I'm so proud of my son. He has persevered through 2 years of community college. Three of those semesters were at home because Covid19 shut in person classes. This was a difficult transition, but I was home to help and he succeeded after much hard work! Community college is a great transition to university and living away from home.
I'm extra proud that the University of Maryland has accepted him because it has become a selective university within the last decade. The average grade point average of a high school senior is a 4.1! He did well in high school, with a B average, but not well enough for the flagship state university.
However, his community college work has earned him a 3.5 and has proven that he can excel in college level coursework and he got in through the back door! The transfer student door. Plus, community college was much less expensive, only about $5000 a year.
UMD costs about $11,000 a year which isn't terrible, but room and board is more than tuition at $13,000! So about $24,000 for an in state school. It's no different at less selective state universities either because he was accepted to another and it was about the same.
He was also accepted to Penn State, but out of state tuition is really unaffordable. We got an acceptance offer at $39,000.
He has a few small scholarships that will roll over for four years and has applied and was interviewed for a big boy worth about $9,000, but it is competitive. He is applying for anything he can get his hands on.
This is even more poignant for me because he was a firecracker as a kid and school was not easy. I regularly got calls from teachers in elementary school. He finally got diagnosed with ADHD (no surprise - his father and I both probably had it, we had similar school behavior, but there was no diagnosis back then). And also anxiety disorder, but with appropriate treatment and help from the schools, with a 504 plan, he has succeeded! He works extra hard for it, but he has done it!
This means I have scaffolded things for him and have been handing over responsibility to him steadily. He now keeps up with school deadlines, plans out his assignments, works part time and volunteers on weekends. He gets himself up and fed every morning. He is responsible about going to sleep at a decent time. He has maintained personal hygiene without prompting, but has given up doing his laundry. He will have to figure that out when living on campus!
So proud of him and so glad he is getting his degree directly after high school.