<p>You know, it just hit me that goats are incredibly rank. This is a plus, right? High rank?</p>
<p>TOS, I like the helmet padding…and it would help reduce concussions and raise the collective GPA of the football team, which has got to be good for a few brownie points on S’s recommendation letter from Coach!</p>
<p>The higher the rank, HMW, the more likely your S will get a private room at the double rate!</p>
<p>Be careful folks. I have it on good authority that many of the top NE schools prefer students who raise pot belly pigs, not goats. My sources may not be reliable, but they claim to have secret moles in the admin offices who are real swine.</p>
<p>Goats seemed like too much work, so I started checking out other possibilities. I have concluded that raising voles could be the prime EC of the future! Either the Wikipedia entry has been corrupted [this never happens], or the “vole clock” it refers to is real–i.e., relying on vole remains to date archaeological strata. This possible because voles “appear to be evolving rapidly compared to other vertebrates.” There are voles with anywhere between 17 and 64 chromosomes, and they are phenotypically almost indistinguishable. (Don’t ask how the odd number of chromosomes works! It seems that male and female voles of the same species may have different numbers of chromosomes.)</p>
<p>From a Purdue University press release in 2006: “Nobody has posters of voles on their wall,” said J. Andrew DeWoody, associate professor of genetics in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources [at Purdue], whose study appears this month in the journal Genetica. “But when it comes down to it, voles deserve more attention.” </p>
<p>Thanks for the great college admissions tip, J. Andrew Woody! We’re putting up posters of voles all over our house! And the best part is that if voles overtake humans due to their rapid evolution, we’ll already be official Friends of Voles. For obvious reasons, no voles will be harmed during this vole-raising project.</p>
<p>I currently have one path traveler in a full state of rebellion and his brother coming off of a mini detour- so I have decided to just bulldoze all paths!!! (and I can’t be sure my own path travelers won’t be mowed down as well!) </p>
<p>In regard to “voles”, I will say that my father wrote me a fabulous letter while I was away at college about a vole that “took” my place in the household, that would make a fabulous “vole” essay - should anyone choose THAT path!!</p>
<p>And you all could list this under vole-unteering!!!</p>
<p>(sorry, sorry…)</p>
<p>Le calembour est la fiente de l’esprit qui vole. (Puns are the droppings of soaring wits.) – Victor Hugo …</p>
<p><a href=“couldn’t%20resist%20posting%20the%20yield%20of%20my%20%22vole%20puns%22%20search”>i</a>*</p>
<p>I am so grateful for you parents here at CC. Imagine my horror when I realized how close we came to sending off DS’s goat-heavy applications only to realize that vole is the new goat.</p>
<p>One question though - how many vole pellets does it take to power a Honda Civic?</p>
<p>Ya’ know? I’m thinking the vole hook might only work if you’re applying to Tennessee.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh gosh, I read that as “Chaging to votes” and thought we were going down the political path.</p>
<p>My cat kills voles for sport. Or maybe they’re moles. I’m not sure.</p>
<p>But if they are indeed voles, could I say she’s collecting them? She tends to leave them on the back deck, and if we don’t get there fast enough she eats them. So I’d say my cat is collecting and dissecting voles to research their nutritional properties. She’s probably the best vole-killer on our street - maybe in the whole neighborhood - so I can extrapolate that and say that she’s obviously one of the pre-eminant vole researchers in the world at the tender age of 13.</p>
<p>Do you think I could get kitty into HYP with that hook?</p>
<p>Not sure about HYP, but she can definitely get a merit scholarship at CATawba College in North Carolina. Is she eligible for financial aid, too?</p>
<p>Hmmm… she could be a Princeton Tiger, with UVM (Catamounts) and Penn State (Nittany Lions) as safety schools.</p>
<p>Yes, kitty should qualify for Financial Aid. She has no income and she’s an orphan, we took her in from a shelter and became her permanent foster parents. I suppose she could get a part-time job ridding other people’s homes of chipmunks and mice, but that would seriously cut into her vole-collecting research.</p>
<p>Wait, now, you mean I have to get my two cats and my dog into college, too??</p>
<p>UNCLE!!!</p>
<p>If you’re familiar with the Jim Copp Tales, you’ll know his story/song about “The Dog Who Went to Yale.” It can be done. </p>
<p>(If you don’t know him (now deceased), HIGHLY recommend his CDs; ostensibly for kids; made long car trips endurable; he’s fondly remembered by and still popular with our HS/college kids.)</p>
<p>Sheesh, Tiredofsnow, we began teaching our dog to read when he was a puppy, knowing how fierce the competition for the right Puppy Kindergarten would be. He also plays the bassoon. And yesterday he started to knit his first sweater with fur obtained by grooming the voles on our vole farm (thanks for the hint, back during the goat discussion, Lafalum84). Unfortunately, he still barks a lot at squirrels and chipmunks. Do you think that will hurt his chances for HYPSM+C?</p>
<p>No, it will help if you can just frame it as an EC: Sciuridae detection.</p>
<p>Does he need any more honors? I have a couple of awards left.
[url=<a href=“http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?requestURI=processProductsCatalog&categoryId=377320&BP=2110&cm_mmc=GoogleBase-_-datafeed-_-datafeed-_-datafeed&sku=42/2176&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=42/2176]Awards[/url”>http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?requestURI=processProductsCatalog&categoryId=377320&BP=2110&cm_mmc=GoogleBase-_-datafeed-_-datafeed-_-datafeed&sku=42/2176&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=42/2176]Awards[/url</a>]
(One thing about the other parents who read cc? Their kids all already have more than enough awards. That’s why I still have extra.)</p>
<p>If there is enough time, he could start a Sciuridae Detection Club (Sciuridae Detection Alliance?) and invite other neighborhood children and dogs to join. He would be president, of course. The EC could then also count for “leadership.”</p>
<p>(I am sure this goes without saying but you need to be sure he does not poop along Pathway A or Pathway B. That could cause HYPSM+C to blacklist him and future students from his high school for several years. It is as bad as backing out of Early Decision.)</p>
<p>MidwestMom2Kids_, I must have misread your link to Awards. It looked to me as though there were award ribbons for 2nd, 3rd, Honorable Mention, and Participant, as well as 1st. What is the point of that? What we really need are just the awards labeled 1st, Grand Prize, Top Award, and Venti (although the dog might settle for Dieci). But I love your suggestion on Sciuridae detection. Very apt! And already written into the dog’s Common App. But do you think anyone will rat us out if he doesn’t bark at marmots?</p>
<p>No, QuantMech. I don’t think that is a problem - shows he is accepting of others who are different from him. Tolerance. Very good.</p>
<p>Oh dear, I just realized that darling Kitty didn’t start taking the PSAT at age 2. She hasn’t had 27 attempts to get herself to a perfect score and thus be ready to take the SAT 12 times and every SAT II test known to man. What will we do? I’m afraid I will have to be a neglectful pet owner and simply settle for getting my kids into college. Kitty will have to stay home with us for a very-extended Gap Year. (more like a Gap Decade)</p>
<p>I’m so humiliated. How will I hold my head up in the pet food aisle at the All-Organic-And-Overpriced-Food-Emporium?</p>
<p>Oh wait… I recently read an article that MIT is allowing students to keep cats as pets in some dorms. Perhaps this is a back-door into college… a back door with one of those little flaps that lets your pet go in and out as they please?</p>