<p>I am ever so glad that yesterday has come and gone. It marks the end of 6 weeks of testing for S2 (state administered ACT, 4 APs, 2 SATIIs and yesterday’s SATI.) This is pretty typical for juniors with high aspirations, so lots of you know what we have been dealing with. This testing treadmill has required me to be leaning on my son to study much more than I would have liked. All this in addition to the regular demands of his courseload.</p>
<p>Boy, today feels so much more relaxed.</p>
<p>Hello, I’ve been lurking and occasionally posting for a little while. I found this site while preparing for a departmental inservice at work. I stuck around because I’ll have a senior and a freshman next year. The senior is fine. Knows what she wants, and it’s not something offered at any top college, so the process will be low-stress. The rising freshman has big dreams, and I don’t think they’re unrealistic.</p>
<p>My senior will applying to colleges this summer and in the fall. All have rolling admissions and her stats put her in the top 25% of the freshman class. So, I guess, all three finalists are “safeties”. One is the institution where I work. The other two are in our tuition exchange organizaiton. Where she goes depends on where she can get exchange (it’s guaranteed at the home school, but I would rather she go away if she can).</p>
<p>I work at a small LAC. I work almost exclusively with high risk freshman - then I follow my cohert through to graduation (those that make it). Sometimes, CC makes me lol, like a week or so ago when someone posted that they had an ACT of 28 and got a reply that he or she should consider a community college and then transfer! A kid with a 28 ACT does not need to start at a community college. But, there’s also a lot of good information here, especially for my youngest as “elite” schools are a little out of my area of expertise. </p>
<p>Anyway, don’t know how much I’ll post, but I love reading about everyone else’s experiences. And since I deal with kids after admissions, the admissions process itself might leave me scratching my head. Also, I might be a pretty good resource for people whose kids aren’t at the very top of a academic heap. I’ve been in higher ed for the last 19 years, after all!</p>
<p>Welcome, welcome, welcome! We’ll help you and you’ll help us - sounds like a deal.</p>
<p>Hello everyone, I’ve just recently found this site and I am so excited to talk to other parents about the college process! My oldest son is just finishing his junior year and his dream school is the University of Pittsburgh. We’ve been down to visit once, and are going again at the end of the month so he can do an overnight and so his father can also see the school. He is also considering Penn State. Looking forward to all the advice and commiseration I’ll find here!</p>
<p>^Yes, it’s ridiculous to say, but she has 4 shows going this summer: #1 is the most time-consuming, a HS summer theater program in which she has a good supporting role; #2 and #3 are a local “Shakespeare in the Park” and summer musical in which she has background roles and will do some crewing, when she’s off-duty from the bigger show; and #4 is her HS fall musical for which they do a week-long intensive rehearsal week in August.</p>
<p>Sounds fun to us and not at all ridiculous! </p>
<p>My S is at a college theater program for most of the summer, then the day he gets back, he starts rehearsals for a musical that is performing end of September…(he got the lead and is very excited). My S is the opposite of your D…he is doing intensive theater because he feels this may be his last chance–he has pretty much decided on a different major, with a college that will allow continued theater involvement/maybe a minor or depending on if possible a double major. Unlike your D, EmmyBet, my S has been heavily involved in theater since he was 10.</p>
<p>Are we calling them Seniors now? Gosh, the “baby” (youngest of five) is a Sr., I can’t believe it. He started work last night at a Restaurant- a full 8 hours! Life is Good.</p>
<p>Emmybet, don’t feel bad about losing track of the Tonys. I thought today was Father’s Day! Seriously…I was reminding songbird to be sure to call her Dad when I got an email from some company reminding me that Father’s Day is only 2 weeks away. We’ve been living so much by the micro-calendar of her life that apparently we’ve lost touch with the general calendar of the world at large!</p>
<p>Ah, the challenges of this time of life! It seems like my daughter is done, because finals were finished the week before last, but then SAT2s yesterday (she did zero prep, took two of them cold, probably did not do well but doesn’t need them for most of the schools on her list) and ACT on Saturday. And when her just-graduated friend was over the other day and was showing me the book she’s reading for fun and recommending it to me, I said to my D, “Now you get to read for pleasure instead of school”-- and she said, “No way-- I have five big books on my summer reading list!” So it seems to never end.</p>
<p>The thing that saddens me is the testing. Both my girls are strong students, smart girls, well-rounded, and hard workers-- not CC superachievers, but great young people and achievers by any normal standards. The rising senior has a very good GPA in a college-prep school (3.85uw, 4.1 weighted, maybe higher after grades come in next week), time-consuming involvement (with leadership) in two school ECs, and is working at a good summer job that she had to really hustle to obtain. But like her older sister, her SAT scores were just okay. She will prep later this summer for the fall re-take, and she may do better on the ACT, but we have to accept that she is not likely to break 2000… and there goes all hope of merit aid at “her” schools. Some of them are SAT-optional, and she’s a strong candidate to get into her colleges regardless of SAT, but it just seems so unfair that merit aid is tied to test scores. These schools pitch themselves as SAT-optional, but I think it’s just a marketing ploy and a money-making ploy to get full-pays. If they really believed in being SAT-optional, they would give merit aid based on transcript, workload, ECs, interviews… on the all-around student, not the flawed standardized tests.</p>
<p>Okay, end of rant. Time to enjoy summer now. We have never been pesky parents, never have bothered them about homework or studying, never have checked their status online… they need to take responsibility for that stuff, and have. But we will have to bug her about at least doing some ACT prep this week when she’s not working… if she can do better on that, there might be a shred of hope for merit aid at the schools she loves.</p>
<p>Klucky, I’m a crier, too. When songbird and I visited a college a few months ago it was a brilliant spring day, the campus was reminiscent of that iconic campus we all can picture (a la movies shot on gorgeous campuses). Anyway, I was sitting on a bench waiting while she visited a class and then, from about 500 feet away, down a lovely winding footpath, emerged small groups, then dozens, then hundreds of students making their way to their next classes. And there among them was songbird looking…I don’t know…confident, older, in awe of it all, but ready to take on the world. In that moment, images of her walking out from kindergarten and 4th grade and middle school all came flooding into my mind. And I HAD NO KLEENEX. Fortunately I pulled myself together before embarrassing both of us, but lesson learned: over the course of next year, I need tissues with me at all times. I’m such a sap!</p>
<p>I have found my people :D</p>
<p>I’m with you. I still have a picture in my mind of S1 on his first day of kindergarten playing ring around the rosy on the lawn with his younger sister and brother in front of the school as he waited for the doors to open. He still has the teddy bear that was in his backpack that morning. Five more first days later, his is still the one I remember most.</p>
<p>
Our schools don’t let out for 2 more weeks - so not until then for me…</p>
<p>same here AtomicGirl</p>
<p>welcome mdye718. My S is also looking at U Pitt, will visit later this summer. </p>
<p>Welcome ordinarylives. I agree with you on some of the suggestions made on this board. I have learned tons by hanging here, but take it all with a grain of salt. My S is not the super motivated super achiever but he is a good kid who will end up somewhere good for him. </p>
<p>We have a meeting with S’s GC Monday. S has had this same GC all 3 years, except when she was on maternity leave. The 2 times we have approached her for help/answers, over the past 3 years, she was less than helpful and put us off. I am surprised she agreed to meet with us and S. We wanted to meet with her to get her take on possible colleges for S and ideas on how to frame his application so he can put his less than stellar grades in better light. Right now S is in the top 10% of his class re:SAT’s but lower 25% re: GPA. We will see how it goes. </p>
<p>S is hopefully upstairs studying for his Latin final Monday. I did see a post by him on facebook about an hour ago so I have my fingers crossed that he was just taking a quick break.</p>
<p>Hi! I first posted around page 89 about SAT I Writing but haven’t jumped in again. I just read around the last 50 pages of this thread and I love the way you support each other despite the varied issues you have. I would like to be a part of a parent community, especially now that my DD’s senior year is upon us. It is a bit hard to track the numerous posters and to remember who’s who. Do you have room for one more?</p>
<p>^always…</p>
<p>@research4emb:
I feel your frustration. This does seem endless for our kids in a way that it wasn’t for us. I remember preparing for a few months before the SAT, taking it, and that was that. Same with the SAT2’s (called Achievement tests back then, remember?)
More than anything, I hope that I can handle the stress of the application process. I think my kid has a better handle on it than I do.</p>
<p>Yes collegeforthree, I remember the college application process being far less complicated…and I did it myself with a bit of help from the High School GC.</p>
<p>Tomorrow I AM going to sleep in. (I might get up to let out the dogs so I don’t have to deal with any accidents, but then I am going to re rack) S1 graduated on the 28th, S2 just finished his Jr. year and his SAT sub tests. I used to think parenting young babies was tiring, but this teenage stuff is darn right exhausting…</p>
<p>I think a big factor in the angst is lower admission rates. I am curious; with admission rates dropping, is it important to apply to more schools than one would’ve in the past? A certain arbitrariness seems to be present in the admissions process that one could protect against by applying to more schools. What I’ve understood in this thread is that it is desirable to have definitely less than 10 on the list. Apart from the work, the money, and of course the stress of it, why else should one keep the list short?</p>