@Gatormama We are also signed up for S19’s first junior preview day. Planning on going to Grinnell at the end of Sept. They have a two day program set up with multiple class visits, lunch/dinner, movie night with current students, etc. Means S19 will miss a day of school but he said he’s up for it. And I want him to see Grinnell in the fall instead of the winter. I think he might really like it but, if he compares it to the summer Kenyon trip, it’s unlikely to seem as nice if we go in the winter. They have another visit weekend over President’s Day but it will likely be snowy and cold…plus who knows what the driving situation will be in Feb so it’s best for us to go sooner.
Our high school has college reps coming almost every hour of every day this fall. Every school on our list is coming. Kids sign up for the hour presentation and then, if the group is small enough, will get a chance to ask questions. They max out the meetings at 50 kids. Some of the schools we want to visit over spring break are coming and, so far, only have a handful of kids in the session. I hope it stays that way and S19 can get to know the rep! It’s also very interesting to see which kids are signing up for each presentation. Vanderbilt, Wash U, and Duke are at max capacity. The LAC presentations that S19 is interested in are not as populated.
Attended our local CTCL event and it was just as @Corinthian described. Lively, interesting and funny 30 minute talk about the college search process, a little about the CTCL motto and then it was off to the races! We had 5-6 schools on our list to visit and at the very first one D19 found out she was talking to an alum of her HS! The rep was clearly excited and pleased so that started out the afternoon on a great note. One of the schools was a late add on to our list but actually came out at the head of the pack by the time we headed home. We removed Kalamazoo because they didn’t have her major and Cornell came off because she did not like the one class structure. I specifically asked Lawrence to explain their trimester system so D could understand the differences b/w that and semesters or quarters (NU which we will be seeing in a couple of weeks) and she actually didn’t mind it which was a great to hear. However, they might fall of the list as she wasn’t all that thrilled about how “music-oriented” the school was with the conservatory.
Overall it was a great start to the process and D has a little more excitement now about actual visits coming up. Let the journey begin!
So jealous that y’all have a CTCL event nearby. The nearest to us is NYC and I can just envision how much of a madhouse it is; kind of negates the whole philosophy behind these schools.
And @homerdog - wow - I need to find out if ANY schools visit my D’s school (tiny private in nowheresville) - I kind of doubt it. Thanks for the new direction to obsess about
I’m planning to take d to U Rochester on either Columbus or Veterans day. She is adamant that she doesn’t want to miss school to visit any colleges.
A number of colleges visit her high school. I told her that this is the year to meet with any she had even a slight interest in.
Just over a week until school starts. We managed to survive our busiest summer. She got her class schedule today, got all her classes. So far she knows she has at least one friend in all but one class. That one is no surprise though and she has a great teacher and hopes that their will be a familiar face at least.
She stopped by the school today to put some things in her locker. She went by the counseling office to see if they could tell her the grades on the two summer classes she took in July (health 1&2). She was impressed that the counselor (not hers, their are maybe 4 per grade at her school?) knew who she was. She got 99s in both classes, so that was a relief after how miserable they were.
Vacation is over, she finished up her required summer work and she just has a bit of an SAT prep book left to finish.
Glad you guys mentioned the preview days. I was going to take D to see Rollins just before Thanksgiving - we have the whole week off and they don’t get out until Wednesday. I just went back and looked again and found they have a preview day on a weekend in October that will work for us. The only thing I am worried about is if she should see the school on a normal school day instead of a weekend? I guess it is so close (3 hours) that if she likes it we can go back up again later in the year.
Did I mention that I am also bringing her to see University of Florida? She doesn’t have a ton of interest because of the size but agreed it would be good for her to at least see it before she ruled it out. Our friends have season tickets for the football games and is bringing us up there. He will give us a tour of the school and the town then take us to the game. D is not into sports at all but when I asked her about it she said yes, that she wanted to see it all. I’m excited because I love football - I have been known to drag her into the family room to watch the Patriots with leif nobody else is home. She sits and plays on her phone while I watch. =)) I would love her to have a real tour but they don’t offer them on weekends. They do have preview days for their honor college though so if D likes it enough we will her back up for that.
@momtogkc Kind of in the same boat when it comes to seeing a larger school. I think S19 has definitely ruled it out because our summer trip to the Ohio LACs sold him on a small school. They were very good at doing so. That being said, I know there are upsides to big schools so we are still planning on taking him to Madison and having our niece give us a tour and go to a game. He really likes her and she’s having a great experience there. If she can answer all of his questions about “why a bigger school”, then maybe we would return for an official tour on a different date.
It’s hard to be sure 100% when they are still pretty young. What if S19 is shut out of his reaches and his matches and is left with his LAC safety and Wisconsin? If that happens, I think he may have some pause and maybe consider going to UW.
@momtogkc, I love, love, love sports, I will watch anything, but college football is the best. Of course, D has less than zero interest in sports…I really am not sure she is by bio kid
Now that D has started high school, I will be going to the home football games…I bet I can’t drag her along.
Argh so jealous, @momtogkc!!! Haven’t been to a game since grad school. Of course, they didn’t get good until I left - in fact, we got the death penalty while I was there, iirc. If she can still not like UF after a game day… we’ll, I guess it will depend on if she enjoys football.
Thanks @homerdog - NU is a reach for her (isn’t it for everyone, lol) and to be honest it’s on our radar because they are a meets need school, otherwise I’m not sure we would bother. But her serious interest is secondary ed so really trying to find schools we can afford and not bog her down with too much debt. I have never been on the campus before even though it’s in my backyard so looking forward to this tour!
Looks like we have a CTCL event at our school this year, along with about 130 college visits scheduled so far. S19 remains oblivious. I think we’ll just have to wait for 2018 and then say - “Look at the calendar - you’ll be applying this year. Make a list.” We might try to force a visit in October or November. Maybe Delaware, which is pretty close, looks like it is a nice size and has decent merit aid for OOS.
First day of school went well. Attempts to get him to do homework before 10 or do any SAT prep at all fell on deaf ears, but at least he taught himself the Game of Thrones theme song on guitar, piano and double bass after school. That seemed to be the main priority yesterday.
I’ve gone from hoping for a one and done SAT score to deciding that he’ll take the ACT in December and just retake one or the other in the spring. So much for studying a bunch over the summer!
Well, the proverbial you know what has finally hit the fan over here. I was wondering how many days into school it would be before the junior year craziness shows up. Yesterday, S19’s art teacher told the kids they had to finish their first piece as homework. There had not been a published due date so this threw the kids for a loop. S19 also had to study for a BC calc test and had tons of homework: calc homework, annotated notes due in APUSH, AP Lang passages to read and answer questions, and French reading (and the French reading is French history but it’s in French!!). The XC coaches decided at 2:00 that it would be a nice day to take the bus to a local forest preserve for their long run instead of just leaving for school which added an hour to practice.
So…S19 didn’t get home until 6:45. Shower and eat and start homework at 7:30. He was nose to the grindstone with no phone and complete quiet in the house until 11:30 and still had not gotten to the painting or the French. No way I was going to let him start painting at 11:30. He said he could do French in the morning so went to bed. Got up at 6:00, did the French and left for school to ask a few last minute calc questions. XC meet tonight so not getting home until 7:30 or so. I hope that art teacher is understanding and that he can convince her that he needs an extension.
My favorite part of the story? He got a group text from the coaches at 10:30 telling the boys to get to bed! Need eight hours of sleep! I nearly texted them back telling them they are completely out of touch.
S19 didn’t seem too stressed…but I sure was. I think his stress will set in if/when he gets a few poor test grades. Seems like, as long as he understands the material and can keep his grades up, he can handle it. But junior year is definitely going to be different than last year and I thought last year was bad!
@eh1234 I’d love to hear about Delaware if you go!
Maybe your S will be more interested in college when he sees the seniors in his school start getting acceptances. I hear that’s when the juniors’ ears perk up a bit!
@carolinamom2boys Update! Thank you for asking about my daughter! She came home on Sunday after a 72 hr shift. Poor girl was exhausted, but somehow made time to go out with her boyfriend!?! I really don’t know how these kids do it! She is still unable to go back to her apt. She went back down to Corpus Christi today to work as many of the staff are unable to come in. This time she went prepared! She raided all of my camping equipment and borrowed an air mattress, camp pillow, and other stuff. Evidently the child took cat naps on the floor! Most importantly she and her patients are doing just fine despite the infrastructure issues. Her school (TAMUCC) has postponed starting the fall semester until next week. The students who had no place to go were bussed by the university and put up in hotels in Laredo.
On another note, the first day of school began for my S19 & D20. Good thing S19 finished his AP assignments. Evidently other students are cramming for this weeks deadlines. Football & Colorguard are still taking a bunch of time, but kids were able to start hw by 8 (including SAT prep) and were done by 10… So far so good :). I hope all of our babies have the best school year ever!
OMG you guys, I’ve told you often about D’s struggles with her Chinese class, specifically, the teacher?
So she is out on maternity leave for a few months, and D adores the substitute teacher, who emailed me tonight about something else and wrote this:
“She speaks very good Chinese. Brilliant student! I am excited to have her in my class. .”
To which I replied in pathetically grateful terms, talking about how much she’s struggled, and the sub wrote:
“…, it didn’t seem to me that she struggles. She is able to grasp everything I taught so far. Email me anytime if she tells you she struggles in my class. I will try my best to help…”
I am at once thrilled and so frustrated that we have tanked her GPA when there doesn’t seem to even be a problem, and this confirms it.
I live in the Houston area. You may have heard that something weather related happened here. We are safe and dry. The good news(?) for D19 is that school doesn’t resume until September 11. Since she’s signed up for the September 9 ACT, that means she can fully prepare for the ACT without having to worry about completing homework instead.
Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s taking it seriously. She’s now been out of school for an entire week and she’s only prepared one day. Unfortunately, I think her practice ACT has made her too confident (she got a 32 without any preparation: 34, 25, 34, 35). I’ve basically taken a hands off approach with her schooling since high school because she always seems to have a good handle on it. But I think my constant nagging her about preparing for the ACT has annoyed her.
I think a 34 composite is well within her range. Her math was low mainly due to lack of practice. But I’m also worried that her practice could have been a fluke.
