<p>Yes, I understand too, so I’m not fighting her on it but I am rolling my eyes - it’s all about getting that beauty sleep!</p>
<p>I always laugh when I read the chance threads: 2350, 35/36, top 2% of class and they are anxious. I have two kids who could not be any more different. Daughter #1 is a very good athlete but not D1 material, she is a solid B+ student ( mostly regular classes - can you imagine?) who earned respectable scores on her ACT ( CC would deem her a failure who is not capable of getting into any school). She did not over exert herself in high school- her social life was way too important LOL. She is also laid back and artistic. If she worked harder perhaps she could have graduated with an A- but who knows. She applied to 8 schools and got into all 8, two with merit aid. She proved to CC that B+ students taking regular classes can get into good schools!! I spent a lot of time hanging out on the B student threads. Now she is a well adjusted and happy soon- to- be college sophomore. D# 2 ( 2015) plays HS sports but does not really consider herself an athlete. She is intense, driven, and the ultimate perfectionist ( sometimes requiring some therapy to learn strategies). D#2 calls herself a nerd, and is proud of it. She is very much the typical CC kid, but I am NOT a CC mom ( I would not be embarrassed if my kids were #2 instead of #1- too funny). I have said this from day 1: my goal is to have kids who are happy and healthy. I don’t care if they are # 1 or # 73. If my D 2015 is at the top of her class, it is all coming from her and not from me. I will admit to pushing her a bit on the SAT only because some of the schools that she is interested in require merit aid to be affordable. I would be thrilled if she wanted to apply ED to one of our state schools. No such luck, although I am grateful that she likes them. In our school the PSAT is usually given on the morning of homecoming.</p>
<p>"…a mom whose daughter is #2 in the class and doesn’t want to report her class rank b/c she’s not #1."</p>
<p>Funny… D would be happy to take #2. I don’t even think she is in top 20 out of 100 kids or so. But she is (almost) always happy.</p>
<p>suzy100 – that excuse wouldn’t fly at my house. The ACT is over by noon. Maybe it’ll take you awhile to packed up and get home afterward, but there should still be plenty of time to get ready for a dance that evening. However, I’m not above a little bribery. I might promise the kid some extra perks (e.g., paying for professional up-do hair appointment in the afternoon) in exchange for a good effort on the test that morning.</p>
<p>Well, this is coming at a time when I think she needs to start driving the bus on all of this. If skipping the September test means that she’ll have to take the ACT the week following the PSAT, then I’m going to let her make that call. I am, however, going to sit down with her tonight with a calendar just so that she understands that October is going to be standardized test month.</p>
<p>I don’t think my D is ready to even talk much about those tests. Since the PSAT will be in mid Oct. I’m thinking her best bet is to take the SAT in early November. The only difference, for prep purposes, would be that the SAT has writing, right?
I am not sure about the ACT. I am not really clear on the specific differences between them as far as studying for them. I was hoping ACT would be offered in early January so she could study over the Christmas break some, but it’s mid Dec and then in Feb. so we’ll see.</p>
<p>@suzy100-
</p>
<p>This is where I’m at. I tried pushing, but this was an exercise in frustration. I’ve found that when I just lay out some breadcrumbs - like promising an ITunes gift card for attempting to take a practice test - she will go through the motions. But until she’s invested in the test for the right reasons, then all my pushing won’t get her to really learn the material for the tests. I’ve shown her what the test dates are and if she wants to wait until Spring when she’ll have had more experience with writing essays and can pick up more vocabulary, then that may be what’s best. </p>
<p>As for CC and anxiety… I have one kid who is an over-achiever (DD 2015) and another who will probably scrape by and may not even want to go to college. She’s artistic and social and hates school. I openly fret about the older child to relatives and friends who all say the same thing: “She’ll be fine. She’ll be accepted at a good school.” But from reading in here, the panic isn’t that she won’t find a school that she can get into, but that she will be able to get any merit aid to be able to go there. It’s really stressful to see the scores and the extra-curriculars posted in here. Compared with her classmates though, she’s doing well. She’s not the #1 or even #2 student, or anywhere close, but she’ll probably be top 10% and might even pull off mostly all A’s. I’m starting to learn to relax and let her take control of her own destiny.</p>
<p>Laclos (still haven’t mastered the quote function):</p>
<p>“But from reading in here, the panic isn’t that she won’t find a school that she can get into, but that she will be able to get any merit aid to be able to go there. It’s really stressful to see the scores and the extra-curriculars posted in here.”</p>
<p>Yes, this is exactly the issue for us, and I stress mostly about the EC stuff but I’m not going to push her on it - I want her to find her own way. And she’s doing absolutely fine. Great, really. I just worry about her having some choices when the time comes. Right now she is not enamored with the instate public options.</p>
<p>In any event, we’ll get there. I just want her to start taking ownership of all of this.</p>
<p>I can tell that it’s the last week of summer vacation. My mild-mannered, happy child is becoming very, very grumpy. Replacing the retainers (lost last spring, sigh) didn’t help anything.</p>
<p>This summer was WAY too short.</p>
<p>Fall sports practice started today. The summer is over for DD today.</p>
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<p>Don’t panic. My son graduated in '12 with a not-quite-3.0 GPA and a 28 ACT. He was offered significant merit at almost all the schools he applied to. He wasn’t applying to U Chicago or anything, mostly CTCL schools and LACs in Ohio, but well respected ones for sure that he’d have been happy to attend.</p>
<p>Where he got tiny/no merit was from our state schools. We have several that offer pretty big guaranteed $ for high-stats students.</p>
<p>Laclos I agree that you should not worry. My older daughter was a B/B+ student and got into all of her colleges, 2 with merit. She picked a major that requires grad school so she really needs to keep her grades up- so far so good!!
On to new stresses- fall sports begin Monday at 6:30 am!! Welcome to junior year…</p>
<p>I’m curious what is meant by “significant merit” because from what I can tell, unless she gets a full ride, the merit only replaces the need-based grants until those are covered, and then start to bring down the rest. The little tuition calculators usually show us eligible for need-based aid, especially at the more expensive schools. But the net that they expect from us is still way more than we could reasonably contribute. I mean, we still have our own student loans to pay off.</p>
<p>My older one received $12,000 in merit from a $ 47,000 a year school, bringing the cost down to $35,000. We were not willing to pay $35,000 given that she could go to schools that she liked better for $15,000 less per year. One of our state schools gave her a $500 per year award, not much but it would have covered books. She ultimately chose an in-state school that she loves with total cost of attendance coming in under $20,000. My 2015er is a lot more involved.</p>
<p>Thanks for the numbers. That’s kind of what we’re looking at. VaTech seems to be the most affordable and also fits my daughter’s intended major well, but she was raised near Charlottesville, so she can’t wrap her head around going to VaTech (or UVa for that matter - too close to home.) It’s going to be a total surprise to everyone when she finally picks even a top 3.</p>
<p>My older one had her heart set on going to a very very large ( 25,000 +) in state school and was thrilled when she got her acceptance letter. All of a sudden she changed her mind and chose a school with 6500 kids, and could not be happier. My 2015er wants a big school, or at least medium size. We went to look at Muhlenberg and although she liked it, she said it was not for her ( too small).
My older one received an email last semester stating that she was eligible for an academic award which came with some money. She did not check her email and lost the award!!! I was not a happy camper, putting it mildly.</p>
<p>Why don’t kids check email any more? I have taken to having all of my daughter’s stuff emailed to me and then I’ll forward things to her, and then also tell her to read it. It’s not like she doesn’t have her phone with her all the time. But I’ve seen her email account and it’s hundreds of unread emails, most of which are probably from things she’s signed up for that ask you if they can send an email and she doesn’t think to say “no”. </p>
<p>Anyway, part of my anxiety about her school choice is my blatant vicarious living, where I want to be applying to go to college and I’m shopping for where I want to go. I can’t grasp the lack of interest that kids show in this decision.</p>
<p>Oh, mine is interested, but it’s still pretty abstract to her.</p>
<p>My younger one checks email but my older one needs to be reminded- obviously LOL. When my older one gave up her big school in favor of the smaller school I was a little sad- the bigger school is slightly better academically. She is so happy with her choice that my sadness quickly faded. I am now living vicariously through my 2015er- these kids don’t grasp the opportunities that await them. Last night I quizzed her on vocabulary for 45 minutes but it came with a price- I had to give her a foot massage. She is very stressed about her summer reading even though she is basically done. Not so stressed about SAT work- in her mind it starts in September when school starts. I guess it’s fine because she won’t be taking it until December, but it’s nice to get in some prep for the PSAT. I am still deciding whether she should take both tests in December- the SAT ( 7th) and the ACT ( 14th). I will probably let her do both because she wants to. If she does significantly better on one then she will retake just one; if she does similarly on both then she will retake both if necessary. My older one took both tests twice and then flat out refused to do it anymore. She was tutored but did not put much effort into studying on her own.</p>
<p>If it’s not on Twitter, the kids don’t see it. Maybe we can get colleges to tweet at them instead of email.</p>
<p>Funny about Muhlenberg today…I was pumping gas and the car in front of me had a Muhlenberg sticker on the window. I thought, “hmm, I don’t know anything about that school.” I get home and there’s only 4 pieces of mail in the box and one is from Muhlenberg. Not even kidding!! And now TwoGirls mentions it. Maybe I need to click on their website lol, someone is trying to tell me something!</p>