@payn4ward, dang. I can’t even imagine what that’s like for the parents.
I want to make one more comment re: merit and odds of winning scholarships. I believe in the “wide net” philosophy in regards to applications and competitive merit, because one just doesn’t know how things will play out in the end.
My daughter WAS chosen for the super competitive Stamps scholarship at GTech. However, she didn’t even make semifinalist round for the full tuition scholarship at Montana State, did not get Faculty Scholarship at Baylor, did not get any of the competitive outside scholarships for which she applied (was not chosen as a semifinalist for CocaCola or Nordstrom scholarships), etc, etc. Lots of rejections, and I think her experience is typical. There are many qualified kids out there, and it often comes down to who is reading the scholarship app on a given day.
@payn4ward So sad! My thoughts are with you and your whole community.
Question about the LOC section in Naviance. When I click on the link, it brings me to another login screen for account, username and password. What is account? I can’t find any account number or the like in Naviance. Or that link was only for students but not parents?
@vandyeyes Agree re trying to enjoy the ride. Must remember that we want senior year (and quite possibly last year of living at home) to be fun, not-too-stressful, and filled with happy memories. Just want to make sure we have enough E-tickets left to enjoy whatever ride DC wants! (Disney allusion :))
I’m so sorry, @payn4ward . Feeling heavy-hearted today for you and your community.
@CA1543 UMD Honors has a lot of honors sections, especially during the first two years. The avg class size of honors-only sections is 15.3 students. The ACES cyber-security option has only 150-200 students, and now it can continue into the third and fourth years. The ACES and Digital Cultures LLC is Frederick Hall. The only really big honors option at UMD is University Honors, which has about 2,000 students; University Honors is essentially a two-year honors program, although a lot of students will go on to do departmental honors and a thesis.
Thank you all for the kind messages. We are absolutely heart broken. He will be missed dearly.
So sad when the cap and gown, class ring order is due monday… all the things he will miss and be missed.
Life still goes on… I guess no essay progress today. sigh.
Oh, on the Disney analogy… the rides… I want FastPass.
D17 showed her english teacher her CA essay. She recommended minor changes and said it is very good. <:-P . Also then she told D when the teachers discussed kids they had in common, she and D’s math teacher thought D would be going for english major (since she is so good…? really?). D also made a casual comment yesterday that she can’t believe it, so far, she has better grades in LA classes than MS classes after 2 weeks of senior year… Is she changing her heart already??? Our focus has been engineering schools…!!! ~X(
@NerdMom88 I am not able to keep up with this thread, so whether or not this discussion has already taken place or not, I am not sure.
When on the merit hunt for non-guaranteed stat based scholarships,this is the approach I take. I find a range of schools,where they could see themselves attending, see if their are specialized programs, etc for their top scholars and then I sort them into categories. One category is where they are in the top 3-5% of stats. (It can be hard to beak this category down exactly, but at a couple of schools, only that % of students have test scores in that range. Then I look at what they want from their scholars. My dd has a lot of major awards. Bc her awards include international level awards, I consider (not sure that admissions does 
) them strong factors. Those are the scholarships that we feel she is very qualified to be awarded. Almost all of them require interviewing, so it will also matter how well she interviews.
Then there is another category. That one is where almost all applicants are going to be tippy top stat kids. It is the “other factor” that distinguishes amg students. Those are the GT level schools. Every accepted student is a top student. Test scores are not going to be a determining factor in who receives the scholarships. The “it factor,” whatever that “it” is, is what makes the student pass on to final selection (also usually after an interview.)
Then there is still another category which seems unpublicized but known and that category is one focused on those perfect scores (typically not superscored). Some schools like Vandy and UA seem to wpaward a handful of scholarships for 35s or 36s.
I have never had a child in the last category, so I don’t know much about it. My kids might apply to 2-3 schools in the first category and then 1 in the 2nd. Since merit $$ is their only option, that 2nd category is their reach category. Typically we are confident that they will be accepted, but merit is questionable.
Fwiw, look at the common data set. Check stat percentages and merit, non-need-based #s and you can start to see the general idea behind my categorizing. (Fwiw, in terms of @MotherOfDragons’s point, yes, if my kids are relying on category 2, it is a poor list skewed unrealistically too reach. They need a blend of automatic and #1s in order to make sure they have options.
My kids get really tired of applying, so they are not going to apply to 15 schools with competitive scholarships. They will pick 1or 2. I guess if they wanted to dedicate constant time to applications, they could apply to more. But with those apps, if they aren’t excellent, then they are a wasted application. They can’t just throw something together. They need thoughtful essays that say something meaningful about themselves.
Thank you, @Mom2aphysicsgeek Does anyone know of additional schools which may fall into this category?
@payn4ward …so tragic. So quick and so horrible. So sorry for your friends and his family.
As a nurse practitioner I always took sports physicals VERY seriously. Undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest among teenage athletes and I’m not sure I could live with myself if I missed it. A sports physical, when done correctly always involves listening to heart sounds while the kid is sitting, lying down, standing and then squatting and going to a standing position. If it wasn’t done like that==>sloppy physical. (stepping off soabox now)
@payn4ward How awful, I have no words. So sorry for the family and the entire community.
@carachel2 Next time my kids go in for that physical, I will know what to look for. Thank you.
@payn4ward Hugs to you and the team. Such a tragic loss.
@carachel2 our ped. did an ekg on both girls before they started h.s. sports
I assume that covers it?
@payn4ward Sorry for such a tragic and shocking loss.
@VickiSoCal … No not really. Some people with HCM have some non-specific EKG changes but there is not one specific EKG abnormality that points to HCM.
An EKG could possibly pick up an abnormality that leads to further testing which would diagnose HCM. But the EKG could be normal and miss it.
A proper cardiac exam should screen for HCM. But if the exam is done sloppily or by someone who has never heard HCM and therefore does not recognize the sound then it could be missed.
The only way to know for sure is with an echocardiogram. There are lots of places where one can pay anywhere from $50-200 for a screening echocardiogram. There are many groups which support echocardiography for all athletes. Some colleges require this for all of their athletes. Currently it is too expensive and debates rate about how to pay for it to be required for all student athletes.
I paid out of pocket when my kid played sports.
@motherofdragons To add to what @STEM2017 said, we had another college counselor meeting for parents this week and they said that because you are submitting individually for each school, the CA can be tweaked how ever many times the student wants to. Once it is submitted, no matter how much time before the due date, submit means it’s gone but only for that school. Students can edit for any schools you have not yet submitted to.
@payn4ward , hugs for you and your community. So sad!!
D and I love to volunteer in races if we are not running them. Last fall at a 10 miler, a 30 year old collapsed after crossing finish line, about 10 feet from us at the water table. We knew it didn’t look good when multiple people did CPR on him for a long time before he was transported to the hospital. So sad that we learned the next day that he passed away. I later learned younger people are more prone to die in races than older people.
@payn4ward I’m so sorry about your son’s friend. Cannot imagine the boy’s parents’ pain. I hope your son is doing ok.