<p>The google page also said you could put a minus sign to exclude words you didn’t want…but if you put -UT, you might miss stories comparing SU to UT; if you put -medical you night miss stories regarding medical issues at SU. </p>
<p>Maybe there are some google alert experts out there who could be of more help.</p>
<p>I get my alerts once a day except for my S’s HS. That is how I found out about a lockdown before everyone else. You can set them up for various types (news, blogs, etc) and frequency (immediately, daily, weekly). You can also limit the # of results per topic. </p>
<p>Do any of you set bed times? Our S gets up at 5:15AM. Last year he got into bed (sometimes read for a while) about 10:30PM. He had no trouble getting up. It is now 11:15PM and he is still up. I’m hoping it is ‘night before first day excitement/anxiety’ or whatever.</p>
<p>Gosh, I never thought of google-alerting colleges. That’s a good idea.</p>
<p>I like the idea of the google alerts. I will add my kids schools right away and add the colleges when we finalize the list. </p>
<p>Once again we had to hunt down white football cleats for my son. Coach wants the boys all wearing white. Plenty of black and mostly black cleats but no white cleats. Last year I got them at a store near my work, 40 miles from home so S could not try them on at the store. Only pair in his size within a reasonable distance from home. This year the 6th store we called/visited had one pair in his size. I thought we would have to order online which isn’t a bad thing except I do like him to try them on. If we bought them online and the first pair didn’t fit then you have the hassle of reordering and returning. Of course, my first question to S is where are the other kids buying them? And in typical fashion he tells me he doesn’t know. Can you ask them? I get the blank stare. …sigh How about if I ask them next time they are over? </p>
<p>On a similar vein, I ask him what colleges his friends are looking at. He doesn’t know, they don’t talk about it. ??? Are you kidding me? Isn’t this a big thing happening right now in their life? So to appease me, he sent me a text from one of his friends listing the colleges they will be applying to. Not one of his male friends but a female who is a friend. Are all boys like this? What do they talk about?</p>
<p>My S1 always gave me the “I dunno” response when I asked him where his friends were applying. I refused to believe that other families were not having the same discussions we were, but after a while I gave up asking…just wasn’t worth the aggrevation. I learned to get my “college fix” on CC. You will get tiny bits and pieces of info throughout the year. But if your son shares one of these tiny scraps of info with you and you ask a followup question…he will once again shut off the info spigot. Then sometime during the graduation process you will be given a printed list showing where all the kids with be attending college and you will finally be at peace! :p</p>
<p>(They do talk a wee bit more in the fall when the apps are going out)</p>
<p>My daughter gives me one-word responses and lots of sighs when I ask her where her friends want to apply, if they’re working on applications, etc. I try to make a pact with myself that I will avoid the topic, but I can’t seem to. She wants to have complete ownership of the college process, and I should have figured this would happen based on who she is. At least I can take consolation in my little one who will turn seven soon. She wants to talk to me all day long about anything and everything!</p>
<p>I could not believe that my D’s friends (who for the most part are pretty motivated students) were not discussing colleges. Even now, we are the only ones who have done any college visits. Maybe they are going to ramp it up when the school year gets started? But then, there’s so much else going on. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
In the meantime, we got schedules and the school calendar at the book sale today. I was a little bummed to see that there are no long weekends for the rest of the year; I had thought that usually there was at least one Monday with no school, so I thought we could do one or two college visits when classes were in session. That will now entail taking a day off school. We’ll see if that will work - otherwise, we’ll have to do it on a weekend. Kind of disappointing. Classes start next Wednesday. The summer has flown!</p>
<p>I’m pretty amazed at how few college visits my D’s friends have taken. Some of the “super motivated” high class rank folks have only done 3-4. And some who may have fairly unusual majors haven’t visited anywhere. The thing is, many have the same intense ECs as D, so I can’t really figure out when they plan to visit. Officially Not My Problem.</p>
<p>S2 has a very specific major. That’s why we’ve only visited a few schools. His list is short. There are many schools he’d love to have on his list of potentials…if they had his major. Based on realistic acceptance and financial options he has three schools he will be applying to. One is an absolute safety, however offers things the other two would not, such as the honors college experience so he doesn’t feel like it’s a safety…just a different choice. He has a low reach (stats match, but it’s a reach for most people), a solid match (however solid match students are turned down every year and you just shake your head and wonder), and a safety. They offer very different experiences. If he has the luxury of choosing, I’m not sure which way he’ll go. In the world of admissions the decision may be made for him.
Colleges are a big conversation with friends, but most are not applying to Ivy. UVa, Wm & Mry, & Duke are heavy favorites of top students. Some of this is obviously regional.</p>
<p>I’m totally baffled too. I know my S’s classmates must be addressing the college situation by now yet the few times I’ve asked my S I get “I don’t know”. Many of them do end up at UF or FSU because they think it is their only option financially. Florida has a great program that pays 100% tuition to state schools to students with certain SAT/ACT scores and GPA. The application process doesn’t require the amount of work, visits or agonizing for these kids as kids who choose to put private schools in the mix.</p>
<p>phbmom - Can you lend your 7 year old to each of us for a few hours? We miss the cuddles.</p>
<p>FIMathMom: If we’re ever in South Florida, I’ll let you know! </p>
<p>On a positive note, senior-to-be daughter allowed me to hear a couple of the essays she’s working on, and she has a strong voice! So proud of her. She doesn’t consider writing her strength, but I think she’s on the right track.</p>
<p>To be honest about my earlier post, she probably doesn’t want to talk about the college search process with her friends because their families aren’t doing much searching.</p>
<p>I hear bits and pieces from D1 about where her friends are applying, but I seem to hear more when I don’t ask. That’s still not much. She did tell me the other day that she passed on a piece of essay writing advice I’d learned on CC to a friend, about how if you dropped your essay on the floor at school and it didn’t have your name, someone picking it up would read it and know immediately that it was yours. But do I know where the friend is applying? Of course not. </p>
<p>The quid pro quo deal of a once-a-week email and discussion of the application to-do list in exchange for no nagging the rest of the week fell apart this week. She did schedule an interview, but nothing else on the list, including making a list of the schools she’s applying to along with any user IDs and passwords, so that she would have them handy and wouldn’t worry about forgetting them. She told me that she forgot her passwords. 
Talk about a teachable moment! Then she remembered that they were all the same.</p>
<p>OMG. I just want this done with. Asked S several times since he came back home from his interview last week to write a thank you note. Asked him again today when I called from work. Come home and it is still not done and I told him to do it NOW. So then H comes home and wants to bring S’s bike to shop to get fixed, to go to Lowes to pick up supplies for S’s Eagle scout project and do a few other things. S wrote an awful thank you note, horrible, horrible, horrible. This from a kid who is known for his wonderful writing skills. I wasn’t going to look at it but did at the last minute, thank goodness. Funny how he knows how to look up gaming cheats, etc, but he can’t find sample thank you notes online. Now H is mad at me for holding up his and S’s errands. </p>
<p>This kid is just a minimal effort, do it at the last minute kid. Lord give me the grace to accept the things I cannot change.</p>
<p>So he rewrote the thank you note. It went from horrible to great. Actually went from a short note to a one page letter. I know he is capable of doing these things, why can’t he do it on the first try. It is probably his first choice school so a horrible thank you was not good enough.</p>
<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>Seems like my S is more the rule than the exception! He has done zippo for a while, and he tells me none of his friends have much motivation either! There was a spurt there around the end of July and a college trip but that has fizzled.</p>
<p>I haven’t been able to monitor his activities much with the other life issues I have been trying my best to cope with. I told him as much last week-he has everything he needs and I am happy to help with an ear or any information I can give him-but the effort must come from him. I feel strangely at peace with that! </p>
<p>I see earlier in the thread the EEP info from Villanova-that is what I know happens at a lot of out of state schools. Thanks for the info-they were a possible but now I hear that they’ll get crossed off the list.</p>
<p>The only parameters I have given him are don’t bother looking at any school that doesn’t offer merit aid unless it is Ivy League, and the only reason he can look at Ivy League is some of them have a higher income financial aid cutoff that may mean we could qualify for something.</p>
<p>mamom, I hear ya-we have the same kid!</p>
<p>I too am trusting 1) that my kid knows she has to do these things and will when deadlines loom; and 2) when she gets back into school, talks to friends and her GC, she’ll get into the swing of college apps. </p>
<p>While she is happy enough with her local safeties, I hear her say to people who have asked her lately that she really wants to go to her first-choice schools out east, and wants to leave this area. She knows that will take a lot of work and preparation, so I’ll trust that she can make that happen, the part that’s in her control, anyway. </p>
<p>I may mention that she might want an absolute OOS safety, if that’s really what’s most important to her. Fortunately for us here, her “local” list includes WI, MN, MI and others, so she can go someplace easily and cheaply where no one from her HS ever goes. But if she wants to be sure she’s on the east coast, I’m going to recommend adding one more school out there. </p>
<p>Again, though, it will be her choice.</p>
<p>And - a schedule change report. Of course the HS had to switch everything around this summer, so she did end up with AP Gov instead of the Yearbook class (although she and some friends will do Yearbook on their own time - not sure if for credit, but whatever). So she had 2 classes left per semester to fill: She has to take 1 sem of Econ, and that is in the spring. She had already decided to do an independent study/student tutoring class (mostly in choir, helping the teacher, working with younger students, doing advanced projects), and that is in the spring, too.</p>
<p>So there were two empty slots in the fall, and she had wanted one art class, so to take up the lost Yearbook class, they put her in a second art class. Hm. She thinks this is pretty fluffy - her other classes are AP Gov, AP Lit, Calc AB, and Honors Chem, all solid academics, and the upper-level choir, but she’s wondering if she can do something else. FL is out (won’t go into that). One friend is filling the Yearbook slot with a sign-language class; maybe my D can do that, too. </p>
<p>Now this is a very artsy kid who isn’t trying for Ivies, so I’m not thinking colleges will look down on her particularly for taking 2 art classes first semester. I do find myself worrying, though. I’ll be glad when she can talk to her GC in a week or so.</p>
<p>WHY do these things keep happening? So many of us here have had these upheavals and had to put so much time and worry into redoing schedules over and over.</p>
<p>Anybody else’s student have “senior release”? We’re on a blocked (AB) schedule, so D will only have six classes instead of 8 and will get out early every day.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the “weighting” of AP classes actually encourages this. D will have 4 AP clases and 2 of drill team. That leaves two classes to fill - or take senior release. She doesn’t want to add any APs, which makes sense. AND, if she adds two “regular” classes and gets anything less than a 100, it will lower her GPA.</p>
<p>Wow. That actually sounds kind of nice (knowing what drill team is like, especially). I guess your school uses the 100 pt system rather than a 4 pt scale? That’s rough for kids - at least on the 4 pt scale you can get a 94 or even a 93 and not hurt yourself. It makes me sad when kids literally have to seek perfection rather than just a solidly commendable performance. </p>
<p>While it sounds like it gives kids a bit of an out, your D’s situation also discourages kids to try new things and take a few risks. That’s always a little sad to me.</p>
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<p>We are on a 5.0 scale - with APs, they can get over a 5.0. Anything less than 100 on a non-weighted class is less than 5.0, lowering their GPA. </p>
<p>I totally agree with you. If you have some time senior year, you should be able to take Ceramics or Astronomy or Nutrition or whatever…but if it’s going to lower your GPA, why risk it?</p>