Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
20621

@payn4ward Great news on Mines! That is a great school and not an easy admit. Your family must be thrilled!

@jmek15 Too bad on the scores. That Science section is tricky and my D struggled with it. The on-line prep through ACT was worth the $40 as she was able to focus on that area and bring up her science score by about 4 points. I also think there is some luck involved. The curve in that section can be brutal.

@RightCoaster Glad your son persevered and was able to get the result he wanted!

Voting - we all voted early, including D, for the first time.

20622

S17 too young to vote but did his part by convincing fellow seniors who are 18 to carry out their civic duty and writing an editorial for his school newspaper.

20623

Health plans
Hā€™s company was bought out this year, so we had brand new health plans to figure out.

(Irrelevant to the topic, but after the buy-out heā€™s come up with a great motto for the newly merged company: ā€œWe do stupid fast.ā€)

Weā€™ve usually done a PPO with flexible spending account, but went with a plan type we hadnā€™t seen before. I think it was called Health Savings Plan or something. It acts a bit like a combo of an IRA and a 529, but for health. You can put in as much as you want tax-free and put it into an investment fund if you contribute over $1,000. The money can only be used for healthcare, but itā€™s not taxed when you take it out either. AND it follows you if you leave the company. The price is in between the fairly comprehensive PPO and the ā€œIā€™m really young and healthy but just in caseā€ PPO. Anyway, we went with it, so hopefully itā€™s as good as it seems.

Right, so the question was about insuring college students! My oldest is local, so we never had to worry about out-of-state issues. Her school (CU-Boulder) does require students to show proof of insurance or purchase the schoolā€™s comprehensive plan. They also have a cheaper option for those with insurance to use the student health center. I think it covers basic healthcare and no co-pay. D didnā€™t go with that since she already had her preferred local docs and Mom can always drive her if necessary! For an OOS kid I could see it being a good deal. You could just have cheap insurance through the parents to cover big things that hopefully wonā€™t happen and then use the college plan for immunizations, check-ups, non-severe illness etc.

@curiositycat333, Iā€™m glad you found an avatar. All cats are curious right, so it doesnā€™t matter if he actually looks curious! Certainly cute.

@payn4ward, did you ever take your S19 to Minersā€™ Day in Nederland? Oldest Dā€™s fiancee grew up there and loved it. Apparently either he or his arch-nemesis (a girl) usually won the rock-hauling competition.

Interesting timing for the talk on CO Mines. My D wasnā€™t going to apply because she heard some pretty negative things. However, this was mostly from people who transferred out and a couple of guide books, so maybe not the most reliable sources. We recently had to toss a safety from our list (leaving her with only one she likes) and Iā€™m going to hopefully talk her into visiting. Itā€™s only 45 minutes away so why not? I think she has a decent shot of getting in and if she does itā€™s affordable. Kind of a half-safety!

20624

If you do an internet search for ā€œcolleges that superscore ACTā€, you can find a list of schools on a prep scholar site.

But not sure how up-to-date the list is.
Pitt now says on their website that they use the highest composite ACT.
So check with the schools.

20625

Congratulations @payn4ward

@curiositycat333 my D17 will be 18 in August so she was bummed she couldnā€™t vote either. She also just mentioned that she is probably going to be spending her 18th birthday moving into her dorm and not having any friends to celebrate. She was pretty upset thinking about being alone. I told her Iā€™d send her some goodies to share and she will have instant friends.

@hadmeathello you changed your avatarā€¦keeping me on my toes! I wanted to change mine but like someone else said, you get used to others so I didnā€™t want to confuse.

20626

@greeny8 My D12 is born end of Sept. And because of cut-offā€™s in CA was on the young end. She turned 18 after she went to college. And she went all the way across the country. It was a bit of a bummer, but they will survive. But she had grandparents who were in town the following weekend, so they took her out for a nice dinner.

20627

@payn4ward Congratualations to your DS!!! <:-P

@snoozn For HSA, there is a familiy contribution limit of 6750/annually. I think it stays put for 2017. Similiar to IRAs, it has a catch up amount if 55+. And the limit applys to your contribution and company contribution combined total. So it is not as much as you want :smiley:

20628

We have a local PPO with an out of area network coupled with an HSA. (@snoozn, I believe there is a maximum amount you can contribute to the HSA every year, but it is somewhere in the $6k-$7k range. And it rolls from year to year and we can use it after we leave the company.) D15 is across the country, but there are a couple of in-network providers she can use if needed. Typically though, she uses the school clinic and hasnā€™t needed to find a local provider. Her school let us decline their insurance if we have proof of another insurance, but that is school dependent.

All this talk about being empty nesters is making me feel a little guilty because I am kind of excited that H and I will be able to do things as a couple again. I must be deficient in the maternal gene. We raise our kids with the hope that they will move on to adult life successfully. I will miss them, but I was never a helicopter parent whose life revolved around my kids; they were part of my life but not all of my life. And I think it will be fun to go visit them in their new locales. Am I the only one who feels this way? :open_mouth:

20629

@greeny8 Itā€™s a temporary change :slight_smile: Like @Mom2aphysicsgeek

@jpc763 I see you have a K applying to UMinn. My Dā€™s been accepted. Are you aware of the proposed tuition hikes? 15% per year for next 4 years?

@snoozn I like the saying. It goes well with one of my favorites: ā€œIf you want it bad, youā€™ll get it bad.ā€

20630

Do not base your decision on ā€œhonorsā€ at UCONN. My daughter is a freshman and the ā€œhonorsā€ program is disappointing. Itā€™s unfortunate because they are great at selling the ā€œperksā€ of being an honors student. However, the perks, in reality, are over estimated.

First, you do not get priority scheduling, despite what they promise. As a freshman, your schedule will depend on when you go to orientation. If you go to orientation earlier, you get better class selection. My daughter got 4 8 a.m. classes and one class was completely filled by the time she went to orientation - and yes, she is an honors student.

She is now in the process of doing her spring schedule and the same thing is happening. You actually choose your courses based on the number of credits you have. The honors students get priority over students with the same amount of credits. They donā€™t explain this at all. Once again, classes are filled up so she was unable to get her first choice.

Also, they promise small class sizes. This is not true unless you take the honors section. Because the honors classes she wanted were filled (see above), every class she has her spring semester is 200+ students.

Not all honors sections are offered every semester. Your advisor does not tell you this either. Because her advisor did not tell her this, she was forced to take the regular class the spring semester (200+ students) because the honors section (25 students) was only offered in the fall. She canā€™t wait to take it either because it is a prerequisite for another class.

The honors advisor you are assigned are completely useless and unhelpful, at least my daughter is. They suggest you introduce yourself to your advisor during the first couple of weeks of school, which my daughter did. The MCB advisor didnā€™t care at all and wasnā€™t interested in her. In addition, she sought her advice when choosing classes and her advice was ā€œitā€™s up to youā€. And finally, she withheld information on a particular program because the MCB program doesnā€™t want to lose students. Many students have the same complaints about this MCB advisor yet she is still around.

Because of the problems mentioned above, my daughter sought out help from the ā€œhonorsā€ office who told her on both occasions ā€œthere was nothing they could do to help herā€ and sent her on her way without offering ANY direction or help on how to solve her problem.

My advice is to pick your school on where youā€™re child will best fit in. Despite all of the above, UCONN is/was the best fit for her for many other reasons other than ā€œhonorsā€.

20631

@snoozn No havenā€™t done Minerā€™s day, too late at this age I think. :smiley: We did plenty of ā€œrockā€/miner things when he was little though. :))
I think Mines would be a good bet for D with the gender ratio like 4:1. I would recommend it. You never know how kids will feel in 6 months.

20632

@345abc Excellent comment. I think this can be said for most of the large universities. Course selection is always very difficult and causes so many problems.

I think you will find that your DD may well just abandon the program unless the housing is the big hook. I get the sense that honors programs are not night and day compared to regular students.

20633

@hadmeathello - I was not aware of the proposed 15% increase per year for the next 4 years! Is that in state, OOS or both? That is crazy! Based on your spreadsheet (thanks!), 4 year COA will go from $152k (assumed based on a 4% tuition increase) to $188k! That will put their tuitition out of reach most likely.

@345abc - Thanks for the info on UConn. My S17 has applied there as well.

20634

D will turn 18 several weeks into freshman year. I plan on being there for it as 18 is a big deal. And I promised her I would take her to get her 1st (discretely located) tattoo for her birthday.

20635

@mtrosemom I will miss D but am looking forward to the empty nest. I have an elaborate mid-life crisis planned. :))

20636

@hadmeathello - Looks like that 15% didnā€™t happen.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/06/10/university-minnesota-increases-tuition

20637

still deciding on my avatar, I think iā€™ve narrowed it down

@hadmeathello I can help with the insurance Q. What insurance carrier do you currently have?

20638

PDF size: Images crank PDF sizes up massively. Also, to keep file sizes down, use a font you can safely assume everyone has (e.g., Times New Roman), because otherwise the font gets embedded.

20639

Thanks guys for explaining the HSA to me better than the plan website. :))
I still think it will work the best for us and the $6000-ish limit is not bad.

@mtrosemom, part of me definitely feels the same as you, looking forward to more freedom and time with H. But the issue with S18 possibly doing his senior year of hs overseas when I thought we had him for another year really is painful. My biggest problem is that H, while not what you would call a helicopter parent, is not handling this well and thatā€™s causing stress between us. He keeps hounding on this idea that D should go to our local U and live at home for the last three years. He argues that it would save money, but I know he is just having an extremely hard time letting go. He has to know itā€™s a terrible idea, but I think he sees it as protecting her. He also ā€œjokesā€ about how Iā€™m trying to send D away with all this work on the college search. And I get tired of that and get resentful. And then the recent possibility of S18 leaving has doubled (or more) all these negative feelings. Iā€™ve probably ranted too much, but essentially I am not at this particular time having warm fuzzy daydreams of coming together as a couple when the kids leave.

Geesh, Iā€™ve been on the computer all day. Super-stressed about the election as I imagine most of us are one way or another. Iā€™m going to walk the dog now.

20640

We got a Mines acceptance too. D filled out the app at school one day when she was bored in class because it was free & easy (with no prompting from me), but is not really serious about it. She wonā€™t go visit, go to their events, or respond to their requests to meet with her and it is only 40 minutes away. She will take it more seriously if SCEA results are not favorable, but by then her lack of interest will have destroyed her chances at their invitation only merit.