<p>A quick hello from yet another parent of a 2012 high school grad-to-be.
Just wanted to say thank you to all who have written here. I’m very happy to have happened upon this website and this forum. After just a few days of reading, I’ve already had some of my worries calmed (and, of course, discovered new worries that I didn’t even know I was supposed to have 
)
Look forward to participating as best I can.</p>
<p>Best of luck to all of you and to all of your families!</p>
<p>Welcome Illyria! I hope you enjoy this thread as much as I do. This is a very supportive group, IMHO.</p>
<p>I have a question… Have any of you parents had to fill out the Non-Custodial Parent form for Financial Aid along with the FAFSA/other forms?</p>
<p>How does it work?
I’ve heard that even if the other parent is nowhere to be found (not even by the state govt.) you still have to complete the form? I’m confused.</p>
<p>Greetings 2012 Parents! I’m a 2011 parent and a 2013 parent. I’m hoping someone out there who’s 2012 student took the PSAT on October 13, 2010, Form W, would do my son and me the tremendous favor of posting or messaging us with the answers. (The kids received them when they got their tests back late 2010.) My son was out the day the test was administered with a fever and just took the test at home for practice. He’s just finished it, and I’d like to give him some immediate feedback, but we don’t have the key. Thanks so much in advance.</p>
<p>Woops:“whose” not “who’s” (That will teach me not to preview.)</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I guess I’ll have S ask his teachers for letters of rec soon, just to avoid surprises in the fall. I think he’ll ask his math and US history teachers - they both see his strengths and I think should be able to say something good about him. His GC won’t know him but asked for a brag sheet, so I guess we’ll just hope she lifts enough info off of it to say something personal about him!</p>
<p>MissBee - I’m no expert, but I would think there’s a way to do it. I would have a talk with your S about being too hypersensitive about the teacher being mad that it’s not his first or only choice. The teacher is probably very aware that your S needs to apply to several schools - I doubt it will bother him!</p>
<p>My older S’s teachers didn’t upload to common app - he gave them all addressed stamped envelopes. I’m sure the chem teacher can write a wonderful letter appropriate to send to all schools, but then tweak the letter for the alumni connection - that isn’t asking too much i don’t think. If he’s using common app, just give him a prepped enveloped for the alumni school. He can tweak the letter he uploaded to commonapp and mail it directly to the school. When your son is sending stuff through common app, just don’t check to have chem teacher’s letter sent to that school. they won’t get it online - they’ll just get the special one mailed in. </p>
<p>And tip - anything mailed in like that (letter of rec, resume, whatever) has to have your son’s name and identifying numbers in the upper right corner of every single page. This coul dbe social sec # or address and date of birth.</p>
<p>Welcome Illyria! Sorry we gave you new things to worry about! LOL. I do like having other parents to chat with that are going through the same stage in parenting - I have learned a lot from CC and gotten a lot from this thread!</p>
<p>CPU - I don’t know anything about FAFSA for non-custodial parents. You will probably get every single detail if you post it in the Financial Aid section - people here know everything!</p>
<p>momma mia - I don’t know what version of the PSAT test my son took. Do the answers get posted on college board? Bummer that he was sick for it!</p>
<p>We just had a meeting with D2’s school college counselor. She showed us a program a lot of schools (I think mostly privates) are using now for managing college application. It allows students to select schools they want to apply to, and they could compare themselves to other students from the school who have already applied (Naviance). Senior year, they could select all colleges they are applying to, and the counseler would then use the program to send in all of necessary information. When we log in, we could see what information has been sent and what’s still missing. It would also show what information has been downloaded by each college. It’s very useful for us because we live outside of US, and this would prevent stuff from getting lost in the mail.</p>
<p>3 more days until my 2012 daughter finds out if she will get an interview for United World Colleges. I am eager to know because if she is out of the running we can get more serious about thinking about colleges. If her graduation date might change to 2013 due to two more years of IB, things will be different. I’m feeling pretty torn. I know it would be a great opportunity but if she is offered an interview this will drag out until April.</p>
<p>Good luck to your D, apollo6!</p>
<p>Thanks for the welcomes! </p>
<p>oldfort, my daughter’s school (public) uses NAVIANCE and I love it, especially the scattergrams! Tomorrow, my daughter and I are sitting down for a session with our laptops to weed through some of the incoming college info and plan the direction of an upcoming spring break college road trip. That program will definitely be open during our session.</p>
<p>DS and I have a meeting today with our Private college advisor. We hired her because of the nearly non existent help at his huge public high school AND to take me out of the equation (DS and I are oil and water these days). I need someone else to make sure that, on the college applications, DS dots his I’s and crosses his T’s, so to speak. </p>
<p>We have had this appointment for two months and DS was told to bring completed “homework”. He was supposed to create a detailed list in MS Word of his most meaningful school activities, outside activities,hobbies, interests, community servcie, summer experiences, work or internship experiences and academic recognitions and organize the list by activity, most important to least important. She wanted major detail, step by step (what he did, why, the impact on him and others). True to form, DS procrastinated on list and never did it. He was sick all weekend (fever and cold). So far, no fever today and we are going to the appointment but I intend to sit in the back. I can lead this horse to water but I cannot make him drink (or do what needs to be done).</p>
<p>good luck, seiclan! we hired a college counselor for D1 for many of the same reasons - I just wanted a non-parental adult in the conversation. with D2, who has always been so diligent, I didn’t think it would be necessary. but she and I are like oil and water these days, so I may need to rethink this. meanwhile I am biding my time - Illyria, I fantasize about a session like you describe! I can barely get D to talk about colleges, let alone think about a spring break trip… sigh.</p>
<p>My girls were much more into the process at this same point in high school. My son also won’t talk much about colleges other to say, most recently, that he is OK with going to the big state U (UF). Knowing that, I will now compare every school with UF. If it is not better, then why bother to research, visit, or apply?</p>
<p>We just heard today that D2 has made it to the semi-finalist for one of summer programs she has applied for. This is one program which she slaved over this winter break in writing all of those essays. We will need to travel back to the States in a few weeks for the final interview. We will take the opportunity to visit few schools while we are there.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter! I hope her interview goes well. Enjoy your visit.</p>
<p>Igloo - regarding what constitutes a “core” subject, the language most college websites use when speaking about teacher references is “academic” subject. Not sure that makes it any clearer, except that maybe not your teacher for Advanced Stage Set Construction? (a class my son has taken) They usually suggest recommendations from a teacher in an academic subject and one that has taught the student in their junior or senior year.</p>
<p>FWIW, D had a mandatory “college meeting” for the entire class last week. They are recommending FL teachers for college letters. That may be because the non-math/science faculty is relatively small, and they want to spread the wealth (and not have the English teachers overloaded).</p>
<p>Congratulations, OF! Welcome, Illyria.</p>
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<p>Naviance is so great.</p>
<p>DD’s school turns off scattergrams for part of spring semester to encourage juniors to spend more time thinking about what schools they like – as opposed to what schools will accept them. Once they have their first list into the counselor’s office in May, then they start thinking about where they stand at the colleges on their list.</p>
<p>As a helicopter parent who loves graphs, it’s frustrating, but I see the logic. ;)</p>
<p>college_query, Thank you for clarifying. My D can’t decide between her Lit teacher and Latin teacher. This is her third year with the same latin teacher. My D loves latin and the teacher knows it. Her lit teacher is more vocal, aggressively advocating her strengthes. I am leaning towards the lit teacher.</p>
<p>IJD - Interesting point about FL teachers writing letters.</p>