@STEM2017 - Thanks for giving some perspective, and @MotherOfDragons, I am so sorry to hear about the suicide.
Just today I was just talking to a friend, whose daughter had to defer starting college because of health problems, and we were saying that oftentimes people (myself included) have no idea what a “worst case scenario” really looks like until it stares them in the face.
@paveyourpath again, you are taking what I am saying in the wrong way or I am once again not doing a good job of explaining what I mean. The people that we all have met that act very entitled and don’t have to work for a darn thing, those are the trust fund kids that I am talking about. I have plenty of trust fund friends who are the most wonderful people and don’t take anything for granted.
Words: As a linguist, @2muchquan and @paveyourpath, my usual rubric for whether something is a word in a language is the following: (1) Did a native speaker of the language use it? (2) If yes, do native speakers generally understand it? (3) If yes, it is a word in that language—so yes, trustfundian totally appears to qualify.
(Note: Strictly speaking, part one of the rubric doesn’t actually have to be answered with a yes, but rather only with a potential yes—but that gets us quickly into sticky philosophy of language territory, and so I’ll leave it as it is.)
Bolding: @CT1417, it helps me to have done a lot of HTML coding back in my grad student days—BBCode is just a weakened form of HTML that uses square rather than angled brackets. Also, if I use any of it, I always hit preview before posting.
Quarters: Some schools call their quarters trimesters, but that usage has dropped over the past decades, I suspect in part because it has become a highly politically charged term in a different context. The use of quarters does make sense, though, when you count summer term along with the other three.
S17 isn’t sure yet how he feels about Dartmouth’s D-Term. It’s one of the schools still on the list but D-term and location have kept him from moving it from the yellow to the green zone. .
Today’s quiptastic joke (like the new word @dfbdfb? :)) ):
A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey.”
The horse says, “You read my mind, buddy.”
Correction to #12859 It’s the Turn Tartan Overnight weekend visit I was referring to. It’s intent is not as a fly-in program ; they offer fee waivers and will pay for travel for some students.
Taking my daughter to a local horse show today. So that joke is timely. 
@2muchquan Thanks for the joke and the new word! :)) You’ve outdone yourself this morning. 
@2muchquan Are you a bartender? If so, tell me where because I could use a cold one.
Too early for bar joke :))
I need coffee ~O)
@-) @-)
I referred to my college terms as ‘trymesters’ because I kept ‘trying’ to get good grades. Maybe I should have considered ‘trystudyingmesters’. @-)
Can you look at his personality? For instance, if you were to throw him in the dorm, would he be the hall president? Would he be the person with his door open all the time? Would he be the person cramming for the test at the last minute or the person who is organized with studying? Does he go for a morning run, afternoon run, play volleyball or any other social sport? Is he on social media or does he avoid it? Also, what about science and math does he like? Some are tinkerers and like to build things with their hands. Others are more theoretical. When he goes to camps, etc. how is he (or his group of friends) different from the masses - not necessarily in thoughts but in how they like to hang out?
Finally caught up… Again!
@MotherOfDragons So sorry about the student at your D’s school. It is heartbreaking.
I also like hearing about the college visits, even if S isn’t thinking about those schools. And please, keep up the “Jokes of the Day”!
Thanks @lkg4answers – Yes, I think the diversity essay will end up along those lines and I have some suggestions similar to those ready for when he gets to that essay and says he’s stuck. He worked on his Common App essay yesterday, but doesn’t have a draft ready to show yet.
(And yes, he does go for a morning or afternoon run and plays volleyball for fun.)
For fun I’m going to a local school information session for D17. She’s out of town, so I am all alone. I hope she can get ‘credit’ for going. I just re-stained the deck, so I could use an hour of air-conditioned comfort.
For the record, extortion-for-essays was a giant failure, and now he’s extra mad that I even asked him to write. I don’t even think he tried to come up with topics. I offered to be a sounding board if he was having trouble with a topic (since thats the hard part really). He said he’d need his gifted teacher to help with essays. I suggested he bounce topic ideas off her in an email (since ambushing her in class in the first days of school might not work well). He shot every suggestion down. He’s pretty much coming from a place where the school has led them to believe that they apply in Nov and Dec and everyone goes to Stanford. If I say anything different then I’m wrong and mean.
Realized we’re replicating the classic dynamic of our family. (I try to get things done. Nobody helps, so I get stressed and resentful. Everyone gets mad when I try to get them to help. Everyone blames me since they hate the final outcome.) (This is why I rarely cook dinner and why we never take family vacations.)
Passed the baton and BoD to H, and now I’ll have ice cream.
Living in same neighborhood: No, we’ve moved around a lot but we stayed in the East Bay Area except for a brief stint in Sacramento area. DDs time at her high school will be her longest at any one school. She did Pre-k thru 1/2 of 1st grade at a Catholic school; a few months of 1st grade at a public school before we moved to Sac; then the rest of 1st grade and all of 2nd at a public year round school; she started 3rd grade there then we moved and she did the rest of 3rd through 5th at a private Christian school. 6th and 7th were at a private independent school which closed so she did 8th at the public middle and is now in public HS. Looks crazy when I write it all out and glad she was able to maintain good grades throughout. I’m lucky she’s a kid who makes friends and fits in easily. My 10 year OTOH did K at a private independent school and started 1st at the public elementary where she still attends. She will start 5th grade soon. So more stable for her. We rent so could move easily but we live in high cost area and will probably continue to stay in this house after DD goes to college and through younger DDs middle school years. We live about 22 miles from where I grew up. I lived in 2 houses growing up in the same city but across town. My parents still live in the house they bought when I was 10.
@flatKansas I feel like I could have written the above post and just swapped he for she. That completely describes the dynamics of our family and my D attitude currently toward applications. Hang in there…I’m sure it is all going to work out. And at least you already have KU in the bag!
Apparently DD is finally staring apps! She texted me this morning for her SSN. Yay.
I have the weekly College Chat with D tonight, she says she’s almost done with last week’s list, but did gleefully bust me for mentioning it and I had to put another dollar in the swear jar. I will never have any cash for pedicures if I keep this up.
D18 is keeping up with the 30 minutes of Magoosh each night to prep for the PSAT in October, so that seems to be going along fairly well. Both like their classes this year, and both have lunch with either their best friend or boyfriend, so it’s been a good start so far for them. Fingers crossed that it continues as smoothly as possible.