College: Applied, Accepted, Now What?

PoS was supposed to keep you all updated.  I keep reminding her that this is a joint blog, but she's all "I've got finals," "I need sleep," "I'm an angsty teen," blah, blah, blah.  So let me bring you up to speed on senior year thus far.

She applied early action to Beloit, Knox and Ohio Wesleyan back in November.  If you'll remember, Knox is the school with the 14-day turnaround from the time you hit send.  She was all, "they'll never take me because Sassafras got in & they gave her $ 11,000 and she's so much better than me." And I was all, "that just means Sassafras applied earlier & she's her, you're you."  Let me tell you, if you've not had a child go through their senior year yet, you'll learn that you spend half of your time playing cheerleader and the other half playing therapist. 

So every day PoS is watching me get the mail, trying to pretend that she's not looking, while she really is.  Then it dawns on me that even though Knox doesn't request ACT or SAT scores, she checked the box on her application that said she wanted them to consider them.  The problem is she took the ACT with writing in October and it takes them more time to score the writing portion, so her scores were delayed. (Side note: I strongly suggest that you have your student take their first ACT/SAT no later than June going into their junior year.  That way you can gauge where they are and what they need to brush up on.  Then have them take it again the June going into their senior year, especially if they're planning to apply early action or early decision).  Anyway, scores finally come and PoS went up a whole...point.  Like a whole point since she took the test in October of her junior year.  But I digress.

Shortly after Thanksgiving an envelope arrived from Knox, a small envelope.  PoS and I had already had a discussion about what a small envelope vs. a large envelope means.  In her mind, small meant you definitely didn't get in and large meant you did.  So she opens the small Knox envelope and, surprise, surprise, she got in! Not only did she get in, they gave her two scholarships totaling $ 56,000 over four years.  She did the "I got in" victory dance and immediately called her Grandpa.  Lucky me, I got to call her grandmother, aka Debbie Downer, who quickly reminded me that it wasn't enough to cover tuition and why couldn't PoS just go to a big, state school that was more affordable, yada, yada, yada.  PoS isn't a big, state school kind of kid.

Moving on, by the end of that week PoS received a big envelope from Ohio Wesleyan that we thought was a Christmas calendar based on the decorative envelope.  Turns out it was a one-pager acceptance letter. She wanted to write them a strongly worded letter about playing with people's emotions, but I stopped her. There was no mention of money, but since the school wasn't really on my radar, it didn't bother me.  PoS seemed less than excited also.  And then the pacing started.

We knew Beloit planned to notify by December 15 per their calendar. But did that mean notifications would go out on the 15th or would we have something in the mail by the 15th?  So I turned to the Beloit alumna I've befriended on Twitter and asked (okay, I gave her the third degree) what she remembered about the process.  Well she didn't remember, but she knew someone that did, and we learned that some acceptance letters would go out on the 10th and the others the following week.  It depended on when applications were submitted.  Knowing how slow our mail man operates, neither of us expected to hear anything before the 20th.  To our surprise, her acceptance letter was in our mailbox on the 13th.  PoS did another, "I got in" victory dance coupled with a Snoopy cackle and happily updated her Facebook status.  Me? I kept looking through the envelope for something that said, "And here's some money."  Of course, it wasn't there.  So I turned to Twitter again and was assured that if it wasn't included, it would probably be by the time we submitted FAFSA.

When I got home yesterday there were two pieces of mail from Beloit.  I assumed they were generic letters, but it turns out one was notification of a scholarship for $ 40,000 over the next four years.  The other was their financial aid form.  How's that for irony?  Did the scholarship make me feel better? Meh, it puts a dent in tuition, but it's not nearly enough so PoS will spend this holiday season finalizing essays for various private scholarships.  Did the scholarship make her feel better?  We completed the housing questionnaire for Beloit late last night, so I'd say yes, it certainly did.