@eandesmom Where is the 13 AP girl going to school next year?
This year, our two NMSF are going to Loyola Marymount and Rose-Hulman. Loyola boy got the full ride. Gotta chase where the money is!
I know, it’s hard to believe. Well, I can believe those kids exist in CC world here, but not in your own school!!
@4beardolls My son leaves for his 6-week program this Sunday. He has lots of packing to do tomorrow! But at least he’s done all his laundry! I think most everything has been bought, though I realized this morning that he needs a haircut.
I saw on the 2016 Parents thread that they call the accumulated stuff to be packed dorm mountain. His isn’t quite a mountain, but it’s at least a hill.
Luckily, he doesn’t need to bring sheets, towels, etc, as they are provided. (They probably are not great, but he’s not very picky.) The dorms have air conditioning, so he doesn’t need a fan. I hadn’t thought about a lamp, but I’m sure there’s a light. He does need to bring an alarm clock or two.
Mixed emotions here too. 
Today is his last day before leaving his research lab, so he’s trying to get everything done. They have 3 new kids there for the UC’s 6-week summer research program, so are getting them oriented this week. And, he has a web page calculator to which they want a bunch of calculation features added.
@4beardolls , @Ynotgo , D needs clothing with semi formal dress code for labs. How about you?
@MotherOfDragons , D almost wracked her 4.0 GPA because of the ceramics class. D’s motor skills don’t extend to the wheel. Good class for presents though…oval dish for mother’s gift and candy dish for father’s day gift. And she plans to continue with Ceramics 2 next year. 
@saillakeerie , got to put in my support for Cleveland now it ends the championship draught! Did you go to the parade? I heard there were more people there than our Stanley Cup parade. D also loves CWRU, and let’s not forgot Rock Roll Hall of Fame and Sandusky, the capital of indoor/outdoor water parks and amusement parks 
@Ynotgo, yes, I forgot the alarm clock. Kids always want to use their phone for the alarm. I always prefer the real one.
@SincererLove, DD asked her mentor if the lab’s dress code is business casual. The response was… Our lab is SUPER casual in the summer. So I think D can just wear her regular high school clothes. I was a little disappointed since I was hoping to take her shopping for some nice clothes!
@SincererLove You mean semi-formal to work in a lab? I know chemistry folks are usually pretty serious about no shorts/skirts allowed–only pants because spills happen. For our local UC, he just wears shorts and a t-shirt. Laser glasses are the important thing for his research.
For his summer program, he needs shorts and t-shirts for days (80s and 90s in Boulder), pants and collared shirts for dinner, suit for a couple occasions, warmer clothes for nighttime astronomy (he’s not one to actually wear jackets, though), rain gear (we aren’t used to rain, but he assures me he has a rain jacket somewhere), swimwear, and probably more.
Wow – trying to catch up after a few days away - great accomplishments &summer activities going on!!
My DS – junior & senior yr courses (already took AP Comp Sci in 10th grade self study); Junior: APUSH, AP Lang, AP Physics 1; Senior: AP BC Calc (highest offered), AP Physics C, AP Econ, AP Chem, not sure what English - – doesn’t want AP Lit (he is super STEM, Science research (4th year - competitions), orchestra, PE.
We just visited Tufts & Northeastern – DS is interested in Elec. Eng. & Comp. Sci. Tufts - very nice campus though a bit hilly. Info session was one of the best we have ever attended - - meant to explain the environment at Tufts and how students enjoy life there and get lots of personal attention. It has a great vibe - personal, inclusive, smart / intellectual but students enjoy themselves & have great research opportunities. He felt is compared to Rice pretty well. Engineering & CS are very small, but profs ery accessible & research is guaranteed if desired. EE & CS are located in a building that is in a somewhat isolated area - across the tracks from main campus. I did NOT love that. Hard to tell if there is enough for DS to really dig into & learn as much as he wants to but he wants to apply & go see some classes if he gets in.
Northeastern – campus was more compact than expected given size of student body. We attended Engineering Wednesday - info session was focused on the programs and co-op experiences - it was pretty low key but informative. Easy to ask questions,. DS went on the tour - not much to see in the summer. they are building a new interdisciplinary STEM research building - looking forward to learning more about that. NEU is no longer requiring writing for ACT or SAT & admin. guy said they are trying to make sense of the new SAT & the concordance tables etc - don’t feel the College Board has been very helpful. Interesting re Co-op program - can add on mini-summer courses that help students graduate in 4 years even if take 3 Co-op terms. DS was not so excited about it all but seem like worth applying - could hopefully be a safety.
Both schools said they can meet demonstrated need.
Boston was very nice to visit - so many students & young people around, vibrant and lots of activity - felt like a great place to be in as a college student - of course winter would feel rather different - why don’t northern schools give really long winter breaks (mid-Dec - Feb) and have classes through mid-June???
If anyone has specific questions for Tufts or NEU, I’ll try to answer them.
Thanks for the talk about CWRU & Cleveland – we plan to visit this summer - very interested in their EECS & he’s excited to see their ThinkBox.
@Ynotgo What a super family you’ve got there!!!
@eandesmom Kids like that do exist. Our school has a 2016 boy, who got perfect SAT sophomore year. We have 4.5 for A+ (95+) grading system and his GPA is surely 4.5. I don’t know how many APs he took, but I can’t imagine it less than a record type. It is this kind of super kid makes my DD say her grade is not that good, and she finished junior year with 3 A+s ( PE is 1) and 4 As where 5 of them are APs.
@mtrosemom Where did you find the guided vacation?
@eandesmom - At one point last year, my daughter got excited when she discovered that there is a “State AP Scholar” award for the one male and one female senior of each state who have taken the most AP’s, with a score of 3. She thought she might have a chance. NOPE. A little research shows that there are kids who start self-studying or have tutored classes starting in 7th or 8th grade. In some states, the “State AP Scholars” have more than 20 AP tests. !!!
@whataboutcollege oh I know they exists, there are usually at least one but often more, could be 10-20 at any given school. S didn’t believe me, that was the funny part. He couldn’t believe that someone with her stats could be turned down anywhere and then we talked about the sheer volume. If each HS had just one and they all applied to the Ivies and the acceptance rate was in the single digits…well, they can’t all get in. Simple math and it’s not just one per school!
@Mommertons that’s funny!
@HiToWaMom the perfect ACT gal is headed to Penn. According to S, 3 kids are headed to Penn. This is where I do not trust Naviance. It’s got 4 as applying this year, one accepted but 2 enrolled. LOL! NMSF’s are at Harvey Mudd and Clarkson. No clue on money but the Clarkson kid was there already this year with an early admission program.
Interesting, I didn’t attend the academic awards assembly but they did highlight top 25 students so I guess that’s our version of ranking.
How valuable is “AP State Scholar”? S thought of going for National Scholar (8 APs), but with being in full IB program and ECs I advised against that.
Wow, I go out of town for 3 days and have 400 posts to get through upon my return. You folks are busy.
NSHSS - no, we haven’t gotten this one, but… my daughter got an (exclusive) invitation to participate in a city level teen miss beauty pageant! Just the thing for my introverted, serious child. Yeah.
AP/DE/IB - her school offers none of the above. Senior year will feature History, Lit, Bio 2, Calc 2, Spanish 6, Latin 4, orchestra. She also has to write a senior thesis based on original research, 25+ pages. Knowing her, it will be 50 pages.
Summer activities - has a job working at a summer academic enrichment program for small kids. ACT prep. And road trip to look at Midwestern colleges in July. I promise detailed campus reports.
We also got the Oberlin art museum and kittens spam. D17 was kind of charmed. Her other favorite odd inducement was U Chicago - they’ve got Scav!
@SincererLove I did go to the parade. I have seen estimates from 1 million to 1.3 million people. Not sure how they come up with those estimates. People were watching from parking garages and in office buildings. Bars and restaurants will filled with people all day who watched some of the parade but not all of it. Don’t know how any of those people were counted.
Streets of the parade route were filled with people. There wasn’t enough room for the cars, bands, vehicles, etc to pass by. Parade stopped several times while they route was cleared for it to move forward. Parade itself started 45-60 minutes late because the route wasn’t clear. People were on top of bus stops, street signs, up in trees, hanging off parking garages, bridges, etc. Was pretty crazy. And there were a lot of people who couldn’t get downtown because of transportation issues.
@mtrosemom enjoy your vacation. It sounds amazing! And @Ynotgo enjoy your trip there too. I guess I missed the memo there was a trip to Iceland. :))
My D16 had near perfect SAT (perfect math), 13 AP, straight A’s, NMF and was rejected from the 4 ivies she applied to. Not even a waitlist. Orchestra, lots of volunteer hours, job for 2 years as a math tutor, etc.etc. It was brutal to get those rejections. Our school is not a feeder, no naviance, no FA, no hook. The whole process last year has been quite an eye opener. D17 will have the same stats, but she does a sport and has been captain for two years so that might help but I highly doubt it. Even though she’s applying ED to her dream school, I am pretty doubtful she will get in because it just seems that’s the way it is. She has realized this too and it’s such a shame. But we will go through the process and hope there’s still a chance.
@srk2017 State AP Scholar isn’t determined until July (after graduation and thus well after college apps are in and decisions about where to attend have already been made). So other than a matter of pride, I am not sure what the value is. Its also an award that is difficult to know who won it. One of our local publics announces when one of their students wins the award. But other than that, I cannot recall seeing it publicized.
Same is true for National AP Scholar. Most kids who get that award will not know until after graduation (in July). So they can never put it on a college application. Some kids qualify for that award after their junior year. Those kids can put the award on a college app. Ultimately though, I am not sure how much its worth. Another feather in the cap which is part of a broader picture.
Wow @greeny8 that must have been rough on your dd. The application process is getting so dang crazy. I hope she is excited about where she is going in the fall.
It makes me nervous for my dd. Her completed course descriptions are 16 pages long. (And boy did I underestimate how much time it was going to take. I wrote them in excel and tried to export them and everything went completely haywire. I could not figure out what the heck was causing the problem. That has never happened to me before. I ended up having to manually copy and paste into publisher groups of cells by groups of cells. Ugh! It took me the entire day.)
But, I digress. I have decided that we are going to schedule an appointment with an admissions officer at FSU within the next couple of weeks. (Maybe 3 weeks if people are going to be out of town for the 4th.) I am hoping that a meeting with someone in their office might help us gauge how her transcripts are going to be evaluated by other schools. I am also hoping that they can advise her on how to fill out their drop down course menu that does not work at all for her courses.
And congrats to all of those end of jr kids and their victories in bringing in the grades!
@mtrosemom Iceland! How exciting! I hope you have a wonderful vacation. Safe travels!!
My older son didn’t even put his AP award on his apps because it seemed obvious since you self report your courses and scores. Also didn’t put other obvious things like honor roll.
@mtrosemom count me in as also curious what company you are using for your hike? Last year I did a UK one that was a village-to-village type deal, but yours sounds exciting!
@CA1543 Questions about NEU.
Do you know how many Co-op terms the average students take?
Is three average?
But if they take three, they need to take mini-summer courses to graduate in four years?
Of course they charge extra for those mini-summer courses?
@HiToWaMom – Most students take 3 Co-ops I believe. If a student takes 3 different co-ops & then typically 5 yrs to complete BS – but the May-June mini session can help. No tuition charges while in co-op program I believe. students get paid – a little - perhaps $15/hr. ok to stay in dorms (for a fee) and work locally. Can stay involved in ECs at same time as co-ops. I know they talked about tuition wrt min-courses but do not recall the answer - perhaps email to ask hat one. Hope this helps some.