Ya I guess it was far back. I have a lot to catch up on. I am on page 77. Who knows if my son takes the ACT test without the essay and it is in September how long will it take for my son to get it online so he can check it before sending to the colleges. Also how long will it take them to send it after he looks at his score. He wants to apply by November 1st early decision
@CaucAsianDad UCF also has a really nice out-of-state waiver program for us outsiders!
QOTD + random musings:
Well D doesn’t want to hear any more college talk. :)) She’d rather start planning her graduation present. :)) Last night she took one school off the list… UT. She’d take her Plan “B” school over UT, so will not bother applying. D is really dead-set against staying in Texas. Oh well. So that left 2 Arabic flagships, 1 near flagship, a handful that would work well, and a number of others that would require a fair amount of compromising. I was thinking about putting off any more visits until after she’s admitted, but I think we may make a quick trip to her Plan B school this summer. She is not in love with it (but would happily attend) solely due to location, and I would like her to be and think she will love it after visiting. Then after further discussions regarding how much of a compromise would be required at the schools at the bottom of the list due to very weak Arabic programs, we agreed that we would take all of those schools off the list entirely … again, it’s all about the Plan B school and how it stacks up to the rest. [Plan B is not dependent on NMSF, has auto merit and is affordable with solely auto merit though she is likely to get what amounts to a full ride there with stacking, top programs in her majors of interest and strong honors program, pretty campus, big football and lots of school spirit = checks all her boxes].
So, we are down to what is likely her final list - 14 schools. If she doesn’t make NMSF, final list will be 13 schools.
List was compiled using a combination of resources - US News, school websites, google, collegeresults, niche, Princeton review book, honors programs review website and book, yikyak, school visits, CC, word of mouth.
@WhereIsMyKindle Our lists overlap a lot. If our kids end up going to the same school, we should introduce them. 
I’m going to pretend I have never heard of anything called the “coalition app” for now.
Okay, I lied. I panicked and checked Naviance just now. Only three don’t take common app and they are all individual apps.
Most of the resources I use are either obvious or I found them on CC (frequently in this very thread and including the new posts!) Many of these will be very useful for S18 who is not quite as laser-focused as my D’s have been:
D11: Dance department must have strong focus on non-western world dance.
D17: Electrical engineering department must have strong focus on renewable energy.
S18: Business and computer science sound interesting.
Also, both D’s eliminated large swathes of the country which I don’t think S will do.
I like @CT1417’s advice about having an “outside” LoR sent to the GC. I’ve been wondering whether it would do any good to get a LoR from D’s studio where she does her only “real” ECs. She’s been there since she was 8 and I think the head of the studio could write a nice LoR that might show some of her qualities from a different view.
@jeepgirl, don’t feel like you have to catch up before jumping in!
@jeepgirl we are here for a while so no rush, but this thread does move at a fast pace!
@CaucAsianDad on the UF website the application isn’t open yet. I don’t remember when it opened last year. My D16 and I are attending preview (orientation) next week, if you have any questions lmk.
@SincererLove When I am on a computer (not on mobile devices,) there is a smiley to the top right of text box that expands to 5x17 emojis table. Doesn’t everyone see them? 
I have only used a small subset of them. 
I cannot find an occasion for every one of them :-?
Especially, when do you use these? :o3 :(|) :O) :@) 3:-O ~:> visiting a zoo with a circus? :bz
So, try out, if you will, with a few. Enjoy! *- ;
:-"
ETA: The pig :@) is broken 
It’s a not so happy Bday to S17 today poor kid.
Stupid Smarter Balance test today (why he didn’t opt out I have no idea) and then a concert that he can’t play at thanks to the stupid broken wrist! PreCalc final tomorrow that now has NO scribe and NO extra time due to the stupid broken wrist. He says it wouldn’t help or matter but it bothers me that they offered it and retracted it Handwriting is still at the third grade level according to him. It is worth 70% of the grade for the college credit and 10% for the actual class. He did at least finish all the problems on the practice test but I’ve no clue how he did. The one they did before that, he got a C and the rest of his table flunked it. Fabulous.
But hey, the schools online dashboard sang to him and one of the B’s moved into A- land. I really REALLY hate that we are going into the last 2.5 weeks of school with 2 B+'s and 2 A-'s!
So far the only college birthday greetings are from the fake cappex account (for the not fake kid but limited info provided lol) from the University of Oregon.
Cute duck picture though. Sigh.
I did make him strawberry pancakes for breakfast and I am SO not that mom. LOL! Not much but it’s something.
@eandesmom singing the birthday blues. At least he had yummy pancakes! That’s so frustrating he won’t have a scribe or extra time. Maybe his teacher can curve it just for him (one can hope!). Anyway, hope he has a delicious dinner and cake tonight! <:-P
Happy Birthday @eandesmom S ! <:-P <:-P <:-P
Hope his week improves !
DS’s birthday is coming too. No BD cards from anywhere.
Today DS had a fender bender 
Doesn’t even have a license yet, sigh.
Our school won’t finish till Jun 20 something. But the class work seem lighten up a lot after all the AP tests were done in May. Questions for the state schools. Do they track school visits as your showing interests?
@whataboutcollege you should check each schools Common Data Set for info on how they track interest.
2 schools my son is looking at don’t require interviews, but say they do consider some level of interest. We’ve visited each school, my son has followed the school on social media, and has replied to some emails. I think we’re good.
@eandesmom, Wow, what a birthday – hope the rest of the day will be as good as strawberry pancakes!
I don’t think you should let up on the school if the test affects his final grade.It’s unbelievable to me that a school couldn’t even grant extra time to a kid with a broken wrist. With standardized tests you expect to jump through all kinds of hoops, but the teacher or another staff member can’t just sit at their desk for an extra 30 minutes or whatever? After making the offer they should absolutely have followed through.
Having a month+ after the AP exams seems tough. Was challenging enough for my daughter with only about 2 weeks after AP exams. Depending on the number of AP exams taken, seems like a lot of wasted time in classrooms.
@eandesmom Happy Birthday to your son. That stinks that his school won’t accommodate his broken wrist, though.
@itsgettingreal17 and @WhereIsMyKindle Guess what D17 has now decided that she would like to study? Must go back and read through your respective posts on Arabic programs.
D17’s report card came in and we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that she finished her junior year so strongly! Now all that remains are SAT and SAT subject test results.
Regarding the common app vs the new coalition app-my grandfather used to say “never be the first to try the new, or the last to try the old.” With all the craziness already being foisted on this year’s class, I’m advising D17 to stick with the Common whenever possible. I just don’t want one more technical hiccup in this year of nothing but technical hiccups…
UCF stays on her list because we’ve been to WDW about 65 times since 1990-all road trips. We may have an addiction to the Mouse. Although in the last few years we’ve really stopped going to WDW because of all the craziness there (everything is being ripped up and rehabbed, tickets are expensive and confusing, the monorail is not working very well, etc etc etc). Orlando already feels familiar, and getting cheap flights from anywhere is pretty easy.
QOTD: I just got an email that the Rugg’s Guide is in the library on an intra-library loan. So I’ll look at that one, and the Fiske’s guide and the 380 top colleges, and ■■■■■■■■■■, and collegedata. com. Ummmm, college confidential (der!) I made a supersecret pinterest board with all the websites for “happiest colleges” “best roi colleges”, etc. It’s overwhelming.
I do watch the twitter feed a little bit, and took Temple out of the Binder of Destiny because it kept reporting crimes. I know Drexel is close but either they’re not reporting it or it’s just not as crime-ridden, and thus stays on the list. I don’t want to fall in love with any one school, so I try not to read the really personal blogs or other super specific stuff.
I can’t find another school in Philly with CS that would fit the bill. Villanova looked good but it’s too Catholic for her.
@payn4ward wrote
Oh my GOD how did I not see that! I am oblivious!
L-) L-)
I shall now proceed to egregiously overuse emojis.
Where’s the one for festering? @-) That’s what I felt like all day today-ate my own weight in sudafed, croaked my way through a presentation on propaganda vs. persuasion. I have no memory of what I said.
@eandesmom Happy Birthday to your DS! I hope his summer is better than this last month has been.
@mamaedefamilia Congrats on the great report card!
@CT1417 I’m trying to get DS to look at Rochester. Those tunnels are definitely something that would intrigue him.
I’m a few pages behind so bear with me…What a bummer that Texas A&M is showing so poorly. My DS isn’t very interested either but knows it is a good safety school and he has to apply for my sanity. Still have to find a couple of safeties that he would like better.
Busy weekend here and I’m afraid I will be so behind when I get back. First up, a symphony concert of John Williams’ greatest hits. :D/
@RightCoaster Thank you! How do I find the common data set? On each school’s website? Or Naviance? Many thanks!!!
@saillakeerie It does appear like that. D has 5 AP classes. So since the tests, her classes are pretty much essays, projects, and papers. I am not complaining since these are her strong areas, so she is keeping the grades. One good thing is that her English teacher has asked the class to do a college essay as part of the school work and she reviewed with the students. D got a full score on the essay and she said the teacher said it was good. D said it will be her CA essay but won’t show it to me
@eansesmom, happy birthday to your son! even though it was full of stupid things… My D was studying late last night for tomorrow’s pre-calc final. We didn’t pay for UW credit so less pressure for her. Still, math is her weakest subject and it looked like she wanted to cry.
I bet your strawberry pancakes were fabulous though!!
@payn4ward , that’s scary!! I’m glad it was just a fender bender. It’s been a year since my D got her license. Still lot to learn. She came back this weekend all shaken up because she was flipped off by a pissed off driver. I think she was driving pretty close to him.