<p>Morning All</p>
<p>Does anyone remeber the big fanfare rfom many schools in recent years about FinAid and that it did not try and access home equity etc…</p>
<p>Our student’s chosen U…</p>
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<p>I had to chuckle because I dont know too many who even have equity in their homes with the real estate down so significantly…</p>
<p>I agree, loans with bad rates is not aid.</p>
<p>madbean Hooray on the USC film school acceptance. And thanks for the idea to blame the mailman for the ripped envelope (jk).</p>
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<p>Ditto here. I thought it was polite to ask seniors and their parents about college plans. Now, I know how annoying it can get. S is funny about that. Every time we are going to any function that might include parents of HS kids, he warns me: Be prepared to answer questions about colleges. So, I am prepared most of the time. </p>
<p>Agree about loans. Its not an aid!!! </p>
<p>Good luck to all waiting on Berkley decisions today! Tomorrow looks like another eventful day.</p>
<p>Hurray for all the good news- Madbean I am so impressed and glad your both your S’s like USC. I went there back in the day as a Trustee Scholar (but back then the Trustee Scholarship was not a free ride darn it. If it was I probably would have liked the school better as I was one of the poor kids and could not afford to live in the dorms so commuted- not an ideal situation.)
And Pepper I hear you about the “aid”. In good conscience we can’t ask D to take an unsubsidized loan at 6.8% interest. A subsidized Stafford for a few K would be fine, so she has “some skin in the game”.
Off to give a presentation to the whole Dept- something which I “DO NOT DO” (usually)! If I don’t puke I am calling it a win.</p>
<p>“I had to chuckle because I dont know too many who even have equity in their homes with the real estate down so significantly…”</p>
<p>Exactly!</p>
<p>I don’t know how many of you follow college sports or even care about it, but yesterday I took a break from CC to follow the saga of Mizzou’s basketball coach leaving to take the job at Arkansas. I’ve read negative things about college sports in this forum so I don’t know how this will be perceived, but here goes.</p>
<p>Last night, I watched three young men face the media less than two hours after being told by their coach that he was leaving them. That coach had recruited them, been a father-figure to them and told them two days ago he wasn’t leaving. I am proud to call these three young men Missouri Tigers for their composure, poise and loyalty to our alma mater. And not once in the news conference did they slam the coach who had betrayed them.</p>
<p>Our kids in this thread may have been “recruited” by schools and rejected by schools and we rejoice in the success while the disappointment hurts us deeply. Last night, I realized that those players were just like our children: young men who have natural talent and raw emotions. I’m sure their parents wanted to “fix it” for them last night, just as we want to fix it for our children after their disappontments. But these three gentlemen made their parents and our University proud with their composure in a difficult situation.</p>
<p>I hope this comment would become a philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of major college athletics. I am a fan in the fanatic sense; sports has been and always will be a huge part of our family’s life. Our son and I will be Missouri Tigers–no matter who is coaching our team.</p>
<p>^ Applause.
Where’s the LIKE button</p>
<p>kinderny - good luck with your presentation!</p>
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<p>LOL! I will definitely be borrowing that line. So how did the presentation go? ;)</p>
<p>Some of these aid-packages sound more like shake-downs. But I can understand how people might be desperate enough to take the offers. Our EFC stuff estimated we could easily spend 2/3rds of our yearly income to send our D to college. They really punish you if you have excellent credit and generous savings, and heaven help you if you have unrealizable investments. I realize we look pretty good on paper but it is depressing because our reality and their paperwork do not match up. They also seem to expect folks with only children to bankrupt ourselves to send him/her to school. So kiss your college-bound seniors’ siblings today! </p>
<p>OWM – One of my D’s former coaches (in the sport she loves!) had a fight with the head of the local Athletic Dept and quit in a snit just before the season began. Result: No Season. He was fine; the kids were crushed. So-called Adults should show a little more sportsmanship and personal integrity esp. when you consider how much of those qualities schools, leagues and the media demand from the students. A 22 year old can be benched and castigated for making bad choices (like that kid at BYU) but some 60 year old coach gets a pass because he has had some winning seasons. It’s sick. </p>
<p>Madbean – The mailman ripped the envelope? Suuuure he did. (G) Congratulations to your son on the USC film school acceptance! Speaking of which, did you happen to see those photos of Spielberg’s $200M yacht?</p>
<p>Mental note: Ask all H.S. seniors about the weather or sports. The c-word shall never pass my lips. </p>
<p>What’s really amazing is that my D has almost no idea where any of her friends have applied or been accepted. I think they have to discuss it so much with counselors and parents and their parents’ friends and pastors and teachers…and…and…and…that they really shelve the subject when they are with their friends.</p>
<p>Yesterday was a snow day due to the 7" of snow, last night we had a thundersnow storm with both hail and sleet, about 1/2" ice which was covered by 1" or so of snow. So, do you think we had a delayed opening? Heck no. You all should have seen me out in my pjs trying to scrape the ice accumulation from my ds’ “grandpa” car. What a mess. Main roads were miraculously fine but my street looked like Siberia. Rodney - ready to move south yet?</p>
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<p>Well said, Novelisto.</p>
<p>Oh I feel ya on the unsubsidized loans masquerading as aid. We were pretty sure after running the calculators that we wouldn’t qualify but its still a shock (or a laugh depending on your mood) to see thit in black and white. Makes the going for merit strategy look really good right about now. All but one of D’s acceptances has offered merit $$ and luckily she doesn’t like the one that didn’t so we don’t have to be the ones to pull it off the table. But those coming up are even more expensive and less likely to offer any money so we’ll see how it goes. </p>
<p>Congrats on the offer to visit WUSL Aniger. That is a very nice compliment to your son!</p>
<p>Japanese D2 e-mailed me that she made it home fine. Her house is in better shape than she feared, now has running water. I haven’t brought up the radiation issue with these girls - it’s too overwhelming. For now I’m just happy she is home and with her family.</p>
<p>Also I hope she e-mails me her pictures soon because we forgot our camera at the Concerto Concert!</p>
<p>Spring break starts at 11:40 today, hurray. D doesn’t know but 3 of her schools are likely to release info today or tomorrow. We’ll just see what happens. I can’t find a subject lately that doesn’t cause her stress … maybe joking about old movies? Disney World? Anything has to be better than this time - feel so out of control. </p>
<p>We’ve got some sun, anyway, although still very cold. Good luck to everyone today! Hearing others’ news is really a wonderful distraction and comfort. I can’t imagine being alone in this.</p>
<p>Happy to wake up to a dusting of snow rather than the 1"-3"/2"-4" which had been predicted. And only flurries predicted through the day! D is on the river this week for rowing preseason, which is miserable when it is wet and cold, so I am particularly grateful for this weather.
Pepper: mine is one of the intense ones. She is so tightly wound that any random thing can set her off, and I flip back and forth between tiptoeing around her and demanding civil behavior. I had not expected this, as she was accepted at a great school EA and has two early writes from other wonderful schools - but I guess we are on for the full ride through 30 March. And then the visits…</p>
<p>I can so relate to feeling out of control. This is so much harder than I thought it would be. I feel like I am living with “Sybil” or the Exorcist…or maybe it is a combination of the two. Then, D can be so sweet!! She did tell me today that she doesn’t like any of the schools that she’s been accepted to EA. I just laughed and said, that has to be the stress talking!</p>
<p>The end is getting closer! </p>
<p>Have a great day everyone…I’m going back to my corner!</p>
<p>So much news here! And I love the EC stories. </p>
<p>Madbean - what great news you’ve been getting! How exciting to have two such talented S’s, and to see S2 getting such great opportunities.
Dignified - I hope your D has been getting a lot of wear out of her college shirt now that her dream is coming true!
I hear everyone on the FA stories. The loan offers are ridiculous. That’s certainly an option that should be made available, but schools are certainly not “giving” parents anything by offering them. And the calculators seem a little wacky. We only picked merit-potential schools to avoid that particular type of stress.
I’m another one of the guilty parties who used to always ask seniors around this time of year what college they were going to. I now have learned - a little late - that that probably was not such a good thing! If they want to share - they will. And those people who make rude comments about schools your student has chosen - well, I guess we’re kind of stuck with smile and nod: with maybe an eyeroll added.
Best of luck, prayers, and fingers crossed for those awaiting decisions in the next week. I’ll look forward to sharing more good news, and knowing that there are great options in hand for those not getting the envelopes they want.</p>
<p>**Thursday’s Countdown for the “reachy” schools is: </p>
<p>Vanderbilt - YESTERDAY was decision mailing day<img src=“snail%20mail%20only%20-%20probably%201%20or%202%20days%20to%20hit%20your%20mailbox” alt=“/size”>. KEEP THOSE MAILBOXES PROPPED UP. LOTS OF HEAVY ENVELOPES COMING SOON! 
The Admissions Blog link is [Vanderbilt</a> Class of 2015 Admission Decisions Mailed Today | The Vandy Admissions Blog | Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2011/03/vanderbilt-class-of-2015-admission-decisions-mailed-today/]Vanderbilt”>Vanderbilt Class of 2015 Admission Decisions Mailed Today | The Vandy Admissions Blog | Vanderbilt University)</p>
<p>U Cal - Berkley - [size=+2]TODAY is the day decisions are released. (Based on information provided to me by another poster - thank you.)</p>
<p>Stanford - 1 day to go (MAYBE). Based on last year’s schedule we will hopefully get emails this week! </p>
<p>Vassar - 1 day to go. (Based on information provided to me by another poster - thank you.)</p>
<p>UVA - 1 day to go. Announcements are to be released on Friday the 25th at 5 PM. (Based on information provided to me by another poster - thank you.)</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins - 5 days to go. Announcments are to be released on the 29th. (Based on information provided to me by another poster - thank you.) See their Admissions Blog announcement at [Hopkins</a> Insider](<a href=“http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/]Hopkins”>http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/)</p>
<p>The big “H” and other ivys - 6 days to go based on the 5PM March 30th announcement date and time. The “lottery drawing” is less than a week away!</p>
<p>March 31st schools - 7 days to go. For all the schools that haven’t announce earlier dates!</p>
<p>I am monitoring the news releases and admissions blogs to nearly a dozen “reachy” schools and will post updates or changes to the countdown as they occur.</p>
<p>TOMORROW WILL BE A BIG DAY FOR A LOT OF US ON THIS FORUM!**</p>
<p>Kinderny - had to chuckle when I saw your post. D1 (now a college junior and pretty accomplished speaker) was deathly afraid of public speaking when younger. During her HS freshman speech class, her teacher asked each student how they felt they did after delivering their first speech… her response: “well, I didn’t pass out, pee my pants or puke so I guess I did okay”. </p>
<p>I guess my two DDs are different because neither of them have ever minded when people asked them about college and their friends seem to feel the same. They talk about the subject amongst themselves and with other kids’ parents pretty routinely. That probably led to me offending or annoying some kids or their parents along the way since it never occurred to me that some might not want to talk about it. Once again, CC makes me aware of something that I had not thought about!</p>
<p>Have a good day everyone!</p>
<p>congrats madbean! You all must be thrilled.
We are at an odd place now. Some of us still waiting (still 7 more decisions for us). Some of us are scheduling accepted students trips. Some of us all locked down with deposits and housing and thinking about immunizations and move-in dates. What a journey!<br>
D gets one on-line decision tomorrow; it’s a reachy LAC and not in the top 5, but if it’s a NO, D will certainly extrapolate that all future decisions will be NO. I trust she will land well and bloom where planted, but there will be a lot more joy if she gets into one of the two clear favorites next week. I’m pooped! I want to be celebrating with D - not consoling - over the next week. D does not understand why I enjoy this forum so much, but you all are my peers in this process and so encouraging and helpful. So many threads get quite nasty (remember that FA one, fogfog?), that I truly appreciate the tone here. Hoping for big envelopes, great FA, happy kids, etc.</p>
<p>We are all in such different places - but in it together!</p>
<p>Madbean - big congrats to your son on USC Film school! My D has a good friend waiting on that decision, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Friend might choose a smaller arts school instead, but I know she would love to have the USC option.</p>
<p>We’re in the “still waiting for a lot” boat. If I’m reading the tea leaves (CC threads!) right, I think we’ll get one decision today, two tomorrow for sure, and probably three on Saturday. Then then rest in the first three days of next week. Just hoping there are more ups than down on the roller coaster for the next week.</p>