Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
6601

<p>scualum:</p>

<p>My cousin was also at Candlestick when the '89 quake struck in SF. He’s since decamped and moved back to WA. Glad to hear the worst of it was your ride back home, not knowing what you’d find (similar to our drive back from Death Valley after the Northridge EQ.)</p>

<p>I have a funny EQ story. When we were contemplating buying the home we’re now in (it’s on a hill) my H decided to call City Hall with a few questions for Engineering about the geology in the area. (At the time, the Old City Hall was known to be less than structurally sound and there was already in place a plan to build a new one, which was completed in '95.) At the moment the person answered his call, there was a mild EQ. He said the person on the other end sounded nervous and asked him to call back later and hung up the phone.</p>

6602

<p>I’m enjoying the stories about the earthquakes. My two oldest children remember the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan that cause rolling power blackouts for more than a week, all over the island. They wanted another earthquake so that we could keep eating supper by candlelight. The first earthquake I ever experienced in my life was in Taiwan, many years earlier, and I noticed all the Californians there were very calm and low key about that. </p>

<p>Saturday was busy for my son. At 8:00am was the final exam in numerical computing, then American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) training started at 9:00am, so my son jogged across the U of Minnesota campus to Augsburg College campus (contiguous, but across the Mississippi River) for the team training. Then he returned his textbooks to the bookstore back across the river (mandatory for dual enrollment students) and took an intermediate Chinese final beginning at 4:00pm. When he was done with that final, he moved out of his dorm room. Whew! The good news today, as he pushes to finish his distance learning course in history of science, is that he has been selected onto the Minnesota Gold (“A” division) team to the Central Region ARML meet. He was delighted to make use of topology he learned the first semester of this school during the power round of the team selection process last Saturday, and that seems to have paid off.</p>

6603

<p>Just visited Union College!!!
had a wonderful visit and really loved every aspect of the school…
PM me for details…</p>

6604

<p>rocket6louise - Will you post a trip report here on the thread for everyone? I’m sure lots of people are interested!</p>

6605

<p>D informed me today that she was one of the 8 or so kids in her school who got a junior book award. I asked her- “what did you do to get it?” She said “nothing”. I did a google search to find out what it means, and I think I sort of understand it- most likely a teacher nominated her and the local alumni association of the college awarded it to her. And from what I can tell, it won’t really count for all that much in the college admissions process. Am I getting it right?</p>

6606

<p>That’s an incredibly busy Saturday for your son, token! Glad to see his efforts are paying off. I am sure the payoffs will continue in a big way next year- and beyond. One thing is for sure, he isn’t going to have any difficulty in demonstrating his uniqueness- he is sure to stand out from the crowd.</p>

6607

<p>Token:</p>

<p>Super moderator, super kid!</p>

6608

<p>Wow, I’m always amazed at how people get different impressions of schools. DS and I weren’t impressed with Union at all. Rocket, I will be interested in your report! To us, it felt like a high school campus. That’s the school where DS looked at me and said, “This is $50,000 a year? I wouldn’t pay that!” I guess that’s why it’s good there are so many schools to choose between!</p>

6609

<p>We got a letter from The National Young Leaders State Conference stating that our HS principal had nominated DS to attend it. Is this another one of those money-making operations that’s not worth anything? Have any of you heard of it? Thanks!!</p>

6610

<p>^ It’s not very highly regarded, IIRC.</p>

6611

<p>Rocketlouise - I’d love to hear what you thought of Union. D’s GC included it on her list as a potential safety school, and I’m not that familiar with it, though I’ve heard good things from others.</p>

<p>tokenadult - congrats to your S. Sounds like his hard work has paid off.</p>

<p>vp - congrats to your D as well. Even if she did “nothing” to win it, a teacher obviously thought she’d earned the recognition and nominated her, and she was still selected as a winner.</p>

6612

<p>vp, she did something she caught the eye of her teachers as a student who deserved to be recognized for her academic work. That’s not “nothing”! The book awards don’t give you a leg up in admissions, but it’s still a nice thing to get.</p>

6613

<p>token:</p>

<p>What a day!! I’m tired just thinking about it :)</p>

<p>Congrats to him on the fine results.</p>

6614

<p>Went to the 8 of the Best Colleges tour. My initial impression: It was three colleges too many. Right after the presentation, we were all comparing notes and found ourselves blanking on who said what, so we each walked away with a general positive or negative impression, but few specifics. But that’s OK. I guess ds can use this as a stepping-off point for rather he wants to do more investigation.</p>

<p>After the welcome they did a presentation of how they’re similar (small, selective), what a liberal arts education means, etc. Then there was a portion about what they look for admissions-wise and about financial aid. I thought the financial aid portion was odd. The guy recommended figuring out your EFC so you know but not to let finances keep you from applying wherever you want. Really? </p>

<p>The rest of the presentation was a PowerPoint. Each rep got about six minutes a piece. Some people came across as very dry; some were funny and entertaining. If they reflect their schools, it was easy in my mind to come away with favorites and not-so-favorites. </p>

<p>The best thing to come out of it for me was that it confirmed my favorable impression of Macalester. Ds is going up there with friends this summer to tour and interview there and at Carleton, so I was glad we liked the rep and presentation.</p>

<p>The next best thing it did was knock Colorado College off the list (in my eyes; we’ll see what ds thinks).</p>

<p>A surprise favorite for everyone (but me) was Grinnell. I’d always thought that would be a good place for ds but never pushed the issue because it’s in the middle of Iowa. :slight_smile: We have all this literature from them; I wonder whether ds will want to pursue it.</p>

<p>Dh loved Kenyon, ds2 and I loved Haverford, and ds1 liked Connecticut College, though he couldn’t identify why afterward.</p>

<p>Claremont McKenna gave us good info since ds is interested in Pomona :). Sarah Lawrence is a no-go.</p>

<p>I think this kind of multi-school presentation is best if you know you’re interested in a particular school and then can use it to get some face time with the rep. If you had no idea about any of these schools going in, I don’t see how you could discern between them to come up with a clear favorite or three afterward. It was too dark to take notes.</p>

6615

<p>Vicarious … you are right on 2 counts … It isn’t doing nothing that gets the college book award AND it doesn’t mean a lock for a college. Just means that several teachers think there is a match.</p>

<p>My D got the Harvard book and didn’t get accepted there. But the book was a talking point in the interview and IF she’d read it before the interview, she could have used the material.</p>

<p>OTOH, she is happy where she is.</p>

<p>But it is worthy of a hearty CONGRATS to your D. YAY college book!</p>

6616

<p>Since I’m logged in, I can chime in on the '89 earthquake. We were here, lost a lot of china. H got home by driving over the freeway bump before they got around to closing it! … and DD was born about 9 months later.</p>

6617

<p>Explain to me book awards and a college book, please. TIA. I thought I knew but maybe not.</p>

6618

<p>From what I understand, they are given by local alumni groups, upon teacher nomination. But I don’t know what the actual “book” is that they get.</p>

6619

<p>YDS: Thanks for that succinct summary of the 8-college presentation. DD is thinking about applying to Macalester. Possibly Carleton, Pomona, Claremont McKenna and perhaps Colorado college. Could you please expand on what you didn’t like about Colorado College? </p>

<p>As for Grinnell, we did visit last year in the middle of the summer, and were taken around by a student who had grown up in Grinnell, Iowa, and was staying home for the summer! It was the most unusual visit we have done for any college. We had to make an appointment in advance, and then when we arrived, our guide showed up, and took us around campus. Imagine that- a personal college tour, all for just one prospective student! And then after the tour, we had a one-on-one session with an admissions dean who was very nice too. At least as of last summer, the college was overflowing with resources and sparkling new facilities. But yes, it <em>is</em> in the middle of rural Iowa and it seemed particularly rural in the summer! I don’t think my D is going to apply.</p>

<p>About the book award, oh yeah, DD liked the recognition, and especially liked the fact that she didn’t have to ‘do anything’ for it. Unsolicited compliments are the best! The college that is associated with her award is a women’s college and so far she has been very resistant to the idea of women’s colleges. But who knows, the book award might just make her look?</p>

<p>Edit: YDS, I spent some time looking up old C.C threads last night to find out more about book awards. Here’s a summary: In some high schools there are book awards, usually given to juniors. The awards are associated with a particular college, and are primarily a form of marketing by alumni associations. The award is an actual book which may or may not be related to the school (eg the author may be faculty or alum). The alumni associations choose the high schools that they will participate with, perhaps based on how ‘desirable’ that high school is considered. Selection of students can vary a lot- teachers can nominate students, or some administrator like the principal or counselor can make the decision, and alumni associations might also have a say in some cases. Depending on how thoughtfully the awards are given out, the college may or may not match with the student, though only women get awards associated with women’s colleges. You can list it as an award when you apply to colleges and it might get noticed at the time of interview or it might not. Mostly it seems to be an indication that you are generally well regarded in your own high school. And it doesn’t seem to be a big boost at the elite colleges. (There, that was a summary of more than an hour of C.C browsing).</p>

6620

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<p>Thanks for the report. Yeah, I blank out if I see more than five colleges in one meeting too.</p>