completely. D20 had a list of 15 schools. All but 3 of the applications were already finished and set to go if she had not been accepted to her ED choice. And the private tutor for test prep was worth the price! He was able to help D raise her score several points on the ACT. I donât think she would have made it in to her ED college without the boost in score that got her to a 32, 33 super score. If you can afford the fees, it is certainly a worthwhile investment.
i must say that this thread is so refreshing. I appreciate the sense of community where we can rejoice, support and share openly.
@mommabear2001 - Yes, DD really did like Lafayette. It will be a real contender if she gets the Full tuition scholarship.
@ChangeTheGame - Thank you for the compliment. The only âSecret Sauceâ I can and have shared is to instill in your child from the day that you bring them home from the hospital at love of learning and reading and also making it fun not forced or a burden. Also, like our elders used to say âAn idol mind is the devilsâs workshopâ. Positive social activities which keep them busy enough to stay away from negative social influences but not so busy that they are too exhausted to be their best in school. I also believed that if you worked hard, we celebrated hard and were rewarded. DD20âs siblings are 18, 14, & 11 years her senior (yes, surprise!) so she has always been mature beyond her years. Went on college visits with her siblings as a toddler. Read her siblings books and had the opportunity to chime in on conversations that were beyond her years. I on the other hand had a lot of help when I didnât understand her homework .
@Sarrip, your last post was like the Mission Statement for my own family (the early love of reading has triggered a lot of my kidâs successes).
Just wanted to give a quick update of my son. He received an almost full ride (everything but fees) from Dillard University (small HBCU in New Orleans). Our family is going to accepted students day at Morehouse tomorrow where we hope to find out the status of financial aid and get view the Honors program up close. My son will also visit Tulane next month for the diversity fly-in and possibly interview for more scholarship opportunities at Tulane. His Tulane merit scholarship offer has been upped once up to 31K per year, but it would sure be nice to get more money.
My son also applied to be a part of competitive Karsh STEM Scholar program at Howard which gives a little less money (still a full ride but no stipend) than his Presidential Scholarship offer from Howard, but the other perks (being part of a STEM cohort, going to the summer bridge program, going to Germany, and an excellent support system) are worth more to my son.
I have seen some signs of senior-itis along with his urge to move on to college, so I have had some âpep talksâ as he is only 14 weeks from High School graduation. His schedule is too hard (3 AP classes and 3 dual enrollment classes which include Calculus 3 and Calculus based Physics) to slack off now. How is everyone else doing and holding up? How are your kids holding up?
@ChangeTheGame - I am so excited for your son!!! Choices, choices and choicesâŠthatâs what itâs all about. DD20 is over it too so I have also had those pep talks. She also has 5 AP and doing her best to manage it but Physics is a monster for her. In addition she has committed to having a lead part in the spring musical so she has to manage her time. I canât wait for your DS decision. We are almost there guysâŠ
@ChangeTheGame - I also forgot to mention that we have a large home schooling population in our church so when they were young I purchased a used curriculum of the Abeka Curriculum (work books, flash cards lesson plans etc) online to supplement our failing school district. We used a lot of real life, as we go learning experiences. Calculating the grocery bill as we shopped, how much change do we get back, there are 24 rolls of toilet tissue for $x.xx. How much is 1 roll? etc. The reward was sometimes that they got to keep the change (coins) if they worked it out and got the correct answer. It was fun, they were quiet while shopping and they learned.
That is amazing. One thing you said that resonates with me is that you took matters into your own hands when it came to your kids education. Whether or not my kids learned what they needed was always on my wife and I more than any school. Thank you for sharing:)
@ChangeTheGame . Thanks for the compliment. It has been a long hard road. We have had a lot of ups and downs. I think what has led to the successes we have had is having husband who is âa good black manâ. He values our family, itâs his # 1 priority. We are united in our mission to raise e good, God-fearing, educated and successful peopleâŠ
I share my knowledge with people I meet. Unfortunately, sometimes you canât share everything with your friends IRl because as they say âpeople can be funny.â
Congratulations to your son.!!!He has wonderful options. You must be very proud. A friend of my has a daughter who is also considering Howard.
I have learned a lot from this forum and will use it for my next child as well.