QOTD- D17 has lived in 3 states. We have been here the longest and are going on 10 years. We never thought we would be here this long and have stayed for the schools. Looking forward to our next and final move!
Diversity (or lack thereof) according to greatschools.org our school is 82% white and 8% asian. I’m surprised those numbers aren’t higher. Looking forward to S seeing a different slice of the world at college.
QOTD: Have my kids grown up in same general area. Yes. We lived 10 years in one house and now 10 years in this house about 15 miles away. Its very much like @Mom2aphysicsgeek talks about here, generations of families attending the same school, pride and rivalries, everyone “goes away” (2 whole hours!) to college and comes right back and starts a family, etc. What makes it weird for us is that I’m not from here and H didn’t go to “this state’s” schools, so our kids haven’t been fully immersed in the culture.
QOTD – My kids have grown up in one place BUT we have family elsewhere & they have traveled quite a bit. Still they know our community by far the best.
QOTD: we have lived here her entire life. H moved around almost every two years as a military kid and he wanted to see what it was like to stay in one place.
We are in a big metro area and it is shocking to me that there are generations who have lived here and co sided it their place. The kids grow up, go to school within a 4 hr radius and seem to come back to raise families… And the kids who ruled the roost in high school return to rule as PTA and sports team mom’s lol.
Hopefully that will not happen here. We are ready to move and havs new adventures.
I haven’t figured out what the point is in our listing the demographics but since it continues I will play. What are we trying to figure out with this? S17’s school is not diverse. S17 figured this out long ago which is why I think he is so intrigued by large urban schools.
Demographics:
80.8 % White
10.9% Asian
6.0 % Black/ African American
2.2% Hispanic
0.1% Indian
@carachel2 S17 has our state flagship on the list because it is supposed to be his safety. Safety in that 100% of the students from his school are accepted absent any infractions on their record or self reported. He was fine with it being on the list in case something went terribly wrong and he was not accepted to any other school on his list. We toured two weeks ago and it couldn’t have gone worse. I would actually be willing to let him skip that application all together because if that were his only choice, it’s not a school is he going to be happy about attending. It would be misery for him. I can sympathize with your saying your daughter does NOT want to apply. I regret doing the visit because he was willing to apply to it happily as a safety and now it’s more of the “if my world goes to hell” scenario. It is what it is and it will work out however it’s supposed to in the end.
QOTD: S17 spent the first 7 years of his life in the northeast and has lived in the south the last 10 years. It’s a very eclectic city with young people moving here for college and never leaving (NC has many really great colleges) and older people retiring to the golf courses from the mid-west and northeast.
QOTD: Pretty much the same spot their whole lives. We lived in two houses over 20 years less than a mile apart in the same small town. S17 open enrolled to a neighboring district as a HS freshman and we moved to that district after D14 graduated in time for D’s sophomore year. But it was a move of about 15 miles.
H grew up without moving and never wanted to make the kids “start over” although I always dreamed of that opportunity growing up. D couldn’t wait to go away where no one would have any previous knowledge of her and S is really only looking at places where that would be the case as well.
Rhodes sounds awesome @stlarenas. I’m starting to realize how much better off my D would have been if I’d found CC in 2013.
@paveyourpath I think the demographic information has been interesting. The neighborhoods our kids grow up in can play a role in our view of the world. A lot of schools on D’s list have diversity questions asking exactly that…how has where you grew up, attended school, etc. shaped you as a person. Anyway, it started when another poster honestly (thank you for not being PC!) stated that her student was looking for more homogeneity in a college than what exists at Emory, which prides itself on its diversity.
@itsgettingreal17 I think D17 is in the same boat, NMSF-wise. She’ll either make it or miss it by one point. I’m trying to be sanguine about it, but it does change some of our options if she does not get it.
There’s another thread about seniors “soiling the nest” (which I’ve also read about in other places). D is doing that, but she’s directing it toward her younger sister. I’m like, you are not allowed to take out your anxieties on your sister-you need to learn to deal with the stress of this year in a rational and constructive manner because I’m sick of the sniping. I wish she would take up some kind of physical exercise, because that’s how I get my b****ness out. But you can lead a horse to water, sign her up for a gym membership, yadda yadda yadda. [-(
@CT1417 I only read CC when I’m on my phone-it’s too hard to type on that little screen. I don’t sign in on my phone, so when I get home I tend to sign in (so I’m always at the last point read on here) speed read through the stuff that I’ve already read to find the stuff I want to respond to. I need a physical keyboard. I really wish we had a way to bookmark individual posts so I remember to come back to them, but I have to rely on my memory.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek wrote
We’ve made a herculean effort to stay put for the kids, and they’ve been in the same school system since halfway through 4th (D17) and 3rd (D18) grade. Before that we were in another county in a public school system (elementary was good, middle was a toilet, hs was mediocre), and a private school for K and halfway through 1st (they weren’t learning anything, it was hella expensive, and the parents were bajillionaires that we couldn’t identify with socially). This is our 6th house.
I realized that my very rootless (and occasionally homeless-we had to move a lot due to finances) childhood was driving me to continually move and change (repeating patterns), and I put a stop to my behavior because it wasn’t good for the girls (or our savings). We picked a good house, good school system, and good neighborhood, and we’ve stayed put since then (8 years in the same house and counting). However, the two of us are restless souls and enjoy picking up and moving around, so we are literally champing at the bit to get out and explore again as soon as the girls are in college.
H’s family has been here since the early 80’s, and they still own the same house. They used to move a lot for FIL’s job until MIL said ‘enough’ back in the 80’s. H moved here at the start of freshman year when he was 14. Huge cultural shift for him, and he does not recommend it.
@paveyourpath wrote
Sheer curiosity :).
I have to say, one of my metrics when looking at colleges is that the D’s not be surrounded by a bunch of trustfundian kids. I like meritocracies.
Where the kids have grown up: No, though we’ve been in Alaska for several years now, and they all claim it as where they’ve grown up. The younger two have no memories (well, D21 has some possible vague ones) of living in Florida, but both D17 and D19 have pretty solid memories of being there (and, for D17, how she believed we’d totally ruined her life when we moved, what with ripping her away from her friends and all). Also, D17 has a couple very fleeting memories of where we lived before Florida, but not much at all.
Moving with a large family: My wife’s family is scattered across the world, but my extended family basically all lived within a 20-mile radius of where I grew up. (No, really—and that may be a large estimate.) My parents were considered really, really odd by our relatives for sending their kids to college, and particularly when that meant my siblings and I scattered away from that area afterward. The next generation of the extended family started sending their kids to college, though, and I’d say about half have scattered, about half still live in the area—so I think there’s now a recognition that economics are economics, and in our present world you have to go where the jobs are. Of course, huge triennial family reunions and occasional other trips there have helped keep connections not necessarily strong, but viable.
QOTD gone meta: I always assumed my “bookishness” (to use mom’s term) was a function of my childhood (something like 8 schools in 7 years). I was happy to have put down roots so my kids could have a different experience, yet both of them turned out much like me, but with the benefit of long-term friendships.
QOTD: We are boring and have lived in the same house since 5 years before S17 was born. Because of the way property tax is structured in Calif, it would be very expensive for us to move to an equivalent house elsewhere in town or the state. Not that many families are 2nd generation here; most adults we known grew up elsewhere and there was little built here until after 1960.
I’m going to join in on these questions. According to greatschools my high school was 95% white, 2% black, 2% Hispanic and 1% asian. I will say that the Asian population has grown considerably over the past few years and it’s probably closer to 3 or 4% while there are less than a dozen black kids in a school of over 1,000. My college is more diverse-it’s the most diversity I’ve ever seen. I’d say it’s about 70% white and about 15% black, 10% Hispanic, and 5% Asian/middle eastern. I have lived in the same house my entire life. A lot of people in this area (especially the more wealthy ones) seem to have strong roots here but my mom is from less than an hour away and my dad is originally from Virginia where he lived until his twenties. However I am very strongly attached to both my family and this place so I plan to remain in the area after college. As it is, I’m going less than an hour away.
Gosh, I would love that so much. :x
Our county is growing so fast we’ve been living in a construction zone since 2012. We moved here in 2008 (during the great recession) and it was so quiet and nice. Now we’re constantly dodging cement trucks and every week a beautiful field full of horses and cows is razed to sprout identical houses crowded together with nary a tree to be seen. It makes me super sad. The D’s HS was 1800 kids when they started-four years later it’s at 3200. Just over it. Stop coming here. We full.
QOTD: Lower Manhattan since pre-9/11. They’ve seen the best of times, the worst of times, and they best of times again.
@MotherOfDragons There is a lot of construction here now after years without, which makes little sense because we have no surplus water. But some gov’ts approved a lot of stuff during the recession that didn’t get built until now when financing is available.
The condos being built are so expensive that, except for a few they have to set aside for low income, it is difficult to see how families with kids will afford them. Our schools have declining enrollment, and S’ high school has gone from 2400 to getting close to 2000 over the last several years. (Part of that is that the other 2 high schools are not so bad anymore, so fewer transfers.)
Time to catch up!
@picklesarenice (BTW, I love pickles of all sorts) - yes, on campus visit reports!
Demographics/diversity: D17’s school is fairly small and is tuition-based. Reasonable racial/ethnic diversity, far less so on the socioeconomic front, for obvious reasons. However, it does a commendable job with need-based aid.
Downsizing: Lots of will, no time. There was a recent editorial in the NYT that suggested that the ability and willingness to declutter has a social class dimension.
Essays/summer work: D17 finally shared her common app essay with me. Yes, I am her mother, but still it made me cry, in a good way. It is a clean, honest, self-assessment that meets the criteria of “if you found it on the floor and picked it up, would you know who wrote it?” Her GC will vett it but I doubt it will need any significant changes.
As for the rest, we have been traveling constantly for the last 2.5 weeks, first college visits and then family vacation. The next ten days before school starts will be devoted to finishing summer reading, prepping for the September ACT and maybe starting some supplemental essays, as time permits. She has settled on a list of about 8-9 schools, only the 9th still not yet firm. Anybody want to compare the merits of Denison/College of Wooster/St Olaf? (Don’t worry, I’m going to start a separate thread for this!)
Worst case scenario: Speaking purely from a college admissions POV:
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that she gets a real and/or financial rejection from her top choice. There is a clear front runner at present. OR, that she gets in, we can afford it, and then upon visiting when classes are in session she says, “what was I thinking?”
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State flagship where she’d get full tuition, and probably a full ride (separate application), based on her stats. This is hardly a dire fate; she’d make it work. It would be a poor fit, though, and we are blessed enough to be able to afford other options.
I missed the original question but our HS probably has as many mixed raced kids as single race. This is how the school has it divided.
Caucasian 45%
Asian 40%
Hispanic 8%
Black 4%
Other 3%
My children were born in the US and are just like any other US born kids. My husband and I are different races. My in-laws are different races. Members of our family (grandparents, cousins, etc) identify with a variety of religions. Living in So Cal, race, ethnicity and religion aren’t an issue.
This is a big factor for my family when it comes to choosing a college. My children want to attend a college with diversity but not where ethnic or religious groups are segregated or stereotyped. This is part of the reason that we have toured so many schools. Every admissions representative or college brochure will talk about diversity but I think you need to spend some time on the campus to get a feel of what it is really like.
Still so far behind…
@Ynotgo – thanks for that link. I am a little skeptical of some of the figures, but according to that gov’t site, the HS is 91.9% White, 4.4% Hispanic. 2.2% Asian, and there are nine Black students. The school has an ABC House in town, so there are a few Black girls attending the HS, but I would not have thought nine. Also, the Asian figure seems low, but the data is now three years old so perhaps that explains the discrepancy. Seven students are eligible for free lunch.
RE: mobility. The boys have lived in the same house since the day they returned from the hospital. There is a bit of within town movement, and people definitely move in and out for relocations, but the arrival of a new student in the HS is noteworthy. Families move here to raise their children and try to remain until the children all finish HS. (NYC commuter town.)
I did not grow up here but in a fairly similar town an hour away (or more, with traffic). My mother has been in the same house for 40 years but that is less common for my HS friends’ parents, many of whom have downsized or moved to a lower cost area.
RE: Worst Case Scenario–I haven’t gone there yet. We are full pay and he should be NMSF, but he still does not have a clear application strategy. Testing is all completed, resume looks good, the pieces are all there…but he does need to sit down and just get to work on the essays. He had two interviews this past week and another on Monday, so I am hoping this lights a fire under him. I am not optimistic though b/c whenever I noticed what he was reading during our many hours of airport down time or on airplane time, it was usually a math text book on his teeny tiny phone screen. (How does one read equations on that tiny screen?) I assume the math has something to do with his cryptography research, but it may just be for fun. He carried around his summer reading book and still has not completed it after a week of travel.
The remainder of August will include a lot of nagging…
I recall reading earlier this week about the onslaught of emails after the CA opened. 48 emails arrived in five days. They do not come into my phone so I hadn’t really noticed how many arrive. Am guessing that this pace will continue for the remainder of the year. Should sit and unsubscribe from some of these.
QQTD Have your kids grown up in same general area for most of their lives?
Yes & in the same house. I think this is part of what motivates them to leave the immediate area for college. D12 went almost as far away as possible. (The opposite coast) S17 wants to stay in the west but nowhere local.
It’s odd since both my husband & I moved frequently growing up. Very different experience for them.
But like @Ynotgo my city didn’t exist before the 1970’s. Everyone here is from elsewhere. Well except my kids. 
But unlike her my city is still growing.
WOTD: “Sanguine” :-B
QOTD: Yes, we’ve lived in the same area, but 3 homes, since having kids. We like the cultural diversity that the kids have had growing up. Chinese school when they were small. Chinatown not too far. Lots to do and experience, some of which would be difficult in other places. That’s why we’ve endured the crappy weather. Hoping she ends up at a place with lots of new experiences, but I guess that’s just what’s gonna happen at college.