<p>entomom,</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter now…he got accepted ED Cornell CoE. I’m overjoyed.</p>
<p>Congratulations! Wonderful news for both your son and you, now relax and enjoy the holidays!!</p>
<p>I thought the school list was complete, but today I found out about another OOS public with great merit aid for NM and some smaller diversity scholarships possible. That combined with relatively low OOS tuition and R&B costs makes it financially possible. The deadline for scholarship consideration is only a week away, but since there are no essays or LORs, just the application to be filled out and test scores and transcripts to be sent, she should be able to make it. </p>
<p>It makes me feel a little better to have another school with possible merit money. I don’t think it’s a ‘must’ for D2 to go OOS for college, but our IS options are either zero or 45 minutes from where we live, so it would be nice if she could spread her wings a little further away from home.</p>
<p>entomom - oh no, you are starting to sound like me, adding and dropping schools at the last minute. 
My daughter got a letter on December 1st, telling her to apply to a school with a good scholarship and the app was due on December 1st, and we did it! (even with a supplemental essay, my daughter is amazing, and doesn’t even stress). After that I decided to stop driving my daughter, and mainly myself, crazy. So hopefully our list has really settled at the 10 schools. I told her with that last one, now we have the entire country covered (it is an East Coast school and we are in CA). (And we only paid app fees on 2 schools). But hey, if you see a good opportunity you have to go for it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Entomom</p>
<p>thanks…</p>
<p>Congrats to you and your son, smileygerl. We’re getting good news on the board.</p>
<p>Also, glad to hear that others are adding and subtracting at the last minute. My S decided to drop an Ivy for a match with merit aid potential. He has 5 to go. The essays seem to become easier now that there are several versions floating around. I wonder if anything will change next week after we hear about an EA.</p>
<p>copterguy,</p>
<p>thanks…</p>
<p>Feliz Navidad a todos!</p>
<p>Congrats entomom and smileygerl! And here’s to your children’s hard work!</p>
<p>Hi, everybody. My daughter applied EA to University of San Francisco and Mills College, and was accepted with a guaranteed $19,500 per year (for four years) merit award at USF because of her GPA & test scores, and a $19,000 per year (for four years) merit scholarship at Mills (but they didn’t specify exactly why they gave her this merit money). Yesterday, she also got her ED acceptance from Wellesley College, which means she will be withdrawing her apps from Mills and USF. The financial aid package from Wellesley hasn’t come in the mail yet, but Wellesley is well-known for having generous need-based financial aid. </p>
<p>My experience with all these schools tells me that it isn’t always the best idea to count on URM-based awards because some schools’ need-based and merit awards can be really great. I recommend doing a web search under “No loan colleges,” “Financial aid honor roll,” “100% of demonstrated need met” and “Need-blind admissions” to find schools that are generous with aid to everyone they accept. You can also look at <a href=“http://www”>www</a>. questbridge. org to see a list of QuestBridge partner schools, all of which are known for giving great need-based aid. You don’t have to apply through the College Match process to get good aid packages from these schools. (Anyway, the 2010 College Match has already ended.)</p>
<p>The fact that you’re Hispanic can get your foot in the door, and once in, the generous aid policies will kick in.</p>
<p>marama,
Congratulations to your daughter! It sounds like she’s worked hard and has great results to show for it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Entomom. I am really happy with how things turned out. Now my daughter has to make sure and keep her grades up so her acceptance won’t be revoked!!! </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone on the forum, feliz navidad y prospero ano nuevo (disculpenme por la falta de tilde) : )</p>
<p>Congrats all of you with the admissions! Nice to have that info before the holiday break. D has 1 more interview and 2 supplemental apps to finish and then she is done. wahoo! </p>
<p>But…she is stressing now thinking she had to many reaches and not enough safeties. Won’t be long before we find out something–one month on a couple EA apps. </p>
<p>Good luck everyone and enjoy the holidays!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all accepted. It is nice to see how well the kids are doing.
My daughter received an acceptance from the University of Scranton with an offer of $14k/year for four years. Although it is a safety school for her, it was nice to receive it. She has finished all applications and submitted them. We will rest for a couple of weeks and then will have to deal with the FAFSA.
Congratulations to smileygerl and son! My D had applied to Cornell (her dream school, although extreme reach) EA. We were expecting and prepared for the rejection letter and she was deferred!
Although her chances continue to be slim to none, it was a pleasant surprise.
Waiting for her choice schools’ notifications will be extremely nerve-racking.
Enjoy the holidays!</p>
<p>Great news today! My son was accepted EA to U of Chicago. Right when I was starting to think it would be nice to have him closer to home… We are all overjoyed at this possibility, but there will be some financial considerations. Thanks to all for your thoughts and responses to my concerns.</p>
<p>Congrats to you and to Copterson! That’s fantastic news, I hope the financial part works out to your satisfaction. This will give you an excuse to visit Chicago and do some fun stuff there!</p>
<p>We really appreciate all of your contributions and support on this forum and are so glad to hear the great news. Have a wonderful holiday season!</p>
<p>entomom,</p>
<p>I received my son’s letter of acceptance in the mail two days ago. As a condition of acceptance, he is required to attend a prefreshman summer program. I never knew a college could do this. I sent in the deposit along with the acceptance coupon but thought that the ED agreement has been altered. A few days later they sent me another letter describing the Prefreshman Summer Program. In the last paragraph they said that they would release us from the ED agreement because the terms have changed. I would have to give written notice by early January. A day later my FA package came in the mail and is about $3000 more than I anticipated. This may not seem like a lot but considering grant money goes down every year it could add up to be a substantial amount(approx 16k). Do you think they would be willing to adjust as I am not bound by the ED agreement. My son loves Cornell and does not want to go anywhere else.</p>
<p>I am confused as to why my son would have to attend this program as his SAT scores are higher than the average ED student last year(my son 1440, last yr avg 1380). Could the scores of this year’s ED applicants be that much higher than a 1440? They did stipulate that they would waive the student contribution for this year, since he would not be able to work during the summer($2440). </p>
<p>I did a little research and did find out that this particular program is required of heop/eop students because they did not have certain resources available to them. My family is not in either of those programs. Could you please give me a little insight.</p>
<p>smileygerl, it might be good if you called and asked why your s was put in that program. If they are paying for it, then it might not be bad to spend the summer preparing for the fall. The transition to college is difficult for a lot students, regardless of academic background. I think a “prefreshman” type of program would be good for most students, but they may be trying to make sure URMs feel comfortable on campus. At the very least it will introduce him to the campus and make him aware of resources.</p>
<p>I did not know that they could make ed conditional? If he can take courses for credit I think its great, but if it is all enrichment my son might be disappointed. Do you think we could request credit courses considering his sat scores?</p>
<p>Has any parent’s son/daughter here acceptance from NYU HEOP program?</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with Cornell’s program, but some summer prep programs, depending on length, can include a course for credit. </p>
<p>BTW, thanks for the good wishes, entomom!! Happy holidays to you also. </p>
<p>My work schedule has slowed down a bit, and if any students would like me to review an application essay I can 1) make suggestions for focus/improvement 2) Look for places that need elaboration 3) check the grammar. Please respond through a personal email if you are interested.</p>