@MotherOfDragons Our school doesn’t rank and it is listed on the school profile that this is district policy.
Thanks guys! (gender neutral) It’s not on her transcript, but I’ll try the school profile.
Starting this year in NY you have to get the meningitis vaccine before senior year. I’ve heard it on the radio. I had to get it for college-also a NY requirement which means now as long as your kid is over 16 when senior year starts, they don’t have to get it the summer before. Gardasil- we got those back in middle school.
@curiositycat333 unfortunately our school does, and more than 20% of the students have a 4.0 or better GPA, so it’s crazy competitive. 8-| (I found the school profile with the 20% stat, no info on whether class rank is weighted so I sent the gc an email).
Rank ranking: At our school it’s not weighted which sucks. When DS13 graduated some of the kids in the top of the class were kids who took NO advanced classes at all. There was one kid that was a complete shock because he had never even seen that kid before.
My sons naviance account does not list any of his test scores therefore you can’t do a graph comparing. Would anyone know what might be wrong
If a school says you can only apply to one school early decision can you apply to other early action programs
@flatKansas Yes, about Texas A&M. This is how it is worded: Sumbit SAT or ACT (including writing score). I just verified it in the how to apply sheet my son got from a session with an A&M admissions rep in June. I have tons of info from that session and others. PM me if you need more info. I’d be happy to help!
QOTD: Not pushing S to get essays done. He has a solid one (per teacher report; I haven’t seen it) that he worked on during a composition class last year for that specific purpose. At this point, we haven’t even finalized the actual list – waiting on NMSF possibilities – and he’s been swamped with homework, soccer, work and band. It’s only getting worse over the next couple of weeks before school starts. I hope he’ll have time then to incorporate some of this and think of it like homework. He’s balancing the most rigorous two HS classes he’s had (first APs) with a shop-type class, band and PE (plus of course a couple of regular classes), so I think it’ll work to wait. Although you all make me so anxious with all these reports of essay completion and apps submitted! ^:)^
During the school year my son is on autopilot. I don’t need to do anything. He’s truly amazing.
During the summer he tunes out and shuts down. That’s where we are now. I have to push hard for everything.
Give me strength!
@itsgettingreal17 I’m late, I know, but I hear your Friday rant. Although I wouldn’t think it to look at them, apparently this phenomenon is also an issue among co-workers. I have the same pet peeve and I don’t understand why, when you’re trying to communicate to customers, anyone wants to make the language as convoluted and opaque as possible.
Wow, I’m about caught up! In brief, we had a great vacation in Vermont and I will be writing a UVM review. I know a few other folks are interested.
Downsizing
Ha! We moved into the smallest, cheapest, most neglected house in a beautiful mountain neighborhood. (location location location). Living with three kids in a 3 BR 1900 sf house has been pretty tight. I’m just trying to decide how long I should wait to re-purpose their bedrooms after S18 leaves. 
Worst Case
D is rejected or doesn’t get needed merit at any target or reach schools. She doesn’t get WUE scholarship at WWU (which I’m considering a safety, but that could happen). So she has to decide between CU-Boulder and CSU. They’re both great colleges, just not what D is looking for in terms of location (too close!), size (too big!), and culture (too party/sporty/Greek!) I think she’d go to CSU (at least it’s more than 20 minutes away from home) and hopefully find her crowd and do fine. I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t have a few more choices, but it certainly wouldn’t be a disaster.
@picklesarenice, I’m interested in anything and everything you and your D have to say about Smith. It’s a reach for D, but she loves every single about it so far. It’s too bad you didn’t have a good tour. Ours was great. We had a regular guide and an apprentice guide (you’d never know she wasn’t a long-time guide) and one other mother-daughter pair. We felt like we learned a ton. So yes, do go on…
@eandesmom, have you asked around the “college majors” section for suggestions? If not, the good people of “Engineering” and “Science” might be able to help. I know Mesa is popular for kids from D’s HS engineering program who want to do ME (that’s all they have), but usually the plan is to start at Mesa for two years and then transfer to CU-Boulder. One of oldest D’s friends just graduated from Fort Lewis and loved it. She was a psychology and theater major, so can’t speak to your S’s major interests. Durango is supposed to be a lovely college town too. Interestingly, Fort Lewis has a very high population of Native American students – a URM practically invisible on most campuses.
@JenJenJenJen, I didn’t look into Colorado College for either D because they didn’t have the right programs. But I’ve only ever heard good things about the school.
@jedwards70 (and anyone else looking at TAMU)
Thank you so much. I was just about to PM you and beg for the info 
But I took one more stab at TAMU’s app instruction page and found a magic 8-ball type box where you can type in a question. That actually led me to a page that says as of 8/1/2016 they no longer require the writing!
So this explains why every other site still thinks they do. Its super recent. Huge relief for us as he has no time to take it before the EA deadline.
I am backing off. IB ee has her stressed out, plus the new counselor screwed up her schedule, so just not a good a time. I am confident that she will get everything done on time, just not early. I’m glad to know that we aren’t the only ones on this thread chasing reaches instead of merit. 
Pushing my daughter to get as many essays as possible done. She just spent a bit of time applying to 4 fly in programs but those are done. She has the Pitt app ready to submit and just waiting to receive her Senior year schedule.
Her school doesn’t start until after Labor Day but she’ll start Calculus at Penn the week before T-TH from 5-8pm and then later in September a class at Drexel on M-W 6-9 so she’s going to be stretched this fall.
@flatKansas I remember reading in several posts that it’s important to get your TAMU app in as SOON as possible after the app opens. Wish I could remember where I saw it but in any case it’s worth thinking about.
I want to push DD to work on her essays but she is still at her summer research internship. She has been busy there working on wrapping up her project, getting her poster done, and prepare for her presentation.
When she gets home next week, guess what will be the first thing she hears? :-@ %-(
Ib ee chemistry project update via text from my DD17. First day in lab went well. Refined procedure and did preliminary uv-vis spectrum and got results that showed that just 50 days in car glove compartment showed significant degradation of aspirin compared to control. Woo hoo!
Re: backing off / pushing.
School starts in 7 days, the 12th. D '17 hasn’t started any essays yet.
I am silently starting to freak out; mostly because of the over achievers here.
I guess I’m a stealth helicopter parent.
Also they may visit Franklin and Marshall College tommorrow unofficially. A school I know nothing about.