Honestly I think the whole lazy river/climbing wall stuff is over blown. I would really start to question my kid if that was why he wanted to go to a certain college.
Funny that you all are talking about climbing walls. S17 just got into climbing with a group of friends after school. Apparently one of the girls is a nationally (internationally, she’s going to Worlds) ranked climber.
All my guy needs is a fairly well manicured soccer field or two. That will keep him happy for four years…and beyond.
Hi all! Can any of you who are from a large public high school which uses Naviance answer this question? D has submitted her ED application, and is waiting for the school to do their part and send transcripts and rec letters. Among the issues is the fact that she only has a temporary counselor, since hers retired last year and has not been replaced yet. The new hire is always supposed to come “next week,” but many weeks later, still hasn’t arrived.
Anyway, D just e-mailed the temporary counselor a question, and of course the counselor replied but did not actually answer the question. (This always happens; I think they have set vague response they send back to everything lol.) The students are supposed to request transcripts through Naviance. D has done that, and hopefully one will get sent soon. But the ED deadline falls before the end of the first quarter, so D wants a second, updated transcript sent later too. First, quarter 1 grades are required by the college, and second it could absolutely help her for merit aid since she has all A’s in AP classes and therefore her GPA will be upward trending. So how does one request a second transcript on Naviance? I think there’s a way to ask for mid-year grades, but not a second report before that. The appropriate transcript request box on Naviance is already checked, and I can pretty much guarantee if she makes a paper request, the guidance office will think it’s a duplicate, say they already sent one, and ignore it. We always have issues with transcripts, always. Any ideas? Frankly, I am suspecting that maybe the school just ignores the ED deadlines and waits to send all transcripts until after the quarter 1 grades are in. That might be OK for some schools, but D is applying for merit aid so I don’t want to take ANY chances.
@TheGFG Our GC department gave clear instructions. Mid year transcript is sent automatically by GC, no action needed from senior’s part. For first marking period result, seniors need to go to GC office to work out separately. No automatic process.
@mtrosemom Brooke Raboutou, by any chance? D21 is a climber and a fangirl!
@mamaedefamilia - no, not Brooke. I am actually note sure what the young ladies name is. There are a couple of girls who are good climbers and part of a local club. S OTOH, it a totally recreational climber.
@TheGFG Same here. Your D will need to go talk to the counselor about sending quarter grades. Quarter grades don’t show up on D’s transcript, only on her report card. Maybe that’s what is sent?
I think 1st 1/4 grades also fall into the ‘varies across schools’ category.
Some schools push grades out to all schools where an early app has been submitted. Our guidance asks students to send a copy themselves directly to their local admission rep. IIRC from older son’s days, at least one school wanted the 1st 1/4 grades to come directly from guidance.
Oh, you’re right–quarter grades wouldn’t be on the transcript! Hmm. Thanks for that reminder…
@GFG—yes, but some schools want to see the 1/4 grades anyway. Our guidance dept suggests that it presents a nice opportunity for the student to reach out to his local AO. I think that if every early applicant reached out to his AO, that AO would be busy, and better to mechanize this process…but I am not in charge!
@itsgettingreal17 - S is still working on the UMD MD app, but I already sent both of his ACT scores, and the results for this Saturday’s ACT will be sent directly from ACT.org.
We aren’t using any College Board (SAT) scores so I didn’t know that they are an “all scores in” school. If we stick with ACT does UMD CP still require that we send the SAT scores as well?? Yikes, I hope not!!
I’ll check the language for you …
Are there any other parents out there dealing with a pretty high stat student who wants nothing to do with elite or prestigious schools? Even instate public ones? I am glad she has found a first choice she likes that we will (hopefully) be able to afford. And it meets her criteria of not being prestigious while still having her major and undergrad research opportunities (and an honors college she likes).
One of her friends is applying to Stanford and has a good chance of getting in based on some past experiences she has had with Stanford. My DD is happy for her, but those type schools are not her style. I just keep telling myself it is about good fit, and we are lucky she’s found a place that she thinks is a good fit for her.
The GC is pressuring to apply to more instate schools – like UC’s and Cal Poly in case the money doesn’t work out for the other, but that makes no sense. The UC’s/CSU’s will cost us much more as instate residents than others cost as out of state because they give merit. DD did agree to apply to the nearby CC/honors college just in case of some sort of emergency that prevents her from leaving home, but she doesn’t see the point of doing any more apps since she has picked her school. She agreed to do UA, so we’ve initiated the initial part of that app. I don’t know if that will be enough to satisfy the GC (whom we need on our side this year), or if she will need to find some (non prestigious, lol) CSU’s to add to her list.
And Naviance? Grrr . . . I feel for you all having to deal with that so much. I can’t figure out how to do much of anything on it through the parent account. It may be that my DD needs to log in to take colleges off the list, switch them to “applied,” etc.
Does every school have their LOR go through Naviance? DD will need a couple of those for her Honors College app due the first of December.
@aida wrote
I don’t think it’ll be a dealbreaker to put that she’d like to continue them in college if the college doesn’t offer it. I doubt the adcoms will lose any sleep over not having that EC for a kid.
That’s a fun QOTD: How many new activities do you remember doing in college that you didn’t do in HS, and how many did you do in HS that you stopped doing when you went to college?
I signed up for rowing because I’m tall and somebody told me I’d be good at it. What I wasn’t good at was getting my butt down to the Monongahela (ohio? one of those rivers in Pittsburgh), at ohmygodit’s early am.
I tried to continue tennis but every time I showed up to the courts nobody was there, lol.
Quit track, soccer, and theater (there was no “fun” level theater at CMU-it was all super high level and serious).
Ended up on the activities board because it was mostly inside and my boyfriend was on it,
My SIL went to NYU for undergrad and law school. My MIL has a story about showing up to freshmen orientation and the rest of the girls looked at SIL and deciding she was not a chic new yorker and ignoring her. If I didn’t loathe SIL so much I would have felt bad for her, but the story certainly left a bad taste in my mouth for snobby NYC schools. However, that’s my bias as a suburbanite. I’ve been to NYC and I didn’t love it, but I know people who are just meant to be there and really it’s their happy place.
All the EA apps are done! One RD app is still languishing on the Common App, oh woe is it. She’s promised she’ll get it done by Thanksgiving.
She’s in UA’s honors college, and is working on the CBHP essay, that should be in by turkey day, as well.
Oh crap, I just remembered I need her to log into the act because I forgot to save her username and pw for it to send scores (to umd).
I can hear her talking to one of her friends, a french guy who goes to her school (I can hear them because I took her gaming headphones away because she was shouting into them because she can’t hear herself), and I have to say, english spoken with a french accent is adorable! She’s still shouting, it’s just tolerable now, lol. I think she may be learning some french, as well, because half the time he’s talking in french.
@NoelleCf D17 is only applying to one elite school, and that’s sort of a crapshoot shoot the moon don’t hold your breath type of wish. The rest are pretty solid. Ok one is a reach, but I think it’s so quirky and niche that it doesn’t qualify as elite or prestigious. It may be because she’s doing CS so the whole prestige thing matters less to her ability to get a job out of college.
@NoelleCf D isn’t interested in any elite/prestigious school because in general they don’t offer enough Arabic to fit her needs (exception: Georgetown; very unfriendly NPC) She’s applying to a bunch of huge State flagships that each have specialized Arabic programs.
She says the elite schools are for grad school, should she ever attend 
@MotherOfDragons - DD is doing CS/minor in mechatronics. I think part of it is that she is a little on the young side and also just doesn’t like the intensity of the elites. After watching the Malcolm Gladwell video somebody posted (from Zeitgeist Americas 2013), we also realized she would do better somewhere where she is near the top academically. There is a better chance of her sticking with the major at the school she has chosen. It’s just tough dealing with the GC pressure on us and on her. Good luck to your D17 on the elite she applied to.
@WhereIsMyKindle - Is OSU (Ohio) on her list? I know someone who went to business school there but also did a lot in Arabic studies including studying abroad in Jordan.
@MotherOfDragons - lol yes I’m sure the adcoms are not fretting over whether or not they can provide my D with her beloved EC or not. My concern was more along the lines of them thinking, “This kid says she plans to continue X activity in college but we don’t even offer that! Did she even do any research about our school before she applied??? If she can’t even bother to find out a simple thing like that, she’s not worth wasting any more time on.” Or something like that.
But now I realize the activities section can be edited to suit each school, so it’s all good. 
But, if the school doesn’t offer it, it may still be a club that a student could start.
Fun QOTD, @MotherOfDragons !
Stuff I stopped doing after HS:
– track, cross country
– student gov’t
Stuff I kept doing, but that morphed:
– Reading science fiction morphed to Running science fiction conventions and SF movie series
– Writing for local newspaper morphed to Changed major to journalism
Stuff I started doing:
– Political / cultural protests