Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
12541

@jedwards70 and everyone else re: Trumemba

This is the new Meningitis B vaccine. There is a huge discussion about it on the parents forum. The current Meningococcal vaccine does not protect against Meningitis B and this new vaccine is designed to fill in that gap.

D had a physical yesterday and finished the HPV series. BIG SHOUT OUT to all of you parents of boys who vaccinate your boys also…protects them against throat cancer, genital warts and also goes a LONG way towards protecting our girls. THANKS!

The NP offered Trumemba and we D will definitely be getting it but I had read on the parents vaccine that it does make them feel kind of rough for a few days and D has some important stuff coming up. The NP also said they have had way fewer complaints now that they are giving it in the thigh instead of the arm…so just file that one away for your office visit.

12542

@payn4ward you can instruct Coverdell ESA to send money directly to college, some even allow to fill out online distribution form where you specify college registrar address

12543

Is anyone looking at Emory? It’s hanging around the maybe list, but I don’t remember why it wasn’t more highly considered. I think there were recent changes in there merit program, and I seem to recall they got busted for gaming the stats system. Opinions?

12544

Popping in from Vermont. We are touring Ben and Jerrys today. I’ll give a full report later =))

downsizing no plans on that. I love my house. Big and spacious and I always want my girls to have a reason to come back home. I look forward to grandkids too (ok, slow down)

@2muchquan we visited Emory last year and both my kids liked it but they would prefer more rah rah. D16 didn’t apply but D17 might. Very pretty campus.

12545

For meningitis, both D’s just received the first Bexsero shot. I recently read that this shot might not be as effective as they originally thought. Like, only marginally better than no shot. :-S I don’t follow these closely, but that info was from the CDC I believe. I’m wondering if Trumenba would have been the way to go. I didn’t follow that other thread b/c I couldn’t. :smiley: We’ll continue on with the series, I suppose.

Thanks @greeny8. D17 is only recently beginning to think sporting events would be a fun diversion. She’s always gone to football games in HS, but it’s a little different when you’re in marching band.

12546

For those of you applying to Pitt - what is the hurry to apply quickly? Is it that they assign their merit aid early?

12547

@“What???!!” I guess our reason was two-fold: show interest by submitting early, and get it off the plate because we can. Spread out the work. Plus, it always helps to be early when merit is involved. At least, it can never hurt if you have everything needed for the application (scores, grades, etc)

12548

@2muchquan – if my DD would look at Emory I’d be on the next plane. I have no first hand knowledge just anecdotal information that makes it seem appealing.

12549

@2muchquan, DD is interested in Emory. What are the changes to the merit scholarship?
We visited a few year ago with DS14. They have two schools and separate admission and scholarship processes which is confusing to people.

12550

@“What???!!” We were told to get the app in as soon as possible for merit aid consideration. In addition, it’s a fairly simple app, so why not. It’s one of D’s top choices so she was very happy to get it out of the way. Decisions will start rolling out this month.

Re: Emory. It wasn’t rah rah enough for D and no football. But its a great school in a great location with excellent merit aid options.

12551

Regarding downsizing - not yet. We still have our younger son at home for five more years. What we will be doing, however, is converting D17’s room into an office/den. Our house was the right size when we were a family of three, but then we had a 2nd, and we’ve been a tad cramped. Unfortunately, Colorado’s housing market is so overpriced and because we were impacted pretty hard by the recession, we had to stay put. Is it selfish to say I’m looking forward to having a little bit of breathing room in the house again?

Anyways…we’re going to get rid of her bed and replace it with a futon couch, ditch the dressers and redo her closet so it has drawers and shelves (thank you, IKEA!) It will become hubby’s work from home center and a place to watch TV or house overnight guests when D17 isn’t home.

12552

When we looked at Emory a lot of the merit seemed tied to GA students and more regional base like they didn’t want my Yankee D.

12553

@4beardolls I honestly can’t remember why I thought something had changed w/ regard to merit, but I got the feeling that merit was getting/had gotten much harder to get. Maybe it had to do with the OOS component that @Dolemite mentions. That very well could have been. I’ll look back at my 1200 Google Docs and see if I can remember. :-B

12554

Emory is still on our short list. I think the atmosphere may be a tad to competitive for my D - but we haven’t visited so I may be way off base. However ATL is appealing to her.

12555

My FIL taught at Emory years ago. I think the campus is really pretty. I just can’t get past the sticker price… Yikes!

DS17 picked up his class schedule today. He is not too happy math is right after lunch… His ADHD starts to wear off about then…he would be much better with a class he actually is interested in at the time of day.

I talked to a number of parents at the school while we were there. I was surprised but all of them have already decided where they are going and only one is staying in Georgia and that’s for SCAD. Looks like the problem getting into UGA and GT is causing bright kids to go OOS with Merit.

12556

I think this is day 23 of the Great Transcript Mystery. I remain unconvinced that the registrar exists. The GC stopped responding to my emails once I mentioned transcripts.

12557

@MichiganGeorgia How did those parents know where their kids were going, and that they got merit? Isn’t it a little too early for that?

12558

@2muchquan I thought Emory was one of the most beautiful campuses on our tour last summer. The school was too diverse for my DD and husband. It is an excellent school in my opinion, but merit was an issue as well.

12559

First day of school and I FORGOT TO TAKE THEIR PICTURE! I’m so mad at myself-this is the last year that they’ll be going to school together. Sigh. I’ll have to get the picture when they get home this afternoon. I woke up with a stomach bug this morning so I’m feeling blechy, but still! I think my mind is refusing to wrap itself around the idea of this being the last year they’re in school together.

Oh, H explained mathematically how “range” works and that just because D17 is outside the range for College of Charleston doesn’t mean there aren’t kids there with her numbers. I am a dummy when it comes to math.

I’m keeping the College of Charleston on the list for D18 because I love everything I’ve read about it, and D18 wants to stay in the south (D17 does not), and I’m going to be calm about D17’s current choices and stop looking.

Even if she got no money to University of Maryland College Park and had to pay OOS costs, we could afford it (it’s our max, though) with downsizing and me working full time (which I can once I get my BA).

So worst case scenario is she doesn’t make NMSF; hates UA (possible?), gets rejected from MIT, Olin, gets into NEU, WPI, Drexel, UM and UR but with no money (which makes them a no), but gets into UMDCP, we can still pay for it with some small loans for D.

QOTD: What’s your worst-case scenario right now for acceptances & rejections?

@payn4ward when we downsize the girls will have to share a room and a bathroom in the next house. They will always be welcome home, but “home” will be not quite as cushy as it is now because H and I would like to travel, and I’m tired of cleaning the house constantly and the upkeep associated with the scale of the house (three air conditioners, two water heaters, sprinkler system for the yard that is a constant pain and uses too much water, five toilets, it’s a lot. We live in a very inexpensive area and we bought during the great recession, so it’s not a million dollar house or anything, but it is a lot to keep up with).

This is my dream home that I’d like to build someday:

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/modern-piling-loft-style-beach-home-plan-44073td

H would rather set his hair on fire than build a house, but I’ll keep working on him. To me that house is simple, beautiful, and perfect…

Last night D17 was working on the Common App (not on her to-do list, but I wasn’t going to say no) and was getting super pissy at me for not remembering all of her honors stuff from 9th grade till now. I was like, I told you to save all of those certificates you kept bringing home! And she’s like, that’s your job! (I kinda agree with that, but I also don’t keep paperwork-I should have scanned it in). I said she needed to step back from the common app for a while and focus on the stuff she does need to get done. She is working on a provisional patent application with her grandfather, and she’s dragging her feet on it, so I redirected her back to that and to studying for the SAT 2’s that are less than 2 months away. Boy was she cranky.

@oldbrookie we won’t get any need-based financial aid. From what I read isn’t Cornell not close to a city?

I think I’ve made peace with the 9 she has, especially when I look at what it takes to really do a good job with each of the applications in addition to the common app stuff, and I need to look at scholarship stuff and figure out which ones she needs to write essays for. I think I’d rather have her do a really good job with 9 and know that we can definitely afford at least 2 and those 2 are also admit-safeties as well, than overextend herself and be “apped-out”.

@Ynotgo wrote

This is the stuff that makes me so happy as a parent :).

@2muchquan Emory is a good school and we like it, but D17 does not want to stay in Georgia, and Emory is mostly known (locally) for the strength of its medical offerings, not so much the CS, especially with GA Tech in the same area. The area around Emory is awesome. Walkable, lots of character, TONS of cool restaurants, just beautiful. There are a lot of yankees there, and a strong Jewish representation as well (one of my closest friends from MA-her younger sister went there). The Zell miller merit aid for Emory (for the in state high stats kids) is not that great and most of the Zell kids don’t go there.

12560

@2muchquan - The ones I talked to are going to colleges where there is automatic merit aid for example Auburn. We are talking about the gifted kids, top 20 in the class of 400 (this is not my DS…lol) so even though they don’t have their admittance yet there is no doubt they will get it. The SCAD girl has some sort of pre admit.