I think Lucy grew up and went to work for Millsaps College in the Admissions and Financial Aid departments—and I feel like Charlie Brown.

Part of the reason I asked Devin to apply to so many colleges (31: apparently a Fairview High School record) was so that he’d have lots of options. After visiting a bunch of them, we finally settled on Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. A number of factors entered into the decision, but we basically gave Devin a choice of about five that were all within about $3,000 bottom-line price after all of the scholarships and financial aid packages were awarded.

Millsaps was the highest of those schools in that ball park, but we also had one more potential scholarship–a theater scholarship–still left to get; and we were all but guaranteed to get at least something. After going through a lot of work to put together a video audition in the midst of the terrible Tennessee flooding, he was awarded the full amount ($3,000)—at which time the financial aid office reduced his need-based aid by the exact same amount.

We were told the last time he had multiple merit scholarships that “the merit-based and need-based scholarships are different pools of money,” which was the rationale for why the merit-based awards he received couldn’t stack–he had to choose one or the other–but that the need-based were separate from those. Lie #1. When we let them know we were within a few thousand dollars of being able to afford Millsaps, we were told that the theater scholarship money would be on top of the other awards. Lie #1.

And here’s the real kicker as a part of his new theater “scholarship”: Devin now has to be involved in every production whether he’s enrolled in theater classes or not (even during football season), and his GPA minimum requirement is higher, too–yet he doesn’t have any more money from the school.

Also, Devin had already declined the other schools’ awards and put down a deposit to attend Millsaps. But I don’t trust them anymore, so I think I’m going to open it up again; we’ll see how it goes.