@snoozn I am half Norwegian descent and I’ve been encouraging D to use family heritage as a starting point for her St. Olaf essay. No mom, that just sounds fake … I’m really in it for the music. And the food. 
@snoozn I don’t think it would be that odd to ask. Just have her be respectful of the teachers time when asking. Give the teacher a reasonable amount of time to look it over. I suspect the teacher would be flattered to do it but it’s probably more about how much time. If she is like our H.S. teachers they teacher 120+ students and they already have a lot to grade.
@snoozn I’ve lost faith in the English teacher approach to college essay help. My son’s 11th grade teacher and his ACT tutor (English teacher) were counterproductive.
We had incredible luck and much more success with our friends right here on CC.
Not that it’s a bad idea at all for another set of eyes to look over your child’s essay, just be prepared for a totally new perspective coming from someone who doesn’t know your child as well as they know themselves. In our case, it resulted in a fairly major re-write (2 so far) of what we ‘thought’ may be a pretty solid essay, and has now caused my daughter to change prompts and write a new essay. She was doing her CA essay as part of an assignment for English class, and the teacher took issue with everything about it (well, almost). So, my daughter will, in effect, write 2 essays, 1 for the teacher with her requested changes, and a new one on a totally different topic because she did not agree with the teacher’s comments…or just doesn’t feel it improved the essay, but is afraid to find out by submitting her original version to schools. Kind of a mess. Who knows, maybe the teacher was right, maybe not…looks like we’ll never know. Daughter’s happy with the new topic, and hopefully it will write itself like her papers usually do.
QOTD: D2 is taking Math II and Physics (don’t remember which one.) Study time has been pretty minimal.
She showed me her CA first draft on Monday, after warning me that it was really awful. She was right – really, really awful. I was required to delete any evidence of it from my computer and she has started again. sigh
I felt like I had joined the cool parent’s club last night when D2 said (with a small whine) “You know, nobody I know has even started college applications yet!”
She has followed up with the transcripts that our GC office denied we ever requested. Another person in the office confirms they were indeed requested, and that they were sent. However, the colleges don’t seem to agree. grrr
She also worked on her brag sheet last night, so some progress! Her first application due date is 10/15; fortunately the accompanying documentation isn’t due until 12/1.
She’s also scheduled extra practice sessions for her marching band section and is practicing for state band tryouts. At the same time, I’m in the midst of a 15-day streak of work days, running a major event for work. Lord help us both!
@Ynotgo – My DS LOVES the Computer History Museum & had fun at the Exploratorium – your DS will have fun on the trip. Ok - Question - what’s the hacking competition – DS just announced it is starting. We really don’t have time for this right now.
@CA1543 Is there ever time? 8-|
I PMed you.
@lovethebard Maybe not. Someone else shared the information with me and I haven’t really looked into it. The suggestion was that it would fit our budget.
@BigPapiofthree, I only know about FAFSA, but it’s not that bad.
You picked a good year to start since 2015 income is going to be used and 2015 tax returns should be done. Oct 1 is when you can start filing FAFSA.
You should sign up for the FSA ID (username and password) now because it may take a few days to be verified through SSA. Student and one parent need their own ID. Keep info in a safe place.
For bank balances I would get up to date printout from the day you submit FAFSA.
Parents get an asset protection allowance that goes by age. Students don’t have asset protection allowance. Student assets get assessed at 20%.
If student has a lot of money in savings they might consider buying a computer for college now if they need one.
When you start FAFSA and get to parent financial info you can choose option “taxes already completed” and “link to IRS” and it should import some things like income, taxes paid etc. from the tax return.
If you contributed to a 401k account in 2015 you need to list the amount of contribution from your W2 form on the FAFSA under untaxed income in question 94a.
@NerdMom88 - I believe there is only one SAT II Physics vs 3 APs.
We are done with tests (other than APs in May). College list now down to 2. Both are safeties. One with full scholarship and other with potential (but its very small). Common app and supplemental essays are in progress. Test results sent and recommendations in progress. Should be done by early October.
Question for anyone familiar with FAFSA-I had to fill out FAFSA for grad school last year and have an ID. Do I need a new one for ds’ FAFSA or do I use the same one for me as a parent now that I used as a student then?
@Collegecue, if it was the FSA ID and not the old PIN, I think you can use it. Somewhere I read that you heed a new password every 18 months, but that probably doesn’t apply if it hasn’t been that long ago that you set it up.
QO(some)D Testing:
D is taking the SAT for the first time hoping to get a confirming score for NMF. zero prep as far as I know.
She is automatically sending the score to a NMSC. Debating whether to send to schools where a good score can only help you. She already has a good ACT score on the books.
@CaucAsianDad wrote
I do this with D17; she saves the most procrastinatery stuff for when I sit with her for the college chat and I help her power through it. Or as we call it, “knock it out”, “git er done” or “jam on that”.
I’m going to send that Scandinavia and the world link to my cousin, who is obsessed with his Norwegian roots. To the point where I think he belongs to a norwegian haplotype group on facebook (it keeps asking me to join that group. Not knowing if I share his haplotype, I refrain). I pick on him and tell him his ancestor’s name was Dork and he was in charge of keeping the oars polished while the rest of the Vikings pillaged. He’s a banker.
Sat 2’s this weekend, math2 and molecular bio. She’s been studying. Fingers crossed.
So, yesterday we road tripped over to the honors tour for the University of Alabama.
It was very interesting, and a bit of a roller coaster during the day of the school at one point shooting as high as third, then settling back down the the middle of the pack by the end of the day.
We left Atlanta at 6 am with an eta of 10 am in Tuscaloosa. Traffic in the ATL was heavy but manageable that early in the morning, and we made great time. We pulled into the parking lot, parked where they told us, and I looked at my phone.
9 am. Oops. Central time. L-)
So, we went and found the Honors Office to get our parking pass. In the five minutes we were gone the infernal meter maid wrote us a nice $50 ticket. We headed back to the Honors Office and she added it to the already impressive stack and said she’d take care of it. She was super nice.
So, D and I had an hour and a half to burn, and the weather was gorgeous. Very unlike typical southern weather-it was cloudy, cool and breezy. We walked from the Honors building over Bama Rama or Bama Jama. It was a tiny hole in the wall restaurant next to the INSANELY amazing stadium. And I say this as someone with no interest in sports.
We ate breakfast and headed back to catch the honors presentation. It was just us and one other family, also from Atlanta. They were all puffy and proud about how their kid wanted to do pre-med and was shooting for the Fellowes Scholarship, but they settled down once they ascertained that D was a CS kid and if she did one of the rock star thingies it would be CBH, not Fellowes.
The Honors presentation was about 30 minutes of a nice lady who did a polished powerpoint. D asked a lot of questions, the nice lady grimaced and could not answer all of them. I think she thought we were weird. D decided to be very outre in her appearance that day and had on a Smite trucker hat and her hair braided into a faux hawk, and had heels that put her at nearly 6 feet. So, yeah, we didn’t see a lot of kindred spirits in terms of appearance, lol.
At that point the school hadn’t risen much in D’s estimation (she had grumped mightily about spending the day here).
Next stop was lunch with a girl from South Dakota. We met her in the (gorgeous, it was ALL GORGEOUS) cafeteria and they went off and ate and I wandered around for 40 minutes and ate on my own. The girl was great-not only did she physically resemble D, they both were super into mock trial so the girl was able to talk about how that works on campus. And the food was excellent.
Next was the regular tour. I almost skipped it because it was a looooooong walk back to the stadium and the sun had come out, and it was now hot. Still weirdly breezy, though, so we hoofed it over there and barely made it. Got on the blessedly air conditioned bus, and proceeded to be completely blown out of the water by how nice EVERYTHING was at UA. Amazing suite-style dorms, check. Free equestrian club, check. Amazing rec facility with rock climbing walls (really at this point I wanted to transfer and go here, lol). Water slide, check. Check, check, check.
We took a break at the student center (where they took the couches out from under us as we were sitting on them and replaced them with shiny new couches, lol). D observed "it’s like somebody is playing University Creator on God Mode. So many nice new facilities, so many amazing things to do. At this point it had rocketed up to third place behind MIT and Olin. She literally had stars in her eyes and said “It’s just so easy to be happy here”.
At lunch she’d asked the girl if she could take all honors classes and the girl said “you could, but why would you want to?” She was starting to understand that sentiment. More time for water slides and horseback riding, lol.
Last up was the department meeting with one of the CS department professors. It was, unfortunately, not what she wanted it to be. I was sitting outside so I could only catch words here and there, and it was a very long conversation, but the gist of it was if she wanted to go to any kind of ranked graduate school for CS, there was a stigma associated with UA (and most southern schools), and that she should go to GTech for continuing on with what she wanted to do. She also asked him about using big data to analyze genetics, and did they have any professors doing research in that area, and his response was “you could write a letter to 23 and Me”.
Soooo, yeah, big time wind out of the sails. It stays on the list, and she got the letter that she got the Presidential Scholarship in the mail on monday, but she’s worried that she’d get “bored”, and she’s worried that she won’t be able to find a professor who will let her work as hard as she wants to. She was also bummed that there was no maker space like at Olin and UMD. H said it would be up to her to really work with her professors and create something beyond what is expected of the average CS kid there, and she worries that it’ll be 4 years of tilting at windmills because she’s the only one that wants to do crazy research stuff.
The computer based honors program continues to be a mystery. When she asked the honors woman what it entails she said “C-tran and some other programming stuff”. (We think she meant fortran). The CS dept. professor was not familiar with the program either, and he said she’d had to take two semesters of fortran and held up a punch card. D was horrified by the idea of working with punch cards. I said it must be a joke. We’ll look into it more, but the decidedly anti-intellectual and anti-grind atmosphere left her a little sad, because she loved the physical part of UA so much.
So, overall impressions are that it is an amazing value, it’s gorgeous, it is not hillbilly at all (and believe me, I know hillbilly), and they are definitely creating a wonderful and unique atmosphere there. Just jaw-droppingly well done in so many areas. It’s definitely now on the list for D18, who would do really well there.
Stats for the day: 4 hours up, 4 hours back (most I’ve ever driven in 1 day), 15,000 steps on the fitbit. 3 stops at Starbucks, 2 at Chick Fil A. Good thing I did 15k steps…
@MotherOfTwo … Good detailed review… But how on earth did your D do all day schlepping around the campus in heels??
@motherofdragons I wish you had made an appt with Ms. Batson b/c she would have given you a good overview of CBH. FWIW, I would have your dd email her and ask if there is a professor who would work with her on that type of research.
Another FWIW, the anti-intellectual attitude you describe is not something our ds has ever encountered…I say as I just shipped a big box of candy to my ds b/c he is stressing BIG time over an a physics exam he has on Friday.
QOTD - No more testing for DS so no SATs on Saturday!
Re essays and English teachers, I would advise caution. I attended a session on writing college essays at the recent NACAC conference (for college admission counselors) and they made a point of advising counselors to share what they learned with their schools’ English teachers because what they are looking for in a college essay is so different than what English teachers want from their students.
Here’s my question. Where are your kids putting their summer activities on their common app? I recall that back when we applied there was a separate section for the summer, but now there isn’t. If it doesn’t fall into a job, an honor, or an EC, where do you put it or do you just not bother?
@carachel2 they were wedges, and they’re these interesting sporty wedges with 2" heels. I’ve walked in them-it’s like being on a trampoline :D. Boing boing boing…
I had heels on, as well, but mine were 1" wedge gladiator sandals. Hey, if Spartacus can do it, so can I.
I should also add, our goal for the trip to UA was “Thou Shalt Love Thy Safety”. Mission:Accomplished.
My S asked his English teacher to look over his essay for NMF and she did. When I asked her about it she said “I wish he would have wrote about something different.” I thought to myself he wrote about what they asked for and he was passionate about. I hope she didn’t tell my S what she told me.