Parents of the high school class of 09

<p>Keeping my fingers crossed for your D2 ellenemope.</p>

<p>Chintzy and 4Giggles, Ellemenope shared some wise words. Similar to when relationships don't work out, in hindsight it's always clear that something wasn't right and it just wasn't meant to be. It's just such a shame that the kids now have a few months of waiting before they'll realize that. Hang in there...and keeping fingers crossed for all of our kids to get the acceptance from the school that turns out to be just the right one for them.</p>

<p>So is anyone having their kids apply for outside scholarships? D2 can't get motivated to write essays since she has her athletic scholarship in place. I want her to do a few to make up the difference of COA. Her accounting teacher gave her one to apply for last week. I think I'll put some pressure on her for some local ones but skip the bigger more competitive ones. Any one else have good strategies to keep their kids engaged in the process?</p>

<p>Good luck, ellemenope. Fingers crossed for your household.</p>

<p>Scholarship applications and MORE essays? My DS would start screaming if he had to write one more essay! On top of the app essays, he's had to write more for school this semester than any so far.</p>

<p>I hear you cpeltz! D2 just wants to be done with it! I know she will win some local ones through the school BUT she has to apply for them first. There is a scholar/athlete one in her sport at school, H's work one, Chamber of Commerce, and Athletic Association. I did have her do the accounting one but not sure she really put much time in it. I just figure that a few thousand $$$ is a good thing in this economy!</p>

<p>Talked with S about outside scholarship's and more essay's. S is expected to save his own spending $ for college and he does not have very much saved (although I certainly have been reminding him). I did offer to set aside a portion (very careful to not give a percent, at first I said 1/2 and then quickly took that back) for his college spending if he wrote the essays. I do not want to spend time hunting some down if he is not going to follow through. But--have not found time to look and wonder if he would actually write any essays....</p>

<p>To those getting deferrals, D received deferrals to her #1 and #2 school. She was accepted with open arms to her #3 school. In fact, she heard from #3 after getting deferred from #1. That was in October. Today she is excited about possibly attending #3 and I even went ahead and bought her a t-shirt from them and wrapping it up for Christmas. </p>

<p>At first, she ddin't want to take the SATs again (the weakest part of her app). Then just lately she said she will take it ONE MORE TIME in January, have her scores sent to the deferrals and be done with it. </p>

<p>All in all, she was accepted to 4 schools, 3 deferrals, and 3 we still haven't heard from.</p>

<p>So, keep your chin up if you were deferred. If you have a great list of schools, even #10 will look great when you start thinking about it!</p>

<p>Re additional scholarship essays and D2: She is still not finished with one application - she has a couple of short answer essays that need to be completed; she'll finish up AFTER midterm exams. Yuck! D looked through a list of available scholarships to determine if any required no essay (yeah, right) or if any required an essay that matched one she has already written (no luck). Can't say I blame her on the essay writing ban.</p>

<p>Now is the time we really need all the parental wisdom we can muster - the admissions process is exciting, but it can also pack a strong wallop to self-esteem.</p>

<p>In one day, my daughter logged on and found out she was accepted to college A with a nice scholarship. A few hours later she logged on and was waitlisted to college B (one of her top two choices). Then we all breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when that day's mail brought an acceptance to her other top choice. </p>

<p>College admissions is a wild roller coaster ride which may cause motion sickness or whiplash.</p>

<p>I'm worried about the motion sickness and whiplash once we start hearing back about financial aid. ;)</p>

<p>I was worried that we hadn't heard anything about merit $ from Son's #2 school. We got an email today saying there was missing info on his financial aid app. I logged in and found that there were no missing requirements and a call to the school confirmed that we had received the email in error. BUT, I saw Son's award and it's the largest so far! </p>

<p>Of course, I can't let myself get too excited about the money....I don't want to make him feel like he has to attend this school if there are others we can afford that offered slightly less money.</p>

<p>hang in there, this is the tough part, but spring always brings new things. check with gc re: local scholarships, they often nominate students and that really helps. my college freshman s won $1500 Best Buy (no essay), and $1500. YMCA (essay) to encourage his writing yet another essay we joked about possibility of "earning" $1500 for two hours of writing effort. I always throw in a "of course its completely your choice" and that often gets them thinking...an hour later...they often say "you know I was thinking it might be a good idea to apply for that scholarship" I know it sounds ridiculous, but it has worked mucho times.</p>

<p>My D is working on an essay now for Furman's new merit scholarship - she really likes the "How do you plan to take what you learned back home as a leader" prompt. She plans to also use it for a couple of local scholarship competitions here in the spring. My company has a $2500 one and the city Chamber of Commerce has a scholarship program for young women as well, at least she will have time to add to the essay or tweak it a bit....</p>

<p>Even better - her HS has a general scholarship program where every senior has the opportunity to apply and submit their info to the Guidance Office in the early spring. All the applications in the pool are used for consideration for a bunch of local scholarships, ranging from $100 to $10K a year. It is nice since you apply once and that's it, plus by doing it this way the wealth is "shared" and you don't have one or two students getting all of the scholarships...</p>

<p>Thanks for all the kind words and support. This board has the best people on it! High Point has been calling to remind D her application for their scholarship program is due a.s.a.p., so no more stalling on that one. "Supplements" has become a dirty word in our house.</p>

<p>Rachacha, I love the way your D's school handles scholarships. Kind of like a Common App for scholarships.</p>

<p>D deferred from Stanford; taking it well. Time to attack the remainder of the apps! Good luck all.</p>

<p>This is the best board - I hate the deferrals. Spring is going to be fabulous when our kids are going to schools that are **perfect **for each of them.</p>

<p>DS1 also deferred in ED1. He took it ok.</p>

<p>Son was admitted to his favorite school yesterday. Of course, the #1 school offered $6000 per year less than the #2 school...why can't the pieces ever line up perfectly? Anyway, only one more to hear from.</p>

<p>"A mom is only as happy has her least happy child."</p>

<p>I heard that on Oprah about a year ago. Its the truest thing I ever heard about parenting. The 2nd truest: The scariest time in parenting is when your children are old enough to live your own adult memories!</p>

<p>Update on my son: 1st "yes" was Tulane, but not really anything he was interested in, only applied because it was common app online & free.</p>

<p>2nd yes was Wisconsin, and he's VERY excited. Sight unseen, its his 2nd choice. Knows lots of people there already, and his best friend was also accepted. </p>

<p>Still waiting on 9 more.... 3 of which he'd be happy to go to. One more to send in, and he has no interest in doing it.</p>