Woohoo!!!

I check my email, and there it is... "On behalf of the Park Scholarship Program, I would like to congratulate you on being selected as a finalist yada yada yada."

This is incredible... I'm now guaranteed $2,500 per year for four years ($10,000 over the entire time for the math challenged =P) which is roughly ten percent of the total cost for an out of state student. What is more important is the fact that this places me in a group of the top 100 to 120 students who applied.

Holy Cow, Dairy Farm!

If I'm placed in the top one hundred or so students in a school that has 27,000 undergraduate students, I must have done something right along the way. All the stress, boredom, hate, angst, tiredness, and ridonkulosity are finally paying off.

February 15: Drive to Raleigh, play piano at my Grandma's retirement home for the afternoon.
February 16: Enjoy the morning and afternoon, dinner with the other finalists.
February 17: Day full of interviews and "group activities" with other finalists, head over to a dorm in the evening, spend the evening with a current Park Scholar.
February 18: Head home.

If I can get the $5,000 a year scholarship from the engineering department, that will end up taking my tuition from about $27,000 a year (incidentals included) to around $19,500 a year. Getting really close to being feasible. I have $75,000 in my college fund (thank you parents, thank you), so I'm almost there!

Today is a good day. March 1 I find out if I actually got the scholarship or not; that's also the first day of the Richmond Regional for Robotics. NC State may be receiving a deposit accepting my acceptance very soon... very soon.

So happy!