<p>I just spent fifteen minutes watching my kids argue about a calculus problem. DD13a took AP Calc last year. DD13b is taking “regular” calculus this year. I started laughing at their dumb argument. Soon they were laughing. DD13b still doesn’t understand limits but at least nobody huffed out of the room. My kids can NOT study together! Such a shame.</p>
<p>Hi everyone- This is my first post to this thread although I have been reading along for quite some time. S is a swimmer and is in the process of finalizing his OV plans. All are great schools and all are schools he would be happy to go to even if he didnt swim. My3gr you can check out the Official National Merit Semifinalist Qualifying Score Thread for the Class of 2013 thread in financial aid / National Merit section to get each states NMSF cut off scores. Just about all the NMSF cut off scores for each state are now known.</p>
<p>Hi all,
DD also very stressed. Lots of tests & projects & jobs & leadership positions. It will get better soon but it is so hard now. There is only so much I can do to help her with the stress.
DS11 had great grades & test scores & is happy as a clam at the smaller of the two state flagships. He has lots of friends & sports to play. For once he is happy being one of the smarter kids. He fought the stigma all through high school.
It will all work out for the Lucky 13s!</p>
<p>Welcome swimkidsdad!</p>
<p>CBGMass: D2 had ACT scores sent to UA on August 22 & they received them on August 23rd. But UA is incredibly efficient and has their admission staff at full strength earlier than other schools.</p>
<p>Apollo: D2 absolutely refuses to consider out instate flagship. But she’s spent a lot of time on the campus for one of her EC’s, has hated the dorms since elementary school & honestly, based on D1’s experience & her friends, their merit aid is lousy. She gets a much better deal for a financial safety from Alabama & she likes them 1000% more. I am currently thrilled that she’s agreed to look at an instate option (Rhodes.)</p>
<p>Steve: D2 also got her certificate today. I noted that the date on the letter was August 11th.</p>
<p>Galaxy: I was on the DIS boards this week after a hiatus because D1 is applying for the Disney College Program :)</p>
<p>Stress: D2 has been pretty chill so far, especially given the 6 AP classes. But. I remembered that tomorrow night is the 5 college presentation featuring Brown. We went last year, and we visited Brown in the spring. I reminded her & she started getting stressed because there’s quite a few homework things going on & a community service project she’s committed to is this Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Part of me thinks I should let it go because with a 8% admit rate, if she’s already done those two things, one more event in a crowd of 100’s won’t mean much. The other part of me thinks she should go, meet up with the rep & put her face to her application. Any insights?</p>
<p>wahoo, he didn’t miss because of school. The problem is he didn’t call to let Coach know he’d miss practice. I get the idea that if you had a good reason to miss, he’d be OK with it occasionally, but he makes you run on the day you’re missing.</p>
<p>Welcome, swimdad.</p>
<p>SteveMa, I agree with you that taking out enormous private loans to pay for college is not wise, but I am not sure about the assertion that college costs have kept pace with salaries. Even if you think median income is an imprecise measure (I don’t, because it represents how people pay tuition), there is no dispute that tuitions have grown faster than inflation. Not a big deal, but just some validation for parents who are experiencing some sticker shock. I also think your starting salary figures will vary by job and location.</p>
<p>Galaxyfigment - sent you a message.</p>
<p>Anyone watch Parenthood tonight? It actually made me teary-eyed, watching the family say goodbye to their Cornell-bound daughter!</p>
<p>S2 doesn’t provide me with much stress, but D1 (college junior) will make up for it long distance. She is a gymnast/dancer/actor and is currently in the middle of rehearsals for her 1st professional show. So, of course, she calls today and announces that she has a stress fracture in her foot (not the 1st time). She may have to drop at least one of her courses (crosstraining), which may hurt her full-time status. But she’s still planning on rehearsing her show (lots of running, leaping and throwing herself into someone’s waiting arms). Plenty of ace bandages and Advil. So…I will spend the next two weeks worrying about her for a change!</p>
<p>But S2 did send an email with his resume to his LOR teacher. Making progress!</p>
<p>I teared up, too.</p>
<p>SteveMA- that is soooo frustrating!!! We don’t have the option. Our school only lists FCAT scores which is pretty stupid because no one, even our state schools, give a crap about that test. LOL!!! </p>
<p>Apollo6- I have one with you. My D doesn’t want to apply to any in-state school whatsoever! I’ve asked her to please pick one in case another option doesn’t pan out for financial aid. Florida’s Bright Futures program would be really helpful.</p>
<p>terinzak: we had a problem with ACT score being sent to UA. I called ACT and they were not willing to send another score report and told me UA had to call them about the problem. I filed a missing score report with the ACT and sent UA the phone number/contact person for the ACT. After a couple of calls, ACT resent the score to UA. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why they just don’t resend the score in the first place. It is not like we were asking them to send it to a new university. It was very annoying talking to the customer service rep. as they insist it was sent and it was not their problem if the university didn’t get it. Now I worry about all the subsequent score reports we request (whether the school gets it or not).</p>
<p>RobD, my older daughter just came home from the Disney College Program a month ago. If you have any questions, shoot me a message. It was, by far, the best experience of her life. She plans to do another program once she graduates, a PI after that, and full time with the company. </p>
<p>I’m on the DIS, too. Same username as here.</p>
<p>DD such a grump this morning. Too much school work, athletic practices, and stress. The college applications still hanging over her head. If we talk about it, it is stressful, and when we avoid the topic - its the big elephant in the room that we are dancing around.
I know I will cry when she goes off to college, but these last few weeks have been making it look easier :)</p>
<p>The kids emailed the ad comms at the various schools and most of them said to send over the PDF of the score report so we did. I’m just concerned about the ACT office sending information on time (for DD mainly). DS is going to ask the counselor if she can send the score report we print with her stuff. One school said they would accept that :D.</p>
<p>Our kids are not applying to any state schools either. Our flagship is just way too big and costs way too much compared to the private schools they’ve applied to after automatic merit aid. The directionals just don’t have the programs the kids want and again, are way too expensive. They are applying to state schools in other states which, even without merit aid, cost less than our state schools.</p>
<p>I’m out of printer ink and I REALLY need some…it’s traveling to my house right now but won’t be here until tomorrow. I thought I had some but went to install a new cartridge and none to be found. I hate it when that happens.</p>
<p>First CA school submitted yesterday – CWRU since they don’t have a supplement! Moving slowly, but surely!</p>
<p>STRESS - Sorry to hear about the kids stressing already – that will make for a long year! As I’ve said before, my S’13 is Mr. Chillax. I could tell he was frustrated with me yesterday though . . . he’d never disrespect me, but I could just tell he would have loved to gone off on me! </p>
<p>ACT SCORES – From what I understand, they are sent at different times depending on the school’s preference. One college might receive scores daily, others weekly, and others monthly. For the schools that have tracking, so far S’13’s scores are showing up.</p>
<p>TRANSCRIPTS – GC loaded S’13’s transcripts pretty quickly, however, the non-CA schools never got transcripts that were requested over a month ago. Then college transcript clearinghouse hasn’t sent those transcripts because they didn’t the fax with S’13’s signature, which we did send. The other two colleges haven’t sent transcripts that were requested 3 weeks ago. So much for being ahead of the game!<br>
Sounds like we should be glad we don’t have Naviance though – sorry so many of you are having problems!</p>
<p>EMPLOYMENT - Add my H to the list of DH’s with job woes! We might get good need-based aid after all! :*( Sorry to all that are in this boat – it’s pretty scary.</p>
<p>Wahoo – I hate all stuff S is expected to do to bond with his team. Most of it he enjoys, but sometimes there just isn’t enough hours in the day. S would just shrug it off, but it doesn’t sound like your D is that type. </p>
<p>Tx5 – is there any way to rework the good essays to make them fit A prompt in this process so they won’t be wasted? I really thought my S was never going to get a common app essay done. He tried all sorts of topics, and none of them were working. One finally stuck – and it will work for two other schools too!</p>
<p>Megp – WTG, S’13 on the rank/gpa! Glad you finally have it so you can move forward. </p>
<p>YDS – I see what you’re saying, but . . . this will be 3rd year with Art teacher, plus she knows him outside the classroom. She can speak well to his personality since studio art is a very social class. She can also speak to the academic side since he took her AP Art History class. He’s definitely using her LOR. I’m just more concerned about using TWO humanities teachers and ZERO Science/Math when he plans to major in CS/CE. Thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>Steve – can’t you just email the pdfs???</p>
<p>Steve–yes, some schools said they would take the PDF’s so those were sent off. Still waiting to hear back from some of the schools. DS was supposed to ask the GC this morning if they could email the PDF’s for the schools that wouldn’t take them directly from him…but, well, he’s a boy and “forgot”. They had their scores sent when they took the ACT to some schools but these are the schools they found after taking the ACT.</p>
<p>I thought you were saying you needed the ink to print the pdfs . . . my bad. Every score my S’13 has is on his transcript, but every college wants the scores sent directly from ACT/SAT. Go figure!</p>
<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>I cried when I watched Parenthood too! (would you let your kid go off to Cornell alone, or would you go with her?) I remember my sister getting on a plane and going off alone, but that was a long time ago… Actually DS went off on his own last year, and I hated it and wished that I could have gone with him, but he was insistent! I at least talked my way out to the gate to see him off.</p>
<p>Okay. Can someone just reassure me that if my DD does not call for interviews in the next few days, or even couple of weeks, that she still has a chance to have an interview and get into college!!! I know I am becoming irrational, and I need some help in getting my feet on the ground—otherwise, I will be driving DD and the whole family NUTS!</p>