@sherimba03 I wouldn’t give up on the Benacquisto just yet, either, if I were you. It’s ok to keep expectations low, but don’t give up! It ain’t over 'til it’s over. 
I do understand your skittishness, though, because the possibility of defunding is one of the reasons why my D20 turned down UF in favor of FSU. On the other hand, UF might still be possible/affordable if your son gets the Gator Nation scholarship or one of the other OOS scholarships (can’t recall the names), which would not be affected even if Benacquisto is defunded in the future. Just throwing out an alternative you might not have considered.
NJ just announced school closed until at least May 15. (insert crying emoji here)
@sherimba03 Keep your spirits up! I know some very intelligent people that didn’t even know MIT had a football team. My friend’s son from So. Cal played on the team. Whenever I would tell people, the looks and questions were pretty consistent. MIT + football = ? So my guess is not everyone is going out for the team 
I Imagine the kids that are competing with your son are not able to condition as normal either, but you may have the advantage of better weather. Do what you can with what you have. Don’t let him give up the dream. I saw a video of a guy running a marathon on his balcony recently. Now there is a great essay 
ACT June 13 test is on, plus they added a date, June 20.
Also adding other dates, and saying that home based online tests in the fall will be an option. Seems a stronger statement about online home based testing than CB’s release yesterday.
Pretty surprised they are thinking the June tests are a go, but I sure hope so.
January 2020 - dreaming of college visits and my kid getting into a quality college that is a great fit!
April 2020 - dreaming of my kid being able to go to ANY college where she will be able to live in the dorms, eat in the dining hall, and go to normal classes!
Hang in there, everyone!
Where are you seeing a June 20th date? I tried to register and it is no where on the site.
It’s in the press release…it is a make-up test date for June 13 right now. So, not sure they will take separate registrations, so not technically a new test date, sorry. They also didn’t give dates for the home based online tests in the Fall.
That ACT press release sounds a little uncertain. Forgive me for being sceptical,. but I think they decided on that wording in direct response to CB canceling the SAT. They are competitors you know. So if someone is deciding between the tests, they would think “hey! ACT is on!” I’m doubting the June test will happen at least in places where large groups are not allowed. And those would be the same places that the SAT was never going to happen either. I highly doubt that SAT would have cancelled their June test if they thought there was any chance at all of the test happening.
Here’s a chuckle for you guys…S21 has been watching Narcos on Netflix…he’s now considering a career as DEA/FBI/CIA…I can’t keep up with this kid.
LOL My S21 is bingeing Narcos too!
@momofthreeboys @Mwfan1921 wanting to be FBI/DEA better than my daughter who binged Ozark and declared she want to be a money launderer…lol
LOL
I feel so bad for these kids. My D19 is definitely handling things better than S21. He is bereft at missing baseball, not seeing his friends, and all around non-communicative with us. I get it. Not much I can do but love and support him.
@amsunshine thank you, that is such great information! I will definitely let him know about those other options. He’s absolutely still going to apply to UF, regardless.
@maddy lol, amazeballs about the balcony marathon and yes, the whole MIT + football equation also had me scratching my head at first, too.
LOL!!!
@momofthreeboys have him watch Mindhunters on Netflix. It’s about the early stages of the craft of “profiling” they use to catch criminals at the FBI in the early 80s.
The women scientist assigned to oversee the project on the series is professor at Boston College. She teaches a class called “victimology” and is my daughters favorite class. She is part of the new public health and epidemiology focus within the new Schiller institute. Maybe he will want to be a virus detective.
Mind hunters is great. Cool about your daughter’s professor!
Interesting seeing how all the schools are handling their grading. D21 has two online APs which didn’t skip a beat as they are already online. They are quality courses through a provider that is recognized and respected by college admissions. Her three college courses transitioned to online fairly well. One professor was slow to switch but everything is running smoothly now. I do worry about that one class because so much is weighted on the final. I think she has an A- right now (based on the midterm and one paper).
She’s been able to keep up a bit in one of her sports by visiting a neighbor kid who is on her team and running through practice sessions with him on a weekly basis. They do this outside and stay more than ten feet apart. Her main extracurricular has come to a screeching halt (no choice), but she is able to keep in shape for it with working out at home.
Trying to figure out what to do over the summer. She has Plans A-C nearly in place but much depends on how long the SAH order is in place. She can do all three plans without being around other people if needed, but until we are allowed to travel out of our home community things will be difficult to pull off.
Am hoping colleges do not grant gap years to seniors whose only reason for wanting them is because they can’t bear to deal with online classes for a couple months at most (out of four years of college). Such kids can’t do anything one would usually do on a gap year if the colleges are closed, and it strikes me as ridiculous to want to take off a whole year of college just to avoid a semester (at most) of quality online instruction. Reduced tuition for that semester makes sense, absolutely. Or a delayed opening. Etc. But I would think those who don’t want to attend at all for a year because they don’t want to start online (which would be such a short time of their overall experience) could be easily replaced by someone on the waitlist who can better adapt and roll with things.
This stay at home is really getting to be interesting. It’s such a drag and we are all starting to feel the itch to loosen things up. The kids especially. If you even talk about the summer in any kind of quarantine status, my daughter freaks out.
On the plus side (I think) she is in full on college mode - watching lots of videos on youtube by students/youtuber college kids. She now knows what to bring, what not to bring, common freshman mistakes and (this is HUGE) thinks she might want to rush (after watching a million rush vlogs)! The possibility of being in a sorority is a huge 180 from pre quarantine. She told me she almost wishes she could skip senior year and go straight to college. I know that’s because she’s so detached from HS, and she’s going to love senior year, but I can totally understand the feeling like HS is literally over. Even though she has one more year. It just feels OVER.
It’s also clear the high school kids around here are putting less and less mental effort into school. Everyone knows they aren’t going back (not official) and the grades aren’t moving much at all. So many individual grades are excluded such that even a kid who is two percentage points from a higher grade is doubtful that they will be able to move it up.
It breeds a lack of motivation when you know your grade can’t go down, but that it also likely won’t go up. My kids have livestreams with each class once a week and the numbers of kids attending the streams have dropped steadily - now most are single digit attendance in a class of 20+. And I know a lot of the kids in these classes - they are good students, with parents who are educated and value education and I just did not see this coming. It’s so tragic. Maybe they are all doing the assignments, I have no idea.
Since my daughter has a bunch of AP tests coming up, she’s outwardly motivated, but it’s harder for my freshman son.
I so wish the kids could go back to school for the month of May. I know it won’t happen, but I feel like they NEED it, especially the teenagers. Physically, mentally and emotionally. As in, in person school should be considered a very high priority, if not essential.
Why do some here hope schools turn down gap year requests from current HS seniors? Many private institutions have had generous gap year policies in the past and it would be unfair to rising 1st years to change those policies now. With fall semester increasingly looking to be uncertain and even a return to campus second semester not assured if a 2nd wave hits this winter, I can understand why many incoming 1st years and their families are considering taking gap years even with less than ideal gap year options (including full pay families at schools with tuition approaching $60k/yr). As a parent of a '21, I fully understand if a quarter of Williams or Amherst’s entering class takes a gap year with those schools infilling from their waitlists, that there likely will be fewer spots for kids like mine next year. I’m certainly not thrilled about that prospect, but honestly if this had happened next year, how many '21s would be seriously considering gap years? I know my '21 would.
From the '21 parent perspective, you answered your own question, reduced acceptance rates.
I’m not a '20 parent, but I see my current college student managing online. If colleges are online in the fall, other opportunities for young adults would be extremely limited. For my family, the inconvenience of a semester online (at the sale price of no room and board) would beat the alternative of sitting on one’s hands for a year and then later entering the job market a year older, 2024 vs 2025. There’s an economic net loss of income with the latter. Is the campus experience worth a year of income, and at what level, 22 y.o. or do we consider a year of income at retirement age level, which may be multiples higher. Essentially: time is money.