I dug through the paperwork tonight to make sure my memory was serving me right - and it mostly was. I included the costs after merit aid and any financial grants that were offered. Did NOT include the loan options, because my brain refuses to see loans as "aid." I see them as - loans. :p I don't have all of the schools dd applied to on this list (actually, I think I've forgotten to update a few acceptances here on the forum as well - several came in fast and furious and it was sort of underwhelming by that point when they all came together...) But - here are the ones where I have the paperwork in the file next to me: There's also the fact that there is no way, barring selling our house OR choosing only one kid to put through college, that we can afford the EFC in the first place.... These numbers are staggering to me for a kid with a great ACT score and a very strong resume! I really deceived myself into thinking those things would matter more than they do! A lot of the OOS university OOS-specific scholarships, for instance, topped out at a certain $$... and kids received that $$ whether their ACT was a 26 or a 35. Some of the kids had great extracurricular/community involvement... others barely did anything other than school and play video games (their own words) - but the $ of scholarship was identical. It is disheartening and causing us to really question how hard we pushed all these years... it would have felt worth it, I suppose, if dd had applied to more choosy schools, but she really did not want to when it came time to do it. For the time being - her achievements DID come in handy for the automatic full-tuition scholarships at two universities and for acceptance into one university's honors college that was invitation-only & seems to have high stats. Also makes me laugh that I was "worried" about getting a job within the next couple of years - because it might affect the kids' ability to get financial aid. As you can see in the list below... THAT is HYSTERICAL!!! :cursing: (for the sake of being forthright, dd will receive athletic scholarship from whichever school she finally settles on, so these costs will change dramatically. But, I have another dd on dd#1s heels who is not an athlete, so I'm just agog at the #s and trying to grasp HOW we are supposed to manage this!) OOS Public Univ A: after merit aid ($0 offered in terms of financial aid), EFC plus $14K OOS Public Univ B: after merit aid (financial terms are not in, but we are not expecting anything), EFC plus $20K OOS Public Univ C: after automatic merit aid ($0 financial aid), EFC plus $13K OOS Public Univ D: after merit aid ($0 financial aid), EFC plus $9K (I actually didn't realize this one was that much "less" than the others...) In-State Public Univ A: after pathetic merit aid ($0 in financial aid), EFC plus $14K :cursing: OOS Private Univ A: after merit aid and $2k grant (wow!), EFC plus $14K

Regarding aid and merit scholarships, etc... DDs financial-totals have been interesting - MOST of the schools she applied to basically balanced out in the end as far as cost goes. Some gave more academic aid... some gave more financial aid... some have higher tuition... some have room & board that is a third higher than others.... and, in the end, it's mostly a wash. Which was really surprising to me. I thought we'd have a clear winner (financially-speaking). In the end - even the state school she applied to (lousy merit aid) - is turning out to be more expensive than some out of state options (but, of course, we have to foot the travel bill...). And, so far, it's been 100% that when she received merit scholarships, she's not received a penny in additional financial aid, despite what the financial calculators told us to expect. (with the exception of one private university... she received a $2,000 grant in addition to their $15,000 merit scholarship). Just loan options. And WHY can't the universities GUARANTEE cost-of-attendance for four lousy years??!?!! INCREASE it each year, if they must, for each incoming freshman class... but keep the tuition the same ALL FOUR YEARS!! THAT is where the government should nose in. How on earth can we even begin to plan how to pay for something of this magnitude when it's going to go up random amounts each year? I wouldn't buy a house like this!! Alabama was the only scholarship she received that specifically stated that it would cover FULL TUITION, no matter if the price increased. All the rest were flat $$ amounts. :/ Still leaves about $19k per year to pay out of pocket. :huh:

Thank you!!!!!

If a student takes a gap year - will the Common App remain "open?" I've tried googling, but think I'm phrasing it awkwardly and can't find a direct answer. Mainly wondering if the letters of recommendation, counselor letter, etc will still be intact if/when she possibly reapplies to a different university next fall. She would need to re-write the essay and make it applicable to her at that time, as well as address the gap year (is the "Why'd you take a gap year" question an automatic pop-up on the Common App? Or do only certain colleges ask this specifically?)

Didn't vote because I didn't like the options. lol I'd not do it. BUT - if you're out of acceptable options AND the older child has said not only that they don't mind BUT that they really like their middle name so much they'd like to 'hear it' .... then, I'd say it's an okay option for your family. Your sig line doesn't say how many children you have - if it were, say, 4 or 5 kids of mixed gender, I'd still encourage you to keep searching for a name as individual as the child. If more kids than 5... well... I can see a dilemma with running out of names that go with a theme.

nm :)

Yes, and it makes me incredibly depressed that THIS is her first presidential election. :/ What choices. :/ On the swing side - hoping that the discussions we've had will spur her to take an active interest in local and national politics throughout her life! Whatever can be said about this election - it has been IMPOSSIBLE to ignore!! (Unlike the previous presidential election, which I admit, I snoozed through...) Apparently (this may be state dependent? I don't know) if the person turns 18 before the presidential election in November, they could vote in the Primary (even if they weren't 18 yet). I didn't know this, so she missed getting to vote in the primary. :/ Ah well.

Tagging along to this thread - are any of you from, or have any of you lived, in the Ft. Lauderdale area?? If so, I have some questions I would dearly love to ask someone!!!

DD had a sort-of similar experience. A university contacted her about a scholarship interview & gave a list of available dates and said, specifically, that if those dates would not work to contact them directly. Which she did. They replied (about a week later) with an assigned date and an itinerary. She emailed - and called (was sent to a different person's voice mail each time). They emailed her a reminder email - she replied to THAT. And... nothing. lol It was the oddest thing!! She was like, Ummm... they didn't even double-check if they'd left me stranded at the airport or anything!! (They had her cell phone, but never contacted her by phone!) I think sometimes, the admissions office gets a case of "someone else will answer the phone and take care of it." Another vote for just showing up. Maybe, if you're in town a day before calling them directly and just saying "We Will Be There Tomorrow. Where Do We Go Upon Arrival?" Good luck!!!! (I wouldn't take it as a sign that your ds wasn't accepted. I would just take it as a sign that the school, now that they have this year's admissions underway are turning to focus on next year already.)

:auto:

nm

Y'all - of course - rock! Thank you! So helpful! We have a gazillion phone calls to begin making tomorrow. (I think she would just sign up to some online AP classes to keep her head in the game, since CC classes are a definite no-no). Always so many things to juggle with this kid - and time is NEVER on her side! :biggrinjester: Trying to make sure we steer her correctly!

Has anyone's graduate had a gap year recently? I know things vary wildly between universities, but here are a couple of hypothetical questions: 1) Let's assume the student has received academic scholarships to more than one school. And, let's assume that all the universities are willing to postpone the scholarship for one year. Is it likely that the student will need to commit/accept ONE school to retain that academic scholarship (as opposed to "putting a hold" on more than one scholarship?)? 2) Let's assume the student wants to apply to a university she didn't apply to during her regular senior year. If you've applied to schools during your senior year - CAN you still apply to different schools after your gap year? 3) If you are applying to schools after a gap year - does your ACT score even matter, or is that for senior-applicants only? Said hypothetical student has a verynice ACT score and is wondering if that score would still be applicable (she wouldn't re-take the ACT, right??). 4) COULD said-student re-take the ACT in April or June of 2016 and have it "count" for applications the following fall? 5) Said student can still take classes at a community college during the gap year, yes? Is there a default # of credit-hours before a student is considered a transfer student vs a first-year freshman? 6) Let's say the gap year will be filled with classes, working, and volunteering (NOT a travel-abroad, or creating a non-profit, or curing cancer situation). Will that be a huge issue? There are lots of complicated reasons I'm asking these questions, and I will be digging for information myself - but you guys are always so incredibly helpful and give me such a solid place to begin the quest. Hypothetical-situation DD has to make the call within the next two weeks, so the time-crunch is real. :willy_nilly:

My kids don't even look related (they do have the same biological parents - but they don't even look like dh or I!). :P Wildly different skin tones/types, different hair color/textures, different height/body types, different eye colors... Genetics are a funny business.

Y'know - in the beginning, I TOTALLY agreed with you. I was a little disgruntled and unsure if the class was worth the $$$. I thought to myself... I could've given dd that exact assignment list. However, I will say - IF/WHEN dd has had questions, he has responded in a timely manner and has given her adequate explanations as to what-was-what. And, to ME, that was worth the $$$. I could not have answered her questions myself and it would have taken a considerable amount of time and effort for either of us to dig up the explanation elsewhere on our own. ALSO... an "assignment list" is not actually accurate. There is a weekly message with each reading assignment. I forgot about that. He does explain quite a bit about the reading material, gives any special equations or things to pay particular attention to. She prints that out each week and puts it into her book, and then into a binder after that week is over.

I did know that the aid couldn't provide more than the EFC - but, I thought, if the amounts weren't close to EFC, that you could still receive both. Am I crazy? :hat: (anything is possible at this point in the process! :drool5: ) For instance (just using nice, round numbers here for the example...): OOS COA: $45,000 - ACADEMIC scholarship: $15,000 ----- Balance = $30,000 ~~~~~~~~ If I run the university financial aid calculator (which doesn't factor in the ACADEMIC scholarship, because, in this instance, it's not an automatic scholarship...), I get: OOS COA: $45,000 - FINANCIAL AID: $7,500 ------ Balance = $37,500 ~~~~~~~~~ SO - I had thought that the end result would be: OOS COA: $45,000 - ACADEMIC scholarship: $15,000 - FINANCIAL AID: $7,500 -------- Balance = $22,500 ~~~~~~~~~ But - from what I am seeing so far (we haven't received anything in the mail yet - but some portals have the letter... which I assume is the "Final" letter... available to view and print) is the first example. Where the only "financial aid" is the already-offered ACADEMIC Scholarship - and ZERO "Financial Aid" dollars. Our EFC, let's say, is $10,000 - so still well below any of the Balances in the scenarios above (and these particular schools are not schools that meet EFC. I had just assumed/hoped that there would be a combining of academic and financial aid offers... but it looks like it's one or t'other. At least, at these particular schools...)

Yeah - from what we are learning - the OOS "academic scholarships" are justenough to bring Cost of Tuition down to In-State tuition costs. Add in Room/Board, etc... So, it would be like attending the in-state Big University and paying Full Price! :mellow: Add to the frustration that our in-state Big Universities HIGHLY recruit out-of-state students. They offer major scholarships for OOS students. Their scholarships for in-state students (who aren't NMF)? Are itty-bitty!! So - for OUR state, some OOS students can get a much better deal than we can as in-state residents. It's frustrating! And - when we ran financial calculators - they often did not include ACADEMIC merit aid in the final balance. So, when we ran the calculators, I figured that the FINANCIAL/NEED-BASED aid would be what the calculator said... and then ADD any ACADEMIC merit aid to that number.... Nope - at at least one school - dd qualified for their largest ACADEMIC merit aid scholarship... and, apparently, since that surpassed what her FINANCIAL/NEED aid $ would have been... she didn't qualify for ANY Financial/Need Based aid. :bored: I'd thought it would ADD at least a couple thousand to DDs financial package... making it more possible for her to attend that school... but, no. Apparently not.

:P

:laugh: I'm both happy... and bummed! for you! :lol: From the emails dd has recently received, I'm expecting a few packages along those same lines in the mail this week!

There are no video lectures with Mr. L's class. It seems to be 100%: Read the assignment list. The assignment list will contain the reading assignment, daily homework problems (all are to be done... but only certain #s with their corrections are turned in for credit), any FRQs or Quizzes or Labs. Minimal teacher feedback. Not that that's a horrible thing.. from dd's input, the textbook pretty much explains whatever-it-is they need to know - there is a forum for questions and he (and the other students) will reply there. He will note any comments on each assignment or quiz when it is graded and posted online. Our *one* quibble might be the irregularity between assignments each week. She's only taken one online AP class before this one, and the assignments were kept to a fairly predictable expected amount of time each week. For instance, if they had an essay due... the vocabulary/sentence assignments would be reduced (or something like that). For this class... some weeks there is homework, daily questions, a quiz, a lab, and FRQs due... and other weeks, it's just homework and daily questions. So - it's not been simple for dd to plan around and, inevitably, the REALLY busy Physics weeks have been REALLY busy weeks in real life... so she's had to hustle. With THAT said, he is extremely flexible if/when time conflicts arise, and will extend deadlines to a new due date. Working ahead is nearly impossible due to the nature of the syllabus (which just lists reading assignments, iirc... no homework problems or other assignments). So - overall... "we" are happy with the class. At FIRST, the lack of teacher interaction was viewed as a negative by dd... but now that she's grooving in the class, it's a positive because she doesn't have to watch time-sucking videos, or answer questions from the teacher just to "check in." It's very much read, learn, test, and lab and that's about all dd has the time for this year. Hope that might sort of help. lol! :D

Posting here to remind me to come back later today and reply when I have a minute. I have a dd taking mr lantcot's class this year. 😊

That is a crazy early deadline! A good thing to know for our family going forward (I wouldn't have thought a deadline would have been early March!) - and hopefully, with your ds being higher on the list this time, it will be relatively (lol!) stress-free this year!!!!

That thought (to have her sister take it in) had literally just occurred to me right before dd told me of the time change! :laugh: DD got it turned in on her way out this morning, so all's good! :hurray:

:iagree: But, I have found, that the coach's reaction is pretty par for the course. It's pretty easy to dismiss something when it doesn't directly apply to your kid!

If *I* were the daughter(s) in question, I would want to know ASAP. If I found out years later from a family member, friend, dad, whoever... I would be livid. NOT knowing that information would frame the way I would have reacted to certain situations throughout that time - and if I'd taken dad's side on something (thinking my mom was being overly-dramatic)... and then found out that mom was being appropriately-dramatic because the "new" girlfriend I'd just met was actually The One Who Was Dating Dad While He Was Still Married... well, I would feel like crap. I don't believe suffering in silence - in familial situations - is beneficial to anyone. Like in Sense and Sensibility when Mariann makes all the thoughtless "you just don't understand about lovvvve" comments to Elinor... while having zero idea of what Elinor was going through herself. Ugh! OP doesn't have to go all dad-bashing, mama-drama on the daughters. Just a simple relaying of said information is sufficient.