<p>And May God Bless! </p>
<p>LOL. You will sprain your tongue if you get it any further into your cheek there, Joe. Come on out of your "shell" and join us. There will be some who agree with your adopted stance (sort of) and some that will agree with your true stance. I promise not to bite (but watch out for TheDad).</p>
<p>Oh, and in the one in a million shot you were being serious- you're an idiot.</p>
<p>I think Joe is putting us on.
Northwestern doesn't offer merit aid
It was a good chuckle though</p>
<p>do they have a "my kid beat up your ivy league student" bumper sticker? that would be funny
<em>randomness</em></p>
<p>Curm--watch it, this rivals some of your best work!</p>
<p>I was feeling the heat, garland. Good stuff.</p>
<p>Great post, Joe.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon,</p>
<p>LOL...that was great!</p>
<p>Joe, </p>
<p>You forgot to mention how irritating it is that 50% (or more!!) of the spots in elite colleges, formerly reserved for sons of the good old boys, are now being used up by women-- most of whom will never become a senator or get a seat on the stock exchange, so why should they take a spot away?!</p>
<p>Did anyone have to do this equation? It's a tough one, as Scripps has cross-registration at Pomona and lots of other overlaps. I, Ms. Mom, have changed my mind 100 times already. I think D could flourish at either....</p>
<p>Ima, not an easy decision, is it? Does your daughter have a preference? Why didn't she apply to Pomona? (Not that there is anything wrong with Scripps).</p>
<p>D's preference is Stanford. But she's a great kid who understands 4 years of full tuition, room/board, 3 r/t air tickets a year, and a summer of subsidized research saves her hard-working parents 175K, which is mucho $. Pomona was high on her list, but once she got into Stanford EA, she withdrew all her apps but for 2 big $ merit schools -- Scripps and Brandeis. She's a finalist for the scholarship at Scripps, and hasn't heard anything yet from Brandeis.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about how it feels to be a Scripps student at the Claremont 5? Is the cross-registration with Pomona for real? </p>
<p>And no matter what happens down in Claremont, will she wish she were at Stanford??</p>
<p>I asked her brother how I should advise her...he wisely said, "don't."</p>
<p>EA makes things so much harder than ED. Daughter got into Columbia ED. She was being courted by several schools (a URM who went to RSI and did well and an athlete) with significant merit opportunities. Columbia was number one choice for many years, so we decided she should go for it. This despite an older brother in college (State @ $17K), younger brother one year behind who also wants the $40K college experience and youngest sister craving boarding school. I think I'm crazy some days. My house is about to be owned by a bank again! I am about to be owned by a bank again!</p>
<p>Join the club, Kirkum. My daughter is going to have to do another year of college after pretty much going full steam ahead for graduating this year. She did not get into the medschool program. She was on a full ride this year, so I should not complain, but when I started doing the numbers for my kids for this next school year, it was truly frightening. And her college has gone up quite a bit in cost. I think she lost her 4 year scholarship when she took this one year full ride, and though it is not a huge amount, it did take the edge off of things. My son will not get a dime--he has been a full freight+ all of his life. The money tends to flow one direction with him. It will be our worst year ever financially with 2 private colleges, most likely a boarding school (I think I will let my freshman board; he wants to do so), and 3 younger ones at a Catholic school which is not your inexpensive parochial school . And two weddings. My D's is being primarily done by her future in-laws, but we are fully funding my niece's, and it will be in NYC as will D's. I see a very, very expensive summer. I wanted my senior in highschool to graduate now, a term early, and go to work, as he has cost as a fortune this year with apps and auditions. We are fortunate to be able to pay for all of this, I know, but the numbers are frightening. I would have been thrilled to be living on what I am spending on tuition.</p>
<p>Thanks Jamimom, for putting my life into perspective. I will stop complaining. We have much in common. I have had to become responsible for a niece and nephew, but my numbers still sound low compared to yours. God bless you!</p>
<p>Re Scripps/ Stanford: I suggest a visit to see the two and spend a night or two with students at each place who share some interests with your D. (Be careful to get a good match on the host student!)</p>
<p>Yes, there is cross registration and it works well. Read some of the Scripps threads elsewhere. The 5 colleges offer lots of unique plus points. If Scripps came close to being a favorite or a tie with Stanford it would be an easy decision.</p>
<p>If you have the means to pay for Stanford, it might also be possible to put some of this money aside for graduate school or future home purchase and let your D know it would be there for that purpose later if she elects Scripps. I see no reason to hide financial realities from your D. On the other hand it is your money so you have the right to spend it on her dream school if that is where she wants to be...</p>
<p>I have a friend who let her son make a decision between two favored schools with money not in the equation and now regrets it, as their financial picture has changed (but not enough to get fin aid.)</p>
<p>Congratulations on having this excellent dilemma. Your D must be a fantastic kid!</p>
<p>To believe middle-class women are getting spots over good old boys, you have to believe admissions is need-blind. Wrong, wrong and wrong. All you have to do is create "experiences" for your kid that "enrich" him and are impossible for poor people to match. Four weeks on a cultural exchange to the Cayman Islands to study international tax policy, a six-week "internship" at a high-powered venture capital firm, and hiring your A.A. to run a blood drive for which your kid takes the credit (can't interfere with golf practice) are all ways to pump up your "curriculum vita" before entering college.</p>
<p>For example, my son just did an internship under Karl Rove's mentor Morton Blackwell, putting together purple heart ribbons for the Republican National Convention this past summer (see <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/30/gop.purple.hearts/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/30/gop.purple.hearts/</a>). That shows my kid has a sense of "civic duty", and that he's connected. The school can defend his admission on the basis of "merit" while we all know the real reason he made it through. Best of luck to all of you and may you gain something from the lessons I share. Cheers!</p>
<p>I love purple.
I especially enjoyed that the Republician nametags for the Washington State voters recount were lavender. It was the next best thing to rainbow!
Went completely over their head however ;)</p>
<p>Actually, Joe, I meant all those upper-class girls who are there to meet your son and his buddies-- who are just biding time before marrying, frosting their hair, throwing charity balls, and driving carpool. Such a shame they could take the spot of a kid who could really make much better use of those connections. The girls'd be so much better off at Le Rosay perfecting their french accents.</p>
<p>I have to hand it to you: the Karl Rove intership is a great way to stand out among all the "moveon.org" types applying to these elite schools. Diversity imperatives may work for your son after all!</p>
<p>(On a serious note: all those sorts of internships & travel experiences do is act as code for "we are rich & therefore 'development' prospects." Does anyone really think adcoms believe that these kids are enriched by this baloney...?)</p>
<p>I apologize in advance if I am repeating anything already said in these 14 pages, but I have not read all the pages. But back to the original question at hand (though the last tangents were entertaining)- As my s. was a national merit finalist and 1570 SAT, we got more mail from more places (most we had heard of, some we had not) throwing more merit money his way. It became like monopoly money-- it just didn't feel real. He stopped opening the stuff after a while. I'd chase it out of the trashcan just to see what they were offering. We took the same approach as several folks on the first few pages-- that we would handle college, but after that they were on their own. (that's how my education was handled). The other little teaser we threw in is that we have been very open with our s's as to how much $$ we have been putting in savings earmarked for college, and that if it was enough to cover, that was great. If not, we would look at their savings or at other options. If the amount was in excess of what was needed, they could have whatever was left over after graduation as a graduation present. For s # 1 that wasn't a huge incentive-- he wanted to find the "best fit" , but is also naturally very cost sensitive (frugal, not cheap). My younger s. a HS freshman, still has Corvettes and Harleys on the brain, so he is a bit more intrigued by this option. S. # 1 took it upon himself (with only a <em>tad</em> of parental encouragement) to apply for small scholarships of community service and such. Proudly, he won 5 (a few local, a few national), though the total dollar amount wasn't huge, every little bit helps. He chose a college that applies endowment to tuition, so it is like getting a scholarship, if you look at it that way. He applied ED, so we didn't really get a chance to see what might have come from other schools. He got national merit from his school (Rice) but fortunately or unfortunately, we only qualify for the minimum. He is still, however, looking at scholarship opportunities for current college students. I have to give him a lot of credit for taking the initiative to look into it while he is in college. There is a tendency to forget that additional scholarship opportunities exist even once you are in college.</p>
<p>I'm with you, SBMom, the adcoms are on to kids who pad their applications with that "enrichment" business that Mom and Dad purchased...</p>