The Road to College...or, "Are we there yet?"

Over the course of the past 6 months or so, Team WestEnders learned that the College Notification Season, if you will, means enduring a prolonged state of heightened excitement... mixed with no small amount of trepidation. While I believe that, technically, this period can last all the way until April 1st, it’s over for us, since Derek heard from his final school last week. (For the record: Virginia Tech, weighing in with an acceptance envelope that read “What’s a Hokie? You are!”) While it was undoubtedly pleasing to close the proverbial book on that whole experience, it didn’t change Derek’s firm Top 2 preferred universities, which have been South Carolina and JMU ever since he got into both of them, some time ago.

So for a while now, it’s just been a waiting game...to find out what--if any--scholarships and/or financial aid either of the contenders was going to offer...crunch the numbers once we have all the available information...and determine who’s going to pay for how much, basically. With both of his faves being out-of-state options, obviously their tuition was much higher than it would have been for a resident...or, say, if he'd prioritized any one of those lovely North Carolina schools that start with the letters U-N-C.

And Derek, of course, didn’t inherit his mother’s innate impatience (thank goodness), so he’s just been biding his time, calmly holding out for the day that he gets any kind of news through the...higher education grapevine...or whatever. Then, one afternoon in late February, he came...the only way I can describe it is “bounding” into the room where I was sitting, gesturing at me wildly, and stumbling over his words as he tried to rapidly say, “Mom...mom...just...come here, you’ve gotta c’mere right now!”

Whoa...you have to understand that this is an exorbitant amount of animation and...near-hysteria...from my typically low-key kid. But I was reassured by the fact that he seemed gleeful, rather than upset or scared, so I just got up from my chair and followed him into his bedroom, to get to the bottom of the commotion.Then, with an enormous grin on his face, he pointed to his own laptop and commanded, “There--read THAT!”

A quick glance revealed that it appeared to be an official letter of some kind, with the logo identifying the sender as the University of South Carolina. Congratulations on your acceptance, blah blah blah--yeah, we know all that. Scanning down a few sentences, though, I finally arrived at the important part... where it stated that they were prepared to provide Derek an academic scholarship...that would make his tuition equal to that of an in-state student. Ohhh….kaaay. NOW I could totally see why he was so hyped!

I must admit...I did some jumping around of my own, after reading the happy correspondence. And hugging, of course. And giving props for a job well done (with the irresistible, unspoken parental subtext of “See? We told you that hard work would pay off!”). It goes without saying that Derek was utterly delighted--to the point that he declared “This puts South Carolina back on top of the list!” (If you can even use that term….for a group of 2…) Of course, this is with the caveat that James Madison has yet to make its presence known, which we still assume will happen around April Fool’s Day (but hopefully NOT be a joke…).

Once that happens, one of two scenarios will unfold: either SC will win the money game outright, and Derek will declare himself a Gamecock and be perfectly content. Or...JMU will come up with a comparable package, putting the institutions back on level ground, and Derek will have some serious soul-searching to do, to choose one over the other. He’s set a tentative deadline of his birthday (in mid April) to decide, one way or the other--purple or “garnet”...Duke dog or...fighting...chicken? Either way, it’s a pleasant position to be in, at this point in his Senior year, yeah?

In the meantime, he’s also reached the conclusion that, since he attended an actual Admitted Students’ Day at J-Mad, he should do the same with USC...you know, just to feel like he can compare them head-to-head, and give each of them the same consideration when making his final selection. Therefore we’re headed down in a few weeks to spend a Saturday in Columbia, taking one final tour, wandering amongst the coeds...soaking in the southern hospitality....and drinking sweet tea. (Just kidding about that last part, but it sounded like it fit the image…)

As I keep telling myself, “Hang in there--the finish line is almost in sight!” (I mean, maybe if you close one eye, and squint the other, and tilt your head just so, and hold your breath, you’ll catch a glimpse of it…but it’s there, I swear!) In any case, stay tuned for a report...from the OTHER Carolina!