<p>Hi 5 boys! Glad to see you here!</p>
<p>I had all these ideas of getting all these apps done during summer, I don’t really see a hard charging attitude on getting it done. Since d is laid up now after a foot surgery, once she’s off her drugs I’ll get her going. I think she’d rather stare at the ceiling than work on apps.</p>
<p>"She did write a CA essay (actually two to see how they came out but likes one better). She told me earlier in the week that she was going to write it on the rock in the middle of the lake. I asked which topic that fit. Answer, “No, I’m going to write it ON the rock!” So she did - kayaked out to the rock and spent the morning out there writing! " -</p>
<p>Love this akmom124!</p>
<p>eyemamom…can you believe we are at this again:) Beadymom… the paperwork for the Eagle Scout project is WAY more intense than the project itself. Wait till after he gets his project done… that is where it really becomes fun;). It took my 2012 S 1 year to the day after he finished his project and all merit badges to become an official Eagle Scout and pass his board of review. The council can sometimes take forever to stay on top of all the paperwork… tell your S to stay on them tightly. Unfortunately my S’s Eagle Scout process is at the bottom of his list, and he has a long list…UGH! I hate for him to go this far and not complete it…the good thing is he is young for his grade and has till he is 18 to finish…so he could finish it next summer if he needs to. I told him he could put on his college resume." Eagle Scout candidate"-project finished waiting review.</p>
<p>akmom… my S also likes to do his writing in nature… he has always been that way… he has a private place he made for himself out in our yard under some trees where he goes to read or write… love the " On the rock" kid:)</p>
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<p>Why, oh why, would you wait? The hardest thing about writing is overthinking things and second-guessing oneself. Get her started NOW, when she doesn’t have the brain function to overthink things. She can always edit it up later.</p>
<p>Hi - I now see why most people schedule college tours over summer. We live in California, and I am trying to schedule a trip to see some schools such as Clemson, UGA, over a long weekend that my daughter has a Monday off of school. However, none of the schools we want to see have weekend tours! We have the tour scheduled of the one school my daughter really wants to see (Vanderbilt) on Monday. Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can put together an informal tour with a student? I have put out some feelers for friends that might know of current students at these schools (would consider other N and S Carolina schools) but being from the West Coast, we don’t know a lot. Any advice would be appreciated - thanks!</p>
<p>Gig - I’d call the admissions departments of each school and tell them your situation and what they would suggest. I’m guessing they could find a volunteer. </p>
<p>dodger - I’ll go immediately with the vicodin and laptop and see what she can come up with! Given her conversation coming out of anesthesia it could be really interesting!</p>
<p>Yesway777, I’m so glad to hear you and your daughter were impressed with Rutgers…I guess we really do need to visit and apply!<br>
Tell us more about your impressions (both times) of QU. It has been highly recommended to my son but I’ve heard they are not very generous with aid :(<br>
Have you heard anything like that? My niece absolutely loves it there.<br>
Did it have any “Jersey Shore” stigma to it? We are from NJ and that is sooo not my son. You read so many crazy things until you see it for yourself you don’t know what to believe!</p>
<p>Best of luck, eyemamom!</p>
<p>My son can’t write essays to save his life . . . but when I gave him some 5-minute exercises, with no time to plan or organize, it was like a different person had taken over the keyboard! What he came up with was creative, funny, genuine . . . I showed it to friends who’d seen some of his other stuff, and they couldn’t believe it was the same kid!</p>
<p>Dodgersmom, what are 5-minute exercises? Please share!</p>
<p>HI All</p>
<p>Done with the visits. K2 has a draft of the one essay…it’s not impressive and needs reworking. Hasn’t touched any supplemental essays.
Sigh
STILL reading the first of 2 summer reading books. Hasn’t done prep for pre-calc.
etec. etc.
School starts a week from Tue. </p>
<p>I am more concerned than K2 who “wants to have fun and enjoy summer”. Yes grasshopper, and you did that with a 4 week camp, 3 overnights at the beach with friends etc etc…Maybe if you got up before 11:30am and went to bed before 1am you’d actually be getting something done!!!</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I am NOT taking K2 shopping for clothes, shoes etc until the school reading is DONE (including reviewing the study guides which the hs posted in May, the phone call/email to the math teacher and appt is set, and the essay drafts are done.</p>
<p>vvs2010 - </p>
<p>I got the idea from Harry Bauld’s [On</a> Writing the College Application Essay](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Writing-College-Application-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0062123998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376250989&sr=8-1&keywords=harry+bauld’s+on+writing+the+college+application+essay]On”>http://www.amazon.com/Writing-College-Application-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0062123998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376250989&sr=8-1&keywords=harry+bauld’s+on+writing+the+college+application+essay) - my all time favorite essay writing guide! He had various suggestions for little writing exercises - focusing not on “important” topics, but on things the kid had recently observed or experienced. My “5-minute” exercise may not be exactly what he suggested, but it’s similar.</p>
<p>I used any and every recent experience I could think of - having to take public transportation at 6 am, meeting a friend at the airport, hunting for a job, finding out we were out of instant mac & cheese (no kidding!), driving a stick shift for the first time . . . really, anything I could think of that the kid might have had an emotional reaction to. I gave him the topic and five minutes. And the results were amazing! (And he enjoyed it! :))</p>
<p>Turning one of these into a full essay is going to be more challenging - but he at least has lots of good starting points!</p>
<p>Eagle project is a dirty word at our house right now. S2 is sprucing up some outdoor areas at our church and it’s rained so much he’s made very little progress.</p>
<p>So impressed with all of your sons Eagle Scout projects. That’s an amazing amount of work and time commitment!</p>
<p>Still time for denial here as school doesn’t start until September 4th, but I feel for everyone whose kids have to return tomorrow – doesn’t seem right to be in class in August :)</p>
<p>Gigem86, if you are doing a weekend visit to UGA and/or Clemson in the Fall, be sure to check the football schedule. If it’s a home game weekend, you would get to see great school spirit at both these places (a good thing!), but it might be very difficult to navigate for purposes of touring the campus and surrounding town.</p>
<p>Woohoo!!! DS’s Eagle Project is D.O.N.E!!! It was a very tough project, taking the entire weekend and 15 volunteers who worked their tails off. It involved irrigation and landscaping at a local school. He did a great job and we are so proud.</p>
<p>5boys, you’re scaring me on the paperwork! Fortunately, he’s very motivated to get it all in before school starts, so he’s already started it.</p>
<p>On the other hand, we haven’t yet done the senior pictures. He’s scheduled for Wednesday but unfortunately he got sunburned doing the project. He was great about reminding others to wear sunscreen but got too distracted to do himself!!!</p>
<p>Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well. Congratulations on the amazing work of your kids with Scouts! I imagine it is very time consuming.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to write essays and it’s been tough for me because I suck at creative writing. I managed to write one essay about me growing up and my changing attitudes toward my culture/religion (I really grew up and was willing to put myself out there) and how it helped me while a difficult situation. I tell it in a series of vinegettes. </p>
<p>I don’t want my parents to see it yet because I don’t know if I did it alright. I’m quite terrified of writing and especially about myself. I’ve asked my friends to look it over and will ask other people, but I was just wondering if it would be possible for one of you guys to look it over and give me constructive critique/let me know whether it’s ‘worth pursuing’. Obviously my friends (who are close to my age) will have a certain perspective but it may come off differently to people with more life experience 
. </p>
<p>I feel like it might come off as dramatic but I am a pretty emotional person (even though I come off as reserved/don’t take anything seriously type IRL). If not possible, thank you for taking out your time to read the post of a lowly high schooler 
- I always enjoy reading this thread, though I don’t post that often.</p>
<p>On another note, my mom said she is willing to go on a college trip with me. We’ll end at UofR to visit both the school and my friends. It should be fun.</p>
<p>DS’14 was busy all weekend. He completed his two essays and his summer reading. Just in time: first day of school (senior!) is today.</p>
<p>DS is still working on his summer reading, so no work on college stuff here. Three weeks until school starts back (which includes a trip to FL for a wedding), so I have given up my dream of him completing the common app and essays by then. </p>
<p>Four more schools to visit, one in Richmond and three in/near DC. Keeping an eye on the websites, we like to visit during open house events. Hoping they will post dates soon, for planning purposes.</p>
<p>ecouter11 – PM it to me and I’ll give you an honest read through. I’ve done this before last year and this and people seem to appreciate my feedback.</p>
<p>Hello, tpcrd66!</p>
<p>Yes, Rutgers is a good tour, even if your son decides it’s not his favorite, he may decide it could be a contender. We ended up checking it out for the same reason…because someone else said they did not want to consider it and then loved it. They are attending.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac–I actually heard they are fairly generous with their aid, LOL! Did you know you can go to collegeboard and do an estimate on what your cost would be?</p>
<p>Anyway–1st time at Quinnipiac: Open house fall 2012. The good–the facilities, area, the college was BEAUTIFUL. The teachers/employees were really friendly…willing to talk to you about anything even if it wasnt your major interest. Nice size of 6000 students. The medical buildings were amazing. Negatives: the tour guide wasn’t very good and the open house was a bit disorganized. We were not able to go to everything we wanted, and the friend we went with did not get to do anything she wanted because of the time selections conflicting. Recommend going on the personal tours instead of open house unless you are doing general majors.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac 2nd time: Felt like it was more beautiful, even though it was downpouring. Noticed the Paver sidewalks this time. Went into specific classrooms…friend came and interested in education…amazing classrooms. Viewed the medical floor…amazing. The med school is done…excellent architecture. A staff member on education floor stopped her work to show us around and talk to us about the program and various perks of the program. All staff was again nice, and knew their stuff. Quinn is #1 up and coming school…they had 22K applicants last year. The tour we were on was filled to the max and tour guide said it was the largest he ever did (approx 30 in our group and several tours going on). The dorms were bigger than any we had seen and beautiful. Liked the D1 hockey and other teams…for us we dont need the football party scene, but we like some school spirit. Did interview…highly recommend it if you have questions about financials or anything.</p>
<p>Possible negatives the 2nd time: It’s rep is of rich, white people, and not sure if that is true, but it could be simply because the campus is so beautiful…who wouldnt want to go there? I did see diversity in the tour and our friend is Asian and did not feel out of place at all. Friend loved it and will be applying as well.</p>
<p>You might think that having only 2 large cafeterias be a negative. We really didnt care about that as long as they get food. We will be stocking D’s room with goodies anyway. Heard food was expensive. Surrounding area was suburban next to mountain you can hike. Probably not as much to do as Rutgers or other state school in or near a city, but if you are the type of person who is fine getting your socialization in club/sporting activities, then you will be fine.</p>
<p>Will be posting a visit report at some point. Definitely applying!</p>