@3scoutsmom In my opinion your S and other out of district kids should get first dibs on parking since they have no other way to get to school while the in district kids could probably take the school bus. Hope it works out
First day of school today. Big year.
Bummer about the parking situation 3scoutsmom
I agree @readingclaygirl but that’s not the way they see it, my boys are at their school by their grace, they don’t have to let them attend at all. @2014novamom car pool won’t work because we are the only from this area that attends this school. There really isn’t any parking available but the idea of posting flyers in the neighborhood might work - I’d pay to rent a parking spot in a private drive way.
The stupid auction is now up to $3,700 and still has a day to go!
First day of school here today as well!
@3scoutsmom, is there a location along a bus route where your son could park and then hop on the bus? $3700 is absolutely insane.
At our HS Seniors get assigned to spots in the 3 close lots and Juniors are assigned to lots further away…DD could be assigned to a lot that is a half mile from the HS. We are waiting to hear about her lot assignment. They are pretty strict and if you get caught parking without a parking pass as a Junior (that cost $150 for the year) you won’t get a good lot assignment your Senior year. Oh well…as least she already has her license. The spots all get claimed so the Juniors who get their license during their Junior year may be out of luck as they run out of spots.
That’s awful @3scoutsmom does he have any friends who live closer to the school that he could work an arrangement with? Maybe during the period they have a permit and he doesn’t he could just drive to their house and park there for the day and they ride together? Then the reverse, when the friend doesn’t have a permit and he does he could pick them up? We don’t have parking issues at D’s school because the majority of the kids are on free/reduced lunch and are bussed in. Very few drivers. D doesn’t even drive yet, but I am thinking of pushing that issue this year, not to get her to drive to school, just to get her to learn the skill.
We are just back from our summer travels and we took the opportunity while on the road to take a peek at a few colleges. At this point, I’m trying to secure a true financial/admit/fit safety for D and it’s been tough as she is picky. It’s funny, I used to laugh at those “craziest reason your kid took a college off the list” threads, now I’m living it.
This will be long so, the TL;DR is CSUMB: maybe but too close to the beach, UCSC: no, too many hills and trees, UC Davis (a match not a safety): maybe, but only if it can be proven to be not so hot the rest of the year, and Southern Oregon: LOVE
OK, so our first stop was CSU Monterey Bay, which was actually our only official tour, everything else was self-tour. D was really nervous because our only other official tour we’d ever taken, the tour guide asked everyone to introduce themselves and say what they were interested in studying, and she is VERY undecided, so she was mortified. She was very anxious that this might happen again. I assured her that that was not a common practice, and fortunately the tour progressed with no questions being asked of her, so she was able to relax. It’s a really nice campus, compact, a mix of older buildings that have been repurposed (it’s a former military base) and new buildings. The dorms were very nice. We saw a triple and it was big enough that each person actually had their own space and D felt is was very spacious compared to the triple she had been in at the UC the previous week. Each room has it’s own attached bathroom. Which was pretty cool. The downside is you are responsible for cleaning it yourself. D felt that was doable and worth it to have a bathroom you only have to share with 2 other people. After the tour we ate lunch in the dining hall, and the food was pretty decent. D declared it better than the food she’d recently had at the UC (have I mentioned how much she hated that place?) 8-| The campus has some very nice open space areas adjoining it with hiking trails etc, and is about 2 blocks or so from the beach. This last point was, in the end, a big problem for my D. “I hate the beach” she says. Everyone will always be wanting to go to the beach and I will be weird for not wanting to go. I don’t want to be so close to the beach. But we live close to the beach I tell her. Yes, and I hate it, she says, people are always trying to get me to go to the beach. OK then. So I think she’s going to strike this one off, but I am reserving this one as a possible “so you have choices” safety.
We then moved up the coast to see UC Santa Cruz, and my gosh what a beautiful campus! I knew it was in a forest, I knew it overlooked to ocean, but wow, seeing really is something else. D said it was like being in a national park that was a college. And the girl who said she wanted lots of trees on campus suddenly declared this is too many trees. ~X(
We drove all over, got out and hiked a bit, and it was a hike, as the campus is also pretty much set into a hillside, and no she didn’t like that either. She just was not into it at all, and I don’t know if it was the school itself, or if seeing 2 in one day was too much for her. I will say though, that the campus is awesome for nature lovers, we saw deer just roaming through, and on our way out, a bobcat ran in front of our car with a rabbit in it’s mouth! I have never seen a bobcat in the wild before and we were all just gobsmacked at the sight.
Later in the trip we stopped by UC Davis. This one isn’t an admission safety, but it is a UC, and I keep trying (in vain) to get her to find one she likes. This campus was really pretty, and I think she would have liked it a lot more if it hadn’t been over 100 degrees outside when we were there. She HATES heat, leaves fans running in her room all winter long, begs me to turn on the AC regularly. So we only go out of the car for about 5 minutes and that was torture for her. But the campus is really, nice, flat, just enough trees, very bike friendly, with a cute little town just right off-campus. The dorms seemed OK but they are located right next to the area where the school keeps the cattle. D was pretty sure she could tell from peering through a window (from the car) that they were just like the terrible ones at that other UC she stayed at… :-w However, she was willing to keep it on the list, pending a determination of school year temperatures…
Further down the road, we made a last minute decision to stop by Southern Oregon University as we passed through Ashland. It wasn’t on the radar originally, but some last minute sleuthing determined that with WUE it is a financial safety and it’s also an admission safety for her as well as being a “public liberal arts school” with only about 6,000 students just what we’ve been trying to find for a safety, so we decided to stop by. Unfortunately it was a Saturday, and it’s summer, so the entire campus was completely shut down and devoid of any people. But pick up a brochure from a box they had outside and we made the best of it. In short, she loved the campus. It’s small, with plenty of trees, public art, there were sign posts pointing the way to various buildings all over the place even though it was a small campus which D loved, she said they needed that at the UC, she was always getting lost (sensing a theme yet?). It felt very cozy. The dorms and dining hall are across a pretty major thoroughfare, but that didn’t seem to faze D, as they don’t have triples at all, only doubles. So yay! I’m cautiously optimistic that we have at least one true safety for the list! She would need to see it when people are there before she could commit, but since this is the safety, I think we’re in good shape for now.
Now, we proceed toward Junior year! School starts in 2 weeks, we got a call yesterday that there may be a problem with her schedule, so we’re going in tomorrow to try to get it fixed.
I am back after a long out of country vacation. I see some of you made campus visits or at least narrowing down the list of colleges. My DD lately fell in love with duke as they sent her a poster, only other school that sent her info is SMU. on the back of the Duke poster they listed all majors they offer. she basically crossed out all except political science related fields. I am hoping she would dig little deeper and realizes no way we can afford it even if she gets an admission. Right now I don’t want to kill her enthusiasm. she applied to be a volunteer at both republic and democrat conventions and got a spot at RNC but thank goodness we were able to steer her away from it as it was our vacation time, we said we just can’t cancel our vacation, I felt bad to see her disappointment. She did visit state universities and quiet happy about them. Hopefully she can visit few more in fall break. school is staring soon, she wants to take her SAT in October right after PSAT. she is working on Khan academy. she keeps saying there are not very many practice tests that are close to real test to practice, if anybody has a any info on this, would appreciate highly. Good to be back with you all!
Just for clarification of test dates
Test Date Normal Deadline Late Registration*
October 1, 2016 September 1, 2016 Sept 20, 2016
November 5, 2016 October 7, 2016 October 25, 2016
PSAT is Wednesday, October 19, 2016 or Saturday, October 22, 2016
@sonoran if she wants to take the SAT after the PSAT she’ll need to take the November SAT
@3scoutsmom, thank you for the clarification of test dates. DD mentioned and I took her words, I need to make sure that is what she is thinking or not. Any advantage in taking PSAT prior to SAT or vice versa?
I think it’s whatever is best for your schedule. We are going with SAT on Oct 1 with DS18 (did the Nov test with DD16) Our current thought is since we’d prepped so much over the summer it was just better to get it over and done with as soon as possible.
Just returned from our Ohio/Indiana college visits. If you’re interested, I posted my comments about each over in this thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19868463/#Comment_19868463
Will be tricky. D15 took SAT in January and May, but with S being in theatre, show choir and tennis, well the winter will be busy and the spring really busy. So might have to do January for him (can study during Xmas break) and maybe June.
My D is going to try what my D15 did: SAT in early October, then PSAT, then ACT probably in January so she can study over winter break.
Does anyone know how long it takes for SAT scores to come back? I don’t recall, and I’m not sure if it’s different for the new version.
@3scoutsmom, it’s nice that your DS is finishing it off in Oct itself. I will just wait to hear from DD what she has decided. I hope she is taking in November, as I don’t see her doing any preparation.
@suzy100 I dont think there is a January ACT. I think there is one in December and one in February
Thank you for letting me know @kassh4! Now I guess she’ll need to decide between the December and February dates - I’m guessing February.
Curious why anyone would be taking both ACT and SAT junior year. It might be a little late (no?) to still be deciding between the tests. Our S19 has taken a few practice ACT and SATs and will take a practice PSAT this sophomore fall. He’s already leaning towards the SAT since there’s no science and more time per question. Reading passages are a bit more sophisticated but that’s not a problem for him. I really want him to focus on one test and get it over with early junior year!
Speaking from experience- most people if they take both take them junior year. At my high school you were strongly encouraged not to take SATs of ACTs until atleast March of junior year, preferably May or June. I don’t see any problem with still not having made up your mind. A lot of people I know just took both then sent whichever was better. I just took the SAT and scored well enough I didn’t retake it. Remember most CC people are eons ahead in this process than everyone else.
@homerdog, if my D was not possibly in contention for NMS/F, then I’d probably suggest she only focus on the ACT, given all of the unknowns around the new SAT. As it is, I think she will have a shot at it so she’s focusing on SAT/PSAT prep right now, and then will turn to ACT prep. No way she would have agreed to take any practice tests last year!
FWIW, my D15 also thought she liked the SAT better and surprised all of us with a better score on the ACT when she actually took the real one.
ACT isn’t offered at our school. Would have to travel.
@suzy100 I don’t know about new SAT but old one we could access scores on Collegeboard account in about 3 weeks.