<p>I’ve been MIA. Busy, busy, busy.</p>
<p>Summers are the only time we’ve had so far to visit. I hope he gets the opportunity to do some visits this fall or spring before a final decision is made.</p>
<p>psychmom-im glad your daughter had a good experience at union too…
it makes me feel better about mine…</p>
<p>and, quick question on senior portraits…do you think they are necessary. I don’t want one besides the one for the yearbook…i feel a need for no other “cutesy” poses. My dad agrees with me, but my mom is bent on doing a bazillion photos…</p>
<p>your guy’s thoughts?</p>
<p>psychmom, I can imagine! An empty campus makes it hard to determine fit at the very least. Plus it’s probably a little strange being on a virtually deserted campus.</p>
<p>Rocket6louise - I’d like a photo of my D in both her graduation gown and her yearbook picture. The one with the “accessory/accessories” is not necessary. She can take a photo with something if she wants to, but I doubt that she will.</p>
<p>It really is hard to get a feel for the school with no students around. We did bump into a few kids doing summer research at a couple places, but mostly, the places were deserted. Do profs get the summer off?</p>
<p>You would think that they would tidy up for summer tours. We looked in one dorm, and there was stuff hanging from the bulletin boards, couches in disarray, etc. Looked like all they had done was swept out the beer bottles. Not a good impression. Likewise, the fabulous snack shop where everyone hangs out was closed and had leaves and debris on the otherwise pretty patio. Would have been an easy fix to make it look more inviting.</p>
<p>Rocket6louise:</p>
<p>As to the senior photos, I have a bias since my H is pretty handy with a camera. So I figure we’ll get the photo for the yearbook and any other nice ones we want, he’ll get em. He just spent part of his free time on a business trip to Montreal taking photos and using his new, special effects lensbaby.</p>
<p>Also, rocket6louise, I’m not sure how your senior photos work, but at D’s school, the kids pay a $10 sitting fee up front, and then have different options to choose from as far as packages go - so no harm sitting for them, and then choosing just the ones you want.</p>
<p>Rocket - Senior photos, we’re just doing the sitting for the yearbook and that’s it. </p>
<p>As of two days ago, add another senior to the list!</p>
<p>When does everyone’s school year end?</p>
<p>hi again rocket6louise, My daughter only wanted the yearbook photo as well. I’m a sentimental type mom, and wanted her to sit for the minimum package, but she wasn’t into it. I figure we will get some spontaneous pics at graduation time, which will reflect more of her inner spirit. It’s hard to get into the whole grad thing a year away. As far as Union goes, she surprised herself by how much she liked the school. Of course, it helped that we went now as opposed to the dead of winter! We were watching the kids interacting on campus, and the tour guide commented, “On nice days we tend to come out like this.” My DD was mesmerized by the Nott, and she loved the Minerva houses and the garden area. The tour guide de-emphasized the frat scene, and showed us the huge monthy activity list.</p>
<p>nunya, We end late here (Long Island), June twenty-something.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard a thing about senior pics here. Classes are out the first week of June.</p>
<p>School goes on here until June 19. Next year, the school year may be shorter by seven days due to the CA budget crisis, so won’t the CA seniors be all the more thrilled.</p>
<p>No kidding! Don’t they need a specific number of days to retain their accreditation? I guess the state of CA sets their own requirements.</p>
<p>We do not have any days to spare here, and in fact, had to add to the end of this year to get enough days.</p>
<p>I think my D has a few days more of school this week, mostly for finals, and then she’s done. But she has been in vacation mode ever since APUSH about 2 weeks ago.</p>
<p>Yearbook photos, my children always submitted their own, no photography studios.<br>
So I mailed out my S’s school photos over the winter in Christmas cards as usual.
Another rite of passage for us-no more school photos, I figured I had been mailing out school photos from 1990-2009 for all four children! That is a long time, so I had an extra glass of wine that evening! LOL</p>
<p>Last day of classes is the 15th, finals for the next week.</p>
<p>We don’t do school photos, really, except for the one you get your first day every year that goes on your school ID. For the yearbook, every senior gets a half-page and most are photos of them growing up and some cute little quote about success.</p>
<p>I picked up a book at the library that I’ve never heard mentioned here on CC and I thought I’d share. It’s called “Rugg’s Recommendations on the Colleges” and a new volume is published every year; the new one is volume 26. Fred Rugg has been a secondary school college counselor for over 30 years. Basically, it’s a book of lists. He has a comprehensive list of majors and under each major they recommend schools at each level of selectivity (most selective, very selective, selective.) Another section of the book has each school listed with their average SAT score, average ACT score along with the recommended majors for that particular school. Nothing fancy, no commentary, just lists. Helpful for those who know what major they’re interested in, or if they just want a quick snapshot of a particular school.</p>
<p>Thanks fo the recommendation, RobD. I’ll look into that book.</p>
<p>School here ends around June 25th or 26th. Classes end around the 15th, and then there are Regents and finals. NY schools go so late.</p>
<p>psychmom - you and rocket6louise are making me want to take a trip up to Union to check it out. Maybe over the summer? I know that’s not ideal, but not sure when else we could fit it in.</p>
<p>SAT II work going on here this weekend, as well as regular homework (D1 has a history research paper, and D2 a bio one) Since we only have two Math 2 practic tests, D1 took one of the Math 1 tests just to get in the mode of doing the questions, and got a 790. D2 is making a study guide for Bio. D1 hasn’t looked at the history stuff yet which I want her to do, she says she doesn’t like flashcards but she has some study sheets that were part of a sparknotes APUSH set that might be useful to review the facts for USH. She really only needs one good score as the only school where the SAT IIs are required for her is Dartmouth. All others will take her ACT. Midd will take 3 SAT IIs in lieu or the ACT, so if she comes away with three scores which trump her ACT, she could go with those. pyschmom, does your D know what scores she is submitting to Conn Coll? They will take either ACT or two SAT IIs but won’t take SAT 1. I think next weekend will be the the time to take the official tests from the book, I can have both girls sitting at the table and time them both together, just like a reall test room lol.</p>
<p>We have 1.5 weeks of classes left and then a week of finals. D2 has 5 finals but D1 only has 2 in her full year non-AP classes.</p>
<p>We end up buying a small package of school pictures every year and not distributing most of them. We might buy more for D1 for senior year next year, don’t know. No additional poses etc since it is just the picture taken at school. We will probably want to see that she wears a nice outfit that year, my girls usually do, many kids have their pictures in T shirts.</p>
<p>We have to nail down our schedule for the end of June, D has to plan with her Gold award advisor when she is working on her project and then we’ll setup revisits to several schools and do some interviews. Its either then or way at the end of August when she is done with camp.</p>
<p>LIMOM, Well you know how I feel about summer visits, LOL!</p>
<p>eta: The main thing I took away from this trip was my daughter’s reaction to the kids on campus. To her, they seemed like down to earth, regular kids, in contrast to some of the more artsy schools we’ve visited. I also see that the activity level on the campus is important to her, much more so than the surrounding town. When we started this process, the reverse was true. She’s beginning to visualize herself in the school scene. She is growing and changing, and I am starting to think that holding off on ED is a wise move for us, even if it might limit her chances at one of her top schools.</p>
<p>jackief, Conn is SAT optional, but they say to submit the scores if it enhances the application. You CAN submit the SAT1. DD’s ACT(33) was stronger than her SAT1(2120), so she’ll submit the ACT. You can also just send in SAT2s…or nothing at all. The ACT is a strong point for my daughter, who has a few weak areas on the transcript, so she’ll send it in. The emphasis at Conn ( and at many of these LACs) seems to be the transcript ( rigor of classes and grades). This is the first year that Conn is completely test optional.</p>