<p>Son got his 2nd acceptance today to University of Pittsburgh. Acceptance to honors college as well. He spent last night really pushing to complete a school application that might lead to a nomination for a national scholarship, so this was quite welcome. </p>
<p>For the first time, he’s approaching his limit. Football playoffs have continued a bit longer than expected (a good problem), grading period ended today and the internal app was due today. He’s still hoping to complete 3 or 4 apps this month and maybe 3 more before year end. </p>
<p>I was a one and done. I alternate between frustration and amazement for all that is going on.</p>
<p>Spritle, I’m on the second one applying, and I totally have had that feeling for each of them! </p>
<p>Loved The Middle on Wed! I don’t totally understand how they resolved it, though, because he ended up dropping the classes anyway. So now what? 3 credits? He’ll lose his scholarship! :O</p>
<p>Overseasmom - how about Northeastern in MA or Stevens Institute of Technology in none other than my home state of NJ! :)</p>
<p>Ovrseasmom: you’re getting good suggestions. Also look at Virginia tech, Drexel and Rochester Institute of Technology. Many state schools have decent engineering programs- UMass, UConn…</p>
<p>Thank you for all the suggestions. S has a good balance of reach, fit and safety…6 schools on his list. But problem is they are geographically scattered and not ideal for our family situation. I thought if I can find a school he can love in the East, it would make things easier. He’s a strong science student.</p>
<p>Someone posted a while ago about wellness days, I cannot stress enough the importance of those. I learned from my experience at our counseling office that even the kids who act like they don’t care or are not doing enough, that’s just their way of coping with the overwhelming volume of information coming at them and the senior year multitasking. Take your cue from them, schedule time ahead for college work and then don’t talk about it in between. If they say they absolutely “cant do it”… believe them ! and come up with an alternative strategy. Too many otherwise high achieving kids have breakdowns close to the finish line, and in the end its not worth it.</p>
<p>4beardolls – your first quote! I’m so proud :)</p>
<p>Dave_N – woo hoo on a 2nd acceptance!!! That must be a great feeling.</p>
<p>Gertrude – I think I got Sazerac from an Anne Rice novel. Which means it could be an old-school vampire drink or something – beware!</p>
<p>Finally got S’s 1st quarter grades – they are his best grades in the history of him getting grades. Nothing lower than a B (and he maintained his A+ in gym!) I used to say the boy is going to major in dodgeball.</p>
<p>Now just have to clean up the house. Photographer coming in Monday at 11 am to take pics so we can get it on MLS.</p>
<p>ovrseasmom, the State U. of NY has 3 highly rated schools of engineering–Buffalo, Binghamton and Stony Brook. Stony Brook is on Long Island, a little over an hour on the railroad or in the car to NYC. Binghamton is 3 hours on the bus or in the car from NYC. Buffalo is 6 or 7 hours, on the border with Canada near Niagara Falls.</p>
<p>They all cost around $32k including tuition, fees, room, board to out-of-state students. They are all pretty selective but not top-50. Buffalo and Stony Brook give at least some merit aid, but not Binghamton.</p>
<p>Classof2015, my daughter’s report card was also her best ever. She goes to a gigantic (5500 students) test-in high school where parents are allocated 3 minutes with each teacher for parent-teacher conferences. But that’s really only for freshmen–every year, fewer parents come to conference, and I hardly had to wait at all to see all my daughter’s teachers. Of course I really didn’t have to go, but she told them all I was coming and she wanted me to do my victory lap so I did. Every single teacher, plus her guidance counselor and the assistant principal for English who helped her a lot last year when she had a lunatic teacher told me what a wonderful person she was–helpful, insightful, goes out of her way to give a hand. Of course it made me jealous!</p>
<p>I know she is very stressed out, not just about not knowing where she’ll be going next year, but also because it’s such a major life change coming up. I have to say that the process is not as awful as the NYC public high school admissions process which seems to be run by the Queen of Hearts assisted by the “man behind the curtain,” totally arbitrary and capricious, but stressful nonetheless. She’s had 3 full-blown temper tantrums since school started–totally out of control, screaming and crying, not like her at all! But so it goes.</p>
<p>She is only applying regular-decision since her grades will be much better this year than last, although I think she’ll have a few schools accept her before the end of March–her safeties, all of which claim to do rolling admissions to one extent or another. But I am sure we’ll be waiting to the end since two of her first three choices are completely unaffordable for us without significant aid and the calculators don’t really work for our situation. </p>
<p>At least her 650-word essay is done, and I am very proud of her–it is exactly 650 words of my daughter and it definitely passes the backpack test–if it fell out of her backpack without her name on it, everyone who knows her would know whose it is. She just told me she has a plan for the 7 (ugh!) supplements she needs to do. I am reasonably confident she’ll be done by Thanksgiving (well, at least by the end of Thanksgiving weekend!).</p>
<p>Just checking in…busy week learning new job in Providence…DS ED and EA app submitted! All FA forms submitted to ED school…what a hassle! …Incomplete was changed Thursday and updated transcripts sent! Apparently DS’s English teacher is known for giving incompletes because he gets behind in grading papers… Now for DS to get accepted ! I told him that he can not wait until Dec 15 to complete the supplement essays for the other schools on his list…well I will give him at least a week or two off from my pestering…
Now the waiting…</p>
<p>@Oldmom- love the essay “back pack test” idea. Never heard that before and it makes perfect sense! </p>
<p>I thought essay writing would be done by now, but our kiddo has about 7 or 8 left to write (mostly for scholarship and Honor College requirements). Out of 12 schools on the list, 10 apps have been submitted, 2 to go. Apps include: 1 Ivy SCEA, several rolling and the rest RD. Just received 3rd acceptance & 3rd scholarship yesterday- so far 2 privates and 1 OOS Flagship. Med school will follow undergrad, so we are looking for the best merit and have cast a wide net (learned this strategy from CC!!). So glad to have this supportive community to learn from. I really feel for the kids out there who don’t have the support they need, whether it is parental, or GC resources. Don’t recall who mentioned it, but someone up-thread mentioned an IRL support group for local parents who got together to discuss many of the the things that we do here and act as support for each other. I love the “we are all in this together” mentality vs. a competitive “us or them” mentality. Great idea!</p>
<p>I also love the “backpack test”. I work as a volunteer at the high school helping kids with the college process and that is exactly what I’ve been trying to convey to them. Hope you don’t mind if I borrow it!</p>
<p>oldmom – that is perfect! I have never heard a better description of a writer’s voice than that.</p>
<p>re: 1st quarter grades – S asked to see them. I checked my email – nothing. I checking edline – nothing. I’m thinking: it was a dream. They were dream grades. They were grades like he’d never gotten before – A-, twice, and Bs and B+s. It was like Michael Fassbender and Idris Elba came over to me at a party and smiled.</p>
<p>Then I looked in “deleted items” — there it was – and it was not a dream! The grades were there!</p>
<p>Son '14’s cross country season ended six seconds short of All-State honors. He ran well for the first two miles. He just ran out of gas the final mile. He was a bit disappointed, but there is always indoor track and field. He decided to return to the state meet today to watch his friends from another school compete, as well as friends from his former HS. </p>
<p>Gotta choose the right time, however, to remind him that he needs to complete an essay for an honors college application. That will not be fun.</p>
<p>S’14 also had his best quarter ever. Partially because of the combination of classes he has first semester, but we’ll definitely take it! </p>
<p>ovrseasmom, consider Northeastern, WPI, RPI, Drexel, Stony Brook, UMD College Park, U of Delaware, Rutgers? Those vary in selectivity, size, etc. but you should hopefully find something there that fits. I think all of them have merit money opportunities for strong applicants as well.</p>
<p>Back from another scholarship/interview day and this time, d came away less impressed with the school than she was at the initial visit. We get a little break now over the holidays before round two cranks up in January. These interviews are making me terrified about paying for college, by the way.</p>
<p>And even though it’s too late to go on any apps or in an essay, d’14 won a tournament today and is now a rated fencer. She’ super happy, and it was nice, for once to spend some without “college” somehow butting into the activity somehow.</p>
<p>I have heard the backpack metaphor used during U of Chicago information session. It stuck with me and that is what I use when I read DS’ essays.
Congrats on the wins, acceptances, and good grades.</p>
<p>beadymom- My S has his Eagle Board of Review next Sunday. It will be a big weekend for him as he and his dad are going to visit Northwestern next Saturday! That’s the last college visit, I think.</p>
<p>Our school is on trimesters so finals are Thanksgiving week. So far, the grades are right where they need to be. We were a little worried about AP English but there were some “missing assignments” that weren’t really missing and those got corrected so he’s good now. The teacher lost the entire classes vocab quizzes for one week and S got 100 on that, but the teacher is just not counting those. S is a little peeved about that. I told him to make sure he keeps all of his graded papers from that class until they show up in Zangle because apparently this teacher is not totally on top of things. How do you “lose” 30 students quizzes? </p>
<p>S has been getting reminders to apply from one of his EA schools. On the CA, they have downloaded one of his teacher recommendations, but not the school report. He’s going to email them and note that he applied EA but is concerned that he is still getting email reminders to apply and that he noticed some parts of his application haven’t been downloaded by the school. It is his safety, but scholarship money there is awarded first to EA applicants so it could be significant.</p>
<p>As noted above, he and his dad are going to visit Northwestern next weekend. S is concerned that his dad is taking him because his dad isn’t the most organized person. I promised him I’d print out the information they need for him and told him he’ll have to take the reigns on it this time. Apparently I did a good job on our Brown and Cornell visit, having all the information we needed at the ready.</p>
I think all of them have merit money opportunities for strong applicants as well.</p>