<p>Avonhsdad: You gave me a laugh this early morning, and I thank you! Rough day with Son '14. There was an incident, I won’t go into details, but he was felt very unhappy and hurt (physically, too) while at track practice. He is counting the days until graduation, and truthfully, I do not blame him. He is so over high school. He cannot wait until college comes, because he would like to believe the maturity level is just a little higher than what he has experienced. </p>
<p>So that’s my tale for this early morning. Avon, is it too early for that glass of wine?</p>
<p>I had several pages to catch up on to get here! Congrats to those with great decisions! Condolences to those without them.</p>
<p>My guy is still planning on going to Eckerd (due to their top Marine Science program) and it looks like the finances might work out, so he’s starting to get excited. We’re heading there soon for Accepted Student Days - what a shame - a trip to Florida after a nice, long, winter. Next year we’ll need to visit in Feb for a month or so.</p>
<p>For us, the away vs close has seen “away” be the winner all three times. Our closest youngun is 6 hours away. Our farthest will be something like 20 hours by car. (I haven’t actually checked by car yet - we’ve flown when we visited.) The middle distance is 12 hours. It might be genetic. I went to school 11 hours away from home by car and loved getting away.</p>
<p>@eyemamom UR couldn’t give out more info. My guy knew details about the death before anyone was notified due to one of his dance troupe gals having known her well. It’s sad. Neither he nor his best friend (who we took out for lunch that day) knew anyone who was doing heroin. If it’s big there, it has its own circle. A cousin of mine works for a central NY police force and he told us it’s definitely on the rise in his area. They also think it could be a bad batch as there have been several deaths in central NY in the past month or so. I know it’s around here (where I live/work). It’s definitely worth a chat with our kids about the dangers IMO rather than letting them be totally clueless and led on by those with mal intent. I doubt it’s any one campus…</p>
<p>Best wishes to all making decisions this month!</p>
<p>1dilecon – glad you took the stroke joke the right way! I told my kids pretty soon I’ll be one of those old ladies who have lipstick on their teeth and someone has to tell her.</p>
<p>Count me in with 2016BarnardMom as needing a strong drink here. Last night, S finally heard he got in at his dream school – College of Charleston. He was already accepted at: Hobart, St Lawrence, Drexel, Gettysburg, and Fairfield. He really wants to go to CofC. H and I prefer Hobart. But he told me his reasons, and I support him, so now I just have to convince his dad. </p>
<p>Senioritis has hit our house! It is effecting his AP Physics and AP Calc grades …I heard that it is “OK” if students drop down one grade level. I am not even sure how final Q works for seniors at our HS. I know that school is essentially over May 16, last day of classes. The AP classes are essentially done after AP exams but I am not sure about how his other classes determine a grade because seniors do not take finals. My son has always done well on finals - boasting his grades! …I am just hoping he finishes the year with a B average. </p>
<p>I’ll add my tale of 3rd quarter grade woes:</p>
<p>Received a tearful phone call from D a couple of days ago during school. She’d just checked Powerschool and saw she FAILED the last two math tests. She was utterly distraught. The teacher had not posted the grade for the first one for THREE WEEKS, not until after they took the second one, so D had no idea she’d done so poorly. She was horrified, saying if she’d known, she would have gotten extra help before the second test since the material builds on itself. She was crying, certain her college was going to rescind their acceptance offer!</p>
<p>D had stopped taking her ADD meds at the start of the quarter, because she really wanted to be able to succeed academically on “sheer willpower” alone. We’d been talking about how things were going, and she felt things were going pretty well -except that she was having a hard time in math class holding everything in her head and doing mental math. However, the grades she’d SEEN were in the 80s and low 90s, so she thought things were going OK. Clearly not. Her math grade is 77 right now! (She has As/high Bs in all her other classes though.)</p>
<p>I reassured her that if she can get next quarter’s math grade back up in order to close the semester grade with a B, she’ll be fine as far as the rescind possibility. (I hope that is sound advice! Her GC seems to think there is no cause for concern…) But, poor kid! She’s worked SOOOOO hard this year and she really deserves a little bit of a break, but now she has this huge stress hanging over her head :(</p>
<p>(And, she’s starting back on her ADD meds, too, though she wishes she didn’t have to.)</p>
<p>I think it is very common for kids to stop doing homework in the second half of the year. My son says there are only about 3 seniors in the top classes that consistently turn in their assignments anymore. They’re tired. </p>
<p>@staceyneil…my daughter had a similar experience in math this quarter…two tests came back on the same day…the first one was an 80, the second a 70…she said that if she’d known about the 80, she would have gone for help before the second test. It is very frustrating when that happens. It sounds like you gave her good advice.</p>
<p>The decision is made, but damn, I want on that cruise. I need the party planning and invitation classes as well as the seminar on declining aid and acceptances from the losing schools. And then I could probably use more help from the spreadsheet gurus on the new details surrounding graduation (a mere 6.5 weeks away) and actual launch in August. </p>
<p>Now I’ve worked myself all up. Better got find one of those drinks. Who cares if it’s before 8:00 am here. It’s always happy hour on board,</p>
<p>@crowlady - I’m happy to hear that RPI upped their merit. I agree that is such a good feeling!</p>
<p>@SoWest- good luck to S on the scholarship competitions!</p>
<p>@AvonHSDad - Ahh. The martinis! That explains it! I was wondering why you posted on the other thread. lol.</p>
<p>@Classof2015 - Congratulations on S’s acceptance to College of Charleston!</p>
<p>Yes, we too are struggling in the home stretch. D has health issues that we thought we had under control, but she has developed new/more complications. We have to wait two more weeks until her appointment with the specialist. I am just praying they can figure out the problem and get it resolved quickly. I’ve been down this road before, however, and know that, often, it is a long period of trial and error before they find a solution. In the meantime, she has missed a lot of school and has fallen way behind in her schoolwork. She is taking all APs, except one, so that is a lot of work (as you know). I feel like we’re playing “beat the clock” with AP exams and graduation looming, and that she is running out of time. D feels awful and has no energy so it’s really hard for her to stay motivated and on task - not to mention having to work extra hard to catch up. A lot of stress in our household. I am worried about year end, and about getting her better in time to send her off to college. She missed a year of HS two years ago due to her illness and taking a gap year is not an option as far as she is concerned. </p>
<p>@Overtheedge My thoughts are with you and your D right now. Having been through a lot with my own D I can very much sympathize. Sorry for the stress, doesn’t it feel like now that college acceptances are in we should all (especially these kids) be able to relax and take a break? I really hope that your D feels better and will have the rest she needs before fall.</p>
<p>@staceyneil My experience with these matters is from my professional life (I’m a TRIO academic specialist). It is so very common for kids with any kind of a disability to decide, somewhere around the time college starts, to consider the possibility that they “don’t really have” whatever they’re diagnosed with or to see if they can manage without their meds an accommodations. Most of the time, the results are like the ones your D saw. I think what you can really be proud of is that your daughter, although not happy about the situation, sees very clearly what happens without treatment and is willing to get back on the wagon. I honestly think it was a very good time for your D to try ditching her medication. One, you’re right about her hs grades. Even with a C (and just in one class), it’s pretty unlikely there will be college consequences. And two, she knows what happens and is now less likely to try this in college. </p>
<p>@overtheedge I totally get why you want to keep something like a medical diagnosis private, so just let me say BTDT with my oldest, and the saving grace for going off to college was that she chose her local option. Made things so much easier. </p>
<p>@momreads - it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. The beauty of this trip is we leave all judgment at the dock. The crew understands the special needs of parents - and if it’s a bloody mary at 8am - have at it!</p>
<p>@creekland - my son didn’t know her or know anyone who knew her. It’s just sad. No one thinks their kid is doing heroin at college so imagine that horrible phone call. I know heroin is popping up as the drug of choice. I hope these other kids see there are fatal consequences. There is no way that isn’t somewhat of a concern to college administrators - at least I certainly hope so. I doubt she did it in a vacuum. </p>
<p>Third quarter just ended here with d getting a 3.9 We have something new hanging over her - you need to show your gpa to go through sorority recruitment - lol However, she’s actually just self motivated. I don’t think it’s occurred to her that she’s in college and all is well.</p>
<p>Today is a noon release for non AP students, and they are having study skills sessions and reviews all afternoon. </p>
<p>@ordinarylives Thanks so much for your comments. I was actually just talking to D about this last night, how even though it sucks right now, it’s a good lesson for the future in many ways. For one, if she doesn’t get a test grade back for a long time in college, she’ll now be more likely to go track the professor down and ask what she got before the next test so she’ll be better prepared! My husband was saying, “This was a terrible time for her to try going off her meds!” But I was very supportive of her doing it this quarter, because as you say, the consequences are much less severe right now than they would be next year. She is disappointed that she wasn’t able to handle it without medication, though. I told her that I thought sometimes when people’s brains mature -i.e. early 20’s- they sometimes find they need the meds less. I hope that is true. It seems like she could probably manage in non-math classes alright without. She’s a humanities person, so maybe at some point she’ll be able to stop taking the medication, but clearly the next couple of years will not be the time to attempt that.</p>
<p>@eyemamom - I agree completely. Since my guy is working with the freshmen this year, my first (selfish) thought was being glad it wasn’t one of his… Since he’s going to be an RA in a freshman dorm next year we had a bit of a discussion on making SURE he knows what’s going on with “his” kids and intervenes whenever he remotely thinks he should. Some parents would be eternally grateful. </p>
<p>It’s really a shame that those intelligent enough to get into college (any college) can be so dumb (naive?) to use such a drug… The phone/house call that needed to be made in this case is one I’d NEVER want to do. Hopefully someone is following up with all who knew or might have known her - or were in that heroin “crowd.”</p>
<p>Switching to my '14, he’s starting to get really excited about going. He had tempered his thoughts a bit knowing we weren’t sure about finances. Now he seems to be on Cloud 9. We had a great “chat” last night - just about little stuff - and some deeper stuff - but it felt really good (I mostly listened, of course). Then it hit me that this is the “end” of these types of chats since he’s my youngest. It’s really hard to believe the end is coming. I held it together, but I’m sure I missed a little bit of what he was saying as my mind got off on the rabbit trail of wistfulness.</p>
<p>Congratulations to those who had already made the decisions.</p>
<p>Over here we are almost done.
S decided on UC Berkeley… so we cancelled the planned visit to UCSD; That freed up one weekend. I am thrilled!
D is still weighing between Emory and Harvard for graduate school. </p>
<p>For my S, we still haven’t heard from NM corporate scholarship selections.
Anyone still waiting for NM corporate scholarship announcements?</p>
<p>I think we can add an activity to the list - AP Nagging for Parents of Students Afflicted with Senioritis. I sure as heck have one! We go through
“Did you do your homework?”
“Yes”
“Did you do ALL your homework?”
“Yes”
“Did you do ALL your homework in EVERY CLASS?”
“Yes”
“Did you do ALL your homework in EVERY CLASS well and ON TIME?”
“Uh, no, I still have to …”</p>
<p>And the school’s schedule is completely weird. About 6 weeks of time for 3rd quarter, since seniors are all volunteering during the entire month of January, so classes didn’t start until February, but still ended March 14. Then 4th quarter classes didn’t start until March 24 and end May 6! My son is taking ALL DE and AP courses, so HOW DO THEY FIT ALL THE WORK IN? And with SENIORS who don’t want to be there anymore! I’m not holding high hopes for the AP scores. There are also MANY days off during the next six weeks - my son has exactly ONE five full day week of classes left!</p>
<p>I’ve never had to hound my D to do homework/projects, etc. I asked her last week when she was sitting around if she had any homework. She said she didn’t know! Official diagnosis: senioritis!</p>
<p>My D is still making her way through her homework - she simply can’t not do it, if that makes sense - she wouldn’t be able to sleep. The enthusiasm level is definitely low however. Also, she would like to volunteer to be the poster child for the SS Indecision. She is having a painful time trying to pick between her two top choices. I am having trouble developing a solid opinion myself so I can’t be of much help. One is a safer choice where I’m sure she would be happy, the other a riskier choice that comes with some exciting opportunities but is far away in an unfamiliar city. 8:22 AM is a good time for a margarita, no?</p>
<p>Senior priveleges have begun as well - they get to wear spring uniform now - which is no jackets or ties, but polo’s and on Fridays they can wear their college t-shirts or sweatshirts. After 13 years in uniforms my d won’t know what to do with herself next year when she gets to wear whatever she wants every day. </p>