<p>Thanks everyone for your support!</p>
<p>Well it’s been busy here - son’s football team made the playoffs this past Friday night so another week of that. He is finishing up his non-binding early action application to Tulane for Nov 15 and working on Dec. essays and scholarship apps. Just wish Dec 15 were here already so he’d know about Claremont McKenna!</p>
<p>Just wondering how many people are celebrating today’s holiday…I am at work and D14 is at school. I keep reminding myself not to look in the mailbox when I get home, but other than that, it’s just another day. (I would have put the flag out but it’s raining, then snowing, then raining)</p>
<p>I’m at work, so obviously older d is in school. Younger d’s hs is in session. She had an early out today and went across town to a local school where the track coach is trying to recruit her. She was dead set against staying local, until today. Will be be adding #8 to the list? Better be quick if she’s going to. I need to get the exchange paperwork done.</p>
<p>Oh, and d’14 had her first competitive scholarship day this weekend. Nice day. It’s a school that was near the bottom of her list (but still made the application cut). One conversation bumped it way up the chart: Said the track coach, “Oh you were a gymnast? I supposed you’re comfortable upside down? Well, sure we’d be happy to teach you to pole vault.” ARGH!!!</p>
<p>Well the ED app has been submitted! Whoo hoo! I really hope S gets in and we can get on with our lives! Sorry don’t mean to sound like a drama Queen…I just feel we have jumped a lot of hurtles to get to this point…plus I head to Providence tomorrow and need DS and DH to work on getting the Incomplete off his transcript! Pronto!</p>
<p>We also sent all our FA support documents to ED school and completed the CSS
form…Cocktails anyone?</p>
<p>You deserve a special “onlyonemom” mojito! Woo hoo!</p>
<p>Congrat’s onlyonemom!! I am SOO jealous!! My S’s ED deadline is Friday, and he is still tweaking his essay…UGH! Everything else is in… profile, LOR’s, transcripts, etc, and his supplemental theater stuff. My S switched his mind from a BFA to a BA in theater, and crossed all his auditioned schools off his list. I am REALLY hoping he pushes that submit button by tomorrow at the latest… i don’t him to wait till 11:59 on Friday…wish us luck! The good news is he found out on Friday he is in at U Minn, so this is a HUGE relief, as he really likes their BA in theater, and I think he would be really happy there.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! 5boys you have a few more days and it is great everything else is in. I need to circle back with S’s school and make sure LOR’s get finalized because they are still showing in progress …enjoying my wine…relaxing…breathing…</p>
<p>Interesting day today, No HS in AZ , DS 14 spent yesterday/today at Wesleyan University on a flyin visit/TAP. 15 yrs in AZ meant CT weather was a nice change, whether he can handle it for 4 yrs I’m not sure. Said he had a great trip loved the campus, stayed in the dorms with an RA and had a great interview, seems Wes is flying up the list of 8 colleges to apply to. UK Oxford app completed and finished the TSA entrance test last week, won’t hear about any chance of an interview for another month.</p>
<p>Englishman—the most appropriate word to describe CT weather today and yesterday is variable. Temp dropped 14 degrees yesterday during early afternoon, from 60 and sunny to raw, windy and rainy. It is 50 outside now, an hour after dark, and I don’t think it hit 50 during the day. Snow flurries expected tomorrow morning. So, variable is the word. If your son was unfazed by these changes, then he is ready for CT weather.</p>
<p>Not really “celebrating” today, but thinking of old friends. Grateful for the sacrifice of those who wore the uniform. Prayers for those who gave the last full measure and those forced to endure without their loved ones.</p>
<p>I am so dreading the FA paperwork this year. I started a new job but had two paychecks from the old job in January. They cut off my access to the system so I didn’t get a pay stub for the last paycheck with the YTD totals. My ex has worked two or three different jobs and says he doesn’t have the last pay stubs for the same reason. We’re going to have to wait for W-2s to come to do anything and then it will be rush, rush, rush. It really seems like there should be a better way!</p>
<p>ty, that is helpful, my AZ son thin blood. I await his impressions!</p>
<p>I can’t get S14 to work on his UC personal statement revisions. I am starting to nag- not a good strategy, but I am anxious about the timeline. I have told him that I want apps done before Thanksgiving. He wants a couple of trusted adults to read his essays and use their feedback for a final tweak, but time is passing. How have you dealt with honoring a timeline?</p>
<p>I will let you know when I find out myself…D promised me she would have second UC essay ready to send to advisor for review (I have not been allowed to see either of them) at end of day today. Guess we are not in agreement on what “end of day” means! ;-)</p>
<p>Chiming in late here, but I agree that Cornell is exhausting (for parents). We didn’t visit until after DS’11 was accepted, and we went for an admitted students’ day. We figured out that walked at least 10 miles up and down those hills (info sessions on North campus then way down at the south end of campus in engineering, an engineering tour, over to West for lunch, a regular campus tour – the actually plan a sit-down break in a classroom in the middle! – and back up north for a residence tour). We were so wiped out by the end of the day, but DS still went back at 9:30 at night to go rock climbing! (He’s a junior there now, and loves it. And is in excellent shape!) He said he was worried about the swim test because he’s a mediocre swimmer and they make the weaker swimmers take the outer lanes, but you are disqualified if you touch the wall at all, so if you swim crooked, you can fail by bumping into the wall. He said when he was waiting he saw kids get disqualified that way, but he did pass on his first try. If you fail you have to take swimming as one of your PE classes. He took fencing and juggling for his required PE classes, and is now taking performance rock climbing just because he wants to (but that could have been one of his required classes if he still needed one). There are TONS of choices, and as someone else has said, some of them don’t require any actual movement.</p>
<p>DS’14 agreed in principle that it would be great if he got all his apps out of the way before Thanksgiving. He has supplemental essays to write for 2 schools (which happen to be his first and second choices at this point, I think). He was supposedly drafting at least one today, but I don’t know if it happened. We’ll see. He had a job interview for his first ever job and it would be a great opportunity for him if it comes through. He though it went well. Of course, it will also suck up a bunch of his time that he won’t be using to finish those pesky apps… </p>
<p>Our school sent 3-year transcripts out originally to the EA schools, and will follow up with a first quarter grade report when those grades are ready. (I’ve seen them online, and it’s his best quarter to date!) WPI sent a letter to say that his first quarter grades were “missing” from his file, even though their EA deadline was before the quarter even ended. His GC said she’ll send them as soon as they are ready, which should probably be tomorrow (school was closed today).</p>
<p>S submitted his final EA app on Sunday (the deadline). Easy to forget when you’re away. </p>
<p>When we were in Colorado, there’s something about driving down 70W (steep grade) where the drop to your right is 2 miles straight down (OK, maybe a mile straight down). I actually felt sick. So I did 30 MPH in a 65 MPH zone, but we got down that hill.</p>
<p>Then we took a bold drive up a mountain road and pulled over halfway up to take photos (but I couldn’t look down without hyperventilating). S meanwhile scampered up a rock outcropping like a sure footed mountain goat and started taking pictures. I was so worried he’d fall that I just prayed “please let them find his body.” So I can get a refund on all the application fees. I think that’s in fine print on the common app site.</p>
<p>But we made it home safe and sound. S has a field trip in Manhattan tomorrow, which looks positively bucolic and safe by comparison.</p>
<p>DD and I spent yesterday at Smith’s Preview Day. It was a very well run program and we both came away from the whole experience with a more positive feel for the school and both thinking it would be a good fit for her. There was a welcome from the new president, a Q&A panel with four students and various class periods and class choices to visit. We both went on the full tour again and actually got a chance to see a different area of the school than we had seen on our tour in April. DD really liked the guide, felt she was much more “humble” than the prior guide we’d had. Then they had a good lunch with coaches and faculty from various departments around the room that you could have lunch with. They also encouraged you to move around after you’d eaten if you didn’t get a chance to sit with a group and talk with them later. That was great as we weren’t sitting with anyone. DD talked with Chemistry and then Biology. </p>
<p>After lunch, I went to the “How Smith Reads Applications” session and she visited a class. The students in the class were all surprised she’d picked that class to visit (Jews in German Culture - luckily taught in English) but were very friendly and welcoming. She really felt she got a look at a good class as it was small (a dozen or so), there were a mix of students from first years, to seniors to adults. She felt very included and loved it! She then toured the science facilities and I did the theater tour. She talked with a admissions counselor on the tour also and seemed to connect with her. Then a final gathering to see an a capella group sing. Fun!</p>
<p>We tried to go to the bookstore but they had closed. She remembered she had left her purse at the last gathering and we went back to find it. Ended up talking with the admissions counselor for our area whom we hadn’t met yet so that was a nice plus! There’s a student from her school who’s a junior there (but abroad now so we couldn’t connect) and she said they like to see applications from her school!</p>
<p>So all in all the day was a success and she really liked everything she heard and saw! Now we just have to hope she gets in and that she somehow manages to get one of the few merit awards they give out. Ugh!!</p>
<p>After a couple of tries this morning DD was able to access the ACT site and check her October test scores. She went up 3 points on the composite!! We were hoping for a 1 point move and she had said the test seemed harder but she killed the English and Reading parts and did very well in science and math. The end result was a 32 with an 11 in the writing section! Even she got excited as this opens the door for a couple of her reachy schools as well as several honors and/or merit programs. It looks like we will be revising her application list for the RD submittals. She is most excited that she is now in the solid test score range for Vandy (her favorite reach school). :)</p>
<p>akmon124 - sounds ike a great visit experience for DD at Smith! :)</p>
<p>Yay, Avonhsdad! Congrats to you and your daughter. That’s great news. And thanks too for posting time frames for all the possible app configurations. It made it all more real for me.</p>
<p>S2 just submitted his sixth app yesterday. He had a very good college interview this past weekend, and got his first acceptance too. So, a busy, happy weekend for him. </p>
<p>I’m not posting as much this time around as I did with S1…I’m more overwhelmed for various reasons. But I try to keep up with reading this thread. Want to say that you are all such a wonderful group of parents and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all our kids.</p>