Last night coming home from his sporting event, S18 told us how much he loves his his high school and what a great experience he has had there, and he thanked us for sending him there. It’s really nice when your teenage kid tell you you did something right once in a while!
@BingeWatcher - both our high schoolers were so excited for today! Freshman has a career exploration day so no classes and senior has the day off. Sophomores and juniors are required to take the PSAT, but they have nothing for the seniors to do so they just let them have a free day. He’s sleeping in I bet at least until 10!
At S’s school, all sophomores and juniors take the PSAT, funded by the district. Freshmen can take the PSAT but must register in advance and pay for the exam; freshmen who don’t take the test have an alternate activity during the testing period. Seniors have late arrival. When S was a freshman taking his first PSAT, this senior late arrival day seemed impossibly far in the future. And yet here we are, my kid is a senior with late arrival on PSAT day. @-)
Re the college mail…funny, but unlike many other posters yesterday was a really light day for S. Just one flier for Tulsa’s overnight visit program, and we visited Tulsa so that can’t be considered unsolicited. I’m really the only one who looks at the college mail anymore; H occasionally glances at fliers but S doesn’t even want to know about them anymore unless there’s something clever or amusing.
D was telling me yesterday that she’s flattered because a lot of her classmates are asking her to proof-read, condense, and make suggested changes to their college application essays because she’s such a good writer.
I told her that it’s very nice her classmates think that highly of her & then reminded her that she has her own essays due, with some of the deadlines approaching. She told me she knows & she’ll get to them, but she has a lot of other stuff to do also.
Like doing the other kids’ work for them?? Geez…
My freshman is very glad to be sleeping in on this PSAT day! My senior is stressed and has completely booked up her “free” morning with meetings and last-minute homework.
We had my D17 excused from school today since its a minimum day and no learning was going to occur. She’s at home finalizing her applications. Or binge watching Netflix. She’s actually in pretty good shape and could use a day off.
My DD has gotten so much college mail she’s turning them into a Halloween costume.
@bearcatfan our GC had done a great job overall of being timely but for one of her Common App schools they keep contacting me daughter saying they are missing her GC Rec and her official Transcripts. The counselor seemed to think it needed to be sent directly to the school…the common app shows incomplete. I’m thoroughly confused. The GC did send them somewhere, just not sure where. Ugh. This is a rolling admit school and they will be sending out acceptances any day now along with merit. Frustrated here too. 
@AmyBeth68 I’m hoping the college starts the interview process without having to have everything in. She specifically applied early so she could have more choice in when she goes there, and the first announced date is mid-November. Everything is “in” according to the school portal, so maybe that’s what counts.
@odannyboySF We need pictures!
@bearcatfan - that’s a great idea about unsubscribing from those schools that are no longer (or never were) on the list. We’ll start doing the same today as there’s already so much incoming email from the schools she’s applied to.
It will be nice to unclutter the inbox a bit by eliminating those schools we don’t need to hear from 
Question from a family here with a S19 - is the PSAT the test where kids can check a box to get all of this mail? I forgot to tell S19 this morning to not check that box! Also, do schools only send mail to kids with certain scores on the PSAT? I thought no colleges ever see the scores…
My goal for today is to subtly corner D so we can at least get rid of the schools on Naviance and the CA that she really doesn’t want to apply to anymore. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
She’s also home because of PSATs and has been going back and forth between homework and cello all morning. I’ve been serenaded as I fold laundry, do burpees and squats, and plan my coop class.
I can bet D20 did no prep for the PSAT even though I talked to her about it and gave her some tips to get started. I really think she is CC bound, but the CC will use SAT scores to place kids out of remedial classes and into credit bearing courses without other testing, which might help.
@Kayak24, we are in the same boat re: MD. The Coalition App itself almost got MD scratch scratched (teachers at my S18’s school are not used to it and he hates putting people out . . . plus it’s the only Coalition school on his list), but he went forward with it and now is frustrated about the resume at the end of the app! He has a resume, but it’s a work resume for part time jobs. Not sure that’s what they are looking for.
One of D’s schools requires that she manually input all of her classes and her grades in those classes, even though her GC is required to send her transcript. Ridiculous. >:P
@suzy100 - feeling your pain - D has had to manually enter for several schools. So annoying!
@odannyboySF For the “college mail” costume, just make sure all mail from HYPSM is at or near the top, then in the middle of the costume should Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Penn, Duke, blah, blah, blah and finally at the bottom, near the knees and shins, Vandy, WashU, ND, Georgetown, etc. Public schools like UCB, UCLA, UM, UVA, etc. can be tied to the shoes or on the bottom of shoes, so she can walk all over them. That way, the kids, like the parents, can argue about the rankings with her. :))
Minimum day today too. D has career day today. D21 has a field trip to a local college. And sophs and juniors take the PSAT. Then D will have to work on one of the CA prompts, which she’s struggling with for a couple of weeks. And rewriting.
I like the looking at all the brochures and postcards. So, we’ll keep getting them.
@homerdog - Yup! That’s the one.
@suzy100 - several of S18’s schools required entering grades manually, as well. Annoying and also worrying, because of the risk of inadvertent error!!
I like the schools that allow the applicant to scan a .pdf of the transcript, to be verified after acceptance. No waiting for a counselor!
D used her PSAT-induced free time at school today to work up the courage to submit her UBC app. It’s her top choice at the moment, so pushing that button was a little nerve-wracking, I sense. She’s still needing help sorting through requesting transcripts (they all must be printed out and mailed?!), and the U Toronto app has her stumped. And does she go ahead and submit the UBC housing app? Ugh. We will all be glad when this part of the process is done!
S used his free morning to organize his room, including going through his clothes and getting rid of everything he no longer wears. Among other things the purge pile included all his non-UTD college shirts! Up until today he’d been regularly wearing UT, WPI, MIT and Tulsa shirts even though he’s accepted his UTD admission and 100% committed to attending there, but today he decided it was time to jettison the non-UTD stuff. Overall he ended up with two large bags of clothes to drop off at Salvation Army on his way to school, including some shorts and t shirts from freshman year.