<p>^75% of my senior class will be doing just that.</p>
<p>No senior week here, but we live in a Gulf front community so the kids probably don’t want to pay to stay at a beach that most of them live on already;) Graduation is May 31 so this week we have lots of awards going on. The grad parties have already started and go on for a few weeks after graduation. We are skipping it and DS will have a BBQ with close friends before they all leave for school in Mid-August.</p>
<p>FWIW, D1 doesn’t need the help of any Senior Week to mess up. Last weekend, she worked both days. As her schoolwork is falling to pieces, we convinced her to get this weekend off. So. Yesterday, on what was, ostensibly, an afternoon of mini golf with a few friends in a neighboring suburb, she returned about 1 AM, having lost her wallet (she thinks at a train station). </p>
<p>Ah, well–not much in there other than her driver’s license, bank card, some cash, and her most recent paycheck. I mean, it’s not like she had someone’s brain or a Nobel Prize or something stuffed in there. </p>
<p>But it’s not all catastrophe: In the AM, before she left for her little “golf” excursion, she did manage to submit her application for a residence hall and info for roommate selection. But, alas, she neglected to send the “personal statement” required to get into either of the dorms she listed as top choices (the only two she listed). It’s her luck that the application was accepted without this supposedly necessary item. But, you know, that’s not so terrible either. I mean, there might have been a brain virus in the app, and we’re pretty sure there wasn’t anything like that in there.</p>
<p>So. I finally have a weekend day with nothing scheduled at all, and I get sick!! Just a cold, but still - grr. At least I was able to sleep a lot yesterday. Today, not so much. Last parade, followed by a concert at D15’s school.</p>
<p>lol ericd - that was my guess but I really didn’t want to make the mistake…</p>
<p>LOL SomeOldGuy (dating back to the REM/Arcade Fire morning) - I heard It’s the End of the World in the car last week and was thinking that’s appropriate…</p>
<p>RobD - congrats on being done! At least for your D. I think I’ll miss high school way more than S13.</p>
<p>Kennedy - I will be jumping into the search for D15, which will be much more complicated, but she doesn’t live here, so I think I will still be bored sometimes. But better than going cold turkey :D.</p>
<p>Congrats on being done, to so many - wow! S13 has 9 days of school left, if you count the day that’s grad practice/senior awards.</p>
<p>tx5 - wow, S13 loves Econ too… since I was there at the birth, I’m pretty sure they weren’t separated, but really!</p>
<p>Congrats on Amhert, 13thFloor!</p>
<p>sacchi - our kids are doing lots of movie-watching. I was teasing S13 about being in study hall all day and he said “it’s not study hall – we don’t have anything to study!”</p>
<p>megp - wow, you have been busy! And congrats on the scholarship :)!</p>
<p>S13 has nothing planned for the summer, other than working as an umpire, playing baseball, and catching up on his sleep.</p>
<p>cyclonehome - hope today is special despite your D not being there. I would have gone with you – I completely understand needing to mark the day.</p>
<p>STEMFamily - congrats on D placing! And sorry her leaving is so close… {gulp}</p>
<p>Amazhon - great story about the baby bird. Thanks for sharing it.</p>
<p>No senior week here. But S13 wants to go on a road trip to Dallas this summer. He has a friend with… grandparents?.. there. It would be four friends, who are all good kids. But. Only S13 drives and they would take his car (which has over 160,000 miles). Hmm. We haven’t decided. If there were another driver it would make such a difference.</p>
<p>ssacd - do you know anyone else going to Minnesota?? (long shot, I know). Aren’t there companies that specialize in shipping instruments? Does it help if it’s a special box?</p>
<p>Aww, tougis - this is just happening so that she has you to guide her through what to do in such situations. Somehow they all get through and grow up. Certainly S13 hasn’t topped all of my “did you seriously do that???” stories… yet…</p>
<p>Alright - I’ve got to get motivated because I’m off to go tuxedo-shopping (Did I predict this, you might ask? Why, yes - yes I did. Fortunately, he realized he’s not getting into his old one 13 days before prom instead of 3 days!).</p>
<p>Hope you are on the mend confetti! I always loved Aretha Franklin’s Respect - but take out the “pec”. Rest is what you need…</p>
<p>Tougis - join the club my friend. I just don’t have the strength to go there right now…</p>
<p>Enjoying the upcoming week of quiet before the storm. The following week all the craziness begins: family/extended family arriving to pay homage to D. Graudation parties. Accompanying S to NYC to move in and begin his internship. Taking D to campus to begin her 7-week research program. Flying D back home a week later to attend her graduation ceremony. And then - ah - splendid calm for the rest of the summer. Plan to travel some this summer and figure out how to operate a household with no kids running around - demanding simple things like being fed, hahaha. I can just envision us living off pizza and salad…</p>
<p>there is a Senior Cut day at our school… It usually is tagged to the weekend of Prom, and the kids try to rent houses at the beach. It seems that this year kids are having a difficult time finding houses given the problems with SANDY in the fall. I cannot wait till this school year is over. I feel that I am on an emotional rollercoaster and I really have to get off to rest my head and stomach!</p>
<p>tougis, I love your story. And can relate.</p>
<p>Went to a big graduation party this weekend. I was surprised how melancholy it was. The parents are some of my best friends, and some of them who I don’t think of as particularly sentimental were so … quiet. Kind of not looking forward to the next three weeks.</p>
<p>Senior “dedication” today, which replaced baccalaureate a few years ago. Speeches, awards, community scholarships, etc. I was surprised that so few students showed up - only about 1/4 of the class. Even some of the kids who got awards didn’t show up. Of course, that meant that it was only 2 hours as opposed to over 3 for D1. But it was nice to see all the kids in their cap and gowns with their “bling.” S2 received a small scholarship from the choir dept. - every little bit helps! I felt a little sorry for the 2 teachers that had to read all the kids names. Our school is mostly minority and immigrant and some of the names were really a mouthful, especially the Nigerians. But again, it was great seeing the wonderful diversity of the class. Most of the top 10 were 1st generation, so I’m sure their parents were really proud.</p>
<p>baccalaureate today and about 1/4 of class as well. Still, that’s about 150 kids, so it felt pretty full. Nice, but really hot when we went outside to take pictures. Graduation on June 6 at 8 pm. Seems late, but at least it won’t be blazing hot.</p>
<p>It’s moved past feeling real to feeling surreal</p>
<p>I’m a senior in NY. We don’t have a senior week but most people go away and rent a house on the shore for after prom weekend(Friday through Sunday) and no adults stay with them. I didn’t know some did it for a week, that’s amazing! However, I’ve made other plans for after prom seeing as my parents aren’t comfortable with me going to a house on the shore without any parental supervision.</p>
<p>Devil Child is leaving for a summer job about 1500 miles inland before beach week starts. I wish I could tell you I was clever enough to arrange that, but I’m appreciating the coincidence.</p>
<p>okay…so, can someone please give me advice? My DD is still on WL which, even she believes is becoming less likely…but, she told me she is afraid to go on the FB or website of the current accepted school because she is afraid she will get too attached…and,if by some chance, later in the summer she gets a call from the WL school…she’ll have to accept it, but feel badly because she will be more “bonded” to the current school. She thinks that if she turns down WL school “after all the waiting” that they will hold it against her…“and it may affect anyone else in my family of applying”… I would hate to think that is the case…and I really want to help her just move on to the phase of going to college…anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?!</p>
<p>Drmom. No experience but my opinion is that she should be trying to bond with her school that loves her back. It sounds like there is a high likelihood that she will be going there, so I think it is time to get out of limbo and start getting excited. </p>
<p>If the WL comes thru and she has gotten attached to accepted school, well then there are worse problems to have. She can see if she feels like WL school is the dream she really thought it was and see if she ends up liking accepted school better. I firmly believe there is more than one school for everyone. </p>
<p>I really don’t think WL school would hold it against the family. They know these kids are in limbo and have to make choices!</p>
<p>drmom, you know I’ve been saying all along to embrace the bird in the hand. Let’s say she falls in love with the second-choice school and then gets into the presumed first choice. What’s the problem? If she is still pining for the first-choice school, then yea! And if she had come to realize that the second-choice school really is the place for her to be? Yea for self-discovery there, too.</p>
<p>surfcity and YDS-- RIGHT! I am going to go with what you “guys” are saying. I think she will feel better just by allowing herself to be excited for something!</p>
<p>Kennedy - your next week made me tired just reading about it! We have the same concern about meals, although we’ll probably mix in pot pies between the pizza…</p>
<p>YDS - interesting. I didn’t think last year’s parties were… wistful or anything like that. Wonder how much of that is the eye of the beholder? </p>
<p>megpmom - we used to have that problem, so they put the awards program immediately after graduation practice during the day on a school day (required attendance). It seems to have made a difference - more kids are interested in the awards and they say that applications for the local scholarships have gone way up. Harder for some parents to attend, but at least kids are all going and don’t have to work out rides, etc.</p>
<p>LOL SomeOldGuy - always claim the cleverness ;)</p>
<p>drmom123 - I don’t have experience, but I will say that what you describe must be common. There are no doubt people in the admissions office arguing in favor of other applicants who will be happy to take that spot if it should come to that. And if that school would hold it against your family, perhaps that’s a bad sign anyway?</p>
<p>I have to say I’m slightly relieved that we’ve slowed down just a little - guess I’m not the only busy one :)</p>
<p>drmom123 – One of the aspects of the college app process that I’ve found to be, frankly, shady is this idea that kids “owe” colleges loyalty during this process, especially before colleges have made commitments to kids. I think it’s unethical. You have to convince colleges that they are your “top choice” in your supplements, interviews, thank you notes, etc. Every school can’t be their top choice but kids are encouraged/incentivized to “lie” at some level. Why do we have to play this game? It permeates every aspect of the process. Parents worry about the order in which they send in FAFSA forms. Coaches email kids and say things like, “I’ll support you if College X is one of your top choices. Can you tell me which other schools you’re applying to?” And, when the kids are waitlisted, when they’re crushed and their lives have been put on hold, the WL kids are still encouraged to contact schools again and say that the college is their top choice. Everyone will tell you that you need to tell WL schools that, if accepted, you will absolutely go and that they are #1 on your list! I think it’s dreadful that kids who have worked so hard academically need to do this. </p>
<p>It makes me very sad that your daughter is worried about retribution or disappointing the schools. Tell her, at this stage, she needs to think about this differently. Her goal is to get an offer. Period. It’s perfectly fine for her to decide to decline the offer. It costs that school NOTHING. As long as she’d still seriously consider an offer, she is under no obligation to the school to accept – or to justify her reasons. The college’s job is to get the kids they want the most (often qualified kids who can pay the most at this stage). It’s a business, not personal. It’s very easy to get caught up in this feeling that you owe the colleges a level of loyalty and complete candor during this process, when they don’t offer the same.</p>
<p>As I think I’ve mentioned to you before, my niece is on the WL for three schools but, I believe, she has emotionally committed to her deposited school now. She’s very excited and I’m not sure she’d say “yes” if any of the WLs called. She definitely feels disappointed in how things turned out – she put 10x the amount of time/energy into this process that her friends did with similar results. We’re trying to convince her that she got a lot of this too – interviewing experience and the knowledge that she “went for it.” Maybe that will come in time :)</p>
<p>Anyway, encourage your daughter to get excited, to get on the Facebook pages of her deposited school, to look for roommates, check out clubs… Life takes unexpected turns – someone may call from a WL school – but that doesn’t mean you put on hold the joy and the excitement of the moment. Have at it!</p>
<p>Totally agree with Kelbee. Two years ago my niece was WL at her #1 and I’ll never forget they called her while we were at a soccer match & asked if she’d attend if they offered a spot off the waitlist. She looked at me and asked what do I say? I told her to say yes, knowing that it depended on her FA package. I felt they really put her on the spot with no opportunity for discussion with her family. It definitely felt dishonest. She wound up not going because she did get better packages at other schools. All in all we deposited at one school, verbally committed to another and wound up enrolling at a 3rd all due to the the admissions game.</p>
<p>Even during this admission cycle we opted to complete a school’s online app versus using the common app because we heard they could see who else you were applying to. We didn’t want them to think they weren’t our #1 because we were also applying to a nearby reach. This school often loses top students to ivies and other top tier schools. I didn’t even hear about the FAFSA order. Thank goodness I didn’t know about that.</p>
<p>The whole process needs to be looked at. Its not applicant friendly and often favors the school. Sometimes it feels like paying the app fees is nothing more than buying lottery tickets. The kids put their heart and souls into this process and in many cases its all up to chance. And the ivies are the worst offenders. I can’t blame my D for wanting nothing to do with that process. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to admissions. They get to cherry pick each class and they’re still not diverse (or what we define as diverse b/c they all say they are). Its a flawed system.</p>
<p>D taking her last set of IB exams today, yay!</p>
<p>Kelbee and Amhazon: I am so heartenend by your thoughts. It is a rough time for them. I am trying to get her to go onto the webpages etc. I think the past day or two she is “trying” to connect. She had to get some blood test and a physical and have the college form filled out…so, it made it a little more “real” (which I hope helped her)—I agree, the system seems very flawed. My DS’16 was asking me about “what schools do you think I can get into”…and, it was really difficult to know where to begin…because, while he is not superstar academic (like his sister)…he knows she didn’t get into her “expected” schools…so, what I might consider a reach or even a “target” for him…well…I really don’t know now. I know DD will be fine two weeks or so into September…it’s getting to September…What I’d really like, is for her to allow herself to be excited right now! She’s missing that joy and FUN! (which, if I think about it…may be “her”…and not the fault, so much, of the schools or the WL’s)…</p>