<p>Yeah, NJ has brown recluses too. Nasty beasties. Both states also have wolf spiders. I saw the biggest, meanest looking wolf once, but that may have been in NY. In a church. </p>
<p>Here is some research for your son out of today.duke.edu. Note to small children, this is rated PG-17:</p>
<p>“Duke University graduate student Cynthia Tedore, working with her dissertation adviser, visual ecologist Sonke Johnsen, wanted to know what visual signals matter most to magnolia green jumping spiders, which have an impressive array of eyes, including two giant green ones that face forward…In pairs, 24 males squared off for 10 minutes in “the arena,” a box festooned with female silk to put the males in a fighting frame of mind. Over the course of 68 of these cage matches, the male with the bigger chelicerae, heavy, bristling fangs hanging in front of their mouth parts, usually scared the other guy off without a fight.”</p>
<p>“The males wave their forelegs at each other for a period, and then the smaller male runs off,” Tedore said. “That’s why we think they’re using vision to size each other up. Most of the time, the smaller one will run away before it comes to blows.”</p>
<p>Isn’t college research neat!!</p>
<p>Good night now, everyone, and sweet dreams.</p>
<p>russgenious - I misread your question the first time, but I don’t think there is any way to check the accuracy of the school report that was sent by common app.</p>
<p>I’ve been away and trying to catch up again. Congrats to annie’s D on Oberlin. I assume that was ED, and she is done?</p>
<p>Thank you all for the support and making me feel welcome my parents didn’t go to college so they don’t really see it as necessary but it makes me feel 1000x better that I can come here with all my questions / concerns. </p>
<p>As for the basement, considering I have no idea what it is I’m sure I’ll be able to avoid it </p>
<p>On a side note: all this talk of spiders makes me glad to reside Cali where all we have is black widows and rumors of brown recluses but only about 12 cases reported I think.</p>
<p>Congrats to all of you whose kids have received acceptances!! My son was accepted to Amherst College ED and is so excited! He fell in love with it when we visited. He does not know a single soul there. We are from the Midwest. Are any of your kids going to Amherst or applying there?</p>
<p>Wow Big congrats to everyone! This thread moves so fast it’s hard to keep up with all the good news. I find myself checking in here often just to read all the latest. Welcome to all the newbies here too…I hear there is a rockin basement that seems to be a great landing pad for us stressed out worried parents!!! Gotta check that out! :D</p>
<p>DDHM - thanks so much for the ‘graphic’ spider info!! :)</p>
<p>Just had a brief chat with DS before he headed off to bed (yes… he’s up way too late!). He is excited that all his friends are getting into such great schools and that his high school class is having such success. There’s 2 Harvards, 3 Princetons (and one deferred who happened to have a 2400!), 1 Yale, 1 Columbia, 2-3 Cornells, at least one UChic (he also had a 2400 and was deferred from MIT and still hoping). So I think he is even feeling a bit left out that he doesn’t have any schools waiting in the wings. I’m thinking he would like to have a bunch of "yes"es (Gosh, what is the plural of “yes”??) just to make himself feel good! </p>
<p>Tried for a while to express my mixed-up thoughts on this, but nothing sounded reasonable and I have given up and decided to include the following addendum:</p>
<p>Anyone still working on tons of apps, or those who have gotten deferred to their top schools, or whose reaches are their siblings safeties, and are sick of me whining, please feel free to use me and my son as pin cushions/punching bags/dart boards, etc… I think I need to put my own picture up right now and start tossing some pointy objects at it… :D</p>
<p>oh, and congrats to jennieling - Amherst!!! Very cool!!! Again, loving it when kids get into their first choice!</p>
<p>So much exciting news around here. I wish CC had done “like” buttons instead of adding reputation to the forums. It would make it so much easier to share how happy we all are for each other.</p>
<p>Dragonfly, I agree. I read a few pages and then forget who I wanted to congratulate, encourage or otherwise ‘like’!
Cali, welcome aboard! We encourage everyone- you’ll get lots of praise and support here.
D has decided William and Mary will get an app. She’s got two to do over break now and will be done. At last. Just in time for her brother and I to launch his great adventure.
Finished wrapping what I’ve got for Christmas yesterday. Did cards last night. Must bake, and clean, but somehow I’m feeling good about holiday preparations. Relief…if someone in the Midwest would send me some fluffy white stuff, I would be grateful!</p>
<p>Although I do enjoy snow during the holidays, I am so glad the winter weather is holding off until older DS flies home today. Congrats to all on their good news! And I agree a “like” button would be so much more useful.</p>
<p>congrats southerncalimom - the first one is special, isn’t it?</p>
<p>megpmom - that sounds wonderful (albeit loud). Congrats on the prescreen!</p>
<p>anniezz - congrats on Oberlin!</p>
<p>CaliforniaRooted - We are probably not quite the norm - some of us come here so that we won’t make our children/spouses/neighbors absolutely insane… but certainly you’re welcome. We have a couple of other adopted students too :).</p>
<p>congrats lilkickster9!</p>
<p>yay on the spelling bee our2girls!</p>
<p>DDHM - no kidding on the apps! I typed things out on blank paper and held them up to the light in front of the app so I could find out if I’d abbreviated my ECs enough to fit in the space allowed!</p>
<p>congrats reeinaz!</p>
<p>jennieling - congrats on your S for Amherst and congrats to you for being done!</p>
<p>Confused - that’s awesome! I will never forget the moment when I found out S brought his ACT up over the magic “full ride at his safety” number.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed for all those travelling today and tomorrow in the storm.</p>
<p>I think the midwest is about to have plenty of the white stuff! My brothers family is coming in town tomorrow - I hope they make it!</p>
<p>Thanks for the congrats on Butler for dd - she was accepted into their PharmD program which is pretty exciting because it is auto admit and scholarships are 6 years! But…now she has to really think about whether she wants to do that program. UGH!!! </p>
<p>I will definitely be on the indecisive cruise in April!!!</p>
<p>Since I am most often pecking away on my smartphone (no internet at our rural cabin) it is very difficult to do the two-screen thing and do an adequate job of acknowledging all the posts I would like to acknowledge.</p>
<p>I believe there is an Oberlin, Amherst and Emerson acceptance out there…yay! Oh and Ree posted about a cool email from Lake Forest, congrats! (Begged my son to consider it, but could not even get a nibble. Took me a while to realize that nearly every place he was interested in had “university” in their name, as opposed to “college.” Strange, but true.)</p>
<p>Also, welcome to our HS students…yay, more for me to mentor! ;)</p>
<p>Special thoughts to those deferred, denied or still waiting for reg decision.</p>
<p>I have a phone interview for a job today. I must be nervous; I woke up at the crack of dawn wondering what they would ask. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>I’ve been off the internet for a few days. WOW, things are flying fast! Congratulations Swizzle, Jazzi, Unicameral and all others I know I read about, but can’t remember pages back. Sorry for the redirections.
Is Walker still in the basement? I know all is going to turn out all right. We parents get so excited for our kids, and feel so much more because of that…
DD left all her teacher gifts home today…all wrapped and ready to go…but, not today, I guess.
DD is second guessing herself and is now convinced she will not get in anywhere. But, she is also not sending her first marking period grades anywhere,a nd I think she should. especially some of the schools that say they may contact people “early”…
where’s the basement? I’m joining Walker!</p>
<p>kelli - goodluck on your phone interview. I am a recruiter and the advice I always give for candidates when they phone interview is 1) Look in a mirror during the interview - this allows you to see your facial expressions which in turn gives you insight into your tone of voice and 2) Stand up! You would be amazed at how your voice comes across sharper when you stand. 3) Have the company’s website pulled up so you can take a look at things if you need to during the interview 4) Have your resume in front of you to easily talk about your experiences - remember they will have it in front of them!</p>
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