@2muchquan Did a long car trip with my 2 kids last summer & I didn’t feel comfortable having either driving for more than an hour at a stretch. Takes a bit to get used to driving long stretches. We build up to it. We don’t make them drive the trickier stretches. I feel it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’ve driven 7+ hours drives on my own before either kids could drive, so I figure an hour break is better than none.
Took a college trip this spring with DS but unfortunately we flew & got a rental car. Drove a fair amount, but couldn’t let him drive because it was a rental.
A. At a summer program offered at a local college - No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home - No
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc.-- No, he did a mission trip last Feb vacation
D. Summer school (local or online at home) Would never happen
E. Working - Yes, camp counselor in VT. He gets a little time off during the week and all day Saturday. Mostly stays up north with friends/other counselors. Doesn’t get paid much but seems to be having a lot of fun.
F. Hanging out with friends - YES, also called working.
G. Other (please specify): A couple of LAX tournaments, 3 college visits (so far), a family beach vacation coming up soon. He missed DH’s family beach vacation in SC.
Hopefully the camp work will be sufficient for the “leadership” category and give him some essay topic options.
For those who see their kids as lacking in the leadership department, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Avoid schools that hype leadership as it probably wouldn’t be a good fit for your student anyway. Focus instead on where your student took initiative and forged their own path. There seems to be many examples of that on this thread!!
@whataboutcollege That program is insanely expensive. Did she get to see Hamilton? That may justify the costs. lol Glad she got a lot out of it and had a great time. Those colleges that run such programs really can do better in terms of pricing. (mini-rant over).
Poll
A. At a summer program offered at a local college - No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home - Yes, 6 weeks
C. Traveling - Yes - a week with family coming up, no service involved
D. Summer school (local or online at home) - No
E. Working - No
F. Hanging out with friends - Yes, back in June
G. Other (please specify) - Work a bit in research lab, unpaid. They have some computer tasks waiting for him when he returns. Hopefully start essays when he gets back.
Sailing: @VickiSoCal UCSB is supposed to have a good sailing team. I don’t know details.
@2muchquan Not offended at all. lol I’ve been to ND before so I know exactly what you’re talking about… ND had to keep the students entertained because there is not much in South Bend and they really did a good job. It’s a great program (and did I mention free?!).
D’s longest drive to date is about 5 hours. We had a game plan for sharing the drive to Bama during spring break, but she slept and didn’t do her fair share of driving so I let her drive all the way back from Arkansas. She’s also driven half way to/from San Antonio (about 2.5-3 hours) and to Austin and Houston. She’s an excellent driver and has logged lots of miles, more than most her age. When we go out of town, I let her drive as much as she wants and she really does enjoy it. I’d be comfortable with her driving to/from a college that’s within up to 8 hours.
D’s longest drive was in June, when DH and I were out of town, she drove DD20 to girl scout camp. About 2 hours each way. She did great. Then enjoyed 3 days of sister and parent free time as a reward.
DH and I both max out at 2 hours of driving. We switch drivers like clockwork. S17 drove a 2 hour stretch on I-5 (boring) last spring. He doesn’t have a car here, and I don’t expect he’ll want a car at college.
Leadership: For apps, D will have 2 typical leadership positions in school organizations (no fake organization here, its her passion), and then we count her jobs (soccer reffing, swim instructor and lifeguard) as leadership. For next year, she’s also secured a position on a local youth leadership coucil for an orgnization that she regularly volunteers.
** bridge ** We are all recreational bridge players in my family (multiple generations). We are visiting relatives now and spent several hours playing (and teaching my 9-y-o nephew) last night! We hadn’t played in quite awhile, and I was impressed by how well S17 remembered all of the conventions. I’ve taken him occasionlly to our local bridge club where he is the youngest player by several decades (usually I am the next youngest player by a good bit LOL). I had no idea there were youth bridge competitions (or really anyone else his age that played outside our family)!
Sailing. Still, the college I would most like to attend is Rollins College. Check out their videos. CofC is another good sailing school. I think some of the graduates/students are in the Olympics.
**Poll **
A. At a summer program offered at a local college - No
B. At a summer program offered at a college away from home - No
C. Traveling - mission trip, etc. - Yes - visiting colleges and visiting relatives overseas (about 1 month total)
D. Summer school (local or online at home) - No (first summer since starting HS w/o taking at least 1 summer class)
E. Working - No
F. Hanging out with friends - Yes (especially online)
G. Other (please specify) - Volunteering at local children’s museum & camp, taking June SATII tests, summer AP Lit HW, playing Magic The Gathering (also counts as hanging out with friends I guess)
@Ynotgo She’s applying to UCSB, UCSD and Cal Poly SLO that all have club sailing teams. I do hope she can keep it up. I was an active sailor (non-competitive) at UCI in grad school and it was such a stress reliever!
@262mom, here is the webpage of the ACBL Youth league. You can see if there is anything in your area. You can also contact the ACBL and see if there is anything youth oriented in your area. S’s youth club is run through the local adult club. And they actually can earn college scholarships! S earned one this year for being the top youth bridge player in our area. We were surprised, and pleased
We are going to be travelling in three weeks again. This time to Texas and check out Rice University. It seems that you have to pay for parking. We are also going to traveling to other colleges as well. Is that standard practice? I know Tulane says they don’t even have much parking and to take an Uber. We are also going to be going to University of Alabama Huntsville and University of Evansville in Indiana. Maybe Vanderbilt too not sure yet.
