<p>Great reminder… for those of you who use Macs, time machine is awesome and saved me on two occasions already (once a file was deleted and time machine brought it back, on the other I lost a hard drive and time machine allowed me to restore with no hassle)</p>
<p>Happy Valentine’s Day to all!</p>
<p>On the topic of ‘being obsessed’, I was definitely in the ‘overdoing it’ camp until a few weeks ago. Then, I made a New Year’s resolution to limit my C.C. surfing to weekends only. I am happy to report that I have kept my resolution so far, and the results are wonderful. I am almost normal now! </p>
<p>Catching up with some of the older posts and topics here, it was really sad to read about the child with advanced cancer. Puts everything else in perspective. Our kids may have their struggles but we should be grateful if they are healthy. </p>
<p>Congratulations to all the SAT scorers! D did not take the SAT in Jan, so nothing to report. She’s registered for March, her second, and definitely her last time taking the SAT-1. She already has a respectable score from last year that she could use anywhere. </p>
<p>About next year’s schedule, her school strongly discourages seniors from loading up too much on AP’s. She wants to take 5 AP’s but the school admin is likely to resist. They will argue that her extracurricular activity (varsity debate with a lot of excused absences) takes up a lot of her time and combined with college apps, she runs the risk of burning out. I think they have a point. So she may end up dropping AP Physics and substituting non-AP Physics. Since she’s a humanities focused kid, I guess it is OK that she doesn’t have a single science AP on her transcript. Her other classes will be: AP Lit, BC Calc, AP Spanish, AP Euro History, and a couple of electives. As long as the counselor checks the “most rigorous” box on the common app, thats ok with me. What do people thing? Will that 5th Science AP make a difference for highly selective colleges? Looking at the ‘results’ threads, a lot of the CC kids who are admitted to the top colleges seem to have loaded up on APs. (She is doing 3 APs this year and self-studied one last year, so she will have scores from 4 to report, and 4 more being taken in senior year).</p>
<p>We are planning a week-long college tour of the northeast in the Spring. Our current plan is to start in Boston and work our way down to Washington DC, touring one college each day, and maybe driving by the campus of other colleges if time permits. If we can work it out right, maybe we can also fit in some recreation too. It might get awfully boring to just do college tours every day. Right now the list of colleges is very, very top-heavy: Harvard, Brown, Vassar, Princeton, Penn, Swarthmore, Georgetown. Possibly Johns Hopkins. She’s already seen Yale, Cornell and Columbia. She does have some safer colleges on her list but these are not in the Northeast- they’re closer to home, in the mid-west. Any suggestions for other campuses to see and logistics would be most welcome.</p>
<p>I’m keeping a lot of college material in actual physical file folders. I print out e-mails, etc. as a backup. I’m a pretty computer-savvy person, but I really like pieces of paper. :)</p>
<p>Vparent:</p>
<p>Regarding the AP science class and the number of APs in general, on some CC thread (which possibly linked to the MIT site itself) it said the average admitted student to MIT had 5 AP classes. It didn’t say which one. I suspect if your D has covered the big three sciences (bio, chem, and physics) and have a good reason to forgo the AP level physics this year, which it sounds like she has, she should be in good stead. It’s not looking like her Sr year schedule is slacking with non-AP Physics.</p>
<p>My S, on the other hand, is thinking of majoring in physics. So he took a summer class last year in fast paced HS physics so he could take AP Physics C as a junior (the only JR in the class.) This way, he’ll have it showing my his transcript for applications. He is taking AP Chemistry next year, but it wavering on AP English Lit.</p>
<p>My S was lucky to have the ability and be in the right sequence to take three AP classes as a sophomore, so he’ll likely have 9 AP classes when all is said and done, plus two college level on line math courses and three honors level classes. And he still, IMO, spends too much time on Facebook. (I’m sure he thinks I spend too much time on here.)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>D was “invited” to apply to an information day at Holy Cross for first generation students. She is interested in Holy Cross and would actually like to go. So I wonder if she has any chance of being accepted because it’s run by the office of “diversity enrollment” and daughter is only diverse in having a father who’s illiterate. I don’t want her to go through the trouble of wrting an essay and begging for a transcript if someone who’s white really isn’t welcome. Also, if schools go to the trouble of applying/attending these events, does the college give them any brownie points?</p>
<p>If your D was invited by the college, that means the college considers first-gen students “diverse.” And visiting/attending would certainly be taken as demonstrated interest, if the school tracks that (most LACs do).</p>
<p>Maybe they invited her for a diversity event because they want to up their “weird” quota!</p>
<p>zm- that’s great news and she should go. They have a great classics program.</p>
<p>zoosermom - I had thought of your D the other day because I was checking out Holy Cross’ web site, and I noticed they had a classics major. I’ve been meaning to tell you to check it out - glad you got the invite. Not sure about the diversity thing, but I guess it could mean first gen. LOL at the "weird quota.</p>
<p>Thanks all! </p>
<p>Limom, we call her weird with the greatest affection and admiration! She celebrated with her boyfriend yesterday because Friday the 13th is more up her alley than Valentine’s Day.</p>
<p>vicariousparent - when will you be doing your next college tour? Sounds like we have a similar problem - top-heavy lists. D will be looking at many of the same schools as your D. Maybe we’ll see you in the spring.</p>
<p>zoosermom - I guessed the “weird” was meant in the most loving way.</p>
<p>Great news zoosermom, your D2 is doing as well as I would expect. A lot of us here are rooting for her. I think diversity should include white people and probably does. </p>
<p>LIMOM: It is the 3rd wk in March. Unfortunately a lot of colleges have Spring break, some (eg Amherst) are not even doing tours that week. Even if they do tours, you can’t sit in on classes and you can’t really talk to students. It is also a bad time for admissions offices- they are busy finalizing their current year’s admissions decisions. But that is when D has spring break at school and so it is the only time we can go. I wish we had toured more colleges last year when we lived in the NY metro area! I am afraid this is going to be expensive and suboptimal.</p>
<p>Thanks VP! Glad you’re back.</p>
<p>She is right now a screaming madwoman. She has worked like a dog to create a survey for IB psych and she brought it with her to her internship today. Part of the point of the survey is to find out what people will say to her versus what they will write “anonymously.” The director took the surveys, mixed them up and distributed them around to employees which totally wrecked everything and now she can’t use any of the people at the museum and she has to re-copy and set-up the entire thing. Raving is the word, I tell you.</p>
<p>vparent, you child’s schedule looks plenty rigorous to me without the science course. Every Ivy league school admissions officer I’ve heard talk has emphasized that they really don’t expect you to take every AP offered.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, there might not be too many ohter white girls at the the even, but I think they are probably serious about your daughter adding to the diversity. Some schools care about demonstrated interest others don’t. According to their Common Data set, Holy Cross considers First generation and demonstrated interest, but it’s not “important”, much less “very important”. Not sure there are any colleges that would say it’s important compared to things like scores and grades.</p>
<p>S and H just called from the first leg of their DC trip. S liked George Mason, said it was “suburban” and the buildings were “new” (he’s the type of kid who cares more about the inside amenities than the outer beauty of a building). He didn’t care for American - “it’s too small” - but as long as they were in the district they decided to go to George Washington, which S surprisingly liked a lot (surprising because he’s not a kid who particularly likes cities, although perhaps H and I, who are native New Yorkers, have rubbed off on him more than we think.) At any rate, GW would be a reach, but I’m pleased that he’s seeing a bunch of different places and getting a feel for the different types of schools that are out there.</p>
<p>Tomorrow they’re going to hang out with the cousins and have fun, and then go to UMD on Monday. I’ll have fuller reports when they get back, I hope!</p>
<p>vp - Darn! Our spring trip will be in April, so we’ll miss each other. I can see why your timing might present a problem. I think we’re ok in that regard - most colleges are done with their breaks by the time D gets hers in mid-April. I didn’t realize that you recently moved from the NY metro area - I think my D would have been devastated if we’d had to move this year. How’d yours handle the change?</p>
<p>zoosermom - can’t really blame her for reacting that way! Poor kids - they work so hard on these things, and then someone comes along a messes things up for them, making them have to do it all over again. My D’s had similar things happen to her - it’s not fun.</p>
<p>Booklady - glad your S liked George Mason and GW, even if he didn’t care for American. Also glad he’ll be able to incorporate some fun into his trip!</p>
<p>LOMOM: She was devastated at the thought, resisted a lot, then relented. The transition was not too bad and she is happy now. She has made new friends, continued her old friendships via Facebook and text messages, is doing well in her new school and has been able to develop and grow in her extracurricular interests. She is stronger and wiser as a result of the move and I certainly don’t have any worries about her being able to adjust to college.</p>
<p>Booklady, thanks for posting the observations. My daughter is interested in those schools, as well as Catholic, Washington College and Loyola Md. We’re going to see all of those in July.</p>
<p>vicariousparent - glad your D handled the move well. I’m sure mine would too in the end - it’s just that I was imagining how she would have reacted in the same situation, and I know it wouldn’t have been pleasant. I’m sure your D will handle her transition to college beautifully as well. And Facebook and cell phones have made staying in touch with old friends so much easier and more affordable, so I’m sure that helped.</p>