Priceless!

Travelling by plane to visit a college that interests your daughter... twice... $1200

Admission fee for early decision for the college your daughter really, really likes... $40

Kleenex to hand your daughter as she "worries" about her chances of getting in to the college of her dreams... $2.69

Buying a sweatshirt and latte mug and decals on-line from a college your daughter hasn't even gotten accepted to, in order to show faith in your daughter... $77

Ruggles Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream to eat while waiting and waiting and waiting to hear from the only college your daughter will even talk about... $5.29

Standing on a snowy driveway with your wife while your daughter gets the mail and tears open the letter... and then seeing the huge grin on her face... Priceless!

What has been said:

82.1. Thomas Duff (12/15/2003 01:32 PM)

Congrats to your daughter, and condolances to your wallet! :-)

82.2. Ben Langhinrichs (12/15/2003 09:58 PM)

After eleven years of saving money for college, I'm actually looking forward to some of it going there instead of disappearing into some black hole.

82.3. Nathan T. Freeman (12/16/2003 07:10 AM)

Dude.... WHAT SCHOOL!?!?

82.4. Ben Langhinrichs (12/16/2003 07:19 AM)

Sorry, I'd love to say, as she is very proud of the accomplishment, but I have promised her to not use her name or publish any details, and given the world today, that is probably smart. Simply think of it as "the college of her dreams". Cheers!

82.5. Chris Toohey (12/16/2003 08:10 AM)

Congrats to you, your wife, and your daughter!

82.6. Joe Litton (12/22/2003 11:08 PM)

Ben, I'm running behind on blog reading (and various other things), as my son got home the day you posted this. He's just completed his 1st semester at the college of HIS dreams...which is 3000 miles away. We had saved enough to cover an in-state public college...not an out-of-state PRIVATE one. Oh well...he worked hard to get in and is doing well. My advice for you now: save money for Kleenex when she goes away to college. My wife and I dropped our son off back in August, then went back to our hotel room and cried like babies :-)

82.7. Ben Langhinrichs (12/23/2003 12:42 PM)

I read your posts when you left your son at college and related them to my wife. We have talked about whether to drive my daughter to college together, or just have me drive, and decided we had better be together, even though it will intefere a bit with my two sons' school schedules. I'll make sure we have plenty of Kleenex.

As for financing, with three kids to go through college, and no overlaps, we'll be paying college tuitions for 12 of the next 13 years. Yikes!

82.8. Blurrz (08/20/2005 05:11 PM)

What college is it already! The suspense is killing me!

Actually, I just did a Google search trying to find the home page for Ruggles Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, and this is the only thing that came up. Wtf???