Crazier than I thought!

We met with Aidan's school's college counselor yesterday afternoon. It made me want to encourage Aidan to go into swordmaking. (One day he said he thought it would be neat to make swords. I'm ready to pay for the forge!)

Here, in no particular order, are the reasons:
-- UT has a VERY NARROW acceptance "window." This is partly because the state mandates that every state school has to automatically accept anyone who applies who was in the top 10% of their school (UT managed to talk them into 8% for themselves). So even though I cannot possibly imagine why anyone would turn Aidan away, it's entirely plausible that it could happen. One reason is because they often have "quotas" (though they won't use that word) to encourage diversity. So you really, really have to stand out on your application/essays/letters of recommendation.

-- There are high schools in the state of Texas whose focus is on "diversity" who are trying their durndest to get illegal immigrant kids into the state universities. Regardless of the fact that I believe we should treat illegals with dignity and not throw 'em all back over the fence immediately, this bugs the heck out of me. My child is a citizen of the United States. He is a citizen of the State of Texas. Therefore, he has the right to be admitted to any school in this state. Illegals do not. I have no problem with them applying as international students, but do not take my child's (or any other citizen's) chance away in the name of "diversity."

-- The admissions departments of the big schools take an average of SEVEN MINUTES with each application. Some of the apps get thrown out immediately if there are things on there that don't fit whatever it is the school is looking for in the freshman class for the next year. I.e., if they're trying to score kids who are the first in their family to go to college, the kids whose parents have gone to college may get thrown out without a second look. Likewise, if the kids are white and they're going for "diversity." Etc. I'm not making this up.

-- Aidan will spend hours agonizing over the essays he has to write. The people who are hired as essay readers may chuck his essay after the first paragraph if it doesn't grab them somehow. Never mind that the rest of the essay may be stellar, unique and amazing.

-- Aidan missed out on being valedictorian (i.e. the top 8%) by a couple of hundredths of a point. As I mentioned in the last post, if he'd been valedictorian (by the end of last year), he would have gotten automatic entry into UT. And, I didn't know this until yesterday, he would also have had his first year of tuition paid. AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Seriously, the whole thing is just overwhelming to me. Thankfully Aidan is much younger, stronger and can focus better than this old menopausal woman.

I really, really just want to ignore all this right now, but we can't. He needs to get these apps in SOON. And he needs to visit the appropriate departments at UT. And we need to start finding scholarships to sign up for. There is no way we can pay for his college education without scholarships. Or taking out a huge loan.

If you're so inclined, please pray for us! We want what's very best for Aidan, we want God's will for him. I'd like to find that without losing my sanity in the process.