Pokemon GO hasn’t been released in Europe yet, my nephews are there but downloaded it before they left last week and are having a blast feeling very special in London. LOL!
S17 is starting his essay draft today. I have it in writing!
:))
@snoozn I had not seen the SMART scholarship. Definitely definitely filing that one away as a future possiblity!
@snoozn the DoD STEM program is very generous but very competitive. Perfect for the kids I’m reading about in this thread! Keep in mind it is only for upperclassmen. It is not available to incoming freshmen. I guess they want a proven track record.
@carachel2 Sounds like your daughter had a great experience. We are still waiting for my daughter to return so we can fill in the details of what she did every day. What she thought of who she met and what she saw. Total impression of the experience. My wife and I are very much looking forward to hearing those details. And just seeing her again because its been a month and we have gotten about 100 pictures from her (only a handful had her in them) with some texts but no conversations.
Last we heard from the host family, she was trying all of the food that was available (other than beer which she found to be too bitter for her). German exchange student told her parents that my daughter was a very picky eater. So the mother was surprised that she would try different foods. But she told me that the only foods she really liked involve noodles, bread and cheese. The rest she just ate and said was good. She is somewhat of a picky eater but she is totally fine surviving on bread/pasta/fruit/cheese and peanut butter.
@carachel2 and @saillakeerie, it sounds like both your D’s have had such great experiences! Do you mind sharing what program you each went through? My S18 loves German and wants to go to Germany very badly. We lived there for 5 years (military/government) and it was a great experience. But sadly for S, that was before he was born. His oldest sis speaks German with a natural accent and D17 is actually a German (sort of), having been born there. But S18 is the only one with a strong interest in German and Germany!
University of Kentucky has updated its scholarship webpage for the incoming freshmen in 2017. National Merit scholarship will be available again.
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
D is out of town at her grandmother’s for a week. She called to tell me she had a topic for her CA. Remember, I mentioned she wanted it to be ‘funny’? Well, she said the topic was going to be about ‘cleaning fish’. =)) I’m not sure which prompt she is answering…
In a bummer turn of events, our regional adcom for Tulane has moved on to another job. D was scheduled to get together with her, but now that is off. There is no new hire for the spot as yet. We were hoping to get bonus ‘interest’ points from the meeting.
@carachel2, that is great that your D had a wonderful time!
Reminds me of my childhood and racing my sister home from school to eat our yummy lunch (I grew up in Germany).
Yes, the Buergermeister is the mayor.
And yes in our home we ate a hot noon meal and then had bread and cold cuts for supper, and not to forget the coffee and cake (or waffles, donuts, or anything else sweet) in the afternoon.
I don’t like beer either, and I’m German. Some people mix it with Sprite and then it’s called a Radler.
**INTRO:/B Mom of S17 and D15. We are in the western US. I found CC about halfway through D’s junior year when I was stressing about National Merit stuff. Both kids attend(ed) a small, rigorous public HS. D15 is currently attending a small LAC in Virginia on a full ride competitive MERIT scholarship, so they really are out there. We are full pay and still are chasing merit, but D gave us a little breathing room for S. S is very geeky and into computers (both games and programming), robotics via FRC, golf and Tae-Kwon Do (with a little pushing on our end), Boy Scouts (Eagle Scout candidate), and bridge - the card game. The local bridge club is sending him and 3 other youth to the Nationanl youth Bridge Tournament in Washington D.C. in late July! :)) S is a good, but sometimes lazy, student. He did get a 4.0 UW junior year! So different from D15 who is a driven self starter. He is a likely for NMF as was D15, and is looking at schools that give good merit aid for NM. H and I work full time and S tends to take advantage of that in the summer by being a lazy teenage boy who’d is happy to be on the computer. H and I are outdoors people and like to hike, bike, ski, etc., so we don’t get it. (H and I just got back from 2 weeks in Iceland with 1 of the weeks on a hut-to-hut hiking trip.) Although H and I both drink some and have not forbid it from the kids, neither S nor D are really interested because there are better things to do with their time. D is a control freak and doesn’t like the loss of control that alcohol causes. S isn’t interested either (nor are his nerdy friends).
And I just want to say thanks to you all on this CC thread because it is good to have non-judgmental people to ask questions of and at times brag to.
@2muchquan – cleaning fish/humor…I think you and your humor have rubbed off on D17…sounds promising!
@saillakeerie
“But she told me that the only foods she really liked involve noodles, bread and cheese. The rest she just ate and said was good. She is somewhat of a picky eater but she is totally fine surviving on bread/pasta/fruit/cheese and peanut butter.”
Bahahhahahahahaha…D says she survived on noodles, bread and cheese…especially the brotchen rolls? Her host mom fixed them a small snack for the day of brotchen, sliced meats and cheese. And now she is in love with brotchen.
So for those of us with kids applying to Pitt, it now looks like for merit purposes they are not superscoring the ACT.
I could swear last year they superscored the ACT for merit consideration.
@carachel2 I had a note that they superscored E&M only for the ACT. I was wondering the same thing.
We just sent her top score because of the wording this year. Figured I could always send her other one…but if it’s just E&M they look at (again, not sure) then we may as well hang on to it.
@2muchquan …yep, that is what we had noted as well: superscored for E&M. But H2P on the UPitt forum is now saying “highest ACT composite.”
She sent her highest composite but that is not the one with her highest M score.
You wanna ask the Pitt Admin in the Pitt thread, if it hasn’t been asked yet…or should I? 
@snoozn Thanks for sharing the Boren link. It is one of the scholarships she is aware of, but is competitive and is only for study abroad.
@saillakeerie Thank you for sharing the UKY info. It looks like they are using the total score and converting it to the ACT equivalent. I am hoping that is the trend, b/c that works well for dd.
@2muchquan …it looks like he already did I think?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/1897851-admissions-for-class-of-2021-p3.html
@carachel2, yes I thought that’s how it was in the past, they looked at E and M subscores of ACT and converted them to SAT scores I believe and used the highest math and English from SAT and/or ACT.
I would still send both ACT scores if the E and M scores were higher in one versus the other.
My D didn’t take ACT so we only sent SAT scores.
In my dad’s town there is a bakery guy riding around on his bike delivering fresh Broetchen on Saturday mornings.
And I thought my kids were picky but they ate everything my mom cooked for them.
@2muchquan, my D and your D have that in common, both like to fish. Mine is not good in fishing though. She tended to catch small ones, which she had to throw back.
Hope I am not the only one who wondered if your D caught fishes that day.
@carachel2 A check of the Way Back Machine shows:
Last Year, August: “Taking the SAT or ACT more than once. We recommend that you test once in the junior year and once early in the senior year. We combine your highest SAT critical reading and/or ACT English and math sub scores from all tests submitted. We also require that you submit a writing score.”
Current: “Taking the SAT or ACT more than once. We recommend that you test once in the junior year and once early in the senior year. We will superscore your SAT Critical Reading or Evidence Based Reading and Writing subscore and your math subscore. We will use the highest of the SAT superscore or the ACT composite score in reviewing your application for admission. You are not required to submit SAT Essay or ACT Writing test scores.”