<p>Just thought I’d check in. Good luck to all the families w/ seniors this year. My S1 is a junior,computer science engineering major at Michigan and my S2 is a senior in high school. I was more active on this thread w/ my S1 even though he was a high achieving student, he seemed to better fit the profile of students here. </p>
<p>My S2 has LDs which have made high school very difficult for him. He’s at a competitive private school, and has managed to end up w/ a 2.76 (at least it’s a B- avr…higher than what he ended up w/ sophomore year) gpa. Got a 26 on the ACT after a few tries and just didn’t want to deal w/ it any more. He’s decided to go to Bowling Green next year. Not a hard school to get into, and doesn’t have a huge jewish population, but they do have an active Hillel. They have a lot of support for students w/ LDs, and is a medium large school (approx. 18,000 students). My son is really happy that he’ll be going there (and I am very comfortable w/ his decision). There’s something to be said for not applying to a bunch of real competitive schools and having a decision made in Oct…much different than the first time around and a lot less pressure. He didn’t want a small school where academics would be his sole focus (like he feels it is in high school), but rather wants a school where he can do well and still enjoy himself. I’m hoping it all works out for him.</p>
<p>Thanks LINYMOM glad to see even those who are really emotional about it during senior year do come out the other side ok. umich8790 - that sounds like a well thought out plan. Both of my boy’s have LDs (as does my husband and brother so it was unavoidable). My older son is not very affected by it, and my younger son struggles a bit ( I think personality play a huge part in these things, both of my kids have the exact same LD and IQ). I’m dealing with S1 now (he’s an A-, when I started on this thread he was a B+ student). I am not looking forward to going through this again in 2 years with S2.<br>
Hope the process is moving along nicely for everyone. S1 has 4 applications out and 4 more to go. Supplemental essays are coming along too. He’s working hard at school and on this so I can’t complain.</p>
<p>And as you plan for Thanksgivukkah, here’s an article that I wanted to share with all of you. Chocolate gelt without guilt. What could be better?</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, LINYMOM - I shared it already! </p>
<p>So, in general, a lot of school admissions are getting more and more competitive every year…as if it’s not stressful enough for these kids to do a million more things to stand out than we had to. I don’t know of anyone our age that would get into their own alma mater based on what all the schools are now looking for. Where does it end? When is it enough? Ugh! Sorry, just had to vent…</p>
<p>Hi all. My visits here are getting fewer and farther between. But when I saw Momentscaught’s sadness about one leaving the nest I thought it might be a good time to repeat something I have said over and over again and have had some brushes of fear about… For me remembering how wonderful it is that my kids can be away and don’t need to be home turns the sadness around. As much as we miss them I am thankful my kids are off, because I know if they were here it would be because they couldn’t be away. (I hope that is uplifting and not a downer but while I miss them this has wiped the sadness away for me.)</p>
<p>On another note regarding discussions with the disabilities offices. In my experience it helps a lot to understand the types of accommodations that are provided for a condition. Our doctor chose to be sketchy regarding details of my son’s needs but having a confirmation of diagnosis and researching the types of accommodations available for the condition helped us to ask the right questions and also to get a feel for what the school is willing to do. It is also telling if the people you speak with make suggestions on their own or if you need to list everything that is needed and if it isn’t requested it won’t happen.</p>
<p>Sorry if I took things off track I was just glancing through and those thoughts came to mind. By the way for those of you who might be wondering S2 is doing great and is loving college!</p>
<p>It does help Spectrum and I will try to keep it in mind when I get sad. I think I will be fine, I just need a little extra time to process things so I’m starting early. Happy to hear your son is doing well, please share any fun reports from him along the way so we all can see the light at the end of the tunnel!</p>
<p>my twins are graduating from delaware in may and my youngest is a freshman at maryland. momentscaught, i was absolutely dreading the empty nest. my youngest and i got exceptionally close after the twins left and we had 3 years of just she and i at home. it’s only been less than 3 months and while i miss her (and the other two) like crazy, and i definitely have my moments of sadness because my everyday role as “mom” has changed so drastically, i’m relishing the new relationship i have with all 3 kids. they don’t need me in the same way anymore, but they still do need me just differently. i’m enjoying some new found freedom AND we have an almost one year old puppy at home who takes up lots of time. justso you know you aren’t alone and although it does feel and is different, it WILL be ok!</p>
<p>Thanks Jaynbe, it really helps to know I’m not alone and that others have adjusted well to it. A puppy is a great idea!! We have 2 so not sure my husband will go for it, but I will keep it in mind.</p>
<p>My daughter and I also loved Muhlenberg but it is a reach for her too (3.2 GPA). We can’t afford the full cost so she will not be applying ED. One of the schools she really liked was University of Mary Washington in VA which is a closer match academically, also has an LAC feel and has a good graduation rate. They have a very small Hillel but it seems to be active. It is farther than we would like (we are in NJ) but on the positive side, there is an Amtrak station right next to the school. Our tour guide was from Long Island, she said OOS kids from NY/NJ/PA often take the train together and it is not a big deal, it takes about 5 hrs to Newark or NYC and 1.5 hrs to Washington DC by train. It is by no means ideal in terms of the location and Jewish life but might work.</p>
<p>My D got her October SAT scores this week. She raised her writing to 610 but not the very important CR score. So her best scores as of now are: Math 620 (Spring), Writing 610 (Fall), CR 530 (Spring).</p>
<p>Here is the thing though, when practicing at home and spending a little more time, she answers almost 100% of the CR questions correctly. I sat next to her a few times while she was doing her SAT practice to understand what is going on there. She is just slow when it comes to cutting through difficult vocabulary or unusual style. She sees a difficult passage and immediately says “I don’t understand any of it” but when she reads it again, she gets it just fine.</p>
<p>My initial thought was she just needed to practice. However, she did 5 or 6 full practice tests, at least 3 of them with the timer and it didn’t help her with this issue.</p>
<p>I believe that in her case, the lower CR score significantly hurts her application because of a) low GPA of 3.2 and b) English being the only subject where she has taken an honor class and is now taking a college-level class so you would expect her to do better in it than in math. So as much as we would have loved to be done with the SATs, I think it would be good for her to take it again in December. However, it would be her 4th time so I am kind of on the fence about it.</p>
<p>If she does take it again, what is the best strategy to combat her CR issue? Again more practice? Would a good tutor help? BTW, if anyone knows a good sat tutor in NJ/Rockland please please PM me, would love to talk to a professional and hear their take on it as well.</p>
<p>@mozika if you want to consider some schools in the Philadelphia area that would be a “match” for a B student consider Temple University and West Chester University.</p>
<p>A good SAT tutor could give your child focused strategies for improving the CR score.</p>
<p>My D2 did have an SAT tutor and the tutor gave her several strategies that helped. First, for the SAT, don’t read the passage first. Go directly to the questions. This saves time. The questions follow the order of the reading passage, so you can read the question, then read the small section that goes with it.</p>
<p>Second, practice should be under TIMED conditions for the section. Being able to answer the questions correctly is not helpful if you can’t answer them in the time required. </p>
<p>Third, the SAT has a penalty for wrong answers, so learning when to skip vs guess can also improve scores.</p>
<p>Chiming in the second what pamom59 said. My son’s tutor worked exclusively on strategy and his scores went up hundreds of points. He was a slow reader so learning the shortcuts and how to recognize quickly the types of questions made a huge difference.</p>
<p>I posted this on the U Miami forum as well, but thought I’d post here too - My DD and I are visiting Miami on Saturday and we’d love to treat a current student or two to lunch to get a . If you know someone who would be interested and perhaps has some similarities that would be great. She’s a social HS senior, considering Advertising/PR/Graphic Design majors, interested in Greek Life. Feel free to PM me. Thanks!</p>
<p>Sorry, that should have said, “…we’d love to treat a current student or two to lunch to get a more personal feel of the school than just doing the info session and tour.”</p>
<p>NYMom3Kids I would love to have any of my nieces or son show you the school but this weekend they will be in Tallahassee for the game against FSU. Will you be more interested in the Jewish aspect or the PR aspect? I could try to find someone from Hillel or from a sorority that might be in the same major.</p>