<p>I believe they’re looking out for inadvertent bad impressions, such as from teachers who are not strong writers and may just write cliches about a student they really admire. I’d be very surprised if they edit themselves. They certainly don’t do anything like that for student essays.</p>
<p>S’14 is now is “ACT-rescheduling” waiting mode. If it’s this Saturday, he’ll miss summer job orientation. I just hope they don’t say “wait til the Fall.” Is the school flooded? I’ll be over there with a wet vac just to get it ready for this Saturday. Don’t mess with the Momster.</p>
<p>@Classof2015
They are beginning to post the rescheduled dates. They look like they are this coming weekend or the one after, depending on location.
<a href=“http://www.actstudent.org/regist/reschedule/[/url]”>http://www.actstudent.org/regist/reschedule/</a></p>
<p>Thanks MaryJay! So now I know. I’m hoping it will be a blessing in disguise (more time to study).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Two years ago with DS-2011, his AP English teacher actually provided her draft LOR to him to bring home and review and to then return with comments. His AP History teacher provided a courtesy copy but there was no early review or comment and his AP Checmistry teacher provided her LOR in a signed and sealed envelope for him to submit to his GC. This was in our public HS. DD-2014 is in a private girl’s school so the process will be much different from what we have heard so far. D is not as close to her teachers as S was so this may well prove to be an interesting process for D. On the other hand, D is much closer to her GC than S was as her ratio of students to GC’s is about 75 to 1. S’s ratio was more like 500-1. :eek:</p>
<p>^I was familiar with a similar process with my '08 and '09 s and d. In fact I recall there was some place to indicate whether you agreed to accept “sealed envelope LORs” or not. obviously the colleges preferred this as it meant, at least in theory, that you had no idea what was written and didn’t select only the most shining letters. I will have to check to see how s '14’s high school is handling them.</p>
<p>my s’s ratio is also about 500 - 1. honestly s’s gc is truly so limited it’s not even worth checking in with him. I had interacted with him when my d was at same high school, and we recognized he’s either burned out, or truly impaired in some way…</p>
<p>Interesting to read about the LORs. It does seem that different schools do different things. I do see that the two teachers my son asked for his LOR are now listed in his naviance account so I assume it is done through that system at his school. Most likely LOR will be set to private as some other documents on there so we won’t be able to read it. </p>
<p>My S14 is at a smaller private school of 75 students per grade to 2 college counselor. His LOR will come from two teachers he has known for two years. My D17 is at our local public with 400 kids per grade but with 8 college counselors so the ratios works out to be the same. Will be interesting to see down the road how this process will go in the public system. Kids have generally matriculated in the public system to lower to mid tiered schools. </p>
<p>S14 will keep busy this summer with a finance internship and a class at cc. He will also be visiting schools, vacation to Europe, drivers ed, and his most FAV activity – chilling with the dog. </p>
<p>momreads, hope you are recovering well together with your older son. My S14 is also having his wisdom teeth pulled this summer too. Must be some type of pre-senior initiation, LOL.</p>
<p>Mrspepper, sorry to hear about your son’s test taking distractions. Sometimes the day can be off and snowball from there.</p>
<p>2018dad, I always prefer school systems with shorter summer breaks. Wished ours was that way too. Kids tend to forget too much over the summer I believe.</p>
<p>ognopgod: Thanks for the good wishes. Oldest son is sleeping on the living room sofa. When he awoke briefly, he said he felt all right. Has not complained about pain. The biggest pain of the day may have been getting his meds. The hospital called them in just after surgery. I show up three hours later, and the pharmacy still has not filled the order. When I asked about the delay (I left the patient at home with his kid brother), the girl behind the counter becomes nasty and says, “We’ve been busy, sweetheart.” I understand that you can get busy, but it takes more than three hours to fill an order? Someone dropped the ball.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Son '14 enjoyed sleeping late. He plans to go running this evening while I watch the patient sleep. He got a letter from a small D3 school interested in talking to him about its track/cross country program. Made his day, too.</p>
<p>Hi, everyone! I was HS Class of 2010 but I have a brother who’s 2014, so if ya’ll don’t mind I’d like to drop by once in a while and see what everyone’s up to :)</p>
<p>He’s still trying to narrow down his list, but ones he’s liked so far include Dartmouth, UMich, Wesleyan, and Carnegie Mellon. ~3.5 GPA from a rigorous prep school, 35 ACT, starring roles in 4 theater productions, captain of 3 sports teams. Not set on a specific major, but generally liberal arts. Wants to be in/near a city and at a school where he can do theatre without being a major.
He visited Northwestern, which I was sure he would like, but apparently the campus was unimpressive after visiting Mich. My parents are pushing for Tufts since it’s relatively close to us (we live in NYC), same with Brown and UPenn.</p>
<p>He’s going on a Habitat for Humanity trip with his school for a couple of weeks this summer, and also has a 2 month paid internship. Lucky kid.</p>
<p>Welcome, T_C! I believe there are some others interested in theater in our group. Pop in any time!</p>
<p>Finally got D to sit down and sort out her list of schools and come up with a reasonable number of visits. Looks like we will do 3 or 4 long weekend or short 3 or 4 day trips as they will be broken up geographically. We plan on starting with the northeast and will visit Cornell, Brown and Lehigh next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We are also planning a midwest trip, an Atlantic coast/DC trip, and a trip back to North Carolina as she needs and wants to do a personal interview at one of her selected schools there. We will do Carolina on the way to Florida for vacation in early August. She has now picked three very different schools here in Ohio to visit. We will make those trips on Fridays and/or Saturdays during the fall as they are all within 2 hours or less of home.</p>
<p>I am not sure if I will post formal visit reports but I will keep this group updated, particularly if something is real good or bad. </p>
<p>And finally - the weather forecast looks like we will finally have summer this year! :)</p>
<p>A Smithie in the house! Welcome teenage_cliche! I graduated in the '80s and loved it there.</p>
<p>AvonHSDad – good luck on the college tours. Once I get S’14’s ACT, I’ll envision doing a last minute scramble.</p>
<p>Teenage_cliche, welcome! My niece is currently also a HS Class 2010/ College 2014 at Smith as well. I think she will be graduating with a bio/neuroscience/premed focus. Not sure since she switched her mind couple of times. Your brother has some good stats and ECs. So great to see an older sibling looking out for a younger one. Honestly I can’t see that happening in our household so I think your relationship is very special.</p>
<p>AvonHSDad, we are planning on looking at Cornell and Lehigh as well. Will you do that in one trip? Sounds like lots of driving. We were planning to do these two schools separate on different trips though technically looks like they can be done in one trip since (quick look at google maps) they are fairly close to each other - 3 hours. Brown looks much further from these 2. Looking forward to hearing your feedback and what your D thinks.</p>
<p>Avon & ognopod–will be interested to hear your thoughts after your visits as I was favorably impressed by Lehigh. It made me think of Cornell on a smaller scale. </p>
<p>May want to consider Brown, Lehigh, Cornell or the reverse of that, but with Lehigh in the middle. </p>
<p>While looking at universities, has Bucknell been considered?</p>
<p>@worrytoomuch (love that handle), My daughter and I both loved Wesleyan. The town of Middletown is just OK. I did get the feeling that the kids pretty much stay on campus. But it is a wonderful campus! And the kids seem bright and energetic. Our tour guide participated in theater groups. As I think many tour guides seem to. He was funny, and lively. The school has an amazing reputation. Highly intelligent students, but also seemed to be running to gym, many clubs, and vibrant.</p>
<p>So as with all other schools, you have to see if it fits your D’s idea of size, location and shape of a school. My D changes her mind every other day. Summer visits are not great b/c with no students around I think it is very hard to discern the flavor of the school. If you have time in the fall, try to make it east for some visits. My daughter plays varsity soccer, so no time for her in the fall…</p>
<p>I have now done many visits for my S, who is at Honors college of Charleston (college class of 2016) and my HS 2014 D. So if I can be of any help. In the South: UNC Chapel Hill, Elon, CofC, Wake Forest, Duke, drove thru Davidson, UNC Charlotte, High Point,</p>
<p>In the East: BU, BC, Tufts, Northeastern, Brandeis, WPI, Uconn, Wesleyan, Bard, Conn. College,</p>
<p>College/family trip (ha, ha, I know 14 yr old is thrilled) and we are flying in to NYC later arriving 9pm. Anyone have suggestions on a convenient place or area to stay? We will have a car, but we would like to train into the city the following AM and try to see one school(TBD) and we have plans to see an evening show later that day-it’s a family member’s b-day. We will probably head out of town on the next day to the Philadelphia area. Any recommendations on what time of the day is best? I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!</p>
<p>mrspepper – you might want to check out hotels in White Plains. You can take Metro North from the WP station to Grand Central (takes about 40 minutes) and there are lots of hotels there that would be cheaper than staying in Manhattan. Crowne Plaza is nice; and there’s a fancy new Ritz Carlton. Plus WP has lots of restaurants.</p>
<p>MrsP, what airport in NY are you flying into? Are you renting your car at the airport? I would suggest that you pick up the car at the airport, drive into NYC, traffic should be ok, stay at the Holiday Inn Express on Water Street. Parking is $30-$40 in a garage. Wake up refreshed, leave the car in the garage, see the school and enjoy the show. Drive from NYC to PHL the morning after the show. I think this would be easier than flying into NY, pick up rental car, drive north to Westchester, train the next day back and forth to the city.</p>
<p>Some wise words from our school’s counselors:</p>
<p>SENIORS?? Can it be??</p>
<p>We here in Student Services wanted to congratulate you on navigating your way through Junior year. Its so close to being over that were comfortable calling you SENIORS! (You like that, dont you?) So, newly-minted Seniors (and those that support them), please keep these few things in mind as you close out this very difficult year:</p>
<p>NO ONE THING IS THE END OF THE WORLD.</p>
<p>When the pressure is on, it may seem like every quiz, every score, every dot on the Naviance scattergram is crucial. For your own sanity, please remember that its not.</p>
<p>Standardized testing is like a looming cloud over your heads. But seriously, one test cannot define you, and it cannot be the one determinant for where you get into college. If you have not taken the SAT or ACT already, be sure to prepare so that you are not stressed when youre taking the test. But try not to beat yourself up over your score; you don’t have to take the same test over and over again to raise your score by 10 or 20 points. Save yourself the mental stress.</p>
<p>And like a test score, your GPA is just a number. Neither of these numbers should be the one thing that defines you.</p>
<p>USE YOUR SUMMER WISELY.</p>
<p>As you walk out of your last final this year in June, it will feel like a massive weight has been lifted from your shoulders. You will feel free…</p>
<p>Enjoy the summer by doing whatever it is that makes you happy. Dont try to build your resume any more than you already have. Dont try to discern what would be a good use of your time. The beginning of senior year is going to be hard, and you want to feel refreshed and rejuvenated by the time you walk back through the front doors in the Fall.</p>
<p>This being said, it won’t hurt to get ahead of the game by doing a little bit of work over the three months of summer. This isnt meant to stress you out at all; it will actually do the opposite. If you spend maybe a few hours a week getting yourself ready for the college process, you will be thankful during first semester. It can be as simple as finalizing where you plan to apply, filling out your basic information on the Common App, or reading over the supplement prompts so you can start planning your essays.</p>
<p>DON’T LET THE COLLEGE PROCESS OWN YOU.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, you are so much more than the college process makes you out to be. Please dont let the colleges that accept you, or even deny you, become the way you define yourself. If you face disappointment, remember that life is more about the journey than the destination.</p>
<p>If it seems hard, or if you feel defeated at any point, remind yourself of how hard you have worked, and how much you have done to get where you are. Know that there are likely multiple people who are super proud of you. No college should be able to take away your confidence and self-esteem. Dont give them that right!</p>
<p>Dont believe us counselors? We know were old. What do we know? Perhaps instead youll consider reading the attached advice from this years Senior class. Know it was written with love and perspective (we hope much like your Junior Packets!)</p>
<p>Wishing you all a wonderful, restful summer! You earned it!</p>
<p>@ELKyes, thank you for the info. Same here with my D, the list keeps changing. Most of the colleges we visited are in California and Oregon with the exception of UChicago and Carleton. </p>
<p>@2014novamom, great advices!</p>
<p>Is it normal for the teachers to have the kids write their own LOR? Some of D’s friends were told to do so unless they want a generic letter.</p>