Revival of Middle Class Black Posters

[Texasmama]

Just spent two days at Disney World with D for her choir's trip there to perform. The first day, I tried to keep up with her group and had my tongue hanging out by 4 p.m. The second day, I gave up and hung out mostly with other chaperones. The experience really reminded me that she doesn't need me very much anymore. I was texting her every couple of hours, but she was fine. It gave a little glimpse as to what my life will be like in the fall, and I'm feeling kind of lonely. Who I really feel sorry for is my 15-year-old S, who will soon find that I have twice as much time to scrutinize his life.

[Triguena]

..... and DS is only a junior. For years I have joked that the minute he went to college we would turn his room into "Mom's little Eden". Well now that the day is suddenly in sight (2009 seemed SO FAR AWAY when he was in kindergarten!) I am realizing that I might not handle this separation in the manner I expected.

He is a well travelled young man so he has been away before without me. But that is so different. I am already starting to worry that he will not remember to floss or some other great life tragedy.

Now I see young parents and for a brief minute I grow nostaglic for the days when I picked out his clothes and read him a bedtime story and made sure that the clean underwear actually were folded in the drawer (instead of now when they never make it out of the clean clothes hamper). Then I snap to reality and remember crying about how the baby sitter cancelled at the last minute on our wedding anniversary or how DS would never sleep past 6 am (this is really tough on my Dracula like sleeping habits).

Oh well, hopefully he will find a nice (smart!) girl and will give me adorable grandchildren.......

[Triguena]

I don't know if the link will work so I will post the entire article from the Chroncile of Higher Ed

U. of California Reports Big Increases in Black and Hispanic Admissions

The University of California system announced today that it had admitted substantially more black and Hispanic freshmen for the coming fall than it had going into the current academic year, with much of the increase being driven by a surge in the number of applicants from those minority groups.

The preliminary admissions numbers that the university system released show that about 16 percent more black Californians applied to one of the system’s campuses and just over 13 percent more were admitted. The number of Hispanic Californians admitted increased by nearly 18 percent; the number applying, by 16 percent.

The university provided a racial and ethnic breakdown of such numbers only for in-state applicants. But because California residents account for nearly nine out of 10 of the system’s students, its figures suggest that the system’s efforts to reach out to minority communities, in the wake of a decade-old ban on affirmative-action preferences, appear to be having some effect.

The picture varied substantially by campus, however, with much of the systemwide growth in the number of black and Hispanic Californians admitted being driven by sharp increases at the less-competitive campuses at Merced, Riverside, and Santa Barbara.

The University of California at Los Angeles also posted significant increases in its black and Hispanic admittees, a pattern that officials there credited partly to the campus’s adoption last year of a “holistic” admission system that considers what opportunities applicants have had in life. But on the Berkeley and Irvine campuses, the share of admissions offers going to black and Hispanic students rose only slightly, and the actual numbers admitted declined, as the campuses scaled back the number of acceptance letters mailed out to state residents.

Over all, the number of California high-school seniors offered admission to one of the system’s campuses rose by 4.7 percent, to just over 60,000. With applications up by 7.7 percent, however, the acceptance rate among Californians declined from 77.4 percent to 75.3 percent.

In announcing the new admissions numbers, Susan Wilbur, the university system’s director of undergraduate admissions, warned that the system cannot continue to take in growing numbers of students without substantial increases in its state appropriations. —Peter Schmidt

[Texasmama]

Where is everybody? How are those college visits going? Madville, what did you think of Rice.

DD is a Northwestern. Just left this morning. Financial aid offer was about what I expected. They offered a $22,000 scholarship and some small loans. That still leaves our EFT at $23 K.

[madville]

S absolutely loved Rice...and Amherst...and we are currently at U Va as I type. Very impressive, and we've only spoken to students on campus! Lawn Days are tomorrow and he's looking forward to it. Each school has its own dynamic and they are all very appealing. The only school that didn't resonate as well with him was Swarthmore. It wasn't that Swarthmore isn't a good school, he just wasn't "feeling" them. Rice, the weather was beautiful, campus pristine, and the people are awesome. Amherst, off the chain. When president Marx gave his speech, it was so impressive, I wanted to get on the waitlist! lol! So committed to their students and the academic environment and diverse. It felt like you were at the United Nations. Now U Va. Another beautiful campus, beautiful people, and people just as at the other schools, love being there and are full of school pride. Maybe more so than at the other schools slightly. There are some variances of FA at the various schools, but not so much that if S chooses one of schools offering a little less it wouldn't be doable. I must admit though, Amherst and Williams are the head of that pack, and with the no loan policies hard to say no to either. If I had to guess it's between Amherst, and U Va. Williams gets the last opportunity to make an impression. (Well other than that insane FA offer) Next weekend S will let some of the emotion simmer down, and then make a decision based on feel and other more objective considerations. As many have said, there are no bad options, and to that I once again thank the CC community for their support and guidance.

[Shrinkrap]

Hi all! Thanks for the updates! For D no money from Pepperdine, Occidental visit was better than expected, but Duke is still number one.

[poetsheart]

Hi all. I'm just about through with this whole process, as D will be graduating from Bryn Mawr in less than a month, but I just wanted to let you know that I am so enjoying reading this thread, and have been silently celebrating the stellar successes of each and every one of your wonderful kids. Congratulations to you all! I'm so envious of you, remembering how exciting it all was a mere four years ago. It feels like I just blinked, and suddenly it was all over except the shoutin'!

[SuperMom_I_Aint]

Poet, you'll have to get us started on a whole new thread -- one with internships, fellowships, and best cities for young African-American college grads!

To the rest of m'peeps. I've got th'blues -- since D's decision has been well and truly made, she's gone into Senior Slump extraordinaire! She's staying up till 3am cramming, then skipping class the following day to catch up on sleep. This is totally new behavior. My former A-student says she's sick of high school and can't wait to get out -- is this normal???

[Texasmama]

Supermom,
I must have missed it. Where's your D going?

I don't think the senior slump is abnormal at all. I see some signs in D, as well.

[Shrinkrap]

"sick of high school and can't wait to get out " has been repeated a few times, also some variation on sick of me and H. I don't see much cramming at MY house...I am really worried about "foundation" and study skills though, and not sure about whether to pass my worries on.

[sybbie719]

Yes the excitement about moving on, getting out of high school and a little bit of a slump is normal. However I would advise your DD to bounce back especially because there is merit $$ on the table.

Remind her that all college admissions are conditional on :

Successfully completing high school
Maintaining the pretty close to the same grades which got you admitted.

Let her know also that her final transcript must be sent to the college and depending on how low the slump, she could risk her merit $$ or she could start out on probation (I have seen both situations happen).

In addition, these are not good habits to get into (or even start) as she will not have the benefit of having an understanding professor on the other end.

[Triguena]

I saw the same thing with my step daughter. Very high flying high school career. She got into Ivy ED. In January she was sprawled on the couch at 8 pm on a week night (VERY unusual). When questioned she replied "I never had a childhood." While trying mightily to stifle an eye roll I recognized she was right. She has spent the last four years getting a 4.9/5 GPA (struggling through AP Physics as a poet), amassing amazing board scores and leadership roles. She really had no "free play" time.

I would suggest you cut your daughter some slack. True, she can't slide far from the path without jeopardizing the very thing she worked so hard to achieve. But I sincerely doubt that the young woman you knew for the last four years would suddenly devolve into Harold and Kumar's friend visiting White Castle.

Practice with me now--deep yoga breath. Deep yoga breath. Shot of scotch. Deep yoga breath.

[SuperMom_I_Aint]

LOLOL!!! TriG, Harold & Kumar @ Whitecastle was a RIOT! Almost busted a gut on that vid, had no idea it would be so funny! Thanx for the reality check, all. I'll make every effort to remain supportive w/out being overbearing. One. More. Month!

Tmama, she took the free ride @ Brandeis; Good Girl! Very informative presentation during their Accepted Student's Day on study abroad really cemented my belief that the time is NOW to start researching fellowships & the like.

Been struggling w/my own demons of late. 30th Grade School Reunion is fast approaching. REALLY debating whether to go (Egads! Who'll remember me under all this matronly curvage?!). Pulled out the old yearbooks and started leafing through to see if I remembered anyone. Turns out, it's really good timing. Little notes I'd written in the margins of some of the pics were godsends, and now I can remind D how important it's going to be to put names, dates, and notes on HER yearbook pix. Addresses and parents names might be helpful in locating people more than a quarter of a century later as well. It's really a shame that women give up their last names. Makes googling old pals a real hassle. Reunion.com & Classmates.com must be raking in the dough!

[Harmony2]

Hi All,

I believe DS has narrowed his choices down to Penn or Duke.

As far as senoritis, he has been experiencing it all year. I kept hoping that after submitting his college applications, he would return to "normal". Let's just say that I am still waiting.

Supermom,
I have a co-worker whose daughter graduated from Brandeis several years ago and it was a great experience for her.

[Shrinkrap]

So lately I've been ruminating about whether my D is up to the challenge of the "rigor" of attending Duke. While I am increasingly impressed with her ability to juggle her extracurriculars without any helicoptering, it seems that as long as she does enough to keep her "top student" spot, she'd just as soon put academics on the back burner. So I'm checking out African American graduation rates, feeling okay but not great about Dukes numbers, and ended up looking at the following statistics.

Duke 6 year overrall 93.4 AA female 91.6 AA male 81.4 gap -10.2

but wait...check out the 4 year

Duke 4 year overall 86.9 AA female 88.4 (> overall!) AA male 57.6 gap -30.8 (!!!)


The Education Trust - Closing the Achievement Gap

The bad news is, four year graduation rates for AA's supports my fears that AA's may have more of a struggle ( does this reflect SAT scores? ). The good news is that if you seperate AA girls from boys, the girls graduation rates are actually looking good ( I guess it doesnt have anything to do with SAT scores). This might be good news for my D, but what does it mean? I am even more impressed with my D as I watch her brother complete his first year of HS. If he finishes with a 3.0 it will be a miracle! My D made straight A's look so easy I am wondering if she can handle what's to come. So....what does this AA gender gap mean?