Congratulations @MidwestMomTo2! Love your D16’s list of colleges, too.
@MidwestMomTo2 Congratulations on the acceptance.
@LKnomad, the students aren’t talking about marrying strangers, they are talking about marrying their fellow classmates to get the benefits you mentioned.
Congrats to @MidwestMomTo2 . DS16 has gotten provisional acceptance to one school already last spring , but it will be exciting to get his first official acceptance.
I’m sure that you and you’re daughter feel more relaxed about the process now. Hopefully many more letters and choices are forthcoming.
@Mysonsdad - I realize that in your situation this is among friends and is probably something that the students will forget about after a few weeks of fantasizing. However, I would not be at all surprised to find people approaching students for marriage in exchange for tuition, room and board, and fees. I have seen this scenario played out several times. Just saying that the idea of marriage for something other than actually wanting to be married is more common than you would think. It is definitely not a new idea among students. I personally have seen similar scenarios. (This is what you learn when you live abroad and marry a foreigner.)
Congratulations @midwestmomto2 
Provocative article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-how-to-measure-a-colleges-value.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Enjoyed the article @AsleepAtTheWheel ! Thanks for posting. DS surprised us yesterday by wearing a tshirt given to him on one of our visits. He has been reluctant to show favor to any school so I was surprised that his normal “it was on top of the pile” wardrobe selection process was not in force. His selection may have been about expanding people’s perspective about potential schools. He does much prefer to be seen as someone that makes his own, data-based decisions and he was going to work on a group project. We will have to see if there is enough merit aid to make it affordable but I was encouraged that he is comfortable being seen as searching far beyond the schools that are normally on everyone’s list.
In the middle of driving older D to med school interviews all over TX and she was saying yesterday during a long drive that she might be better off getting a tech job and getting an MBA in a couple years and probably make more money than a primary care physician on the long run…
@LKnomad, wow, you actually know people who have used marriage for those reasons? I thought my students were being innovative. That was eye opening.
@texaspg, good luck to your D.
It’s funny, because now that S is a year away from going off to college I find myself watching college football on TV of the colleges he is interested in. It’s odd to think that a year from now, if he ends up at one of those colleges, he may have some of those players in his classes.
@LKnomad – when my step-daughter was at her military tech school it wasn’t unknown for people to get married so they could live off-base, in better housing. And a work friend mentioned in passing one day that she took part in one of those Unification Church mass weddings back in the day (though she’s not still married-- I gather it didn’t last long).
@Cheeringsection
Hope everything falls into place for your son.
Congrats MidwestMom. The first acceptance is a big deal!
DS actually worked a little on the Common App yesterday. He was a little shocked when I explained that he couldn’t just rattle off 9 activities with a word or two about each one.
@midwestmom2 - older D goes to Northeastern (3rd Year). Let me know if you have any questions!
@MidwestMomTo2 – Congrats. That’s a big deal. Go Tigers. Puh-lease give us a trip report after the trip out east.
@petrichor11 – I know you’d prefer him to be writing his essays, but the fact that he’s writing music instead of sitting in front of an Xbox (pissing away another Saturday) speaks well of him. A lot of kids write essays about their ‘passion’, which is really not a passion but an interest, at best. He appears to truly have a passion, which will serve him well, beyond being the topic of a common app essay.
It’s too long (and in some ways personal) of a story to write here, but S14, whose ADHD essentially had him dependent on us for his ‘executive functions’ (i.e., making it through each day without screwing up royally) has made the transition to being independent at college far far better than anyone would have predicted at this point in his senior year. Maybe we’ll PM at some point about this aspect of getting your daughter launched. . . I’m sure that it’s never dull around your house.
@texaspg – Good luck with your daughter’s med school search and applications. My S16 is interested in going to med school. I’m trying to get him to keep his mind open to other possibilities, which I think he will. But I’ve told him that I will support him becoming a physician, spiritually and financially, only if he becomes a surgeon of some sort. Med schools continue to push primary care, and it’s portrayed as the socially responsible way to go. But the joy of primary care is being drained out of day to day practice, as providers are literally scheduled eight minutes per patient visit. So much of the face to face time is now provided by other licensed practitioners, and clinical practice is dictated by ‘clinical pathways’ and protocols. You end up as a glorified clerk, filling out the EHR so that all the right check-boxes are checked. I tell my son that no one can take away the immense satisfaction of fixing, with your own hands, someone who’s broken, whether it’s a fractured femur or a colon cancer. There’s no bell going off every eight to ten minutes in the OR. So, unsolicited advice for your daughter: The training is long, but the rewards are great – general or orthopedic or ENT or some sort of surgery, not primary care. Really.
@Mysonsdad – USC was S14’s first choice for much of the application/admission process, as he was convinced that he wanted a school with lots of school spirit, and where he could go to college football games on Saturdays. With the rejection letter still in his hands he turned to me and said, “I will root against the Trojans’ football team for the rest of my natural life.” . . The facility where I work takes care of some of the Cal (Berkeley) football players, and a couple of the kids that I’ve taken care of have gone to the NFL. Overall, I am so impressed with how modest and self-effacing these guys are. Really nice kids. That said, my guess is that there won’t be a whole lot of these guys in the classes that your son chooses to take. Even at Cal most of them haven’t exactly loaded up on the AP courses in high school.
@Cheeringsection – It’s great to read that your son marches to the beat of his own drummer, and is going to base his college choice on factors that are important to him, as opposed to the school’s name cachet or the opinion of others.
@Almondjoy1 – I’ve thought that characterizing (and glorifying) one’s activities in 150 characters is sort of like writing a Haiku. Best of luck to you and your son. Have fun with it!!
. . . got to go refresh my coffee . .
Thanks for all the congrats! I will be sure to make a complete reports @AsleepAtTheWheel after the October trip… That should clarify a lot …
…And now D16 discovers the requirement for a Why This College supplemental essay. Huh? Why Didn’t You Notice This Before? Sigh.
@petrichor11 I’m new to this thread and a little late to be commenting on this, but your description of getting your D out the door for testing really struck a chord!
And I’m absolutely relieved to hear that I am not the only one who has occasional worries about college readiness. My D is bright and funny and has so much to offer – as long as she manages to get where she’s supposed to be with what she’s supposed to have!
Of course, I guess I don’t have to worry about it at all if she doesn’t finish these applications…
Welcome @MostlyDolores We’ll all get through this together.
Welcome @MostlyDolores. My mantra :breathe: and repeat: This too shall pass…
D16 and dad out taking pics today. I spent the morning looking at old cute pics of my 3 kids. How did they get so old? Sniff.