@wisteria100 We have until 2/1 to decide if we need to throw an application to Wisconsin. I’m just afraid that, if we do that, my husband will make him go to school there! Our D21 said we should just have S19 apply and not tell Dad. As long as anything else comes through, he’ll never need to know! She is a sneaky one.
I would disagree that all kids love this reaches the best. Many kids are perfectly happy with their match schools and apply to reach schools because of parental preference or to see " what if".
@DCNatFan not that you’re interested in LACs, quite a few do have EAs. In fact many require EA to be eligible for merit.
Thats so true! I worry about that all the time. D is doing all she can to show interest to the safeties – She has recently had interviews at two of them and has a third interview at another next week… I have found that it actually serves two purposes - demonstrates interest and also gets her excited about the school. Its great for her to sit with an AO for 45 minutes who is excitedly recruiting her and talking about all the wonderful things the school has to offer. There is something about working hard for something that changes it from a consolation prize into a real reward regardless of the “stats.”
After visiting about 10 schools, my D’s favorite, by far, was a school that would be her safety. She applied in mid-August (rolling) and was accepted in mid-September. We’re planning an overnight visit for early October and if it still lives up to her expectations, she’s done. I’d love to add a few more schools so she has options come May, so we’ll see.
I guess I should qualify my statement about liking the reaches. In our competitive school and for the top kids who have multiple APs and high grades and high scores and are NMSF, those kids have a preference for more selective schools. It’s (usually) not about the parents’ preference. The kids want to continue the experience they’ve been having being challenged by their peers.
I can’t remember if I mentioned it here but one of the football players at our school (a real jerk and a poor student) just announced he’s playing ball at one of S19’s safeties. Of course, that started soiling S19 on the school even though he really liked it when we visited. He’s not dying to go to a school who would take this student. And I think that’s understandable. He gets that athletes can get preference but this student is not an average student, he’s a poor one who we’ve known since kindergarten. They live just up the block from us. Of course, if it wasn’t this kid it would be someone else but then S19 wouldn’t have to face it head on.
@eb23282 good for you. We have our safety via rolling as well, but we have to wait until ED to know what exactly we will do (will ED school offer $). its really sad that here in GA my pretty high stats kid, but not perfect with just ok EC’s probably wont get into GA Tech and I would not even be so sure if he was to apply to UGA. (which for comp sci makes no sense). The next school down in GA for comp sci is a branch of Kennesaw state, that used to be separate as Polytech. So happy neighboring Alabama has options for us .
DS should be an auto-admit to our in state flagship, which is also his top 1b choice. Still applying to 5 others, with this being the only likely
So this has got me thinking about how kids judge schools. I think S19’s safeties are wonderful schools and offer him 95% of what his reaches would. They offer small classes, involved teachers, plenty of ECs, beautiful campuses. When we’ve visited schools, though, he’s very focused on how he would fit academically and he’s gone to at least one class at each school we’ve visited. He likes the schools best where he thought the kids were the most engaged. It seems to be the number one thing he’s looking for. He’s undecided on major and doesn’t have a preference on location so those things don’t really come into account for him.
If a student loves his safety then it’s more likely that he likes the campus and the classes offered in his major and he is judging the school by those standards. Although I keep hearing that most kids out there are undecided, at least on CC, I read more about kids who know what they want to study. That makes a difference as those kids are judging programs and not necessarily the school as a whole. If S19 had more direction, I’m sure he would also be more focused on what each school offers in his major and he’d be less likely to be looking at the student body as a whole.
I veer between feeling smug that we have all this under control and feeling worried that things aren’t completely done yet. I’m trying my best to keep that hidden from the kid, he has enough outside sources of stress. The safeties and matches are all in, that should be enough.
I managed to extract a promise from kiddo to work on supplements this coming weekend. The play is going to be gearing up very soon and he has lots of memorization ahead. Best to get them written when he is still thinking like himself and not trying to be Dr. John Watson 24/7. Last night he was talking about the best place to buy a bowler hat handlebar moustache, and a cane. The school will buy them as part of the costuming budget, but he’s thinking he’ll want to be able to be Dr. Watson again in the future. Oy.
I think you’re right about this. My D1 chose her safety over her original top choice and is very happy there. The school is excellent in her field. There are plenty of smart, engaged students in the honors program and in the upper level classes and she definately feels challenged. However, there is a wide variance in the school as a whole. The gen ed and intro classes have plenty of bored, uniterested kids who are there because their parents want them to go to college. If its important for a kid to know that everyone they meet will be a motivated, high achiever, then some of the safeties can be a problem. But if they are willing to accept that there will be many kids like them but not all, and maybe not most, then the safeties can be fine.
So besides all the college app stuff, how are everyone’s 19ers doing with school and ECs?
My d19 is doing pretty well so far. She’s enjoying most of her classes but isn’t overly stressed by them. Packed schedule but a bit less anxiety than last school year. Not taking AP Lang was a very good move for her. She’s taking a modern war in literature class instead right now. It’s challenging in a very different way than previous English classes have been. She is learning more about the Middle East than she knew before and the political aspects over lap some with her AP Gov class. Additionally, her AP gov teacher is a very engaging type who obviously loves what he teaches and that helps make it more interesting for my d. Tech and Spanish are easy, no stress classes. She loves her physics, Forensics and Calc classes. She’s been able to relax enough to hear other students more this year and it’s helped with her perspective a bit. A student saying that Forensics has been the most homework and it’s a lot… d was surprised because she hasn’t thought it was much at all and it seems very easy to her. A student needing to drop AP physics because she is lost, another similarly dropping AP gov, again surprise from d, kids in the English class just putting in no effort at all. A year ago, she thought she was the only person she knew who got overwhelmed and stressed sometimes.
My S19’s schedule shook out so that his A days are mildly stressful and his B days are incredibly easy. He has never been a math kid, but Statistics is working really well for him and he loves the teacher. His physics teacher looks like a lumberjack and used to be a bouncer. Apparently it’s really easy to get the physics teacher off topic and into bouncer stories, which meander back into stories about momentum and physics while describing fights he has been in. So, lots of fun.
There’s a long-term sub in one class (main teacher had a baby over the summer) who is an alumni of the school’s magnet program and just graduated from college this past spring. The class treats him more like a big brother than a teacher, but in a good way. They talk a lot about college life and college admissions and career paths. A lot of the class is now fired up about applying to the local state school.
School is going well, definitely better than last year which was overwhelming. She was determined not to overdo it this year. She loves her Botany class which is partly due to a fantastic teacher. At first, her dual credit classes seemed too time consuming, but it’s gotten better as she gets used to them. So the homework load is fairly light, which is good because there is musical practice 3 nights a week. She is happy about her role in the musical now. It’s not what she originally wanted but they are having her appear in extra scenes so it’s turning into a bigger role.
It’s Homecoming Week and she is on Student Council and Homecoming Court so a busy week for her. She had resigned herself to not having a date for the dance when yesterday a freshman from youth group asked her. She really doesn’t know him but has decided it may be fun or at least interesting. And she can borrow his jersey to wear on Friday so that’s a perk.
My S19 will be better once his apps are in but his classes don’t seem too bad. He has four APs, two regular classes, and two music classes. I’ve really only seen him do homework for AP Gov (but not a lot), Calc and English. He actually studied for an AP Gov test last week! I have no idea what he’s doing in AP CS principles or his Oceanography class but it apparently doesn’t involve any homework? All I’ve heard is that the CS teacher is dull and the Oceanography teachers is high energy.
He has youth symphony, lessons on two instruments, school orchestra rehearsals, a four-hour band rehearsal every Sunday, and he’s providing lessons to a middle schooler. Pit orchestra starts up very soon and jazz band begins in about a month so that will give him 6-7 days a week of music ECs. And he should be practicing at least two hours per day on top of all that. It’s a lot but he still seems to have time for Netflix.
I forgot to mention ECs!
So d19 is an officer for Science Olympiad. She’s enjoying figuring out event assignments. She’s also some sort of officer for math league and having fun making monthly signs/posters advertising upcoming competitions. A friend asked her to run to be a co leader for Chem club but d turned it down. She said she doesn’t want to commit to another club and stretch herself thin, but does want to try to come to most Chem club meetings. I was happy to hear she recognized her another leadership might be too much and so said no.
Ugh. Neither of our kids have time for much but their main EC and homework. S19 really likes his classes but it’s 4-5 hours of homework per night. He is having a love/hate relationship with his Philosophy class. It’s so interesting and the teacher is phenomenal but he didn’t expect it to be so much work. He’s learning a lot though! And we always hear that kids here find that they are very prepared for the college work ahead. Is his life very balanced right now? Not really. But he enjoys everything he’s doing - his classes and running and art - they are just very time consuming. Not much downtime.
He has almost all of the same classes second semester but hopefully some of the pressure will be off once grades are in for first semester and then he can relax a bit. Wants to make sure he gets all As this semester since all of his schools want an updated transcript for RD.
My son is in full Grind mode right now. His Fall sport consumes many hours per week and weekend. His ECs take up his Friday night and some time right after school. He studies from 8-12 minimally Mon-Thurs, up at 6 am. He finds time to socialize Fri and Sat night, He sleeps in Sunday morn and then its back to work. He never complains about it and is usually quite pleasant. He doesn’t seem stressed, he just knows he has a lot on his plate that has to get done.
He is the classic “work hard, party hard”. kind of kid, although I don’t think he even has any time for partying of any sort at the moment. He is more likely to go out to eat with his friends.
He decided to take a study hall this semester. His schedule is packed with several tough AP classes and Honors level for the rest of them. I asked him if it’s been helpful. He said yes, he gets some homework done and has been able to take a few critical naps, LOL.
@homerdog My D would be so jelous of your son! She wants to major in philosophy and really wanted to take the class in high school but so few students signed up that they cancelled it.
Yeah, I’m thinking there might be a ranking dip Senior Year. Maybe not a lot, but some. Retrospectively, it was probably a good thing that D wasn’t engaged in the college process junior year. She was able to focus more.
@sdl0625 So glad you mentioned UGA and GT not being locks. I’ve seen comments around CC referring to UGA as a safety. It’s more understood that Tech is not a safety. Still, even Georgians make comments to us when they hear D’s desired major like: “Oh, she has to go to Tech”. And this includes people who have no way of knowing her grades. I no longer bother, just smile and say, “we’ll see”. But we too are loving our state neighbors.
I think one of the reasons I am favoring some of the more “supportive” schools with the great opportunities is that I don’t want D to walk away from 4 years of school with the piece of paper, but not have taken advantage of the full experience. It just appears like the match and safety schools more fit her personality, and have strong enough programs to meet the academic needs.
She went to a super reach school Open House recently, and commented on how smart the other kids were. I asked her how she knew that. She was basing this on their college apply list. This led to a whole different long conversation, but the end result was that she wasn’t as in love with the school as she was before the visit for multiple reasons. It gives me faith that while the decision may not be easy in April, she’ll make a decision that is right for her.