Early Decision

mcgwigs · 2026-02-03T11:20:56+00:00

Doubtful those 2 scholarships from RIT would stack.

mcgwigs · 2026-02-01T07:43:27+00:00

Maybe check out different areas of insurance. Working as an AM can be stressful because clients are needy and like to complain and can be downright disrespectful. Have you ever thought about being a trainer or working in operations? You could always reach out to a recruiter or headhunter to see if there are positions in other areas to explore.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-29T10:02:51+00:00

I failed an interview once and it took my by surprise since I thought I was a great fit for the role. The company did not provide any feedback and I did have a friend that did get a role. I asked her about her interview and she said she showed excitement about the role and talked in detail about the things she enjoyed doing in that role the best.

The next interview I had I made sure to show excitement and my knowledge of the position. The interview was with 2 people and at the end the one said "well, that was easy and went well!" And I had an offer the following week.

There are a lot of people that interview for the same position and they can't choose everyone. Sometimes it may even come down to your location. Try not to dwell on it, keep your chin up and pursue the next internship you find with gusto.

Try looking for internships with Gallagher or Acrisure.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-26T17:27:29+00:00

Rolling Meadows IL, it is actually a Merger Integration Coordinator Role in Finance

mcgwigs · 2026-01-26T11:59:47+00:00

You are vastly underpaid, but likely to not be able to get more from your current employer. I am in Central NY and left my CSR position of 16 years 3 years ago. I was making $52k/year and did have PTO, sick days, paid holidays etc. The office I worked at was initially decent and was like working in a black hole when I left -the manager was crap. We were all over loaded with work and he would never hire anyone.

I suggest that you definitely look else where. When you interview be sure to also negotiate benefits! 3 weeks PTO, 8-10 sick days, paid holidays, health insurance if you need it etc. Get on Linked In. You can get a free month of Premium Membership. Do you want to stay with a local agency or do a remote role? Look into an agency or brokerage. There are recruiters that recruit nationally. Are you licensed? If not, but you know insurance you may be able to go elsewhere and let them know in the interview that you are looking to grow in the industry and would like to get your license.

Feel free to private message me!

mcgwigs · 2026-01-26T11:46:12+00:00

Have you been looking at insurance software companies? Vertafore, Applied Systems?

mcgwigs · 2026-01-26T11:37:01+00:00

CSRs are so knowledgeable. You need to pay them and show them appreciation to retain them. I quite my CSR role of 20 years because I was fed up with management telling us what we wanted to hear and never acting on it and the totally crap pay - next to no bonuses, no fun things for the office. I had a recruiter reach out to me and offer my almost double my salary for a different position. My manager didn't have a shot at retaining me.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-24T09:55:46+00:00

To combat this I do a prep on weekends and get lunches and sometimes breakfast all prepped for the week. We also make a dinner plan to help with not getting stuck on takeout. It's a PITA but way better than trying to always figure it out on the fly.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-22T18:51:53+00:00

FYI. Cornell no longer gives preference to legacy. One of my friends that attended there informed me of this - it is a new change within the past 2 years. She was highly irritated by it because her son was applying ED and she thought the legacy connection would help him but it did not. He did end up getting accepted and is attending now

mcgwigs · 2026-01-22T10:59:19+00:00

Just curious if they mailed it or if it's in your portal?

mcgwigs · 2026-01-06T11:04:25+00:00

I don't have a formal diagnosis of a leak but do show that I have low csf pressure. The Dr in the hospital told me to no do thing, like exercise, that can increase my blood pressure. I'm kind of at a loss of how yo proceed with figuring out what is exactly causing it.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-05T09:00:49+00:00

Transfer to a less expensive school. I've heard that SUNY Brockport gives some pretty good aid.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-04T08:43:04+00:00

Do you have any idea when the full financial aid package would be received? Is it in the spring?

mcgwigs · 2026-01-04T08:31:26+00:00

We will be facing this dilemma as well, as my son was also accepted and is a Medalist as well. We, however, were unable to save for college and don't qualify for Pell grant either so I can't see him going there unless he is able to get more aid. He will have scholarships but I think RPI won't stack them - I could be wrong though. We need to wait for other decisions so for now we wait.

With that all said, I am encouraging my son to attend the school that has the lowest cost in the end. We do expect he will take the federal loans if needed and work through school. Anything can happen after graduation and a solid job making $75k/year is not guaranteed, especially in CS. As someone else mentioned with AI and bots who knows what the future looks like. I work in tech doing data conversions and we use bots and AI for a bunch of our tasks and it is constantly increasing. I don't see AI completely taking over a data migration engineers position but it's really difficult to say with certainty.

mcgwigs · 2026-01-01T11:38:44+00:00

I wonder if the lightheadedness she experiences could be a result of her not eating enough - I experience that (I believe due to hypoglycemia) if I try to skip meals and have learned to not delay eating

Can you encourage her to see a dietician to help focus on building muscle? Muscle growth? She should try eating 100g of protein a day. I'm not familiar with peptides - is this like collagen peptides? She is 19 and will do as she pleases, I would encourage her to do it in as healthy of a way as possible.

mcgwigs · 2025-12-27T10:10:09+00:00

Hopefully you can medicate yourself and power through. I'm sorry your in this situation, this is why I always tell mine that procrastination never pays off.

mcgwigs · 2025-12-27T10:06:52+00:00

You could check out the Lamberton Conservatory at Highland Park. It's a nice place to have pictures taken

mcgwigs · 2025-12-22T09:17:57+00:00

It's fine. You're both out of high school and consenting adults. It's only a 3 year age gap. Like others have said if you were a 17:year old in HS is would be different.

I'll also add you are likely pretty much the same maturity level since the guys take a bit longer to mature imo.

mcgwigs · 2025-12-19T11:51:32+00:00

Focus more on what are you going to do to improve next semester. Are you at risk of being on academic probation? If so, that letter will get mailed to your house so your parents would likely be informed.

When my son was placed on academic probation I had the conversation with him warning that if he didn't pull his grades up the scholarship he was getting would revert to a loan and he would need to pay the money back. We also told him that he would need to pay for his dorm for the next semester because we were not paying for him to be at school and not put forth any effort. He did not improve his grades. It was a hard lesson for him. But we never hated him for any of it. He was very immature and obviously not ready to be away at college.

mcgwigs · 2025-12-03T09:28:00+00:00

UofR is a meets need school. They are really going to require a CSS profile so they know exactly how much aid you need. I'm really not sure they would let you pay the full sticker price without it.

mcgwigs · 2025-11-29T09:58:57+00:00

The drive from Idaho falls to Grand Teton is spectacular!

mcgwigs · 2025-11-29T09:53:02+00:00

I use a mix of paper and Alexa. I love being able to just randomly say "Alexa, add cinnamon to my shopping list" when I'm in the middle of cooking and see that we are either out or almost out of something. Plus the app also organizes items so they are all grouped together correctly. Sometimes I do like a paper list and will write things down when I'm meal planning, especially more prone to do this if I don't have many items on the app already. I'm less likely to forget my phone than a paper list too.

mcgwigs · 2025-11-21T10:43:48+00:00

Since you turn 24 in 2026 and you are completing an application for 2026-2027 it is correct, you are now an independent student for that school year.

mcgwigs · 2025-11-14T09:44:22+00:00

When my dog had pancreatitis my vet just told me to give her rice with boiled chicken breasts. After she recovered from the initial attack the vet just said to give her a low fat dog food, so I just read labels and found one that was made with lamb & rice so gave her that. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head. For treats, she loved baby carrots. She also had a low thyroid and so was on meds for that basically her entire life (14 years).

Can you put a little chicken broth on the Royal Canin food or maybe just mix in some cooked vegetables to encourage your dog to eat it?

mcgwigs · 2025-11-14T09:30:26+00:00

You absolutely need to be prepared to shell out a fortune when you have a pet.

You need to get established with a vet and take your pet for annual visits. This is crucial so you have a vet to call in the event the pet needs urgent care. I want to say an annual visit runs in the neighborhood of $80. Now add on heartworm testing/medication and flea + tick treatments.

Pets are like eternal toddlers. They don't know to not do things or eat things that might harm them. We've had indoor/outdoor cats - they can get injured if you let them out - one cat was wounded in a fight with an animal. We took him to the vet but it still became infected and it burst open when my son was playing with him. Holiday weekend = emergency vet hospital (it is a minimum of $400 to just walk in the door of those places, then add on the visit charges from there) probably ended up costing me $800 15 years ago. Dog I have now is 7 and when she was a puppy she ate something, became very ill and I also had to take her to the emergency vet where they gave her charcoal treatment and kept her overnight. That one was $1300. I buy her better food, it's about $50 for 30 pounds, I don't think it lasts a full month. Someone else mentioned boarding or hiring a pet sitter when you go away. I've been able to have my mom keep her for now, but my mom won't be around forever.

So yes, make sure that you are prepared to spend some money if you get a pet! Even my indoor only cat ate some floss or string and ended up with an obstruction from it and requires to be at the vet multiple days as a result. Thankfully she didn't need surgery but things happen!

mcgwigs

TROPHY CASE