I appreciate the heads-up about the SAT2 language tests. If D19 were to take them, we were thinking Spanish would be one, so it’s good to know to proceed with caution.
I want to go to Amsterdam! 
The summertime feeling always makes me want to travel.
Choir banquet…D19 ran for a VP position and didn’t win, which surprised us not at all. The bigger surprise was that she ran for something! She’s quiet. The students, especially the seniors, were all very raucous and supportive and gave everyone giant cheers for everything, including the mom volunteers and everybody’s favorite dad, so that was endearing. I can see that next year’s banquet is going to be emotional for me. Sniff.
And…drum roll…as of this morning, we have The Spreadsheet! Whoot. Hardly anything on it at this point but at least we’re making tiny progress. Looking at criteria for arts supplements…wouldn’t it be nice if these were uniform…!! Every school has sliiiiightly different criteria for what they want. I’m nervous about getting these properly pulled together this summer. I want D19’s voice teacher to help her select her pieces and be her accompanist in the videos. Unfortunately this teacher is not particularly savvy about college admissions so she’s yet another person we have to educate.
Saw an ad for an open position as an AO at my alma mater. Salary was slightly less than $4K a month. Hmm. No wonder so many AOs are early career folks in their mid-20s. For a high COL state, $4K a month is modest. Also interesting to see the allocation of resources because of course that’s less than two thirds of the cost of attendance for one full-pay student. I’m not sure what to think.
Question: Outside scholarships? Does anyone have a systematic approach to finding and applying for these? Wondering how much effort to spend on this area. I have a feeling that question is going to answer itself when we have no time left, with senior year goings-on, supplemental materials, etc. DH has expressed a goal that D gets $10K in outside scholarships and I think that’s unrealistic. You hear about all these unclaimed scholarships sitting around and I’m so skeptical. We do have the Scholly app and so many of those are nationwide essay contests and feel like long shots, and time-consuming to boot.
@SDCounty3Mom I highly recommend Amsterdam! My husband and I went last summer for a few nights and also to Stockholm. Both cities were amazing. I haven’t been to Europe for at least 15 years and I was nervous last summer but it was sooo easy. We didn’t get a chance to see the Anne Frank house last summer so we have advanced tickets for that this time. I just love all the canals and the restaurants and bars that are all outside! It was a very relaxing trip.
I just started looking at outside scholarships. Our GC recommended that the kids use Naviance to find scholarships and apply for one each week! However, I didn’t find the Naviance to be very helpful.
I have the scholly app and found that to be more helpful but you have to pay a monthly fee. GC told us to watch out for the scholarship search websites because they get your info and sell it.
I found an amazing volunteer opportunity for my son. He is into biology and living on the Chesapeake Bay I was surprised that he was never really into the ecology and health of the bay and that animal life. Especially since he loves all kinds of reptiles and animals. He’s always searching around our house and woods for animals, picking up the snakes and turtles, etc… The Smithsonian has an environmental research facility near our home and I stumbled upon volunteer activities. Son was interested and signed up to work with them yesterday with mud crabs and parasites. When I picked him up he was pleasantly surprised by the experience. He was also interested in their archaeology dig but it was full yesterday. He told me that he saw them and they were working in the sun. He was like I think I’ll stick with the crab project - we were on the docks under a canopy! LOL
Now, I’m not sure what SAT2 test to have S take. It sounds like Spanish is not the way to go. I guess he’ll do Math 2 but he’s not thrilled with that. In addition to math, I was thinking about Spanish but now maybe World History would be better. He hasn’t taken AP world since freshman year though. Since he doesn’t have a lot of time or willpower for studying, it’s hard to choose two where he would have the best chance.
@SDCounty3Mom - D hasn’t had luck with outside scholarships. While she was a very good hs student, had strong test scores, and was dedicated to her main EC (theater) all through hs, she wouldn’t have been very competitive for the big national scholarships and didn’t have enough volunteer hours and other stuff to win the local awards. She is a great writer so I thought she would have a good chance for some of those contests/scholarships that you see online, but no luck yet. It seems that a lot I have looked at are for very low income students. Also, some kids have more luck with local scholarships but it seems those organizations want to award kids who go to in state colleges and that is not the case for D (which is why she could really use the money!). She is going to keep applying for them, but I don’t think it is worth a ton of effort. Our experience and info. from some friends suggests that a kid can be very competitive for acceptance to selective colleges but not be able to get many outside scholarships.
@Kona2012 - Ugh is right! I turned 50 last fall and had lots of fun celebrations. But no trip to Amsterdam! Have a great time!
@SDCounty3Mom My DD’17 won some outside scholarships. She won local ones of $1500 (local ethanol plant) and $750 (our rural electric utility). She won a national one from the Printing & Graphics Scholarship Foundation because she is in Graphic Design. It was $1500 the first year and just got renewed for $1600 for next year. She also applies for a Foundation Scholarship from her community college every semester and so far has gotten $1500 from that. She got into the Honors Program for sophomore year which is worth another $1500 so we’ve had little to no tuition at cc. My advice is try all the local ones, maybe a handful of national ones especially if they are targeted to something that applies to your child, and check with the college for scholarships for continuing students.
2 more weeks of the grind to go for son19. Busy, busy busy… last minute projects, big sports events, final exams, banquets etc.
Hie’s definitely ready to be done, for sure. He was lucky enough to have a relaxing 24 hours where he got to go hang by a friend’s pool and then they went to an amusement park for some r&r.
I think he’s doing pretty well for the term considering how busy he’s been, but he just needs to hang on for the next 2 weeks and focus on the task at hand.
Wonder if the college admission folks are aware of the difficulty range across SAT 2 tests? Amongst the cc boards, it’s frequently discussed and performance data is public info. Is it possible that the AO weigh specific SAT 2 scores more or less based on the subject?
@RightCoaster right there with you! Last week of classes this week, with exams next Monday through Thursday. The major APUSH term paper was due today, with the oral presentation set for next Monday. This is on top of an extensive Honors English screenplay and dramatic presentation, tests in chemistry, precalc and spanish. Plus finals. Can’t wait till its over!
Today is the last day of ‘real’ classes but school technically drags on until the end of the week. Kiddo is skipping Wednesday and Friday with full teacher and parental permission.
Tonight is my last booster meeting of the year. We traditionally have the last booster meeting at a waterfront bar, and buy a round of appetizers for ourselves with some of the concessions money. It’s probably an ethical violation, but by this point in the year I feel like I’ve earned those spinach puffs.
Yesterday’s graduation party featured a bouncy house. It was fun to see all these near-adults acting like 5 year olds. Kiddo got a great cardio workout.
Today is also the last “real” day of classes for D. Technically the last day of school is 6/26 but she only goes back for the Chem regents on the 20th and that’s it. She is happy this year is DONE. It was a rough one with her surgery and missing so much school. Now she just wants to concentrate on college applications.
And my other big joy this evening will be emptying and throwing out the backpack!
It was a very good backpack. It was black pleather with soft sculpture spikes all over it. Awesome thing.
Unfortunately, somewhere around December the pleather started wearing away and so there’s flaking plastic all over the thing showing the fabric underneath. It’s ratty and ragged and he didn’t want to part with it. He’s far too old for a security blanket, but if it kept him happy… I let him keep it.
Now, though, it’s being emptied and tossed. Possibly burned, if I can find a way to avoid the fumes.
@ninakatarina I googled “most durable backpack” when the kids were in seventh grade. Ended up getting them each the biggest Northface backpack available. S19’s backpack is still in perfect shape five years later. It may have been expensive, but it was probably less than buying a new backpack every year that fell apart! He’s taking that thing to college. I see no reason for him to get another bag.
@ninakatarina Perhaps your S can write an ode to his backpack for his application essay? 
That’s a good thought - I’ll mention it to him.
I feel like we’re limping into the finish line here a little bit. Sigh. D19 did not finish her math class terribly well and I didn’t react to that terribly well…sigh. I really don’t want to be “that mom” who puts undue pressure on their kid but I admit I was pretty frowny over the news of her final grade. She’s still of course well positioned in the GPA category and actually it’s a bummer because her other grades were all superb, so it’s too bad that I’m not focusing there. And I’m aware that there’s literally a mean dad in the new Wrinkle in Time movie who yells at his kid for getting an 88, and this is supposed to be the iconic high-pressure horrifying parent…pretty much this girl right here today (points to self). Goodbye and good riddance, junior year and all your academic pressure!! You have officially made us all insane between the AP classes and the lengthy papers and the several speeches and the math tests and the quizzes and the early mornings and the 3-hour after-school APUSH final and the AP tests themselves and the SAT and the choir concerts and the sweet, sweet day when D19 tried so hard to recruit more kids to join her club and no one new signed up (lump-in-throat moment for Mom…) and the two-day math final that she “only” got an 83 on. We’ll remember it all but as the Mom over here on the sidelines I’m not sad to see it go.
I volunteered in our school library for textbook check-in today which was kinda fun. Some moments of “sigh…public schools…” looking at a few batches of really old and worn-out books. Some were in far better shape so it wasn’t that bad overall.
Now three days of fluff and graduation events and then it’s officially a wrap. Looking forward to the psychological ease of summertime…!!!
My d19 still has 3 exams, but today was the last day of classes. Thank goodness. The exams shouldn’t be too awful (and may not effect her class grades anyway) and her class grades ended up good, at least at this point. I’m so glad to see the end of junior year but also sad that it means only one more year with her home.
Hang in there @SDCounty3Mom - don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in all this unnecessary stress and pressure and feel that one false move will limit kids’ opportunities. It sounds like your D is an awesome kid who will have great college choices, and one less than ideal grade here or there will not be the thing colleges focus on.
Kiddo became friends with a group of girls freshman year, then they had a horrifying public breakup at the beginning of sophomore year and he was expelled from their friendship group. It was dramatic. I remained facebook friends with a couple of the ex-friends and their mothers. Last night two of the ex-friends posted on FB about how glad they were that the year was ending, and glad that they only failed two classes so summer school won’t be too bad…
I am so glad my kid is away from those losers. The breakup was tough on all of us but he is with such a better crowd now.
@ninakatarina who the kids hang with in high school shapes many of their decisions and influences them immensely.
We are fortunate that son’s friend group are very good students, well rounded, and seem like respectable young men. I’ve known many since they were young from various sports teams and clubs. The only bad thing that shaped this group was that several of them went on exchange student trips overseas where they were exposed to finer aspects of all sorts of partying by their European hiosts, lol. So they’ve come back with a new zest for life and exploration of arts, music, party culture, foreign films, exotic travel, etc. Ha! These kids all came back with a new way of thinking.
They realize that school shouldn’t be all about the “daily grind” but a way to learn and experience new things. This might make for an interesting senior year.
@elena13 Thanks. Perspective, perspective, perspective, right?
I have maintained a ritual with my teenagers every morning for a year and a half now. I make them breakfast. On the one hand that sounds like ridiculous entitlement-stoking, but it ensures they eat something wholesome for one thing, and they sit at our breakfast bar area and we chat. If I didn’t do this, D19 would eat 14 calories worth of crackers and S21 would eat 900 calories worth of cereal, which is what they were doing back in January 2017 when I started this. I should also note that when I say I “make” breakfast, that can mean something as simple as slicing bananas onto a couple of freezer waffles. I’m definitely not whipping up a frittata every morning… 
But I love it and I’m going to miss this. This morning I read them today’s morning post from Lin-Manual Miranda, which included “You’re so much better than perfect.” What a great sentiment. I enjoy his daily affirmations. I find the things I’m “teaching” my kids are things I need to learn and re-learn myself. It’s a nice way to start every weekday.
I am procrastinating working on The Spreadsheet. If I hand this off to D19, it will take her all summer to populate. Maybe we’ll give ourselves a week or so to unwind once this interminable school year finally wraps up, and then dive in. She and I agree that the supplemental questions for each school are not created equal. Some are so much more thought-provoking and creative than others.
I realized this morning that D19 will be spending time on nine college campuses this summer. Two are summer experiences at schools to which she does not plan to apply. One will be an informal walk-around with her dad tacked onto one of the above. Two are in-town schools that we have yet to tour but really should be touring to add more data points to this whole picture. And then four are our college tour to the Midwest. After all that exposure, I sure hope she really is comfortable in firming up her list in August. And depending upon how all that goes, we may add in a second trip to see 3-4 more schools at the tail end of the summer. I have this gut feeling that this summer is going to be so pivotal for her, in personal growth, college choices, and writing her essays.
@SDCounty3Mom I just had a mini panic attack about the list. I heard a few negative things about some of the schools and started questioning it again. I talked to S19 about it last night, though, and he’s done changing things up. He thinks this list is good. I think I’m feeling like I guessing many parents do around this time. Am I missing a school that would be a good fit? I’ve looked through every guidebook imaginable in the last six months. We have spent time on campuses and done our research. I still think it’s hard for me to say the list is set!