<p>Pepper - The following is from the College Board web site:
If you miss the deadline for making a change, you can still try to make the change on the day of the test. Go early to the test center of your choice and explain the situation to the test supervisor. If space and materials are available, you will be admitted before standbys. You will be billed later for the change fee. If you fail to pay the change fee, your scores will not be released.</p>
<p>
Good point. We won’t apply for FA at this school, as it is an in-state public and costs well under our EFC. But they might give her a merit scholarship. She should probably just get 'er done, hm?</p>
<p>fogfog, I guess this safety kit is no good for Harvard, since pepper spray is illegal in Massachusetts. ;)</p>
<p>Agree with mosb about rolling admission schools. If you plan to apply to them, they should be the first ones out.</p>
<p>We are going to NYC for the weekend with our 10 yo D, leaving S by himself for 3 days. He is not a wild child, so I am not concerned about him throwing a party while we are away. More concerned about him forgetting to lock the door at night or when leaving the house. Its going to be his first taste of independent living. Grandparents are close by in case of emergency. </p>
<p>I wonder if he will work on his apps this weekend. Most likely not. He already applied to one EA school and one RD, however even if gets accepted to his EA school, he still will apply to 6 other schools. It feels to me like a lot of work and I am surprised that he doesnt share my sentiment.</p>
<p>keylimepie - we are leaving our 17 year old home alone when we go to parents weekend for S1. Like you, I am more worried about him forgetting to lock the door or locking himself out of the house when he takes the dogs out. (with S1, there was NO way I would have left that boy home alone - party central!)</p>
<p>For those of you interested in new Jewish activities going on at certain schools, check out [The</a> Jewish Week | Connecting the world to Jewish news, culture, and opinion](<a href=“http://www.TheJewishWeek.com%5DThe”>http://www.TheJewishWeek.com).</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins applicants are “strongly encouraged to submit up to three” SATIIs. When we visited the admissions speaker said to submit three SAT subject tests, unequivocally.</p>
<p>Thanks for giving me an opportunity to contribute! I mostly “listen and learn” here.</p>
<p>^Thanks, scoutsmom!</p>
<p>That KIT was a shocker…
wasn’t it!</p>
<p>Question about leaving kids under 18 alone…</p>
<p>Ok- Dh and I have something to do–whereby we will be away for 3 days …at a business mtg (on a cruise ship to Nassau) I know- rough life…The organizers said - “hey, meetings at a hotel, or meetings at a floating hotel…”</p>
<p>so
Planning to have nearby MiL to stay with our teens, ages 14 and 17…because
a- school is in session, kiddos have school, sports, hw…and exam week for semester exams is the next week
and
b- I am concerned about not being within a close drive–if something happens and said minors need something…for ex, they cant get medical treatment etc if we werent there…</p>
<p>kiddo of class 2011 feels they are old enough and responsible to hang together for those days…They aren’t partiers, etc…And I could leave meals ready in the fridge/freezer.
However like I said, being on a boat and not within a few hrs drive…</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I tell my kids it’s not them I worry about, it’s the other kids.</p>
<p>Our neighbors left overnight with kids that age for a funeral.</p>
<p>The kids invited a couple of friends over, and the whole HS heard about it. Some kids went on a rampage all over the neighborhood, resulting in criminal charges for a couple of them. Hundreds of dollars in damage. I can’t even imagine what the house looked like.</p>
<p>I have left my kids overnight at 16, 17. But they are to keep the house dark and quiet, no temptation for anyone to show up. How would a kid keep people under control? Or make them leave? The kids who caused damage were not the neighbor kids’ friends. They crashed the house. And our neighborhood is too spread out for anyone to have noticed anything was wrong - also the parents didn’t tell anyone. If they had, we might have called in that there were a bunch of cars there. Otherwise, we just thought the family had friends over. The damage was done in the wee hours.</p>
<p>Like I said, it’s not being a partier. It’s being vulnerable.</p>
<p>Trying to get all the info/envelopes/forms together for the teachers recs. Very frustrating not being able to find the form for one school which does not use the common app. sigh… I have been all over the website to no avail. I guess I will have to have H look for it and then contact S’s GC. </p>
<p>As for leaving kids alone. I think it is too easy for things to get out of control as Emmy has mentioned. I know it happens several times year in our town.</p>
<p>^^^^
Agree. I would tell him its the other kids you don’t trust. We had a similar situation as the one Emmtbet had a few years back. Neighbors were out of town for the weekend for their daughter’s softball tournament. S was given permission to invite a a few friends over for a BBQ. The next thing he knew, someone showed up with a keg and the house quickly became packed with kids. Really got out of control fast – a couple of kids got into a fight on the way to the house, the police were called, all before 9 pm.</p>
<p>Agree with EmmyBet and others. Teens left “home alone” are often fine on their own, but very vulnerable to situations they never intended when others show up and things get out of hand. We had an incident in a nearby town similar to what’s been described, too. The kids at home were good kids. But once word “leaked out” that they were alone for the night, all heck broke loose. It got really ugly, and they were powerless to stop it until the 17 year old had the good sense to call the police. By then, much damage was already done.</p>
<p>^^ Kiddo is not that kind. But you make a good point. As far as I know, none of his friends will show up with a keg at our house, but I don’t know them as well as I know him. Just had a conversation with him and he understands that he is not to have anyone over while we are away. I would think that was a given, but it never hurts to emphasize the expectations.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t necessarily your kid or his friends. But somehow word gets around and before you know it, other kids are showing up, texting their friends, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to incite panic, but I’ll reiterate that the kids who did the damage were not friends of my neighbors’ kids. It is true that the neighbors’ kids did decide to have a small party, and that was a very dangerous opening for other kids. But the ones who destroyed property were known troublemakers and one had a police record already. The worse offender may even have done time for this particular stunt (they tore down a street sign, among other things). I know he made huge financial reparations. And the son in my neighbor’s family ended up associated with it all.</p>
<p>The younger sister of this family was only a 9th grader, and I think she thought it was fun that they were having a big party. When the police came to the door (finally someone called - perhaps a kid, I don’t know), she panicked and hid, wouldn’t open it. It’s just too much for kids to handle.</p>
<p>I happened to come home late that night. It was around Halloween (another ingredient for disaster). I noticed that pumpkins were smashed in the street, but that happens sometimes. I also could see cars at the house. When I lay down on my pillow, I could hear the boom-boom of music, even though an acre separates our homes. But parents in my generation could have a party with rock music, so I just thought, “Oh, they’re having a party on a Saturday night, OK.” And I went to bed.</p>
<p>The next morning we saw the street sign torn down, saw the trees yanked up from our yard, saw more and more damage (oh, yeah … our mailbox was in our vegetable garden). We heard more and more from the neighbors all around. </p>
<p>Then the newspaper wrote an article with the headline, “Underage party goes unreported”!!! They said the problem was that none of us had called the police! What, that there were cars at the house? A couple of smashed pumpkins? Everyone just had a few little tidbits. But somehow WE were to blame. Not the kid who did thousands of dollars of damage!</p>
<p>I do not blame the parents who went away. It was a quick decision for one night because of a funeral several hours’ drive away. I would have left a senior and a freshman, too, under those circumstances, probably. We all learned from their experience how such a situation can go wrong, and we learned some preventive measures we would all take.</p>
<p>I heard that the house it happened at had inches of broken glass all over the carpets. I also know the father walked his son to every house in the neighborhood to apologize personally. As you can see, it’s an experience no one forgets - I think this was 15 years ago.</p>
<p>One time for an overnight I boarded the dog and had my kids stay a friend. They weren’t ready yet. My HS senior is now - we left her for two nights this summer, but a friend came and stayed with her; they were 17 and 18, neither one of them was home much, and the friend is extremely dependable (she’s a kid I’d actually hire to housesit - in fact, I paid her for this). I’d rather the house was empty than leave them alone without a lot of safeguards.</p>
<p>Ill have to cut the cord at some time and trust the kid. The thing is its not really a pleasure trip for us. Our 10 yo will be playing at the piano competition winners recital at Carnegie Hall. She needs to be there and none of her parents want to miss it. Her birthday was in September and instead of a birthday party and presents she asked if we could stay an extra day in NYC and see a Broadway show. Her brother wanted to go as well, but he would have to miss two days of school and college classes and felt that it would be too much to catch up. </p>
<p>Anyway, I will let you know how it goes, lessons learned, etc </p>
<p>Without beating this too much … OK, I guess I am … I just want to say that one 17-year-old for a night (or even two) is worth trying. We have. I think kids younger than that need an adult’s supervision, even if it’s just nearby. I agree that sometimes HS kids just don’t have the time to leave: My family went on a business trip to a very exciting place for 3 weeks when I was in 6th grade and my brother in 11th. I went the whole time, but he came home after the school break part was over, and stayed with friends. I’m sure he spent some time alone at the house, too. But he was that kind of kid, and he was 17.</p>
<p>Keylime, hope it doesn’t feel like your decision is being questioned. You know your son best, and it sounds like he’ll do just fine. These horror-stories are just hard to shake off.</p>
<p>Have a wonderful time in NYC!</p>
<p>And the beauty of cell phones, texting, etc is that you can torture him with almost constant communication to make sure all is well at home! :)</p>
<p>I have an overnight business meeting later this month, and for the first time I am leaving D and S (ages 18 and 16) alone. I will be about 30 minutes away (the meeting includes dinner and an early start the next morning, so they want everyone to stay at the hotel) but it still feels strange. I don’t expect any problems, but will tell several neighbors what’s happening and will of course call in several times. The houses in our neighborhood are close together and neighbors know us, so cars in the driveway and loud noise would be noticed very quickly!</p>
<p>Many moons ago, my parents left my older brother home for a long weekend while rest of family went camping b/c he had to work. Well, we came home a day early b/c of bad weather, and found him & about 20 friends having a drinking party. It has stuck with me all these years and has certainly shaped my thoughts on leaving my D home alone - I haven’t done it (yet). </p>
<p>D’s GC has been out sick for 2 weeks and may not be back anytime soon. I alternate b/w feeling very sympathetic w/ GC’s illness (which must be pretty serious to be out this long) and being annoyed that D’s letters/forms will now have to be prepared by a fill-in. Bad timing to say the least. </p>
<p>D has added 2 schools -1 reach & 1 match/safety. Her list is up to 6 now. On another thread, <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1009807-acceptance-data-one-high-school-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1009807-acceptance-data-one-high-school-2.html</a> school data showed 1 student applied to 38 schools. Absolutely insane.</p>