Weighing options

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Now that I've filled in the financial aid applications, I'm back to worrying about financing college. It seems to be an equation with way too many variables and decisions:

• How should I balance debt for the student vs. debt for the parents?
• Should I take all the loans they offer or refinance the house?
• Or maybe cash out a pre-tax retirement account?
• Should I hold back spending so I can have the same money available when child #2 enters college 2 year from now?
• Should I keep all my finances so that I can set up some sort of trust for msk?
• Will msk ever need his college savings, and if not, can I roll them into some sort of support trust?
• Should I reach out to relatives who have the resources (and no kids) to help out?
• What are these financial aid packages going to look like?
• Is a more expensive college a better investment if it has more support and a co-op program, or is University of Maryland too good a deal (since it's 100% paid for with the pre-paid college saving account we've been paying in for 13 years) to walk away from?

Not much sense worrying at this point. Come March/April, once all the responses and packages are in hand, it'll be time to worry.

Ventage*

grrrrrrr!!

One great thing about having a blog is that I can respond to a comment train here. That means I don't have to bite my tongue, but I don't have to worry about feeding the trolls.

If you want to see the comment that ticked me off feel free to go here. It was the snarky response to my rather straight forward comment that ticked me off.

I think it's fine that people feel that since it's "public" education they have a right to chime in, even if you have no first hand information. I'd go as far as guessing you've got no second hand information and haven't even read anything significant on City Schools - sorry, North Baltimore Patch ain't significant in terms of school reporting. Go ahead and express your idea of what's wrong with City Schools, even if you have no clue. My issue is you slamming me for expressing an actual first hand opinion. The proper response would be gratitude for sharing my experience rather than a snarky put down about my parenting decisions. I am getting close to being done with this school system and I have many, many issues with its weaknesses. Even so, I am sick to death of the clueless masses writing off City Schools based on some sort of racist/classist gut feeling.

* - ventage, what's produced when you vent

Some explanations

Image borrowed from http://www.afatherspeaks.com/

Yesterday's post was a little terse, probably to do with it being a long day and me posting after midnight, so here are some details for anyone who's interested.

FAFSA? - that's the "Free Application for Federal Student Aid". Every college that you're going to ask for financial aid (and is there anyone who is so rich that they aren't going to at least ask?) is going to want you to fill this out. You fill in information about your family situation, college plans and any savings you have. Then copy some data from your Federal tax forms (1040 and W2). By some magical formula they tell you how much you can afford to spend to send your kid to school. It seemed like a crazy number to me, but I suppose there are loans as well as how much you can spare from your budget. It'll be interesting to see how this number translates to financial aid packets, but we've got some months to wait there.

CSS? - "College Scholarship Service". This is a longer and more complicated form than the FAFSA, but I think it serves a similar purpose. This application is administered by College Board, the same people who administer the SAT and AP tests. It also costs $9 to fill out and $16 per college that you send it to, while the FAFSA is free. For HSS, every school that she's applying to except the two University of Maryland system schools and Drexel required this form. There was a fair amount of detailed information that they're looking for about other kids in the family and other expenses, as well as investments and savings. I guess it should provide a better understanding of our full economic situation. On the other hand, it didn't spit out a single "you can afford this per year" number like the FAFSA did, so I really don't know if we fared better or worse.

The additional data that some school require is mainly copies of 1040s and W2s, either through some sort of  secure document handling service that College Board provides (IDOC) or directly to the college. One college (Bucknell) seems to have their own application for financial aid as well as needing the FAFSA and the CSS. Honestly, I don't know how much more information I can provide, but since I'm the one asking for money, I guess they can ask whatever they want.

Another "off" Friday

TurboTax Deluxe

Today I did my taxes, pretty much three times over. I filled out my taxes with Turbo Tax. Then I filled out and submitted our FAFSA form to all eight schools HSS is applying to. Then I filled out and submitted the CSS form to the five schools that needed that. I am not all that thrilled by bookkeeping, so this was a pretty intense amount of filling in, figuring out and double checking for me. But at least it's done.

Except for the four schools who still want more from me for financial information.

Yay me...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Model making

A giant green tinted sugar cookie plant cell with some sort of disk shaped organelle

So, a long time ago, I was a new working mother with a toddler, and we were all about the artsy-crafty stuff. We made play dough and finger painted and did all sorts of projects. It continued as kid #2 grew to toddlerhood. I really enjoyed making stuff with them, getting a chance to paint and model again.

When msk hit preschool it was clear that things were different for him. Our preschool did lots of arts and craft activities, and they were oh-so-tough for msk. Sitting, following directions, answering questions - these were beyond him and frustrating as well. I tried a little at home thinking he'd join in with his sisters and have a blast. He didn't engage and wandered off, and I got bummed. Structured projects at home with msk were dropped.

This week msk has his first hands-on homework project for school - build an edible model of a cell. I decided to simplify versus the other two times we've done this project (a cookie this time instead of a cut-away 3D cake) and spread it across several nights to minimize frustration. Night one was making the dough - worst case, I was fine with doing most of it myself since it really doesn't relate to knowing the parts of cells and what they look like.

It turns out that msk as a 13 year old is willing to do projects and follow instructions - at least if it has to do with homework. The beaters were kind of loud and he talked nervously about not touching the blades, but he did it. Measuring, mixing and rolling - he stayed involved through to baking. I know that if it had been cooking for home he wouldn't have done it, but the magic of homework for an OCD kid meant he could, and even was kind of into it. What a shock and what a joy.

Change comes, like a lot of things, when you stop looking for it.

News of note

Right now there is a very important court case going on in Baltimore. The parents of a Special Needs student are suing the school system for $1.3 million for gross negligence in connection with bullying at two different City Schools. I can't express how much this trial and the testimony breaks my heart. Bullying is a sign of a lack of control in a school. The fact that special needs students are far more likely to be bullied then other students is a sign of a lack of compassion among students as well as a reflection of how the school body as a whole feels towards a different and vulnerable population. I believe that a school with calm hallways and a atmosphere of respect for everyone in the building would not have these type of problems. You want to know why school choice is so important? So that parents in these desperate situations don't feel forced to keep there kids in this school. There has to be a way out.

Yes, I know I'm being emotional, but how the hell can you read this story or this story or this post or this post and not become emotional? I can't.

Two more essays to go... blah

I think I've written on this before, but I would just like to say one more time for emphasis - college essays suck. How do they suck and why to they bother you so, you ask? Let me count the ways, or at least give you my top ten.

1. Believe it or not, not everybody is a writer or finds writing a great outlet to express themselves
2. Essay topics such as "what do you think is great about this school?" invite nauseatingly suck-up writing - painful to generate, painful to edit
3. College application time is emotionally fraught to begin with - putting yourself out there for acceptance or rejection - in this state hardcore editing to make a polished essay often leads to tears. I am tired of being the enforcer for other people's stupid rules and making my children cry. Tired, tired, tired.
4. Why do different colleges have similar essay topics with vastly different word count requirements - it's impossible to use anything over when the word count goes down to 25% of the original, or do you really want to go under the word count by 75% if you try to share the essay that way?
5. How the heck are they actually using these essays to make judgements anyway? If they're looking for that "stand out" essay, not everybody is a wild extrovert (see reason #1 for a similar concept)
6. No matter how much time you put into essays there's some sort of guideline someplace that says you should have put in more time. There's only so much pushing for get it done early so we can edit, edit,edit...yuck
7. Really, being able to hit submit and say done is worth a lot. How many revisions can you stand?
8. Did I mention that not everybody is passionate about writing? Let's have everybody submit an imaginative solution to a geometric brain teaser with explanatory illustrations. Seem a little unfair to the non-math types? Logical thinking and proof construction seems like a reasonable thing to ask to me and HSS would blow the competition out of the water.
9. Eight applications is not excessive with two safety, two reach and four that seem like a good shot. Close to fifteen finely crafted and well polished essays is excessive.
10. By not getting together and coming up with a reasonable number of common essays like the Common App these schools are playing some sort of ego-trip, how-much-do-you-love-me game because you have to spend more time on some essays than others. It's hard not to get pissed at the schools with the most off-the-wall essay requirements

Subsumed

Reflecting, now become – image is pure

All lake-ness overwhelmed by bigger sky

As water’s color, spirit is obscured

Grey feelings show azure, cloud accents high



And joyful days when storms come rolling by -

Show bitter, fiercely grey to others, though

Deep water, massive, rests in many an eye

Lone swimmers diving through are all who’d know



But eyes tight shut, still unseen, soul’s subsumed

Faint rippling texture hints, spirits persist

Reflecting petty feelings now entombed

Defined by monoliths we dwell amidst



Though wishing I could steer what others see

How, hidden by illusion, I’m set free

Second Acceptance

Good dog!

Got an acceptance letter from UMBC today. Not sure if this is the best fit for HSS since there's no electrical engineering or civil engineering, but they've got lots of student supports and I think the CWIT program sounds pretty awesome.

Getting close now

Yes, that is a dog butt in the lower right corner

So on this 9-80 Friday I pretty much did nothing. I know I should be getting ready for Christmas, but I'm procrastinating. I've actually made a big dent in my list post from a few weeks ago:

• Company Party - big on obligation, small on fun
• BSO holiday concert with 2 kids
• Visit (with interview) to Stevens Institute in Hoboken
• Two hockey games in one day (one played, one viewed) in Hershey PA
• Christmas shopping, and since they closed Daedalus at Belvedere I'm going to have to figure out something new - blah
• Heading up the Adopt-a-family drive for House of Ruth at work
• Counting/sorting gifts
• Spending cash donations on un-claimed gifts
• Taking gifts to House of Ruth
• Financial Aid meeting at the High School - bailed on that one having done the online course
• Hockey Holiday party
• Some sort of birthday celebration for msk  - we did a family dinner at TGIFridays and he was OK with that
• Christmas tree and house decorations - see picture above
• Shopping for the massive holiday buffet party at our house
• Making a dish to share for work -  thinking about bailing on this as well...
• Mailing gifts to out-of-town relatives
• More harping on college essays and submitting remaining applications - on going, but down to 3 now
• Final report and submittal of 2011 Cookie sale

I thought about presents, but couldn't commit to shopping vs. Amazon. The hockey party is tomorrow. I really should get some packages mailed. It was lazy, but today I took a break. Breaks = boring posts. Sorry.