OP, I’m another one who finds you and your story/journey very compelling. I come here each day and read every post. I too am cheering you and your daughter on and wish her the very best. I believe that wherever she goes shes going to have a memorable experience and get a good education. Sometimes when I read this thread I wonder if you could write a book about your lives. You’re very interesting. Anyway, thank you for sharing with us.
@citymama9 I think it would be the worst book ever written LOL. I’m actually quite boring. We try to keep our lives pretty low-key, drama free, as drama free is it can be with two teenage daughters. Honestly, I don’t do much of anything outside of trying to keep the business going and a roof over our head. My youngest daughter tends to be the most social but D18 is a serious student. I don’t have a social life, by choice, mostly.
I mean we’ve had some trauma but so have lots of other people, and as my daughter has said that is not the most interesting thing about us.
We live a really quiet life “safe” life.
I think maybe the reason people are compelled to read is because even when it seems that we are all so vastly different and our lifestyles, backgrounds, circumstances don’t seem to have much in common at first glance, there’s something relatable. Maybe it’s not easy to put your finger on what it is. But just like a great novel or movie. You get hooked in because there something relatable. Maybe it’s just an emotion?
I don’t know what it is but I am grateful for all of you and your support. This is the most conversation I’ve had with anyone other than my children and my customers in years.
I’ve always appreciated your input. Please don’t go anywhere.
I thought I would share some exciting news from Knox. This isn’t about our personal journey with Knox but now that I realize how many people are reading, I thought some of you may want to know. It certainly makes Knox a great choice…everyone knows how much we love Knox. If my D doesn’t get into SO this is HER choice school, if the FA package is doable.
I’ll copy and paste and hope that’s okay, it came in an email to my D that she forwarded to me.
I’m sure the information can be found on the website.
Knox College will begin offering the bachelor of science (B.S.) degree beginning in fall 2018. We will now offer both B.A. and B.S. degree programs in these nine fields of study:
Biochemistry
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Environmental Studies
Mathematics
Neuroscience
Psychology
Physics
The bachelor of science degree is a great option if you’re considering a professional career in the sciences or planning to attend graduate school after Knox. Compared to our current B.A. degree program, students pursuing the B.S. degree take additional coursework in their chosen major, as well as additional courses in a related science or mathematics field.
It’s nice that Knox is offering the BS option…but getting a BA does NOT prohibit students from going on to degrees in the sciences…or grad school.
Honestly…it’s nice…but frankly…it’s not as big a deal as they are making it sound.
Do you mean to say that a college President is personally getting involved in a particular student’s aid package? Can you explain that a little more @Grinnellhopeful ?
No, I don’t know if that is the case, for certain . But I do know that late November the merit was upped for all students meeting certain criteria. And it is a very nice merit package.
I can’t claim to have much inside information about that situation except for it was very last minute and in my opinion someone innovative. I believe there still might be moving pieces and details are still being worked out, or were last week.
I don’t know have any insight regarding if that is done on a student by student bases with the dean of the admissions and the president.
That would feel like a huge assumption on my part. And certainly not details I would be privy to.
But the new scholarship goes a long way towards making it affordable and you don’t have to be the tippy top student to receive it.
I do believe merit can be revisited on a student by student basis at almost any school if there was a drastic change in scores or boot is GPA on the mid year report. I know I called the inquire at every school my D had been accepted at to inquire about this specifically, and made sure the GC got that information to the schools quickly before final FA packages were put together.
I don’t think that’s unusual if the school wants your student to attend? But I’m a newbie to this gig. I’m always not afraid to ask. The worst they can say is no.
As far as Knox goes who do you think a new scholarship incentive that offers $30,000 a year to students with a 3.5 GPA and 27 ACT would benefit most? Again, assumptions on my part but since ACT scores might reflect socioeconomic status more than ability (another argument for another thread), it feels like this would help students without access to many resources.
@Grinnellhopeful, actually I’m not a big fan of merit scholarships precisely because they often go to students who don’t need them. Some schools raise tuition then give virtually every student an offsetting merit award in an effort to make themselves look generous and make students feel special. I’d rather see students who have genuine need receive aid than to see wealthy kids offered merit money.
@Sue22 Merit can be an essential part of the equation for doughnut hole families like mine. We are full pay without full pay resources so our kid interested only in LACs knew he had to apply only to safety/match schools which award where he qualified for substantial merit award. We are upper middle class, and merit was a lifesaver for our kid’s college choice.
But when you have merit aid and institutional grants, it helps. Every school does a it little differently. One of the schools she was accepted to gave her a really large merit award but they don’t offer any institutional grants. So, there was a huge gap between federal grants and merit aid.
I don’t have all of her FA packages or even a full picture from anywhere yet. But I can tell you definitively that the merit is nice but I won’t know if it’s doable until I see the institutional grants.
I know what her federal grants look like, it’s the same at every school.
It’s going to take an excel spreadsheet when everything comes in to get the bottom line numbers because every school does it so differently.
I believe StO is fairly simplified. If NCP looks like the actual award. Because it comes in the form of institutional grants only. Unless she got the Fine arts scholarship and I think they have another scholarship for some of the best applicants, and the students would interview for it this spring, if selected. I doubt my D would qualify but I don’t know? I’m not well versed is StO’s scholarships. I don’t think they are offered to every student.
I’m not opposed to merit. There are students with extraordinary gpa and text scores, or significant service work. I think they should be rewarded.
However, just applying inflated scholarships to everyone, doesn’t really help present a clear picture. This is my uniformed take on it thus far, I’ll dive into when I get the full packages from all schools.
sigh that will be another huge learning curve. But I’m pretty good at getting to the bottom line number in all things things in life. It might not be as challenging as I think.
I do have a question about work,study, though. I did a cursory search but couldn’t really find specific answers.
So, for example my D’s NPC at StO shows $2300 in work study, campus employment. How many hours a week would a freshman be required to work to attain the amount? Obviously it depends on the rate of pay, but I don’t even know what to expect. Does that money go to the school, or to her?
I just don’t really know how it works. If she’s working 20 hours a week and it goes back to her tuition and books, how will she have the time to work more to help cover her incidental costs?
I guess I’m asking this as a general question not just a question for a specific school. Because I womder if for example it is 20 hours a week, if that is realistic for a new college student? And if it all goes back to pay direct expenses she’ll need to work more for sure.
@Sue22 So, wealthier kids who work super hard and excel at school shouldn’t have the chance to be rewarded? Are you also against sports scholarships when a child excels at a sport? Not many families have $200-$300,000 for each child for college. The whole system is broken when school costs so much. The cost is a burden to probably 90% of families in one way or another.
@Sue22, NPCs show we can “afford” about 40 percent of our income. We live in Southern California where housing prices and taxes are unimaginable to much of the rest of the country. My husband is in his 60s and I’m right behind him, so retirement is a consideration. We’ve saved and sacrificed for decades to make sure our daughter can go where she wants–but merit scholarships will be an important factor in her decision. My daughter has worked her tail off as a full IB diploma student, received major community and school awards for her service in a particular area, and will likely be named a NMF in a couple of weeks. I don’t think her achievements are worth any less than those of a recruited athlete. Merit scholarships are vital to families like ours, and there are many of us.
@Homer28 I happen to agree with you. If the scholarships are true scholarships. The institutional grants won’t apply to everyone and should help close the gap.
@Grinnellhopeful On work study, the money earned goes directly to the student, as a paycheck. The schools do not “assign” the student a specific job through work study, but certain on- campus jobs are reserved for work study students. There will be jobs posted, and the student applies for them. The most desirable jobs are often those which allow the student to do school work while working, so jobs like circulation desk at the library, or checking IDs at the gym, where a lot of the time, there is nothing to do so the student can multi task and get work done. Dining hall, re-stacking books, working in an office all require the student to only do the work, and does not allow them to multi-task. Common advice is to work around 10 hours a week.
Someone else can correct me, but my understanding is work study income usually goes toward the incidentals/books/travel part of the cost of attendance, rather than the tuition and room and board.
@Midwestmomofboys Thank you! That’s pretty much what I was looking for in the way of answers. Also wondering when they come up with the work-study number how many hours a week that typically equates to. It seems like they would want to limit the hours a little bit for freshman, but maybe I’m wrong.
She has to find that Work Study job on campus (not super hard, most colleges have a website – some colleges want freshman to start with food service jobs, then can move on after that to other campus jobs in departments, athletic facilities, writing center, etc). Then they pay her directly, and assume that money will in turn somehow be used toward her COA. They don’t check – she can buy shampoo or pizza or books. As long as the bill sent to her for tuition/fees/ room&aboard gets paid, they don’t care how the money flows. If a student doesn’t work enough hours to get all the WS money, then they just don’t get it.
I’d say the expectation is probably closer to 10-12 hours a week, not 20. Sometimes kids can work more than their WS amount if the department they work for has $$ to pay them, but that varies. Also, some WS jobs allow students to study some. Like if you are staffing the desk checking people in at the gym and it is a quiet time, you may be able to do homework.
They will probably expect summer earnings as well. Some students stay on campus and take jobs in admissions or research for pay, too. Not sure how SO handles housing for those students. My D2’s college charged a fee for the housing and had no food service (but there were kitchens in the housing), and the campus jobs paid enough so she still earned a couple thousand after those costs. I do know one of her friends who was having trouble meeting her COA took a second weekend job in their college town over the summer to meet all her expenses.
I had work study included as part of my FA. It does count toward cost of attendance and it produces a small salary: ten hours per week at minimum wage. In other words, if I had turned down work study, I would have needed to pay an extra 2K in tuition.
When I attended Knox, the comprehensive cost was 24K. I do not remember the exact details, but I do remember that 16K was free and clear, essentially reducing the sticker price of the school to 8K. 4K was my EFC, and I had saved up that money myself (my parents did not help). 4K I had to take out in loans, which I thought was a modest amount. Grants and scholarships covered around 14K, and I believe work study covered the final 2K.
At Knox, there was a job fair, out on the main lawn in front of Old Main. I got lucky. I applied for a job in the PR office, writing, well, press releases (of course!) but also features for the alumni magazine. I had to submit a writing sample. It was a very cozy job, with only about five undergrads who worked there. In fact, the person in charge of the office sent me an email a year ago. Even after twenty years, he still remembers me and sometimes thinks about me and writes.
The money earned, yes, is pocket money, or textbook money, or travel money. I got paid every two weeks. Finding a job should not be a problem, so don’t worry. Also, don’t worry about it taking too much attention away from schoolwork. For me, every afternoon I would go in and work for two hours. Two hours is nothing!
Your kiddo can work the work study job until they have exhausted their allotment. Sometimes, colleges will continue to fund certain jobs with college money…but not usually.
Re: the number of hours a week? Well…it depends on the salary the job pays…and they are not all,the same. At DD’s college in 2006-2010, lifeguards and admissions Office workers were paid the highest salaries…about $15 per hour. And NO they couldn’t multitask and study at the same time. Other jobs paid minimum wage which was half that amount.
The school will not limit the number of hours your kid works. But typically 10hours a week sees to be manageable for most kids. Do the math…at $7.50 an hour…that’s $75 a week. Right? The student would just about earn $2500 for the year at that rate of pay.
At DDs school…jobs in the library or at the desk in a dorm or other building usually went to upperclassmen. My freshman kid worked at the call center. It wasn’t a glamorous job but she got paid. Freshman friends worked in the dining hall.
@Hapworth I love the idea of work study on so many levels. I just wasn’t sure how it worked. 10 hours a week certainly seems doable I was concerned if it would’ve come back in 20 hours a week. I didn’t know if that went directly to tuition and room and board or if it helped with other incidentals and it sounds like that varies from school to school. StO NPC showed 23 or $2400 in work study, I’d have to look it up again and I’m too lazy. And $210 (I keep saying $288) as EFC. $5500 in federal student loans. That seems incredibly manageable. There were no parent plus loans involved in that. I’m still crossing my fingers that all goes well. I think work-study can be great, it also will immediately help her engage with other students. I’m just relieved that it probably isn’t going to be 20 hours a week.
Maybe she can work a little more in future years but I feel like her freshman year Is already going to be pretty packed.
@Grinnellhopeful I worked a work study job checking kids into the library. I got a lot of reading done during that time. In addition, I was able to work at the local ice cream shop for an additional 12 hours or so a week. The owner was super flexible and employed mostly students who didn’t have any more time than that to spare. It was great. I hardly ever had to ask my parents for any spending money between the two jobs. Your D may end up with options like that.
@homerdog My D18 does not have a tremendous amount of work experience. her only job thus far has been with the local election office which was quite flexible and an amazing experience. I try not to bring much of that into my post but I’m highly opinionated and vested in politics. And it was very important to me that my children understood how our government works and that they come to their political beliefs on their own and make sure they will be registered to vote the day they turn 18. Working in the election office brought a little more insight into how different elections work, when they happen, etc.
She didn’t make more than $700 or $800 over the summer, if that much. My D 20 works for a small local business owner who has a cafe and also provides catering services. It’s been such a blessing because she’s so busy between volleyball and marching band during the fall, swim manager in the spring, band and choir, and school, it’s challenging to find work that is flexible.
I’m glad you were able to!
ETA: I would have loved working in a library, I would love it even today. Your experience sounds lovely.
Neither one of them is too interested in working with me…imagine…lol
But I wouldn’t be able to pay them as well. I’ve spent their whole lives telling them that their first job is school, and they’ve done an amazing. D18 really has tremendous amounts of homework right now, she hardly sleeps. She leaves the house as early as 6 AM and doesn’t return until well after 7 PM most nights, doing school stuff.
I tell her that I believe it’s going to be much different in college her time won’t be so heavily scheduled and she will have some extra hours. It’s hard for her to wrap her head around 10 to 20 hours a week now because they simply aren’t there.
Maybe she will find college to be a little more relaxing? She takes care of most things here at home as well because I as the owner/operator of small business I never know what my day or night will look like. And before that…wellmibe shared how debilitated I was. I’m not proud and it’s hard to admit.
As much as it breaks my heart to think about both of them leaving, and my son left home at 18, all I want is for them to have more than this. So thinking about the future no matter where she lands brings me so much peace, and sadness at exactly the same time.
I love reading everyone’s post about their experiences in college. I didn’t do anything traditional so what my children will experience feels idyllic to me.