struggling with FAFSA! It is almost impossible to do without having had your taxes done first, but I won't be able to get them done until APRIL, and the FAFSA is due Feb. 15! So everything will be "best guesstimates" again, and then I'll have to submit an amended version ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went to Amherst for the 25th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast. This event, held at the middle school, was started by a local black woman to raise money for scholarships for African American graduating high school seniors. I think they said they've given money to 68 students over the years. I went for the first time last year ( Read more... )

was coming from me! I just spent a long time trying to locate the FAFSA folder from last year. FOUND IT! Whew! So for future reference for me, it is on the top shelf of the kitchen bookshelf, rubber-banded to the Suffolk folder ( Read more... )

Samurai's dorm had a mock election yesterday. The Young Republicans who share a suite on her floor removed most of the Obama votes from the ballot box on the resident adviser's door, and stuffed it with McCain ballots. And THEN someone else stole the ballot box itself, so her floor doesn't even get credit for participating in the mock election.

Suffolk University (in Boston) told incoming freshmen last spring that housing info would be sent out in mid-July. It was delayed repeatedly (I called a poor work-study student in Residence Life office twice this month, worried it had gotten lost in the mail -- and while I personally did not drive him nuts, he probably got many calls like mine).

( Read more... )

The Universe was smiling on us yesterday... today it is cold and damp and dark and snowing again, but yesterday, when we faced hours of driving and lots of walking, it was beautiful, sunny and, the closer we got to Boston, warmer, too! The grass was actually starting to turn green there, and I saw forsythia blooming! *faints*

I drove us on the Mass ( Read more... )

We visited Suffolk University today, and I think it will be great for Samurai. I'm very impressed, and having driven both ways and hiked all over the "campus" (which is really a number of buildings scattered all around the Boston Beacon Hill area, not a contiguous "campus" like one usually imagines), I am also beat ( Read more... )

Tomorrow we're going to the Suffolk University open house for incoming first-years and parents. We have to register between 10:45 - 11:15 in a hall at Suffolk Law School. Because I have the energy-efficient Prius, I'm driving. Plan is to leave here a little after 8 a.m. and park at the end of the Green Line -D (there are several Green lines) in ( Read more... )

Samurai just got an email from Northeastern University saying an admission packet was on its way. A year ago this time, Northeastern was her first choice -- and still was until just a month or so ago. It's flattering that she made the cut. (On paper, she looked right in the middle of what they were looking for.) We'll have to see if their "lettuce ( Read more... )

OK, so both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile will need to be "corrected" once I have exact figures for profit, loss, taxes paid (I usually get a big refund because I pay my self-employment tax on the high side, to be safe.). There is no way I could do my taxes myself. And the earliest I could get an appointment with my preparer is March 17 ( Read more... )