Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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QOTD:
D has 7 acceptances of which 3 are completely off the table. Her favorite EA is Gonzaga which came in just under budget. H and I are willing to go a bit over if she gets into first choice RIT. We’re waiting on 6 RD decisions (including 2 EA deferrals), but anything other than RIT would only be considered with serious unexpected merit. Two very affordable EA schools are still on the table if she decides to go completely debt-free.

Yesterday D and I were discussing colleges and she mentioned that sports are often too over-emphasized at big universities, but then said “Of course Gonzaga has that baseball thing.” Ah yes, I too remember seeing the impressive baseball arena at the end of the tour. I told her that if she goes there she doesn’t have to attend games, but she at least needs to know what their big sport is!

HOTD and HOTD2:
We hadn’t even thought about it, but D has a google doc with all her essays, each under the heading of the college name. I hadn’t considered moving school files, but I’ll mention that to both my high schoolers.

@whataboutcollege, congrats on big $$ at Rutgers!

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Since he doesn’t seem to be around, does anyone know if the big McDonald hamburger eating football player client of Jerry’s Dd heard anything about Top Scholars?

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@itsgettingreal17 Wow, congrats on the BHP at UT! What is the other one about, the 40 acres? Would that override the first one?

@Mom2aphysicsgeek Congrats on the invite to Top Scholars weekend!! that’s so great!

@PengsPhils Thanks for sharing the article, it looks like a neat program

@RightCoaster, if someone answered this, I didn’t catch it, but no, you cannot put more money than earned into the Roth… also, I think the max limit is 5,500, but you’d have to double check that. Also, how did your son react to your Northeastern acceptance? That’s funny!

@MotherOfDragons I like the duffel bag! A good piece of gear is always helpful. btw, I keep meaning to ask someone, but how do you highlight test on here? I can’t figure that one out!

@SincererLove you don’t report qualified retirement plans like 401K as assets on the FAFSA. You should be able to pre-fill the document by linking it to IRS. I don’t think anyone knows the formula - maybe general estimates… But some schools do verify, so it’s best to just answer honestly!

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@Fishnlines29 Regarding my acceptance to NEU and my son’s deferral: My kids think I’m an idiot for the most part so if I just have this one thing to use I’m fine with it. " Yeah, but your dad got in there, and turned them down!" LOL.
Son17 is dumbfounded that I got in and he didn’t, ha. I don’t really want to make a joke about it, but I do find some humor in it. I don’t mention a thing to him though. I’ve told him countless times that it doesn’t really matter where you go for undergrad, it’s just what you learn while you are there and the networking skills you build.

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@LoveTheBard the tongue and tail joke between Katharina and Pertrucio is one of my favorites. :slight_smile:

@dfbdfb 's story is pretty much word for word like my story for the first year, including getting into CMU, washing out of CMU and having parents that had no idea of the process.

It diverges after that when I moved to Italy, lived there for a year working, then moved back to the US and lived in Atlanta, went to school at night, got married, moved to Miami, went to school at night, moved to Boynton beach, went to school full time (and came within 1 semester of graduating and had already been accepted to graduate school at FAU for English Lit), husband got transferred to Atlanta, I went to school at night in Atlanta, had two babies in 18 mo, nursed second baby through my Western Civ final and decided to take a break with 180 credits, 9 schools, and 1 AA degree under my belt. Returned to school full time in Fall 2015 and should graduate (finally!!!) with a BA in Studio Art this spring from college #10.

First major was industrial design (CMU), second major was english lit (got the AA there), third major was Comp Sci (terrible mistake, only lasted one semester at U Miami) third major was english lit (almost got the BA), fourth major was Studio Art.

We did not check to see if the Olin portal is complete. If it wasn’t, there would be nothing we could do about it, and we’re just both emotionally exhausted from battling with the GC. I was thisclose to going down there and being “that mom”. I even have my “that mom” outfit, which makes me 6’2" and is mostly black leather and fury.

D17 is not doing well with the waiting at all. Lots of random blowups, mostly at me and D18. She’d yell at H, but he’s developed this magical ability to sense when there’s a blowup brewing and disappears to the grocery store, lol. I finally lost my patience with her yesterday and told her she needs to develop an outlet for stress that is not food, drugs, or yelling. I showed her a few of the meditation apps on my phone that I use, and I suggested she start walking the dogs or doing some tai chi. I don’t think you can cry your way through college as a reliable form of stress relief.

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QOTD: No idea. 8 schools applied to, haven’t heard back from any yet. We have a better idea of where we’re going for dinner tomorrow night than we do where he’s going to college.

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@snoozn hoping she meant basketball. Gonzaga is Basketball. All day long. LOL! I personally am partial to their girls soccer team since one of SD14’s BF’s plays on it.

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@Fishnlines29 The 40 Acres is the premier scholarship at UT. It’s a full ride with extra enrichment funds and lots of perks, so yes, it would override the BHP scholarship.

@MotherOfDragons That outfit sounds fierce! You should have gone and sent us a pic on FB. :)) I also decided not to fight with the GC again and went with a slight work-around. Since she is able to submit an updated resume, I just had her put in her last semester GPA, CC credits, and specify that rank is only as of end of junior year.

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Another email, RPI is extending deadline to 1/27. S has not finished his app and dropped it…

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lol on RPI, DD applied and they reminded her yesterday by email that decisions will come out on 3/11…sure

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Heh, RPI was my Ds final app (which she completed after writing her honors blurb for Stony Brook - which was supposed to be her last thing.) I’m glad she didn’t know they extended the deadline or I bet she wouldn’t have finished it Sunday night - nature abhors a vacuum, etc. :))

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We have no idea where DS end up. Applied to 21 schools and only have one in hand.

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QOTD - We have a #1 absolutely will attend if it comes through - still waiting on a decision. If #1 doesn’t come through then I’m pretty sure we have a #2 but there may be some teetering if a RD acceptance presents itself. The #2 spot has been the one that seems to endlessly change between 3 schools. The #1 has stayed the same throughout. Sooo, we have scheduled 3 student admit days at the ones he goes back and forth between and we will anxiously await the word from the top choice :slight_smile:

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@Aida thank you so much for the advice. As a matter of fact, you won’t even believe this but he did go on and join the facebook class of 2021 pages for the 3 schools he is “considering” while he waits to hear from the top choice. AND - from there he joined in on a 250 group text for one of the schools and now is talking privately to a few of the students - just told me last night and had a lot of excitement in his voice! Comforting for sure!

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QOTD: Still waiting on RD but two EA choices have risen to the top. D is visiting both this upcoming week. If she comes back with a sweatshirt, that’ll be a clue; if she comes back with 2, all bets are off.

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For the QOTD - I’m glad I’m not the only one that’s unsure… :slight_smile:

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Need advice here. We are now waiting for all the RD schools, including her top choice. In the meantime, this month alone, she is leading an event for one of her organizations, and next month has a shot of making National board of her youth group. I suggested she put this information on her common app, and she says that since the app was already “handed in” what is the point. So how does she tell the schools about these additions to her EC’s. On her top school, the CR for our region tends not to respond to her questions and requests.

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@sdl0625 – I can suggest that your daughter write a brief email to admissions offices of the universities she applied to about her positive developments and if she has a very important development, ask her guidance counselor to mention in the Counselor’s Mid-year Report that is submitted as part of the Common App typically in February. A number of universities have info on their websites about submitting supplemental information and accept a PDF - so a brief write up of the achievement could be submitted - or an official document if she received one.

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QOTD (yesterday): I applied to 4 colleges, my state school, one safety and two reaches and was accepted to all 4. I also hand wrote them, essays and all, in blue ball point pen and then mailed them in with extra postage! I picked them based on my experience at a college fair and the brochures I liked. I suppose my parents had some influence, they took me on tours and value education. There were no portals - we had to wait for return mail - no contact AO’s or financial aid and that was it! I visited them all and made a decision. Cost at the time in '89 was $30K (inc tuition, board, etc.); cost at same school today $65K.

@thermom oh I’m so sorry, that’s really really sad

@jpc763 I was a little sister at Sigma Chi ;:wink:

@socalmom007 said: “I asked if her daughter could get into UCSD? She said “well no, she can’t get into SDSU either, she’s going to a CC next year”. Great, then shut up. It might not be the fanciest school, but it was a good school and a good budget option as I paid my way through school.”

did you post your story on the “just smile and nod” thread?! I love this thread!
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/926354-just-smile-and-nod-smile-and-nod.html#latest

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@whataboutcollege Congrats! Rutgers alum here. One of the things I loved during my time there was the relative ease of getting into NY or Philly and with a full ride, she should have some disposable income to do fun things!

@Mom2aphysicsgeek Thanks for the tip on essays. Thankfully, D did save all of her essays according to college name. However, I hadn’t thought about transferring her data from her school account as @stencils helpfully suggested.

QOTD: Where??? D has applied to 9 schools and has heard from 4, two of which are real contenders and are affordable! She’ll hear from one more in early February and the remaining four some time in March. She will visit her top three in April before making a choice. So for now, it’s anybody’s guess. I am curiouser and curiouser.