<p>Hey everyone: Good news here. My son just received his first acceptance. He was accepted into the Honors College at UPitt. Happy Dance. We’re still waiting to hear about merit scholarship award. Good to know that he’s going to college next year! Now, we’ll sit tight for the 3 other early apps which don’t respond until mid-December. Actually, he’ll begin the ED applications next weekend. He’s taking this weekend off from anything college related but for writing thank you notes to the teachers who wrote his recommendations.</p>
<p>Yay RenaissanceMom’s son! Wonderful school, the Honors college is a wonderful program.</p>
<p>ST: He and I actually have you to thank for his UPitt application. Last spring or maybe this summer (memory is foggy), I began a thread in college search on his behalf listing his stats and his desire to major in neuroscience and what he was looking for in a college. You were among the posters and you suggested UPitt. Turns out, UPitt is truly wonderful in that department and in philosophy, another interest of his. It also has a leading med school, ranked 6th in the country, and he applied for a combined undergrad/med school admission. </p>
<p>So our hearty thanks to you!</p>
<p>Renaissance - That’s fantastic! Ds applied there too but no decision yet.</p>
<p>Great, I can get STRANGERS to apply, but not my own daughter!!! ARGHHHHHH!!! GAHHHHHH!!!</p>
<p>;) 
;)</p>
<p>^LOL, at least you’ll know that where ever she’s applied, she thinks is a good fit.</p>
<p>Again, thanks. It feels great, a relief, to have an acceptance in hand. </p>
<p>Also, I meant to write RD applications in my post above. </p>
<p>amandaK: my fingers are crossed for your Ds.</p>
<p>Congrats Renaissance! Pitts is a excellent school and I say that as a Syracuse grad. ;)</p>
<p>Kajon: SO sorry about your dog. We lost a pet (a sweet little young kitty) at the end of August, and we are still sad about it. I know how attached we are to our wonderful pets.</p>
<p>SAT I is over for my D THANK GOODNESS. She took it for the 2nd time in October and went up 140 points, for which we are thrilled. Her goal was 170 points, but hey she and I are both happy. DONE. Now just another subject test in November and testing is 100%complete.</p>
<p>I thank the UCs for ELC status. It is wonderfully relieving to know that she is automatically in at several UCs. Next year when it is top 9% (instead of the current top 4%) my guess is that most UCs won’t give guaranteed acceptance. Too bad.</p>
<p>camathmom, I’m with you on the ELC status. Makes the whole college app process much less stressful (although my S claims to have zero interest in any of the guaranteed schools at the moment). He did agree to apply to one guaranteed school that has a excellent reputation in his intended major, but he’s not enthusiastic (yet).</p>
<p>sdmomof3:</p>
<p>Yeah, my D does not have her first choice as one of the ELC guarenteed colleges. Still, she finds UCSB and Davis as somewhat acceptable alternatives. I don’t know that much about UCSB, but at Davis she would also be in the honors college with the priorities that go with that, and it has a quite good engineering department. More than likely too, the ELC kids would also be Regents scholars. IMHO, not a bad guaranteed safety to have. I am thankful.</p>
<p>Congrats, RenaissanceMom! I hope your son loves that option. Yesterday I took my '11 son to visit the state school that has offered him full tuition. He thought it was okay but the only school he wants to attend is the other, less generous school that his friends plan to attend. None of them will know the outcome of their applications until mid December. I try to suggest that college is about making new friends and having new experiences but S is hoping to room with someone he’s known since 5th grade. Son #3 is in 5th grade now. Maybe I should make an effort to get to know his friends better…</p>
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<p>Congrats! S will be sending them an app this weekend. Good luck on the money.</p>
<p>S got invited to a midweek overnight for the honors program at Bryant. Not one of his top choices but we thought it would be a nice reward for all his hard work the past few weeks. He will miss the first day of school in a new quarter, which means he won’t miss any important stuff at school.</p>
<p>Apollo6- We are looking at middle schools for my 10yo. She sees moving to a new school where she knows no one as an adventure and opportunity to meet new friends. Her friends, for the most part, see it as something to be wary of. S hasn’t told us he wants to attend schools where he already knows other kids. I think he is just a compliant kid, not that he is looking forward to a new adventure like his younger sis. Every kid is different. Most of us hate change, right? Maybe he just isn’t ready to move out of his comfort zone. Perhaps an overnight at a school you think he would like would help.</p>
<p>Congrats RM. Enjoy the great feeling.</p>
<p>Been a few days since I’ve been here. Nice to hear everyone’s progress & updates. </p>
<p>Kajon, sorry about your dog. Such a sad thing for your family.</p>
<p>Renaissancemom, congratulations on UPitt honors! Great to have a reason to do the Happy Dance.</p>
<p>D had a rough week. Busy w / training to be an election judge on tuesday. will submit her 2 EA apps tomorrow morning. I can’t wait for round 1 to be submitted
Am not really looking forward to playing this game again for Dec. 1 apps, though.</p>
<p>OT, watched a heartbreaking 20/20 tonight about heroin addiction in teens in suburban America. Brutal & scary how available it is.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody!</p>
<p>great news RM. you must both feel soooo relieved.</p>
<p>On the dog, sorry to hear about it. Our deal in our family is that we expect the kids to tell us the truth even when it is something they don’t think we will want to hear. We get that from ShawSon and don’t get lies from ShawD, although she probably omits things. Given that truth-telling is our family’s social contract, I would feel compelled not to say something that wasn’t true.</p>
<p>On SAT scores, ShawSon two years ago was one of those kids who took the SATs in fall senior year for the first time and scored above 2300 and I posted to ask whether he should take them again because he thought that he could get a 2400. They do exist. As a dyslexic, he’d never consider spending time on CC, but I posted. We got emphatic advice not to do so, which we followed, for the reasons fog fog described.</p>
<p>And, in the annoying department, ShawD contacted the first school to which she applied (it is rolling decision) just to check whether her application was complete. They have not received the official transcript (which ShawD requested on October 18th). Ah well.</p>