<p>I am so thankful that I have you all to vent to about this stuff. What would I do without you? :)</p>
<p>BengalMom - some of D’s friends are discussing colleges - and they were really jealous that I took her to visit colleges last summer. A few asked if they could come with us - but we didn’t have the room. That might have been fun. Actually, on this trip, we’re taking one of those friends - and she’s so excited about coming with us. It would be nice if my D would get half as excited…lol. I don’t think the problem is that my D isn’t interested - it’s more that she has so much going on in her life, that when she starts prioritizing, the college stuff just seems less important as there are no looming deadlines. That’s sort of what happened with the SAT and ACT. I think she knew she would get reasonably good scores, so she didn’t study at all - and her scores were good -but they weren’t quite where she hoped they would be, so now they need to be retaken. I suspect that if she had invested a few hours in studying for the tests, the retakes would have been unnecessary. She retook the SAT in Jan., but still didn’t study for it - we’ll see how that turned out for her. :\ </p>
<p>Youdon’tsay/jackief - I don’t talk with the parents of D’s friends too much about this stuff, partly because I don’t want to share D’s stats/plans with them. I have a few friends with younger kids, and I talk to them a little more because they don’t need to feel competitive with me, plus, they’re really curious. Yesterday, coincidentally, I ran into two of D’s friends’ moms, and the subject came up with both of them (not my doing ). The weird thing is that they both have older kids who have gone through the process, but one of them didn’t have a clue that she was supposed to schedule a meeting with her D’s counselor. The other was just amazed at how much more competitive the whole process has become since her son applied to college - 3 years ago! She was also concerned about whether she’d be able to continue getting home equity loans - and when I heard the amount she was borrowing, I got sick.</p>
<p>DougBetsy - I was so sorry to read about your son’s friend. How devastating for him and for his parents. I will be sending my thoughts and prayers to him and his family.</p>
<p>Oh, DougBetsy. I am so sorry. Kinda makes our own rants and vents sound stupid and petty, doesn’t it? I wish the boy all the best. D’s friend got diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, but it was benign and she is doing very well after the surgery.</p>
<p>DB- I’m sorry for your son’s friend. I had lunch with a friend of mine last week, and her son is a sophomore in college. He (the son) lost his step grand dad, his best friend’s mom, and his next door neighbor (another boy his age, but not that close a fiend anymore) in the course of the last fall since I last saw her. i\It was really tough on friend’s son and he ended up transferring back to a local college for this semester. So even though your son isn’t close friends with the boy anymore, keep in touch with his feelings and how it is affecting him.</p>
<p>other topic- I have asked D if she wanted to invite a friend along on any of the day trips we’ve taken and she has refused, her friends are not really in the same place of the search as she is. She has one good friend who is also interested in Chicago so maybe whenever we plan that trip we can do it together. I told her to ask her friend if they would take her when they go to minimize our costs!</p>
<p>I am very lucky our school is not competitive at all from what I can tell. The parents I have chatted with (with the exception of the ski mom who kids are way to the top of their respective classes) all have kids with similar academic performance as can be gleaned from school. Since it is a small school with small discussion based classes and a lot of collaborative work, it is easy to tell who the kids with the academic focus are.</p>
<p>DougBetsy,
So sorry for the sad news about the friend. Hopefully, his treatments will prove successful. Sending all good thoughts and prayers his way.</p>
<p>DougBetsy, so sorry to hear about your son’s friend. Cancer is horrible and shouldn’t have to happen to anyone, but especially a child or young adult.</p>
<p>DougBetsy–What sad news. I didn’t have time to post earlier today and I’ve been thinking about this boy all day. It really puts things in perspective. CMU professor Randy Pausch really kept things in perspective for me last year. Did many of you watch his “Last Lecture?”
[Randy</a> Pausch’s Last Lecture - Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/]Randy”>Randy Pausch's Last Lecture - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>OK, I’m officially on SAT score watch! I wonder whether ds will even think to check before he leaves for school in the morning. I so hope it’s good enough that he wouldn’t have to take it again, but he doesn’t even know what “good enough” is. Neither do I.</p>
<p>8 a.m. Eastern. Someone in another forum said he/she had his/her scores hours ago. And what a surprise! It was a 2350. ;)</p>
<p>Yes, over 2200 would be good enough as long as the CR+M was at least a 1410 because thats needed for a top scholarship at a school he’s looking at. Less than 2000 is definitely a do-over. But it’s that middle ground that we don’t know about. If CR+M is 1420, say, would a 650 writing be enough? Not so sure, as he normally does really well in writing. However, his PSAT W score was surprisingly low. I guess he’ll just have to see how it goes. Good luck, all!</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay ~ The SAT scores are up now. S did about the equivalent of his ACT score when converted. He ended up at 1490/2170 (with 790 in math). S has a difficult time planning and writing an essay in a short amount of time (as a matter of fact he has a difficult time doing anything in a short amount of time). Since this is just for NMF purposes he is done with it. Hopefully that is the end of the standardized testing until he applies to grad school someday. </p>
<p>Thanks! i just checked it out and came on here to report. :)</p>
<p>As I suspected, he’s in that gray area. Good, but good enough to never think about it again? Not so sure. Good news is that he just hit the 1410 threshold he needed. Phew!</p>
<p>Good luck, everyone. I have a mtg this morning so I hope y’all check the scores early.</p>
That might have been fun. Actually, on this trip, we’re taking one of those friends - and she’s so excited about coming with us. It would be nice if my D would get half as excited…lol. I don’t think the problem is that my D isn’t interested - it’s more that she has so much going on in her life, that when she starts prioritizing, the college stuff just seems less important as there are no looming deadlines. That’s sort of what happened with the SAT and ACT. I think she knew she would get reasonably good scores, so she didn’t study at all - and her scores were good -but they weren’t quite where she hoped they would be, so now they need to be retaken. I suspect that if she had invested a few hours in studying for the tests, the retakes would have been unnecessary. She retook the SAT in Jan., but still didn’t study for it - we’ll see how that turned out for her. :\ </p>
). The weird thing is that they both have older kids who have gone through the process, but one of them didn’t have a clue that she was supposed to schedule a meeting with her D’s counselor. The other was just amazed at how much more competitive the whole process has become since her son applied to college - 3 years ago! She was also concerned about whether she’d be able to continue getting home equity loans - and when I heard the amount she was borrowing, I got sick.</p>