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Hayduke

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  1. Hayduke replied to Hayduke's topic in Music
  2. I understand the approach used by the small private my daughter's considering. I suspect they use FAFSA to collect as much info as they can on students and applicants, and they likely use that data to make the best use they can of whatever money they've got, which they seem to try to spread wisely. So they'll give you $1,000 to fill it out on time every year. Seems like a fiscally sound idea that helps maximize their available aid and maintain the quality of their educational product. As a faculty member at a state school and knowing what I know about the higher-ed environment, I respect what they're doing. What they've offered my daughter is probably about right for what we can afford without going into debt, given the circumstances. She could probably get a full ride somewhere, but maybe not at her best-bet school for what she's seeking. I'm not sure we've figured out where that would be anyway. This school apparently doesn't offer full rides. She's looking at Notre Dame and Northwestern and has a good shot at both, I think, but we're going to have to hope they like her qualifications and will offer a generous package. And we're starting to get into crunch time, so the only thing I feel good about right now is that the smaller school is a fine fallback position for multiple reasons. Yep. Except it's pretty much the whole country. And parts of that make perfect sense; in a system without free post-secondary education for all, we need more students in technical school and probably fewer getting more general college degrees, especially in the liberal arts. I believe in the value of the arts, but at the same time, we've commodified all of higher ed in a way that means it's a "buyer beware" experience for too many people. "Racket" is a term I often use. Happy my daughter's looking at data analytics; we'd be having completely different conversations with her if it was history or English.
  3. Yep. Right now for us, it's that $4K spread over four years and it seems a lot of the privates in this area do that. I wasn't even thinking privates a year ago, but a multitude of factors make some of them look better on the college expense spreadsheet I've put together. Our finances were complicated last year by a small one-time taxable death benefit that was divided up among siblings but counted only on my income, along with and some other inherited-investment income -- not much at all, but it boosted our AGI on the tax return. I'll likely retire before my daughter finishes so all my regular income will be pension at that point, although investments will continue to count against us. What I'm not sure of is what our total income vs. investment ratio will look like then and how it will work for/against us on the FAFSA in her last couple of years. Also the mortgage will be paid off. So who knows what our FAFSA score will be next year or the year after. But it should be even easier to fill out, and a thousand bucks is still worth the couple of hours each year at that point if she goes to the private. We will avoid loans like the plague, but you never know. All in all, it's still a good exercise for going over finances and planning thoroughly.
  4. It's far easier this year than it used to be. Gave up on getting it done for my son about three years ago -- fortunately, he didn't need it for anything. We spent hours and hours over several weeks, but the form didn't work and the contractors couldn't help us (I suspect none were federal employees). Was surprised to find my daughter's FAFSA app this fall was not horribly painful. Obviously, it helps to find a good site or two that prepare you for what documentation to have ready. AI searches helped summarize some basic concepts for me (like the difference between CDs and cash accounts, pensions and other investments, 529s, etc., for FAFSA), but I had to cross-reference with the FAFSA site and ask different questions of different search engines before I felt comfortable with my knowledge. Three-four hours of reading over a couple of days, then maybe 90 minutes of work on another evening, IIRC. But don't expect much from colleges, either, if you've got even moderate income (I think $110K is a major threshold for that, which ain't a lot for a double-income household) and have done any kind of necessary work on retirement provision and setting aside for college. Virtually all assets count against you and increase the expectation for family contribution. I moved some cash into a CD to try putting a dent into our apparent liquidity, but it made virtually no difference in the score we got. FAFSA was worthwhile because we were offered a $1,000 grant, renewable annually, for filing FAFSA by the Nov. 15 deadline at one private school. With a series of other small grants tied to specific activities and a four-year scholarship of $32K per year, my daughter has been offered $41.5K in "free" money at that school, but it's still short by about $12K on tuition and fees. Then there's still room, board and other stuff, but it will be doable without loans if she decides on that school, assuming a couple of other things stay in place/get taken advantage of (like my daughter's current employer helping out, and her staying away from Lululemon's clothing). Of course, some schools use CSS, so then you have to do it all again. I'm off to work on some missing documentation for that now.
  5. Worked at K State for a short while and went to KU a few times. Always liked it and the town. Close enough to KC to have easy access to big-city stuff, but typical college town in a nice enough region right on the edge of the Flint Hills, which I always found beautiful. Kansas politics aren't as goofy as they could be so I think the university system there hasn't been as messed up as other states. As a faculty member elsewhere who's got a senior daughter in the process of choosing, I'd say that if your daughter loves it, the program is among the best (so many rankings out there -- how legit are those you've seen for the speech pathology program?), and the aid makes it affordable, give it your blessing. There's too much that can change in a semester, a year, a couple of years, both with young people and the educational environment at large right now. If they start out happy with their choice, the odds are at least in their favor. Last visited last summer and had a great Hungarian goulash with local ingredients at Free State Brewing on Massachusetts Street. Noticed lots of new upscale stuff in the area of the state streets that's the center of off-campus student life, but it also felt a little seedier in spots than I remember. Another faculty friend's daughter (who's a good friend of my daughter) went to KU but transferred to Minnesota after a semester and I don't know why. My daughter never reveals much so I'll ask the mom what her daughter didn't like about it. Will report back if I hear anything of use. But KU is a pretty darn good school and I'd be more than OK with my own daughter going there if that's how it worked out. That's the good thing about finishing up a school, whether it's after a semester or a couple of degrees. They can always move on, and that's what I tell my daughter. If you don't like it, transfer. Get the best offers you can; pick where you think you'll thrive and be happy and not go into debt. I'm looking out the window at some of the worst kind of gray, freezing, icy, bitter weather a guy could hate, but am not ready to trade everything off. Too many factors like weather and politics shape things in ways we may not expect. If your head, heart and gut are all telling you a place should work out, or is a good one to finally leave, then you're probably right. Flip side is you can play ultimate Frisbee late into the night without lights in the summer. My son, born in Texas, loves it at Minnesota and graduates in May. My take is that if we get fewer Floridians crowding the cross-country ski trails in our few hours of daylight, I'm happy for them to be happy elsewhere.
  6. Amazing what just facing an issue will do, @Jameslaw121. Whether accidentally or not ... bet your FIL is eternally grateful.
  7. Probably not something any teenager needs to be told -- they tend to be naturals. But a church is as good, or bad, a place to do that as a youngster can probably find anyway. I suspect there's plenty of feel-good and fervor at that church, and it probably seemed benign when they were still dating. It's always part of the appeal. The big questions are how it affects her down the road and what she learns from it. I'd have to say that right now, it seems to be keeping her unsettled, but separating faith from lovesickness is the hard part. College should probably help her find some equilibrium, and frankly, I'd rather have a breakup ruin her senior year than her first year away.
  8. Hadn't heard of that one, but I'll check it out -- looks like they released a 25th anniversary edition three years ago. The friendship stuff looks especially interesting. Our daughter has turned her back on a couple of longtime friendships this year as well, and I'm wondering if that's because her friends tried to talk sense to her about the young man (who's really a great kid, but I suspect a lot of what makes him so is extreme politeness, cheerfulness, optimism and whatnot that strike me as being a major part of his Christian upbringing). Bottom line is they're still just kids and neither one likely has lived enough yet to figure out what their beliefs mean, especially in a period of national turmoil when religion is central to the struggles. I've encouraged my daughter to hash things out with her friends, but she's stubborn. In fact, I told her just yesterday, during one of her stints of calmness, that the New Year is always a great time to reconsider and reconcile. She did at least listen and respond with a tiny bit of thoughtfulness, so it was a good enough holiday moment.
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