Parents of the HS Class of 2018 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
8081

Ugh, @labegg. Enough’s enough. Please keep us updated.

I’ve mentioned before my daughter wants to major in nursing. So far she’s in at four direct-admit schools, including two of her top ones with merit. The third top one has yet to say anything. They are pretty different - a small Catholic university, a small well-regarded regional university (45 minutes away!!) and (the one we are waiting on) an urban behemoth with a freshman class about twice the size of both of the other universities’ total enrollment. Weird.

8082

Future medical scientist who made the absolute most of his HS experience.

8083

Well from the application? Procrastinating rural runner/swimmer with top scores and grades.

Filled in activities, transcripts and scores but without an essay, there’s no real meat…

8084

video game nut who sometimes finds time to turn in work ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

Reader, writer, lover of stories who enjoys helping children and giving back.

8085

Episode III: DMV Boss Fight

Armed with a sheaf of documents, S and I headed to the DMV for the third time in four weeks. We were turned back at the door because we had sodas in our hands. No food or drink allowed.

I gave the sodas to S to take back to the car and got in the red carpet, we-have-an-appointment line, which was mercifully short. We presented the new birth certificate, the filled out form and a utility bill that listed my name as well as DH’s.

The clerk gazed upon us benignly. She looked at the birth certificate, nodded and picked up the utility bill. Her smile faded. She looked back at the birth certificate. Then she looked at me.

“Ma’am, have you ever had a California driver’s license in your maiden name?”

My maiden name? I’ve been married for 23+ years. Why would I have a driver’s license in my maiden name?

“No,” I said politely, “but my name is on the utility bill. It’s the second name listed.”

“That’s your married name. If you don’t have anything in your maiden name, I’m going to need your marriage license.”

Say what?? A marriage license. For my son to get his driver’s license, I need to present a marriage license?

For some regulatory reason now lost to time, California wants a woman to put her maiden name on her baby’s birth certificate regardless of how long she’s been married or what her legal name is on all other records. This means that my name as shown on S’s birth certificate doesn’t match any document I posses, nor can it because I haven’t been Dia Maiden Name for almost a quarter century.

The clerk hands us our papers back… but as she does, she notices the bright yellow papers in my sheaf of documents.

“Those!” she says. “The yellow ones. Give me those!”

I check my inventory. Those are the report cards. I hand them over.

Her beatific smile returns. She shuffles the papers, stacks them neatly and binds them with a golden paper clip.

“You’re early. I can’t check you in until ten minutes before your appointment. Come back then.”

We’ve made it past the front desk! We’ve never gotten this far before, so we make sure to save our game before we head to the waiting area to, well, wait.

Ten minutes later, we present ourselves again and the clerk gives S his take-a-number-please number. More waiting.

They call his number in another ten minutes, and everything goes smoothly from there. The DMV doesn’t take credit cards, I’ve forgotten to bring cash and who writes checks anymore? My ATM card suffices.

S passed the written test, a bit more waiting and then his learner’s permit was passed into his happy little hands. They give us an official lecture about how he has to have someone over the age of 25 with with him when he drives. S and I silently note that they didn’t say the person had to be A) awake, or B) sober. Not that we’re planning any of that, mind you, but hey, loopholes.

So, tl;dr, the DMV has been vanquished, and S will soon be driving on streets and sidewalks near you. You have all been duly warned.

DH, btw, whose name is on all of the other residency-proving documents, and who wasn’t forced to list his name inaccurately on S’s birth certificate, is in Dublin, squarely in the path of Hurricane Ophelia. Because who worries about possible hurricanes when booking a business trip to freaking IRELAND?

8086

What a great narrative! The reading, that is. I’m sure the experience wasn’t.

8087

S told us this evening about his reply to an email from a school saying that he “must” apply now. “Now that’s just too much pressure.”

8088

What a great narrative! The reading, that is. I’m sure the experience wasn’t.

8089

Just between you and me, I suspect this was all a diabolical plot by S’s AP Lit teacher. How else do you prepare the kids for Kafka?

8090

Dia :))

8091

D finally - FINALLY - submitted her app to her first school. Technical issues abounded, review of Common App essay resulted in changes to be made (by D, not me), snafus with payment issues (see earlier reference to technical issues, but those were not just related to making the payment), but it’s done.

@DiotimaDM, all I can say is thank goodness for a happy ending.

@labegg, I got nothin. I’d be beyond pissed. I wonder if that will get edited.

Anyway, happy Friday everyone. :slight_smile:

8092

CA essay not quite ready, but we are making significant progress elsewhere. 9 of 10 interviews are scheduled now and 6/10 are done. The 7th is tomorrow.

Also, D recorded her audition/talent videos and can start submitting those.

8093

My son received this email from University of Richmond:

“Recognizing that support can never start too soon, we’re excited to introduce you to our partnership with RaiseMe – an easy way to recognize your high school achievements with scholarship dollars (up to $5,000/year!). To start earning money toward your college degree, simply visit our partner page, create a free profile, and start entering your high school achievements to date. In return, Richmond will reward you for earning A’s ($200/class), taking upper level classes like AP or IB coursework ($1000/class), and participating in extracurriculars ($50/per activity). Be sure to keep your Raise.Me profile updated throughout your senior year – your earnings will become instantly available if you apply and enroll at UR!”

I don’t know if this $ would come off of merit awards or be on top of them, but I think it’s a very clever concept.

8094

I told S about us summing up our students in just a few words, and he wants to contribute his own.

  • That disaster kid.
  • The Drama Doc.
  • The Catastrophe.
  • answers phone Drama or Trauma?
8095

I’m concerned my D’s app does not do her justice. There isn’t any kind of consistent theme, and it looks unfocused. But this isn’t who my D is. My D is highly engaged in what she’s doing, it’s just that she’s enjoyed learning about all sorts of things so far. I’m sure all of you will agree with me, that I’d love to see her LORs because they could tie together the whole application. Or they could go off on yet another trail, and leave the AO saying even more to themselves that they have no idea who this kid is.

8096

Over achieving future business person who thoroughly enjoyed her HS experience and is nervously excited to begin a new chapter in her life.

My involvement in the college process:

  • I did all of the financial stuff (FAFSA, CSS Profile, & any financial inputs to other apps)
  • D paid for all of the standardized testing score reports & CSS Profiles sent to the schools from her college savings
  • I'll pay for any campus trips & (of course) for the lion's share of her college expenses
  • D does all of the application essays & the little mini-questions on the applications
  • I act as her proof-reader before she finalizes her essays
  • I sat with her during the first batch of submissions & we worked on them together
  • D is in charge of the rest of her school & scholarship applications
  • I offered to remain her proof-reader if she still wants me to do that
  • We meet on Sundays and D keeps a very detailed To Do list, so it's easy for me to see what progress is being made

@DiotimaDM - I enjoyed reading about your saga at the DMV - so funny!

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@pickledginger Raise Me is a way for families to estimate how much aid they would get from a school based on grades. If you sign up for Raise Me and enter all of your grades and get a total that is greater than what the school officially offers you, then you can let them know your Raise Me total and they will give you that amount instead. My understanding is that the totals should match or be really close.

Schools use Raise Me as more of an advertisement to parents to let them know that the give grants for certain grades. If you didn’t use Raise Me at all, you should expect to get the same amount of grant money. Raise Me helps parents estimate what they would get in order to help decide if you’d like to apply.

Hope that makes sense.

8098

@DiotimaDM I love “Drama or Trauma”! For drama, press 1…

8099

@3CollegeMom and @Astro77 in the Coalition page it shows the SAT score received with a date of 1-1-2017, even though we didn’t send it until after her application went in. Our HS urges us not to send any materials (test scores, transcripts, rec letters) until the students have hit the button to fully submit an application, otherwise they said sometimes the schools don’t keep them without an application to start up the student file. The 1-1-2017 date is the only time she took the SAT, so I think it’s showing one of the test dates. UMCP requires all test scores be sent, they don’t use score choice, so maybe the 11/2016 is the first date your DD took it? Our DD was going to retake in August, but panicked that she couldn’t do as well as she did in January so she didn’t show up and SAT just drops any record of her registering for it. Hope this is helpful! In the Coalition app, the SAT score is the date she took it, then each teacher rec letter and received date is listed separately and we get an email when the teacher uploads it (she has 2 so far), then the transcript and GC letter and date show up. Once all pieces have arrived, it takes about 1-2 days and the college notes the application received/complete date, which on ours is 1 day after the last required submission. I’m not sure how teacher rec letters that come in after that time are handled…our DD had 2 more teachers who are completing letters by the EA deadline of 11/1, but they haven’t submitted them yet.

I actually like the Coalition App for that reason - it’s great to have a central place to check on application status vs. having to go to each portal like the Common App and individual school apps. I’m just bummed that DD only applied to 1 Coalition school, 1 Common app school, and has 1 more individual school app to go - since the bulk of the Common and Coalition apps were done, it would save lots of time for additional ones but she has no interest. Oh well, 2 are complete and 1 to go by 12/1, so I can’t complain.

Homecoming is tonight for her, and it’s definitely one of her favorite days so far this school year since she’s going with a good group of friends and she can drive herself around to get ready. The other homecoming years have been bumpy roads, so I’m glad the last one she has will be so much fun for her.

8100

Talented singer/songwriter with strong academic skills who is self-motivated and determined to become one of our first female presidents :slight_smile:

DD is planning to double-major in Government & Politics and Psychology (a switch from her prior interest of musical theater and either Spanish or education).