<p>My D has expressed interest in Penn and the reps were at the school a few weeks ago and the GC has strongly encouraged an ED app. I’m not even sure she’ll want to apply by then (or have the numbers and app to do it) but I don’t see how we can do that since we will be chasing the $. It would be so nice to have that work out well and be done early!</p>
<p>So she completed an ACT math section and received the score that I wanted her to get in order to get the composite that she needs. She also completed the math SAT sections and her scores came back up to what they were. Our goal for today was achieved!</p>
<p>I am so pleased that she has not had any melt downs today. It’s the little things that I am grateful for!! </p>
<p>A co-worker just told me that her son just took his first steps. A smile came to me as I thought back to those days. Exhausting, but for different reasons! </p>
<p>Looking forward to my glass of wine later!</p>
<p>Suzy we are chasing the money also ( merit). Whoever gives her the most is the winner! Thankfully she likes our state schools if necessary, and she should qualify for decent merit at one of the two- the other does not give merit. </p>
<p>I am thinking that by January first the first round of test scores should be in. Tonight we are creating our Naviance account. The data is from 2005 until the present, but I am wondering how useful the older data is (?). There is no way to distinguish between data from 8 years ago versus last year. In any event it’s fun to look at.</p>
<p>We are also hoping for merit money. D really does not want to go to a large university, which pretty much eliminates our state schools. We briefly visited one often recommended state school that is an Honors college…New College of Florida…but it got crossed off the list. We are going to visit FAU´s honors college soon. We´ll see. It is the only other state school that really has a separate honors college, rather than an honors program. We have visited a few private schools…smaller schools, smaller classes, bigger price tag… that she has liked.</p>
<p>D is going to be taking the PSAT in Oct and she signed up to take the SAT in early Nov. She says she will also sign up to take the ACT. She wants to take the ACT because that can eliminate the need to take SAT subject tests. But…she has been so stressed, she says she just can´t deal with focusing on studying for the tests right now.<br>
She got really stressed last year. It just seemed to hit her all at once, at a time of overload, and is just staying with her, expressing through symptoms of anxiety. It can be rough some days, but so far, this year has been better than last year. She is really trying to find a healthy balance which isn´t easy to do. It is so hard to want her to study to give her the best chance to get her choice of college later, but also wanting her to get to relax.
She is dropping a club she is in because it is just taking up too much time, which makes her more stressed about getting everything done. It´s not a club she is enjoying as much as she thought she might…she hates when organized activities are unorganized…, so she is making the right choice by dropping it.
I´m curious, when you are describing your kids having melt downs, what does that mean at your house_</p>
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<p>Well…when it happens at our house there’s usually yelling, tears, and the voice raises to a pitch that only the dog can hear. Then Mrs Wolverine tells me to calm down and act my age and the tantrum subsides. Then we have ice cream. :)</p>
<p>Luckily my kids handle it with maturity…usually.</p>
<p>“Well…when it happens at our house there’s usually yelling, tears, and the voice raises to a pitch that only the dog can hear. Then Mrs Wolverine tells me to calm down and act my age and the tantrum subsides. Then we have ice cream.”</p>
<p>:D</p>
<p>When it happens in our house it can make any two year old jealous. It starts out slowly and eventually gets to a full blown tantrum: crying, screaming, running around the house with hands wildly flying around. Then my husband starts yelling because he can’t handle it and I go into the garage and sit in my car. The whole thing lasts for a few minutes and then she is ok. I am happy to report that the degree of tantruming is lessening- but it’s only September.</p>
<p>Last year during her fits I would grab her by the hand and we would run around the house singing the ABCs. That seemed to help.</p>
<p>shoboemom, why did New College of Florida get crossed off? I have it on D’s list. We haven’t visited yet. My brother thinks very highly of the school (he’s a college professor). D also wants a small college. NCF may not work out because of its location; D also wants a small town or rural location. </p>
<p>Wolverine - lol.</p>
<p>We drove through New College’s tiny campus while we were in Florida on winter break one year but classes were not in session. It is TINY but has an inlet beach that is charming. The part of Sarasota that it is in is the seedier part but it is right next to Ringling College of the Arts and just down the street from USF Sarasota Manatee so there are other college students nearby.</p>
<p>When we saw New College is was over Christmas break, so it was very empty. I think a big thing that put a strike against it is actually the school´s grading policy. They don´t give traditional grades, but give narrative feedback instead. It did seem very small, and the only thing in easy walking distance is a regional airport, so it felt a bit isolated to me. The dorms…a couple of which had rude-sex-drug related things written in the windows…are across the highway from the academic buildings. There was a footbridge available to cross, but it seemed odd to me. I think it´s possible we will go back for another visit while school is in session, but she seems pretty certain that it´s off the list. Never say never.</p>
<p>On the stuff written in the windows…It´s not surprising that those things exist on a college campus, but it was just a small part of the overall feel, and fed into the hippie reputation that we have heard about New College. The area around the dorms was messy, as if they had been partying right before the break, which is to be expected, but it seemed to me that the school would realize that people might be stopping by over the break and have it more cleaned up. </p>
<p>Twogirls, I wonder if the full blown, but short lived, tantrum might actually be a good thing in a way. My D doesn´t have those types of meltdowns, so there is no emotional release of all the pent up stress. She has never been the emotional type, so it all gets internalized.</p>
<p>Yes Shoboe you may be right about the tantrums. I never thought about it that way before because when one is occurring it is so difficult to tolerate that my only goal is for it to be over. If I can view it as more of a positive event then maybe it will be easier. </p>
<p>She got up at 6:00 today to get some work done because she has a lot going on today: volunteering for World Language HS, practice ( not sure why they have one on a Sunday), followed by a 7:00-8:00 meeting for one of her organizations. Last night she babysat but she brought her books to get some work done after the girl went to sleep. </p>
<p>The biggest issue today is the sloppiness of my daughter, as it is driving my husband crazy. I do not mind it as much because my feeling is that if she is happy and not stressed, life is good. Besides her room being in complete chaos, she has all of her school things sprawled out across the kitchen table so that nobody could eat, and she has all her stuff on the floor so that nobody could walk. Believe it or not she keeps her school stuff very organized but it certainly does not look that way. We have to devise a system so that at a certain time each day she moves her things off the kitchen table and moves over to my dining room table ( it’s one big room). </p>
<p>Wolverine I like your sense of humor!!
Shoboe finding a healthy balance is my goal as well. I am impressed that she made a decision to drop an activity that is not working for her.</p>
<p>I told my older one to ask a teacher for a letter of recommendation in March, with a follow up email some time in April. My goal was to make sure that the letter was good to go by September. She only asked one teacher and she also had the letter from her GC. All of her schools needed one teacher.</p>
<p>I just checked one of the schools on my junior’s list, and it seems they want two teacher letters plus the GC. I am glad I checked. Once again I am going to tell her to ask in March, right after the February break.</p>
<p>twogirls,
When my D was doing her homework at the kitchen table, we finally set up some shelves (some of those wire shelves that connect together ) to keep by the table. She still created a big mess on the table, but it is a place to keep all the reference books and other materials she needs, and a place to put the mess when we wanted to clear the table off.</p>
<p>I hadn´t thought about trying to get teacher recommendations this year. I always have trouble figuring out the timing of things. Will you remind all of us in the spring? lol</p>
<p>Good idea Shoboe!! Yes I will remind everybody right after February break. This way maybe we can beat the rush! If you wait until September it may take awhile to get the letter written.</p>
<p>latichever, reading your school’s situation reminds me of our place. When my kids were in daycare, everybody got free lunch. I felt strange and asked the caregiver. She said that’s how it works, don’t worry about it. schools are different, but we do have a large number of kids who get free meals. Your kids must stand out in the school in academics? How’s the high school’s performance?</p>
<p>In schools with a large enough needy population, it is less expensive to just give free lunch to everyone than to hire someone to sort out who gets lunch and who doesn’t. (And you can substitute any other benefit for “lunch”.)</p>
<p>If you want to pay it back (or forward) make a large donation to the school in unrestricted funds. You’ll have to ask the principal how it’s best (and most flexible) to do this.</p>
<p>BunHeadGirl and I worked on our Google Drive spreadsheet of schools currently of interest. A thread that really helped us to formulate and format or spreadsheet is:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1450220-suggestions-organizing-college-search-notebook.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1450220-suggestions-organizing-college-search-notebook.html</a></p>
<p>We also have a file box that BunHeadGirl keeps all the college correspondence and brochures. </p>
<p>Thank you, Class of 2013 parents, for all the great information!</p>
<p>Oh, and a plug for a College Search/Admissions blog I read often:[Lynn?s</a> Blog | The College Solution](<a href=“This Content is Members Only - The College Solution”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/category/blog-2/)
By Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author of "The College Solution.</p>
<p>Those spreadsheets are impressive- my friend keeps one. We just keep a notebook and we bring it on all of our tours. I try to add a few personal touches to my notes just in case she needs them for an essay specific to that particular school. We pay special attention to merit aid- does it require a recommendation from guidance? Does it require a separate application?</p>
<p>We keep the brochures of interest in a basket in my kitchen.</p>
<p>More resources to file for future use:</p>
<p>Save on textbooks. My son’s favorites were Amazon.com & Chegg.com</p>
<p>Some others:</p>
<p>BN.com
Bookrenter.com
Textswap.com</p>
<p>Not quite sure what to do with myself so I will talk to you guys. D and her friend seem fine, but they were just in a car accident. Friend was driving and someone hit them as they were making a left turn. The car does not look good( hit the right front fender and tire) but they didnt seem injured except for a couple really small things. D called me to come ( they were only about a mile away) and she said she was fine but seeing a fire truck and police cars gathered was stressful and if course it was hard to just get to them because of the traffic being blocked. they really seemed fine,But shook up,
so, once all the reports were done etc. d decided she wanted to go ahead to the rehearsal they were headed for in the first place. So, now here I sit in the parking lot waiting for this event to end ( she didn’t know what time it would be) but I feel compelled to stay close by. Her friends mom decided to take the friend to the hospital just to get checked out ( her mom had been in a car accident in the past where injuries showed up later), but this is where d could be with her other friends to hopefully de stress a little.</p>