My D’s schedule has settled down since the first day of school last Monday. Now she only has five classes, and leaves school at 1:30p. Sure it takes a while to get out of there since they have a closed campus, and everybody trying to drive off of campus has to show their ID w/ the sticker showing that they are done for the day, but that’s just procedure. She comes home and eats lunch. She actually likes her classes and teachers, which hasn’t happened much, so I’m relieved about that. So it does feel real now, she can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.
She did get her first acceptance to Arizona State (ASU), so she 's excited about that. Now she is working on her ASU Barrett honors college app. I told her she has to get accepted to Barrett or she’s not going. So now she’s fired up to submit a good app with good LORs. ;)) She would be OOS, she wanted to get out of Texas. Now that it might become a reality, I have to start thinking about dealing with that. We are from southern CA, I have a relative in Phoenix and a good HS friend, so we have been to AZ many times, I just think it’s funny now that D might go to school there. A few years ago we were in Phoenix and went to ASU to look around and visit the bookstore. I love college bookstores! 
Since D has so much “free” time now, I told her to think about getting a job. Especially at Starbucks, since supposedly they pay ASU tuition. Not sure how that works, but the girl loves Starbucks, so why not.
@eh1234 we have similar requirements in SC.
It’s 4 years of social studies in NY for grad requirements as well. (Psych and Soc don’t count).
4th year is required to be a Participation in Government class and an Economics class for a semester each or AP Gov with economics as a full year course.
Muhlenberg and Vassar both sent us big advertising packets today. DS opened the packets and was critiquing the photo choices and looking for pictures of the theatre. Both those schools were on the ‘maybe’ list until quite late in the game. The glossy brochures landed in the trash, but he did seem to be wavering on adding them to his list for a short time.
The list is never solid until all the deadlines have passed. I let him know he could still add or subtract names, it’s fine with us. After tonight we’ll have 2 safeties and 2 match applications out the door, and everything else is just gravy.
@eh1234 Yep, same requirements in TX. Kind of wish TX were more flexible so that son could explore other interests!
S19 just texted me a photo of his NMSF letter. The GCs told the kids today. Whew! Just made the cut off and glad it’s official.
@homerdog That is phenomenal news. Now lets get those applications in! 
@SwimmingDad Yes! Hoping to hit send on quite a few this weekend now.
@homerdog Congrats to your son!
@homerdog ! That is so amazing, congrats! Is he commended or a semi-finalist? We haven’t heard anything yet here, but assuming D will be notified about one or the other. Have no idea how it works but figure D won’t find out until she hears directly from something in the mail ;))
@SunnyFlorida22 he’s a semifinalist. Are you in Florida? You can find the cut off for your state if you google it. Commended was 212 I believe and that’s a national number. For semifinalist, the cutoffs are different by state. I believe Florida is 219.
If a school says to take your ACT/SAT “by October” do you think hat means the October dates are OK? Some schools say to take the test on or before the November test date but one says by October. I know we can email to find out for sure but thought you guys might have some insight. D was considering taking the test again and I signed her up for this weekend just inc are she was ready but she really didn’t do any prep - I’m wondering if she can put it off until the late October date. I’m guessing it is OK for early action (Nov. 15th most places) but not sure if it is OK if she decides to do an ED (Nov. 1.)
Congrats @homerdog! @sunnyflorida11 We are in SE FL and D’s best friend found out two days ago that she made semi finalist. They said they weren’t supposed to officially release the list for a few more days though.
@momtogkc yes. Some kids are finding out here and there about NMSF. They don’t officially announce until 9/12. Like I said, though, you can find the cut off for each state if you google it. Kids who are semifinalists and haven’t heard from their GC should do so by 9/12. Lots of schools wait until then to tell the kids.
I know nothing about the National Merit Scholarship program so I googled it. Wikipedia was kind enough to list “Scholars You May Know”. Quickly reading through the list, I only recognized a few names… Bill Gates (1973), Jim Cramer (1973), Jeff Bezos (1982), Peter Theil (1985), Ted Cruz (1988) and M. Night Shyamalan (1988). My wife was very thankful I didn’t recognize Asia Carrera(1991) - lol. In any event, congrats to your son @homerdog.
edit to list a few more recognizable names.
@eb23282 I’ll have to check out that Wikipedia page! 22 NMSF at our school. Three of them are XC friends of S19. Happy for all of them.
I have a couple neurotic mom questions. S19 has submitted about 11 applications so far, all of those submitted before the end of August. (He is applying for audition BFA programs so that means he has to apply to lots of schools.) He’s only received email confirmations and requests to set up portals from about half of those schools. There are 5 schools that we don’t have any idea whether or not they received his application, other than that the credit card payment went through. Is this normal? Should he call?
One of the schools that did confirm and ask him to set up a portal shows on that portal that his SAT scores were not received. College Board website says the score report was sent 3 weeks ago. He emailed admissions to inquire about this yesterday but so far, no reply. Again, should he call? Am I being too neurotic and we should just wait for a few weeks to see if it shows up?
The reason he is doing all of this so early is that he needs to schedule auditions so the time frame is earlier for when he needs to be done with the application process.
I listened to an old This American Life podcast which was reposted over the weekend about college admissions and the Dean of Admissions at Georgia Tech said they can always tell when a parent is calling/contacting admissions instead of the kid. I am not that parent but I do wonder how kids are supposed to call college admissions offices when they are in school and at sports practice or extracurricular activities during the hours the admissions offices are opened. He’s been very good about sending emails/working on apps during his QRT periods but he sarcastically asked me when I thought he had time to make phone calls. I suggested maybe lunch. That resulted in nothing but a glare.
22 is impressive. Out of how many students?
@wisteria100 700 kids in the class.
@mindatwork Maybe he can send follow-up emails to his admissions reps over the weekend? I suspect that very few online applications actually get lost in cyberspace. It doesn’t sound so dire that he has to try to call from school tomorrow or anything.
My son will need to schedule auditions (but he’s not ready for EA auditions, so he can’t realistically do more than 6 and that’s pushing it). I’m guessing your son must be doing unified auditions? Or maybe acting (?) is different and there are a lot more audition dates in comparison to music! You would think that this extra step would have my kid in a rush to get his applications in, but no. For music auditions, the schools won’t schedule the audition until the regular application is submitted, but they don’t need every single part of the application up front.
I’ve sent his ACT scores to about 8 or 10 schools and only one of them acknowledged receipt so far.
Thanks @eh1234 , I’ll have him go the email route over the weekend. And yes, he’s going to Unifieds but the rush is because there are a handful of schools that he’d like to audition for this fall because he won’t have time to do all of them in January/February.
What instrument is your son auditioning for?