@novicemom23kids My oldest is 23 and moved to the opposite coast last summer after college graduation. I miss him so much! We were just texting after he left work and was biking to the farmers’ market. He wanted to make a family favorite and needed the recipe from me :x
@dcplanner thanks for the George Mason info!
I feel like I should change my avatar to something more summery. But laziness prevails.
@WhereIsMyKindle Podcasts! We listen to two. The first is called Getting In (http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/getting_in/2015/09/getting_in_a_podcast_about_applying_to_college.html)
The host is a former adcom and most of her guests are as well. I find it quite informative even though I already know a decent bit thanks to CC. They follow several students from junior year through starting college – that’s not the only focus but it kind of ties things together.
The other one is called The College Checklist. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to link since it’s on a for-profit test prep site, but you can search for it on iTunes. Of course the host is trying to drum up business for her services, but it’s still okay. The first several episodes were on the long-winded side, but it seems to be getting better. Her guests are not as high-falutin’, mostly other test prep people and bloggers so far. But there are some useful nuggets and we’re hoping it will continue to improve.
@dfbdfb Congrats to your D! Personally, I’d just love to tell everyone my kid is going to Brain Camp because it’s a really cool name. When my D17 and S18 where in elementary school, D had to get a brain MRI. You know how pediatricians give out little toys or treats at the end of an exam? Well, this place gave her a foam model of a brain. At some point on the drive back S18 got hold of it and D yelled “Give me back my brain!” which then led to a boatload of brain jokes.
@payn4ward Glad to hear that someone took longer than me! I’m usually in the 40 thousands, but I don’t have the excuse of holding a third graders hand. My sister and I are soooo not ready this year.
@eandesmom Sounds like you are up for a quiet weekend – here, have some wine (speaking of which, why isn’t there a wine-drinking emoticon??)
@MotherOfDragons Ouch, best of luck to your D18!
@thermom My D’s don’t like cheaters either. Once D11’s roommate’s friend asked D to take in her clicker to get credit in a class they shared. D wouldn’t and everyone else sort of rolled their eyes like “what’s the big deal?” The girl found someone else to do it. I’m just glad D kept to her values instead of giving in to peer pressure.
Regarding laid back intellectuals in engineering – my D17 is going into engineering and wants a similar feel. I’d say the place we most felt that vibe was Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Of course that’s just from a one day visit! I’d suggest you and she read a number of college review books. They’ll often say whether a school is competitive (sometimes cutthroat!) or more collaborative. (Okay, as I go through the pages of posts, about 10 people have already said the same thing, but I’m just leaving it here!)
@srk2017 I think you’ve mentioned “BS/MD” a couple of times and because my mind resides in the gutter I always manage to read it as “BDSM.” Wow, I didn’t know you could major in that!
We didn’t worry or study for the PSAT. We live in one of the high cut off states and only have a finalist once every 3 or 4 years even though we typically send 5-10 kids per year to Ivies and MIT type schools. Both my kids strongly preferred the ACT. I’m just gad my D made her goal on the ACT the first time so we didn’t waste time and money on the new SAT based on her ridiculously fake 99% PSAT score that was a point off commended. I understand though for some states and colleges it is a very helpful thing as it is an expectation of the best students to be a NM scholar and the key to merit aid at some schools. None of the schools my son applied would have given him anything for NM except UChicago but that award isn’t stackable with his other awards there anyway so wouldn’t have netted him anything.
You know, this whole College Board/PSAT/SAT/NMSF thing really frosts my cookies ~X(
Thanks for the recs @snoozn
Time for a fluffy kindle book… “See” you all tomorrow!
We found computational biology majors at a number of liberal arts schools that do not have engineering schools. My daughter who is a math/science kid has gotten a number of brochures highlighting this major or other similar computational and some science majors. William and Mary has been relentless on pushing this one–I guess they are trying to expand this major? I think my D will only apply to one school without engineering and it won’t be W and M though it is a wonderful school and kids we know who go there absolutely love it. She feels like the school is being too desperate 
Thanks @payn4ward. Most of us are feeling better tonight. My 6 yr old got sick again before she went to bed, so not sure what tonight and tomorrow will bring. I am more concerned about the 2 yr old, b/c my dil called me tonight and he has gotten really sick again tonight. 
When I was feeling the worst, I was lying in bed watching Alias and thinking that who needs torture for confessions, just give them a virus and they will tell you anything you want to make it stop!
I’m hoping that wherever my kids end up after college it is somewhere I want to go visit!
re: PSAT prep…
We did not worry or study for it with S17 or the older ones. For S19 I think we will see how the dry run sophomore year goes and then decide. In his case, prep may make sense but we are a higher cut off state as well.
re: kid brags. S, who is VP of one political club, decided to visit the opposite one today, just to hear what was being discussed. Apparently he was attacked for his views and stood up and calmly refuted all of the points. He was googled “live” on his answers in disbelief by some (he was right and said googlers conceded the points) and the teacher who moderates that club (who he is likely to have for Senior Civics) stood up, clapped for him and told him in front of the whole club that she had learned something today. She later approached him and congratulated him on handling it extremely well. And on that same note, another kid who had been on the verge of cyber bullying him over a certain viewpoint (to the point of it scaring me and alerting the school to some racial intolerance that was going on) sent him a message today completely unrelated. Apparently they are in USH together. The kid, while not apologizing for that particular stance, said he thought S was cool and that he makes some really good points and that he actually agrees with a lot of them and hoped they could move forward and be friends. I did NOT see that one coming.
And yesterday he found out his HS finally was awarded a county level green status level for recycling and composting, a charge he’s been leading for the past 2 years and fought hard to implement.
I know it’s not a paid summer REU or Brain Camp or an all A report card or an awesome SAT/ACT score (which don’t get me wrong, are AMAZING and I celebrate them all) or the like but it is all stuff that warms the heart and makes you proud of the people they are becoming. Especially when you peek at their grades and find alarming news in one class only to follow up with the teacher and be told how much she believes in him, admires him and thinks he is inspiring (and apparently will bribe other kids with candy to help him turn the issues around).
Of course it does reinforce the gut instinct that while it will pay a lot less…the kid really is likely a better match for Environmental/Energy Policy, Energy Science, Poly Sci or (UGH) related law, then he is for Energy or Environmental Engineering. I am not saying that out loud though.
@snoozn sadly it is turning out to be a lot less quiet than hoped for but that is par for the course around here. Camp is a 5pm drop off for carpool and an 11am pickup on Sunday so really only part of the holiday weekend. I have pickup duty which I am not looking forward to (hate driving in general) but will live. However it was brought to our attention that S17 has a jazz performance tomorrow night. I knew there was one coming up but somehow did not connect the dots that it was on the friday night of a holiday weekend. UGH. Who does that? Scrambling ensued and a partial ride is arranged but we will have to get him to a ferry after the concert. Not the lazy friday night with hubby I’d been envisioning. And kills getting a run in and I have been very very bad about that this week. For good reason. The house is in foreign language crisis mode with 4 weeks left in our school year and both E’s having major major issues in their respective 3rd year of their chosen language. A plan has been put in place, I am in love with their teachers and I have hope but UGH I needed wine last night!
now THAT was a much needed wine spewing moment. Thankfully I was reading it while hubby opened the wine. Thursday is an allowable wine night.
My wife and I totally both grew up in the southern mid-Atlantic. (In fact, we’ve figured out that we were actually at the same event one time when we were both about eight or nine.) We now live in Alaska, much to the chagrin of our parents. Really, if that’s where the jobs are, that’s where the jobs are, you know?
@eandesmom Your ds sounds like an awesome kid 
@eandesmom …love that story and that he can share his viewpoints logically and passionately without getting overheated. Most adults can’t do that.
I think this has been a huge year of growth for these kids.
Good news! D18 made an 87 on the AP World final, so she’s golden! That’s a huge relief. She has two more today, but they’re both in classes that she has high B’s in so we’re not worried. I hope all the anxiety she put herself through is remembered when she’s trying to decide whether or not to do her homework or not next year-I suspect it will.
D17 is literally within spitting distance of an A for AP Lang, her final is today. It’ll be nice for them to potato out for a while.
I call toddlers “germ vectors” :))
@snoozn you should change it so I can see what your dog’s legs look like.
I just snorted my cheerios out my nose laughing so hard!
@dcplanner wrote
D17 feels the same about Vanderbilt-she’s getting e-spammed big time and every day there’s something from them in our mailbox. D likes both genetics and computer science, but as time goes along she seems to be leaning more towards cs and business. She loves bio, but she’s ruthlessly practical. She looked at bioinformatics, but there seemed to be a LOT of math, which is not her favorite subject. W&M was once on our list, but it looks too hard to get into for out of state students. I loved that the kids seemed so happy there. That’s an important metric for me as a mom.
Quirky D18 surprised me this morning on the way to school when I mentioned philosophy as a possible major. She said “there’s no money in it, I don’t want to waste my time”. My jaw just dropped-looks like I may have another corporate raider hiding under the artsy exterior. I completely don’t know what to make of it, but maybe business would be where she finds her best fit.
We have a lot of attorneys in the family, but it seems like the only happy one is the patent attorney (her grandfather), and that attorneys nowadays are not a satisfied or well-employed bunch-the job prospects look super grim. But she likes the idea of being some sort of attorney. She can argue anything to death and her logic is pretty sharp. I always have to resort to “because I’m your mother and I said so” because I lose on the logical end.
DH and I have lived all over the planet, but I know that typically people tend to get jobs near where they graduate college, so I mentioned that to the girls-statistically it’s likely. We’ll probably just come visit them wherever they end up-tow the imaginary houseboat up the coast, lol.
@MotherOfDragons Yay for your dd!! So glad that she did well.
My kids definitely had lived a mobile lifestyle. When they talk to people about all of the places they have lived, people ask if their dad is in the military. No. Just a top engineer in his company who gets transferred a lot. The longest we have ever lived in one house is 4 1/2 yrs. With our older kids we were moving every 2 yrs.
Our ds was offered jobs all over the country when he graduated from college. The corp he accepted the job from offered him jobs all over the country. He chose a location that was 3 hrs from where he spent his yrs as a teenager. Now he is about 7-8 hrs from there.
But, as we have moved around, we encounter a vast majority of people who have lived int the same area or close to it their entire lives. My siblings all live in the state where I grew up (though they had mobile childhoods. My parents moved a lot until I was 7 (I am the youngest of a large family) and then planted themselves. It surprises me that all of my siblings live within 2 hrs of that house. 2 of them moved there as adults after college and a couple of yrs in other places. (I have never lived in that state since college.)
At this point I wouldn’t recommend the law to anyone. Too many attorneys and need (at least in many areas) is not growing. Intellectual property is a growing area but I expect we will see more people going into it so its not clear if supply will outstrip demand. If your kid is thinking about law school, I would recommend they major in something where they can get a job when they finish undergrad. There are no prereqs for law school. If the market has turned, you can then go to law school. If not, you have a degree which is marketable.
I spent a few minutes perusing the 2016 thread after the comments in here. Comments there made me read some of the 2019 thread. Wow! Lots of overlap between here and there. You guys are on top of things. My poor 2020 dd is low man on the totem pole right now!
@saillakeerie My niece went to law school for 1 yr and was not invited back for yr 2. Before she went, she was advised by everyone to not go. She took out massive loans (and used some of it to buy a BMW) and now works a low paying job. It infuriates her that my dd who is 6 yrs younger and only has a 2 yr degree is making over 1.75x (edited to change that bc after I did the math, I realized that is the difference) her income and with no debt. She is all over the Internet blasting about the unfairness of college loans and that students shouldn’t be forced to pay back their loans.
And the irony…her parents paid 100% of her UG. Makes me crazy!
DS is on borderline for A in 2 subjects, so in stressful mode! Both are due to teachers inconsistent grading on IB reports.
For AP classes, teachers are given option of having finals. Most do not. Econ is only AP class for my daughter that will have a final. But from my son’s experience, its not a high stress exam. Her only other finals are in band and German (both classes she is taking pass/fail so no stress there either). She largely has coasted since her last AP exam.
Regarding law, my son17 was really interested in going into some sort of business law as of last summer. He likes to read, likes rules, likes to argue- perfect fit right? He was going to get his undergrad in entrepreneurship and then on to law school. After some research and talking with a few friends that are biz attorneys we came to conclusion that the law field is very tough to get ahead,tough way to make $$ and job prospects are dwindling fast. I did not realize that how grim the outlook for attorneys is. So, son is on to plan B. Not sure exactly what plan B is, has a few ideas he is interested in.
Attorneys have been horrible at regulating their numbers (unlike doctors). Legal market booms (like it did in the 90s) and law schools increase class sizes. More revenue with very little (if any) increase in costs. Med schools have facility issues that do not make it as easy to increase class sizes (plus they are not dumb in terms of supply and demand like attorneys - pharmacists did essentially the same thing as attorneys).
Technology is replacing much of the need for attorneys. As a result, firms that once had huge summer classes of law students have cut back drastically on those numbers (and some have canceled summer programs entirely). Incoming new hire classes are smaller as well. Makes it tough to find jobs out of law school. Law school applications are down significantly pretty much across the board.
I have a friend who believes law is a contrarian play. With so little interest, there may be a shortage going forward. Not sure how likely that is. But as noted, you can always go to law school. If the market heats up again, anyone who wants to go can do so.
I remember a professor at a large university telling us that the university didn’t issue parking permits; they issued hunting permits. Law is like that now.