I got in... but a little disappointed.

<p>My son is pretty adamant he doesn't plan to visit ANY of the schools before turning in his final decision. Fortunately, he's toured Santa Clara. He hasn't toured several of the other schools he's applied to, so I'm not sure how that will all play out & he may be touring more than he'd like.
I tried talking to the housing office but got a message which said they're closed in FEBRUARY & call back again!?!?! Anyway, I'll try reaching them again after chatting with a friend whose son has graduated for will soon be graduating from SCU.</p>

<p>Your son sounds kind like mine, no nonsense, no fuss. Likes it simple and straight forward.</p>

<p>Thumper, this interview with the head of SCU is enlightening about tuition aid gaps and more.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thesantaclara.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=f3d77ed3-19d0-4250-8852-46181340314d%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thesantaclara.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=f3d77ed3-19d0-4250-8852-46181340314d&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks for the article--TRAGIC that the 48-year-old athletic trainer didn't show better judgment! Friend's son at UPenn was surprised & disappointed to find out about the alcohol abuses there as well--seems like it's everywhere! I had hoped SCU didn't have that problem, but I guess it's there as well. Interesting -- thought they had built the library or I guess SCU students are still making the trip to Stanford to use theirs.</p>

<p>I just got off the phone with F aid, she said they are making adjustments to f aid for some, not specific as to who, how many or what amount or why. She said just wait until the last week of March first few days in April for the letter.</p>

<p>I suspect that the athletic trainor probably had a drinking issue before the shots that killed her. It is not normal to do that. Someone with a high tolerance, an alcoholic, would do this. And FYI, in Chico Cali., a frat student died from water intoxication when alcohol wasn't used. Gallons of water in a short time killed him.</p>

<p>Good luck--hope they can make the packages more attractive to many, but I'm sure it's awfully tough with such high tuition & room & board as well as their need to build a new library. I guess just not enough money to go around, same song everywhere!</p>

<p>I just spoke to them also. They said that the final awards will be posted by the beginning of April. But they also said you don't have to "accept" the award until May 1. AND if you accept it sooner it is not binding for admissions...only acceptance of the finaid IF you enroll. Our finaid at USD just went DOWN $2000 per year. If the award at SCU goes down that much, it will make us do some serious thinking...</p>

<p>thumper how on earth did your f aid decrease at USD? We already put down sons deposit at SCU, uh ohhh!</p>

<p>wondering if the acceptance of the grant and small fed loan is binding on them as well if we accepted and paid deposit over weekend by electronic check. Can you believe this, they don't take Visa.</p>

<p>Our kids' private HS doesn't take charge cards either--keeps their expenses down & they manage to get everyone to write them checks. Hey, if it helps keep the tuition down, how can we complain? I prefer that the money stay in the school instead of going to the bank via card fees.</p>

<p>I figured it out never mind. I left a msg with the Faid office and plan to talk to them in the morning. Today the person on the end of the line there, first said I could send an email with a note of what we accepted and declined. She seemed surprised the ecampus let us select the offer this weekend. It never said not too. This is all probably nothing, other than my lack of experience with this. Fortunately the only adustments in our Fafsa were that we made less $$ than estimated on the initial filing.</p>

<p>Who knows, they might still give you more money--that would be nice. :) I still was surprised that when I called housing & got a message about FEBRUARY! Oh well, things will all work out.</p>

<p>Oh no, they do take ccards, American Express and Mastercard and one other I don't recall. Hey do you know anything about koa tables? I have a set of geisha style coffee and end tables I bought in Kaneohe Bay in 1982 before the ban on cutting the koa trees down. I'm thinking of refinishing them and putting them on craig's list. The coffee table is so big it has been hard to use in a smaller house. Should have bought the square one instead of the rectangular shape.</p>

<p>ps, our oldest went to Windward Prep for K and 1st grade when it existed in the 80's, the other Le Jardin was so expensive then. Those kids usually went on to Punahoe. The school teachers we knew who taught in the publics used to tell us they worked in the publics to send their kids to privates. Usually Punahoe.</p>

<p>My kids don't attend Punahou, but my nieces all went there & my sister works there. Another sister teaches in public school & is sending her eldest to Punahou. My kids both went to public school until we transferred them to private when they were entering 9th grade to a private school because they weren't getting the academic support (in terms of challenging courses & peers) they needed to grow. The kids' (GT) gifted & talented teachers were considered torturers--they hated it when the kids asked them questions the teachers couldn't answer (which occurred often, especially with my son). One teacher IGNORED my son the entire year after he stumped her early in the school year. Another teacher used to make the kids cry because she would literally yell & scream at them. The principal asked why my daughter was dropping GT & she said she was sorry but she couldn't take the yelling & screaming any more. It was also sad that their peers were upset with them for using words others didn't understand (totally unintentionally), which made my kids very self-conscious.</p>

<p>I'm sure there would be folks interested in purchasing your tables--Koa is such a beautiful wood!</p>

<p>VERY sad, but at this point, it does NOT look like SCU will work for our family due to their punitive absences policy, where any instructor can make a student withdraw from school (& leave campus) if the student misses 4 classes of a TuTh course or 6 classes in a MWF course in a quarter, even if absences are due to chronic medical conditions. I continue to explore our other options.</p>

<p>Hi everyone, I have a quick question...
I received an email from scu with the subject: "Re: Receipt of FAFSA and Financial Aid deadlines at SCU"... When I click on the link it says welcome to SCU, and then a link to admitted students...
But when I sign into my application status, it says my app is still being reviewed... Therefore does that mean I've been admitted, or no?</p>

<p>Brown U sent letters to all applicants that checked financial aid on their ap but hasn't sent out any decisions yet, so I would not get TOO excited one way or another about notifications that financial aid things are missing. The best thing to do is to call Santa Clara on Monday & clarify.
Ironically, we just received an invitation today for my son to join Santa Clara's Honor's College, with an additional scholarship of $2000/year.</p>

<p>This is really weird I just got an e-mail and found out Santa Clara is giving me 10k a year .... I wasnt even admitted with distinction:</p>

<p>Last Updated: Status: New Package
03/19/2006 9:41:32PM
Award Category Career Offered Accepted Accept Decline
FFEL PLUS Loan I Loan Undergraduate 34,719.00 0.00 USD<br>
SCU Preferred Scholarship Grant Undergraduate 10,800.00 0.00</p>

<p>A grant is usually because of financial need. Scholarships are the financial aid awards given to students admitted with distinction an are not based on need, but rather are merit based.</p>

<p>Congrats on the grant--it's always nice to get money you don't have to repay. In general, most schools try to give grants & scholarships to students they really want to attract & more in the way of loans to everyone else (just not enough money to go around otherwise).<br>
The terms grants & scholarships are sometimes used interchangably--the thing to remember is that they don't need to be repaid. Another thing to find out is whether the award is a one-time amount or whether it can be renewed annually for 4 years, based on meeting criteria such as maintaining a stated GPA.</p>

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<p>Congratulations! The grant of $11,700 + $3,600 = $15,300 is very nice (no repayment needed). According to SCU's site, the amount of Dean's Scholar grants can vary year to year.
Work study jobs can be great as well--I had one all thru undergrad in the 70s. It seemed all the most interesting jobs on campus were work study -- the sooner you apply for the jobs the better your selection. It can be nice to get a P/T job in the department you're planning to major in--I did.<br>
(The > $27,000 loans will have to be repaid, of course, likely x 4 years.)</p>