Oops. Double post. How about a joke?
So, a mushroom walks into a bar. Bartender says: Sorry, we don’t serve mushrooms. Mushroom asks: But why? I’m a fungi!
(Get it? Fun-guy?)
Playing devil’s advocate here on the ED topic…
ED allows a school to know how much of their FA budget remains for the RD class. Yield management is never a perfect science, but more difficult in the ‘apply to 15 colleges’ atmosphere, with many applicants aware of the need to demonstrate interest.
Was it on this thread that someone mentioned limiting the # of schools each student can apply to?
@STEM2017 – I thought that inability to pay the EFC was the only valid reason for an accepted student to turn down the ED offer? Granted, one school’s definition of full need will not be the same as the next school’s.
Older son applied ED, but younger son will not, even though younger son is much more certain of his academic pursuit.
@whataboutcollege and @srk2017 – let me join you in the camp of no tee shirts, frisbees, large catalogs. If others here did not report their arrivals, I would assume that colleges were marketing less than they were three years ago. Older son’s stats were not as high as younger son’s, but older son received more material.
No frisbees here either. Couple of nice books, but mostly a bunch of crap.
@whataboutcollege - no swag here – feeling left out 
D hasn’t received anything but she’s flying under the radar (when she took the psat last fall she was still classified as a 10th grader)
QOTD: D is a voracious reader, as are her older sister and I. Dh has so much work-related stuff to read that he only gets through a book a month.
I want to use a proxy server to see DS17’s AP scores…otherwise we have to wait until Friday. He doesn’t want to just in case they can somehow invalidate his scores… ugh.
@MichiganGeorgia — my son felt the same way two years ago–same concern. But he woke up early this morning to look up his three scores. Must have gotten over that fear!
My Dd hasn’t received any promo stuff from any school. She didn’t fill out any interest info or select for her scores to be shared. I would rather get no tee shirts than a ton of junk mail!
If it really cared about limiting access to scores, College Board would limit access based on where the kids took the AP exams rather than where they are when they try to access them (how much sense does limiting access to where you are physically when trying to access scores even make?).
I barely stayed on top of this thread today and was only able to do so due to normal 1st day issues…X is not set up yet for you, you forgot to complete Y, etc. etc.
Excellent AP scores all around! Congrats to all the kiddos. I know I whine a lot, but I’m actually not hard on D and am very proud of her. 7 AP classes junior year and not an easy course load of APs (BC Calc, Chem, US History, Spanish, Psych, English Lang, and Physics) and overall great AP scores. The 3 just really threw us for a loop and it was in her second strongest subject. D is mailing her rescore forms tomorrow. Hoping for the best. If it doesn’t go up, she may just have to take a science AP in college, which isn’t the end of the world. She still has AP Bio next year, however, to meet that gen ed.
On a positive note, D’s AP Calc BC teacher has amazing stats, imo. 93% of her AB students got a 4 or 5. 80.5% of her BC students got a 5. She teaches multiple periods of each class. D raved about how great she was all year. I was super impressed with those stats!
ED… a big shrug from me. To each their own. Each family has to decide what works best for them. There is definitely an advantage to ED at many schools. We are purely merit chasing so will not be pursuing ED as a result.
Reading, I think we discussed this a while back. D reads a lot, but only fan fiction right now. But she enjoys it and it is serving her well in the development of her writing abilities. A lot of that is also just maturity I bet. She went from an ok writer to a pretty fantastic writer, and I am very critical of writing as its a significant part of my career, so that is high praise from me.
And in other positive news, D got hired for one of the part time jobs for which she applied. There is an orientation conflict with her next summer program that she needs to resolve, but I don’t think it will be a problem. She is still waiting to hear from the other and I told her to follow up tomorrow.
We visited Swarthmore and my daughter is probably applying. When describing it she says it’s very taste specific. I think by that she meant that it’s one of those you love it or hate it type schools in terms of size especially and she thought it was a bit farther on the crunchy granola scale than she is but not too far out but again that is a very taste specific judgement. Girls were dressed very comfortably no makeup or cute dresses which are a turn off her at schools she deems too preppy. Nice campus in a nice area and they seem to do a good job making education a top priority which is also important to my daughter–fun but not too much fun. They do seem to do well on need based aid but not merit.
@paveyourpath I know of at lest two other kids will similar stories. H.S. seniors shouldn’t have to make a decision about this stuff till spring. Period… I know it seems like a relief to have it over. But honestly an EA is a relief. And the teen still has time to change their mind.
Another EA fan – ED though, NOT so much! I think many colleges have ED decisions required wo knowing financial packages. Very few allowed ways to back out – have not seen them published - think they can tell other colleges too. Sure some students benefit, but pretty harsh system for many.
@saillakeerie I think that CB filters on IP because it’s super easy and doesn’t require someone to log in and do any data retrieval before telling them they can/can’t see scores. It requires practically no programming.
But I agree it’s not friendly.
@itsgettingreal17 Seven APs? That’s like, almost AP Scholar in one friggin’ year! Amazing. Here’s hoping her senior year is more chillax.
FYI, just so people know that there are AP scores less than 5 :-), my DD got a 4 on AP CS and a 2 on APUSH. She thought she was going to get a 5 and a 3, so she had a consistent bias to her estimates.
No T-shirts here. One frisbee, ages ago. Boatloads of postcards, brochures, etc.
We just got a card today advertising an “Ohio Road Trip” to check out 6 Ohio colleges. That’s a heck of a long road trip from here. 36 hours of driving to get to the first stop. I think we will skip it. 8-|
Not a fan of early decision but will probably do it given the higher admittance rates and my trust in EFC accuracy! I’m guessing most have seen this article or similar - interesting data!
Regarding QOTD: great readers in our family, they might be slightly silly teen novels, but at least they are reading! I bring home lots of library books, and try unsuccessfully to sneak in some classics.
Forgot about swag! My D17 must have checked a box while taking the PSAT that said send me as much mail as possible! She gets about 10 pieces of mail a day and has received tshirts, frisbees and drawstring bags. No Yale book however! It’s funny because she only has 5 schools she plans to apply to at the moment, and those schools are a little light in their marketing efforts to her. I’m dreaming of her getting a free trip to visit a college!
Just FYI, my D2 was eligible to check her AP scores at 7 a.m. She still hasn’t done it. :-??