@sseamom Excellent point and a great way to spotlight initiative without having to hold an office!
@sseamom you are right there are many ways to be a leader without being an officer, It is just really difficult to showcase that in the limited character count for ECs on the Common App, lol.
I and, I think, most of her teachers and peers, would definitely characterize my Dâ18 as a leader. She is a defensive co-captain on her Lacrosse team and Pit co-captain for band. She did a pretty good job of discussing her leadership capabilities in her CA essay on failure too. This morning she was just expressing her exasperation at schools always wanting to showcase leaders. Her thoughts are that every great leader is a good follower first.
During a panel discussion about college application at my Dâs school, one of the college representative said that colleges are also a great place for introvert students. Some school may look for more leadership, but not all of them nor majority imo. I said âbe yourselfâ to my kid. It would be great if a kid found his passion and the passion leads him to a leadership position. Otherwise, I think itâs bad for a student to try to be in a leadership position just because they think it looks better in college app.
Cautionary tale for anyone who is feeling bad about being OCDâŠ
I have been asking S all week about transcripts. âTheyâre sent, momâ. (Said with all the hauteur a seventeen year old can amass.)
Nope.
Just called the 12th grade clerk about something unrelated, and on a whim asked âso can you check on Sâs and Dâs transcripts? Are they sent?â
Nope.
I donât know what S was checking on, but whatever it was, it wasnât transcripts.
So since the school office was in the process of closing when I called, tomorrow bright and early S, D and I will be hunting down the school records clerk and begging her to put a rush on Sâs transcripts for two schools with a 10-15 deadline, and three more with an 11-01 deadline. And at that point, Iâm just sending all of the other ones, as well.
Fifteen bleedinâ transcripts. Fortunately, theyâre only a dollar apiece.
Our very small school administrative assistant is super efficient. Sheâs so efficient that D gave her 5 envelopes to send transcripts yesterday and by the afternoon, they were all sent. Great, right? Right? Well, after this, D discovered that her humanities teacher has uploaded only a handful of grades into the gradebook this year. Humanities is a 2-credit class (both LA and SS) and it shows basically a row of zerosâŠeven if itâs because no grades are entered, it looks really bad, online at least. D is asking, of course, but since school has only been in session for less than 6 full weeks, does the transcript count current classes in the GPA? They donât even do quarterly grades here.
Iâm hoping that her grades from last spring are whatâs used since she finished the year with a 3.9 unweighted (we donât have weighting, pluses or minuses). Iâm guessing this is a school-by-school choice, though, right? Also, if these zeroes were all included, it would make sense to send corrected transcripts if she can get Mr. S on board to upload her grades, right? Sheâs texted me photos of the quizzes so far-sheâs doing very well. ARGH.
Here only semester grades go on transcripts.
I wouldnât worry - the class gradebook (even online) is probably completely separate from the transcripts. At our school, transcripts donât include current grades. Transcripts sent out now are only grades through the end of last year. Mid year grade reports (or first quarter grades) can be sent after the marking period closes.
I ran into this when my son requested transcripts last spring for a summer program. THe school didnât even send the first semesterâs grades - they explained to me the difference between grade reports and transcripts. I had to request the current yearâs grade reports separately.
I agree that you shouldnât worry, @sseamom. Iâve never heard of having transcript grades include current grades that arenât final grades. Meantime, DD is having her own transcript woes. Or maybe I am having the woes. Just logged into our state flagship app tracker (they do not take the Common App) and saw that her 9th-grade transcript is marked as missing. When I called to explain that the 9th grade scores are included on her 10th-12th grade transcript because both schools are in the same school district, the very young sounding woman on the other line insisted that they must have a copy from both schools. âEven if they are exactly the same?â I asked. âYes,â she answered. Because my daughter is busy every day after school for the next two weeks, guess who gets to traipse down to the other school to request the identical transcript from the other school? Sigh
Well I took the leap and started the CSS. Now, Iâve got a major headache. This entire college searching, applying, financing process is insane! The hoops that students and parents have to jump through is just wrong. Sorry, Iâm feeling grumpy.
D and DH are attending the UC for You event in Irvine on Saturday. Anyone else?
@grlscoutmom We are flying to Northern California this weekend for college visit so we cannot attend any UC for you events. Donât know how they are going to be different from open house. Please share what you learn.
You guys were right-the missing grades will not be on the transcripts! D said the SAT was easier than the PSAT and the Sept. ACT, thinks she did well, which of course worries herâŠThey eat lunch over at the middle school next door, but missed it because of the SAT and of course today she opted to buy her lunch, thus had no lunch today! So we ran into the grocery store and she got mac and cheese from the deli, snarfed that down and felt much better.
Weâll be hitting the button on 2 apps tonight-our credit card, her fingers, lol.
@grlscoutmom, what is a UC for You event? I havenât heard of those before. We went to the Open House at UCLA in September and toured Irvine during the summer. Iâll be interested to hear what itâs like.
Ugh, I should be glad of the progress today (another essay draft, a local college visit) but no boxes fully ticked off. This is going to be a LONG month.
@mom2jl Itâs some sort of reception/information session where all nine campuses will be represented. D received an invite via email. I think itâs for the top 9% or 15% of students ⊠Iâm not sure. My husband will be attending with D so Iâll pass along any info that I gather from them.
DD finally hit the submit button⊠Iâve been chomping at the bit reading about all the other Class of 2016 application submissions and acceptances. DD is only applying to one school, OU, the only school that she wants to go to and top for her major and a total safety. She really struggled with the essays. Two of the three could mean added merit money. I do think those two are really well done, the one for the generic Common App, not so much but her scores, GPA, LORs and likely NMF will get her in so Iâm not worried.
The stress level in the house was building to a crescendo between the two youngest taking the PSAT today and DD putting off her application submission until tonight, she had planned to submit on Oct 1, wasnât helping. Now we wait⊠If for some reason thereâs a problem, she still has time to apply to UT and A&M where sheâs an auto admit.
Two submitted! Next two have short essays-they will go in over the weekend, hopefully. The other two can wait until December. Depending on what we hear from them, that may be it, or sheâll add on the state safties and maybe one or two other HBCUs. Letâs hope that her teachers are as efficient as the administrative assistant!
@3scoutsmom â Given the events of the last year (plus), I imagine that the most stressful piece was waiting for her PSAT scores, given how high the stakes/rewards were for her getting NMF status. It must have been a big relief once those were in the bank. Given how generous OU is to NMFâs I canât imagine what additional scholarship sheâs applying for. Are they going to give her a salary?
Is OU a rolling admission school? When do you expect to hear about her acceptance, and more importantly when do you expect to hear about her scholarship(s)?
Anyway, congrats to her for all of her accomplishments.
@AsleepAtTheWheel OU is not a full ride for NM
expected costs Non-Oklahoma Residents (not including transportation or personal expenses):
$5,500 for the first year
$7,300 for each of the following three years
She will have to have a car on campus to transport her instrument (parking and car expenses not included in COA) and although we hope to give her a lifetime membership in her instrumentâs national organization as a graduation gift, current membership is required to insure her instrument, she will also have to pay annual instrument insurance. It is very important that she get any scholarships she is eligible for. I believe that she can get enough scholarship money to cover her first year expenses other than personal expenses including car payment, gas, car insurance, parking, instrument insurance, health insurance and incidentals that we will continue to cover.
Most of the scholarships she will be applying for are only small, one time scholarships. If she manages to get a small excess ( OU does stack) it will be applied to her next yearâs expenses. She really hopes to get an job as RA her sophomore year but that is a crap shoot. If she does manage it, then yes sheâll make a salary and be able to put money away for grad school. She also plans to do a semester abroad junior year, actually 6 months and although sheâll get money for airfare, and tuition is covered, sheâll still have to come up with fees, R&B and special international insurance for 6 months.
We actually expect to hear about acceptance fairly quickly but we wonât hear about financial awards until much later. Up until this week college, scholarships, and the PSAT only revolved around one kid, have two others in the house and them taking the PSAT really ramped things up. DS18 wasnât too much of an issue but DS20âs score will have an impact on if he gets accepted to the same high school DD16 and DS18 attend. If he doesnât make the cut it will be devastating for him. DS18 is very bright and since he was only 3 years old has functioned on the same level or higher than DD16 (he taught himself to read at age three because he was upset his sister was reading and when he was four and we had him tested to try to get him enrolled in public school early - he missed the admission cut off by a few weeks- he argued with the educational physiologist testing him about the nature of infinity⊠) If DS20 doesnât make it into the same high school as his siblings it will be worse than DD not getting into OU, so yes itâs worse than waiting for DDâs 11th grade PSAT scores. DS20 is a bright kid but just not as exceptional as his brother or as driven as his sister.
I always ask for a copy of the transcript. They give a copy stamped unofficial parent copy.
@3scoutsmom â Sorry to be so glib about the OU money. I hope that once all of the costs and scholarships are sorted out that she can put those considerations on the back burner and enjoy school and all the good stuff in which sheâll get involved once sheâs there.
Iâve never heard of the PSAT being used as an admission test for high school. I never put much credence in all the birth order stuff until I had kids of my own. It sounds like it will be an excruciating wait until DS20âs scores are in. Fingers are crossed out here for him on the west coast.