<p>^^ I feel your pain…us too fog. 
All of my fellow parents with older kids already in school, make sure you check the fin-aid deadline for this year (if they haven’t spammed you with it already). This year is a full month earlier for us, meaning S2’s taxes have to be done prior to spring break. Oh joy.</p>
<p>Question: When/If we fill out the FAFSA next January, we’ll need 2013 taxes completed?</p>
<p>Just got a call from DD to tell me she loved me 
Apparently her teacher had every child call at least one parent to tell them they loved them. Several of her friends got on the phone too. She has two male friends who torment her like brothers. They are great boys. Crazy. But great. And the teacher got on the line to be sure each child was really speaking with their parents.</p>
<p>DD wasn’t thrilled with her SAT scores. Up slightly from PSAT, but not where she wanted. Looks like she’ll be retaking them in June! Maybe now she’ll do some more serious studying for them. Plus, I know she’d like to beat her brother’s score and his was slightly better. Ahh, sibling rivalry!</p>
<p>agentninetynine: I went back and looked at our spreadsheets for ds’ college scholarships. Here’s a handful of his results to give you a comparison to Whitman.</p>
<p>Whitman: Cost 52,686 Scholarship 9,350 Our cost $43,336</p>
<p>Colorado College: Cost 51,060 Scholarship 19,506 Our cost $31,554</p>
<p>Gonzaga: Cost 43,070 Scholarship 16,030 Our cost $27,040</p>
<p>Puget Sound Cost 50,060 Scholarship 18,000 Our cost $32,060</p>
<p>Grinnell Cost 50,618 Scholarship 15,000 Our cost $35,618</p>
<p>So, of all his schools, Whitman was the most expensive on the list and gave him the least. I don’t know what their FA is like, but it sounds like you are wanting merit for your dd. </p>
<p>Sometimes there are factors that you don’t consider that can have a big impact on cost. DS liked Puget Sound, but we discovered that your merit aid there doesn’t apply if you go abroad. They say that if you would have qualified for any FA, that portion would apply. That was a huge negative for ds.</p>
<p>He ended up at Colorado College, where he is working very hard, but happily enjoying his freshman year. Travel costs more than if he’d gone someplace closer like Whitman, but not $12,000 a year!</p>
<p>Every year is different, but hope that info helps.</p>
<p>Thanks PacNW-- Yes that is very helpful. We’ve talked a little about Colorado College but I think she quickly discounted it because of the one subject at a time program. How does your son like that learning style?</p>
<p>I can imagine we would have the same outcome as she needs merit aid and we don’t qualify for FA. Gonzaga is very generous especially for students coming from Catholic high schools (which she attends). Fingers crossed that she likes it.</p>
<p>Not enough chocolate in the world to comfort the tears of a very disappointed child. So much self-induced pressure to perform well on the SAT. Her numbers (she won’t even tell me) were lower than the PSAT. H and I keep telling her that scores of one test do not determine one’s success or failure in life.
Too bad the news comes on Valentine’s Day–a hard day already for a teen without a significant other… Good thing we don’t have school today. As Annie always says: “The sun will come out tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Aw kees4me, I’m sorry your DD is sad about her scores. I hope they’ll share them with you. They may not be as bad as she thinks!!</p>
<p>Congrats to those whose kids are DONE with testing and good luck to the Marchies. DS will be taking it for the first time in March. “One and done” would be lovely…</p>
<p>Agentninetynine, FWIW, D11 got the same merit aid from Whitman, Willamette and Puget Sound, slightly less from Lewis & Clark. All quite good but not the maximum.</p>
<p>Congrats to all of those happy with their SAT scores! For those who have to take it again, there is a very large boat here on CC with other bright, fun, great kids who just had a bad day. See you at the March test…</p>
<p>We heard from our CC that merit and financial aid is definitely not a science. Schools seem to have a lot of flexibility when they really want a particular student. It’s really nice of parents who have been through it to share their experiences and their merit figures. So thank you!</p>
<p>BTW…the look back for aid for our 2014s will be 2012…meaning the Profile etc asks questions of “last year” which for them will be 2012 taxes and "this year (2013)…</p>
<p>You will need to jump on it tax filing-wise next year…no extensions til Aug. </p>
<p>So keep great records for this tax filing–and put it all where you can get to it.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the SAT for some…there is a large boat with most kids in it. It is highly unusual to be 1 and done by March. So we will see each other In March, May, June, Sept, Oct…etc…SATs and ACTs…sigh not to mention APs, SAT2s …</p>
<p>IF your student is planning to be a scholar-athlete recruit, then getting a decent score from one of those tests before July 1 helps (though sport dependant)</p>
<p>Neither of mine, K1 or K2 have a significant other this year…I shipped a box to K1 and K2 got a card w a bag of Dove hearts this am.</p>
<p>Agree with fogfog re SAT. There is plenty of time. We encouraged our kids to take one early so there would be less pressure - precisely because there would be many opportunities to retake. Just about everybody scores higher the second time. Taking one or two SATs junior year takes the pressure off because you have options in the fall of senior year.</p>
<p>Our DS’14 had some success merely doing the CB Blue Book questions he got wrong over and over again. After a while, he started getting them right. Nothing very fancy.</p>
<p>I think Stunned, is the word I would use at our house this morning as I checked DS’s scores…as he has NO Idea they came out today. He is going to be SO happy, but probably not as happy as I am. He is a kid who has LD’s and has to work a lot harder on the reading stuff than most. He is not a natural test taker and tends towards anxiety. He could be one and done… I really don’t care, but he may want to take it one more time in the Fall. The rest of this school year is WAY too busy to do any more testing than he already has. </p>
<p>FOr those of you with disappointed kids… after having 4 kids already go through this process, I learned MANY things, the first being SAT or ACT scores are not as important as people make them out to be. My DS14 with his almost perfect SAT’s got rejected from his #1 college last year. The only thing that is certain is nothing is certain and the best thing is to try your hardest and be yourself.</p>
<p>Kees4me: It does make the day doubly hard! My dd feels the same way. She texted me several times this morning expressing her disappointment. Miracle of miracles, I managed to say the right things and she closed her last text with, “Haha! Okay, that’s a relief. Love you bunches!” I’m thinking that’s just about the best Valentine I could get!</p>
<p>And there are indeed, lots of bright kids on the “SATs Again” boat. Let’s just hope that it’s not a Carnival Cruise!</p>
<p>Count DS as one of the “SATs Again” passenger. It only took him less than a split second after viewing the score to say: “I am taking it again”. Although he had a good SAT score but it was slightly lower than his 99 percentile PSAT… enough for him to be disappointed.</p>
<p>Kees & PacNW: Sorry your kiddos are feeling blue over their tests, but it’s just one score. </p>
<p>5boys: Thanks for the advice. Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense does it? We’re all throwing the dice and hoping for the best outcome.</p>
<p>
^This is funny PacNWMom!</p>
<p>Oh how I wish the SATs were over and done with! In many locations (including our own), the January SAT is this Saturday. Plenty of time for retakes, as you have said, but sooner than we think there will be no time at all. It’s just a matter of months now.</p>
<p>5boys, </p>
<p>like you my 2014 is twice exceptional.
Has extended time…
ahh the paper work, stress and all it takes to even a playing field…</p>
<p>my 2011 is probably similar in my 2014 however learned coping skills to accomodate…enough…
and maybe some of it is personality, birth order, etc that K1 overcame? idk</p>
<p>As for K2… We have put it off so that natural developmental maturity helps…and I recall</p>
<p>K1 had a classmate…who was 1 yr older…this kid was easily top 10 …and easily NMF… His biological clock click in…when his parent kept him back —waaaay back in elem school…it was a HUGE blessing…this guy totally bloomed…</p>
<p>re: college search – I have to admit most of the schools we’re looking at for S are evaluated on a) can he get in, b) where is it, and c) how big is it. I have now started to look at the “academics” tab on the target schools website, and they definitely differ in terms of majors offered and the type of courses offered. Elon for example seems more artsy/humanities oriented (could not find a single major or minor for economics for example) whereas Gettysburg and Rhodes seem to have more of a mix.</p>
<p>And I haven’t even started looking into which ones have a core curriculum. </p>
<p>I need another cup of coffee.</p>
<p>Rangers game was great, said S and his friend. 3:3 then went into overtime with a shootout and Islanders won (for once). A close, exciting game. And S said the seats were “sick”. I think that’s a good thing :)</p>
<p>Ok, I’m going to have to join the spreadsheet club. Help.</p>
<p>Seriously, I don’t know what to include. This was so much easier with d’11. She wanted a pretty uncommon major. She wanted a certain distance from home. She wanted a certain size. Three schools fit the criteria. </p>
<p>We’ve done two official visits now with d’14 (no school a couple of days this week due to conferences, so we took off). One school is more selective, so more like-minded students. It definitely has better food. Didn’t think that was a big deal until you think about eating it for 4 years. But the next school (far less selective, nothing spectacular cafeteria selection) rolled out a pretty impressive departmental show. They showed us where their grads are now, where their kids get internships, what academic competitions they compete in and how they place, and how the department works to get kids jobs in what they want following graduation. </p>
<p>And we’ve looked at two schools on d’s list of 9. This is going to get hairy. So, what kind of stuff goes on the spreadsheet?</p>
<p>There’s a thread floating around here about college spreadsheets/notebooks. Also, there is a free template from Microsoft Office that I’ve downloaded and am playing around with. Just Google “Microsoft Office Template College Comparison” and it should come right up. There is also another spreadsheet from DIYcollegerankings dot com for college searches that I got for signing up for emails. It’s a start, anyway.</p>
<p>This weekend I start working on “the binder” just so I can integrate all the different data points and information that I have on various schools.</p>
<p>On another note, the big international cultural show is tonight and that time drain will finally be done, just in time for spring sports! We couldn’t get tickets for the show since all 1,000 tickets sold out in 8 minutes! There is such a high demand that the school actually deemed it an honor code violation to scalp tickets and they will do a livestream of both shows. Next year they are moving it to George Mason University to accommodate everyone. That makes me happy since it will be DS’s senior year and I’d hate to miss it.</p>
<p>Ordinarylives–I think each parent’s spreadsheet will differ. I have started my pre-trip spreadsheet to include the following:
–Middle 50% SATs for each of the three sections (ACT if you prefer)
–Relative importance of the following factors: demonstrated interest, interviews, volunteer work, SAT IIs needed (so that we do not overlook any of these)
–Male & Female acceptance rate and yield
–# of undergrads & grads</p>
<p>I plan to eventually create a second sheet that lists EA/ED/RD deadlines & checklists for submitted materials (LORs, SAT scores, essays, etc)</p>
<p>I currently have Word files going with notes for each school, but that is not a very effective system. I do not have a system for notes from visits so would love to hear what others have done in the past.</p>