@NerdMom88 …I forget…have you guys visited the UA campus yet or no?
@dfbdfb – I know! She has other great options where she’ll get lots of auto-merit, but I want her to give UA a fair shot.
@carachel2 – no, we haven’t visited yet. She did the Engineering open house at UAH last spring, but I think Alabama will have to wait until the Grand School Tour, Spring Break '17 edition. All of the colleges she’s applying to are on the east coast or in Alabama, so we’ll visit (or re-visit) the ones where she’s been accepted after we drop off D1 at UMBC. (Her break is the week before D2’s.) I’d love for it to be a leisurely loop through the southern states, but with the few days I’ll have off work I’m guessing the experience will be closer to the Ant Hill Mob chasing Penelope Pittstop in the final lap of the Wacky Race.
@NerdMom88 …ahh, gotcha.
We made the 10 hr road trip a few weeks ago. It was a “mythical” safety for D and I wanted her to know what it looked like and if it was a place she could see herself fitting in IF her first choice didn’t work out.
She liked it! The Honors program is active and thriving and I think she could see herself getting involved. The campus was a nice size…didn’t seem too big or too small. She was surprised by the diversity on campus.
The dress code seemed to be nike shorts and shirts which is kind of the low key southern dress code for girls but which most high schools here seem to have banned.
She is not overly fond of our in-state options so it was good to see campus.
OK, wow.
Our school STILL has not said a word about NMSF but they did manage to update the school profile.
13 SF with commended not yet reported. That is much higher than usual. Now, this is a ‘smarter’ class, or should I say, higher performing, but still. The past three years saw five, six, and seven NMSF.
The top GPA continues to creep up with the addition of honors level music classes (not AP, just bumped for GPA) and the trend of top students petitioning to be allowed to enroll in AP classes at an earlier age.
This year’s class has 42 students above 4.0 while last year there were only 19 and 28 the year before that, and 17 back when my older son graduated. Above 4.0 represents top 12.5% of class so not at all useful from a ranking perspective. It bothers me b/c the lower GPA ranges are reported in 1/4 of a point, but above 4.0 is reported as one larger group from 4.0 to Val at 4.42, masking the ranking.
Increasing # of students participating in AP exams, and slight drop to 92% of those scoring three or higher. A few random scores of 1 here or there, and the BC calc record of 100% scoring a 5 has been dashed with two scores of four.
I am getting nervous … (nothing submitted yet, not the NMF stuff, no college apps) and I miss reading @2muchquan . What happened? Missing the chuckles … Other than that, we have been out of power for five days and out of internet services for seven days courtesy of Hurricane Hermine. Also had a tree on our roof but the college apps make me more nervous.
Congrats to all the busy bees submitting and receiving admission 
Is anyone aware of any scholarship competitions/interviews typically held during spring break? We’re trying to plan ahead. Not sure if we should leave spring break open just in case. Right now we have no plans visit any schools during that week.
Oh…so sorry to hear about the power outage and downed tree. That was our life in CT for three of four years running. I hesitate to tempt fate by even mentioning it, as I don’t think we have had a power outage in three years but we had four outages in the three or four years prior to the last one. For a run there, I had a VERY clean refrigerator as I took advantage of discarding the contents to clean down the shelves.
Not that it will be of any comfort to you, but no progress here either, and we do not have the power outage excuse.
I hope your homeowner’s insurance pays out for the tree removal. IIRC, that is usually covered in full. It is the flooding that becomes questionable. After the last big storm (Sandy?) many residents had their houses jacked up. I do not live on the water so did not need to do that. It was an interesting sight for a while. Kind of incredible that a house can just be jacked up ten feet and not cause damage.
Son only has about 2.5 essays done according to him - he’ll probably crank them out at crunch time when he can actually start submitting them. The boilerplate part of the apps is mostly done. Not gonna stress about it, they’ll get done. No NMSF info from the school yet - probably will be Wednesday I guess.
@itsgettingreal17 Not sure when your spring break is, so I don’t think I can be of much help. Are you talking specific college competitions? Or national competitions like Coke? I have marked likely weekends based on the school threads from last year, or the school website itself. Some are the same each year, others are estimated and put on the calendar as ‘possible’ dates. We are not scheduling any vacations in advance just in case, because I don’t think “trip insurance” will cover a cancellation due to a scholarship competition. I could be wrong there, though, in which case that would be the way to go. Where do you plan to travel?
Re: NMSF: D’s school told us not to say anything until the 14th when it’s announced publicly, but we heard there are 3 this year - same as last (out of a graduating class of ca. 115).
CA essay is looking really, really good! D has also managed to write a few supplements (not to mention a monster scholarship application - 17 pages worth of essays and assorted narratives. Whew! Makes the Common App seem like a walk in the park…)
In the meantime, she’s planning to see a couple of schools (esp. ones that take interest into account) and working on setting up on and off-campus interviews, etc., etc.
BTW - the full USNEWS rankings are out (not just the preview).
Thanks @cruisecontrol Time for another spreadsheet! D wants to Europe with her school during March spring break (second week of March I believe). I need to put down the deposit soon and it just occurred to me that we may have a problem. D is applying for competitive scholarships at 15 schools and one outside scholarship. I haven’t been keeping track of the competition/interview dates.
So who is dropping schools from the list due to newly released USNWR rankings? :))
@itsgettingreal …I’m sure somewhere, someone is doing that. “ooh look this one is so much better because they are #3 and not #4. I’m dropping #4.”
So, my daughter cranked out her CA essay this evening before dinner. It had been stewing in her head for a while, apparently. She spent an hour and a half on her first draft. It’s about a sandwich, and her relationship with it. Yes, that’s right, she wrote about a sandwich.
So, those wishing their kids would write their dang essay…watch what you wish for.
(Actually, it’s pretty good. Not the sandwich, the essay)
@cruisecontrol interesting! Which prompt?
@itsgettingreal17 Isn’t it obvious? It had to do with experiencing failure. Of course.
Too many ties (ranking) and 4 schools tied for 15th rank. We can’t decide which one to donate $300,000 :))
@cruisecontrol, that’s the one my daughter went with! Easy to go wrong with it, I think, but if the kid has a clear vision of it, a clear opportunity to come across as an actual person.
All of D’s essays are very serious. I wanted her to pick 1 school and write about a hobby of hers that is quite amusing. She didn’t take my advice. :-(. Maybe the last school.