D had her first mini-meltdown last night. Her toughest course this year is AP Physics and while the schools were closed for two days this week, her Physics course is an on-line version, so she had a big test last night. The internet was being wonky in addition to the test being tough, plus someone posted about receiving notification of advancing to finalist for a school related scholarship that she applied for. The scholarship is a Stamps one and very few are given out by the school, so it is very much like a lottery school process to even advance to the finalist round. She thought that in previous years they notified applicants yay or nay on proceeding through the process, but it sounds like they did a first round of interviews already and the finalist, on-campus interviews are coming up fast and she hasnât heard anything.
It was one of those nights when things seem to simply pile on for her. She knew the full-ride scholarship was a shot in the dark, but rational thought doesnât always fend off the disappointment even when she knew it was a long shot. D is definitely still working as hard as ever on school, and with 5 APâs and a busy internship program this year it might be her busiest HS year yet. Maybe a trip to Chipotle and some thrift shop shopping tonight or this weekend, and despite the snow, some ice cream might be in order as well.
In my Dâs AP classes along with tests and quizzes they had a midterm exam, final exam and then prep for AP exams.
Our school reimburses for AP exam scores of 3,4, or 5 so we have gotten the fees back each year.
I liked the AP Econ exam best, one fee, take two exams (micro and macro), get 6 credits for Econ with a 4 or 5 at her college. I think she has 19 credits already she can use for prepharmacy prerequisites and electives (English, Calc 1, Econ, history).
Check with your high school guidance counselor about local scholarships, they should have a list. My D applied for maybe 5-6 in March and April, most just asked for family size, income, grades, job, volunteering, ECs, maybe a short statement about her career goals, nothing too elaborate.
She got three of them, about $2,500. Helped a lot, but only for one year.
@Skates76 I am sorry that your D had so much on her. My D had her meltdown over GPA/Rank last night. She has had games every night and not got home until 10-11 pm and she is tired. They all are.
Hugs to all the kids. These are trying times.
@petrichor11 thanks for your kind words. She is tired and it was dream she feels she lost.
@Skates76, sorry to hear your D is having a bad week.
We were also surprised last year when someone talked about Skype interviews in like December and we had not heard anything about the Stamps since she applied in September. But she did get an email that she was not advancing the end of January, the same day a letter arrived about not advancing for Chancellorâs.
So even though it was a long shot, and would have been nice, they were not looking for someone exactly like my D for one reason or another, stats aside, because we know that these young ladies are excellent students.
@CAMidwestMom DS does Model UN, and his team went to the Chicago tournament two years ago. He says that was his favorite one. This year his team is going to one in Toronto.
Wow @Almondjoy1 Toronto would be so cool. S wasnât able to go to Chicago last year, so he is very excited. He has only been to local events at a nearby university so far even though heâs participated since freshman year. Heâs so much more confident now. He was so cute the first year in his borrowed jacket and now he seems so much more grown up and put together.
So proud of S18. He accidentally scheduled the level 2 class of an elective for second semester (never having taken level 1). Nobody caught it, not me, not GC. At first he was going to try and switch to a different class, but then he texted me yesterday saying he learned something interesting and is going to stick with it. It helps that it is a music class
Thank you all and hugs and ice cream with lots of hot fudge all around for all of our hard working kids who still find themselves at the whim and whimsy of adcoms and scholarship committees that have their own standards, intentions and institutional needs to deal with and a group of really great applicants that they know, in the end, they will have to disappoint a significant proportion of. It is tough on both ends I imagine.
@mommdc Thank you so much again for all of your help and advice through this process, and again for your kind words today. I think D knows she already has an excellent offer from that school and it is more that she wasnât offered to apply for the Chancellorâs and has never heard anything back on the Stamps. In an odd way, moving forward more and not making it might not have bothered her as much with either scholarship. I definitely think there is a correlation with kids wanting their favorite schools to feel like the student is one of their favorite students.
In a rational and logical world and process, which the application and FA processes donât always appear to be from one side or the other (and really, sometimes it is more about perceptions with kids than anything), D should be glowing right now. She has a full ride and two full tuition offers on her plate already, but instead she is still waiting to hear about the next round of scholarship selection for two of her other top schools, which happens in February for each.
As an adult I look at her situation as a very fortunate one. Eight for eight on acceptances, winnowed the list to six schools already, and really it is likely down to four schools since one of her financial reaches clearly wonât be affordable and another is her safety that is the safety of last resort, and still a good school she enjoyed visiting, she just wasnât fond of the small town environment around it. She has truly excellent choices and offers already, but the nature of high achieving kids, and with all the work they have put in, is to always see more ahead of them that they need to do.
As D said to me one day, she is trying to decide where to spend four of the most important years of her life and each of her top four schools holds a different appeal to her. She knows logically that she is in a good place, but logic and emotions donât always jive with each other. They are so mature for their age in many ways, and yet, so very much still kids in others. As my wife said last night, we have never looked forward to May 1st as much as this year. (-:
@Skates76, just see how fast this last semester went by, spring will be here soon, I expect, although the groundhog probably will predict six more weeks of winter
I shouldnât have even mentioned the Chancellorâs, forgot about your D not getting an invitation.
It has nothing at all to do with her though. They are doing things differently this year. Last year, everyone who got full tuition (and some with lower scholarships), was invited to apply for Chancellorâs, not this year.
I really think they are targeting different majors. This being the year of Humanities might have something to do with it.
Anyways, you are right, your D has several great offers to choose from!
@Skates76 So sorry for the stress your daughter is feeling right now . DS16 has not had a major melt down yet, but tiptoed right up to the line. Iâm predicting one next week as he is going for a very competitive interview weekend for a program he desperately has wanted to be invited to.
@Sophmore1 I completely understand your daughterâs disappointment for missing out on Valedictorian. DS16 has moved steadily up the ranks and currently sits at 4/462. But as @petrichor11 said our schoolâs top 10 are only hundredths of points away from one another. It truly is frustrating .
Iâm finally all dug out from our big snow storm.
My big news is that D16 got an invitation to fly out (at their cost) to the school (her top choice) and interview for a research assistant ship. Parents are invited as well (we have to pay our own way but they will put us up in a hotel).
If she gets it they will match her with a professor doing original research with a nice stipend each year and bonus money for a study abroad of her choice.
Does anyone else find the wide variety of notification dates frustrating?
S applied early to four schools and got into three, deferred from another. Heâs waiting now until March 31 (as is, I think, half of CC, so no shock there). But with four early responses in December, one due next week, and then several spread between mid-March and April first, it seems as though Sâs entire year has been a waiting game. And with so many of his friends waiting for different dates than those, and others already knowing where theyâre going (or in some cases, what theyâre doing in lieu of college)âŠit seems as though senior year is one big exercise in anxiety. (Well, except possibly for D, who is in complete denial and has to be reminded to even check her email.)
Iâm not a drinking woman, but Iâm considering taking it up.
Hi All, so many to congratulate, so many to send virtual hugs and sweet indulgences too and so many to bide our time with (and commiserate with) while waiting NOT so patiently for those decisions still coming in from the EA round. I can definitely feel for those having mini (and like us at times not so mini) meltdowns trying to ride this intense emotional rollercoaster of a process. D is currently in calm mode on the exteriorâŠI am very tentative to scratch past the surface as I do not want to derail her if sheâs finding her way to being able to handle it. Her AP classes have not been as challenging as either she or I previously thought they would be. Not sure if this is the curriculum or if she has just adjusted to the ânew normalâ of the curriculum. Mid terms were tough but D handled them differently this year by studying periodically with a friend for a few weeks leading up to the last summative exams which immediately preceded the mid terms by a few days at most! Once again, I find that our HS handles these situations with terrible forethought and timing but what do I know ? (Regents students has their mid terms during mid term week (when there are no classes scheduled) and the AP Students have their mid terms crammed into their regular class schedule (the week before mid term week) and then get mid term week completely off. Of course the time off is nice but they have to work doubly hard leading up to it when in reality, all the students should be having their mid terms during mid term weekâŠbut again what do I know?
On a thought about paying for the AP ExamsâŠI know that many of the very selective colleges or programs within some colleges do not accept many or even any of the credits but I strenuously suggest that the student take the AP tests and try to do their best because you may not stay at your first choice school (for a variety of potential reasons) and the next school you may end up attending will accept them. This happened to my S14 so I speak from experienceâŠYou just never know what the future holds.
Agreed, @petrichor11 ⊠weâre in suspended animation, 2 rolling admits, 3 EA ⊠but absolutely no decisions can be made until we hear from 2/3 of the coming RDs. Honestly, the long wait puts some of those RD schools at a disadvantage âŠ
For example, my D is increasingly excited about her 2 rolling admits, which were safeties but continue to move up the list for both financial and other reasons. One is helping pay for a flight for her to visit (ASU in February, yes!) and they are setting up meetings, tours for her.
As more kids take advantage of EA admission, it does make the wait interminable.
@CAMidwestMom i continue to think we have the same child (wrong gender, but still) ⊠very similar application lists, and mine also took a free hour for the first time ever to deal with yearbook editor role and senior thesis. Her forensics focus is mock trial not Model UN, but they seem to have remarkably similar interests!
Regarding senior year stress, her school doesnât offer many APs so thereâs no arms race there. (She has two this year and has never had less homework, frankly. That free hour is a godsend.) So, like @petrichor11âs D, mine is busy, but mostly with things she loves, like mock trial, yearbook, etc. Her one toughie is AP Calc, and she may have resigned herself to a B+ in that one ⊠and sheâs OK with that.
@fretfulmother & @mysonsdad. When I was a Jr in high school I had AP calc. My father suggested I use a Schaums Outline book as a study guide. I careful did all my practice problems before each test. Of course I began to notice that I had a somewhat lazy teacher who also used a Schaums Outline book, only he used it to make his test questions. I finally let him know that I had all his test questions by going up to him during a test to show him how he had forgotten the second part of one of the questions. He looked kind of mortified and I donât remember if he actually stopped using the book at that point.
My son ran into something similiar. He found a released AP test and brought it to a study group so the kids could go over the questions. Donât remember which subject. They mentioned it to the teacher who ended up having to remake his own classroom test because he was going to use the same released test. Oh well.
@mom23travelers Congrats!!! @petrichor11 Exactly. Definitely a long term exercise in anxiety. While both my sister and I know where we are going so many of our friends donât. They either have not heard anything yet, have some acceptances and are waiting for other decisions or have all their acceptances and are waiting on FA or accepted students weekends. I think there will be a huge collective sigh of relief come May 1st @lvmjac1 At my school most midterms including all AP/IB ones are doing Regents week. Atleast this year. Last year and freshman year the only midterms during that week were AP/IB. Sophomore year was the same as this year.
