<p>Hey, whatever works. It was far more elegant than the envelope steaming I resorted to with S1, lol. Technological advances are in our favor.</p>
<p>DS has 1 exam behind him with 4 to go. Hopeful to find something in the mailbox today. What a long week!</p>
<p>At one point parents of 2013 weighed the admissions office envelopes and attempted to calculate an average weight of rejection and acceptance envelopes (i.e. an envelope over a certain weight was highly likely to be an acceptance). Seemed to work pretty well.</p>
<p>DD finally on the way home from dance class and shopping for chorus/band teacher for gift after concert tomorrow night. Nice thick envelope waiting here for her - it says “Congratulations!” on the back so I don’t have to guess (or try to steam it open!) I thought of taking a picture and sending it to her but I really want to see her reaction - she’ll be really happy! But she still has two apps to do and her English rewrite so not much time for celebrating tonight.</p>
<p>congrats akmom! that’s a nice thing to come home to</p>
<p>GC actually called me about a half hour ago. What a nice guy. I told him S’s results so far (1 rejection; 2 deferrals) and he suggested some safeties and said he’ll do his paperwork (sending transcripts and LORs) before the Xmas break starts. He also said for S to pop his head in so he can wish him happy birthday and give him a pep talk.</p>
<p>That sounds great, akmom! Post what happens!</p>
<p>Turns out it was a holiday card hand signed by the admissions director. And today he told me a coach from the school was emailing him. I am guess that is a good sign. This school and his other EA sent their packages today per Twitter. Hopefully he gets in at both.</p>
<p>DD accepted to Saint Mikes! She’s thrilled! And a handwritten note on the bottom of the letter saying their volunteer organization will welcome her leadership - they’ve definitely got her figured out already. That personal note really made her night 
Merit aid info to come later.</p>
<p>She’s had a great day which is wonderful. Her music teacher told her what the musical was going to be (hopefully) and she’s excited about it. Shopping and Secret Santa at dance and school and now an acceptance! And we leave for Mexico early Friday morning! We’re all excited for that! I think the last two apps will have to wait until we get back though. She still has some music to memorize for tomorrow night’s concert!</p>
<p>Add us to the list of those waiting on Michigan …<br>
And DS is finished with all the apps, but procrastinating on the scholarship and special program apps/essays. He’s finished for the semester and kept it together and didn’t let senioritis set in yet! He even went in on his own without me telling him to to ask the counselor to send in 7th semester grades to all the schools! </p>
<p>Congrats to all the new admits!</p>
<p>Congrats to all those w/ acceptances!</p>
<p>DD got online last night and paid the deposit to Vandy … and officially withdrew from Indiana University.</p>
<p>2 more days til Christmas break! I should probably start shopping soon …</p>
<p>I laughed at the talk of steaming envelopes and the need for adult beverages. It is all so stressful. I can see myself in both situations, holding an envelope up to the light and jiggling it around, and succumbing to a glass of wine.
S1 made it through the first cut of a very good scholarship (specific to our state, but very close to full ride with other goodies). The next step is to get three LORs, from a teacher, community leader, and principal. Our principal is new to our HS this year. He had two teachers proofread his letter. Today, one of the teachers told S1 that he had better be glad that she proofed it. It sounded like she was (kind of) kidding, but there’s a lot of truth in humor. Whew-Glad the teachers are looking out for S1.</p>
<p>As hoped for based on the letter request to complete the health affiliate program supplement received a couple of days ago, D received her EA acceptance this evening from Villanova. One EA decision done and one more to go on Friday although this is one of her two top pick schools.</p>
<p>She has two supplements left to complete and submit. All other school apps are completed. Next come the scholarship apps and essays. </p>
<p>D also received a call from the Vanderbilt Admissions office (message left on the machine) that they had received her app fee but hadn’t received her application yet. It was submitted a couple of days after the payment went through as the first attempt at the payment on CA failed. Interesting that they would place those types of calls. It shows they don’t have a lot of faith in the CA process this year and its nice to see that kind of personal follow-up.</p>
<p>We are in a similar boat here. We have four BHMF reaches left. DS is solid student, but essays are a real struggle. It is very stressful. DS’s football team kept having some playoff success, but that meant weekends and weeknights melted away.We couldn’t really get started till around Thanksgiving. At least he keeping up with the school work.</p>
<p>A co-worker had a great quote today:</p>
<p>“Nothing brings a family apart like editing college essays”.</p>
<p>Dave-N thats so true about the essays, I can laugh about it now but it was not a laughing matter a few days ago. </p>
<p>The parent stress about decision envelopes also shared. My S was so cool, he went and took a nap, decisions were to come out at midnight in our time zone, his sister and I were freaking out and he slept well past it. We were so tempted to log in and check , had to restrain ourselves. Then he casually falls out of bed and logs in…to that awesome congratulatory music. What a sweet moment!
It will all be ok in the end!</p>
<p>Congrats to akmom; avonhsdad & ovrseasmom!! & to all others getting admissions in before Christmas.</p>
<p>We took a break from all the college talk to have an indoor (really outdoor though) track and field meet last night. Son '14 was not scheduled to compete. Then, one of his teammates comes over to him just before the team leaves for the meet and says he’s in the lineup. So he quickly checks, and he is! Except, he does not have his uniform. He calls home, and being a good mom, I drove 40 minutes to the meet to bring the uniform. No warmup, and the kid goes out and shatters his previous 3200 meter time by 41 seconds (9:52). He won the race by more than 40 seconds. </p>
<p>So, immediately, what do we chat about after the meet? He needs to send his results to a few college coaches who are keeping tabs on him.</p>
<p>So much for the break on the college talk front.</p>
<p>Had a student get into her dream school, Penn State. Her mom learned she had gotten in before she did, so the mom went out and got a bunch of navy blue balloons that had the Penn State logo on them. She came to the school with them. Then, they called down her daughter. That’s how she learned of her acceptance. Pretty cool.</p>
<p>Woke up and couldn’t sleep so why not visit this parent’s forum. Many congratulations to all accepted students and their parents. For the deferred students do not give up hope. Be sure to keep up your grades; stay in contact with your local admissions rep and update them on anything new. I remember back when child #1 was deferred that he eventually got into the schools. In this day and age when colleges are trying to protect their yield and make sure they have a full class deferral is a college’s tool. For those who got rejected know that the school you will end up will definitely be a better fit for you. Child#1 was rejected from every reach. He loves his school- Ohio State and could have graduated in 3 years. He looks back and agrees that Ohio State is better fit for him. </p>
<p>So in the itsv household the stress of applying to college was pretty manageable until last Friday. Some events that raised it up were:</p>
<ol>
<li>DD goes to a great high school with extremely smart students in a class of 125 students. ED decisions were released on Friday and the kids checked at school and my daughter said “everyone was stressed including students like myself who were not even waiting for ED decisions.” Students crying tears of joy and sadness. So far the class as gotten 5 into Harvard; 3 in Stanford; 2 Columbia; 2 Georgetown; 1 Duke etc. 1 Harvey Mudd and a slew to places like Weslleyan (sp?) Skidmore; Purdue; Santa Clara; Lehigh; Case Western etc.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>DD who extremely private and would never check her portals asked for her log in info from school for one of her schools who was releasing that day. She said she got caught up in the frenzy. There was so much chaos at the school on Friday that they asked students to stop checking results at school since it affected classroom teaching. </p>
<ol>
<li> We are a family that needs merit money for college and I work hard at making sure the right colleges are on my D’s list. So far the merit money has been coming in at much smaller amounts than when DD’s brother applied to 4 years ago. DD has better grades and test scores than her brother and her major is one where her gender is a plus-mechanical engineering. I am trying to be optimistic and hope that the serious merit money is coming from schools she has yet to hear from. </li>
</ol>
<p>The most perplexing of the schools so far is Oregon State which gave her just $3K a year. We had visited and talked to admissions and they told us DD would get the bigger scholarship of $7k a year which would make it affordable for us. DD’s grades and test scores exceed the scholarship thresholds. Her EC’s are great as well as her community service. Last year I helped a student who had a 3.1 and had been kicked out of school for cheating (which was disclosed on her app) and she got the $7K scholarship. I called Oregon State and they say their decision is final which is too bad because my DD really loved it and it was in the running for her as a top choice. DD writes great essays because lately she has been on a roll winning every private scholarship she has applied for. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Okay on the positive side I fell off my chair when DD emailed me that she won a national scholarship that gets 10K applicants. The organization puts on lovely award ceremonies so we traveled last week two weeks ago to USC for DD to get her medal and $1K scholarship. It was especially wonderful because my father (who was the only one of his 6 siblings to graduate high school much less get his PH’d) attended and taught at USC. The 15 students winning the awards were awesome and so nice- it really gave me hope for the future. Their stories were inspiring. </p></li>
<li><p>DD was national runner-up to an award for girls in computer science. We thought “okay runner-up not bad but it doesn’t mean much” but the organization told us otherwise. DD will get her profile on their website and she is now part of an alumni group offered a paid position this summer teaching children CS (which DD loves to do) as well as internships. The mentors are great and really look out for the girls with opportunities. </p></li>
<li><p>DD is 6 for 6 and I am very thankful. So far she has gotten into her match and safety schools. The next month she will hear from 4 more schools with one of them a school that is “in my top 3”. DD will not attach her heart to any school because she has seen what it did to her brother. In the meantime my DH and I have attached my heart to one school which we really think is perfect for DD. I have positive thoughts about this school and hope it comes true. </p></li>
<li><p>3 schools are paying for DD to visit them this winter. I am so thankful for that extra help. I really want DD to see all her schools before she makes a decision. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In the meantime I am locked to my desk. I work from home and my paperwork this year got away from me so I have stacks (and I do mean stacks) of filing. I will not decorate our house for Christmas until it is done. Child#1 came home from college and so far and I wishing he was back at college. He is now 22 and doesn’t like to have to listen to me. “Mom I can do what I want to do” I’ll have to remind him about that when he asks for money. </p>
<p>One thing I noticed different from her brother is that DD has a lot more scholarship applications and honors college applications to do. So her break will be filled with basketball (she is the captain) and writing more essays. I can tell she is starting to be weary of it all but money is money. I will have to tape her recently acquired medal to her desk so she can see the results. We have started to call Sundays “Scholarship Sundays” because that always seems to be the day they are due which means we are under piles of drafts. DD kiddingly joked last week" Oh why wasn’t I born to a family who could do full-pay". I know it is tough on her; most students at her school are upper-class so they can all afford to pay full freight which is why ED use so high at her school. I must confessed I was a bit jealous of those students on Friday when they don’t have a care about money and can apply to where ever they want to go while my DD is slugging through piles of scholarship applications. Luckily for me she as a good attitude. </p>
<p>So class of 2014 I wish you all the best with trying to finish applications and waiting for decisions.!!</p>
<p>I have done both - held envelopes up to the window to read through and have indulged in adult beverages over all of this! lol</p>
<p>Actually my d seems to be falling apart emotionally. Crying at the drop of a hat, stressed needlessly over midterms, getting really anxious about college…phew, this is a mess and so far she’s really gotten good news! She’s a little on the peanut side so h picked her up last night and held her like he did when she was little.</p>
<p>classof2015 - hang in there! Glad the gc checked in with suggestions.</p>
<p>DS submitted the last of his 14 applications last weekend and took the last of his mid-terms yesterday. He will be working on 4 or 5 scholarship applications over the winter break. Senioritis has definitely set in and studying for exams was a struggle. I can’t imagine what will happen at the end of the year. </p>
<p>So far, 4 for 4 acceptances from safety schools but we will have to wait until April 1st for the ones he really wants to go to. It’s going to be a long 3 1/2 months!</p>
<p>Congratulations to those who have been accepted to their 1st choice schools and are now free to enjoy the second half of their senior year.</p>
<p>thanks eyemamom – hanging in there is key.</p>
<p>Thanks 4beardolls for comments on the party. You’re right – they all need a break from the college stuff. Us too.</p>