<p>shilly
I think my money tree is dying. If ya find some good fertilizer for yours, let me know. I could use it.</p>
<p>socialdramamama
I soooo disagree with the experts. It hit me that we’ll be paying college tution for years in a row due to spacing out S1 & S2 by 4 years without any “benefit” on FA. I’m already thinking of how to convenience S2 (6th grade) to take a gap year so he & his sis go to college at the same time. Of course, with my luck, he’d agree & S1 would need an extra year so I still wouldn’t get a year breathing room. </p>
<p>Glad to hear some of you feel the stress of your kids summer homework. I’m over the edge this year as all 3 of mine of readinbg & writing assignments. 7 books to read + 6 writing assignments + all procrastinate = 1 stressed mom who goes home EVERY night to lecturing at least 1 kid on not making progress. Now, if crafts were an assignment my D (5th grade) is kicking butt with multiple Duct Tape purses, key rings, jewelry & 2 halloween costumes for our dog. At least I know she isn’t sleeping all day or playing video games.</p>
<p>Longhaul: I agree with you. My first two are 17months apart (2 years in school) and this will be the 2nd year with two in college and the financial aid implications are huge. MY EFC for one was around $20K and now it is $10K each so we qualify for a lot more. Plus they were always in the same “stage” whereas S3 is 3 years in school after the first two, rather than going to the park and the zoo like I did with D1 and S2 I was always dragging him from one soccer game (or school event) to another.</p>
<p>D2 starts her fall sport today. She had some down time and I gave her a natural facial with yogurt of homegrown lavender. She seemed to like it. Still have not started her homework yet but she has started her online health class.</p>
<p>S has no summer work for AP Gov. Will be job shadowing next week in archaeology. He is thinking of majors in either archaeology (anthro) or geography/GIS. We are ideally looking for schools that have both or at a mimimum archaeology. Trying to keep the cost within $5000 of our instate flagship which offers outstanding programs in archaeology and geography.</p>
<p>Some new merit aid that we have found this summer in our research…if others are interested…</p>
<p>$7500 at Montana State for a 29 ACT. Brings tuition/fees/room/board down to about $20,000. University of Montana doesn’t list merit awards. Does anyone know if they offer similar merit awards?</p>
<p>Washington State has a merit calculator. Says a 29 ACT and a 3.75 would qualify for $9000 award. Brings it down to about $22,000.</p>
<p>Wyoming will give you up $5000 depending on GPA/ACT. Brings it down to about $17,000.</p>
<p>My son’s last day of his internship was today. It was with a pharmaceutical company updating content for a website they sponsor for teen health issues. I asked him if he got anything from it and he tells me yeah, he wants to study disease. Right. Ok. Why? “It seems like a career where you really help people.” Ok. So what would you have to study in college in order to study diseases? “I don’t know. Probably a lot of like chemistry and biology and science and stuff.” Uh huh. Yeah. Probably. “I guess I need to go look it up or something.” Uh huh. Yeah. Probably. Off he goes to finish his video game.</p>
<p>I wonder if you could get him interested in the Young Epidemiology Scholars program [Young</a> Epidemiology Scholars |](<a href=“http://yes.collegeboard.org/]Young”>http://yes.collegeboard.org/). It looks like a great opportunity for students interested in disease.</p>
<p>Oops - I’m sorry. It looks like the funding has run out. Maybe he could find a similar program.</p>
<p>Haystack, You may already be familiar with Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) but they offer outstanding Merit aid and their honors college seems to offer a great deal of opportunities. We went to Junior visit day this spring and were very impressed by the beautiful campus - virtually every building was new or newly renovated. Some students reported that they had managed to take nearly all their classes through the Honor’s college so they basically got a LAC education for a low public school price.</p>
<p>Fall sports start monday…tryouts. I am not sure which would be worse…making varsity or not. Probably the tragedy of rejection would be too much and I like the way FH practice keeps her occupied every afternoon until I get home from work. </p>
<p>Summer homework…I used to nag my son in the summer and it helped him avoid failing to finish but it was always a panic at the end. D insists that she “owns” the summer homework and, perhaps because she is kid 2, I have done nothing other than ask if she has all the books/materials she needs. It certainly has reduced my stress level to just let go. She has one book to read and annotate and also 3 essays; physics packet and chapters to take notes on, large math review packet, spanish? (teacher hasn’t posted any so she may have dodged the “memorize a 30 line poem” of last year)… I suspect that she will kick into gear in time, but I am not intervening at all even if I see disaster looming. She wants to do well in school but she may get a tough lesson in what can be accomplished in one week of panicked homework mode. Better now than half way through next year. I did say that she is not to come to me the week before asking for help with pre-calc review…there will be no help forthcoming the last week…if she asks before, well I am available for major math tutoring–or at least hints for the tough problems. Brother will be available for help with physics also but will leave the week before HS starts…get the picture…procrastinate and suffer…let’s see if she gets it…</p>
<p>ahh…the balancing act with the social child. After my post a few days ago I did make the mistake of pointing out that setting a few goals would make the homework issue more manageable (certain number of pages of reading, page of math problems) and I had serious blowback from the social kid who has assumed that junior year will pretty much kill (her view, not mine) her social life (most of her older friends said they worked either friday or saturday nights or both on homework during junior year). She is determined to squeeze as much social time as possible out of this summer in anticipation of a social drought beginning in September…it has already started…she has FH practice at 6am so no way to go out past 9pm and some practices are on Saturdays so Fridays are pretty boring now too. I have to laugh to myself about her view that junior year will be social hell…she gets to spend all day at school surrounded by dozens of friends, is a member of a team, is a prolific facebook poster and has an i-phone…she needs a year abroad in a small town in northern finland with no technology to get a reality check on a boring social life.</p>
<p>I like that here we get to limit our time at the DMV - you just have to show up to take the test to get your permit, then if you take an in car/classroom driving class the instructor uses your last in car session as your test and you have your license at the end of that. That’s only a paper license and then you get a notice from the court in 90 days to come in and listen to the spiel and get your actual license but as to the DMV you only have to go once unless you don’t pass the test for the permit.</p>
<p>Sounds like a great system! We sit there for the permit and to get the license. They had an 8:40 appt they could have taken but opted to go back at the end of the day when the troopers rush through the tests. ;)</p>
<p>D only had to go to DMV once to take the test for her learner’s permit. We were there approximately 25 minutes. She took the classroom instruction and the behind the wheel through the school system and at 16 years 3 months was handed her 90 day temporary liscense to drive solo. She gets the more permenent version next week in a ceremony before the court. No troopers involved.</p>
<p>YDS: You are in TX right? S2 will be taking the driving test in Sept and he was worried about parallel parking. Good to hear that they don’t always cover it on the actually driving test. Honestly, outside of a big city, who parallel parks anyway?</p>
<p>The college town that we live in has quite a bit of parallel parking that students use daily.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that you have to even take a driving test at the DMV. In our state, the drivers Ed course and associated written and driving exams satisfy all DMV requirements. A big cost savings for the state as they do virtually no test drives.</p>
<p>Yep, Texas. You know what to do, megp – get there early to sign up for the latest slot possible. The trooper wanted to leave so bad that he even took ds 10 minutes early. Seriously, when was the last time you got seen EARLY at a TxDOT office?</p>
<p>Hay, when I got my license 30+ years ago, I had to take a road test. When ds1 got his license three years ago, a road test was not required. Road test was reinstated two years ago, I think.</p>
:eek:</p>
The trooper wanted to leave so bad that he even took ds 10 minutes early. Seriously, when was the last time you got seen EARLY at a TxDOT office?</p>