<p>Warning…long post.</p>
<p>Belated, but heartfelt and joyous congrats to OWM’s son. What a terrific ending/beginning!</p>
<p>Renmom, HUGE congrats to your son on Wesleyan! I am so happy for you, if you look out your window toward the Midwest, you will see an extra little light spot in the sky. That is me smiling with you.</p>
<p>Congrats, Blue on UVA! Great school, and I’m so happy for bluejr!</p>
<p>Pepper, what a woman! I’m proud of you!</p>
<p>Arisamp, sitting here crying for your D, though I’m only up to “3/25”. Praying for better news for her next week.</p>
<p>Mamom, sorry for the sting of W&L, but hope it has faded now in the happiness of the other acceptance.</p>
<p>So sorry to have built undue suspense about sb’s situation…I really didn’t mean to do that, I just got so behind on my reading, and I’m compulsive on “catching up” before posting new news.</p>
<p>So here’s our little deal. Sb told me 2 weeks ago that she’d decided she’s not going to Lawrence (conservatory), even if accepted. She said it just wasn’t the right school for her and she knows she would be unhappy there. I had to agree…I had reservations all along about fit for her there. </p>
<p>And she ended up not being accepted (no surprise there…they had the highest number of vocal apps in their hundred-and-something-year history, and she’s a lyric soprano.) We knew that wasn’t going to happen, just like we know we don’t win lotteries or raffles.</p>
<p>Then she got a FULL RIDE (ok, minus $1K, but can l still call it a full ride (except for pocket change) because I love the sound of that phrase, at one of the remaining schools on her list(she won their full tuition scholarship plus grants/scholarships for almost all of R+B.)</p>
<p>By this point, though, she was telling me every day, “Mom, I just know I really want to go to Hillsdale.”. (Don’t worry that you’ve never heard of it …small LAC in south central MI known for taking no federal $ in order to be beholden to no one in Govt for what they teach or how they run their school.). All their scholarships and grants are from robust private endowments.</p>
<p>They also focus on a very rigorous and truly classical liberal arts education, stemming from the Western Greco/Roman, Judeo/Christian heritage. Most people find that either wildly exciting or not for them. We won’t get into that here, except to say everything about this school has thrilled her from the very beginning. </p>
<p>But their popularity has grown tremendously in the past 2 years, so much so that they are now taking large numbers of (and sometimes rejecting) ivy-league kids. Sb got accepted with 2/3 tuition, and the possibility of another $K or 2 vocal scholarship (audition next week). This is also the school that she spent an entire Sat at her desk writing 3 essays for because she got invited to apply for one of just 30 spots in their Honors College, and she wanted her app in that day’s mail (remember me running for the Sat 4pm pickup?). That hangs in the balance. No word yet.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, yesterday, she got finaid pkg from another of her schools. Another full ride with no loans! She started crying right away, which I totally couldn’t figure out, until she explained it to me. She feels like how can she ask me to cough up the extra $12K per year AND use the “Grandma and Grandpa scholarship” when these other 2 schools would cost us virtually nothing.</p>
<p>I started crying too (Lord, aren’t we all crying over something or other every day now? And don’t even TALK to me about hormones … Sorry, Dads. )</p>
<p>Anyway, I told her she herself has earned a tremendous amount of the cost of the school she wants through her years of hard work and sacrifice. That’s what earned those scholarships and grants. And that Grandma, Grandpa and I want nothing more than her happiness and her own good decision on this, which we have every confidence she can make.</p>
<p>Not to mention the fact that, philosophically, we love this school. Heck, my dad would probably give her a full ride there if need be and not tell the other grandkids!!! :)</p>
<p>We know she will make every dollar count there and get a terrific education, and be in a place where she can thrive, grow, be nurtured, challenged, and happy.</p>
<p>Is their music dept tops of her 6 schools? No. Are they offering us the most money? No. Is it the school that, in her heart, she knows she belongs at? Yes. Whether she gets into the Honors College or not? Yes.</p>
<p>Case closed and decision made.</p>
<p>SHE’S GOING TO HILLSDALE!!!</p>
<p>Is there an emoticon for a laughing/crying/slightly hysterical/I-love-you-people-Mom???</p>
<p>Onegirlsmom, empathysing with the tears at your house. My good friend’s D had a meltdown recently where both parents sat silently as she sobbed and wept out all sorts of painful/funny events of her life that ended in a huge sob, “And of course there’s my nose!”. Her dad said quietly, “Your what?”. To which she replied, “My NOSE! Oh, you act like you don’t know, but it’s never been right, and you know it.”. At this point, dad left the room, and mom was left to deal with this poor mess of a daughter who will be just fine come May, and who, I want to add as an objective bystander, has a PERFECTLY NORMAL NOSE! </p>
<p>Posting now because no matter how fast I read 2 pages, you guys have posted another 4!</p>
<p>Oh…and I, too, now have an 18 year old! How can that be? Weren’t we just playing peek-a-boo?</p>
</p>
What an amazing story. Thanks for taking the time to share it. I love to hear when a student and school just match up…including finances! I feel like you, that years of hard work in high school allow our kids a certain amount of liberty in choosing despite cost, within reason of affordability.