Hi fellow parents of 2019 grads. I have checked out these boards before but never noticed the ones for the specific graduation year. Oops. Oldest daughter is taking ACT right now, so I feel like I should be doing some online recon, so here I am. Just got first report card of school year, and am not sure what to think. Super competitive public HS in San Antonio, TX. She has been in school here since kinder, but we moved here from So Cal. Naturally she wants to go to UCLA. I know that is a 1 in a million chance. I hope she has a chance at Univ of Texas! Hope to learn from everybody here, thanks!
@jellybean5 Welcome! I didnât realize the ACT was todayâŠgood luck to all those taking the ACT.
Grew up in the shadows of UCLA and even though I went to undergrad in SF (go Bears!), the Bruins will always have a special place in my heart.
Hi ThinkOn, Yes DH is a UCLA grad. We did a college visit this summer (somehow managed a spot during our visit home). Whatâs not to like, right? We also went to UC Irvine. D was not impressed. I was shocked. Right by the ocean, Disneyland, and a major airport and in such beautiful surroundings. This is why I need to read about everybodyâs experiences on what to expect. I just donât think my D has reasonable expectations.
Since we were talking about NHS earlier in the thread, Iâll give an update on Sâs NHS application. We just received a letter that he got in. For some reason, I thought they would send a pkg home that explained what it all entails and define the committment. Nope. It was congratulations, a series of dates (induction rehearsal, induction, and meetings), and order form for NHS stuff. So looks like weâve accepted! LOL! Plus S was all happy. I didnât realize it was that important to him.
Congrats to @4MyKidz
That nice @4MyKidz especially that he was happy about it!
Itâs sometimes hard to tell how my S feels about things. Heâs the opposite of his sisters and is completely laid back. Heâs reserved with his feelings, quiet, and not much ruffles his feathers. Completely the opposite of my high strung, everythingâs an emergency, loud extrovert daughters. I was a bit surprised by how excited and happy he was about NHS and according to him, so are his friends. I was concerned about the time commitment but it looks like they offer multiple meeting times throughout the day and are flexible about the volunteer hours. Sometimes we parents think too hard about things and create issues where there are none.
We did our second official college tour at Wofford College this morning . I was very surprised at home much DS19 loved the school . Clemson has always been his first choice. Wofford is a small LAC with approx 1700 students . They are fairly generous with merit . You may want to investigate the Wofford Scholars program. @homerdog a little info that you may be interested in , the president was provost at Kenyon, Dean of Student Affairs at Centre. If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me.
Congratulations @4MyKidz !
Congrats @4MyKidz !
Congrats 4MyKidz. My D also was accepted in to NHS. hoping it shows as a extracurricular activity since she doesnât really have one anymore. Any thoughts on this ppl? TIA!
@jellybean5 There was some detailed discussion that took place on this community starting on page 279 regarding the NHS. I think you might find some helpful info thereâŠ
S19 was invited to NHS last week but I donât think he will apply. The requirements are crazy for a busy student. He needs 25 hours of community service from at least four different charities in order to apply. The hours have to be completed between now and Jan 15. Thereâs an essay requirement and the kids have to interview with a panel of teachers. If they jump through all of these hoops and keep their grades up this semester, then they will be inducted. After they are part of the society, it is required that they attend bi-monthly meetings, tutor a minimum of 40 hours (and they are expected to just find students on their own), and be an active member which includes fund raising activities throughout senior year.
I asked our GC how important this is. She said itâs not important for S19. He has shown leadership in more than one way already, has three significant ECs that take a total of 25 hours per week, and has other community service work under his belt. He really has no time for NHS so I think we are going to take a pass! I was so glad to hear the GC say he would be ok without it.
@homerdog My S19 was invited to NHS this summer and decided not to apply either. Taking on the tutoring requirement caused him a lot of anxiety. He has multiple band-related ECs and is preparing to take on his first job along with AP/honors coursework and volunteering. Glad to hear he is not the only one who feels this way. 
@InfiniteWaves Iâm glad to hear your story too! Our GC told us the NHS is perfect for the bright student who is looking to join a club that will give them the opportunity to give back to other students and to the community. S19 might feel a little weird that heâs not wearing the NHS tassel at graduation but oh well. By the time we get to the ceremony, everyone will know where they are going to school and Iâm hoping he wonât care.
Students are different and enjoy different activities. There is no cookie cutter mold where a student dots this i or crosses this t, to put on college applications. I like how diverse our students are and most colleges prefer variety. It bugs me when we feel the need to justify our kidsâ choices or even worse compare our kids choices. There is no need.
Iâm allergic to fundraising. If they required it here, I would bribe my d19 not to join our NHS.
Please know that I was not trying to justify our choices regarding NHS. I was more just complaining about all of the requirements for NHS at our school. When I was in high school, kids were invited based just on grades and I donât remember doing any extra work. I was surprised when I found out how it works at our kidsâ school. I feels a bit disconcerting to have S19 take a pass but we are just going with what our GC advised and I was relieved to hear her opinion since S19 really doesnât have room in his current schedule to add anything.
Any student who is invited must be doing a terrific job and should be congratulated for sure!
S19 went to his first college fair to day. I told him the goal was just to talk with reps from different types of schools and get a sense of what big research schools, polytechnics, Canadian schools, small liberals arts colleges are like. So we start out with Univ of Victoria, Univ of Brit Columbia, Univ of WA, Rochester Inst of Tech, and Swarthmore. I loved Univ of Victoria, thought he should just drop the whole stressful college search stuff and go there. And at $25K what a bargain! Why canât I be the one going to college? So anyhow, we took a break to plan what to see next and I asked if any of these jumped out as esp appealing to him (like, you know Univ of Victoria? Lol, I didnât say that.). âSwarthmore, I really liked Swarthmore.â ?? The guy just talked about how they have 18 expensive microscopes and that the Swarthmore undergrads have more research opportunities than MIT undergrads (yeah, right). How is it possible that I have two kids who like liberal arts colleges? I love big schools; this seems seems odd to me. No, I didnât say any of that. I said âok lets visit some other liberal arts colleges so you can get a better sense of that kind of school.â Then we hit Connecticut College, Reed College, St Olaf, Lafayette College, then filled it out with some bigger ones for contrast. Purdue, UC San Diego, and Univ of Pittsburgh. âWell whatâd you like this time?â Reed! Lol.
BTW, we went with a friend and her son. My friend commented âwow, you are visited all these schools that we have never heard of. A school with 1800? Thatâs smaller than his [her sonâs] high school.â
homerdog, that is a LOT of service hours at your school for NHS! I wouldnât be into that either. My D only has to do 10 hours per semester.