So would middle eastern work for some of those diversity flyouts? Middle easters is considered white, yet it is still a minority.
@LKnomad, if there is a place he is interested in visiting that has such a program, it wouldnāt hurt to inquire. You never know.
@ petricor11 My son isnāt a ginger , but is so fair skinned that heās almost translucent. I tell him all the time he should be grateful that the Twilight movies came out because never has it been more popular to be a skinny and translucent .
@texaspg Its funny you say that about girls at the LAC. One of my sonā stop choices is a LAC with 66% female. Unfortunately, his major is predominantly male. 
@carolinamom2boys - I donāt think the major matters in such a case.
The goal of most private colleges is to show that they donāt have an imbalance with male to female ratio and also show that they have diversity in the student population. To that end, LACs want more boys to balance out the ratios, Caltech, RPI, WPI want more girls, Vandy probably wants more diversity, W &L could use more diversity, Caltech and MIT want more diversity but donāt want to give up their high academic standards and so on. The way i see it, if the school is interested in spending $500 on your ticket, you have a guaranteed admission because they are trying to impress you by bringing you in.
@ texaspg I was speaking about a specific college that we has visited and their demographics for DS16 choice of majors.
Most LACs donāt admit by major.
What I am saying is that school will be more interested in him because he is a boy due to their male to female imbalanceā¦
@LKnomad ā I donāt have access to the common app right now, but my memory is that the check-off box for whites reads as āWhite (including Middle Eastern)ā. To me that would imply that one doesnāt get any diversity points for having a Middle Eastern heritage. . . As an aside, there are a number of CC threads for kids of mixed race/ethnicity who donāt neatly fit into any of the CA categories and are unsure how to answer.
One of S14 classmates who is white must have accidentally checked off the wrong box on one of her SAT sittings, and was then inundated with solicitations from colleges. She could never figure out a way to undo her classification as a URM until she actually submitted her applications.
Relevant to us in California, this year the UC application will have six different gender category check-boxes. UC states that right now gender identity will NOT influence admissions decisions, but as UC has done other end-arounds for diversity purposes, who knows? And UC points out that, of course, gender identity is totally distinct from sexual orientation. Iām too ignorant to know how many different sexual orientations there are, but Iām sure there are at least four, so that would yield twenty-four different combinations of gender and orientation. If diversity demands representation of all those combinations in the student body (after all, the school does need all of those different perspectives), well, that will make the adcommās job even more challenging.
Interesting point, @texaspg . Might need to revisit his list.
DD was contacted by her lab mentor and asked if she is willing to continue working on her research. Since this is a computational research she can do it remotely. She even did not start on her essay yet! School starts next week and she is in six AP classes again this year. Where to find time?
My S got an email that heās off the wait list, so heās now registered for the physics class at the CC! Yippeee, what a relief! And we figured out a solution for one day a week - after class, he will ride his bike from the CC to his club meeting, which is 5 miles away, thereby saving me a drive. 
School starts in 11 days. Weāre adding a new bike helmet and lock to the shopping list. After we get through this crazy weekend with my kidsā theater performances, we will hit the back to school sales!
Congrads @happymochi! I am glad that it all worked out.
@happymochi --See? Why were you even worried? Many of us who know nothing about the situation were confident it would work out just fine!
Congrads @happymochi! I am glad that it all worked out.
I think itās very nice. Your daughter should ask a recommendation letter from her mentor, I imagine she already did it. It will be very helpful to show her interest and capability in science.
@ballerina16 kudos to your D for being so valued by her lab mentor!
@happymochi glad it all worked out with the CC class AND that itāll be one less drive for you.
@3scoutsmom count us all in for the spring break trip. Sounds fun!
@fretfulmother unfortunately D wonāt be able to confirm her teachers until Tuesday (first day of class), so she plans on asking when school begins. The schedules are still changing on a daily basis.
Senior portraits are now scheduled and I finally made Dās behind the wheel driving test (October).
@NYDad513 She will ask eventually. For now she got their full support for entering her research into competitions. Hopefully now when she can spend more time on it and with head of the lab back her project will be stronger.
@happymochi Congrats on your son getting off waiting list.
Thank you @grlscoutmom
@happymochi congrats to your son!!
@ballerina16 congrats on your daughters continued research.
School starts Monday! This summer has gone by so fast. Senior year is really here. @-)
How can so many schools start this early? I do know Florida schools begin early (early to mid August - I have two nieces that did high school in Florida)ā¦but I thought they were the exception to the rule. Is it more common than I thought? What other areas of the country do that? We live in the Northwest, and our school normally starts a couple days after Labor Dayā¦although this fall it will start the week before Labor Day, which is considered āearlyā for us!!! School generally ends mid-June each year in this area!
@sophmore1 I am sure my son (with his head in the sand) is happy senior year is not here yet!!!
I live in SoCal (outside of L.A.) and our schools started this past Monday, which seemed way too early this year. Over the last few years our school district has been moving the start date back a week at a time so that the semester ends before winter break and thereās more instructional time before AP tests and other standardized tests in the spring. School ends at the very beginning of June. Because of the early start date, many parents, especially those of elementary-aged students, have started circulating a petition to move the date later again. I liked it when school used to start after Labor Day!
Even though the school year has started here, Iām not sure my daughter really has her head in the game yet as far as college apps are concerned, especially since weāre having a big heat wave, proving that summer isnāt really over yet, right?!
Exactly what @mom2jl said. I do like that finals are over before winter break, but thatās about it. Many of the classrooms are incredibly hot and uncomfortable in August and a/c failures are common. I feel for the lower grades that are suffering just because of the push to help high schoolers with more instructional time in the spring.