|
tuyop posted:Why are his activities so sacred? I had to choose one activity because my parents couldn't afford to put me in forty-three different clubs. If I wanted to do more, it was up to me. Mostly right now it's band. Practice is every day after school until 5. He has to be at the home football games on Friday nights. He is also in the jazz band, future business leaders of America, chess club, and choir. And color guard for JROTC. We don't have to pay much for them. $10 for fbla, and travel for color guard. Jazz Band is the most expensive because he keeps "needing" new bass strings or an amp to practice at home. I think we are just going to have to set a money limit per month and he can choose what is important to spend it on.
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 03:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:38 |
|
|
three posted:Is he trying to get into better colleges?
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 03:51
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:28 is a pretty damned good ACT score. I'm skeptical of how useful ACT prep classes would be for someone who's clearly not struggling with the test - trying to get one of those last 8 possible points is like squeezing blood from a stone, and taking the ACT multiple times has diminishing returns. I agree. Which is why we are not paying $225 for a prep course. He is just being an overachiever. He's already basically gotten into the University of Illinois, which is his current first choice I'm not worried, although he is.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 04:02
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:I agree. Which is why we are not paying $225 for a prep course. He is just being an overachiever. I confused you with the guy that wouldn't reveal his hobby. My bad. I'm a sucker for funding children's education, but if he's gotten into Illinois he's probably good to go.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 04:15
|
|
|
If he wants to do better, he should just do as many practice tests as he can stand to. The September test, yeah? He should either pick up the red book which is like $20 for 5 real tests: http://www.amazon.com/Real-ACT-3rd-Prep-Guide/dp/0768934400/ Or if you PM me your email address I'll send you some copies of practice tests I have and he can print them out (but it'll cost as much in ink probably, haha).
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 04:15
|
|
|
moana posted:If he wants to do better, he should just do as many practice tests as he can stand to. The September test, yeah? He should either pick up the red book which is like $20 for 5 real tests: http://www.amazon.com/Real-ACT-3rd-Prep-Guide/dp/0768934400/ Thanks, but he has three practice books his grandparents bought him. Plus two sat practice books. We are debating if he should retake the test again. It's only $45, but that is money that could be spent on pictures or applications or AP fees, or graduation announcements... I think just setting an amount for the school year and sitting down with him to figure out where to spend it might be the best idea.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 04:41
|
|
|
If he's already good enough to get into his first choice of school, there's no reason to retake the test. I'd say that AP fees would be a much better use of your money, since it's still going towards his education but while also broadening his options for college choices/financial aid/etc.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 07:03
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:I'd say that AP fees would be a much better use of your money, since it's still going towards his education but while also broadening his options for college choices/financial aid/etc. I agree 100%. I got credit for several general-ed requirements at my state university by achieving good scores on my AP exams (English, physics, and US history). It saved me time and money on my four-year degree. IU may also offer course credit for passed AP exams.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 16:32
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:If he's already good enough to get into his first choice of school, there's no reason to retake the test. I'd say that AP fees would be a much better use of your money, since it's still going towards his education but while also broadening his options for college choices/financial aid/etc. As for college credit, make sure to check with the colleges before spending money. My college didn't offer a single AP credit since it was just expected that you got 5s on your APs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
I got 24 college credits for AP tests and started college as a sophomore. They're the cheapest college credits you can buy and they're hugely worth it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 17:02
|
|
|
I got like 75 units(which you divide by 3 to get normal credits, so 25) from ap science/math tests alone. Our school didn't have classes for humanities but I could have gotten even more if I had taken those. Also, the courses you get credit for are often much harder than the equivalent AP class, and used as weedout courses. If this is the case, then taking AP classes for general requirements can save a lot of headache later. Definitely look up which ones his school accepts, but it will certainly save him time and let him focus on the stuff he cares about if he does well on the right ap tests.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 17:31
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:graduation announcements... Oh man, make sure you get the custom chocolate ones!
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 17:55
|
|
|
I had so many AP credits that by the time I got to college I was already a sophomore. But really I only got out of 2 or 3 classes, a lot of those credits didn't really do much. Even if your college gives you credit for AP exams, those credits may not actually be useful, so it's a good idea to check in advance.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 18:37
|
|
|
I went to UIUC and can safely say that they accept AP credits, and you can also test out of classes you don't have AP credit in (foreign language, for example). It's a fantastic school if he's going into STEM, as it's the #5 (tied with Georgia Tech) Engineering undergrad department in the nation.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 18:46
|
|
|
LoveMeDead, for the love of logic, no money goes to the car until you have it PRE purchase inspected. A POST purchase inspection is a horrid idea 100% of the time. Even if everything is okay with the car this time. Please trust us on this!Briantist posted:Every mechanic I've ever had will evaluate a car before purchase for free. You'll have to bring it to them, but it's probably better if they actually put it up on a lift and give it a thorough inspection anyway.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2013 18:47
|
|
|
On the ACT discussion, is this the same kid who was gunning for MIT (and I assume we're talking about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here) at one point? If so, some ACT classes (or better, the self study books which accomplish the same thing for far less money) might not be a terrible idea. If schools ranked like MIT are still on his radar, he's going to need/want a better score. Looking at MIT's admission statistics, the middle 50% composite range is 32-35. I'm sure he's chalk full of intangibles, but a good ACT score gets a foot in the door.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 01:01
|
|
|
Jhoge posted:On the ACT discussion, is this the same kid who was gunning for MIT (and I assume we're talking about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here) at one point? If so, some ACT classes (or better, the self study books which accomplish the same thing for far less money) might not be a terrible idea. If schools ranked like MIT are still on his radar, he's going to need/want a better score. Looking at MIT's admission statistics, the middle 50% composite range is 32-35. I'm sure he's chalk full of intangibles, but a good ACT score gets a foot in the door. I hate to be a downer, but if you're not a minority and he's not making nuclear reactors in your garage, he's not getting into MIT. ACT/AP/SAT are not a deciding factor.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 01:19
|
|
|
RogueLemming posted:I hate to be a downer, but if you're not a minority and he's not making nuclear reactors in your garage, he's not getting into MIT. ACT/AP/SAT are not a deciding factor. He's ruled out MIT at this point, although his college of choice changes every week. He's stuck with UofI for about 3 weeks now, so we may have a winner. We priced out senior year and barring unexpected expenses (which always crop up) he's going to cost us $800 before graduation. We are trying to figure it all out. We also decided against getting the car. The people were waffling about letting us get it looked at, so we passed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 02:36
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:We also decided against getting the car. The people were waffling about letting us get it looked at, so we passed. That sounds like a red flag to me, so it's probably a good thing you passed on it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 03:40
|
|
|
Will he qualify for scholarships if he is going to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign? Out-of-state tuition is going to cost a lot.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 03:59
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:We are debating if he should retake the test again. It's only $45, but that is money that could be spent on pictures or applications or AP fees, or graduation announcements... I do think that it's worth it to get his score up if he demonstrates that he's capable of it. The difference between a 28 and, say, a 31 or 32 was probably $1,000-$2,000 a semester in scholarships where I went to school (KU). The course isn't worth it. I worked for an ACT tutoring company for a bit when I was a college student and there are some really good teachers out there but it's entirely possible to get somebody awful, too. And honestly, probably the most useful thing for a lot of the students is that they are forced to sit down and take multiple full-length practice tests. You don't need to pay 200 bucks to time yourself taking a test.
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2013 16:01
|
|
|
Well, August was not good on the budget front. According to the budget, we went $1301 over. However, that includes the extra $821 we put into savings, so it isn't quite as horrible as it looks. It's still pretty bad. We only went $45 over on groceries and $21 under on gas, so at least that's pretty good. We went $70 over on education because we forgot to adjust it, we didn't spend anything unexpected there. We went $38 over on electricity, this was the first month here and we had no idea what to expect with the electricity bill. I haven't lived in a house with central air in years, and never down here. The biggest problem is that we took the kids out to eat. That was $85 we didn't need to spend. We also went over our clothing budget because I bought a dress for a wedding and thought we still had that money in the budget. I did buy it on clearance. We also bought some new Ethernet cable and a blu-ray player we didn't need. And our income was $954 more than projected. We suck. We have no self discipline. The worst part is everything we spent over budget, we did together. We made the joint decision to blow our budget and not put that $500 in savings. The 17 year old has priced out colleges and realized that if he goes to an in state school for at least the first two years, it will cost more than half as much. UofI Champagne-Urbana will be ~$46k a year. UT Knoxville will be ~$11.5k. He's looking at Engineering programs in TN schools. We did take $166 out of savings for an eye exam and glasses for me. I found frames that were totally covered by my insurance, so I treated my self to the thinnest lenses. It's in our September budget. Husband just spent a day in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for an infection. He's missing at least one day of work, possibly two. I missed a day, but have PTO to cover it so I'm just missing the shift diff, which is about $30.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2013 16:21
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:
Is this sticker price or does he already know the extent of the financial aid packages and grants available to him? 2+2 is probably the best value, he just needs to make sure credits will transfer and that he'll be prepared for the workload.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2013 16:42
|
|
|
Engineer Lenk posted:Is this sticker price or does he already know the extent of the financial aid packages and grants available to him? 2+2 is probably the best value, he just needs to make sure credits will transfer and that he'll be prepared for the workload. That's the sticker price. He doesn't know any scholarships yet. In a couple of weeks, we are going to actually apply to schools and after he is accepted we will start to find out more about financial aid. There are a few scholarships that he can get regardless, but we haven't put them all together yet.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2013 16:46
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:That's the sticker price. He doesn't know any scholarships yet. In a couple of weeks, we are going to actually apply to schools and after he is accepted we will start to find out more about financial aid. There are a few scholarships that he can get regardless, but we haven't put them all together yet. If he's still in the planning phase, highly selective private schools like MIT, Caltech or Harvey Mudd will be more likely to put together a good aid package for students than going out-of-state to a highly selective public school like UIUC. Their pool of grants are bigger and more aid is need-based. More schools: Rose-Hullman, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Princeton He's also JROTC - has he considered any of the military academies? Their engineering programs are all pretty strong. Engineer Lenk fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Sep 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2013 17:21
|
|
|
Engineer Lenk posted:If he's still in the planning phase, highly selective private schools like MIT, Caltech or Harvey Mudd will be more likely to put together a good aid package for students than going out-of-state to a highly selective public school like UIUC. Their pool of grants are bigger and more aid is need-based. Seconding this. I was in a similar position when I applied to college and received generous offers from all of these schools. Your son sounds very bright, and many lower-income kids miss out because they assume they can't afford a world-class private college. But these schools have the money to attract the best and the brightest and if he's accepted I can almost guarantee that the sticker price will be less than at an out-of-state public university. I would also consider Olin College of Engineering. They're a small selective school in Massachusetts, and last I checked they were still offering free tuition.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2013 19:07
|
|
|
JROTC, engineering, and low cost/high value tuition is like a hat trick for Texas A&M (we're not all right wing cult-y nutjobs I promise  ) Just throwing it out there. He doesn't have to go into the Corps for the admissions office to salivate over that being on his application, either.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 01:11
|
|
|
Seconding Olin, its a very new school, my friend was in the first graduating class, but its very very good. She's in California now making mega-bucks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 01:24
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:We suck. We have no self discipline. The worst part is everything we spent over budget, we did together. We made the joint decision to blow our budget and not put that $500 in savings. I think you are being too hard on yourself. This is the first time ever that you have ever budgeted and the first few times you do it it's not going to be perfect, and things come up. You probably didn't need the new blu-ray, but it's understandable if you forget about things like eye exams or other categories at the beginning of the month.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 01:52
|
|
|
Uncle Jam posted:Seconding Olin, its a very new school, my friend was in the first graduating class, but its very very good. She's in California now making mega-bucks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 03:46
|
|
|
I've only read the first few pages, but has been there any discussion about you switching hospitals/position within the same hospital? Making 50k a year as a (presumably) experienced nurse seems awfully low, even in TN. I wouldn't want to add stress to what is an already stressful time, but I am guessing you could earn an extra 10k a year or more just by switching jobs. My wife works as a brand new nurse with a 2 year community college degree and makes 59k doing night shift with no previous nursing experience. Granted this is in Arizona, but it looks like the wage difference is roughly 10% higher here then in TN.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 08:24
|
|
|
Uncle Jam posted:Seconding Olin, its a very new school, my friend was in the first graduating class, but its very very good. She's in California now making mega-bucks. The website shows they only pay half of the tuition. And with fees out still ends up being $42k. We can look into it more though. I only have two years experience in nursing. Any larger hospital would be a longer drive and not worth it when gas is figured in. Plus, from what I know from other nurses I graduated with, they don't pay much more if at all. And every department in my hospital pays the same. e. When I went and played with the cost calculator on Olin's website, it estimates we would have to pay $1800 a year after all aid. We could handle that. Now to talk the boy into it. He now apparently wants to just major in physics and minor or double major in Theoretical Mathematics. He plans on going straight to grad school, so it wouldn't matter if he couldn't get a job (according to him). I don't think the boy understands back up plans. I only grudgingly got him to agree to apply to a TN school. The major problem I forsee with Olin is they don't have Nuclear Engineering, which is the type of engineering he would major in if he does major in engineering. He's crazy. I swear I didn't drop him on his head. I don't know what else to do to try to get him to understand money. LoveMeDead fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Sep 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 11:46
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:He now apparently wants to just major in physics and minor or double major in Theoretical Mathematics. He plans on going straight to grad school, so it wouldn't matter if he couldn't get a job (according to him). I don't think the boy understands back up plans. I only grudgingly got him to agree to apply to a TN school. Caltech, MIT, Princeton + in-state safety school. If he's wavering between theoretical and practical disciplines those schools are known for both, have high name recognition, and they all are generous with need-based aid.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 14:51
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:He's crazy. I swear I didn't drop him on his head. I don't know what else to do to try to get him to understand money.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 16:41
|
|
|
Engineer Lenk posted:Caltech, MIT, Princeton + in-state safety school. If he's wavering between theoretical and practical disciplines those schools are known for both, have high name recognition, and they all are generous with need-based aid. His ACT really isn't high enough for any of those schools. I'm not sure how badly he wants to go to any of them. He's mentioned MIT a few times. He could take the ACT again in October. He wants to go to a school that is ranked well, is in a metropolitan area with things to do, and is in an area he likes (not sure how he defines that). I don't think he understands how much there is to do in any college town with a school of a decent size. At least he doesn't have a girlfriend he's trying to plan college around. My daughter is looking at schools with her boyfriend. She's only a sophmore though, so we have time to deal with that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 17:02
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:His ACT really isn't high enough for any of those schools. I'm not sure how badly he wants to go to any of them. He's mentioned MIT a few times. He could take the ACT again in October. Will he take the SAT? The scores listed are usually 25th/75th percentiles, which means a quarter are lower. And the lower quarter is mostly economically disadvantaged students who didn't go to Stuyvesant or spend thousands of dollars on a coach.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 19:22
|
|
|
What was the conversation like around the Blu-ray player? You said you were both on board -- did you mutually agree to scrap the budget, or was the budget not mentioned?
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 20:19
|
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:The website shows they only pay half of the tuition. And with fees out still ends up being $42k. We can look into it more though. In the Engineering thread in BFC there are a few nuclear engineers. Its not an easy job by any means. I mean don't try to go lecture him on this, but there is a pretty real chance he'll get into college and find out the major he dreamed about doesn't really entail what he thought it did. I changed my major twice in my first two years, its just something that happens. Just be prepared for it. The good news is that for most state schools the first year or two is mostly gen ed. You're going to be taking math at this time for any STEM, but you won't lose a lot of credits. (if any)
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2013 23:15
|
|
|
Yeah no one wants to go around telling someone that they can't follow their dreams, but no 17 year old can possibly know that he wants to go to university for 4 years and then go straight to grad school afterwards. He hasn't even been to college, he has no idea what he wants to do. He has no idea what grad school even is. He just has a vague dream (which is totally okay by the way and normal when you're 17). If you asked me at 17 what I wanted to do, I would have said I was going to get a pre-vet degree then go straight to vet school and save all the animals. I changed my major 4 times, went to 3 different schools, got a Bachelor's degree in Biology, took a couple years off to work, and now I'm in grad school doing something totally not even close to being in vet school. So, you know, let him know it's totally fine to keep his options open and he doesn't have to have his life planned out by age 17.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2013 02:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:38 |
|
|
LoveMeDead posted:His ACT really isn't high enough for any of those schools. I'm not sure how badly he wants to go to any of them. He's mentioned MIT a few times. He could take the ACT again in October. I just felt like it was worth mentioning that one of my best friends goes to MIT and has an interesting tidbit of insider information about admissions: MIT is required to have students from (IIRC) all 50 US states in order to keep a lot of their funding. This is of interest because she has mentioned that students from states like California are always completely befuddled at how hard it was for them to get in versus someone else they met when they got there who is from, say, Alaska. Turn out some states just don't have a big enough pool of qualified applicants so admissions and qualifications for financial aid is oftentimes much more lax. I trust her sources but of course, your mileage may vary. This is to say that your son should not be discouraged from applying to places like MIT; it wouldn't surprise me if other schools also cut a lot of slack for students from states that aren't as competitive in the getting-into-college scene.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2013 04:27
|
|
