@dfbdfb - Hope she feels better. My S19 said his throat feels scratchy and he is scheduled to take it as well. Of course. :>
If itâs any consolation @dfbdfb DS16 received his highest ACT score on a test he took when he was sick.
So far DD is healthy, despite her sister bringing a mild cold home with her over the weekend. Now hoping snow doesnât postpone the ACT.
After supper last night DD and I sat at the table and talked for an hour plus. About everything! Friend drama, boys, specifics about future husband, colleges, majors, jobs, childbirth! It was really good!
She wants to visit 4 schools, and Iâm adding one to the list. Two sets of two are near each other, so we need 3 days. And she wants to go on a weekday but not miss soccer practice. Iâve got some figuring to do. We may be able to leave after soccer one night, stay overnight and get visits done, then be back again for soccer. One set is 3 hours away and the other set is 4 hours away.
@bjscheel I love when kids open up and thereâs good conversations around the table! Yea! Sounds like youâve got aome good visits planned. Hope they go well!
@bjscheel - I love those conversations too! I miss themâŠmy D16 was very âchattyââŠmy son, not so much. 8-|
I will never have those conversations, no daughter, oh well. :((
Well, I never had such conversations with my mom, either. 
Welcome @3SailAway and a few more who chimed in recently :-h
Sounds like you are quite caught up!
I havenât been doing much (obsessing) recently other than having scheduled tests for S19.
BTW, S19 is taking ACT on Saturday and he also has cold.
S17 has yet to think of a major (within College of Natural Sciences.)
At a meeting with GC, S19 mentioned potentially majoring in Materials Science & Engineering (or Chem. E.)
Many schools do not have MS&E major. Ok, UT does not. UT offers a minor though.
MS&E is offered mostly in graduate programs.
So I am researching⊠and clicking furiously schools at ASEE profiles.
http://profiles.asee.org/
I am also thinking⊠you wouldnât be doing MS&E without learning Quantum Mechanics. You wouldnât be learning QM without lots of math (diff. eq., linear algebra)⊠does this seem to lead to a family of 4 physics majors? Or it could be worse, family of 2 physics majors and 2 chemistry majors (generational divide). :-?
Another snow day here. And the kids will now be in school on 2/19 instead of having the day off. I had scheduled S19âs requested visit to Penn State main campus for that day. Just told him weâd have to reschedule and he said âDonât bother. I was just curious.â
Looks like we are sticking with small LACs, our local private college, and one or two actual in-state safeties. We are visiting West Chester and Millersville next month.
I may have mentioned that today would be a great day to open his Common App account and put some stuff in there that can roll over in August. Iâm taking bets on whether that will happen.
@InfiniteWaves Our kids were hoping for a snow day since it snowed again overnight. Only three inches and the plows were out by 5:00 so, sorry Charlie, school is on! I swear that our very cold winter isnât slowing anyone down. More and more, kids are just pushing through it. Five degrees outside? Letâs go ice skating! Ten degrees? Letâs have the track kids do a 2x1600 hard workout on the track that only has one lane shoveled! (That would be the insane track coaches.)
Sorry about having to cancel Penn State. If your S isnât upset about the miss, then I guess it tells you something. I was thinking about taking S19 to Wisconsin on 2/19 for one last âcould this work for you?â push. They have different types of tours which is nice but theyâre only offering their general tour and general admissions panel on that day, so not sure if we will make the trip. Iâm sure S19 would rather go to track practice and run in the cold until his eyelashes freeze up.
Are any of you taking advantage of sending the free ACT scores or staying away from that option? Iâve been reading up some on the topic and the consensus seems to be to use it ONLY for safety schools.
@moscott We did not send any free scores but I think it does make sense to use the service for true safeties if the student has taken practice tests and is pretty sure they will hit a certain score on test day.
We have a âsnow dayâ today but the roads in our neighborhood are merely wet; the ice/rain line was west of our part of the county. They really ought to zone us differently from the rest of the county - sometimes itâs really hazardous where we live but decent in the rest of the county, other times like today itâs a nothingburger We missed Monday too, so they lose 2 A days this week.
I woke DS19 up to tell him he didnât have school and I was leaving the house. I suggested that he use some of this free time today to do something productive towards studying for the ACT this weekend. I felt like such a nag.
DS is not interested in any more college visits, except maybe to the dream school. He told me last night that the official tours were all beginning to feel the same and that he felt like he had the tools to make decisions about where to apply. He wants to apply to some schools in southern California that we wonât be able to visit between now and application season.
Weâve taken to virtual touring of campuses that we know we cannot visit through Google Maps in 3d photographic mode. Combine that with a campus map from the website open in another tab and you can get a good feel for how far things are from each other. What that doesnât tell you is if there are huge hills to climb between dorms and dining hall, but thatâs something we can figure out on an accepted students weekend.
snow day and itâs not even snowing right now. I am not thrilled with how wimpy people have gotten about snow. Itâs like anything over 2 inches is a snowmageddon these days. People, you can drive in the snow!!! You just need to to slow down and be careful. People that live in the mountainous areas deal with this all the time like itâs no big deal.
@RightCoaster Wow! I assumed you lived somewhere where snow wasnât a big deal!
@InfiniteWaves - Has it been determined that the general info will roll over to the Common App in August? That does sound like a good snowy day project⊠
@homerdog snow isnât a big deal at all. Itâs the administrators and TV weather people make it a big deal. The TV stations try to scare everyone, as it drives ratings and hype. The school admins definitely use the days as convenient " vacation" days. Today, there is literally no reason the kids couldnât have gone in, still not snowing! But itâs easier to just call it off and let everyone stay home. Why not have a 1/2 day? Or early release? Nope, they just cancel it because the weather people said it might snow. Itâs pretty bad. And in the last 10 years or so it has gotten worse. The schools are weary of getting sued if something bad happens, and I understand that. But you canât just live in fear and not learn how to deal with stuff. Iâm okay with cancellations when they are warranted, but today, Câmon. Itâs totally about giving everyone a break from work. In MA everyone has become such wimps, about everything. Thatâs why I like spending time up in the mountains. People donât whine and complain about everything, they just get s#$t done!! I like that spirit.
@RightCoaster LOL! Wonât the kids have to make these days up? I would think teachers would want to go to work and not have to make up days!
@5050100 Yes! The Common App does allow for a bunch of info to be entered now:
What information will roll over?
All information within the Common App tab:
- Profile
- Family
- Education
- Testing
- Activities
- Writing
What information will not roll over?
- Answers to college-specific questions
- Recommender invitations
- Forms submitted by recommenders
- Your Release Authorization and FERPA selection
- Responses to questions that have been changed or removed
@InfiniteWaves - Excellent!! Thank youâŠ
Whatâs the thought process in sending the free ACT scores only to safeties?
If it makes sense, we may not send the scores for this weekendâs ACT. We will just wait until we get them back to decide.
I thought it was an advantage to send all ACT scores to schools that superscore? Or does it look bad if you send âbadâ or too many ACT scores to target or reach schools?
I donât recall how we played it with D16. I think we sent all her test results to the 4-5 schools she was really hoping to get into.