@Mom2aphysicsgeek - While your DD may have learned to back things up…DS17 has had similar problems where he has lost days of work before and he still forgets to back thing up. ugh… I have gotten to the point where I nag him to at least print out a copy of stuff once in a while so that he has some starting point if things go really wrong.
@endesmom I recommend getting an external hard drive & backing up that way as well. (Both is fine) I know it’s old school but I just don’t really trust the “Cloud”. I do use it, impossible not to these days but not as the only place I store my data. Check your terms of service but if you are only using generic cloud providers and not ones who specifically are for backup services the cloud provicders are probably not storing your stuff redundantly. One well place lightening storm has been known to take out whole data centers.
My son runs the tech department at our house. I don’t even know our various network passwords (they are long with totally random characters that only he memorizes). Away at college he manages everything remotely. Its like having an IT director.
Re: Counselor Form and rigor
Here is a PDF for counselor’s I ran across this morning: https://www.ohio.edu/admissions/apply/upload/counselor-form.pdf (simple, blunt, and to the point.)
@curiositycat333 Interesting bc Dd said her problems started after a pop up announced a Windows 10 update!
I feel this depends entirely on SELECTIVITY of the school in question. And if doing the CA, the selectivity of the hardest school apply through them. I would NOT disclose a disability to any top 20 (or 50) school, unless it’s was part of your hook. (Say you are a nationally ranked blind juggler. 
) For these top schools you don’t want to include any reason for the school not to take them.
On the other hand there are schools who are mostly evaluating our teens to see if they meet some minimum of benchmark that would indicate likely success at their school. (State schools that claim they do holistic evaluations for example.) And disclosing can help explain why a application otherwise looks a less strong. A personal decision. We did disclose for my older D12, and she got into half the schools she applied. Note: I DON"T recommend disclosing on the main essay. CA has suplimental areas that are better for explaining these things.
I pay Apple an extra $1/month so that all my back-ups are stored on the Cloud. Now that I think of it, they have increased their free Cloud storage so I should probably go in and confirm that I still need to pay that $1/month.
While the Mac is supposedly backing up to the Time Machine, I am never quite sure how emails and calendars back up. One of these days I should look at the back-up I perform to the external HD as opposed to simply checking the content size to ensure that it is slightly larger than the prior back-up.
@eandesmom and any others intersted in the Guidance Counselor report on Common App – as I understand it – on the Common App – regarding high school guidance counselor’s reports about the rigor (level of “demand”) of students’ course loads, part of the paperwork your guidance counselor fills out as part of the Common App Secondary School Report (CASSR) asks them to rank the rigor of your course load as one of the following: Most Demanding, Very Demanding, Demanding, Average, Below Average.
I am sure there are more but I found these 2 discussions re Common App – counselor report re rigor:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/planning-your-courses-what-qualifies-as-rigorous-enough/
It seems pretty subjective really & leads my to many questions about criteria (we know AP rigor for example varies among courses as does the rigor of various other courses, do all the counselors at a school follow the same decision-making process? etc.) & how much do college pay attention to this really - suppose no way to know.
Gotta go back up my computer – you all are getting me more worried. :-S
I called UMD. Figured I would rather know exactly what is going on. They are not using the CO App, but they are using the CO essays. Those won’t be changing. Their 2017 app will go live mid-Aug.
@CT1417, I didn’t realize that the extra cloud storage was so inexpensive. I just turned it on for my iPhone. $12/year is pretty cheap insurance.
@mtrosemom – I agree. I think the original limit was 5GB but I think it may have increased to 20GB. On the list of things to research but may just leave this one alone and instead try to tackle the ever-mounting Cable & Cell bills. We are grandfathered in for some super fast home internet that the boys do not want me to drop but it is expensive. Of course, I would be the first one to complain if I had to wait half a second for a page to refresh. I need to conduct a speed test at a neighbor’s house to see the actual difference.
DS17 had some problems with Ole Miss saying they recvd his ACT score. If you have problems with any college matching up your students ACT score with their application, call ACT. They were able to give me the date that the score was processed, his ACT ID# and the batch # his score was in. Ole Miss was then able to match it up. ACT said that sometimes colleges have trouble matching the scores up because ACT no longer sends the students SS# with the score. I will say that both UA and Georgia Southern had no problems matching it up with in a few days of recving it. First I contacted Ole Miss and they first said they hadn’t recvd it so that’s why I called ACT.
@MichiganGeorgia – Interesting and useful info, even though SAT taker here. Being completely neurotic about ID theft, I had both of my boys leave their SSNs off their CB profiles as you do not need to provide SSN to CB or CA, but do need to provide if applying for FA, I think.
My older son’s schools did not have any trouble receiving SAT scores w/o SSN.
@curiositycat333 – I tend to agree with your post & with @thshadow too. One thing I know and bet those of you with children who are very invested in their learning but who struggle with ADD, LD, ASD or other difficulties, is that many of these kids (not saying others have not) have developed some skills and mental toughness that serve them very well - many are used to advocating, know how to persevere through obstacles and go the extra mile (or more) to get the job done and thus develop some confidence about how to handle different situations and I believe many of these students have some wonderful qualities such as humility, a strong sense of empathy towards others and a sense of humor as well A journey for sure and college will no doubt bring fresh challenges but hopefully if we can find good matches academically, socially and overall college vibe/environment, these kids will soar!
Not exactly college related but I just got an advertisement for Halloween decorations from a home dec site. Is that early or what? Goal here is to have all apps complete by October 1st. Could it really be that close? :-SS
My kids don’t even know their SSNs! They need to ask me when they really need it.
On another note, we’re still waiting for the final SAT score that will be released next week. Then we will decide whether to send the ACT or SAT scores. S’s ACT is probably a little better than his old SAT score per the concordance table, but since we will be sending the SAT subject test scores, I could potentially only have to pay one test fee for all of the SAT scores and ignore the ACT. My fingers are crossed he did really well on the new SAT.
UW will also be using Coalition App. Essay prompt are out. UW was off the list and now back on the list. Not suer why, since son has not take any Fine Arts…
https://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Freshmen/WritingSection
@MichiganGeorgia Now with my extended family, we have many on both sides…although MSU seems to be taking over. I’m open minded. My MSU-relatives have all done very well. UofM is very very very stingy, so I have kind of lost my allegiance. D17 doesn’t like the snow, either. We’ll see.
“My kids don’t even know their SSNs! They need to ask me when they really need it.”
It’s not used as much anymore so I can see why kids don’t know it. Back when I was young it seemed like we needed to put it on everything…
D really likes MSU and the strange child loves the cold and snow. :)) We’re hoping she gets invited to compete for the top scholarship or gets a stack of the others that she qualifies for based of SAY score, honors, etc.