Wow…thanks everyone!! It’s been a fun journey with everyone…I’ll be sticking around to root everyone else on as they move towards final acceptances and decisions. And also because I’m addicted 
Congrats to @carachel2 and family! Yay to be done and happy wifh the choice. Hopefully you can enjoy the rest of senior year a little more easier now.
@carachel2 Congratulations on the Pitt decision!!
$200 later and the cap and gown are ordered.
Most interesting thing I figured out today is that all four colleges that are her finalists have red as their school color :). (Designing the t shirt quilt)
So remember how D18 got in an accident? Geico has been pretty awesome to work with. The car was fixed in two days, and D18 is currently doing a program Geico sent us. It’s all about visual field skills, and she’s appalled at how hard it is. She’s amazed that I can do the quiz and pass it- it’s a challenge for a new driver. Nothing like this was taught at her expensive driver training course.
@MotherOfDragons --$200 for the cap & gown??? Why? I paid $20 three years ago and hope to pay something close to that amount. Yikes!
Happy to hear that about GEICO. I switched to GEICO when older son got his license because their rates were so much more attractive than whoever I had previously.
Avatars: No upcoming changes to mine, first of all because it’s actually a picture of me (okay, so it’s a digitally altered picture of me, but still), and also because this is just the first of four—what do I do with the next?
Cap & gown costs: $200?!? Dang—and here I thought my university’s $80 rental charge for baccalaureate students was utterly ridiculous! I can’t remember what my daughter’s cost for cap and gown purchase was, but it was certainly under $100. (And she even got to choose her own color!)
Insurance: Our insurance is Safeco. Dealing with them for coverage of D17’s accident was painless, but I’m withholding judgment on whether I’m fully pleased with them or not until after I find out how much our annual cost goes up this summer. :-S
Narrowing the list: My wife and I spent four(!) hours today two-on-one with D17, going over all sorts of stats and results and such from all of the colleges on her list—and really, really good news, she struck three of her already-accepted-at schools from her possibilities, for various reasons ranging from finances to curriculum. This feels as good as if she’d gotten another acceptance. (And she said or agreed—I can’t remember if she ventured the initial bit of the thought first or I did—that from this point rejections might actually be more welcome than acceptances, because they’d lower the pressure level.) We also have a good idea of what it would take for her for schools to sort themselves out further on the list as any more acceptances and honors program decisions and the like come in, so that’s more than excellent.
Not to mince words too much, but congrats to Pitt on the @carachel2 decision!
@Dave_N – haha I love it, thanks! You have a student at Pitt, correct?
@carachel2, yes S’14 is finishing his junior year.
D’s cap and gown is about $35, I think. D will have a month between AP and graduation. I don’t know what she will do yet. Maybe make some money to pay for her college?!!
D is trying to get out of the 2nd required gym class. GC scheduled her gym opposite of her AP Environmental Science lab – the gym teacher is not notified by GC and not pleased, reminding her attendance is part of the grade. D has a chance of getting her first B. D hopes her daily 2.5 to 4.5 hours swimming 6 days a week would make gym unnecessary.
DH and I are working on Senior poster for D’s HS swim team senior rec (next week) tonight. Getting a little emotional…really proud of her for making the post season cut again in spite of not swimming club.
That is my report. Again congratulations on all the acceptances, scholarships and hugs on deferrals or rejections!
Wow, I hope cap and gown is reasonable! @dfbdfb Congratulations on narrowing the list, I can understand how that feels fantastic!
No cap and gown charge because there’s “no cost”. haha! Built into the tuition but feel free to tell me it’s “no charge.”
@dfbdfb I look forward to when we are at the point of making a decision. Two of the top three are RD and the other was EA and he was accepted so we know we are in striking distance but still S17 doesn’t seem to have a lean. I’m grateful for that because the goal was to have no “dream school.”
@carachel2 Pitt was the last school we visited and we only went because it was next door to CMU. Very impressive school and very similar to BU, a school my son loves so I am very happy for your family’s decision. It was a fabulous campus with a great vibe. All the best to your child.
I’m envious of all of you whose kids are decided or at least narrowing, I feel like we have such a long road ahead still, no idea where D17 will end up.
Ugggh, $200 for cap and gown! Ours is $40 (and includes the tassel).
Ours is $40 (before tax and shipping) but the bare minimum of “official” announcements plus cards and envelopes brought it to $135. I want family to get the official school one with name card and all. We will also send a photo version to a much larger list that shows school choice but I can make those at Costco.
@socalmom007 Me too! No narrowing here. Just more work for me so D can compare various opportunities at each school. I’m hoping she can make a decision by April 1-15. That seems so far off right now.
@stlarenas please tell your friend with the student at St Joseph’s that Valparaiso University has announced via their Facebook page that it will do all it can to help students. Not sure if that means a spot on the VB team but it is worth following up. My DS16 is at VU and loves it.
QOTD: For Common App schools - are you sending mid-year grades/transcript or just having your GC submit midyear report We got an email from Rice seeking a transcript to be sent by Feb 15 —“As of today, we have not received your mid-year high school transcript. For your application to receive the fullest consideration, we must receive your mid-year transcript by February 15, 2017.”
Now I wonder if we need to look at each’s school’s website or should have it mailed to others “just in case”. I was under the impression the Common App mid-year report was all that was required by common app schools.
@carachel2 congrats on committing to PITT. Welcome to the done club <:-P
I have my D16 cap and gown from last year but they still wanted $40 for the new tassel! Ridiculous
Graduation is May 19 even though school officially ends in June. It’s nice for the seniors to be let out earlier than the rest of the school. Do others have high schools that do senior walk out? For us it’s the 2nd-3rd week in may right after AP exams are over, and they officially release the seniors to a marching band and the kids go wild. Shaving cream, confetti, baby powder gets thrown all over the kids. Can’t wait for this year.
Avatars I’ll always keep my Gator, presenting each posting with a flourish and a wink, as my avatar. However, I do like to have fun with the avatar, and will temporarily switch it based on an interesting thread on CC, or whatever other reason I can come up with…
If DS17 does end up going somewhere other than UF, I will switch my avatar for a time, before switching back to the Gator.
By the way, next Friday UF announces it’s acceptances, so the stress levels have started to increase. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how stress the kids can get.
Also, just finish submitting all of my financial info for MIT (w-2’s, etc.). Feels like I just visited the proctologist.