<p>Getting ready to send the boys off for “the road trip”. They are visiting 8 schools in one week. Lots of driving. We were originally all suppose to go, but D balked big time about touring one more college and sitting through another info session, so we will meet up with the boys in a week. I think I will need to make sure H has some down time when we meet up with him in a week.</p>
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<p>For Christmas last year (Son’s freshman year in college) I bought a lot of small gift cards for stores and restaurants in this college town. If you add some small gift cards - Sonic, Smoothie King, WalMart, local movie theatre chain, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, it’s pretty easy to come up with quite a few.</p>
<p>I also love the 18 gifts idea! I have until April to figure out a big present. Laptops are usually the high school graduation gift in our house. </p>
<p>As for college plans, we are actually making progress in our house. S loved the small schools we visited on the East Coast, and was not as enamored with the big schools in urban environments. He wants to study physics, so he is currently thinking small for undergrad, and then a big research university for a PhD. This of course could all change! He doesn’t want to eliminate any choices right now, so he will still be applying to some big UCs. </p>
<p>We are meeting with a college counselor on an “as-needed” basis (we didn’t go for the big expensive package). She has lit a fire under him to start his essays this summer (he has a challenging fall academically) so this is good. Why do teens take things better from a stranger their own mom?!</p>
<p>I have no problem with straying from a topic but off topic stuff is pretty much what the whole college cafe is about. It just makes it awkward to jump back to college talk if you’ve got pages of non-college stuff and for newbies, it might be off putting if they are reading CC for the first time with a rising senior and need help. Sorry if this comes off as rude, I really don’t intend it to be.</p>
<p>mamom, What’s up with your boys college road trip? You’re letting your husband have all the fun?? Where are they heading?</p>
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<p>I know, I think he may owe me for this. 
Actually, he is the enforcer and will insist S write down thoughts and comments during the trip, will get him to review the web sites the night before, come up with good interview questions, etc. He will also be able to “coax” S into starting the essays.</p>
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<p>Duquesne, Univ Pitt, Miami U in Oxford, Xavier, Washington & Lee (big reach), James Madison, Catholic and American. He has interviews scheduled at Duquesne, Catholic and American. W&L was booked so he will interview with a rep in the fall. </p>
<p>He will visit Lehigh and Villanova in August and that will finish college visits til after he gets accepted/rejections in the mail.</p>
<p>I was typing out a list of the classes he has taken with final grades for him to give the reps when he interviews. He got one C in Chem Honors, everything else is an A or B. Almost all his classes are honors or AP. He may not be CC smart, but the kid isn’t doing too badly, expecially when you factor in his CC high SAT and ACT results. S will end up at a good school and it looks like several of the schools on his list will give him merit money. So, I am starting to feel better about this college app process. Maybe the fact that I don’t have to visit 8 schools in a week has something to do with it?</p>
<p>Funny mamom - I am getting a little panicky about this process right now. I was looking at the spreadsheet the other night and a lot of the schools are “matches” for D. Her stats fall right around the 50% mark for these schools. I’ve posted about this before - we’ve not had much luck finding a financial/academic safety school that she likes. So, looking at the spreadsheet, I was panicking at this whole process a bit - what if she is rejected from most of her “match” schools? Her backup plan would be to apply to the state school’s honor’s college…but I don’t think she really wants to go there.</p>
<p>Of course, all of this is not helped by the fact that despite my constant nagging, I’ve not seen any progress on the essays! I’ve decided to stop nagging - to see if that approach has better results :-)</p>
<p>D1 said that she is not ready to write essays yet. She says she has all the prompts; she used those to help her figure out where she’ll apply. We came to an agreement that I will email her a list of things to do for college apps for the week, and then there will be no nagging for the week. I know she does work better under pressure, which is how she knocked out her killer essays for Earthwatch. </p>
<p>She has a summer internship 5 days a week from 10-3 each day. She is taking public transportation to get there, and is revelling in the joys of city life (today’s text: “The guard at the building recognized me!” 
). Unfortunately, she’s now saying that she wants to revise her list of safeties, since she is now thinking that she really wants to be in the city and Eugene doesn’t qualify. My parental perogative app is Pitt, which nicely fulfills the city requirement, but she says she doesn’t like the school. I say she doesn’t like it NOW, but she liked it last year, and she may like it again. She may need to accept that no school can be all things. The “in a city” rule also is being suspended for Wesleyan. Every time she meets a Wes student, she really likes them, and Wes bounces back on her list.</p>
<p>arisamp - I don’t recall your D’s choices or stats, but I will say this as perspective from my D1, who is entering her senior year in college. She applied ED to her first choice and was accepted, so she never had to deal with safeties or the state flagship, which for her, too, was the “last resort,” enough so that she talked about a gap year or going “anywhere BUT.”</p>
<p>Now that she has a few years to look back, she says she would have been foolish not to go to the state flagship honors program, that she knows ultimately she would have been plenty happy. Another friend’s D who went for a year and transferred - and loves her new school, absolutely - also says that if she’d stayed at the flagship she would have had really good education. I believe these kids are entitled to search for the fit that they want, and I suspect when they “only” have the state school as an option when all is done, it’s very rough on them. But ideally they transfer or realize they can make it work, pretty much in every case. </p>
<p>So I hope the best for your D - matches are fine. You should only be worried if they’re all reaches, or all schools that accept fewer than 20% of applicants. Of course, one safety is a good idea. My D2 is a match or better at all of her schools (except the auditions make several of them reaches). She may find herself deciding the state option is the way to go, too, or the only option she ends up with. It does happen. And kids make it work.</p>
<p>We’re with you!!</p>
<p>SlitheyTove - we struck the same deal. Come up with a list of things for the week - look over the list at the end of the week and retool for the next week. I have to work really hard to keep my end of the bargain though - need to bite my tongue sometimes :-)</p>
<p>She is doing work - she has signed up for several AP classes next year (schedule’s not final yet, so we don’t know which ones she will end up taking) - but is being diligent about doing all the summer work for all these classes. Reading, typing up notes, setting up a discussion group about the summer book (must have been more fun than work!) etc. Can’t complain on that front. </p>
<p>EmmyBet - she does have a few schools that have a high acceptance rate. Some of these schools are also early action - and so her plan is to apply EA to these schools and then rework her list depending on her results. Good plan - something that I am in agreement with. My only problem has been the lack of a “true” safety school - it’s been very easy to find match/high match/reach schools, but with safety schools - there’s always been something or the other not right!! Too big, too techy…</p>
<p>mamom –
I noticed Xavier was on the itinerary. It looks like the trip is already chock-full, but did they think about visiting Univ of Cincinnati? We were pleasantly suprised with the campus and programs when we visited last year. They have some very highly competitive programs (CCM - Music Conservatory and their Design school programs)…but others are less competitive. </p>
<p>Some say it has a lot of similarities with Pitt…</p>
<p>Woo - a big sigh of relief. D called me all excited - AP scores arrived at home. A 5 on Psych and a 4 on APUSH. She’s very happy (inline with what she expected!) She was very worried about her AP Bio - she took ill during the exam and had to take the second part of the test at a later date. Apparently, that score is delayed. At least, she’ll get to enjoy these scores for the weekend :-)</p>
<p>Finally got AP scores today. S is happy with all but one. Glad the wait is over. </p>
<p>I just gave S a strong nudge as this week coming up is his last at home before going away for two weeks. When he returns Common App will be available along with many other applications. He will only have 10 days before school starts to try to get as much done as possible. Really don’t want anything but fine-tuning of essays left to be be done once school begins. There is too much other stuff going on.</p>
<p>Around here D has to get cracking on this stuff. Her HS starts August 16, so literally there is only one month left to finish reading and math summer HW as well as try to get a start on the essays. At least we have her list down and finalized. No more trips until we start getting acceptances (that is going to be a fun wait). I envy all the other parents whose kids seem to be further along on this :(</p>
<p>BTW is anyone else having trouble signing up for SAT. The website says its ready, but it does not let us select a site</p>
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<p>No but thank you for the suggestion. I will check it out an see what S thinks. His list actually has …20, yes 20 schools on it right now. He has already visited some and others we just are not going to be able to visit right now. I am always open to looking at schools we haven’t consider though.</p>
<p>AP Scores came today. 4 on APUSH happy about that one. Not so good on Calc BC but it was as expected so no surprises there.</p>
<p>AP scores arrived here also. 4 on World Hist and 3 on Eng Comp. Funny thing is he got a progress report from World Hist teacher this last term flunking him. He ended up with a B in the class for the term. I expected better on Eng, his favorite subject from a favorite teacher. oh well.</p>
<p>2boysinma- Thanks! I just checked out the Univ of Cincinnati, and I like it! Has a great finance program with optional coop which S may like also. We visited the R&R HoF last year and I was very impress with Cincinnati. Great city. So, it is on my list. Unfortunately we already have about 20 schools on the list. Not enough kids from S’s school apply there so I have no naviance data.</p>
<p>Wow, a lot to catch up on. Well my S got is ACT score and AP scores - he’s pretty happy about both. One of the schools he really likes (U of TX, San Marcos) sent him a letter saying they got his ACT score and with his self reported GPA he should be accepted there. They encouraged him to complete the on-line application. It was nice to get. His AP scores were better than his grades, but that doesn’t surprise me since he complained about all the work in APChem. He plans on taking the credit for both classes since they are not core for his major. He only took 2 APs and he will take only take 2 more next year, possibly 3.</p>
<p>These reports showed up at our home while we were out of the country. We took a 10 day trip to Guatemala for a missions trip. Excellent trip, most of us want to go back next year.</p>
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I’m</a> also in CA (SoCal), and the GC does have large number of students to help. Welcome to CC.</p>
<p>Atomic Girl - The trip to Guatemala musthave been a wonderful fufulling experience.</p>
<p>Is there a UT San Marcos, or are you taking about Texas State U in San Marcos?</p>