Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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I am so behind.

PE venting…my son participated in early release Private PE which lowers his class rank because it is graded but not weighted. Kids in his school can “waive” an unweighted in school class so it doesn’t hit their GPA which is just another reason why my son’s rank dropped this year. It really wouldn’t matter if we weren’t in TX but we are so… :-w

My DS hates shopping and has the opposite problem. Ballet has given him highly developed gluteals, quads, and hamstrings so finding jeans that fit his legs and waist are impossible. I joke that he needs those awesome MC Hammer pants.

For a long summer session, I always made sure he has a well stocked first aid kit and knew when to take Tylenol vs Advil vs aleve and when to ice. Dancing eight hours a day, six days a week, you need blister care, general pain management, and relaxation time so I bought him a thick foam pad. I just shipped it back home after the session so we are ready for next year.

DS has no community service. All he does is school, dance, homework, sleep, repeat. Friday night and Saturdays are spent in rehearsal from 10-5 and Sundays are homework/reading days. Maybe he can find some meaningful volunteer work this summer.

DS is going to a free application workshop held by one of the state flagships. I’ll post after he goes to let my fellow Texans know what it was like. I figure that anyone who can get him to look at the app is helping me not nag him to do it.

Good luck to all of the test takers tomorrow!

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Good luck to everyones children taking the ACT this morning! We would love to be done testing at our house!

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Good luck to ACT takers! Finished Physics project at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning - went to school at 7:45 - was pretty much toast once he got home. DS headed to all day review for History regents exam - only prep he’ll do. Got 12 pages of review packet problems for math - supposedly due Monday - no way. Just 1 more day of classes & then 3 exams - but each is very long for him with extra time - so total will be about 12 hrs!!

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Regarding the Common app - back to that for a moment - I heard that the basic student profile info if entered now will be rolled over and the student’s list of colleges can be as well. However, if you enter info in each college section of the app (e.g. intended major, answer questions), it won’t be saved and roll over so better to wait on that. I am thinking of making a spreadsheet or list of all the supp questions/essays for colleges on my DS’s list to apply to with due dates - suppose though best to wait till Aug. 1 to fill in the actual questions though.

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Good luck to all the test takers today!!!

We are done with testing. D took the last old SAT on feb 27 ( maybe she is in history book for this one - the last perfect :slight_smile: )and 2 subjects may 7 ( waiting for scores, but won’t take any again only if exceptionally bad).

** Requesting info**, I think the most efficient way to get a lot info/mailing is to use those mailed user id / password thingie from schools.

Question: anyone tried using contact school icon (email looking) in Naviance? Wondering if AO really response through this way of contact?

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Good luck to ACT test takers!!

@CA1543 here is more detail about the data in CA that should rollover to the new app in August: http://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/college-counseling/common-app-account-rollover

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QOTD - Is it a good idea to create a personal website and mention that in college apps?

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@CA1543 You can try essay organizer
http://www.collegeessayorganizer.com/

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@srk2017 I mentioned this one back a million pages…one of Ds schools mentions the option to include a ZeeMee profile. Since then, 2 more schools in Ds list also mention ZeeMee.com as optional portions of their app. I think if it’s not over the top, it’s a good thing, especially your kid has a passion or talent that doesn’t fit well in the CA. My D will be doing some Arts supplements, so we will post a couple of those videos, and maybe something to show her FL ability as well. I don’t think it’s worth spending a ton of time on it, but my D was excited by the possibilities. She has a hard time bragging about herself, so this may be a way to just let the viewer judge for themselves.

You can see a lot of kids’ ZeeMees on YouTube…just search ZeeMee.

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Good luck everyone on ACT!

I am not sure if S will take it or not. [-( It is okay if he does not take it. It is just me still waiting for change of heart. :((
I felt bad some students (with parents) had to drive 2 hours to next town as nearby locations are full.

Good luck to everyone getting good, timely SAT score reports Wednesday! :)>-

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@Ynotgo they have these backpack laundry bags that has compartments for detergent and coins. I put a small zip lock with $5 in quarters and a zip lock of detergent pods in the pockets before sending him off.

PE: son’s school requires 1 semester of PE each year and a semester of emotional health. If you join a school sport team, it satisfies the PE requirement. The school has about a 70 - 80% participation rate (it’s a small school). For kids not into sports (like my son), this can be very helpful because they would otherwise not want to try out for a sport as they wouldn’t think they are athletic enough. This gives them the will to go out there and try and no matter how non-athletic they try because it gets them out of PE. The camaraderie is great and there are friendships among the different grade levels that wouldn’t otherwise be formed for some kids.

School Profile: It’s on our school website and I’ve used it as a tool to help outline some of the ways I’ve steered my son since it’s the standard he will be held to by college admissions. The profile has description of the school, graduation requirements, special programs (foreign exchange and a special term), includes class size, grading scale, junior year grading distribution, school doesn’t use GPA/ Rank, lists the AP courses available, % college bound, SAT mid-50% range, ACT 50% range, # of NMF and commended, and # listing of all colleges the previous two graduating classes were accepted to.

Graduation requirement is 21 credits so in freshman year when it was time to register for sophomore year we talked about whether he felt he could take on another class to demonstrate that he could stretch himself and to give himself a chance to try things that may interest him. Let’s hope admissions is as impressed as his college and guidance counselors are. If not, he’s still more enriched for it and has enjoyed the extra classes he’s taken.

The special term is the high school version of the 4:1:4 or January calendar colleges use. My son was the student teacher for this so I’m really proud of him because it’s out of his comfort zone and he got a great grade and critique on this. The student teacher has to meet draft a curriculum plan and present it to the administration, meet with admin 2 or 3 times to provide progress on your curriculum, request a budget, schedule field trips, etc. Dealing with the admin is the easy part for him. Getting up and running a class not so easy for him. A teacher is present the entire time and on the last day the class presents to the administration. When my son completed this term I told him he showed great leadership. It was like a lightbulb went on as he hadn’t realized it but immediately connected the dots. :slight_smile:

GPAs: Admissions people keep saying that they review our kids in relation to their own school. Many schools do not offer GPA because in some instances the GPAs would be too close at the top to be meaningful.

School ended last week, report cards issued yesterday and we did our last school tour this week. Senior year is here!

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@srk2017 I don’t know if the admissions office would go look at a personal site. If it’s not a document or a portfolio in the form they request, probably doesn’t get viewed.

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My daughter wants to be a vet. Because of the high cost of vet school and the [relatively] low pay for most vets, everything we have been told/seen says undergrad as cheap as possible. So the UK scholarships are very appealing. Though at this point, nothing is official for tuition or scholarships because the Commonwealth does not have a budget and thus UK does not have a budget.

We had never been to UK. Didn’t have much of an idea what to expect. But we all liked it. My daughter views it as one of her favorite campuses she has visited (between her visits and those with her older brother the list includes Miami (Ohio), U of Cincinnati, Case Western, Cornell (probably her fav but that totally violates the rule about undergrad cost above), Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State and Northwestern). Like so many colleges, there is a huge building campaign ongoing. What looks to be a huge student center opening in January 2018. Addition to business college and science building each opening this fall. Lots of new dorms. Huge library which appeared to be relatively new.

It is a nice campus. Lots of green space and large old trees (I am a big fan of big old trees). Everyone we met was very welcoming and helpful (including the construction worker who gave me a verbal tour of the student center under construction while I was waiting for our tour to start and the woman who rather than telling us where to go in the AG building, walked us over there and helped us find the office). Dorms were the nicest we have seen. Closer to apartments really.

In addition to the regular tour, we met with the director of student relations for the Agriculture College. He suggested that my daughter consider a agriculture biotech degree which hearing about it and reading about it sounds like it would be a good option for my daughter. Lines up well with vet school, has a required research component and could work well for med/dental school if vet school doesn’t work out. Would have my daughter taking more of the science classes (she is a total math and science kid) that she would like than a biology degree (which is another popular pre-vet approach with possibilities outside vet). When he learned of my daughter’s love of horses, he gave us info about an equine science major. He then gave us a tour of the AG campus.

My wife has been having an ongoing discussion via email with the director of pre-vet advising. She has been very helpful in terms of experience UK has with getting kids into vet school. Any questions my wife asks are met with quick responses that are 2-3 pages long with very detailed responses, attached info, etc. That adviser wasn’t on campus yesterday so we could not meet with her.

We stayed in Lexington the night before. Looks like a nice “smaller” city which is very close to campus. My daughter is not a big city girl so Lexington was something she likes.

Horses everywhere was a big plus for my daughter. Mosaics in hotel lobby, mural in library, horse riding club, etc. We took her on a Keeneland tour and tour of horse farms in Kentucky a few years ago on the way back from vacation. Tough to find a better place for horse lovers than Kentucky.

So going in, UK was on our list of possible colleges. After visiting its definitely staying on that list.

Good luck to all the ACT takers today. Daughter was stuck at home watching the Cavs game (big time boo for that dud) with us because all of her friends are taking the ACT this morning.

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Good luck ACT takers! My D is taking it but I don’t know why she is bothering…she did zero prep for this. Maybe the ACT fairy will help her reach a 36? O:-)

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Good Luck to all of the ACT takers!!

This could be a problem…

Last night, my DD17 asked if he could change his mind on taking the ACT written test. I told him sure, many of the schools we’re looking at don’t require it, and he’s already taken the SAT writing test. I told him to ask the test coordinator in the morning about switching out of the written test.

Later last night, he tells me he’s gotten 6 or 7 (or more, the list was quickly growing) of his friends to all skip out on the writing test. They all plan on asking at the same time this morning…hope I don’t get any calls from angry parents. X_X

Otherwise, my wonderful spouse has her older sister in town for a month, and she’s in full freak-out mode (fix this, clean this, move this, …), so I at least have that going for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

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From what I have seen, schools who are proud of their school profile make it easy to find. Schools that are not (some private schools in the area) make it difficult to find their school profile. My kids’ school profile is easy to find on the district’s website. Sometimes its a year old though.

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Good luck to the ACT test takers today!!!
DS decided not to take it and that he is done with testing. Too much downside risk for a small upside potential, and he has a lot of school that require all scores to be sent.

@payn4ward You can bookmark the thread but choose not to get emails for every post. Click on your username, then click “Preferences” – I have it set to only email/notify me if I get mentioned with the @ sign or get a PM.

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Does making a hair appointment count? I think it does. Navigating the thorny world of beauty salons is no joke.

If they filled their car with gas they’d kill it X_X it’s a diesel.

They are experts with debit cards. 8-|

Insurance-I don’t want them talking to the car insurance place or the health insurance place, say the wrong thing and have a claim denied. I’m the insurance guru in the house. They have time to get good at that one later. Even my husband has me handle all of this stuff because I’m good at it (and I have spreadsheets and apps!)

Medicines-yes, they know what to take and how much (advil, benadryl)

They’ve done public transportation with us, I’m assuming they can figure that one out when they need to. I did.

Laundry yes, for years

They are pretty good cooks.

Order and pay for stuff-see debit card above :).

The one thing I am REALLY not so good about getting them to do is clean. They have to tidy up their rooms, bathroom and shared common area at the top of the stairs once every other week so the cleaning people can clean, and they have to put the dishes away, but in terms of scrubbing with cleaning products-no clue.

It’s all my fault-I had jobs as a maid in high school and working overnight cleanup at an amphitheater over the summers, and I really know how to clean and I REALLY hate to do it. I just can’t make myself make the kids scrub floors or toilets. Can’t do it. I can clean (and I do, a lot), but I can’t ask them to. Oh well. They’ll figure it out or live in squalor-as long as I don’t have to look at it, lol.

QOTD (although this may be yesterday’s QOTD). D17 is the historian for her TSA chapter. It’s an officer position, and she wanted either that one or the sergeant at arms position. She had no interest in “herding cats” as she put it, in the presidential office.

Next OOTD: nobody has asked to see the school profile yet. I have no idea what it is or where to find it! *-:slight_smile:

@picklesarenice that sucks about PE. I’d be so mad as well. Thank goodness it doesn’t “count” for colleges, but watching the perfect 4.0 go away all over 1 week in gym would really make me upset for her.

@Ynotgo wrote

That has to be up there on my list of awesome stories I’ve ever heard! =)) It reminds me of the Oliver Sacks (Sachs? I should know, I have to read his book for class) story “The man who mistook his wife for a hat” only without the brain damage stuff.

@2muchquan I also love (and own) power tools. I would lose the same pair of pants contest, though. ^#(^

U Chicago is not on D’s list, although I think it is a cool school and those writing prompts are hilarious! Same with Northwestern. Reasons were “Midwest, too freakin’ cold, Midwest”. That road trip from Atlanta to Omaha and back a few years ago left her with a permanent dislike of the middle of the US. I don’t mind Chicago, but I don’t love it, either. And we don’t know anyone there, and it’s too far to drive, so that area’s off the list (along with California, but Cali only for distance and cost to fly).

Ok I’m still ten pages behind so I’ll post this monster and keep reading :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the trip report @saillakeerie I really enjoy reading others’ impressions of schools :slight_smile:

Good luck to the ACT takers!

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@saillakeerie My dd and I share the same thoughts about KY. It is on her list and she waffles back and forth about where it should be on her list of preferences.