Haha, @Kat2013 , at 5’11" and four-quarters, I still wear heels on occasion. D’s one pair of heels is quite high and every time she walks in them, I see Bambi.
@sseamom , yet another incredibly cool thing your D’s high school offers. Jealous. 
She actually texted, “I guess it’s time to get some big girl pants.” Who authorized all this growing-up stuff?
@sseamom: Found an write-up in November 2015 Wired magazine, the entirety of which is about Race, Gender and Equality in the Digital Age, on Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girl’s Code. Perhaps your daughter would find it interesting.
There is also a spread called “How Techs Stack Up,” on the education, employment, retention and rise in the tech field of various racial/cultural groups.
@sseamom I agree, that’s an inspiring project! I’ve been following a lot of the news on women in coding as I have experienced the loneliness (and also the rewards) of being one of few women in a room full of techie guys. The challenges face by anyone outnumbered in STEM are critical to overcome.
@Kat2013: “…-she should go with the heels, it will show how confident she is. Nothing says confidence like a tall girl in heels!”
So true. At an evening school event at which many of the young people had dressed their best ,my son once scoffed that he could not believe a certain girl “wore heels as tall as she is.” I snapped at his presumption that a woman should seek to hide when what she wanted was to sparkle, and like all women, would do so when she pleases and as she pleases. He was never to make a comment like that again.
Something in that scolding and redirection stuck, I guess, because next school year, guess who he fell for?
@sseamom We live east of your area by a few hours (we consider ourselves in the inland northwest). Not too terribly far from the “safety” state universities in the eastern part of the state.
I agree that it’s a good idea to have a nice dressy outfit for college but all my son’s interviews when the interviewer has made contact they have all asked him to wear a nice casual outfit. These are all top 10 kinds of schools.
@dcplanner her first two interviews were in casual clothes that she felt was apropos. I think the immediate desire to dress-up is an indication this is really, really important to her. My plan is to encourage her to wear whatever makes her feel confident. I make a better cheerleader than stylist.
Good luck to all planning interview and outfits. Every college student should have 1 white dress shirt or blouse. It always looks professional.
DS hit send on his last two applications! Thank heavens I proofed them. One supplemental essay was missing an entire paragraph. It did not paste because he was over the word limit by 4. He just had to rewrite the ending to get under the limit, copy and paste again, and all was well. Only two honors applications to go. All due before Christmas. I will consider DS getting them done a gift to me, this year.
my kid is starting to burn out on the applications. Submitted I EA and an ED and…that 's it…and…nope…I am so hoping he gets into either/or both…because otherwise the holidays are going to be really tense … I just see it! ~X(
I think the last few apps are a bit like the last ten pounds
@indsfolax and anyone else who has questions about presidential scholarships, specifically for CSULB. Today was the meeting at my son’s high school. They brought in 4 former students who are all presidential scholars to talk about the program. Here is what they told us.
Due to budget cuts, the presidential scholarship at CSULB is changing but nobody knows how. For this reason they are changing from allowing anyone to apply, to sending invitations. This meeting invite was not a application invite. It was a meeting of the top seniors in the school. What the students from CSULB said, was that there is talk about changing the scholarship from being a full ride, to something more specific to each student’s need. There is a chance that housing money could be removed. Typically there are about 25 scholarships each year and they tend to be split with 1/2 being locals, and the others from elsewhere in the state. This is not something that is a guaranteed number, it is the observation of the students. This year, after students apply to the school, they will send out invitations to apply to anyone they feel is qualified. In the past, they required a “Why CSULB” essay and that probably won’t change.
There is more than just money that goes with the scholarship. It includes priority registration (which they said is huge), a place in the honors program, free parking, free tickets to sports events, and more, so it is worth it for more than just the money. Apparently, you can also get priority registration for participation in the honors program, without being a presidential scholar.
The scholarship will be offered to the top 25 applicants and then will be offered to the next in line, if a student chooses to go elsewhere. They said the scholarships process can take several months before the final offers come out.
They mentioned that all CSUs have a presidential scholarship program, but up until now CSULB has been the most comprehensive. Other schools all have different programs and offers so it is not a statewide program, it is school specific.
Hope this helps!
@sseamom , sounds like a cool internship, and I’m actually going to pass on the museum information to a mom who has been serving jury duty with me. She is AA, and was just today telling me both about her 8 yo daughter’s love of science AND, oddly enough, how they are always looking for things to do with the kids in Seattle as she goes down there regularly for medical care. I had told her to look for the American Girl store, lol, but this would be more up her daughter’s alley.
Re: Ivies and discussing schools where the kids are applying, for me it’s not a secret at all. However, I’m not entirely convinced that there aren’t college reps lurking, and I don’t want to say anything that might be an issue with any apps (not that I can think of what that might be, but better to be safe 
) I feel like we are more easily identifiable because our small state population (the reason I changed my username too)
@palm715, we are from an exceptionally casual state as well! Plus my daughter and I hate fashion and shopping. I actually signed my daughter up for a few Stitch Fix shipments so she could get some pieces for interviews. They did a pretty good job!
Waiting, thank you, I will pass that onto D. Kimberly Bryant and the founder of the foundation that supports D’s school (and helped create the school in partnership with the district) have very similar stories. I wonder if they’ve met?
4kids, H bleeds purple and gold. He is very concerned that D is going to end up at WSU.The other ones don’t bother him nearly as much. I’m not entirely sure he’s joking.
My wife tells me that being repetitive is one of my many annoying habits. Forgive me, as I’ve posted this before on this thread.
Regarding getting burnt out on applications and the difficulty of getting those last few done:
The last application that my S14 completed was a battle. He simply didn’t want to write those last two supplementary essays, didn’t think he’d get in, didn’t think that the school would be a good fit. We fought, but he finally completed it on the Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend. Well, in March he got in. It was the third of three schools he visited in April, and an hour into our visit he turned to me and said, “Dad, this is where I’m going. I’ve never felt so sure of a decision in my life.” A year and a half later he’d make the same decision again. No question that it was the best fit of any of the schools to which he was admitted (and probably of those to which he was not admitted).
Obvious moral of the story: Unless you’re applying ED, keep as many options open as deep into the process as you can. You simply don’t know what it will all look like in April. Our kids have worked so hard for so long. Don’t let up when it comes to those last couple of applications.
@GoodGrief16 – I think that it is extraordinarily wise to not put anything on these threads that a admission counselor could use to identify your child. I do not think that is being paranoid. I know that admission counselors read some of the threads related to their own schools, and it wouldn’t be surprising if some of them cruised this thread on occasion. Unlikely, but not impossible.
And when I register at college related sites, like College Data or College Niche, I register as Bill Gates. (In fact, I do the same thing for my supermarket affinity card. It’s pretty funny when they hand me my receipt and say, “Thank you Mr. Gates.”)
On a different topic that’s been discussed here a lot recently: The college counselors at our kids fancy-pants private high school discourage kids from doing alumni interviews unless they’re totally unavoidable. Their take on it is that those interviews cannot help you at all, as favorable opinions from the alumni interviewers are totally discounted (as they are so common), but a negative report can hurt the applicant’s chances. And for many of these schools ‘demonstrated interest’ is not a factor, as they view themselves so highly that they assume everybody is interested.
My niece’s husband has been an alumni interviewer for Harvard for something like five to ten years. He’s told me that he has interviewed some absolutely stellar kids, both in terms of their objective stuff and how they present themselves in person. So far, not a single interviewee of his has been accepted.
We use the term ‘lottery school’ so much on this thread that I think the true nature of the long odds actually gets forgotten. Yes, some kids DO get in, and I’m hoping that it’s all the kids on this thread, but single-digit admission rates are really long odds.
I really doubt that admissions officers at most of these elites schools care about conversations on message boards, especially when they are looking forward to hundreds of hours of application reading in the coming months. There may be some specific exeptions, see the tutor blackmail thread, but only for really bizarre situations. Yes, I would avoid putting extremely negative info about a kid online, but for the typical kid, I doubt anyone cares about what you write, especially at some of these schools that have 30,000-40,000 applicants.
@LKnomad the Presidential Scholarship S got from our local CSU is offered to the top 1% of students in the county. The CSU finds the student and offers the scholarship. It covers all but $1,000 of tuition which will change now that CSU’s are raising tuition 2% per year. There is also priority registration included, but no parking, no dorm, no sports tickets. S was offered the scholarship with automatic acceptance last year. What’s funny is the require us to pay the $55 application fee.
Regarding posting schools our kids are applying to on here, if college AO’s read the parents threads it will make them want our kids even more because they can would even get a better idea of what our kids are like. If they do read these then I guess I may have just blown S chances for some UC’s. S isn’t on CC so I would hate to think that me getting frustrated with a school’s admissions office would cost S his chance of getting in, especially when it is them who gave conflicting advice. Wouldn’t it stink to think that our kids went through all this hard work for so many years getting great grades and studying for standardized tests only to have an AO read a post their parent posted and deny them?
@sseamom A handful of kids from our little HS attend WSU every year since it is reasonably close and easier to get into than your husband’s favorite. My S is not applying to any instate schools, and only one in the entire northwest. We do not have the means to visit all schools on list, but the closest one is a safety with a great scholarship that my S should qualify for, so we are going to visit there next week. I am curious what he will think, since it is the only school on his list that is within one day’s driving distance. If he attended there, his travel expenses would be reasonable as well…which would not be the case for all the other schools. I am trying not to take it personally that most schools on his list are in opposite corners of the country! Very happy we will get to visit a small number of schools he applied to in the southeastern area of the country later this month though, since we will be visiting family in that area for the holiday.
Regarding interviews…if they come up for my S but are optional, I would probably discourage it. My son presents well and speaks well when in a familiar setting, but is uncomfortable and very introverted in new situations. I am not sure it would be in his best interest. Also his fashion sense is non-existent, so I would have to wrestle him out of his mismatched too-small t-shirt, athletic shorts, and dirty broken running shoes…not sure how I would do since he is a bit taller than me!
If S is selected as a finalist for very selective scholarships at a couple of his college choices, then he will need to travel to those schools for special weekends which will include interviews. So, keeping fingers crossed that he will be given the opportunity to interview for those, even though the interview itself may be challenging for S!
@sseamom Your daughter has definitely “done her homework” regarding what she is looking for in a school. Her energy and focus will help her to thrive anywhere (even Wazzu-shh!), but my guess is she will have quite a few great choices in the end. I will enjoy learning where she ends up!
@4kids2graduate I feel your pain with DS16’s fashion sense , or lack there of. It’s OK, he gets it honestly from his father. DS19, on the other hand , gets his fashion savvy from me( lucky boy) My son will also be interviewing for some named scholarships. We began shopping about a month ago, and much to my surprise, he became invested in the process of wardrobe selection. I found it worked best to ease him into it with limited shopping experiences and limiting his choices. Right now, my biggest hurdle is to convince him to wear a bow tie at his top choice LAC ( which is about as southern as you can get) I think that he may just concede , because it is his first choice. Thank goodness that DS19 has quite the selection. Best of luck to your son and everyone else who’s facing these choices.
@carolinamom2boys per my DS, bowties are quite in, even in the north. B-)