<p>@naggymom Sent you a PM. </p>
<p>The decision is… “I need one more night to think about it”… nerve wracking!</p>
<p>Thank you NYMom, hope my reply went through.</p>
<p>Hang in there, Naggymom. He’s got two great choices. </p>
<p>Tough decision when that Bojangles is considered… it is pretty good 
But they are both great choices. </p>
<p>@naggymom So what’s the decision? As a UM mom, I’m dying to know!</p>
<p>Thank you for your interest! He wants UMiami-- but now we are looking at the financial reality (obviously something we should not have left until the last minute! But guess where my son gets his last minute/executive dysfunction problems from!)</p>
<p>I am waiting for him to get home from martial arts class to go over the finances, and we may have to override his 1st choice and go with what is more affordable. He did not get merit aid from Miami, he did get a Coral grant (need based) but it’s not quite enough to make the dent into the cost…</p>
<p>So sorry to keep you hanging!</p>
<p>The University of Oklahoma to expand its Jewish Studies offerings
<a href=“Judaic, Israel studies programs to expand with grant | News | oudaily.com”>http://www.oudaily.com/news/judaic-israel-studies-programs-to-expand-with-grant/article_4390ee1a-ce60-11e3-b113-001a4bcf6878.html</a></p>
<p>As a plug for the school, almost all of the Judaic studies courses are extremely small and the university’s hillel was recently recognized for its innovative programming. </p>
<p>Another U Miami fan, as the alumni network is so strong. I take continuing ed classes at the med school and follow the money flow into school, e.g. the NS department.</p>
<p>I’m just a little amazed that you don’t know the financials. I think I knew that just as soon as the acceptances arrived. (There was a $10,000 a year difference between top 2 choices.) I didn’t share that info with my son until after he visited these colleges. He went to accepted students’ weekend at one, and spent 1 1/2 days around the other campus. It was pretty clear which school he preferred after that week. In terms of $$$, son earned @ $10,000 during summers and an upper class merit award, which was 1/2 tuition.</p>
<p>I mention these possibilities about summer internships and possible merit awards to see how they compare at both schools. I know the merit awards U Miami offers to freshmen from FL, but never had the need to see if they can be earned in later years.</p>
<p>Great info whenhen- nice to see this option for Jewish students.
Naggymom- best of wishes with this decision. It isn’t easy to discuss the financials, but it is a reality. </p>
<p>@bookworm I can understand how the UMiami financial component is a challenge this year, perhaps more so than in past years. </p>
<p>UMiami was in my D’s top 3-4 choices, along with Tulane. Tulane sent her acceptance letter and generous merit award way back in November. UMiami sent her acceptance letter in early February and eventually offered generous merit award as well, but not until late March. By then, she was emotionally committed to Tulane. </p>
<p>UMiami was not a possibility without the merit award, and the 2 month delay caused too much uncertainty for my D. Many of D’s friends had similar experiences. Not sure why UMiami had some hiccups this year, but it created a drop-off in acceptances in our area high schools.</p>
<p>My D also heard from Tulane in November and received a generous merit award offer from them. She loved Tulane’s campus and “feel” but wanted to wait it out until all of her acceptances came in. We ended up visiting UMiami a total of 3 times. Once before she was admitted, once to speak with the head of the school she was admitted to and once for Accepted Students Day. She received a merit award in March which sealed the deal. </p>
<p>Last year Miami had more kids accept their acceptance offers than they were prepared for - 2,140 for 2,000 spots. A small number of students were housed across the street from campus at the Holiday Inn (and I’m not sure if there were other places). At one of the local programs we went to, the speaker said they were not expecting that to happen again this year. Delaying the notification of merit and financial aid may have been intentional on their part.</p>
<p>Congrats to your D @cheermom20878! I had sent you a PM a while back. So glad our girls landed where they wanted to be!</p>
<p>I do wish we had taken a hard look at the aid packet from Miami when we got it in late March–we’ve made many mistakes throughout this process and hopefully will not repeat them all with our second DS. Not to make excuses (but I’m going to…), everyone has a lot of stress etc, but early April DH had emergency brain surgery. He will be fine, but it threw a curve ball at us in a few ways. We/he were in no shape until last week to focus on the college finances; we are both self-employed so the way the medical emergency affected our finances was unpredictable. So it affected our thinking about what we could manage, and there’s been little time to sort this out.</p>
<p>So, that’s a part of why I get the award again for Not So Great Parent who may now have to deal with DS’s disappointment. </p>
<p>Also just spoke with U Miami to understand why they met only %50 of our need; got different info from Financial Aid, who said the Coral Grant is partly merit-based, though the guy at Admissions said it’s not. He did say this was their most competitive year yet.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who wrote about their experiences.</p>
<p>Naggymom, I’m glad that your H is going to be okay. I’m sure that things have been very stressful, and I’m not surprised that you weren’t on top of the college financial issues while dealing with his emergency.</p>
<p>A lot of students have to pass up their top choice for financial reasons. Many parents (and kids) come back to post on cc later and in most cases, they say that things have worked out just fine. I truly think that most kids can be happy and find success at many different colleges. You son may be disappointed in the short term if he can’t attend his first choice, but I expect that he will eventually be happy wherever he lands. </p>
<p>asking here and in the Class of 2015 thread: anyone have experience with the Gotham Writers Workshop in NYC for teen classes? Looking for a focused summer experience for D that she can do while also keeping her job.</p>
<p>@naggymom Just curious if you mentioned your husband’s medical emergency when you called Financial Aid? I know that parents often negotiate or add information late in the process and sometimes get more money than they were initially told. </p>
<p>I can relate to the lag between Tulane and Miami as my DS got an acceptance and large academic scholarship from Tulane in early November and had to wait for Miami till February. The money equaled out (Tulane gave him more but is also more expensive). He knew he could not go to Miami without the academic scholarship. He subsequently got a Coral Grant too, but I don’ t know if we will get that for next year as I will only have one college student next year. If it’s based on merit too, then we might have a shot. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>Speaking of my graduating senior DD … she’s my Jewish B student and is about to graduate from the University of Delaware (English major, Jewish studies minor). She just had an interview today with Masa Israel for a teaching fellowship in Israel (Aug 14-June 15). The location she’s interested in is Petach Tikvah. Does anyone have any experience with Masa Israel and/or know this city? It looks like a business/tech center (Intel has an office there), but of course my concern is safety. I got a good “review” on it from someone I just met who happened to have lived there for five years (unbelievable coincidence), but looking for more opinions because when you google the city, “car bomb” comes up. Thanks.</p>
<p>Congratulations LINYMOM on your D’s graduation.
naggymom- it is understandable that the past few months have been so stressful that it was hard to focus on anything else but your H’s health. Thank goodness he is fine. Go over the financials as clearly and honestly with your son. Also apologize to him if there was a misunderstanding- and he can understand that your family has been under stress. Thankfully he is choosing between two schools that he likes.</p>
<p>OP, I apologize for not understanding. When there is acute medical emergency, life pretty much comes to a standstill. Hoping for a good outcome for your hubby.</p>
<p>Wow. I spent several hours and got do much info for S2. Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks all for the support. I did mention to UM there had been a medical emergency, but I knew I probably couldn’t give them precise numbers re: $ cost to us, and it probably wouldn’t make them change anything. I also didn’t want to feel like I was using an unfortunate event that way, unless we could say it was truly catastrophic financially. It was obviously very scary, and did make us more nervous about $ too, just highlighting that we need to reserve a safety net for these kinds of things</p>
<p>DS is sad but says he is “okay” with Elon. He liked the “cognate” program at UM and is hoping he can double major but at 2 different schools within Elon for something comparable to the cognate program. Hope that’s possible.</p>