I love the virtual BBQ! I am on a mom’s FB group and we actually DID one time have a “cocktail hour” where those of us who drink poured a glass of wine/beer/cocktail and got online at the same time. It was fun.
I also have a D who grew in maturity as she wrote essays. So far, even the first ones have been successful. I must say that the two that impressed me the most were the two that called for more than a generic personal essay. One was about how youth today should cope with moral choices and the other wanted her take on a piece of writing-any writing that deeply impacted her and why. Then she was to incorporate that into how that school’s honors college would help her expand on what she learned from that piece of writing.
I was really taken by the thought D put into both of those, and I understood her much better. As a child of color, she has had, and will always have, experiences that I will never experience. I can empathize, and understand on the surface, but it’s not the same. Also, sometimes we forget how mature these kids are when you need to use a magnifying glass to see the clear space on their bedroom floors!
Love hearing about everyone’s essay experiences and how their children have grown through the process.
@sseamom, I think we need that virtual cocktail hour scheduled for May 1! 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, @palm715 can start drinking at lunch. I am not a huge celebrity watcher but am still eager to know Malia’s choice. Sending Palm on a fact-finding mission before our BBQ.
Weighing in on essays . My son thinks the hardest ones that he had to complete were the " In 140 characters or less( like a tweet) identify why we should admit you" essays. For someone who has never been on Twitter , it was quite a challenge.
Confession time. No one in my family except my husband has a passport. I hate to fly or cruise. I’ve only been to Mexico and Canada ,and when I went no passport was needed. Neither child has been out of the country. Something I never considered needing for college.
@Ballerina016 and @sseamom The fact that many kids seem to write better essays as they go is problematic. I have a huge problem with the fact that college are asking for narrative essays that talk about personal experiences, yet schools are not teaching this skill to students. There is a disconnect here. Jr and Sr year are typically spent doing AP language and AP lit and the writing assignments are about getting students up to speed for AP tests. There is very little instruction on narrative writing yet so much rides on students having this skill for college essays.
I went to a talk by an adcom from Berkeley and one from Cornell who spoke about this, specifically. They said that high school English teachers are actually causing problems because they are encouraging students to write their essays in a typical expository way, with a thesis, three paragraphs, and a conclusion, when in reality this is exactly what students should NOT do. The adcoms stated they wanted stories written in a narrative style. But without guidance, how are students supposed to know this. Without practice, how are students supposed to actually write well???
My sister is a professional academic editor who has done editing on essays for her clients’ children over the years. These children are top students, who go to the best schools. They have fantastic resumes, she says. The essays are horrible, however. They cannot break away from the typical academic style. They are painful to read. She said that kids who are avid readers of narrative fiction can often learn to write in this style but for kids who are not, especially who are STEM oriented, it is tough to get through to them.
@carolinamom2boys We explained to my son that those short answers (Stanford has a ridiculous number of them) were similar to dating site profiles. Tell us about your favorite books, give 5 words that describe you, what was a recent favorite event, etc. Sounds like you are getting ready to meet at a bar. At least it swore my son off dating sights for the foreseeable future.
I’m up for the virtual BBQ - I’ll bring the shrimp!
DH and I used to have virtual dinner dates the first year we were together (he lived in MA and I lived in FL) we’d plan a menu and cook the same thing and PM each other while cooking and eating together.
@Ballerina016, I feel like one good thing about my daughter applying for so many scholarships last summer (that turned her down!) was that the process did help her essays improve by the time college app season came.
LK, I don’t know that D’s got noticeably better so much as she learned more about herself as she went along. Even though her school is a STEM school, they do a LOT of writing of all kinds, because the person who started the school wanted kids to be well-rounded and not solely STEM focused. But D has always enjoyed writing, so this wasn’t problematic for her. She ends up helping some of her classmates with writing, and in return they help her with some of the hard science stuff.
I will bring some ripe peaches to grill and vanilla ice cream for dessert.
@lknomad - agree with the narrative essay and the disconnect btw what is taught in high school in classes. D wrote A LOT of essays for scholarship applications starting back as a freshman, and those initial efforts were exceedingly painful. Fortunately, her dad used to teach an essay writing class and she’s read a lot of essays. So, help from dad and just a lot of reading helped to make her a good writer.
I’ll be here on 5/1 with the margaritas! We are so happy to be done with the app process and most of all, at least for quite a while, standardized testing. I definitely agree that the essays improved over the last few months. Thankfully, his last few essays were for the schools he is most interested in.
I know our last writing assignment of the year in AP lit(after the AP exam) was learning how to and then writing a narrative essay because the teacher knew we would have to for college. For myself and many of my classmates these essays at least in part were submitted to colleges, with good results thus far.
We are just about done. S submitted all but one app which isn’t due until next month. One school asked for a “peer review” LOR but S is so frustrated by the process he decided not to send it. He just wants it over.
For those talking about you S/D improving their essays as with the more they wrote, S said it became easier to write them over time.
A few times it has been mentioned that AO’s may peek on here at parents threads or at least the EA/ED or RD threads. Someone must have slipped through because when looking at last year’s acceptance thread someone named uclabound got accepted to MIT.
@carlson2 I love grilled peaches! Can I bring some balsamic reduction to drizzle on top?
Looks like dd will not be going to her first football game after all, she just got email that the volunteer position that she signed up for was cancelled.
A large yellow envelope addressed to DD was delivered today. We all got excited and look for the name of the school. It was a false alarm. The envelope was from Intel with a free t-shirt for sending her project. Oh well. Nice gesture and t-shirt. I see a lot of chasing to the mailbox in a nearest future.
@carolinamom2boys my H asked who we were rooting for. Duh. Clemson thanks to my CC friends.
@3scoutsmom and @carlson2 by all means, bring the peaches to grill, but my specialty is grilled pineapple with brown sugar and butter sauce. We will all need to leave room for both.
Currently closing out the year at HersheyPark’s Christmas Candylane with D16 and S21, last ride of the year on the merry-go-round then to home. Count on me to bring anything and everything made of, dipped in or covered with chocolate for the party. (-:
Hope the mailbox dashes result in good news very soon.