lol I skipped right over the wisdom teeth! My kids either have no wisdom teeth at all or do not need them removed, so no help from me with that situation!
Specialty or pointy kids are very desired by elite schools. I think the society does need these extreme specialists to introduce major breakthroughs. So I agree elite colleges should pay great attention to them. However my D’17 is just a very well rounded kid who doesn’t win any top competitions nor invent anything at young age. She gets top grades on calc BC, AP physics and chem, and at the same time top scores on Apush and ap English. She gets full scores on science and math subject tests and also perfect score on sat essay. She is not a recruited athlete, but she loves her field hockey teammates and enjoy every single game even when they lose more than they win. She doesn’t have any significant accomplishment overcome any major life obstacles, but she cooks and cleans when I am not home, drives her younger brother to places and remember all his appointments better than I do. She always go for extra credit and/or tough projects and try for perfection. At the same time she spends tons of time watch Netflix, YouTube and learn now to make a new cake or a new hairdo or a new makeup. She is a just very normal good student. I hope those school will value this kind of applicants too.
@itsgettingreal17 On the one hand, yes, I agree that I probably overstated the “out of reach” aspect, but as @CA1543 points out, each application - especially if a kid is really putting her/his heart and soul into it - takes a lot of time and energy. I’m not saying that 1-2 “shoot the moon” applications aren’t worthwhile (heck, if my D still wants to apply to MIT, I would not say ‘no, you can’t’ if there was something particular to that mega-reach school she would be upset if she hadn’t explored the ‘what if’ of.) But, I would want to make sure she had a clear-eyed view of the odds against her as an unhooked 25% percentile applicant, and bias the preponderance of her list towards schools where she had what seemed like a more reasonable chance.
While lists and rankings don’t mean a lot, I do enjoy looking at the various way schools get ranked by different organizations. Today, the web site Business Insider came out with their top 50. They use a very different metric, post school wages and happiness weigh a lot. In case you are intrigued…
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-colleges-in-the-united-states-2016-8?op=0#/#50-babson-college-1
@WhereIsMyKindle and @stlarenas – we at the moment are very nervous about the wisdom teeth removal experience and aftermath – school lurks son, DS has low pain threshold but is a scientist so he is worried about effects of meds (laughing gas, Valium etc.) etc. and we want to go see a couple of colleges 5-6 days after the surgery – may not work out. And of course he has another book to read before school starts (3 required by AP Lit over summer) and lots of other summer HW.
@thermom – yes lots of time and energy and still they – and most have low probability of success - so can we tamp down expectations while encouraging their strong effort be put into the reach apps and then no matter what be ok with it? It is harder though is there is a family connection to a school, a student’s passions to go to a particular college that is a reach or lottery for nearly anyone. In STEM areas though I confess I am surprised there are so many foreign students at the upper tier schools and wonder why not more Americans (including of course Asian Americans)? Are our kids competitive - are they at an advantage or disadvantage?? 
@CA1543 S17’s wisdom teeth were removed 3 weeks ago. Lots of ice for the first 6 hours helped because there was minimal swelling. We were warned that day 3 things would seem to be heading in the wrong direction but that would be normal. Glad we had that warning because there was slight discoloration, pain and some headaches on Day 3. When he woke up on Day 4 he was back to normal but bored with his assortment of dining options. We were on a plane exactly one week later and he was perfectly fine to travel. Keep him hydrated. Good luck to him!
@CA1543 — good luck with the wisdom teeth. Both of my boys had their teeth removed and both w/o incident. Older son is more stoic and he was completely fine within 36 hours. Younger son had his out two summers ago, just seven days before we dropped older son at school for first time. IIRC, the oral surgeon wanted to see him one week post-surgery but we had to move that up a day b/c of college move-in. He was fine, and he takes longer to bounce back from things. Hope your son’s experience is as hassle-free.
Thanks @paveyourpath – really appreciate you taking the time to let me know how it played out and what to watch for and do! Fingers are crossed we’ll all get through this in a few days.
Here is the list of Stamps schools, some of you may be considered for one and not even realize it.
http://www.stampsfoundation.org/partners/#wheretoapply
Gosh, I wonder what the Caltech winners look like? D wanted to add Caltech to her list and I told her no because our EFC was too high. Now it goes on the /Out of Reach/Reach for the Stars/Highly Unlikely/If you have time to waste/ list.
I just made an appointment to get my D17 wisdom teeth out over winter break! I appreciate all the advice and wish those getting ready to go through the process the best of luck.
I enjoy reading about everyone’s lists and all of the feedback. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I think that there are some schools that are reaches / lotteries for everyone, no matter what the stats of the students. I see that on our school Naviance reports (which I value very much since they are the only data point for me that matters since it reflects students from our school results) - very high GPA, very high ACT score kids may be rejected, while a lower stat kid is accepted. I tend to think that the accepted student brought something special to the school that the school needed as they are building their community … and of course the student spent quality time on the application.
We go back to school tomorrow, it’s going to be brutal. Early start, long days ahead for everyone!
Did anyone see all the fuss on the Ole Miss Dorms? Nicer than anything I could have done for sure! http://www.today.com/home/once-drab-dorm-room-now-epitome-high-design-t101938
Business Insider’s list: For a list that purports to be focused on outcomes (e.g., salaries), they sure place a lot of focus on inputs (e.g., SAT score and graduation rate—there is, by the way, a confound there). Also, even aside from the Department of Education’s salary numbers being suspect for at least the top schools, they reward heavy tuition discounting and disadvantage sending graduates to grad school (except, possibly, certain professional programs).
Basically, I’m unimpressed.
Nevermind, I found a Caltech Stamps winner, he co-authored research papers with Harvard researchers.
Caltech goes back on the “No, you can not there apply there.” list.
I’m baffled by the number of high schooler Co authoring papers these days. How does that happen? When I was in grad school my advisor wouldn’t even let undergrads work in his group. All his coauthors were post doc, grad students or fellow profs.
Weird question: For listing sibling names on applications, does it have to be the legal name?
DC21 is a transboy, but has a legal name that is female. We aren’t ready to make any legal changes to his name at this point. Does S17 need to use DC21’s legal name (which offends DC21, but we needn’t mention it to him, I guess) on the form? DC21’s school has both names in his record. (We aren’t eligible for financial aid, so won’t be filling out those forms.)
@greeny8 @payn4ward @IABooks @stlarenas Thank you for the warm welcome! The CASPERS thing, LOL! Seriously though, I think she’s just overwhelmed. I asked her if she wanted to take a year off and her answer of course was, “I don’t know.” Oy. I know I want her to be fairly close because she’s pretty intense and I’d like to be able to get to her quickly. If she doesn’t pick something soon, I may just make a case for where I’d like her to go. #pushymother
She has a college app workshop at her school tomorrow after field hockey preseason practice, hopefully her counselor will hear something from her!
Silly college mailings with a silver lining
I think D’s gotten less mail than most, which could be due to my lightning-fast unsubscribe finger, or maybe the schools just don’t care about her. There was more than usual today:
[ul]
[] A couple of cards/emails from schools where she’s expressed interest (including CWRU her most insistent stalker). Meh, that’s fine.
[] A booklet from USC (the CA one!) college of engineering. I think this is the first she’s ever received straight from the college of engineering of any university. At least they paid attention to the major she picked on the PSAT form. Lots of schools don’t seem to look at that.
[] An invitation to attend a local event for Caltech, MIT, Pomona, and Yale (none of which she’s expressed any interest in). I really want to reply “Thank you for thinking of me in your time of need. I am willing to help you lower your selectivity ratings, but I will need to be compensated. Please send me your best offer post-haste.” $-)
[] A “Special Snowflake” application offer from CU-Denver (again – never showed interest). I must have too much time on my hands. Not only did I check to verify that the “benefits” of the snowflake app were no different from the normal one (No essay! No LoR’s! Quick response time! etc.), but I forwarded the email to myself and wrote them a half-clueless sounding email (unfortunately that style comes easily to me…) inquiring about what “unique benefits” set this app apart.
[li] And I almost tossed the one useful postcard along the others. She keeps getting mail from Regis, a Jesuit school in Denver that she’s not interested in. I just happened to turn the card over before tossing it and it looks there is a “Jesuit Schools on Tour” thingie and Gonzaga will be there. She’s actually signed up for a Gonzaga visit (which we will very likely cancel due to visit/money exhaustion). I am wondering why Gonzaga didn’t tell her about this since we’re in their system.[/li]
[/ul]
Well said. D is applying to her #1 choice mythical merit school, but we spend a lot more time talking about her strong target #2 choice and we’re both pretty excited about it. I’ve practically convinced S18 to apply there too (and he doesn’t even have a list yet!)
@CA1543 Good Luck on the wisdom teeth surgery. While I don’t recommend doing anything the first few days post wisdom teeth removal. Most teens bounce back fairly quickly and you might be surprised and he will be touring colleges in a few days. Honestly I had two taken out (that were supposed to have been impacted) a few years back and it really wasn’t bad. Or maybe I was drugged up enough the first few days, I just don’t remember. 
S17 is lucky with his teeth. I honestly don’t know where he got his teeth from. He surprised the heck out of me when he got his first tooth at 3 months old. He hasn’t needed braces & his wisdom teeth are coming in with no problems. Just saw the dentist today, and all 4 have broken through.
@Ynotgo I’d put down DC21’s chosen name. I don’t even get why any school is asking about siblings.
@VickiSoCal in my S17’s particular situation, he worked in the same research lab for 3 consecutive summers, gradually acquiring the skills and knowledge base to help the grad student in meaningful ways. He participated in weekly team meetings, presented his work in a number of venues, and in one (lucky) instance won the state competition and got to compete on a national level. His experience has (at least at this point) inspired him to pursue studies in the field. In any event, the experience, for him, was real and growthful. The paper coauthorship was just a (very nice) culminating happenstance for him.
D recently had to stay in a hotel room by herself in another city as her evening flight was canceled and she had to wait for the next day. I was a little worried. “Do you know how to lock the door?” She was in her element, even got her flight moved up to a better arrival time the next day.
Maybe she is ready to go. I need to let go!!