D just got her last acceptance and merit offer. $5,000/year at TCNJ.
@DiotimaDM Happy Birthday to your wonderful son!
@DiotimaDM - awwww!
Good job, mom, he sounds like a gem.
Big step for us the past few weeks. D18 withdrew acceptance at 4 institutions and respective honors programs. I thinned the accordian file of all the paperwork from the 7 schools she had applied / been accepted to, and updated the spreadsheet that lives on our refrigerator reminding us of current merit aid offers, net cost, important dates for orientation, housing, etc. Down to 3 contenders. Big scholarship interviews at 2 of them this upcoming week. If she gets the one she wants the most, I think her decision will be made on March 4th (the day we find out if she gets it). Ready to know where she is headed in August so we can make some definite plans!
@EmptyNester2B Congratulations on simplifying!
I like the idea of updating the spread sheet. I need to do that as well as make a streamlined list of accepted student events and other important dates before we miss something important. Thanks for the reminder.
Brown Fellows interviews at Louisville was an awesome if draining experience. More of gauntlet than an interview, but I think it was mostly fun and challenging for him. I wasn’t sure how he would respond but he seemed to rise to the occasion. There were so many very accomplished and polished kids in the room that I can’t imagine anyone feeling to confident!
I was very impressed with the program. It is amazing. They really seem to put the full resources of the university and the Brown Foundation behind helping the kids they select have a transformative educational experience.
They said they were going to decide the fortunate 10 and a few alternates yesterday. The interviewers were going to go into a room and hash it out right then while impressions were all fresh. He will get a letter next week.
I think we are down to 3 schools here, 2 of which he is admitted and the third looks promising. We have two others out there but they are likely NFW. But likely won’t hear from last school until end of March.
S has auditioned and been accepted by his first choice music education program!
Things continue to be busy with region chorus preparations and spring play practice taking up 4 or more hours most days. He also works part-time on the weekends.
I guess it will be good practice for next year.
Congrats on all the good news!
Found out DS21 is number 1 after first semester freshman year. Of course, it is only 1 semester, so we have a long way to go, but he is excited. Let the fun begin! DD16 graduated number 1. Through a quirky way our school calculates weighted GPA by adding points to GPA for honors/AP/CCP, and we just found out CCP is worth double AP or honors, it appears DD18 will end up number 2 after 3.5 years of being number 1, she just got passed this fall by someone who took more CCP classes and DD18 took every honors and AP class possible (13 total AP classes). We also weren’t aware DD18 could take extra CCP classes outside of school hours and it’s too late to catch up now. I suppose we should have been more informed! I did not go to the CCP meetings/keep up on changes at the school. And I do feel guilty about that. So now we know for DS21 he should take CCP instead of or in addition to AP/Honors. It’s too bad, for DD18, the new number 1 doesn’t even have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, close to it, only 1 B that we are aware of. But there’s nothing we can do about it, DD18 has learned to accept these things happen in life. DD18 is a NMF, she just got an email that they are sending a letter for her to sign that she will get the Excellence award at U of Cincinnati, a very nice scholarship, and she had already been invited to the Honors program at UC even before she had found out she was NMF, so she has everything she wanted even without graduating number 1 in the end, but she cant help but be disappointed to get passed in her final semester by someone who doesn’t even have a 4.0 unweighted GPA.
@shelleee is just crazy how each school figures rank differently. We had some drama with the top ranked kids at our school this week. All the kids are very close in GPA but some didn’t understand how they figured the final rank. At our school only classes taken in the actual school building during the regular school year count for GPA so no summer classes or DE class are figured in. They use semester grades for GPA and give each class a multiplier = unweighted classes x1.0, pre-AP classes x1.1 and AP and post AP classes x1.2. All students are required to take at least four unweighted classes, 3 have to be taken before senior year.
This is where ds kind of upset the apple cart, he took all his unweighted classes before senior year were the other top kids saved one for senior year. This combined with the kid ahead of him having a tough case of senioritious got him into the top ten. Now the current Val has just figured out that the ranks they were given in January aren’t final and that final ranks include grades through the third 9 week grading period (first half of second semester). Because they use semester grades to figure GPA the third 9 weeks grading period is counted as a semester grade, since the current Val thought her rank was final at the end of last semester she’s been blowing off school to focus on EC’s. Not sure how this is going to shake out but DS feels certain that at the very least the current Val and Sal will swap places. He feels very secure that he can maintain his 10th place spot and might even be able to move up, it’s really not a big deal for him. College apps are already submitted but in Texas all in states Vals get one year of free tuition at any state school so for a Val looking at UT it can still be financially important.
I think the way our school does weighted gpa is kind of meaningless. I had a conversation with the school about it. I really think they should go to 5.0 for Honors/AP/CCP and 4.0 for non honors/AP/CCP. DD18 will end up with 4.0 unweighted and 6.65 weighted. The 6.65 comes from adding .05 for every semester of an honors or AP class that she took and got an A ( or B if she had gotten a B). No colleges can really figure out what a 6.65 means. The person who is just passing her this semester will have something slightly above a 6.65, I don’t know exactly what, just that it is a little bit higher. It’s kind of weird to write on your resume, for DD16, the advice that we got was not to even bother putting it on her resume, just to stick with the 4.0 unweighted GPA.
Our school does the standard .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP. However, next year they announced if a child takes an AP class but doesn’t sit for AP test they will not get the bonus weight.
Our school also only gives AP weight if you take the test. I’m pretty annoyed with DS school. They actually announced the top 10% at the beginning of the year, based on 11th grade. They said it was the top 7 students in a class of 65. Then at mid-year, my son knocked out number 7. Well, once that happened, now they are saying that top 10% is 6 kids. So even though he worked to move up to what they defined as top 10% in September, they cut that slot…I’m pretty sure to avoid the conflict of retracting their premature announcement… by saying the school district frowns on rounding up. Apparently, The top 10% go to a dinner for the county.
@chattanya shouldn’t they have their policy in writing some where? I’d check the school handbook.
Seems like all good reasons not to rank. Our school doesnt rank and kids can take what they want without that concern. Of course they still get senioritis.
Ranking is so confusing. Our school does not officially rank, but the kids earn honors points for graduation. Well, there is a conference “top 10” banquet, so they do wind up picking a “top 10” based on the honors points. So whoever is taking the hardest classes winds up in the top 10, as long as they get over a C!
Dealing with parental emotional whiplash over here. b-( D swam her very last race at the state swim championships last night. Big tears from mom. D had no trouble turning the page, though…this morning she officially accepted her offer from McGill, accepted the scholarship, applied for housing, and announced her college decision on social media.
It’s all good, right?! :(( 8-}
Hugs to you @ShrimpBurrito. Good news but I see where it’s hard for the mama.
As for class ranking our school stopped ranking when D was in middle school. To be honest I was disappointed, I figured D would be near the top. Now that I see all the drama and anxiety it causes I am grateful we didn’t have to deal with it. I doubt D will suffer in admissions because her school doesn’t rank.
Wow @ShrimpBurrito that was fast! Hopefully she swam well.
D entered high school with 2 “B” grades from middle school that counted towards her high school ranking. She was out of the race for #1 ranked student before we even knew there was a race 8-}