@InfiniteWaves D18 had high grades and 22-24 on ACT. She took only 1 AP class senior year but did not test for it. She had a good selection and even received merit aid from some OOS picks that brought them pretty close to instate prices. He is going to find great options!
@JenJenJenJen S19 emailed his teacher just to share his AP score. It took a few days but he emailed him back. As long as you aren’t pressed for quick answers, it should be fine.
S19 said he is done taking tours so I guess we are moving on to the list finalizing stage. He is going to see U MN while visiting family but doesn’t really want to do the official tour.
I regret that we didn’t realize he loved a small school earlier because now Wake Forest and Swarthmore are on his list. The WF EFC looks great and he’d be a few hours from his sisters. We were just in those areas a few weeks ago and are too far away to make another trip.
In terms of senior pics, the yearbook professional pictures are always terrible. DS16 hates to have his pics taken , so once he decided where he was attending, I purchased a button up with the college logo and had a neighbor who is a professional photographer take some pics at a local park. They turned out great. Plan to do the same thing for DS19. She gave me the disc and I order prints from Walgreens.
I want to clarify that my son19 is not really a sneaker connoisseur, but rather a sneaker destroyer. he doesn’t collect shoes. He has a few pairs of " stylish" types of sneakers, but this kid just shreds his athlletic shoes to death in no time. Cleats get broken regularly, toes poking through the front of his sneakers, outsoles worn right thru, sides ripped. etc. He is really hard on his shoes. And like I said because he does so much different stuff he needs all sorts of shoes that fit that occasion, like grass cleats, turf cleats, court shoes, running shoes, running spikes, etc. It’s never ending. I swear we probably buy 1 or 2 pair of shoes per month, and up until recently he was growing out of them regularly. Argghhhhh! And he always somehow convinces me he needs the top end sport shoe.I’ve probably already spent a years worth of college tuition on shoes alone, ha.
Tuxes? Honestly I don’t think either of my kids would have been willing to do it. Seriously. Our pictures are simply a collared shirt and then one with a blue blazer. Most senior pics are just collared shirts for guys…very few wear sport coats (blazer…whatever the right word is for it)…and probably a handful out of 270 guys will wear a tie. May be a Massachusetts thing but the schools around me I am familiar with are equally informal for senior pics.
After S had his “I don’t know what to wear” moment, we went through D’s yearbook to see what the guys were wearing. There were a handful of jackets and ties, but the majority were split fairly evenly between button downs, polo shirts and tshirts. S thinks he will just wear a polo shirt. There were no guidelines given to them for what to wear.
@RightCoaster try buying two pairs of ballet pointe shoes every month to the tune of $110 each!
Boys always wear the same tuxedo jackets for the yearbook pics and the girls wear a black drape. It was the same when I graduated from HS in 1980 in Baltimore, my sons live in SC.
Doing my duty as a professional photographer with a bit of advice…
However you decide to take photos, make sure you print what you want to preserve! So many images never make it to print before a phone dies or a computer crashes and they are never saved. And consider a family photo session before your 19ers head off to college!
@SwimmingDad it is not a choice in our district(or any of those near us) All guys must have tux pic and girls black drape pic for senior pictures for the yearbook. It is set up through the school and the “tuxs” and drapes are provided by the photography company
I’m feeling guilty now that we never sent in the senior photo package from the school. I do want to get him a professional photo shoot, preferably with a couple extra photo sheets for head shots for when he auditions. Just another thing to take care of.
He was feeling poorly this morning, poor kiddo. I woke him up too early because I’m trying to acclimate him back to an earlier wakeup time before his ACT on Saturday. Somehow we got into a discussion of eminent domain this afternoon, I’m not sure how. I’m really enjoying being able to talk about adult things with him. He has enough of an intellectual grounding now that it’s not just hearing my own opinions reflected back at me.
Wait . . . this is sinking in for me now that it keeps repeating in the thread—Senior pictures now?!
In July?
I haven’t heard a thing about senior picures, or actually any yearbook pictures, ever. Huh. Will ask D19 when she gets home.
My D19’s senior pics are scheduled (at the high school) for the last week of July. Finding the perfect shirt at the store was an afternoon of horror. Mom wanted classic & traditional while D19 wanted trendy and “in fashion”. D19 said “it’s my senior picture.”. Mom says “I’m paying for the session fees and (pricey) portrait package.” Mom wins - Score!!! Pearls and a classic black shirt it is!
Finally made it to our vacation destination and have stopped moving.
Our journey began on Monday at the University of Michigan. D19 liked it a lot but was very concerned with the lack of diversity. It’s a huge reach for her so we took it off her list. Down to 10 schools.
We jumped on a plane to Raleigh, NC that same afternoon. The next morning we visited NC State. She felt very at home there and is definitely going to apply.
Next up Miami. After a 2 hour plane delay of course. And missing luggage. Luckily my suitcase was found and delivered the next morning. Off to Florida International University for us. It’s a beautiful and modern campus but small. The freshman dorm rooms are HUGE. Larger than any I’ve seen yet. The model we saw was 2 doubles sharing a bathroom and a small common area with a full size refrigerator. All other residence halls are apartment style with individual bedrooms. Meaning every resident has their own bedroom. This kind of blew my mind. Anyway D19 wasn’t thrilled with the school but said she’ll still apply. We spent some time in South Beach afterwards then hit the road to Tampa.
We were supposed to see the University of Tampa but woke up this morning feeling like we got run over by a bus so we canceled the visit and slept in. She won’t apply to any school she hasn’t seen so we are now down to 9 schools.
I am now in vacation mode and refuse to think about college anything until August 1st. We are in Orlando so we’ll enjoy the theme parks for the next couple of days then back home Sunday.
DS has discovered the fun of taking virtual tours of campuses using Google Maps. Some of the campuses even have places you can walk through the central quads on Google. It’s fun, and it’s great for those campuses where we can’t travel between now and time to submit those applications.
DD procrastinated on taking driving lessons for almost a year. She will take the first behind the wheel lesson tomorrow.
@ninakatarina before we visit any school we try to use Google maps for tours of campus and the area. We look through google images too, just to get a feel for the place. It definitely helps and I think is a good use of time. At the very least it gets the kids actually thinking about " their list". We’ve added and subtracted a few schools this way over the last few years with our kids.
@cinn124 I almost went to UMiiami as a kid, and in retrospect it probably would’ve been a great school for me. I ended up going to a bigger state school where I probably had too much fun. I have a relative that was a professor there and he says nothing but good things about it. If I had a kid who was considering schools in the South, Miami would definitely be on the list. Good education, good campus, access to the water, access to suburban and urban living, near an airport, the weather!
@Stuffedquahog I think you made the wise choice
@cinn124 I have a DD20 planning a fall visit south. Could you please provide an overview of your NC state visit? It keeps coming up as meeting her criteria but we are hesitating to visit due to 18% OOS acceptance limit and possibly too urban campus.
My daughter had senior pictures in June! We nearly missed it by accident
Just wanted to be sure to get a chance to wish @ninakatarina’s son and everyone else who’s taking the ACT tomorrow very best of luck!! Hit this one out of the park, 2019’s!
Thanks @3SailAway! My S is taking it tomorrow to give it one more shot. I’m hoping he does a little work on math today and gets his calculator programmed and ready to go!