Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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@Atyraulove My d spent the summer at Ole Miss. Dh and I moved her in for first session so that we could do the usual visit things. Dd had two small suitcases for the entire summer. We saw girls moving in (high school girls, mind) with rugs and bedding ensembles including multiple throw pillows!

The dorm rooms were the largest and nicest I have ever seen (haven’t been to Alabama or ASU-Barrett). I can see how those rooms would support additional furniture, but I don’t know how large the rooms are in the older, traditional dorms.

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@SincererLove …that is pretty fantastic that she checked in, stayed by herself and arranging her flight!

Ds flight this summer was delayed by hours and hours in Newark and I was mentally trying to figure out what she was going to do if the flight got cancelled. Thank goodness it didn’t come to that. Did your D have a credit card to use for the room?

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@CA1543 wrote

That’s what we’re doing here. She’s doing the MIT application now, and she’s really focusing on it. But she (and we) understand that there needs to be some serious serendipity going on for it to work (including mastering the SAT 2 math 2). For us as her parents, the value is in shooting for something that’s pretty difficult and unlikely-the process is worthy.

It is by far the most difficult and involved of her applications, so she feels like getting it done well is an achievement in and of itself. Then it’s out of her hands and into the universe. If she’s supposed to go there, she’ll get in. If her path is another way, then that way will present itself.

@Ynotgo I would use the name that your kid plans on using when they apply to colleges :slight_smile:

My fitbit says I slept for 9 1/2 hours last night
~O) college is tiring for old people. :-"

14204

@MotherOfDragons – yeah that MIT is a bit of an investment in time & energy - we are not done yet – DS has written drafts of the supps, need to also arrange and prep for interview. Good luck on Math SAT 2 – the curve is generous which could help too. DS has to take Physics 2 SAT – Oct. is the goal. Need it for several schools given his interests in EE. But I peeked at the CalTech App and wow - don’t think he’ll go through that major investment of effort – & don’t think it would be a good fit even it the stars aligned. USC too will be an “undertaking” but thinking more likely to go our way.

@Ynotgo – I personally would put the legal name of DC but not tell DC – no idea if records are matched at all by colleges to anything else but would not want any potential hiccups.

@nw2this – thanks for the STAMPS link - had no idea really what it was or the schools that participate. Unlikely will impact us but very nice to see such a range of schools.

Thanks for the support on the wisdom teeth saga – will report back afterwards about my chipmunk - at least they do not grow back!!

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Apparently H and S had a discussion about his (lack of) progress on apps. S said something to H along the lines of he didn’t want to apply anywhere until he’d had a chance to visit.

I can’t even.

H reassures me that he disabused S of that crack-addled idea, but where the bleep was the “I want to visit” attitude 3 months ago when he was bleeping all over my suggestions to visit places?

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@vandyeyes that’s what I’m wondering, how does that happen? I literally don’t think there was a high school kid in our entire building over the summer in my grad school days. What changed?

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@stlarenas good luck to your d on the sept ACT, my ds will be taking it as well just to see if he can eek out 1 more point as it opens up a scholarship opportunity not available with his current score.

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@VickiSoCal - loy.of summer programs research activities lead to research papers. With college admissions becoming more and more competitive, researchers are willing to put HS kds names on the research papers to attract smarter kids into the research programs. However some kids use family connections to get their name on research papers. DS was involved with a clinical research and the professor initially told him that he shouldn’t expect his name in the research paper but he was impressed with his work that he added his name to the paper. Same with his current research position. Either kids are involved now a days or researchers are liberal or both.

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@MotherOfDragons I’m starting to dream that I’m being rejected from colleges or that my H is winning scholarships. :))

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Maybe my perspective is skewed in that my research required differential equations and Quantum Mechanics before you could even understand it.

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@MotherOfDragons & @CA1543 --RE: MIT app. Are your children completing this now b/c they will be applying EA or are they just organized students?

I haven’t actually looked at any of the apps, but know that son intends to apply to MIT, regardless of the outcome of SCEA app.

I fear that he is massively underestimating the time needed to complete these apps…

@Ynotgo – I just assumed that the reason the app asked sibling and parent info was to learn other college connections. If parent and older sibling both attended school A and application is to school B, the cynical part of me figures that will be a strike against admission to school B b/c school B will think the applicant will follow parent and older sibling to school A. But that is just my own opinion/guess. Having said all that, I would go with legal name and cross the bridge of what name to use when DC21 is applying.

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@carachel2 , she has a credit card we recently got for her under our names. Airline gave her the free room and meals vouchers. She struggled to find a dinner under $12 (the value of dinner voucher) at the hotel. She got a burger without fries and paid the tips out of her own pocket.

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@VickiSoCal

LOL… My thoughts exactly.

Yet I know quite a few kids that work at labs & do research over the summer. Many of top students as S17’s who aren’t spending their time in summer SAT prep are busy all summer in labs. As @srk2017 says

Many people in my community personally know professors in their field of choice. Top H.S. students working in a professors lab is one thing. But I find it hard to really believe H.S. students have done enough work to get their name on a paper, and it feels like it shouldn’t be allowed for this type use this work to be applied to their Intel Science Fair project.

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@IABooks

I always had dreams that I couldn’t graduate college…and very glad that I wake up from that dream everytime… :))

@MotherOfDragons, @CA1543 & @CT1417 I loved MIT after we visited during spring break. But D’17 looked at the supplements and said it is too much work. Best of luck to your DC as it is such a great school!

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@CT1417 wrote

She’s applying EA.

@IABooks I keep having dreams that I can fly, but it’s flying through mundane stuff like grocery shopping. Like I’m floating past the vegetables and soaring over to the bread section. It’s so weird.

I’m guessing that the kid who co-authored papers probably has some serious familial connections. Like his mom is the professor in the department and she’s connected him with another professor and that professor has the kid doing some stuff that he can put his name on. It’s nice to have connections-sometimes it gives you access that money does not. A lot of times if you drill down into the surface of those dauntingly excellent achievements and see how they got there it’s not quite as impossible as it initially seems. And sometimes you’re just like, dayum, that kid is brilliant…

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@whataboutcollege We had a very fun & interesting personal tour of MIT from a MIT professor back when S17 was still in junior high. Unfortunately it didn’t motivate S17 to get better grades in H.S., so MIT has not been even considered. But I can really see the appeal of MIT & that it would be work the effort of a complicated application.

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One of an old college friends just send his S to Lehigh. He is full pay…Looking at the pictures he posed on social media, Lehigh looks very pretty. D’17 will go visit next week. Has anyone researched Lehigh’s merit scholarship offerings?

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@curiositycat333 My S’20 tagged along with the tour, and he said after the tour, “This is not for me, only genius come here”. I was hoping for the motivation factor rather than a turn off :((

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@CT1417 – Applying EA to MIT and a few others. So can’t apply ED or REA anywhere it seems - if he goes and falls in love with CMU then things might change but seems unlikely. Would rather know where we stand by mid-Dec on a few. Still most likely apply to several others by December but may not have a huge amount of time for more supps till we get a short school break. Soon will need to prioritize those as well.

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I have an oddball question about the CA - is it doing an autofill for your county when you input your address? Mine is, but I don’t recall this happening on D’s CA 2 years ago, and nothing like it showed up in the tutorial/example. Is this typical?

DS is home from camp! YAY!! About 10 loads of laundry later (thankfully done by DH, btw), he’s settled in nicely and seems to be getting some summer reading done. For now, I’m in a complete no nagging zone and just enjoying his company.

S decided to wait for the October ACT to give him more time to prepare. Hoping to bring math score up so I bought a book specifically focusing on math & science sections. We’ll see if he cracks the cover, LOL. The downside is that we may need to send his scores directly to the EA schools so they’ll get there before the deadlines. It seems risky, but he’s gotten the same composite (32) both times. What’s the general consensus on this approach? Is anyone else sending scores directly to schools?

The list is still evolving - right now there are too many OOS schools with little chance of significant FA and not enough safeties. He’s balking at Alabama and Kentucky - my east coast preppie is wary that he won’t fit in or find friends. He wants a school with a good ME department, big but not huge, a nice campus and sporty spirit that is not urban but also not out in the middle of nowhere. Right now the list is:

Purdue, Michigan, UMass Amherst (flagship), Virginia Tech
Lehigh, Villanova, Lafayette, RPI

Also considering Bucknell, UMD CP, USCali, RIT, NC State, Union, and Syracuse

Have the same feeling that others have expressed - the perfect school is out there I just haven’t found it yet! Suggestions are welcome :-?

CWRU - a previous poster who’s student had some wonderful stats indicated they didn’t think CWRU wouldn’t give them merit. In my experience, if you show them some love (interview, info session, alumni interview, etc.), you can get decent $$, particularly considering their tuition is a little lower than many schools. D15 got $25k merit plus a $10k arts scholarship with lower stats than the OP indicated they had in their back pocket. Our cost would have been less than IS Flagship, which was our goal. Sorry, can’t recall who OP was, it’s hard to keep up on this thread. There’s no app fee or supplemental essay, so I say go for it! D didn’t end up attending but it was probably 2nd on her list.

Final Note: this is a nice thread - people willing to lend a hand if your DC attends a school near them.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/344820-in-loco-parentis-do-you-live-near-a-college-p36.html