I've spent a lot of time in my living room at my desk working on my part-time job. I knew that I would have to do this, but it's been more work than expected. My job is to get Calvin into college and get him $. Getting him in is no problem--straight As and perfect test scores in everything but English make it easy. It's getting the big bucks that is a chore.
My living room is nice, although it is unfinished. Here is the electrician who looks like Jude the Actor. I couldn't get a good photo of his face; I didn't want to scare him. His job was to lower the light.
Calvin wants to go to a small engineering school. He's gotten into Rose-Hulman and Kettering, but they are only offering $18,000 to $20,000 per year. R-H is $54,000 per year, so it's not really enough. Kettering is a better deal. R-H is his #1 choice, probably because he spent 2+ weeks there last summer. He also got into Missouri Science and Tech and was offered $7,000 per year. Then Valpo offered him $17,000 per year on a bill of $42,000 per yr. Getting better.
(My desk on the left. Blue Man, who just came to live with us. My Star Trek chair. It's a happy corner.)
We were disappointed in the #s, so I started searching. I compared the list of schools that offer big bucks to National Merit Scholars with the list of highly ranked engineering schools. Calvin wants to dual degree in applied math and mechanical engineering (big surprise there!). I found three schools on both lists. He has now applied to Baylor, and they have a really good offer for him: $35,000 on a yearly bill of $50,000. The U of Evansville is offereing him free tuition (per a phone conversation). He is also waiting for responses from Washington U in St Louis and MIT.
He's up for a big scholarship at Washington U, but I doubt that MIT will offer anything. It's $55,000 per year. 20% of eligible candidates get accepted, so he'll be lucky to be one of those. For MIT, he had to do a face-to-face interview with an alum who lives in our town. They spent an hour together. Calvin was lucky enough to get really good questions that show how well-rounded he is when he's not spending 14 hours per day playing video games.
So that's my part-time job, and it is so very close to being done. One more thing for Baylor and I can retire. In the meantime, I'll be calling my Aunt Toni for her tips on getting $ for smart kids. She's a pro at it.
I'd like to know why I look older with short hair and he looks younger. Not fair. The line-up at hippy church:
Someone doesn't like the paprazzi. And someone else didn't like her bracelet, so Pompey ended up with a new collar. It will look a lot better once he gets a trim.
Dress-up magnetic Einstein is a lot of fun. We'll miss him next yr when he goes off to college with Calvin.
Pompey spent the evening on my lap. I'm always idle on Christmas Eve because I never have any presents to open. Calm, tired Pompey ended up with Buddha on his head, and Buddha never fell because Pompey never moved.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. On the left, Lucy's little socklet. On the right, Isabelle's striped, Calvin's dress sock from his military school days, and Freddy's tiny felt. They were all loaded with candy by the morning.
