Catching up from vacation. Lots of real life things to do when we got home.
{{{Hugs}}} to @greeny8 and other parents with DC16s and older heading far away.
School starts Monday. DS went to school yesterday to advertise his clubs to the new freshmen getting their schedules and to get his schedule. He did get his ID card, but the long line for schedules wasn’t moving much at all. His schedule is already on the online grading portal, so he gave up on the line. I see the check for a senior T-shirt is still in his backpack.
The teachers are listed online but not the classrooms. He knows where his 2 engineering classes are, so he just has to figure out where the other two classes are. He has guesses for both. He’s happy to have the same English teacher for AP Lit that he had in 9th grade. There’s only one AP Gov’t teacher and one AP Econ teacher, so no surprises there.
He was working on his Common App essay some this morning…
How many essays? About 40 for 16 colleges. Ouch! Two EA applications due Nov. 1. But, he only has 4 classes until Sept 24. Most of his schools don’t have non-restrictive EA.
Resume: S has had a 2-page resume with topics for “Science & Engineering Activities,” “Computer Science Activities,” “Math Activities,” and “Other Activities.” I’m thinking he needs to move to one organized more like Research, Teaching/Mentoring, Honors, and Publications. Or “Academics, Skills, Extracurriculars, Awards & Achievements, Research Experience, and Community Service” as @CT1417 posted way back in #13497. I haven’t really thought it through to advise him on changes.
DH is used to CV-type resumes for the hiring he does, and says 2 pages is fine for the amount of things DS should list. So far, DS has used his resume successfully for summer programs, getting his research job, and the UC program he’s in. There is at least one college on his list that asks specifically for a 1-page resume, so he needs to create another version.
Summer reading: No summer homework at our school. DS says his summer program friends are soooo jealous. He’s already read a number of the books y’all mentioned on his own. All my old SciFi books live in bins in his bedroom. The only dystopian novel he hadn’t already read on a list an earlier teacher gave them to choose from was Handmaid’s Tale. I loved Brave New World and 1984. They changed my life, actually.
OK, he hasn’t read Crime & Punishment. I don’t think I even finished C&P when it was assigned for World Lit in college. I had influenza then, and was barely making it to class. I started identifying too much with the main character who has a fever for a lot of the book.
And, “Wuthering Heights” is probably not his idea of fun reading.
Wisdom teeth: DS now has an appointment for getting his out the first day of winter break. Luckily, he only has the top two and they aren’t complicated to remove. @CA1543, etc Good luck to others having them taken out!
Siblings at school: My kids are 4 years apart, so not likely to be in undergrad together. Too bad, because they are really good friends in addition to siblings. I suspect that S17’s safeties may be C21’s reaches–or a whole other set of schools that have Art/Film majors.
Kids reading CC: He’s read a few threads that show up on Google searches about certain essay questions. I share some things I read here. He knows there are crazy people here from what I tell him about other threads. (Not our thread, because we are friendly and awesome parents here! >:D< )
Schools on list and visits: Welcome @dcolosi – we’ve visited 8 of the 16 colleges on his list. Enough to know that he’s mainly interested in the physics and CS departments, research available there, and having plenty of kids who are smarter than him. Architecture, school size, food, and dorms haven’t been important factors for whether he will apply. He’ll do more visits after he knows where he’s admitted.
30+ years ago, I applied to 3 schools and ended up attending a school I didn’t even apply to. I didn’t tour any of them before or after admittance.
Reaction from family and friends: With friends, mostly it’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Or, “Several UCs and some others.” My sister has an S17 whose entire list is 2 colleges; our number of colleges seems at the other extreme. I’m surprised on DH’s side, but grandparents haven’t asked much. My parents are gone, but they never had a clue about remembering his age.
Dorms: The dorms he’s stayed in at Boulder and UNLV were fairly nice. That said, he wasn’t put off by the teeny, tiny dorms at Caltech, so I don’t think dorm quality is a big factor for him. I don’t think DS has seen a double converted to a triple; I’ve heard Berkeley is doing a lot of this.
School policies about college visits: Ooo, this is one I’m pretty frustrated about. Our school only “excuses” absences for the list of reasons @VickiSoCal listed in post #13921. We get a truancy letter after some number of unexcused absences and called into the principal’s office for some number after that. I’ve taken to calling most things “an appointment.” Otherwise, the 4 proctored tests and finals for his online math class and the interview for the UC program he’s in would have been unexcused. His hacking team got unexcused absences for attending national competitions and awards at NYU and CMU since the school doesn’t provide a teacher adviser or chaperone for the team.
I’m guessing most kids just get called in sick for accepted student’s events. I’m not that good at lying about the reason. They are pretty lax about requiring notes for being sick. I hate it when schools make it difficult to stay home sick, because I don’t want sick kids getting my kids sick.
Who made The List? S set the parameters–research university with strong physics and CS programs. Nerdy student population required. Our list is mostly UCs plus privates in CA. We limited the ones outside CA to ones he would choose over the UCs. List is informed by various lists of top physics programs for undergrad and grad.
I made the list and DH made a similar list that mostly agreed. I’ve tried to add a few maybes to the list, but they aren’t resonating with DS. GC looked over the list last spring and said it seemed varied enough and fit him well.
My D didn’t mind it either though she knew I already knew it all too.