<p>True it is less than nine months until ED time, but here in Florida, if a student wants a good chance at the Florida flagships (UF and FSU) they apply the summer before. The portal for UF opens July 1 and it is highly recommended that you apply before school starts in August. DS will have to do those essays in June/July!!! </p>
<p>DS would never do the college trivia thing that angrydad describes above! I am just hoping that watching his peers prep for the admission’s process, spurs him to do the same. Our meeting with the college counselor (a no nonsense, tell it like it is type) should also light a small fire under him. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, recently we got email’s from Boston U, U of Rochester, Northeastern and Brown summer program…guess he must have checked off somewhere that he was interested in the northeast? We got one from Rice a few days ago and I forwarded that one (along with some of the others) to his email box (which unfortunately, he rarely checks). Rice looks like one for his list with the residential college system and the math/sci reputation. Plus, it looks like an easy flight from here. We will see in June if his SAT scores keep it on the list.</p>
<p>That’s insane! I had no idea. The state of Florida is completely off DD’s radar, but I spent a day in Gainesville three or four years ago, and I absolutely loved the UF campus. Went through their museums of art and natural history, which were both great, and admired the student center. Coolest thing I saw was [the</a> bat house](<a href=“http://www.floridabats.org/CBH_Articles/UF-BatHouse.htm]the”>http://www.floridabats.org/CBH_Articles/UF-BatHouse.htm) though.</p>
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<p>Sons. Mine wouldn’t stop hitting himself in the head with a hammer if I asked him to. DD is easier to reason with.</p>
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<p>College night is this week. Panel discussion with the college counselors and some local admissions officers. This is the traditional kick-off of the official process, as the office of college counseling turns some of its attention from the seniors to the juniors. </p>
<p>The kids definitely are starting to talk more, but I’m not sure there’s anything useful coming out of it. DD passed along some incorrect information about the ACT, and a couple of her friends are really stressing because their parents are firmly rejecting the ‘fit over prestige’ strategy.</p>
<p>And I got the “what would people think if I went here?” question again the other day. I’ve been giving honest answers. Probably should be saying, “It doesn’t matter what people think.”</p>
<p>LOL - of course this describes my son too! </p>
<p>But I will say - S is starting to get into the spirit. He said yesterday that he’s looking forward to our road trip in April. A lot of the kids he hangs out with at school are pretty high achievers, so while I hope it doesn’t squash him a bit to hear them all talking Ivy, MIT, etc, I do think that the fact that they’re all thinking and talking about it has made him feel like it’s time to start the process. </p>
<p>He did say one day that a lot of his friends don’t have to worry about money - they can afford to go to any school that accepts them. I just shrugged and said, “well, we all have some things fall into place easily in life and some things that take a little more work or compromise. That’s all right - everybody’s got their easy stuff and their challenges.” Someone remind me about how philosophical I am next year if he gets accepted somewhere he wants to go that we can’t afford!</p>
<p>State schools - I think we need to apply by Nov 1 to get full consideration for $, but i don’t think there are any essays for the application - it should be pretty straight forward. </p>
<p>Anyone else ready for a sunny day that’s over 50 degrees? Or 60 degrees - I would love to throw all my windows open and hear some outside noises!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! DS is very excited about Nationals. No huge expectations about nationals, as the team last year placed 9th. However, there is always hope and a lot of hard work. There is a lot of independent study and group study. Nice to see he can do that when he wants to. </p>
<p>DS is NOT interested in obsessing about colleges or visits. I am very envious of all you with college tours planned. I am living vicariously through all of your wonderful experiences! Keep posting so I can pretend! DS won’t even think about it. All he sees around his HS are kids visiting after they’ve been accepted except for a few of the very, very top kids. No matter what I say, that’s what he wants to do too. Ugh. If DD13 is accepted to a week long summer engineering program at Cornell, DS MIGHT go see Geneseo, Binghamton and Cornell. We have a summer vacation near Ft. Lauderdale, so we might pop over to see U of Miami in the summer. Thats it. </p>
<p>I dont get an intense vibe from this thread at all. I think we have a wide variety of kids with a wide array of interests and talents. I think it is very supportive and Im so happy to have found this thread. Now, the Parents of HS 2013, which I also read, is a bit more intense. I think its because the parents of the very tippy top kids are the ones who are looking at CC this early in the process. As time goes on the balance will shift, I hope. </p>
<p>Heres to the 2012ers! May we all have a smooth ride till launch.</p>
<p>Geogirl, I think we’re done with college visits until acceptances roll in as well. I’m sure if there are target of opportunity, we’ll take them, but at this point DD has a list, has seen much of what’s on it, albeit in summer, and knows that she’ll apply at some of the ones she hasn’t seen. She definitely has a favorite, and knows that we won’t let her apply there ED.</p>
<p>DD’s school makes them apply to our state flagship by Oct. 1 if they’re going to apply. (They say they won’t fill out forms unless the app is in by Oct. 1 – I don’t know if I believe them.) I’ve already told DD that she’s spending the 2 weeks before school starts on applications. We’ll see how that works out.</p>
<p>I guess I’m feeling like there are lots of good to outstanding options at this point, and I’m much less concerned than I was 6 months ago, much more zen. I’m sure I’ll snap out of it this summer.</p>
<p>Okay, DS got 10 college emails today! They are really pouring them on. Today was U of Rochester, Ogelthorpe again, University of South Florida, Colorado College (interesting program they have there), Rollins College, Wake Forest College, Case Western Reserve, Boston University…and more. I find it thrilling, as you can tell. </p>
<p>Today is a glorious day in South Florida. It is currently 74 degrees, low humidity and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. On days like this I remember why I moved here (we lived in Cambridge, MA in the mid eighties).</p>
<p>Seiclan… my DS emailed me from the school he is attending in Vermont and said," please tell these colleges to quit emailing me!!‘’ I told him to get used to it and then casually said," what colleges are emailing you?" He started to list them but then had to go.:-(( I was curious too. I think so far Swarthmore, Uof Chicago, Tulane and WUSTL… but I’m sure there were more… I thought he told me that he gave them MY email address on the forms, but apparently not… I’m sure he wishes he had now. He said something about putting them all in one folder. I kind of wish he would foreword them to me, but he would think I was " chop, chop. chopping" again. FYI… Colorado College is VERY high on my S’s list, but we haven’t visited yet. He LOVES their block program,but I do think it something you have to experience to really see if you like it. We will visit probably in the Fall with class visits and overnight. It does look VERY interesting though, I agree.</p>
<p>Hopefully we will be “dancing to victory” in Galveston! I loved MASH, but I don’t remember that quote. However, it is acurate, that being the top team in our region doesn’t necessarily mean anything on a national level. We still plan on having a great time with it, though.</p>
<p>IJD: We can “go zen” together. Well, at least for a day or so when something will once again kick us into over drive. : )</p>
<p>We had this argument last year (and this year). My DH grew up drinking coffee in HS. He now drinks about 3 or 4 cups a day and I drink 2 cups a day. I refuse to let my kids drink coffee. My DS wanted to start and I basically put my foot down and said, “No way, it’s addictive, it messes with your body clock, and it’s generally unhealthy. When you get to college you can make that decision, but for now, no.” I want them to be as healthy as possible, before they start all those bad habits in college. They actually do eat well, and make good food choices for themselves. The kids are all in track or some sport and the health cirriculum puts an emphasis on “healthy” eating. Now, what he orders at Starbucks when he goes there, I don’t know and I don’t want to know. :)</p>
<p>Someone up posts mentioned something about responding to all college emails, and someone asked if it meant applying to all of those schools. D2 has been getting those emails, and in the email they asked for more information from her and they direct her to their link for her to input her information. I have told her to respond, especially ones that she is interested in and ones that offer scholarship (never know if we would need it). I think it is a good way for her to show interest, especially since we live so far away we may not be able to visit all of those schools.</p>
<p>DS does not like coffee. I think it stems back from when he was about 8 and I told him to take a whiff of my freshly opened can of Chock full of Nuts coffee (it smelled like every bit of the heavenly coffee that it is). DS took too big a whiff and the coffee went up his nose! He was wired for hours!!! </p>
<p>I have told DS to respond to the colleges that email him if he has any interest in them at all. We might as well learn more.</p>
<p>My S drinks coffee in the mornings - probably 3 mornings out of 5. I don’t drink coffee, but I love the smell of it! And coffee flavored ice cream with hot fudge and pecans - best sundae in the world. </p>
<p>S has clicked on a couple of the college spam emails. I think he clicked on the first couple just because it was new to be getting the emails, and then he just started responding to the ones that he may actually be interested in. I just told him not to fill in any phone numbers anywhere - the last thing I want is getting calls at home! I’m waiting to see if he gets any application fee waivers from schools he actually wants to apply to. If not, I’ll probably tell my youngest to do what my oldest did and not check the box to share info with colleges. </p>
<p>I don’t really see it as a sign that the school might want my son (I mean, they really only have his PSAT score and self reported GPA, right?). I see it as a big huge expensive marketing plan to get more kids to apply. Getting more kids to apply is obviously good for the school. They find more kids they want and accept them and they find more they can reject and bring their acceptance rate down, which then makes them seem more desirable to the next crop of students.</p>
<p>The only free “priority application” that my older son got was from Willamette. They had sent out a ton of them that year (entering college fall 2010). I had read that they were having a big push to get more apps in that year (as a ton of schools do - nothing against Willamette). Here’s the thing - they did get a ton more apps that year (heck it’s free and easy - no essay, etc) and their acceptance rate jumped down from 66% (2008) to 60% (2009) to 42% (2010). And doesn’t an acceptance rate of 42% make a school seem harder to get into = better school? </p>
<p>So - I take all of the wooing from colleges with a big fat grain of salt. Yes, they genuinely want my son to apply. But that doesn’t mean they are going to admit him. They win when they admit a kid, but they win when they deny one too. I don’t blame them - it’s the reality of the world they live in as well. Gotta keep those numbers up.</p>
<p>Hmmm - we haven’t really gotten anything, I think it’s because I told my daughter to check “no” on the PSAT form for passing her info on to interested colleges. We did a pretty thorough search ourselves and are happy with the preliminary 15 school list, don’t need junk mail at this point. She doesn’t like it and I can’t be bothered. </p>
<p>Younger daughter (HS junior) drinks coffee very occasionally, older (college sophomore) not at all. Older daughters friends drank a lot of coffee and it always bothered me that they drank so much in high school.</p>
<p>Does anybody know how much info a school knows about our kids? Do they know the exact score(s) or just a range? I’d be surprised if they have all the info on the CB site (SAT I and SAT II for some kids).</p>
<p>I don’t know what emails my kid’s receiving, but quite a few paper mails from schools in the state of birth came in. That made me think they might have more info than just a score and an address.</p>
<p>D drinks coffee occasionally-- her schoolbus arrives at 6:30am so any help is gratefully accepted! 1/2 a cup jazzes her way up…stomach cramps often follow. She’s a sensitive plant. </p>
<p>We will likely unsubscribe to most of the email-- she has particular requirements and a pretty carefully thought out list. If a place is on the list or might be, that’s another matter. I’m sure they’re noting which recipients open the emails, so we’ll be on that list. I do enjoy the more creative ones. Had no idea Tulane’s campus was so pretty! It does amaze me to see what a wealth of possibility there is out there, and what a big, big business college is.</p>
<p>^^^ If you go to the CB website, in the professional area, there’s a section about admissions and recruitment that gives some info about student search.</p>
<p>^^ Checked that and it appears everything is available to make money off of (by CB). How much a school knows depends on how much a school pays CB it seems. Potentially they know everything.</p>