kokotg
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Posts posted by kokotg
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Does the professor have reviews on ratemyprofessor? My first thought is that some professors like to talk up the difficulty of the class early on to manage expectations (and perhaps to encourage less serious students to drop the class) and that the reality doesn't always match the hype. If the class IS an unreasonable amount of work (and, yes, I would definitely consider 15 hours a week outside of class for a C to be unreasonable) that should be clear if there are many reviews to look at it.
I guess the other thing I'd ask is whether there's a reasonable alternative available to taking the class at this school from this prof? Can it happen a different semester? Can he do it somewhere else (or at home)? That answer would affect my decision.
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We managed to get one of the two submitted, but it's still calculating the SAI , it tells us. Also, the estimator told me he'd get a pell, but the e-mail they sent him says he doesn't appear to be eligible for one. BUT ALSO it says it's still verifying his SSN, so maybe it thinks he can't have a pell because it thinks he doesn't have a SSN? who knows? (I wouldn't have been shocked if he didn't get one; we're down one dependent this year and our income was slightly higher, but the estimator showed him getting a bigger one than his brothers have gotten, so it got my hopes up. Also it should only really matter if he goes to our in-state public; all his other schools would be mostly institutional aid anyway). Other kid is just for a renewal of FA, so I'm not as worried about his getting done anytime soon.
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4 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom said:
I am just guessing, but if you are using recent medians, then I would assume they are slightly skewed higher as the only ones submitting scores now are those with high scores. In other words, I would personally agree with your strategy 🙂
yes--I assume that as well--we'll see how it all plays out!
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DS had what sounds like a very good lesson with the Emory horn guy, who told him, "we'd love to have you at Emory." I have no idea who "we" is or how much pull "we" has with admissions, though! But _I_ would also love to have him at Emory, since it's so close! Emory is one of those where we were on the fence about submitting test scores; he's in their middle 50, but below the median. We ultimately decided that the "submit the slightly below their average score rather than let them wonder if you're hiding a really low score" approach was probably best, particularly for a homeschooled kid. But who knows in this still very new test optional landscape?
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On 1/6/2024 at 9:27 AM, MagistraKennedy said:
WE ARE FINISHED --- thank the good Lord above.
I am so thankful that I have a couple of years before I have to go through this mess again.
I'm wiped out.yay! My last kid is just 10, so I'm very much looking forward to a 7 year break after doing this 3 times in 5 years. Having three BABIES in 5 years is also pretty taxing, so I probably should have seen this coming back then 😂
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All the apps submitted here, too. phew! Tomorrow he has a Hamilton interview and then drives over an hour to have a sample lesson with the horn teacher at Emory. It really just never ends. I'm encouraging reaching out to more horn teachers, though, because he LIKES getting lessons, and it seems like a good way to find out more about music programs at non-music schools and do a little interest demonstrating and, hey, always a chance a teacher will put in a good word for him with admissions if the lesson goes well. so why not? I wasn't sure what the etiquette was on sample lessons at LACs, but he's had good responses so far.
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Well, I managed to log in to start the form, but didn't make it far enough to actually save any information.
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4 hours ago, marbel said:
Happy New Year to all!
I started the year reading the last 75ish pages of A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles). This was a reread for me. I had hoped to close out 2023 by finishing it, but was too tired last night. This is one of my favorite books. So beautifully written.
I'm working on finishing this as my first book this year, too! Not a reread for me, but I've been working on it for awhile--I got lazy about reading the last bit of the year.
I fell short of my 52 book Goodreads goal last year, so this year I set it for 41, which is one more than I managed last year.
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no luck here, either. We got ready by paying off our big post xmas credit card bill and getting that money out of our checking account, though!
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I'm still getting the planned maintenance message. Ugh. I think all except one of his schools have the CSS already, so they really should have plenty of information (looking at you and your delayed FA package, St. Olaf!)
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One more week of college applications, and then he's done! You know, except for auditions and interviews and an honors college app for one school, and, and...anyway, it's the week of applying to schools he's nearly guaranteed to be rejected by! Williams, Amherst, and Brown. And then he had one last common app slot, and his brother's girlfriend just talked him into giving it to Middlebury. She just graduated from there in May and loved it. And they're need-blind and don't have a supplemental, so why not?! In the meantime, I think he's feeling good about the two options he has so far; he got in touch with the St. Olaf horn teacher and will likely have a lesson with her in the next couple of weeks. I wish they'd send his FA package so I could know how much to encourage his enthusiasm about it 😂
Anyone else still finishing apps?
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On 12/24/2023 at 3:49 PM, cintinative said:
So, I was talking to a friend who went through this three years ago with her high stats daughter and she was (gently) laughing at my optimism. She said that her experience with her daughter made her jaded for the whole scholarship process. It was actually good for me to hear that because her daughter was very high stats with good extracurriculars. Her dd did end up getting a full ride, but lots of colleges gave her next to nothing. It's such a weird game, y'all.
a very weird game...and I'm constantly annoyed by how the hoops one needs to jump through for college admissions are a totally different skill set than what one needs to actually be successful in college.
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1 hour ago, MagistraKennedy said:
For those of us who are fine arts ignorant --- I know a BA -- I'm guessing it's a BA in music? What's a BM?
(I mean, I know what it is in nurse world ... 🤣 --- I'll show myself out)It's an unfortunate abbreviation 😂 BM is a bachelor of music...at St. Olaf it just means that a bigger percentage of your classes will be in music. A lot of the time BMs are performance based degrees and BAs focus more on the academic/theory side of things...but not always. Or a BM program is audition based and a BA isn't...but not always.
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26 minutes ago, catz said:
FWIW, from what I hear of Saint Olaf and from both my music applicants getting acceptance to the BA is SUPER common. Both my kids were awarded the BA. Both got music and academic scholarships. Both got into a number of other BM programs. I wonder if the late FAFSA is throwing things off this year with all the deferrals, etc for FA offers? They both got very good but not their best offers from Saint Olaf.
Late in the process last year when my kid who REALLY wants to do the BM (the other kid was more neutral and was applying double degree) started getting emails from a music faculty member at Olaf about how much they'd like to see her on campus, how impressive her audition videos were, blah blah. She asked directly about the BM vs. the BA, how she was admitted to BM programs at many schools, etc and that faculty member seemed lost when asked directly about it lol. It was a little weird. She was admitted to many BM programs and is in one now. I suspect it isn't a big deal to switch over for a motivated music student to switch to the BM at Olaf. But it can feel like a "fail" for a kid who is focusing on only BM programs.
Has your student had a sample lesson or communicated with anyone on faculty? I highly recommend that! Lots are willing to meet via zoom for that kind of thing. I bet especially with an acceptance in hand they will be receptive. My kid last year was never able to have a sample lesson and I think that could have changed thing WRT Saint Olaf. She could not be more thrilled with her college though so all is well that ends well!
The touring/performance opportunities at Saint Olaf are really something! ❤️ Congrats again!
Thanks! Yeah, when we did the music tour last spring our guide seemed to suggest that almost no one starts with a BM. She also had no idea the 5 year dual degree exists. The process there doesn't seem super transparent. He hasn't been in touch with the horn teacher there yet; that's definitely on the list now! He's done sample lessons a few other places; St. Olaf's is listed as a "visiting adjunct professor" so we've never been sure if she was going to be around long term...but I guess that's something he can try to find out when he talks to her.
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Okay! He got accepted for the BA in music at St. Olaf and awarded a music scholarship of...some amount of money. They weirdly didn't specify (he'll get more with need based aid than their cap on merit scholarships, so it doesn't really matter, but it's still a little odd). You have to audition for a music major at all; I think he put down that he wanted a BM instead of a BA, but we had already been told that it's very hard to be admitted directly for the BM...instead you can do the BA for a year and then audition for a BM sophomore year. But he's not sure which he'd really rather do anyway, so he's fine with this. If any of that made sense; St. Olaf has the most confusing web of music major...stuff we've encountered. But the St. Olaf band did a 2 week tour of Japan last summer! Funded by some generous donation someone made! They alternate the band, orchestra, and choir doing international tours, I think, so that everyone gets to do one sometime during their 4 years.
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28 minutes ago, catz said:
Olaf is a great option for a music loving student! Congratulations! Was in the final running for both my music kids, we know lots of happy students currently there or recent grads. ❤️ Nice to have that in the hopper for sure.
Thanks! It was a contender with my oldest, too...based on their good rep for math that time instead of music. St. Olaf: school of many talents!
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Now for the final strategizing. His call, of course, but I think at this point he has 2 acceptances at schools he'd be happy to go to (and should be able to afford--pending FA package from St. Olaf, but I've run the NPC AND seen the package they offered his brother 5 years ago), so no reason to add any safeties. Might as well shoot for the moon with a couple more very tough admits that are need blind. Downside is the probability of a LOT of rejection come March. He should have a couple more fairly safe bets out there already, too, but...we'll see.
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DS accepted at St. Olaf with a nice scholarship....and that's probably our last one until March now.
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ha--well, as soon as I posted that he got unexpected St. Olaf results--he got in! With a really nice scholarship! Phew! Thanks for saving Christmas, St. Olaf! editing to clarify: I meant the timing of the results was unexpected, not the actual result. He's very happy about it and really likes St. Olaf, but I would have worried that we'd seriously miscalculated if he didn't get in there.
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Ugh--a no on the Oberlin prescreen and a deferral from Macalester. He wasn't expecting Oberlin to come through, but the Mac decision is a bigger blow. His brother just graduated from there, and his stats put him in the top 25%, and he likes it a lot. It's not a rejection, but it would have been nice to take an acceptance into the new year.
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(There is a workaround in that he could use the Coalition app to add on more. But he has three slots left; if he gets into both Mac and St. Olaf then I think his list is totally fine, he should get at least a couple of other acceptances for sure, and he can use those last few slots for super reaches if he wants (or not apply to any more...but the super reaches have REALLY good FA). If not then things get trickier. Thank goodness he has UGA already at least!)
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We're waiting on Macalester and St. Olaf EA this week and the Oberlin prescreen results. Also, I'm a bit embarrassed that we just realized today that the common app has a 20 school limit. Embarrassed both because I feel like I should have known this and because...we actually care that there's a 20 school limit! I encouraged him to toss in a few schools just because of no extra essays (and his fee waiver), and now I'm regretting a couple of them. He still has a few slots left, but our plan was we could always do more safeties if he doesn't get good results this week...now we'll have to strategize a little more carefully. I know 20 schools is a bit ridiculous, but then also my oldest applied to 16 and ended up on a ton of waitlists--if he'd applied to fewer, the school he ended up actually going to likely wouldn't have made the cut (he hated the supplemental there and very nearly didn't do it). Also I'm super annoyed that Vanderbilt is still hanging out taking up a slot when they already rejected him.
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Mine have both done work study jobs. Both of mine have been pell-eligible, so I don't know how the limits are different. My oldest worked at the college library all 4 years, and made like $15/hour by the end because Minnesota's minimum wage kept going up. He worked around 8-10 hours/week, which was all he could work without hitting the maximum. It was a good experience; he enjoyed the job, and it was flexible and they understood that classes took priority. He could pretty much set his own hours at the beginning of every semester, though they did have to be within a 9-5ish time frame because it wasn't front desk stuff but cataloging and that sort of thing. Next kid is ALSO working at the library, although this time it's the music library. He wouldn't have been able to get the job if it weren't through work-study; they only hire work-study students. He only gets something like $9/hour because it's in Tennessee...but he likes it, it's easy to fit in to his schedule (and it's in the music building where he already spends all his time), and I think it's good to have experience in a wide range of music-related stuff since making a living solely as a performer is pretty unlikely. He does that and then is also the assistant manager of the wind symphony--that one's not through work-study and pays a bit better (but was harder to get, as there's only one and they interviewed a number of people).
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11 hours ago, JennyD said:
DS got into his ED school.
We homeschooled K-12, and you people are among the few who can truly understand how unbelievably relieved I feel right now.
Yay—congratulations!!!!
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FAFSA Releasing as "soft launch" ETA: FAFSA release to colleges delayed until March
in The College Board
Posted
Anyone catch this on NPR? https://www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college They were supposed to change the income allowances to adjust them for inflation, but they...forgot? at any rate, it didn't get done, and now they're trying to decide if they should fix it this year or just have people not get as much FA as they're supposed to get. Wonder if THIS has anything to do with why it's saying DS won't get the pell the estimator says he'll get? What a mess.