@MangoLover11223 As a current student who hasn’t graduated yet, I would never dare to ask. Some students who are really close with some teachers at my school have gone out with teachers for lunch after they graduated. I would probably have lunch with my club advisor(wrote several LORs for me) sometime before I leave for college in the summer. But your friend is overstepping boundaries for sure as a current student. I would wait until I am officially an alumni.
Actually, both (active student and active teacher) are IMO overstepping boundaries. We should avoid even the appearance of impropriety (a failure to observe standards).
Hmm… point taken. It’s nothing weird of course, just lunch at a casual restaurant
Current student and current teacher? Yeah, that’d probably come off as a little odd. If the teacher had left the school or the student had already graduated, I wouldn’t see any problem with it.
FWIW, I was super attached to one of my rec writers (in a go-out-to-lunch kind of way, but after she retired), and not so close personally with the other. I don’t think it had any bearing at all on the strength of my recommendations, other than that the one who knew me better had a deeper understanding of the world I come from and who I am as a person, whether or not that made its way into the rec. But the one I had less of a personal relationship with still knew me intellectually and could see my passions just from what happened inside the classroom. @MangoLover11223
AP Lit is gonna be the death of me. I have a low B right now and I just wrote a pretty bad essay today. Do any of you ever feel like you have to read texts over and over again in order to fully understand them? The book we had to read is well under a hundred pages long, but it’s so dense with text that you have to keep re-reading in order to comprehend it.
This semester has been so weird. I feel like I have 0 friends because I’m literally never at my HS. I don’t even feel like a HS student any more. At this point, I just have no motivation to do my work in some of my classes. I don’t want to get bad grades, but I don’t want to do the work either. It’s just too much reading. I have a test on Tuesday, and I haven’t done like 200 pages of reading for it.
My college English class is essentially a joke. It’s like a MLA class. I’ve learned all of this before and essentially have had the format memorized since 9th grade. The essays are only 2-3 pages long, which are pretty easy to knock out.
My american foreign policy class is interesting, but the reading is way too much. I literally haven’t done any reading since the first week of class because I haven’t found the energy. It’s so hard to digest and each page takes five minutes to read. At 100 pages a week, I can’t find the motivation.
My econ class is interesting and easy. The textbook is easy to understand and the lectures are good. I wish we only had two classes a week instead of three though.
And my stats class is okay so far. I need to study more though. I have a couple weeks without any assignments coming up, so I’ll need to study before the midterm.
I know it’s just a typical senioritis rant, but I hate it. I want some more motivation. I’m just worried that I’ll carry this over into college and then crash and burn there.
Ayyy I got accepted to the Honors Program at U of Nevada-Reno!!!
@MangoLover11223 I’ve become really close with most of the teachers whom I asked for LORs, but going out to lunch is something the teachers always reserve for alumni either during the summer before they go off to college or when they visit again the next year. I do think being close with your teachers is pretty important for good LORs, and I don’t doubt I’d go to lunch with most of my teachers in the future. But I guess it really depends on the school.
@carmen00 I feel you. I have no motivation to do any of my homework.
University of Pittsburgh just offered me the saddest financial aid package. They really saw my EFC of 00000 and thought I could afford to pay $25,000 a year. :))
@neptuna PA flagships are the worst. Super expensive and literally no need-based financial aid (and barely any merit scholarships). I like Penn State, but there’s no way I could afford even a year there.
I live 5 minutes away from Stoneman Douglas(I don’t go there though), so the last 24 hours have been very disturbing. I didn’t go to school today because of how shocked I am. The Pulse shooting hit me hard as it was Orlando but for this school shooting to be this close to me is on another level. I am more frustrated than anything because the reality is that on any given day your community can be the next target.
We had a school schooting in my community a couple months ago. Not as large of a death toll, but its still a very harrowing thing. Why the heck do they sell guns at like Walmart?
@snowfairy137 
that’s so crazy being so close to such a terrible event. I can’t believe that 18 school shootings in less than 2 months hasn’t raised any red flags…18! And this is just school shootings that were reported…there are probably at least a dozen more scary incidents. And of course actual mass shootings not in school settings. Even if you are conservative on other views, I feel like half of this is common sense.
I saw this article and it’s easier to buy a gun than adopt a puppy or get through airport security…?
@r2v2018 What book are you reading in AP Lit? If I’m reading a particularly difficult text, I like pulling up SparkNotes or something like that, reading the summary of the chapter I’m about to read, then actually reading the chapter slowly, looking up words I don’t know. Then, afterwards, I reread the summary version. It helps if you have an idea what’s going on before diving in if the text is very dense. It takes a while, because I also like to take notes as I read, but I find that this method helps me understand what’s happening a lot more.
Is there any way to respectfully request more money from a school? I already asked Pitt once but even after FAFSA money was added I don’t know if it’s worth it to me OOS. Also, Tulane offered me a lot of money, like almost half-tuition, but it’s still pretty expensive. Would it be disrespectful to ask for more?
I have seen the headline “Deadliest Mass Shooting in US History” five times. I am 18 years old.
We just finished Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
@carmen00 I’m having similar problems. FYI, most intro college English classes are intro to MLA, although even my English 102 class (I placed out of 101) had a final paper of 6-8 pages. I had to get to 200-level before I had to write longer reports.
My geology and cultural anthropology classes are fairly easy. Together they take 4-9 hours per week, and I am doing all of the readings. Actually, my cultural anthropology class asks hard questions on quizzes and tests, but the professor gives extra credit for turning in assignments before the last minute. I haven’t lost my motivation for these classes (yet).
I’m going through the motions of doing the work in my French class, but I’m just not very into it. Although I turn in homework and do readings, I’m waiting until the last minute and am not studying for the weekly quizzes. I have an exam in two weeks.
For one of my stats classes, I’m engaged in lecture but procrastinate on the hw. No grades back yet.
For the other, I do all the readings and homework and try ask questions, but I’m stressed because there are issues with the professor.
@sona7662 You can always file an appeal; I’m not entirely sure what goes on in the appeal process, but it’s common no significant increase will come into fruition. I can’t remember if this happened to an older friend of mine or a friend of his, but what ended up happening is that after appealing, the school took away $5 from the FA package (presumably out of spite), but I doubt such events are commonplace.
As an OOS applicant for UPitt, or any other public and/or state university, your COA will be significantly higher than in-state applicants. Public and/or state universities’ main form of “financial aid” is their lower attendance costs for in-state students. For OOS, it’s much more difficult. A good example is the University of California system, in which no financial aid at all is offered to OOS students (which means the $60,000 COA will be out of pocket). Your best bet are merit scholarships, but unfortunately the preference for FA and merit scholarships usually lies in-state. For private universities, you might have more luck, both in appealing and “closing the gap.”