College

Our daughter Courtney is a senior in High School and therefore, it means the stress of looking for, applying to and waiting for responses from colleges is upon us.
I am amazed that throughout Mike's 8 years with this illness and living at home with us, both our children have excelled in school. Their recent progress report indicated all A's for each of them. This is truly unbelievable, considering all that they deal with on a daily basis.
Thankfully, Courtney has been accepted to 3 colleges so far: Fordham, Hofstra and Manhattanville. Fordham of course, is her first choice. The dilemma we have before us is financing college. She has already received a substantial scholarship to Hofstra with an invitation into their exclusive "Honor's College" (open only to about 150 students in each Freshman class). We have not heard anything about scholarships from the other two, although she WAS invited to a special over-night visit to Manhattanville where she would find out what she will get as far as a scholarship goes.
On the advice of a dear friend, I wrote to Fordham to explain our situation, and to see if there is anything they can do to assist us with tuition. There is no doubt that Courtney will receive some kind of scholarship and financial aid, I'm just not sure if it will cover the entire cost. At first I felt uncomfortable writing that letter, then I stopped short. If ANY student would be deserving of a good college education, then surely mine would be on the top of the list. They have proven over and over again, they can overcome even the worst of circumstances. Why should my children not be entitled to a college education just because they don't have a specific last name or skin color? They have worked so hard for so long, against TREMENDOUS ODDS and I will do anything I can to make sure their dreams come true.