<p>I am so grateful that all three of my children are very compassiate and empathetic. I hope the students involved in the Rutgers matter live their entire lives trying to attone for what they have done.</p>
<p>People make light of “guilt” - Jewish guilt, Italian guilt, Baptist guilt - but guilt shows that a person has a conscience. Knowing they have done wrong and feeling terrible about it can turn a person around and change their lives for the better.</p>
<p>The death of the Rutgers student also struck a chord with me. Three families lives ruined. With all due respect though, can we continue that discussion here - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1005804-bad-solution-roommate-sexile-situation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1005804-bad-solution-roommate-sexile-situation.html</a> there’s also another discussion in the Cafe about the same thing.</p>
<p>fogfog - We still have our Red flyer and use it for yard work!</p>
<p>We still have our kiddo1’s wagon…it has the upper panel sides too.
Years ago we were moving and someone offerred to buy it for like $20…Our kiddo–in 3rd grade would not part with it–said it was far tooo valuable. Gotta love that kiddo liked he wagon too much. I am glad we kept it.</p>
<p>I have a cute pic of our kiddo2, with the dog leashed to the front of the wagon. Kiddo is holding a fishing pole with a dog treat attached. Kiddo was hoping the dog would pull the wagon around while trying to get the treat.</p>
<p>Good call, kathiep. Those other threads have lots of active posting specifically on that topic…probably good to consolidate the conversation in one place.</p>
<p>I’m off to College Prep night at D’s school this evening. We do love this school, and it has much to rave about. But could someone explain to me why College Prep night – for parents of seniors – is now? I can almost promise you they’ll go over stuff I learned by reading half a library-shelf and being on CC over the past 18 months. At this point, for seniors and their parents, it’s all over but the shouting (as they used to say).</p>
<p>I’ll post tonight about what I learn… :)</p>
<p>momofsongbird, Our senior college prep night was about three weeks ago. I didn’t learn much that was new, except those items that are specific to our school (how to request transcripts, etc.) However, it was nice to hear one summary in one place of everything we really, really needed to know about college. My guess is that College Prep night is now because many students and some parents wouldn’t be ready to focus on college until now.</p>
<p>At the same time, I should note that our great GC holds meetings for every grade every year, so this isn’t the only college prep night we get. For junior year, for example, the basic message was: visit colleges and take standardized tests. The more I learn, the more grateful I am for our GC.</p>
<p>Our senior prep night was about 10 days ago.</p>
<p>I think it should be called something like “College Prep Night for those of you who are clueless and have done absolutely nothing yet…” And there are lots of those. If this is your first child and you’re comparing it to your own experience, things have changed so much! I took the ACT once, with no prep, probably in October of my senior year. That’s what everybody did. There are probably lots of alums of their state flagship who will find that it’s a whole lot harder to get into than when they applied.</p>
<p>I hope the link works. If not, we must all read yesterday’s cartoon from ZITS: </p>
<p>[Today’s</a> Zits Comic Strip - ArcaMax Publishing](<a href=“Zits | Comics | ArcaMax Publishing”>Zits | Comics | ArcaMax Publishing)</p>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
<p>mnmomof2, D1 loved that strip. I also loved today’s, with the dad doing a perfect imitation of Jeremy’s body language on being asked to help around the house. LOL.</p>
<p>We got the phone call for a college info night at the high school. This is run through a program that’s looking to boost college matriculation from high school. They started working with the students in D1’s class starting in 9th grade, so theoretically everyone should be with the program by now. For the students and parents in the resident school, it’s really been the primary resource. The vast majority of those students will be applying to the public state schools and CCs, mostly living at home. Getting info at this stage is still helpful for those families. But yeah, without CC, our family would be in far worse shape.</p>
<p>D1 just texted her unofficial rank, which is just outside of 10%. Far better than what I was expecting. Ranking at her school is odd, since both the magnet and the (much larger) resident school students are all ranked together, using unweighted grades. If the school used weighted grades, she’d clearly be inside the magic circle. Now I have to make sure that the school profile is updated to convey how ranking is handled.</p>
<p>mnmomof2, that Zits was great. GCs should have it framed in their offices.</p>
<p>D’s HS had Junior parent mtg last May- provided basic info re: college apps/transcripts etc. Somewhat helpful, but nothing since other than postings on HS website of forms etc. I think they should have passed out the senior self-assessments at the end of junior year or at least over summer. D’s is 6 pages long and she’s struggling to complete it by tomorrow for LOR requests.</p>
<p>I believe they are having a senior parent mtg in Oct. I remember hearing previous senior parents complaining that by the time they had the meeting, it was past GC’s first deadline for requesting LORs, SSR’s & transcripts (10/1).</p>
<p>Here’s a question- if GPA and/or rank changes after 1st semester sr. year, is that communicated to colleges on mid-year report?</p>
<p>FYI - CSS Profile is available to use.</p>
<p>Mommylaw: Our school system caluclates rank after junior year and doesn’t update it. I think that an updated cumulative GPA is shown on the mid-year report, but I’m not sure. Your best bet would be to ask your child’s guidance counselor how your school handles it.</p>
<p>I suspect each HS handles reporting of rank differently. Suggestion above to ask your child’s guidance counselor is the best bet. Our school stopped including any rank on the transcript last year, because they felt it was hurting kids who fell just outside a particular rank required to scholarships.</p>
<p>I just finished filling out a parent profile form for our guidance counselor to use in preparing her counselor’s report on my son. Anyone else have to do one of those? Holy cow, what an ordeal! (List student’s outstanding personal characteristics and give examples to support them, list how your student has grown and developed the most in high school and give specific examples to support this, described a particular challenge that your student handled effectively, choose three to five adjectives that best describe your child and explain why, etc., etc…) I understand that with a largish school (600 students per grade) and only 3 counselors, they can’t know each kid intimately, so I appreciate the effort to get a complete picture of the student. However, I’m exhausted from it!</p>
<p>^^
Our hs doesn’t rank–In fact–trying to find out what decile your kid is in–takes a major push and even then…they are kinda cagey about it…</p>
<p>Recently found out that the hs profile which lists decile, and approximate gpa range and ACT/SAT range per decile–is only through the 7th semester…not all 8.
How lame is THAT!
In fact the new one is still not done–so When exactly will it be ready for this years srs’ apps??? Beyond that–leaving out the last semester means it doesn’t include some Sr’s APs for spring term!
I suppose it is because apps for colleges only have 6 semesters and then maybe the mid yr grades …
Still it doesn’t tell what the final stats are for graduates…</p>
<p>Over the summer, my S had to write what his school calls a college journal which the teachers and GC can use to write LOR, etc, and the students can use to write their essays. Since I only saw the questions, not my son’s responses, I don’t know how polished it was. I suspect it was rather unedited. It was great that the kids had all summer to do it. Even the parents had to write 3-4 responses. I think it is a good process. It got their juices flowing early.</p>
<p>Morning all
This story is on the Today show this am. What a lovely story–about love and how we are all connected.
[Taylor’s</a> Gift | Facebook](<a href=“Facebook”>Redirecting...)</p>
<p>Taylor’s mom and dad, and the woman who received her heart told am amazing story …</p>
<p>A little long, but i thought this might make a nice college essay</p>
<p>[Kurt</a> Vonnegut at the Blackboard - Lapham’s Quarterly](<a href=“Issue Content Essay | Lapham’s Quarterly”>Issue Content Essay | Lapham’s Quarterly)</p>
<p>Is anyone else tired. Really just loosing steam way too early in the game here? DS is due to take the SATs again in Oct simply to pull up his math score (which isn’t bad to begin with). He has very little motivation to study, and I really can’t find the energy to nag him. I think the underlying issue may be that he feels very good about his chances at his ‘match’ and is feeling less ‘love’ towards his reach. I’m okay with that and knew that would always be a big chance. They offer very different approaches. He’s getting a lot of pressure from mentors towards the match…it is an awesome program for what he wants to study. The choice will be his, the idea was for him to have the CHOICE. He may feel very differently in April. He can’t go wrong with either, but choice is the factor as I understood and agreed with reasons why he was leaning to the reach.</p>
<p>The other concern is the ‘match’ is more and more difficult in admissions and very stat driven. His safety is OOS with merit aid, but still would add up to $30k+ over his education if he doesn’t make his match and goes to his safety. HE may be okay with that…it makes me sweat. The safety is also 12+ further hrs away. For a student that is such a homebody I think he would miss not being able to make the trip home but a few times a year. At his match it may only be at breaks, but it would be HIS choice as it’s a car ride, not a plane ticket.</p>
<p>Sooo, I’m tired way too early in this game. His grades are going well. He’s put in his safety app. Not too much, but 1/3 of the way there. Teacher rec’s have been made. He’s done his part for Guidance Rec…his father and I just have to fill out ours. So he’s not LATE on anything…he just has no motivation for this round of SATs and has subject tests in November…one retest…Math 2. Both are so odd because he’s really good at math.</p>
<p>Do I just let it go? Worry that he and I both seem to feel apathetic? We’ve really researched, visited, etc… beyond what a lot of kids have done. I just feel like we’ve hit the wall. No, his dad can’t pick up the ball and run here for a bit. Too hard to explain, but it’s not that he doesn’t care, he just can’t. Normally I’d forget it for a week and try to regroup, however that doesn’t solve the SAT in a week, or figure out why he seems not to care.</p>
<p>Sorry for the brain dump. Thanks for listening.</p>
<p>blue - thanks for talking to us. I can understand some of the feelings. I’ve been feeling some despair this week, too. Sometimes the options all seem to have something wrong with them, and sometimes it seems insurmountable. It’s hard to keep this kind of motivation going at such a high pace for so long.</p>
<p>I’m fighting worries a lot, too. I just keep telling myself that week to week things will feel different, that for the lows there will also be highs. Also that the work WILL get done, that it will even be fun at times.</p>
<p>It reminds me of doing the visits - sometimes it felt stressful putting all of the details together, the travel, the hotels, getting from one place to another, deciding where to go and when, and all that … but when we took the trips, we could have fun together. I’m hoping for a few moments like that in this process, too.</p>
<p>Everyone please remember to take care of themselves - do something fun that matters to you, totally unrelated to this process. It’s hard, because so much feels at stake, but it’s important.</p>
<p>Blueiguana - Wouldn’t start thinking about what ifs yet. My H wanted to started a flowchart listing all of S’s schools and if this one gave XX amt of aid but this one gave S honors, etc… I asked him to wait til Jan to start that ball rolling. Lets get the apps in first. As someone else suggested take it one day at a time. </p>
<p>As for studying for the SAT -math, I had great luck getting S to do 5 problems a day. I corrected and we reviewed what he got wrong. He only did math, and we tried to concentrate on those types of problems he tended to get wrong more often. His other scores were good so we did nothing to study for those sections. S could handle 5 problems and I let him do them while he watched tv, ate breakfast, whatever so long as they got done. I borrowed the test prep books from the library and used the college board stuff available online. Looks like you only have a week or so to prep for the SAT. So see what he got wrong math wise and work only on that, mabe two 5 problem sessions a day.</p>
<p>D’s goal was to finish the Common App (including essay) by October 1st…didn’t happen. I just have to keep my mouth shut because next week is homecoming week and there’s a whole lot to be done. But after that is a long weekend, so my “gentle reminders” will resume a week from tomorrow.</p>