As you read this issue of The Beazler everything may seem backward. I couldn't find a way to reorder the posts once I finished them and it felt strange to write them in reverse order. Luckily you can read them in whatever order suits your fancy.
I've been telling myself I need to write on the blog put I kept putting it off. Today seemed like a good time because things have come together in a way. I guess I can call this the USD issue, I think I will. All the entries have something to do with the University of South Dakota.
Blind as Eye Look Photography (that's me) took Andrea's senior pictures earlier this month. We went to Stately Oakes Plantation the reported inspiration for Tara in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. We enjoyed turing the house and seeing the grounds. Here is a link to the Smugmug gallery. http://www.blindaseyelook.com/Portraits/Andreas-Senior-Pictures/ Those of us in the Atlanta area email blindaseyelook@live.com if you'd like portraits taken.
As soon as I knew Andrea had been accepted to USD I made a master list. Things to do before she leaves, financing ideas, lists of what to take, what she already has, and the costs there of, both estimated and actual. I know, I'm anal retentive, detail oriented, and probably OCD. I remind you; I planned and executed our move from Arkansas to Georgia all by myself and had no, count them ZERO, snafu, or is it snafus? When August the something rolls around next year I will have done all I can to make it happen. And if it happens I bet it will be smooth.
Our candy bar sales started out slowly. We got our candy the same time as the elementary schools around here got theirs. I won't lie; I was perturbed. I'll tell you why. The last time I say a school selling candy bars you could buy directly from the kids was back when Holiday was in the sixth grade. That would have been at least ten years ago. Until this year the kids have been taking orders and delivering months later. The good thing is we plan to sell until it gets too hot next Spring.
It is so nice be be able to get up and go when we please. Andrea's having her driver's license has been wonderful. We don't go as much as I expected because of gas prices this summer but it has been nice.
Hopefully I will stay on the once a month schedule for The Beazler.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Online Scholarship Search Frustration
"Has anyone won a scholarship offered through Fastweb?" I saw asked somewhere online. I don't know but we went through the process. We answered all their profile questions and VIOLA! seven pages of "matches" were found. I was feeling elated. By the time I finished looking at page seven I was feeling just pretty good. Some of Andrea's "matches" we for graduate students, law students, students attending a particular school, employees of the XYZ company, or some other criteria not listed on her profile. Now throw out the ones that say sighn up with us for a chance to win..., take a photo or make a video and get likes, and you're down to the ones that can be tried for. Because I like to start early I found may sites with last years information still posted. That is gradually changing.
I asked my oldest daughter if she knew of any good sites to check other than Fastweb. She said Fastweb was the best one. Doing more research made me a believer. Google has many entries for scholarship searches; most of them crap. Some send spam, others call you milliseconds after you click on the submit button for more information, and I even found one that wanted money; in this day and age.
How many of you have hear about scholarships for all kinds of weird categories? Me too. We must not be weird enough. I thought surly I'd find scholarships that fit more of our strange categories in some way. Where are the scholarships for children who lost a parent, children of left-handed, legally blind photographers, Children who volunteered in the Bishop's Storehouse but aren't attending BYU, children who are the go to person in the neighborhood when someone has some IKEA to be assembled, person who got all her points for parallel parking on the road test, drove across country five days after getting her license, last and definately least had five different hair colors in less than a year. Tongue and cheek, sure, but they do advertize scholarships for odd ball things. We only have homeschooled biracial student to help stand out in the crowd.
Andrea will probably want to make mush out of me after the ACT. Part of English time and Fridays will be devoted to a master essay. When it is finished she can copy and paste the relevent parts into these scholarship applications we find on Fastweb.
Please keep your eyes and ears open for scholarship offerings out there. I hope we can make this happen.
I asked my oldest daughter if she knew of any good sites to check other than Fastweb. She said Fastweb was the best one. Doing more research made me a believer. Google has many entries for scholarship searches; most of them crap. Some send spam, others call you milliseconds after you click on the submit button for more information, and I even found one that wanted money; in this day and age.
How many of you have hear about scholarships for all kinds of weird categories? Me too. We must not be weird enough. I thought surly I'd find scholarships that fit more of our strange categories in some way. Where are the scholarships for children who lost a parent, children of left-handed, legally blind photographers, Children who volunteered in the Bishop's Storehouse but aren't attending BYU, children who are the go to person in the neighborhood when someone has some IKEA to be assembled, person who got all her points for parallel parking on the road test, drove across country five days after getting her license, last and definately least had five different hair colors in less than a year. Tongue and cheek, sure, but they do advertize scholarships for odd ball things. We only have homeschooled biracial student to help stand out in the crowd.
Andrea will probably want to make mush out of me after the ACT. Part of English time and Fridays will be devoted to a master essay. When it is finished she can copy and paste the relevent parts into these scholarship applications we find on Fastweb.
Please keep your eyes and ears open for scholarship offerings out there. I hope we can make this happen.
Financing USD
Thank goodness we have almost a year to make this happen. The University of South Dakota has very reasonable tuition; even for out of state students. "If you're going to pay out of state tuition pay it to South Dakota," is still my mantra. Paying tuition anywhere is bad enough but there's also room, board, transportation, supplies, and in our case, winter clothes. (I've been told by several and I believe them; wait until she gets there to buy winter clothes.) The jury is out when it comes to engine block warmers, snow tires and/or chains. I'd welcome any advice about those.
Now we're looking to finance this venture. I know the Pell Grant, work study, and the federal student loan won't cover everything. Andrea is looking for a better job, We've been making lists of scholarships to apply for, selling candy bars, and set up a You Fund Me account. After she was accepted to USD I changed the color scheme on the site to match USD's CoYOTE colors, red and white. Here is the link to Andrea's GoFundMe page. http://www.gofundme.com/bsswgc There is also a banner at the bottom of this page.
The Universality of South Dakota has some school scholarships as well. Most are contingent on ACT/SAT scores and whether you applied for admission before a certain date. I know we made the application deadline, now for the ACT scores. I had been using Fridays as test prep day; now part of everyday will be devoted to test prep until until ACT test time next month.
"Admission without test scores?" I hear you asking. I was surprised too. Andrea's admissions counselor explained they admit students based on their transcript is their GPA is high enough. He said they use standardized test scores to determine in school scholarship eligibility for those students and math and English placement for all incoming Freshmen.
Our goal is to get a high enough ACT score for as many in school scholarships as possible..
Now we're looking to finance this venture. I know the Pell Grant, work study, and the federal student loan won't cover everything. Andrea is looking for a better job, We've been making lists of scholarships to apply for, selling candy bars, and set up a You Fund Me account. After she was accepted to USD I changed the color scheme on the site to match USD's CoYOTE colors, red and white. Here is the link to Andrea's GoFundMe page. http://www.gofundme.com/bsswgc There is also a banner at the bottom of this page.
The Universality of South Dakota has some school scholarships as well. Most are contingent on ACT/SAT scores and whether you applied for admission before a certain date. I know we made the application deadline, now for the ACT scores. I had been using Fridays as test prep day; now part of everyday will be devoted to test prep until until ACT test time next month.
"Admission without test scores?" I hear you asking. I was surprised too. Andrea's admissions counselor explained they admit students based on their transcript is their GPA is high enough. He said they use standardized test scores to determine in school scholarship eligibility for those students and math and English placement for all incoming Freshmen.
Our goal is to get a high enough ACT score for as many in school scholarships as possible..
Applying To USD
After our visit to the University of South Dakota Andrea decided that is where she wants to attend college. She liked Vermillion because she likes small towns. Despite being small the town was vibrant,and the people were friendly.
We continued to peruse their website and learn more about South Dakota. Google became my friend when it came to finding facts not readily findable on their website. Google found the requirements for admissions for homeschooled students for me. The only difference was I had to show papers proving homeschooling for each year I homeschooled. Easy.
I got all the ducks in a row and told Andrea to apply Early. They start accepting applications after Junior year. I wanted t have plenty of time to answer any questions the admissions office may have about her homeschool career. Andrea mailed the application and we prepared to wait.
A couple weeks ago Andrea ran downstairs yelling about getting accepted into USD. I started babbling about not getting a letter. Our neighbors who were visiting reminded me that everything is done electronically these days. Andrea said the email stated a letter would be coming. We all praised Andrea and Andrea and I jumped up an down.
Tuesday we had an appointment to speak with Andrea's admissions counselor. We were able to get all our current questions answered. Everything still looks good and we are still excited. I think the best pieces of new were she can register for classes over the phone and Freshman Orientation takes place once they move in. No need to budget for an extra trip for orientation.
We continued to peruse their website and learn more about South Dakota. Google became my friend when it came to finding facts not readily findable on their website. Google found the requirements for admissions for homeschooled students for me. The only difference was I had to show papers proving homeschooling for each year I homeschooled. Easy.
I got all the ducks in a row and told Andrea to apply Early. They start accepting applications after Junior year. I wanted t have plenty of time to answer any questions the admissions office may have about her homeschool career. Andrea mailed the application and we prepared to wait.
A couple weeks ago Andrea ran downstairs yelling about getting accepted into USD. I started babbling about not getting a letter. Our neighbors who were visiting reminded me that everything is done electronically these days. Andrea said the email stated a letter would be coming. We all praised Andrea and Andrea and I jumped up an down.
Tuesday we had an appointment to speak with Andrea's admissions counselor. We were able to get all our current questions answered. Everything still looks good and we are still excited. I think the best pieces of new were she can register for classes over the phone and Freshman Orientation takes place once they move in. No need to budget for an extra trip for orientation.
A Great Summer
If wish I could figure out how to have these posts appear in the order of my choosing. I'll give it another try and hope for the best.
The last time I wrote Andrea was getting ready to take her road test. Well, SHE PASSED!!! She got a 90% on it. They took of eight points for taking two attempts to back into a spot and only two points for speeding. She got all her points on parallel parking.
We learned the Streets And Trips maps were so out of date we didn't dare trust them. We sprung for a GPS with free up-datable maps and the screen changes when it's time to change highways so you can get a better idea of what's ahead. Our initial itenary got cut down quite a bit. We visited ASB, relatives, and USD.
We'd planned to leave the morning of June 26th after rush hour. We were just about packed the morning of the 25th. We kept telling ourselves we wish it was tomorrow and we wish we could leave now. We decided there was no reason to wait. Andrea remembered she was waiting for the mailman. We said if the mailman runs before 3:00 we'll leave today. The mail came just after noon and by 1:30 we were on the road.
After reading several websites about homeschooling I discovered that homeschool students can earn a high school diploma. I'll leave it at that so I don't bore you with all the details. I figured a high school diploma from homeschool is more desirable than a GED. I spend time coming up with curicula, ordering materials, viewing websites, and making lesson plans. Andrea worked sporatically at Panera Bread and job junting, sleeping, and hanging out with the neighbor kids.
The last time I wrote Andrea was getting ready to take her road test. Well, SHE PASSED!!! She got a 90% on it. They took of eight points for taking two attempts to back into a spot and only two points for speeding. She got all her points on parallel parking.
We learned the Streets And Trips maps were so out of date we didn't dare trust them. We sprung for a GPS with free up-datable maps and the screen changes when it's time to change highways so you can get a better idea of what's ahead. Our initial itenary got cut down quite a bit. We visited ASB, relatives, and USD.
We'd planned to leave the morning of June 26th after rush hour. We were just about packed the morning of the 25th. We kept telling ourselves we wish it was tomorrow and we wish we could leave now. We decided there was no reason to wait. Andrea remembered she was waiting for the mailman. We said if the mailman runs before 3:00 we'll leave today. The mail came just after noon and by 1:30 we were on the road.
From a Facebook post. Snippets from our trip. Left a day early and spent extra time with Mom. (Beazle) Visited relatives, friends, and old haunts in Little Rock. Had a blast down memory lane at the ASB Convention. Andrea made friends with my schoolmates kids and she wants to come back next year. Sparkles spend two nights at doggy daycare and enjoyed himself. We fell in love with Vermillion, South Dakota; beautiful little town, clean campus, friendly people everywhere, and Hyvee's muffins are do die for. Did the campus tour and got our Coyote gear. (Pronounced co-YOTE, Yote for short as in "Go Yotes!" Picked up Sparkles at another doggy daycare down not one but two dirt roads. Back to Mom's for a few days. Andrea went to the lake for the fourth and the mosquitos loved her. Went to church at my old ward. We saw more of rural Texas than I ever thought existed on the way to Ennis. Don't know why the GPS didn't send us through Dallas. Got to visit with lots of Edwin's family. The trip back home was long. A full stretch back to Decatur. Went through Shreveport and saw the worst rush hour traffic we've ever driven through. Atlanta has nothing on Shreveport when it comes to rush hour traffic. That was the only time Andrea said she was scared.
After reading several websites about homeschooling I discovered that homeschool students can earn a high school diploma. I'll leave it at that so I don't bore you with all the details. I figured a high school diploma from homeschool is more desirable than a GED. I spend time coming up with curicula, ordering materials, viewing websites, and making lesson plans. Andrea worked sporatically at Panera Bread and job junting, sleeping, and hanging out with the neighbor kids.
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