@TexasMom18 First, huge congratulations!! I would wait, nothing like the excitement of them getting in the mail and learning it on their own or maybe encourage him slyly to check his portal. Must be hard not to shout it out!!
Congratulations to your S @TexasMom18! I think I’d find a way to have him look, like saying, “Hey, I’ve seen on cc that kids are getting their admission decisions so maybe you should check.” Best of luck to him on the ACT! Roll Tide!
@Astro77
I’m in the process of teaching child #3 to drive. What works for us is to find a nearby highway with a really long merge lane, and let the kid practice on that one over and over during off-peak times (Sunday mornings are great!).
Congrats @TexasMom18!
@TexasMom18 congrats!
My D18 also got her acceptance at Bama. While it was expected, it was certainly nice for her to open the portal and see her first acceptance. UA Scholar is generous and makes it very competitive with instate options. Will be a contender for sure!
Roll Tide
Congrats @TexasMom18 son! I would wait and let him get the surprise in the mail. Think of the cool and memorable pictures you can get of his reaction!! I have a gift bag full of fun TAMU stuff for my son after he gets his admission packet in the mail. I plan on making his favorite dinner that night and having a little family celebration.
@Texasmom18. Yay! Yay ! Yay. Congrats.
I would drop subtle hints for DD2016, along the lines of…Have you checked your portals today? I told her to check her email for Pitt…her first acceptance, in September…in the middle of 7th period AP Calc and she started crying. The teacher was all confused. He actually stopped the class to see what had happened and she blubbered “I was accepted at Pitt” and then HE teared up and had a whole conversation with the class about getting on the ball and getting their apps done! She would get upset if I knew before her after that so I tried hard to keep it under wraps…down to holding acceptance letter up to the sun to see if I could read them with out opening them (yeah that really works well believe it or not!).
Congratulations @TexasMom18! I’m glad you’ve had some good news!
@Texasmom18. Congrats! I am new here and I am confused when you DS will go to college? My D is a senior and she has not even started applying or decided on her college choice yet. Are we terribly behind?
Welcome @SchoolMother!
@SchoolMother there is a lot of time. We are all parents of seniors for the most part, but remember this is CC! We range from slightly to hyper obsessed and organized. 
The good news is that you will find a lot of help and support from this group.
Welcome @SchoolMother! You are not behind, there just seem to be an abundance of kids this year who are early!
@LOUKYDAD can you believe U of Kentucky still hasn’t updated their scholarships for Fall 2018 students? I’ve stopped looking because it has fallen off of our list regardless. You’ll have to let us know ASAP when you do find out. At this point I’m dying of curiosity.
@SchoolMother you’re not behind. I’ve been here for several months, reading and following along, and my D has a private college counselor, yet I still get a sense of being behind the 8 ball. But I keep reminding myself that for my D, 11/1, 11/30 and 1/1 are pretty much our college app deadlines. Not one of our college choices has a rolling admissions deadline. So, I’ve got to take some deep breaths.
Looks like several kiddos are heading to Alabama, Congrats!
DD would not apply to UA as she doesn’t like the sports and Greek culture or the size, but she did apply and get accepted to UAHuntsville with the full tuition/housing scholarship. She prefers the smaller environments and is currently contemplating applying to the honors college. Several family/friends who are huge college football fans were hoping she’d apply to Bama but alas, they will have to settle for hockey.
She is perfectly happy with UAH. She also applied to Howard and has no intentions on applying anywhere else. I’m good with this.
Welcome @SchoolMother you are in the right place. This thread is referring to (parents of) high school seniors who will graduate in 2018 and enter college (mostly) fall 2018. Applications are open to pretty much all schools now and some (early) deadlines are November 1st. Many schools have rolling admissions so they provide acceptances as early as a week or two after you submit the app. CC is … a unique community, with some folks being nearly done with their college search and application process for next year already… but there are plenty who are at the same point as you. I would suggest putting plans together soon though as November deadlines come quick and even January deadlines will sneak up on you. If you have questions, issues, etc… holler. Words of hope: our S15 decided to graduate early after his junior year in September of his junior… he didn’t have a list of schools, hadn’t taken an exam or had any school visits. He still had plenty of time to make early deadlines and got plenty of scholarship money, but it was just a bit more stressful than it could have been. Good luck!
@crazy4info I would love to be behind the scenes and able to understand what UK’s thought process is. Have they known for a while what they are going to do? Just delaying the roll out for some strategic reason? Or is there internal debate or second guessing going on?
Congrats @TexasMom18 !! <:-P I’m not sure what I would do in your situation, but I know I would have a hard time keeping that secret! Good luck to him on his ACT!!
Welcome new members! Don’t worry @SchoolMother you are not behind, there are some early birds here who have gotten some apps in to rolling admit schools, like Alabama. In some cases, those schools are top choices, in others they are the reserve in case another preferred school doesn’t work out. My D is applying to 10 schools, and has no “top choice” as yet. She’s the Queen of Undecided. But we did get our one rolling school app completed yesterday :D/ to NAU, she’s auto-admit there so we hope to get our first admission soon!
And then there’s @labegg, 17 apps in!! 
I am in awe. ^:)^
@Astro77 D just got her license at the beginning of summer. The learning process was pretty terrifying and it was me who did it as H “doesn’t like to be in the car with other people driving” 8-| We live in SoCal so freeways, big freeways, are a way of life and there is no avoiding them. We even need them to get to her school (though of there are ways, long ways, around them). I handled freeways in many ways the same way others here have mentioned. Though I never took her out specifically on a weekend, she did have freeway lessons with an instructor, and those were on the weekend. I did look for and use the easiest on ramps and avoided the scariest ones. For example, the first time I ever took her on the freeway I chose a spot where I knew she wouldn’t have to merge because the on-ramp comes on and becomes it’s own lane, so she just had to get up to speed, then the lane exited to a dedicated, barrier surrounded carpool lane that had it’s own exit near our house so she was “on” the freeway, but not. The on-ramp by her school headed home was similar in that it was a dedicated lane and long, but she did need to change lanes because it exited somewhere else after over a mile. But it gave her plenty of time. Then you graduate to on-ramps that don’t have a lane but do have excellent visibility, in that you can clearly see what’s going to be on the road when you get to the end of the ramp.
I would also say before any of that, make sure she is comfortable with lane changing in general, because it is very similar. So if you have some wide multi lane roads where she can practice just moving between lanes, preferably when there are a few other cars around, that might boost her confidence. I would say confidence is the most important thing. She and you just have to feel and believe she can do this, and she will be able to. I told my D many times, you will definitely encounter jerks on the road, but don’t let their problem become your problem. Be aware of them, but don’t get involved with them. That has sometimes been easier said than done for my D, and she gets very flustered when jerks honk at her or are otherwise rude on the road. But she’s actually really comfortable on the freeway. Good luck!
@TexasMom18 Congrats! D JUST submitted her App to Alabama. Hoping for an increase on her ACT too, but already she qualifies for some good money. Its a little far away for my liking, but we’ll see what happens.
D got a lot done of Common App this weekend. Has almost all the parts filled out and a good essay going. Essay is too long though so need to do some editing which is hard. Its all getting there though.
@mommdc – exactly what I’m referring to, because of UK LEADS initiative, we are uncertain what is going to happen to the Patterson scholarship, which was a full ride for National Merit Finalists.