I’m late to the party, but here’s my admission story:
I grew up in a very small town with parents had no idea what college selection and admission required, so they left it up to me. I was really tired of high school and I had arranged my schedule to graduate a semester early. I applied to one school (UIUC) with a handwritten application. I don’t remember an essay, although there might have been one.
I was accepted for a January start which was perfect – except that my high school didn’t do finals until after winter break! In order to make it all work I had to drive to the campus (which I had never seen before,) move into the dorm and register for classes, then return home to take my finals. Mid-year freshman admits had absolutely no orientation, nor did they get help at registration. I skimmed through the course catalog and then wandered the Armory until I had something approximating a first-semester schedule.
My already tight timeline was upended by tragedy when two classmates died in a car accident while I was on campus. My high school delayed finals by a day, which would have caused me to miss the first day of college classes. I negotiated and they ended up giving me the Day 2 finals first; then I took Day 1 finals with everyone else.
I hopped in my boyfriend’s car the next morning and on Monday, I walked into an Anthropology seminar of 500+ students. I was so amazed, I didn’t hear a word of the lecture.
@CA1543 Yes: “The information you report on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) is sent to each school you list. (Note: Schools will not be able to see which other schools you listed on your FAFSA.).” This is directly from the studentaid.edu.gov site
@hadmeathello Awesome news on the honors college! Congrats!
@eandesmom The order of the FAFSA school matters only for your in-state school – it should be listed at the top to get state aid. “For purposes of federal student aid, it does not matter in what order you list the schools. However, to be considered for state aid, some states require your schools to be listed in a specified order.”
@whataboutcollege – thanks for the good luck wishes, my D17 is one of them.
Well, S is safely inside the building at the SAT test site. Everything is out of my hands now, but i gave him an encouraging cheer in the car. <:-P I’m sure it helped. :))
Ok, a quick question… One college D currently has on CA Dashboard sent D a letter…on application waiver. On a second look, it said if D applied as venture scholar…We had to google on that. Here lies the problem…we are not URM, nor first generation unless you consider DH and I have undergraduate degrees outside of US. The letter was addressed to D, even with her high school there. Should we use the fee waiver, anyway?
The evil part of me said why not . This is peanut compared to the school spent on marketing and after all, we will be full pay when we do go there. Your thoughts? Anyone else with similar experience?
D17 just had me sign her up to take the Dec sat2 in math 2 again, on the off chance she gets deferred into the Rd group at mit. She’s also mad at herself for “not really prepping that much”, and doesn’t want that number to stand. ONCE more into the lurch.
OK… yesterday letter was just a “thanks for applying” here’s your portal. Make sense… Note to self, don’t get freaked out by every bit of mail the colleges send.
. This is peanut compared to the school spent on marketing and after all, we will be full pay when we do go there. Your thoughts? Anyone else with similar experience?