Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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@RightCoaster, I’d go to Rice in a heartbeat if you told me I could go back to school anywhere :). That place looks awesome to me. I don’t even care if there isn’t a fine arts degree!

That’s exactly what H did while he was getting his graduate degree. I worked all day at UM at the Sports information office, and he’d pick me up in our little pickup truck, and he’d be covered in sand because he’d go out to the beach and play volleyball after his classes were done. I was able to get us amazing seats and good swag because I worked in the sports info office, and I didn’t like going to the football games (too loud) so got to use my tickets all the time.
No good surfing down there, though. You have to go further up the coast to Melbourne Beach-nice surfing there.

@RightCoaster mouthwash-the really heavy duty kind, also works well to soak stuff in that can’t be soaked in bleach. You really have to soak it, though, and keep it wet for a while, then run it through the wash.

@CA1543 wrote

Yep, I sent the ACT in to 8 schools, and the June SAT in to 9 schools (UMD hadn’t made it onto the list when I sent out the ACT, I may send it there if they need it). Mostly I did it because I had the time to do it back in July, and it was one more thing I could check off the “to do” list. I feel like it’s a giant snowball rolling down hill and I have to stay ahead of it.

D will start working on the common app next week (this week is “look at the prompts and pick one, start thinking about what you want to say”).

Two more dollars in the swear jar today, I’m slipping. To be fair, I was with them both all day doing errands. And one time I felt shouldn’t count because we were at the pediatrician waiting to get their shots, and a mom with NINE kids walked out and I was like, wow. The secretary was like, yeah, she’s almost got her own team. And I said “I can’t imagine putting them all through college” and the girls yelled “busted, Mom!” at me. I tried to argue that I wasn’t talking to them about college, but I was overruled :D. Oh well, at least they’re enjoying it.

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Dd got an email this morning from Ole Miss’s Croft Institute. She thinks it is just about perfect in every direction except Russian.

I looked at their Russian program again, and it look like they have added an additional faculty member and more courses. Do you attempt to address a really,really bad dept visit? I mean really bad, so much that so that your child left saying, “No way.” (The Russian professor told her that she would have to start at 101 bc she hadn’t used their textbook series or learned via their methods. Everywhere else has been talking to her about 300+ courses.)

She sent the professor a link to her entry for the international Olympiad asking her is she would reconsider her position, but she told me she still has a distaste left in her mouth.

Does she actually reconsider it, or with only 2 professors, say too big of a hurdle? I know how I feel, but I lack perspective.

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What harm can come from reconsidering it?

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@2muchquan

My mistake. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s a bit hard to keep track of this board & all the questions and answers. And I do tend to skim a bit. My question is a good question, it just doesn’t belong as a follow up to your question.

For your question. I think you need to answer truthfully. Any of these admissions officers would probably tell you themselves that a student shouldn’t apply only to their school. But it doesn’t hurt to spin the answer to imply you like their school better.

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I think maybe you should consider applying to some of the schools where your daughter doesn’t meet the home schooled testing requirements or perhaps have her e-mail admissions to inquire. I think those requirements are meant to give them some insight into the true educational backgrounds of students who they worry might not really be ready for their school. Your daughter’s situation is different, however, because she has a number of objective awards and recognitions that should be able to substitute for those other SAT2s. She is clearly ready for any rigorous college and I’m sure if a college were to receive her application they would not refuse her because she was short one or two test scores.

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Most schools that require interviews will tend to be top schools. If you have the stats/app to be competitive to top schools, you likely are applying to other top schools as well. And at this point, pretty much everyone will be applying to at least one or two safety schools. Not sure why it would hurt for everyone to acknowledge that reality. And I agree with the spin a little towards the school at issue.

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@MotherOfDragons That meeting was incredibly, ummm, condescending. Imagine walking into an art dept with your portfolio and the dept not be willing to look at it and telling you that you had to start in “how to draw stick people.” (She told Dd that she had to go all the way back to the alphabet.) This professor would be one of her main professors. No avoiding the prof.

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@pittsburghscribe She contacted UR and they told her that the SAT subject tests were not optional unless she had DE courses for those subjects. Only a handful of schools have those sort so policies. UR and Davidson just happen to be 2 of them. Most don’t.

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@Mom2aphysicsgeek

I might give the department another chance in case your D caught the professor on a very bad cranky day.

Would the Department Chair concur? Or is there a difference of opinion?

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@IABooks

In DS’s case Concert Band is listed as an academic class he gets a grade. It affects his GPA. :slight_smile: There are several levels, and that will be listed on the transcript. (Not sure the schools he is applying to know the difference between the levels. Sure wish the top band was listed as an honors course at our school.) We weren’t planning on listing concert band as an EC. If there is a logical place he might mention that he was first chair for most of 2 years.

Marching Band is also a class with credit given, but it’s not considered an 'academic class". He will list marching band as an EC. This class won’t be listed on the class list for many of the universities he is applying. (Cal State, UC’s) Jazz Band, Winter Guard, and spring drum core are all considered 'non academic" classes as well and I would list as an EC. Our school considers marching band equivalent to being in a sport. If your teen does any of these outside marching band season I would put them down seperatly.

I think this really depends on how your school treats band. Is it a class? A club? Is it after school?

DS does not have many EC’s outside of band either. It takes a huge amount of time, because it’s a class gets higher priority than clubs in our house. IMO would be a big mistake not to consider it an EC.

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Re: ** RPI ** DS got the Candidate’s Choice email too.
After a few minutes of googling, I decided just to use the common app, and perhaps consider submitting well ahead of their late deadline.

  1. Someone asked on CC how the reference letters should be sent but no answer. Our school uses Naviance so the letters will go via Naviance/CommonApp single button. Candidate’s Choice app will mostly not work that way. I do not want to introduce unnecessary complication to the teachers and GC since we already have a non-CommonApp school in the list that needs to be done separately.
  2. I do not see fee waiver. I can be easily bought but I do not see the money ! :))
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@srk2017 Sorry about the airplane delay. Hope he got to UCSD in time for the other activities if not for the tour.

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Candidates Choice for RPI is just a prefilled online app (I guess they get your info from a testing agency), so you save 3 minutes filling it in. You also get ‘automatically’ considered for merit…just like all the other applicants :smiley:

Band stuff, I will have to look at how D17 put it on her resume. I think I would advise her to combine the non-marching band groups, and breakout marching band…since that’s the only one at our school that is more of an EC. Maybe Pep Band too? OK, I don’t know!

@CA1543 We sent ACT scores prior to apps to 2-3 schools. No idea if it ‘helps’, but who knows. No harm in it, certainly, and it spreads out the cost. :slight_smile:

@MotherOfDragons DID YOU GET YOUR HEARING BACK YET FROM THE CONCERT THE OTHER NIGHT?

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Ok.

Weird question of the day.

Common App: Section where it asks what parents do for a living.

I have not worked for a few years since I left a start up. I am not really retired, not really unemployed, not really looking for a job, but I might go back to work. Maybe not though, we’ll see.

Do I answer Unemployed or Retired? I feel like a slacker if I say I am unemployed, but feel like an old geezer if I put down retired, ha, but I have not even turned 50 yet. Does it even matter?

My wife still works, she is a Sr. VP of a large software company. She loves working. So at least it looks like we have one productive member of society living in our household. :slight_smile:

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@midwest67 I think you must be right!! She has already emailed Dd back telling her she can register in 401. (I need an emoji with ??? overhead bc I am very confused.) Dd had taken her textbooks and current work with her and she absolutely dismissed everything she had accomplished. Bad day, indeed. Crazy extremes.

Hmmmm. Gotta think about this for a while.

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@mamaedefamilia interesting about the impacted majors. I need to look into that. You do not have to design your own major at Fairhaven, but their core replaces the GER much like the honors program does. You can design your major but you can also choose one that already exists.

Sorry you saw a dreary dorm, there really is quite a variety of them there but glad you both liked it, it is nice to be so happy with a safety!

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@Mom2aphysicsgeek

Except for not looking at the portfolio, this isn’t very far from what a lot of art schools say. They will look at your portfolio, but no matter how good you are still tell you that you need to start in “how to draw stick people.” Most art schools (the more prestigious are even more rigid) require ALL students take a set of freshman core classes that require students go back and start at the basics.

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@CA1543 I sent the ACT and SAT Subject test scores last night to most schools in the list except for the ones we (I) are still thinking about… I wanted to feel more accomplished yesterday :))

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@curiositycat333 Art may have been a poor analogy. I know nothing about art. I only used it bc MOD’s is an artist. But, no, going back to the alphabet when you have been studying a language intensely for 4 yrs is not appropriate, regardless of the school. Placement testing, otoh, is 100% appropriate.

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I hate it when my post ends up with a bunch of blank space at the bottom. My apologies. So wasteful. I think it only happens when I start a response, and then go through multiple pages of the thread while coming up with my witty retorts.