Sticky situation, what would you do?

Parent Cafe
1

We worked with our daughter to create her application list over the summer, and focused on relatively early applications mostly to colleges with decent merit aid. I inherited a significant amount of non-liquid assets when my mother died last year which made our EFC jump by about $25,000 - on paper we can afford to pay but I’m not thrilled with spending a significant chunk of my inheritance that quickly.

First applications were sent Oct 15, followed by Nov 1 and Nov 15 deadlines. Her top choice had a November 15th priority deadline for early action, which would allow her to apply for several internal scholarships. The applications for those scholarships don’t become available until she is accepted - and they are Due February 1st, including letters of recommendation from non-academic sources.

Here’s the problem. He application was submitted on time, her scores were sent in early October, but her transcripts were not sent until mid-December, apparently because of technical difficulties at her school. Also in mid-December, she was notified to apply for a “Special Scholarship” through National Merit - most likely not enough finalists to award Corporate scholarships from my husband’s employer. We got a letter yesterday stating the school portion of the application was never completed. Then this morning I got an email for her guidance counselor suggesting that it was an error on her part, and we need to contact NMSC to resolve the problem. The letter we got is actually a copy of the letter sent to the school stating the they didn’t complete their portion - not us - and directing them to contact NMSC if they need assistance. Given their response, I don’t trust them to accept responsibility. There are not 3 significant scholarships on the line:

NMSC would be $2,500 per year renewable
Kettering University Excellence Scholarship (non-academic) $5,000 renewable
Kettering University Coding and Programming Scholarship $5,000 renewable

What would you do?

Daughter has emailed has admissions advisor at Kettering, but not heard back yet. She is not comfortable calling. She should not have difficulty getting in (she alread attended one of their summer programs last year, expressed significant interest, and is at top of applicant pool), but are concerned we won’t hear in time to apply for scholarships because of the school’s error - we believe she was shifted to 2nd round of applications since her file wasn’t complete. She was waitlisted at NJIT most likely for the same reason. Normally I would expect CG to contact schools to advocate for the student, but I just don’t trust them - they could say they will do so, and then do nothing, and we wouldn’t be the wiser.

Do I contact the admissions office, or is that too much helicopter parenting? We have a decent offer at her third choice school, with significant scholarships, so it’s not the end of the world, but it hardly seems fair that she will have to make such a financial choise based on the school’s incompetence

2

Yes, contact the admissions office. When money is on the line I think it’s perfectly reasonable to at least drone parent if you don’t go full helicopter.

3

Not the crux of your question but I’m confused by the part about her being waitlisted at NJIT and likely for the same reason - her application being incomplete. If the application is incomplete I don’t think they’d make any decision (and waitlist is a decision) and would leave the application open until RD decisions.

4

Yes, it’s real money you are taking about. Call the GC or go to the school and tell them that she really needs the money and to get it she has to submit the transcript.

At my kids’ school, we had to apply for a transcript (and pay $2), pick them up at the office. They were in a sealed envelope and we then had to address and send the transcripts ourselves. Ask the GC what you need to do to get this done.

5

Is it just transcripts that are missing? Or do you need something more from the GC? And is it something on paper that needs to be mailed?

I would be intervening now with a call/email to the GC outlining the issue and informing them I would be at school tomorrow to pick up the transcripts needed. Then be prepared to wait until mission accomplished. If it’s more like a GC letter, I’d give them through the weekend, call the schools in question and explain the delay/issue, then be on the GC’s case, going to the principal if necessary.

No excuse for this, since it sounds like it’s been 2 months and the GC was notified mid-December.

6

The application was incomplete until December 12. when the transcript was finally sent, several weeks after the priority deadline. A week or 2 later, a decision was posted - onto the wait list. NJIT apparently handles their waitlist differently - they pull from their EA waitlist earlier than the RA waitlist, sometimes even before RA deadline, but their honors program fills from the priority applicants - and there’s housing money attached to the honors program too.

@twoinanddone. we don’t have to pay for transcripts, they are simply requested. I had emailed the GC a few times to ask if there was anything special my daughter needed to do to have them sent, and she kept insisting they were being processed. Our school uses Naviance, so I looked at instructions given to students at other schools, and was expecting a “button” to requested transcripts there, or a form as is used at our local HS (she attends a magnet school in another district). We submitted a list of schools at the beginning of the year, and a form and envelope for the one school that doesn’t use Common App. That was “lost” as she didn’t realize she needed to mail the transcript. We provided another copy of everything, that transcript was mailed, but the others were still not transmitted.

Transcripts were finally send in December, after much prodding, and us giving our daughter permissing to skip every class and sit outside her office until it was done, but deadlines were missed because of their delay. We managed to get the NMSC situation cleared yesterday. The only thing the GC could do at this point is contact the Admissions Counselors to take blame, but I don’t trust her to do that. The letter from NMSC was a letter to the school Principal stating they needed to take action, with a copy sent to us. The GC tried to turn that around to claim it was an error on my daughter’s part. This GC ended up at our school because she was low man on the totem pole within the district - we had a phenomenal new GC the spring before, after a 3 month vacancy following a series of resignations. He was lost because of reshuffling district-wide, as he had been the newest hire.

7

I would try to contact Kettering and NJIT and explain that you had tried to get the transcript sent on time, I would also get her recommendation letters finished and hopefully she will get her acceptance before Feb 1 to be able to access the special scholarships.

Are those schools affordable without the extra scholarships?

8

Call the school on behalf of your daughter today. You will be one of 200 that call today… Lol… Yes, kids are uncomfortable especially when talking about finances. They don’t have a clue and you don’t want her to say the wrong things like “Granda left us with tons of money”. Tons to her could be a few thousand. Get it?

Also if needed yes fight a bit for your kids. Especially at a smaller school like Keterring. You calling does show interest in the school. The smaller schools do talk to other departments within their school. Larger schools… Not so much. She can reach out to the AO and saying how much she wants to go there but your working with financial aid…

We did at several small Lacs.

Nice school BTW - only heard great things from several recent graduates. ?

9

@mommdc the applications are now complete, it was literally only the transcript that help everything up. I tried to call the AO at Kettering this mornin, he was not in. If he is not in this afternoon I will leave a message. Yes, they will be affordable without the extra scholarships, but clearly not as affordable. Missouri S&T has already offered merit scholarships covering almost full tuition, and she would be happy there, but Kettering is her first choice. I suspect she will choose MST over Kettering if the gap is significant, without pressure from us. I would like her to be able to choose without that kind of self-imposed guilt.

10

Do you have an unofficial copy of DD’s transcript? I’m just wondering if there is a way that you can get something into the hands of the admissions staff at Kettering by email or fax even if with an understanding that they will need official confirmation ASAP. Surely they’ve dealt with bureaucracy and incompetent GC’s before – but they should be able to make a determination of whether or not the student meets their criteria for a scholarship if they have the basic information in hand. (Maybe not to the extent of making it official, but at least for their own internal decision-making process – they know their budget).

It’s better all around if your DD is the one to send the info to Kettering – but given that the $$$ come out of your pocket, not hers, this is one of those situations where a little bit of parental helicoptering makes sense.

Also – I checked the Kettering website – the “Excellence” scholarship is awarded on a rolling basis, but the Coding scholarship has a Feb 1 deadline. Both have additional requirements as to LOR’s & essays – so make sure DD is on top of that. Also, on the website both say that the scholarship amount is “up to” $5000 annually – so it may not be as much as you are hoping in any case.

11

THEY HAVE EVERYTHING - we don’t need anything sent. The issue is the delayed decision, because the high school caused her to be kicked from Early Action.

Both scholarships have a February 1 deadline. We are aware of essays and recommendations, but we can’t give the recommenders an address or information to send them without having access to the portal. We are aware of the “up to” amount - they used to be $10,000 until this year, and probably reduced to be able to offer to more students. But we won’t benefit from that if she can’t apply because she’s not accepted before February 1st. When I complain to the Board of Education, I will feel fully justified in claiming this GC cause the potential loss of up to $10,000 a year in scholarships, possibly more

12

This was negligence on the part of the GC and I wonder if you can take some sort of legal action (and get the $10k back?).

Obviously the fault does not lie with the colleges. Have you talked to admissions at Kettering? I would do that.

What an awful situation. It sounds like you didn’t sit back and let it happen and even had to do some extraordinary prodding to even get the GC to do things too late.

ps my kids are very independent but I did everything connected with money, including all communication with schools; kids communicated about other things