Thank you again for kind messages, thoughts and prayers for our community.
I picked up DS17 after school all puffy and red-eyed. Lots of crying at school today as the seniors grieve the sudden loss of a classmate. DS came home with a box of tissue. I thought about sending him to school with a box of tissue this morning, but I suppose he quickly picked one up at school and it was constantly shared and used. What a day. :((
DS is going to be upset as we have Friday off and I already scheduled college visits and interviews. We are going to miss the service for his friend. :((
I am sooooo sorry @Tgirlfriend. My thoughts and prayers to your community. :((
I am so sorry for both @payn4ward and @Tgirlfriend’s losses. My heart goes out to you, your kids, your communities, and, especially the parents and families of the runner and the twins.
@VickiSoCal I have seen some threads about conditional offers based on the IB, however, if she has strong test scores, personal statement, etc. I think the odds are in your favor to hear sooner rather than later - just a hunch, and my fingers are crossed for you. My son’s school is untraditional and they don’t offer IB, honors or AP. He self-studied for AP Am. History and got a 4, then took 3 SAT II tests relevant to his study and met the requirements for each university. He’s re-taking the SAT I for the sake of Oxford, but meets requirements for the rest. So he has the opposite problem, with very few traditional honors classes but a some relevant self study exams. We just shrug our shoulders and know that he will have time to apply to US schools if those don’t work out.
@dolomite Yes I agree, treat it as an interview. This happened to my D a few years ago with another school and it was awesome. She had an hour with an admissions rep. She should be prepared with a few questions for the rep.
Purdue Help
The recommendation letters allowed are 1 from the GC, 1 from a teacher, and 1 from “Other Recommender.”
The GC & teacher are done (or at least in the works) but I’m on the fence about the Other Recommender. Does anyone have experience with Purdue on this? They say it could be an Arts Teacher, Clergy, Coach, College Access Counselor, Employer, Family Member, Peer, Other. Yikes thats too many choices.
There doesn’t seem to be any guidance on the admissions page about this, so I’m guessing they don’t have a specific form to fill out.
Of course they had an online chat today for families (which I participated in) but I didn’t think to ask this question!!
Naviance question for anyone who has been through this before. Our HS just switched for some reason from displaying unweighted to weighted GPA on Naviance. And now, suddenly, schools that D17 looked like she was right in range for on the scattergrams, look slightly out of range. Uh oh! Now I’m feeling a little freaked out. Do we need to rethink her reach schools?
Then I began to wonder if the accepted weighted GPAs shown on the scattergrams were from final grades for seniors including the weighting for all the APs they took as seniors? Or does this vary by school? Because my D will gain 1.5 points to her weighted GPA once her senior APs and DE classes are counted - and that would put her back in range for her reaches again. But if the weighted GPA is shown for students as they were as new seniors with just their junior year weighted averages, I’m not sure what to think. :-SS
@thermom Each school may be different but I’ve come to the conclusion that for D’s school, Naviance stats are final grades. I say this from studying the plots and recent results entered. Some of the GPAs are too high to be end of junior year. And I don’t think they are able to freeze it based on application stats.
@thermom I just noticed our Naviance change this afternoon. A clarification to GC resulted in confirmation that the GPAs used in comparison are cumulative GPAs from previous grades. So I think your D should be back in range. My D’s chart looks more favorable now :)>-
We’ve had some teenaged tragedies up here already, too (though none in our school district). It feels like they’re hitting especially frequently and early this year, you know?
@Dolemite Absolutely! D should prepare as if it will be an interview. What an opportunity! Last week an AO came to my son’s school and there were a dozen kids in the room. He was the only senior and this turned out to be an opportunity for my son. He was the only student in the room who is in the app phase so she focused on him and she had many questions for him. Fortunately, he was ready for it because he was preparing to have the interview in a few weeks.