Parents of the HS Class of 2011 - Original

<p>Well I never gave what I would wear a thought-OMG I have gotten so fat during this I don’t have anything to wear that would be appropriate-I was just going to wear jeans and hope to fly under the radar.</p>

<p>Amanda my daughter wants to take over my son’s room, knock down the wall that separates the rooms and another wall from her room that is next to the bathroom-and make a second master suite-and she is trying to convince me it’s all about resale! It’s going to be fun to have her on my hands without him to help me for the next four years.</p>

<p>I agree on these visits-couldn’t they feed us and send us away with a little product? We have worked hard and at least deserve a cookie and pencil-that seems reasonable to me.</p>

<p>Again to Amanda, I hope they let your poor son inside Carnegie Hall!</p>

<p>It’s interesting to see how everyone is handling the next phase of this-again as I hope I expressed I don’t think there is an answer right or wrong. No one knows your kids like you do, nor your financial situation, or family situation, or anything else-so while I may do things one way in no way does that mean I think it is the only right way-and sometimes I have to admit I read something on here and think-you know, I wish I had done that, or you know, that person was right when they said something that might have given me pause when I first read it-so it’s all good. :)</p>

<p>Yes the stress level is high here but a lot of it is just the time of year-any of you who has ever worked tax season will know what I mean. Mix exhausted parent(s) with clueless son and annoying but cool daughter and BINGO-</p>

<p>This too shall pass…</p>

<p>Re: shutterfly I can’t remember who set it up but they will find you and I think PM you for your email so they can sign you up. It’s been a lot of fun attaching faces and names to so many people-I highly recommend it.</p>

<p>2education is our Shutterfly contact. PM her with your e-mail address.</p>

<p>Cool weather ~ Congrats on the Robert Byrd Scholarship nomination!</p>

<p>ariamp ~ Nice story about your D.</p>

<p>dignified1 ~ Good for your D! You can’t go wrong with HYPSM being the last 5, lol. Are you going to Princeton on the 14th? A college visit on May 1st??? I would have a heart attack! Best of luck to you both!</p>

<p>emilybee ~ S wanted to go as far as possible from home, so he didn’t not apply in our state at all. I was ok with that, even if it was difficult for me, but I said no to the West Coast, because I felt it was just too far, in case of emergency.</p>

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<p>amanda, LOL!</p>

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<p>Kinderny, LOL again</p>

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<p>Pepper03, I can’t stop laughing, now…</p>

<p>Ok, I better get back to work…</p>

<p>rom828–thanks for posting the thoughts about a current college freshman a few pages back! That was encouraging.</p>

<p>Pepper03–I really like your strategy of informing colleges that are clearly off the list now, and just keeping the few that are still in contention. I recently attended a scholarship session in which the college representative stated that scholarships not accepted by one person would be offered to an alternate; all scholarships will be given out. As a result, a scholarship that is declined would immediately be offered to someone else. While not all colleges handle this in the same way, it could make a huge difference to students who’ve applied to colleges that do. And if more people followed your strategy, this process could be a little less stressful to those on wait lists.</p>

<p>Colleges are really acting against interest when they refuse to receive notice that you’re declining that college if you don’t name another college. It is in the colleges’ best interest to have the best class that they can; by accepting the next student from the wait list as soon as the college knows that it will have a spot to offer, the college increases the chances that that next student will attend.</p>

<p>D1 has been a bit more ‘huggy’ lately–well, except not with her younger teen sister LOL–so I think perhaps there’s a thought here and there about leaving home. Actually it’s the animals who get the most love and that’s probably who she’ll miss the most! She’s a heavy duty reader and always has a furry feline family member settled in next to the book with her. And sometimes reads with the larger outside critters in the summer.</p>

<p>Sharing bathrooms will not be a problem for her–let’s just say we have an <em>extremely</em> modest home :)<br>
But she’ll certainly miss the running path she made for herself along our creek, which is a raging river right now from all the rain
O-mom–I adore how casual the PNW is, fits me and it’s SO easy to dress and go…I’ll be in trouble if D2 wants to look farther east…</p>

<p>“Colleges are really acting against interest when they refuse to receive notice that you’re declining that college if you don’t name another college.”</p>

<p>Absolutely agree with this one. You’d think they could follow up with a “BTW, what college did you choose?” email on May 1. I shutter to think that one of D’s friends could be waiting for her spot.</p>

<p>It’s really not that formal here in the east either. I’m pretty sure that I wore jeans when I went to an accepted student’s day with my older daugther. I seem to remember a a whole range of dress that day. You will probably do a lot of walking, so wear comfortable clothes.</p>

<p>By the way, I love the way people on cc refer to the East Coast as “Back East.”</p>

<p>OWM and Emilybee: Please post some prom pics on shutterfly next week.</p>

<p>collegemaw, your D sounds like my younger D, always snuggled with one or all of our pets. I’m glad she is around for 4 more years. They will really mope when she is gone.</p>

<p>I think our ship sprung a leak. We just got notice that D is going to be offered a place in the Honors program oat one of the schools that had slipped down the list which bounces it right back up. Just when I thought we had the final two leaning towards one. Oh well. We still have three more weeks, right?</p>

<p>I’m bumming that she can’t make the accepted students day at one of those top choices this weekend. I bet they give shirts!</p>

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I don’t know why we all say that around here (“Out West” - ha ha!).</p>

<p>OK Get this…</p>

<p>I get a call from “the U” fin aid office…saying “I understand you had called about your package.” </p>

<p>Me: " Yes, I was calling because our inital package was based on estimates etc. I called the FinAid office of the U and did exactly what I was told to do…We submitted our 2010 taxes, IDOC, corrected Profile etc with cover letter…</p>

<p>I tell her that the “estimate” that “the U” did was based on 2009 AND our income went down 30% etc 2010…and now even the FAFSA has corrected down the EFC, I had errors on the Profile, The U had errors…" blah blah…</p>

<p>Sooooo The U hasn’t even started to look at our stuff…and the parting shot from the Fin Aid woman…
“well I see here your student has decided to marticulate at “the U” so I guess the financial aid won’t make a difference…” </p>

<p>WHAT???</p>

<p>Me: “No, Our student planned to attend the U when we were going by a financial pre-read from the fall…
which was changed/lowered in the late Dec letter what came AFTER the acceptance
(I thought but didn’t add that this all happened along with the press releases that the U was substantially changing fin aid for middle class and not in a good way…)
And continued to remind her that all of those calculations were on tax records from 2 years ago, my errors, omissions, etc…”</p>

<p>Palm slap to the face!
Just when I thought things were moving along…</p>

<p>“OWM and Emilybee: Please post some prom pics on shutterfly next week.”</p>

<p>I’ll have to email 2education plus I don’t know if there will be any pictures. Prom is sort of an afterthought at his school. The Military Ball (which was in Feb is the big deal.) The kids aren’t having any of the parents at the pre-party except the parents whose home it’s at. They aren’t even renting a limo. I do have pics from the Mi Ball (he’s going with the same girl) so I can post them. </p>

<p>Momjr - the thought that kids might be put off by communal bathroom never even crossed my mind until I read some of these posts! Going away to college is a piece of cake for kids whose parents sent them to sleep-away for months from the time they were wee kids. :)</p>

<p>Fogfog - boo hiss to FA uncertainty. Hope you can get it sorted,</p>

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<p>Agreed. I know of some students who have had quite nice living accomodations at home, private bath, walk in closets, their own car etc etc… Imagine their transition to a bath on the hall and no freshman are allowed cars!</p>

<p>The bathroom issue isn’t necessily a spoiled child thing. My son is on the autism spectrum and he just won’t use public restrooms. Imagine moving into a situation where all the options are public. I have met other people (including a HS boyfriend) who would not use public bathrooms. My secretary is a major germophobe and she isn’t too wild about using our bathroom here at work and it is always at least clean to the eye.</p>

<p>So my DS has been trying to schedule all his school visits. He didn’t receive his final acceptance until April 1 (Friday night). He didn’t go to school Monday due to a teacher work day. Today was his first day back and he made arrangements to be absent for two visits. Came home and tried to register for UVA Days on the Lawn. There were four dates. They are ALL full! What’s up with that? So I guess he’ll now be going to school rather than that visit. He already went for a regular visit last spring, and the impression wasn’t the best. He reserved judgement until he could go again. Guess he doesn’t get to go again. He doesn’t really want to go back on another regular visit–that didn’t go well last time. </p>

<p>Why do they have such a limited number of slots and they fill up so quickly. Crazy. Arghhhh. Not a good impression (again).</p>

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<p>This is sad…because most of the world doesn’t live with running water/toilets like most do in the US. Imagine if they had to do something like serve in a refugee camp, or at an orphan school? What about travel, restaurants, museums, trains, planes etc…what about serving in the military forces…</p>

<p>Such a limiting frame of mind…IMHO that is a very spoiled western/american mindset…</p>

<p>Question about national merit scholarships for those of you in the know. I checked the national merit threads and their website and didn’t get a clear answer to my question. S2 came home after his sport today and said, “Hey, I think I won some sort of national merit scholarship.” I asked how he knew that as he has gotten nothing in the mail at home. Our high school has a board at the high school entrance where they post notices of upcoming events or if someone has been recognized for an award or state championship or things like that. He said said that it was posted on the sign in front of the school that he was a NM scholarship winner. No one from administration (guidance, principal, etc) called him in today to talk about it and nothing has come to the house. So, I’m curious tonight. Tomorrow he will go in to ask what this is about, but for now, has anyone won a scholarship and had the school notified? The NMSC website says that notifications go to the home address and principal, but we haven’t received anything at home. I’m hoping it’s for real! A few friends have called or emailed this evening to say congratulations, but we’re not really sure what’s up.</p>

<p>@ohiomom24: D’s friend got one of the merit scholarships at least a week ago, notification directly to the home.</p>

<p>VAMom - maybe you could mention this over on the UVa site because Dean J seems to respond - maybe they could increase size or something?</p>

<p>oh…nevermind, seems like you already did that and sounds like it might be opened up now.</p>

<p>Amanda–Thanks. Did, and then saw they opened up some slots. DS signed up. Mini Rant OFF! Thanks UVA. If others need slots–go sign up NOW before they are gone. Evidently they didn’t limit people to one event. Sounds like people signed up for all of them or multiple ones so they would have a slot and could decide on the day to attend later. DS specifically didn’t do that because he didn’t want to take up slots needlessly. </p>

<p>Don’t know if I was the squeaky wheel, or the timing just worked out. But he really wouldn’t have been able to give UVA a fair look without this date. He needs to be wowed by them if they want him to attend.</p>