Good luck to all the Cal Poly applicants, we have a very happy D14 there. I’m not sure she’ll ever move back!
@BlueAFMom … Our mantra is “you will make your life and make your world wherever you end up going.” Your happiness and what you get out of college largely depends on your attitude and how you make things happen. You can be at the #1 college on the planet but none of that matters if you don’t have a spear of initiative and contentment within yourself."
My daughter asked in she could get a new (used) car if she ended up at Cal Poly, which would be our least expensive option by far. My husband thought on that and said he’d make that deal in a hot second on what we’d save over four years 
Now if she can just get in!
OK. First acceptance in the CASPer ville!
Love automatic acceptance at Texas A&M! <:-P <:-P
Took less than a week too!
@payn4ward - My DS said UNC-CH deadline extension is only for those impacted by hurricane.
@BlueAFMom I totally understand how you feel. My D16 was high stats, the whole package (but no hook) and she only wanted a top 20 school. Applied to 4 Ivy’s, Vandy and Duke, one top public UVA then our state school UF. Only got into UVA and UF, waitlisted at Vandy. She was crushed at first, how could she go to UF, she felt better than that, she worked so hard etc etc. UVA to her wasn’t worth the $50,000+ a year price tag for a public school when she got a full ride to UF. So she is currently a freshman at UF and she just told me the other day that she is SO HAPPY she is there. That’s all I want for my kids. She got over the prestige and realizes it is ok. She will be successful anywhere.
Lucky for D17 that she saw her sister go through it first. She is also a high stat kid. She just sent her app to a selective school ED and she knows if she doesn’t get in, it is ok. She doesn’t want any ivy though. But it is a top 20. Also, the second time around we aren’t telling anyone where she is applying. Too many questions of ‘did you hear back yet’ and then if you did get rejected having to tell everyone is hard.
when people I ask which colleges I tell “couple of Ivies, couple of BS/MDs and UCs”, no details.
App update: So after my little angry note to the principal last week, D’s counselor wrote the GC recommendation yesterday. Because as of this morning the missing pieces (transcript and rec) had not been submitted, I planted myself in her office this morning and looked over her shoulder while she figured out the alleged computer error that prevented the transcript from being sent and submitted everything that was currently outstanding. It took an hour! Naviance now shows everything as sent. We will follow up tomorrow to see if everything shows up at the colleges (some did within minutes). And D will submit her Wells scholarship app tonight and go pay her a visit tomorrow to see that it gets submitted on time. It really shouldn’t be this hard! But the end is in sight (but not that close :))).
@MotherOfDragons Thanks for the suggestions!!! I’ll check them out online tonight.
The car discussion really got me thinking… D is unlikely to do a US co-op or internship during her first 4 years. The current plan is an international internship summer after junior year. But she’ll probably want to volunteer in whichever city she ends up. That brings me to: maybe she needs 4 wheel drive since she may end up somewhere cold. That means I may need to rethink the budget…
D had my 2007 Dodge. It was great until the transmission went out. Since that repair, it’s been expensive repair after expensive repair and often. It has about 200,000 miles on it as I previously had a long commute, we live in the burbs, and I frequently go on out of town trips.
@itsgettingreal17 That’s a bummer about the car. See what the damage would be to fix the old one. I can’t see purchasing a replacement for 10 months.
It’s funny, a few of you mentioned having CR-Vs. We bought a 2007 CR-V a few years ago with the idea that d17 would take it to college. And, she still can but I think there’s only 1 school currently on the list where it would be necessary/possible to have a car on campus as a freshman. (I agree…MOD don’t tell me if the CR-V is unsafe)
@BlueAFMom Relax. If you have followed the CC-mantra you will have schools on the list that are safeties. Right? @greeny8’s D’s experience is a reminder how random this process is.
I’m not sure I would have a clue what the top 40 schools are anymore. =))
Anyone else attend a UofSCarolina Top Scholars event recently? We go this weekend.
@itsgettingreal17 don’t you and your daughter head to Pitt soon? They’ve sent us a similar offer to come visit, some-expense paid. I’d love to go back for another look since it was pouring during our first visit, but I’m not sure we can swing it. Free weekends seem to be at a premium for a while.
@greeny8 Different set of schools, but our story is remarkably similar. Even down to the part about telling which schools our younger son is applying to - we will mention UCs generically, but skip the few private reaches. Our oldest is like your daughter, super happy at the school he ended up at.
Who are the California School experts on here? Ds wants to apply to San Diego State and tried to input his HS course last night but he keeps getting errors that he does not have enough semesters of English and Math. He has the equivalent of 6 full year English classes and 5 full year Math classes so what could he be doing wrong? I can research it but thought maybe someone who have an idea off the top of their head. Our school does quarters but the application only asks for Fall grade, Spring grade (and summer grades but we don’t have any of those). Is he making a simple mistake I’m overlooking? I don’t think this is the right school for him for many reasons but he is adamant on applying so I’ve learned to pick my battles but now he’s asking for my help with it and I’m finding it frustrating.
@itsgettingreal17 Honestly, if you have front-wheel drive you should be fine. This, from a Chicagoan. Our first 4WD was our CR-V which is sweet when we need to get out of our garage after the alley (do any of you know what an alley is? 
) has been plowed and there is a 2 foot pile of snow in the way. Front-wheel-drive is awesome in the snow, and generally gets better gas mileage.
That said, I love the CR-V in the snow. It’s not full-time 4WD…only when you need it. Sometimes I make it think I need it. 
Daughter accepted at Indiana U. today, per the portal. Woohoo! We visit for a football game in a couple of weeks for the first time. I hear the campus is beautiful…
I have used all my posting credits for the day. I will hang up and listen for the rest of the day.
@itsgettingreal17 Yeah on the getting the issue fixed and roosting on them!
@hadmeathello the 2007 CR-V is fine and will probably live forever. Glad you didn’t get an older one, though. Side impact wasn’t so good on the older ones.
Did I mention that the GC is back from maternity leave and emailed D to stop sending stuff to the assistant principal and send it to her instead? I’m happy that she’s paying attention. I’m sure the AP was like, god take this kid off of my hands she keeps emailing me and I can’t dodge her forever.
@Collegecue, if you choose quarters but only input 2 grades you will only get 2 quarters credit.
Two choices- choose semesters and enter average grades for fall/spring
choose quarters and enter 4 grades.
Are you also doing the honors college app for SDSU?
@Collegecue I think the answer to your question may be at the bottom of this page:
https://secure.csumentor.edu/Freshman_Planner/planner_instructions.asp
@hadmeathello I’m a single mom and D works 5 days a week and her jobs aren’t close. She needs a reliable vehicle. I’ve already sunk around $10k into her car in less than a year. Current repairs are expensive. Time to move on. If she doesn’t need the car for college, I’ll give it to my mother, who drives an older car (we drive our cars until they die).
We are going to a USCar dinner on Sunday. I’ll report back. Another poster already went and said it was fine but didn’t change her D’s opinion of the school. You can probably find it by searching for “steak” in this thread.
And yes we are going to Pitt at the end of the month. I’ll report back on that too. We are looking forward to it.
@BlueAFMom Our experience is along the lines of @greeny8’s. We have a couple of very high achieving kids, one being D17. We have learned that being accepted is often the easier part. If they can’t afford to attend, being accepted is meaningless. Dd has her heart set on nothing. She isn’t even applying to extremely competitive schools. Competitive programs, otoh, yes. One that she really likes only accepts 20 students. But, if she doesn’t get accepted into it, she has multiple where she would be ok. Perfect? Fantastic? Great? No, but no biggie. She will make wherever she is work.
Unlike the virtual world of CC, the real college world is what they make of it. Lots of wonderful opportunities exist in a whole lot of places.
@hadmeathello - Yes Indiana U’s campus is beautiful. DS19 went with us then we were looking at colleges for DS13. Back then DS19 declared that Indiana U was where he wanted to go because he thought the campus was the best looking of all the ones we toured! It really is a pretty campus.