Surly Kids NOT going to UT/General College Discussion Rising 2019/2020 Seniors

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

When I was at Westwood you could take all regular classes for your full four years, make a 100 on every assignment and not crack the top 10%. Too many kids making all As in the weighted AP classes.

[justinjc7 153]

2 hours ago, ztejas said:

My AP classes were great (save one where the teacher completely didn't prepare us for the test) and I came into college with 24 credit hours because of them. Granted I sat for one test that I didn't take the class for, but if you do it right you should be able to avoid 18 hr semesters and get out in 3.5. 

Oh and AP scores absolutely help for the admissions process. 

This right here is the best thing about AP classes and the main reason I would recommend taking as many as possible for anyone out there with kids entering high school.  I was able to test out of both college English requirements, a math class, and a few others before even stepping foot on campus and was able to graduate a semester early.  Being able to pay for one less semester of college and get out into the workforce and start making money sooner was a huge advantage. 

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

For those mentioning safety schools: make your kids apply to safety schools.  Shit can happen in the admissions process.  Unless they are applying to schools where they have guaranteed admission, they need to have a back up.  

[Bateshorn 9927]

So I've got a bit of time this morning, I think a discussion about applications, particular for the few with super high performing student. In essence, you should look at applying to school with 3 classes of schools in mind (although there are two subclasses), that I will introduce at the end:

Safety-Kids test and gpa are better than 75% of the students in the freshman profile.

Match-Kid matchs the 25%-75% scores (the closer to 75%, the better your chances)

Reach-Your kid is 25% or below.

All the schools should be categorized into these 3 categories, and depending on your willingness to eat a lot of application fees, you can stick as many or as few as possible, although you don't need a reach if none is financially viable or don't appeal to your kid, but you need to be realistic about your kids chances.  If UTSA is a reach, then list it as such, even if you feel your kid should/can do better.  As @Longhornfan1024 mentioned you should ALWAYS have a safety, even if that's community college.    Indeed, a 4th class is Deep Safety school:  Something instate your child will almost certainly get into and presents a relatively affordable option.  There's also a sub class of reach:  Lottery.  Schools that are almost certainly a reject, but fuck it, let's apply anyway. 

Unless you are  Malala Yousafzai or a child of a huge donor, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT are ALWAYS a reach.  It's just a numbers game.

So for Boy #1, it looks like this:

Deep Safety: Towson State

Safety: VCU, Loyola Marymount, University of San Diego

Match: American, Trinity, Occidental, Richmond, UMD-CP

Reach: Tulane

Lottery: Claremont McKenna

[ztejas 43414]

1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

Safety-Kids test and gpa are better than 75% of the students in the freshman profile.

Match-Kid matchs the 25%-75% scores (the closer to 75%, the better your chances)

Reach-Your kid is 25% or below

Decent rule of thumb but a lot more goes into admissions than test and GPA - especially if you have a discrepancy between the two. 

My SAT would have been in the top 25% at any school in the country. My class rank wouldn't have been. My essays were very very good. My extracurriculars were just okay. I was a white male from Texas. 

Some schools will care more about any one of those factors and unfortunately sometimes it just depends on the first person to see your application.

I will say that the BEST way to get money from schools is absolutely your test scores and GPA, however, because that's what they can put on the website. (Assuming you aren't a poor Ethiopian immigrant - which I don't think many of your kids are)

[Bateshorn 9927]

Oh, my son is riding the high ACT/Meh GPA train for sure. 

For all the bitching about affirmative action among conservatives, one of the real diversity problems with college is men aren't going. Some of the schools Boy #1 is looking at have 60%/40% female/male splits.

[Asithappens 974]

5 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Oh, my son is riding the high ACT/Meh GPA train for sure. 

For all the bitching about affirmative action among conservatives, one of the real diversity problems with college is men aren't going. Some of the schools Boy #1 is looking at have 60%/40% female/male splits.

That split doesn't tell us the reason for the split.

Boys aren't going/applying? Boys are applying but aren't being admitted?

[Bateshorn 9927]

19 minutes ago, Asithappens said:

That split doesn't tell us the reason for the split.

Boys aren't going/applying? Boys are applying but aren't being admitted?

I can't speak broadly, but from the common data set at the schools my son is applying to, boys are applying in lower numbers and usually being admitted at a higher rate.  It's not true everywhere:  Richmond and Trinity have managed to maintain a pretty close to 50/50 split, but they do it by admitting boys at a significantly higher percentage than girls.  Schools that keep their admissions rate even across gender see their student bodies skew heavily female pretty quickly. American and Occidental are both nearly 60/40.

A&M, of course, does not seem to have that problem. 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Bateshorn

[relapse98 634]

19 hours ago, El Tri said:

so they don't take AP courses and you think they're being screwed out of UT? LMAO

everyone who gets accepted into UT has commitments outside school, heck it's a big part of the vetting process (volunteering, band, dance, athletics, etc.)

They may have commitments, but auto admit top 6% is auto admit, no vetting required. Which is 75% of the incoming freshmen (at least, that's the law - no more than 75% of incoming freshman can be auto admits). There is no holistic review on auto admit, meet the requirements, in.

Holistic review, though, you are correct.

Edited July 30, 2019 by relapse98

[El Tri 412]

7 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

They may have commitments, but auto admit top 6% is auto admit, no vetting required. Which is 75% of the incoming freshmen (at least, that's the law - no more than 75% of incoming freshman can be auto admits). There is no holistic review on auto admit, meet the requirements, in.

Holistic review, though, you are correct.

yes but you will never get to top 6% if you're not taking AP classes and get that added bump to your GPA

[TwiceHorn 31440]

3 hours ago, justinjc7 said:

This right here is the best thing about AP classes and the main reason I would recommend taking as many as possible for anyone out there with kids entering high school.  I was able to test out of both college English requirements, a math class, and a few others before even stepping foot on campus and was able to graduate a semester early.  Being able to pay for one less semester of college and get out into the workforce and start making money sooner was a huge advantage. 

By the same token, if your degree curriculum is thoroughly dependent on the AP class, e.g. math or science for engineering or a science degree, I would advise not taking the credit.

[TwiceHorn 31440]

2 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

So I've got a bit of time this morning, I think a discussion about applications, particular for the few with super high performing student. In essence, you should look at applying to school with 3 classes of schools in mind (although there are two subclasses), that I will introduce at the end:

Safety-Kids test and gpa are better than 75% of the students in the freshman profile.

Match-Kid matchs the 25%-75% scores (the closer to 75%, the better your chances)

Reach-Your kid is 25% or below.

All the schools should be categorized into these 3 categories, and depending on your willingness to eat a lot of application fees, you can stick as many or as few as possible, although you don't need a reach if none is financially viable or don't appeal to your kid, but you need to be realistic about your kids chances.  If UTSA is a reach, then list it as such, even if you feel your kid should/can do better.  As @Longhornfan1024 mentioned you should ALWAYS have a safety, even if that's community college.    Indeed, a 4th class is Deep Safety school:  Something instate your child will almost certainly get into and presents a relatively affordable option.  There's also a sub class of reach:  Lottery.  Schools that are almost certainly a reject, but fuck it, let's apply anyway. 

Unless you are  Malala Yousafzai or a child of a huge donor, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT are ALWAYS a reach.  It's just a numbers game.

So for Boy #1, it looks like this:

Deep Safety: Towson State

Safety: VCU, Loyola Marymount, University of San Diego

Match: American, Trinity, Occidental, Richmond, UMD-CP

Reach: Tulane

Lottery: Claremont McKenna

Didn't realize Tulane was that competitive.

[Bateshorn 9927]

10 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Didn't realize Tulane was that competitive.

They've upped their game significantly post Katrina.  Also, they yield protect very aggressively.  If you don't show appropriate interest, they will wait list you, even if you look like a slam dunk.

[DCLonghorn 244]

On 7/27/2019 at 8:26 AM, Bateshorn said:

Speaking as a coastal elite, we don’t confuse Texas with Arkansas or Oklahoma.  You certainly will not get the much desired “ooh,  that’s a good school!” upon mentioning you’re a Sooner.

As a MD resident I look very jealously at the VA System, with its broad range of Elite, Land Grant, Commuter, and Public Liberal Arts programs. It’s pretty much college park or bust here.  The fall off after UMD-CP, unless you want to do STEM, is really severe.  I think Boy #1 will get in college park,  but he doesn’t want to go to a school that big and it’s not a slam dunk.  If not, his deep safety instate is.......Towson.   ☹️

UMBC is getting better and better pretty fast.  Like everywhere else...all ships rise when the top is restricted.

I am glad of the Virginia options, but it's no less stressful.  Kid #1 is a rising senior in NoVa, and kid #2 is a rising junior.  HERE IT COMES!  Virginia is tough because their top 2 publics have kept student body numbers way way low when the rest of the country let their flagships and land grant schools get bigger and bigger.

UVa has 16.5k undergrads total.  I had an English 101 class at UT with more students!  William and Mary has 6,300 undergrads!  That makes it tough in Virginia.  VTech has 27k, but they are busting at the seems and are housing freshman in hotels and offering cash to defer.

WTF is early admission?!?  I thought I was unregarded and knew a thing or two about helping the kids get into colleges, but had never heard of this.  Was this around in the 90s?  Also, the application clearinghouses...so different.  But that makes it so much easier to apply to more schools, adding to the craziness that is college admissions.

My boy is smart...AP classes and scores, good SAT, good extras...book smart. But then he came up to me with his phone, said he wanted to go for early admission at Stanford, but said he couldn't find the out-of-state cost.  So much work to do.  Apparently the boy isn't even reading the first line of the Wikipedia pages on these schools.  Sigh.

After months/years of research, visiting campuses, etc., his top 5 list looks exactly like every other Virginia kid's top 5.  Such a regionally focused game.  MD-CP is closer to us than any school he will apply to, but Virginians just don't cross that river!  And it's 5x more out-of-state.

The boy had hopes for UT, and I took him for a visit...but that's nearly impossible from out-of-state.

And add me as one more that would not even sniff UT acceptance now and enjoyed auto admit back in the day.

[Bateshorn 9927]

48 minutes ago, DCLonghorn said:

UMBC is getting better and better pretty fast.  Like everywhere else...all ships rise when the top is restricted.

WTF is early admission?!?  I thought I was unregarded and knew a thing or two about helping the kids get into colleges, but had never heard of this.  Was this around in the 90s?  Also, the application clearinghouses...so different.  But that makes it so much easier to apply to more schools, adding to the craziness that is college admissions.

My boy is smart...AP classes and scores, good SAT, good extras...book smart. But then he came up to me with his phone, said he wanted to go for early admission at Stanford, but said he couldn't find the out-of-state cost.  So much work to do.  Apparently the boy isn't even reading the first line of the Wikipedia pages on these schools.  Sigh.

After months/years of research, visiting campuses, etc., his top 5 list looks exactly like every other Virginia kid's top 5.  Such a regionally focused game.  MD-CP is closer to us than any school he will apply to, but Virginians just don't cross that river!  And it's 5x more out-of-state.

Early Action means you apply as soon as they accept applications and get an earlier answer.  Usually you need to have your application in by November 1, and you hear back by mid to late January. It is NON binding, meaning you don't have to go if you get in.  Many schools encourage early action and you have to do it to qualify for the best merit aid. If they don't want to accept/deny by late January, they may defer you into regular decision.

Early Decision means you promise to attend if they accept you. It's binding.  You also have to get your application complete by an early date (also usually 11/1), but you get an answer by mid December. It usually improves your chances of getting in (but not always, the Ivy's use it for legacies, donor kids, and athletes).

Both were around in the 90s when I was applying, but they've become much more prevalent.  If your kid likes a school, there's virtually no reason not to at least apply Early Action, unless you are REALLY hoping your 1st semester senior grades improve your GPA.  As the decision season goes on, schools become choosier and admission officers worn out.  Better to get in during the fall while eyes are fresh. 

Just make sure you know the difference between the two.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Bateshorn

[F250 28766]

On 7/27/2019 at 4:20 PM, DaysOff said:

Transfer to her sister. You'd only get the principal payments you put in the account back.

This. My oldest two sons were set up with these plans but my oldest is on an Air Force scholarship and doesn't need it so we ended up transferring it to my youngest son.

 

On 7/27/2019 at 4:37 PM, Bateshorn said:

Fucking A, man.  Congrats in one way.  Sorry in another.  Does Texas Tomorrow not have an option to roll the money over into a traditional 529?  I’m cooking up Chile Rellanos, otherwise I’d dig around on the site. 

Yes, this is an option.

[DaysOff 7947]

By the same token, if your degree curriculum is thoroughly dependent on the AP class, e.g. math or science for engineering or a science degree, I would advise not taking the credit.

Some programs won't even take the score. Make a 5, knock your self out, but you're taking our engineering calculus. That's why dual credit is where it's at.

[Bateshorn 9927]

42 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

By the same token, if your degree curriculum is thoroughly dependent on the AP class, e.g. math or science for engineering or a science degree, I would advise not taking the credit.

Some programs won't even take the score. Make a 5, knock your self out, but you're taking our engineering calculus. That's why dual credit is where it's at.

Yeah,  and liberal arts colleges rarely let you test out of anything other than science or math, you just get credits, and many will cap the amount you get. It's not like big state U where you can knock a couple of semesters off.  Instead you get 2 or 3 lower credit hour semesters.  I think I only had to take 3 classes a semester my senior year despite having several 4/5s.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Bateshorn

[BabaYaga 15289]

6 hours ago, chesthair said:

I'm just echoing others on here about how they let me in 30 years ago and he is 100X a better student than i was.  

My pops was studying in the law library when Whitman opened fire.  He was Valedictorian for a graduating class of 13 from bumble-fuck west Texas.  I was in the top 10% from a pipeline of academic assassins from McCallum learning geometry from my pitching coach and trying not to catch fly while breathing out of my mouth.

Now my poor kids, in hyper-competitive Frisco ISD.  They have to step up.  Daddy ain't paying for Tech or UNT.  

[Beau Vine 54209]

4 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

They've upped their game significantly post Katrina.  Also, they yield protect very aggressively.  If you don't show appropriate interest, they will wait list you, even if you look like a slam dunk.

This is true.  They also have $0 application fee  with the Common App so they get a shit-ton of applications that they can reject from students who show no interest, which makes them look more selective.

My daughter applied (34 ACT, lot of EC, 3rd in class) and got turned down, while they let in one of her classmates with a 30 ACT, no EC, ranked 20-something who campus visited/.  

[jimmyjazz 45893]

20 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

Early Decision means you promise to attend if they accept you. It's binding. 

Can you elaborate?  "Binding" implies some sort of contract, which would presumably include penalties if the contract is broken.

[relapse98 634]

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Can you elaborate?  "Binding" implies some sort of contract, which would presumably include penalties if the contract is broken.

Yes, that is in fact what it means. One part of filling out the early decision is that you agree that if they offer, you accept. The only out that I know of is that if you cannot afford to pay.
The penalties aren't like they are going to sue you, but if colleges find out that you early applied to more than 1 school, they could yank your application. Or if you decline a binding agreement, they could tell other schools.  The schools do sometimes share lists of students admitted through early decision.

[jimmyjazz 45893]

1 minute ago, relapse98 said:

Yes, that is in fact what it means. One part of filling out the early decision is that you agree that if they offer, you accept. The only out that I know of is that if you cannot afford to pay.
The penalties aren't like they are going to sue you, but if colleges find out that you early applied to more than 1 school, they could yank your application. Or if you decline a binding agreement, they could tell other schools.  The schools do sometimes share lists of students admitted through early decision.

Yeah, I found a USN&WR article that lays it out.  It also adds that guidance counselors often tip schools off if they learn that kids are applying to more than one school Early Decision.

[Bateshorn 9927]

26 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, I found a USN&WR article that lays it out.  It also adds that guidance counselors often tip schools off if they learn that kids are applying to more than one school Early Decision.

 

29 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

Yes, that is in fact what it means. One part of filling out the early decision is that you agree that if they offer, you accept. The only out that I know of is that if you cannot afford to pay.
The penalties aren't like they are going to sue you, but if colleges find out that you early applied to more than 1 school, they could yank your application. Or if you decline a binding agreement, they could tell other schools.  The schools do sometimes share lists of students admitted through early decision.

This.  "They" talk, particularly elite schools; you can be damn sure the WashU or Carelton admissions offices shares their early decision list with the Ivy's so anybody trying to play the system gets caught.

The only out you possibly have is if the finances are unpossible and you choose to go to local state U instead.  Then they would probably release you.  But you would have to work with both schools pretty extensively to pull this off. 

Edited July 31, 2019 by Bateshorn

[jimmyjazz 45893]

The finance thing seems pretty inarguable, unless you also commit to accepting an offer if it includes $X of financial aid.  

At any rate, we're still learning all this stuff.  It looks like UT doesn't offer, nor do most schools my daughter is looking at, save Northwestern and TCU.  Appreciate the info.

[tbone_ 14113]

Wonder how demographics are going to affect all this. Millennials are almost past college age. When they get there, there’s a huge drop off in college age kids for a while.

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

That's a good question. Some of the private schools with smaller endowments are having trouble as it is, so how it plays out will be interesting.

[DCLonghorn 244]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Can you elaborate?  "Binding" implies some sort of contract, which would presumably include penalties if the contract is broken.

And it sounds like high school counselors will also help enforce.  Since you generally sign the "contract" in front of that counselor, that they have to sign too, if they send off your transcript to your Early Admission school, they will then NOT send your paperwork to the second school later if you try to renege.

I too wondered how on earth this could be enforced.  Sounds like the enrollment mafia takes care of it.  High school counselors want to be popular with the cooler college admission counselors, and your kid will be ghosting from that high school shortly.

And all the advice on my end is that if you want financial aid, early admission is not for you.  From the school perspective, Early Admission is for the kids that are no brainers that can afford the tuition.  And cynically, why would a school offer an aid to a kid that is "contractually" obligated to attend.  They got you.

Edited July 31, 2019 by DCLonghorn

[Bateshorn 9927]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

The finance thing seems pretty inarguable, unless you also commit to accepting an offer if it includes $X of financial aid.  

At any rate, we're still learning all this stuff.  It looks like UT doesn't offer, nor do most schools my daughter is looking at, save Northwestern and TCU.  Appreciate the info.

It's unusual at most public's.  As I mentioned, it can give you a bump in admissions at selective schools, but it doesn't help you at the Ivy's and top flight LAC.  They don't have a shortage of qualified candidates and don't have to commit early.   I blew my early decision on Brown when it probably would have gotten me into Middlebury.  #stillbitter

Also:

Early Admission=Not Binding

Early Decision=Binding.

It's not so much that college counselors want to be cool, it's that top flight high schools are judged on their college admissions and smoozing the Admission's reps is a crucial component of the game.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Bateshorn

[Bateshorn 9927]

58 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

That's a good question. Some of the private schools with smaller endowments are having trouble as it is, so how it plays out will be interesting.

We are looking at endowments for Boy #1.  I don't want his school going tits up 10 years after graduation.

[Beau Vine 54209]

6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Can you elaborate?  "Binding" implies some sort of contract, which would presumably include penalties if the contract is broken.

Yeah, when we went through that, I wondered how in the hell that's enforceable.  You're also not supposed to apply ED to more than one school. 

Some of the better schools will let you out of an ED decision if you choose a state school in your home state, IIRC.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Beau Vine

[Beau Vine 54209]

5 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

 

"They" talk, particularly elite schools; you can be damn sure the WashU or Carelton admissions offices shares their early decision list with the Ivy's so anybody trying to play the system gets caught.

That would actually be illegal.  The Justice Department has gotten on the Ivies about sharing info in the fairly recent past.  

Edited July 31, 2019 by Beau Vine

[Bozo_Casanova 26438]

We are looking at endowments for Boy #1.

is phrasing still a thing?

[ztejas 43414]

On 7/30/2019 at 10:52 AM, Asithappens said:

Boys aren't going/applying?

This. Most vocations along with out-of-high-school military service are simply much more male friendly, and there aren't any roadblocks anymore for females to attend college. Girls aren't rolling the dice on becoming plumbers or electricians or joining the navy (although obviously more women serve than ever before, but it's still male dominated). 

Boys that don't go to college have a more diverse set of attractive options than girls. You can call it sexist or whatever you want but that's just the way it is. 

[Bateshorn 9927]

17 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

is phrasing still a thing?

Why start now?

[Bateshorn 9927]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

That would actually be illegal.  The Justice Department has gotten on the Ivies about sharing info in the fairly recent past.  

I don’t disagree.  Yet........it works out somehow. Weird. 🤷‍♂️ 

[jimmyjazz 45893]

2 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Yeah, when we went through that, I wondered how in the hell that's enforceable.  You're also not supposed to apply ED to more than one school. 

I question the validity of the strategy in the first place.  If your dream school has an ED program, fine, but otherwise it would seem a little foolish to commit to attending a school that's not your favorite just because they say "yes".

[Bateshorn 9927]

26 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I question the validity of the strategy in the first place.  If your dream school has an ED program, fine, but otherwise it would seem a little foolish to commit to attending a school that's not your favorite just because they say "yes".

Yup.

[chitwood 155]

Sitting in a pub in Northfield, Minnesota at the moment. About 75 degrees and gorgeous. Checking out Carleton and St Olaf tomorrow with daughter. Small town but very cool. Probably a little different in January. 

[tx 3 putt 76880]

4 hours ago, chitwood said:

Probably a little different in January. 

Bingo !

[jimmyjazz 45893]

Did anybody here attend Tulane, or perhaps have any info about the school?  Pretty good academics (1410 average SAT, 32 average ACT).  For some reason, my daughter has it in her head that Tulane is her dream school.  I'm not at all against her applying, and we can drive over for a tour/interview, but I thought I'd find out if anyone here has any direct experience.

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Most AP English teachers can suck a dick. A smart kid can knock out their math and science homework in maybe 30 minutes for each class. Social studies might give you some light reading a couple times a week. AP Spanish will give you some vocab or worksheets. Here comes AP English teacher assigning 10 chapters of Wuthering Heights and 3 essays by Thursday. English seemed to have the greatest delta in workload between the honors/AP vs on-level versions of the class. 

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Did anybody here attend Tulane, or perhaps have any info about the school?  Pretty good academics (1410 average SAT, 32 average ACT).  For some reason, my daughter has it in her head that Tulane is her dream school.  I'm not at all against her applying, and we can drive over for a tour/interview, but I thought I'd find out if anyone here has any direct experience.

It's in NOLA.  I wonder why she wants to go there.

[jimmyjazz 45893]

Just now, Longhornfan1024 said:

It's in NOLA.  I wonder why she wants to go there.

Well, she does love NOLA . . . and she will be double majoring including music, so yeah.

[jimmyjazz 45893]

8 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Most AP English teachers can suck a dick. A smart kid can knock out their math and science homework in maybe 30 minutes for each class. Social studies might give you some light reading a couple times a week. AP Spanish will give you some vocab or worksheets. Here comes AP English teacher assigning 10 chapters of Wuthering Heights and 3 essays by Thursday. English seemed to have the greatest delta in workload between the honors/AP vs on-level versions of the class. 

Which HS?  I've seen AP Physics get pretty insane.  Summer assignments on AP English, too, I have to admit.

[mchookem 16324]

necrobump, but i can't find a more suitable thread...

anybody know financial aid rules...specifically, can grants/scholarships be applied to off-campus housing, food, living, books, etc.? 

niece is sophomore UNT and is killing it, they are basically throwing money at her next year (~10K/semester).

the 'issue' (if you can call it that lol) is that she has a TTF so all tuition and fees are already covered.

she got some aid her freshman year (2020-2021) but we did have to kick in a few thousand/semester to cover housing/books/etc...but she is moving off campus in the fall. if she gets everything they're offering next year and can use it, she'll basically have a free ride (and we won't have to spend any extra ding ding!) 

she has asked the FA office but they just replied with some generic 'it will be applied during the academic year'...

i received a few grants at UT and i never lived on campus, i seem to recall them just sending me a check that i could use for whatever...but that was a long time ago ☺️

she's following up with the office to try and get a better answer but thought i'd ask smart guys here who have kids in college...