@CA1543 DD14 is a bubbly, outgoing stream of consciousness kind of kid. But she was worried she’d forget something or say the wrong thing, so the mock interviews really helped.
@CA1543 Your idea to do mock interviews is a good one. I’ve done them with my kids for jobs and scholarship interviews and they seem to have helped. I was able to pick up on things like not looking at the interviewer, too many "um"s, etc. After a just a few questions you’ll probably notice an improvement.
D’s recs are finally all submitted!
Interviews Having Ds first with a school we had already visited, and one that is more of a likely school really helped. She is quiet and doesn’t like to brag or call attention to herself. I don’t think it went poorly, however I’m sure she wasn’t a standout. However she left with the confidence to request interviews at a couple other schools that want them. So I call that a success.
**Nagging my Newly Neurotic Senior 
** I am finding texting her works best. Just whenever I am thinking about it and not expecting an immediate answer back. Sometimes she replies, sometimes not. Sometimes she brings it up later that night, or later that week. If it goes too long without a response I figure I need to tread lightly and choose my time and place to discuss it when appropriate. This seems to avoid much of the eye-rolling … likely they are still rolling when she reads the texts but at least I can’t see them
First one done, buys the rest of us a round @itsgettingreal17!
Catching up…work got in the way of my posting. I’m waiting for reviews, so maybe they will take their time. I learned a new word, though: Preponed–opposite of postponed. As in, “The software release is preponed, so we need the manual a week early.” 8-|
Here’s hoping no college app deadlines get preponed.
Congrats to those with sparkly, new ACT scores! @jeepgirl @fun1234 @mamaedefamilia @RightCoaster @Atyraulove and anyone else.
@itsgettingreal17 I agree from DS’ last year experience that online classes can be a pain. Is there someone she can work with on the Calc III?
@whataboutcollege DS is putting all the AP tests he might take in the CA AP section. He’ll decide which ones to take depending on where he’s going. Some might not count for credit, but might count for placement.
Sleep: S gets about 6 or 6 1/2 hours a night. Bedtime around midnight or so. Not so much homework or essays, just staying up late. He and I don’t need that much sleep. He probably got more like 5 hours regularly at his summer program. I can run on 5-6 hours long term. I have trouble staying asleep if I go to bed before midnight.
Luckily, he’s never had to take 0th period. All his classmates who took Calc BC junior year had to do that at 7am. Yuck!
DE: S has 2 classes at the UC starting tomorrow. Linear algebra has 589 students! He’s ready with his i>clicker. Luckily, 2 other kids from his school are taking the same class, and one has access to a faculty/staff parking permit! Score! His CS class starts Monday. Only 66 in that class, but I think it will have the harder homework. Both classes have a discussion section of about 25 students.
Until now, his homework load has been really light, with only 2 APs, and the AP Gov teacher gives hardly any homework. His HS engineering classes don’t really have homework, though they do have deadlines like Maker Faire in May.
He has to go on an engineering field trip to the SF Bay Area next week and will miss one class session of each UC class. That’s a little tough with a 10-week quarter. Hope he figures out how to get the notes and/or have someone i>clicker for him.
The field trip timing is also a little rough, because those 3 days are the start of a hacking competition that his team wants to place highly in. I’m thinking of getting him a laptop battery backup (huge), since he’ll be on a bus for 6 hours each way, and it doesn’t have charging outlets (I checked). He can use his phone as a WiFi hotspot.
Siblings: They get along well–no fights. DS17 has his “rolling my eyes” moments with DS21, who can be an angsty drama queen. S17’s only anger tends to be directed at himself when he doesn’t do things the way he’d planned (like college essays). The dynamic is shifting a bit since DS21 decided to not be DD21 any longer (nothing medical; just pronouns, clothes, and locker rooms).
Sending scores: I ordered ACTs and SATs sent this week. No applications finished so far, so they will match things up whenever they arrive. Next thing on the things-to-order front is DE transcripts from 3 colleges and figure out what to do to make sure HS transcripts are sent.
Screens: We only have one TV in the house, and it doesn’t get used all that much. Lots of computer screens, and the internet is on all night long.
Essay [nag] fatigue: Hopefully he’s just getting geared up for the real college essays. 12 Brag Sheet essays were just a warm up – no word limits meant they didn’t have to be tightly written. Until a couple days ago, S was stressing over a diversity essay, because he feels very non-diverse. I think he’s just about past that, and has given himself permission to work on different essays.
Interviews: He needs to do 2 for sure in the fall, but he hasn’t scheduled them yet. Possibly about 3 after January. One this fall for a local scholarship. He has interviewed before for about 3 programs, and they must have gone OK.
As my daughter struggles a bit with her CA essay, I hit the interwebs for examples of good essays to show her (for inspiration, not plagiarism, of course!). I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a lot of average/bad essays out there being touted as shining examples.
Also, have you noticed that more feedback can be worse for the kid than less? Especially if it comes from multiple (read: conflicting) sources.
Enjoyed this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-essays/1839262-help-with-sons-essay-to-harvard.html
@Ynotgo I got her a tutor before the first exam to review with her (I forced the issue after all of her complaining about the class and how unsure of herself she felt). She thought it was a waste of money. She has a high A in the class currently and thinks it’ll be fine, but I made her promise to let me know immediately if she wanted to work with a tutor weekly just to have someone to work through problems with. She’ll definitely try to avoid online for linear algebra next semester.
RE: interviews. Our HS offers mock interviews, so I had my older son sit for one. Head of guidance & his own GC. so one person can conduct interview and one can provide feedback. Younger son didn’t feel the need for a practice, so I scheduled as his first interview a school that he thought he would have no interest in: U of Chicago. Well, after touring and attending info session, he decided he actually liked Chicago. Best laid plans…He thought the interview went fine, but he has definitely noticed the difference between rising college Srs and College Admission staff interview.
He has only had three interviews so far and will have two more with reps on the road: USC and Rochester, in case anyone else needs to interview with one of these and can’t find the time to visit campus. College visits to his HS are in full swing, and he has managed to attend three to date.
@rtidwell Agreed re: essays. There’s a lot of that in my line of work. We call it writing by committee (I avoid it like the plague) and the end result isn’t typically the best.
So U Richmond stays on the list! Turns out her phone died so she couldn’t do a snapchat video.
Upsides:
- Food is phenomenal. She has food allergies, and she loved that it was fresh, well labeled, and you could talk to the chef. Husband agreed that the food was super good.
- Beautiful campus, and there’s a shuttle into Richmond.
- $4k for research (this was big for her)
- Fraternities were non-residential.
Downsides:
- Everyone is upper middle class and white. They only saw a few minorities, and they all sat together at one table at lunch.
- Suburban (although she decided that wasn’t a tragedy since there was a shuttle bus)
- Only one CS major, although she talked to the head of the department and if she wanted to blend her research project with genetics and big data, he said they’d support that.
- She said the strong business department made it feel a little bit like there were a horde of future accountants running all over the place, and it wasn’t as quirky/nerdy as she’d like.
Overall, it stays on the list because she said “I could be happy here”. It’s going to take some big merit from UR, though, for it to beat the others.
@rtidwell I agree completely on the essays, horrid examples floating around, same thing with student resumes. A student could easily do themselves a huge disservice with a bit too much googling and highly hit ranked (not quality ranked) examples coming their way.
Re: Interviews. None planned, but my son had a couple of in office meetings with coaches that I was able to attend, and I thought son handled it well. Better than I was expecting.
Re: Harvey Mudd. Younger son19 played in a soccer thing this summer with the coaches from Dartmouth and some other schools, which included Harvey Mudd. One day the the Harvey Mudd coach was allowed to give a nice presentation to the kids at dinner time and spew the benefits of Mudd and consortium. Son fell for it, has not stopped talking about it for several months now. He’s practically packed his bags in anticipation of his move out west to CA. I’ve been trying to not crush his dreams and aspirations by discussing the realistic chances, lol.
@eandesmom the missing class was for next semester. The GC fixed it for S this morning, and now we resend transcripts and start the wait all over again!
saw this on a different forum. I don’t know if it has been posted elsewhere on CC.
Wow - Lot of confidence in writing scores :))
@flatKansas that’s really interesting as our transcripts only show credits earned to date, not classes registered for. A mid year semester report card would show current classes but a regular transcript would not. So the ones we are sending to schools are only thru jr year.
@eandesmom Our HS’s transcripts also show currently-enrolled classes (at the time the transcript is ordered/fulfilled) for seniors, and just seniors. Many/most colleges have asked for the courses that are being taken this semester, so this is how our HS handles it. Other cases have generally been through the SRAR, where current courses are also captured.
@itsgettingreal17 My daughter’s 3rd LOR is almost complete, and we’re feeling somewhat guilty since it will not be used much at all. The first teacher’s is so strong (we think…he worked on it over the summer and has hinted that she should use it), and the (second) GC’s should be quite good, I’ve been buttering her up for 2 years =)) . There are only a few apps that need more than 1 Teacher LOR. Oh, yeah, we have one LOR from a ‘community member’ too, which we have used and will use again.
If she ever gets the CA essay completed we can send out some more apps…
Well! Very eventful college fair attended this evening with D17. The goal was to have D chat with the rep from Tufts, as we are not likely to get the chance to visit and I know they’re sensitive to the “interest” component. I had D prepped with some questions to ask the guy and everything and… she took one look at the swarm of pushing kids and parents and kind of flipped out. Not, like, actually flipped out, but had a definite, quiet, panic attack.
So! I’m thinking universities in general are not going to work for her. Not at this point in her life, at any rate. I mean, I’d only been looking at smaller scale unis at all (like Tufts or Georgetown) because I know she doesn’t respond well to crowds and noise and bustle. But now? I think we’re just going to focus on LACs, period. I said this, and she visibly relaxed. Then she cried a little, so I reassured her that it was just as important to know what she doesn’t want as what she is looking for. Georgetown and Tufts come off the list, as does SUNY Binghamton. SUNY Geneseo goes on the list, as does Vassar.
I’m good! I’m flexible! We can do this. 8-}
I think the best example essays can be found on various selective school’s sites. MIT, JHU to name a couple.