<p>Hi Everyone,
To those of you who helped me with my last post, I just wanted to pop in and say a big Thank You! This week, my son toured most of the Southern California colleges and really enjoyed it so thanks for the encouraging words. It was so well worth doing especially at the start of summer. Now he is so inspired to work on his applications and essays over the summer before starting what will be a grueling senior year. </p>
<p>With the advice I received here, we knew to tell him not to fall in love with any particular school because it would all depend on if he got in and if he got money to go. He did love USC and UCLA and could picture himself at either one of those school. Surprisingly, he did not like UCSB or UCSD. He liked Pomona and Harvey Mudd but not Claremont and he liked Cal Poly SLO a lot but didn't have a tour for that one since it was on a Sunday. All in all, it was a really productive trip and he is looking forward to touring the northern ones like Santa Clara and Berkeley next.</p>
<p>Also, just as an update, he was filling out applications for jobs and was using a format for "beginners" to list their ecs. I never knew he was in some clubs until he asked me to read his application. He has a couple of leadership positions in some clubs at school so that will help his application too! Since their clubs are during lunch and on block days at tutorial, he has been doing them for years. I didn't know because I thought they would be after school=lol! He did retake the ACT after reading that the score had to be higher than a 33 for a scholarship at USC and took the SAT subject tests so we are waiting on those scores too.</p>
<p>**Now all I need to know is how exactly do we do the applications? Some of the tips I've read said to absolutely do "paper applications" and some just say apply "electronically". He got tons of information but no one gave him paper applications at the tours/info sessions. Do you call and request those? Do you download the electronic ones and have them all filled out ahead of time to retype them in when the application date opens? </p>
<p>Is there a tutorial or something somewhere? I also am confused about some of the instructions that say to send an application with the fee first and then later you send all the essays and scores in along with transcrips and letters of recommendations. He doesn't know either and gets NO guidance at school so any help you can point me to would be much appreciated! </p>
<p>Again, thank you so much for all of your help before and I'm so grateful to those of you who encouraged us to visit the schools! My 12 year old dd went along too and absolutely loved the trip and was really motivated by some of the speakers. I think it did a world of good for her too!</p>
<p>First of all, I’m glad your son got to see those schools. It’s something I wish I did more of before I applied to colleges.</p>
<p>I think pretty much all of the schools you mentioned do their applications online, now. Many of them will also send acceptance/scholarship notifications electronically, as well. The key thing is to take note of the exact date of when the applications open for these schools, and once they open, find out what the essay questions are. Type up the essays in a word processor, take them to an English teacher for proofreading, and then copy and paste them to the e-application.</p>
<p>As far as exact order of sending in fees and documentation, each school is different. Just be prepared to provide what they ask for, when they ask for it.</p>
<p>Santa Clara uses the common app, which is online, as do the Claremont colleges. The UCs are all online, and Cal Poly uses the CSU Mentor online application. There should be links on all websites for the specific applications.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son, he’s got some great colleges on his list.</p>
<p>hesdjjim, thanks again for your help. It was great for him to see the schools and I’m so glad they did it. I see now how to do all the applications and realize that we’ve already made some mistakes so I am getting a grip on how things are supposed to go now. We didn’t sign up for ANY of the free score reports-ugh. I didn’t realize how expensive they are when you want/have to send so many. He got his subject test scores back today and did great with an 800 on History and 780 on Bio (that he hasn’t had since 9th grade!) Too bad we didn’t know how it all worked or we would have used the “free” reporting. I thought you had to actually see all of the scores and then decide if you wanted to send them. While that works for some schools, most want ALL scores anyway so we could have saved money knowing how things worked. </p>
<p>I saw that some parents/kids have made up schedules for when things are due to the different schools and I do love making spreadsheets-lol. Son was shaking his head when I volunteered but he still has NO idea of the amount of paperwork. He’s just now thinking of the essays…gee, I should sell “kits”! Heck, I’d buy one right now if it kept us all on track. </p>
<p>vballmom, thanks again for helping me here and on my other thread in the financial aid section. UGH-the money part is the worst! </p>
<p>No one answered me about if we never take a disbursement from the grandpa owned 529, do I still have to report it on the CSS Profile? Do you know about that? I think we are better off on our own than all of the sudden having to declare over $100K in assets between both of the kids’ accounts! I just tossed and turned over it all night long and can’t see a way out of the problem except to hope they either change the name or just cash it out before January comes and we have to file the fafsa and profile-ack!</p>
<p>Yes, you do have to report any 529s that are for the benefit of the student, even if owned by grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc, and never tapped into. You don’t need to report 529s that are for the benefit of siblings outside of parent-owned ones.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tuitioncoach.com/collegecost/pdf/cssProfile.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tuitioncoach.com/collegecost/pdf/cssProfile.pdf</a></p>
<p>My son just finished up his third year at Cal Poly and has had a wonderful experience there. He’s on track to graduate in 4 years. His total cost has been well under $20K/year (published COA is over $23K). Living off campus is SLO is much cheaper than living in the dorms, and I imagine the same would be true at all of the UCs as well.</p>
<p>Thanks again, volleyballmom. I printed out the Fafsa worksheet yesterday but had not seen the whole CSS Profile sheet. Oh my goodness, that is a LOT of info to fill in! I just skimmed it now really quickly and didn’t see that particular question. Someone on the other post explained that it is often in the supplemental section that only some colleges have and I don’t see it on that link you provided. At least we don’t have to report the sister’s 529 so that is a relief because I imagine the difference between 60K and 120K is a pretty big dent.</p>
<p>swimteammom said I might be able to just do a partial rollover into son’s 529 acct and avoid the untaxed income issue so I have a new post asking the “experts” for more info on that.</p>
<p>My son LOVED CalPoly. It was the first school they stopped out on the way down south. It was a Sunday though so they didn’t get to do a tour but they walked all around for a few hours. My only issue with CalPoly was that we read you can’t change majors and my son is still not sure of what he wants to study. He is leaning toward Engineering though and CalPoly has a good reputation and a wonderful 4+1 Program that I thought sounded good. What does your son study? Didn’t you get any CalGrants? I though all CA kids got those (but maybe not my son by 2013 according to Jerry Brown!) When I run the COA calculators and try to estimate for on campus vs off campus, the grant is just reduced by the amount they were going to give for the dorm so I’m not sure that is a big savings for my son to live off campus. I will run the numbers again and see if there is any way to lower his costs. </p>
<p>Thank you again for all of the wonderful help you’ve provided me and so many others!</p>
<p>Cal Poly does make it difficult to change majors, but it’s not impossible esp if the majors are within the same college. My son changed from electrical to computer engineering after 3 quarters with no problem. But for kids who aren’t ready to declare a major, Cal Poly would not be a good choice.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you are in CA, but employers in the Bay Area love Cal Poly students. My son has easily found internships for both last summer and this one with large technology companies. It’s very possible that his current internship will lead to a job offer for when he graduates next spring.</p>
<p>We didn’t apply for a Cal Grant so I’m not sure how it would work if your son lives off campus. Many of my son’s friends either have work study or took out loans, and most moved off campus after their first year.</p>
<p>Thanks once again, vballmom. You must be so proud of your son. I have read that it’s really difficult to graduate in 4 years and that it’s hard to get into the engineering at Cal Poly. He must be a great kid! The internships sound great, too. We are south of Santa Cruz, but hope that our son would live near us when he graduates and gets a job. He wants to go back down and take a second look at CalPoly when he can have a tour. My husband really liked it too and thought the town area was nice as well. I like that it’s not as far as southern Ca! </p>
<p>As the time gets closer to start applying, he is really trying to pinpoint a “good for him” major that suits his abilities and will get him a JOB. He did a lot of research and sees that engineering seems to be a good path to take. How did your son know what he wanted to do? Did he know engineers and see them work or talk to them? Did your son look at the 4+1 program getting the Masters and Bachelors at the same time? For some reason, that really appealed to me-lol. He also liked Harvey Mudd and Pomona and they both require interviews so next month, they will head back down south again. </p>
<p>I see now that the CalGrant has an income limit of ~80K so most people in our area would not qualify but since dh just got his cc job cut back, we might qualify. Silly me, I thought everyone who paid taxes could dip into the pie! We sat down today to start to pull all the paperwork together and oh my, we are kind of a mess. He has accounts I didn’t know about and I had accounts he didn’t know and we really need to straighten it all out. Thanks again for that link! It helped me convince DH to sit down and work things out. </p>
<p>DS is SO happy right now because he retook the ACT and just saw his score of 35! He really debated taking it again since his first one was a 33 and seemed “good enough” but he read that USC wouldn’t even consider him for a scholarship unless he had a 34 and up so he took it again. He knows that school is SO expensive that he most likely can’t afford to go at all but at least now he has some hope.</p>
<p>Again, thank you for all of your help. I just love all the info I can get here and most of all, the nice people like you!</p>
<p>Hi fidoprincess, yeah, I’m proud of my son. He’s the kind of kid who was born to build stuff, starting with elaborate Brio trains, moving up to Legos, Mindstorm, kit radios, circuit kits, then computers, robots, bi-copters, etc, etc. He was heavily involved in FIRST Robotics in high school. So engineering was the obvious choice for him. And Cal Poly was also the obvious choice given its emphasis on hands-on projects. A more theory-based curriculum, such as those offered at the UC engineering depts, would have been the wrong place for him. He didn’t even apply to any of the UCs.</p>
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<p>From what I’ve observed, the kids who are well-prepared in physics and math, who have taken Calc BC and AP Physics in high school and really understood the concepts, are more likely to graduate in 4 years. In addition, kids who arrive on campus as computer science/computer engineering majors who haven’t done any programming at all in high school or summer camps are likely to have to repeat a course or two, which can easily derail them from graduating in 4 years.</p>
<p>I don’t know what other colleges are like, but this has been my observation at Cal Poly.</p>
<p>I looked at the 4+1 option and liked it, but my son isn’t interested. I think he’s gotten a taste of how it is to work and make (relatively) lots of money, and he’s eager to do so. I doubt he’ll get his Master’s any time soon.</p>
<p>A good friend of my younger son’s is at Harvey Mudd. He’s one of those scary smart kids, double major in math & computer science. So far he hasn’t found the courses there very challenging, but I think that’s just him. They seemed plenty challenging to me as I listened to him describe them. He’ll be a junior next year.</p>
<p>Congrats on your son’s great ACT score!</p>
<p>Hi fidoprincess, </p>
<p>Another satisifed Cal Poly mom here! My daughter just finished up her second year and has been thrilled with her college experience so far. We live in Santa Cruz (closer to Capitola), so it’s a perfect distance to SLO. Not too close and not too far away. 
Best wishes to your son wherever he ends up! I just wanted to put in another plug for Cal Poly. Considering what you get for your money, I honestly feel it’s a bargain.</p>
<p>Thanks 2leashes, we are just a bit south of you and I do like that CalPoly is closer than most of the schools ds looked at. I like that the area is safe too especially compared to USC in LA. That’s a scary area! I would want to visit son if he was at CalPoly and wouldn’t mind that ride at all. Does your daughter have a car on campus and drive back and forth herself? </p>
<p>What type of engineering is your daughter studying? Do you think she will be able to come to Santa Cruz when she is done and get a job? If not, I guess there are plenty of jobs over the hill. My 12 year old is at UCSC right now for Girls in Engineering camp so at least when she is older, she’ll know what it is! Thanks for the best wishes! I’m sure it will all work out and by the time he is finishes, I’ll have my now 12 year old to go through it again with=eek!</p>
<p>Vballmom, Your son sounds like mine, well at least when mine was little. We did the brio trains with the tracks all over the house, then the legos-trains and bionicles and harry potter castles, and anything else he could put together. He stopped though when junior high hit so I’m not sure about anything. His school doesn’t have calc bc. He just finished ap ab but he has to try to get the bc at the community college and there is already a waiting list. He has to show his ap score to be able to register so it’s crazy because the scores don’t come for at least 2 more weeks. He will have physics ap this coming year but the only math he hasn’t taken at school is ap statistics so he’s taking that. I’m not crazy about him taking the college class at night anyway after being in school all day with 4 ap classes. What kind of engineering is your son doing? How did he narrow it down to one thing? There are so many different kinds to choose from. </p>
<p>Ds was upset with me that I didn’t schedule tours at Caltech and Harvey Mudd but at that time, I didn’t think he had a shot of getting in. He really liked both of them so next month, they will go back down and do the tour of Cal Poly, Caltech and tour Harvey Mudd. HM and Pomona both require interviews so he’ll do them then and not have to figure out how to go during school. Your son’s friend must indeed be really smart because all I have read about HMudd is how HARD it is compared to the rest of the schools there.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks so much for all of your help!</p>
<p>I agree with 2Leashes, Cal Poly is a bargain when you consider the value of its education.</p>
<p>Cal Poly will count community college courses as if they were high school AP, that is to say they’ll add a point to the grade when calculating GPA.</p>
<p>My son thought he wanted to major in electrical (EE) but found he could do more of what he wanted to do using software rather than hardware so switched to computer engineering (CPE). A lot of his friends are computer science (CS) majors. They all seem to get a taste of the other flavors of engineering by doing projects. One of the coolest projects is the Rose Bowl Parade float that Cal Poly SLO does as a team with Cal Poly Pomona.</p>
<p>Sounds like your son might have some interesting options. Good luck to him.</p>
<p>Fidoprincess: My daughter is a Kinesiology major and will apply to grad schools for Occupational Therapy. She actually got into USC with plans for doing their 5 year Bachelors to Masters OT program, but after much thought, she decided it was just too costly even with scholarships and a generous grant. It would still be more $$$ than 4 years at Cal Poly and 2 years of grad school. She also wasn’t too excited about the surrounding area around USC. She wanted a college town where she could feel comfortable walking and biking around, especially in the evening.</p>
<p>She didn’t take her car freshman year (our rule), but she had it last year and will have continue until she graduates. It’s worked out well! She’s an excellent driver and has made the trip back and forth several times, although as a mom, I’m always going to worry. 
This fall she’ll be living off campus and will take the free bus to school. It’s about two miles away. Much better than paying for the parking permit.</p>
<p>Yes, by the time your 12 year old is ready for college, you’ll be an old hand! I just hope it will be affordable!</p>
<p>Thanks to you both again! I was having trouble logging in to post a reply but I hope I have it fixed now and wanted you both to know that I appreciate your time posting to me. </p>
<p>2Leashes, I agree that USC is scary and it is more expensive. I told DS he could only go there if he got the top scholarship that paid full tuition so I won’t hold my breath for that one. I just can’t see sending him to an area where I am going to be a nervous wreck the whole time just over his safety. We have enough things to worry about when they go away! That is a good major for you daughter. She will be able to work anywhere she wants. I just read an article that said most things “medical” will be a sure thing for jobs and it specifically mentioned kinesiology stating that more older people are exercising and hurting themselves than ever before-lol! Yep, sounds like me. Thanks again for your reply, especially the “no car 1st year-our rule!” It’s close enough to run and get them if they want to come home.</p>
<p>I was telling dd that I learned a lot with ds and she is lucky that she will benefit from our experience. You are right though, who knows what things will look like in 5 more years? If the costs keep rising, college may one again be out of reach for many kids.</p>
<p>vballmom, good to know that they will count the cc course that way. DS had to get a 5 on the AP test so I “secretly” called today to get his score and sure enough, he got a 5 so I guess he will at least be able to get on the waiting list for the calc bc course. I still would prefer he didn’t take it but I can’t blame him for wanting to do it and best of all, it’s not at night like I thought, it is in the afternoon so that’s a relief.</p>
<p>I wish he could get a grasp of what he would like to do but he just hasn’t had any exposure to a lot of these options. We also never realized that when Fall came and he had to start applying, so many schools would want him to declare a major or apply to a specific part of a school like engineering. I’m sure it will all work out and thanks again for all of your help!</p>