This. 
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“I don’t think I understand what you are saying, can you explain it?” 
“Joey is better than your kid at xyz, it all evens out.”
“In 2 years from now, nobody will care who got accepted to which schools. You can only go to 1.”
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I will clearly be working to channel you.
I’m so good at dealing with crap like this at work. But put me in a social situation and it’s like I’m the awkward teenager again…
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H, D and I fly out for her first college audition this week. I typed out (vented) a long convoluted story about this upcoming trip and deleted it. Let’s just say I can’t wait to be past this trip and I truly hope for D’s sake she can find some part of this experience to enjoy.
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The thing that irks me is when parents pose questions that aren’t really questions: “My student has a 8.54 gpa and I’m really worried that will keep him from getting into __________. Do you think he even has a chance? Oh, by the way, he got a 1550 on his SAT and a 35 on his ACT. Should we submit scores?” I mean, seriously. It’s just a super passive way to brag about their kid and it makes other kids (even smart ones!) feel terrible when they get onto forums and read this nonsense. Annoys the ever living bleep out of me.
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It’s a complete waste of time an energy. Self-absorbed, narcissistic people will never even “get” the comment. Just because someone delivers something, doesn’t mean you need to pick it up - let alone carry it with you.
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About a month ago, my son wrote to the AO from one of his top choice schools (he applied EA that week) to ask a question. The AO wrote back right away with an answer.
Today, the admissions office resent the email from my son BACK to my son with the top response section blank. I’m sure it’s a glitch, but seeing an unexpected email from them gave us a small heart attack!
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Just got back from an open house at Virginia Tech. I thought the day was well done, guides were enthusiastic and my overall impression was really positive. It helped that it was a rare sunny day in Blacksburg 
. D25, however, eeesh. I get the feeling that college is becoming “real” all the sudden and it’s freaking her out. She asked if we are going to visit her on weekends and take her to lunch or dinner when she goes to college. 
Anyway she asked to not talk about college for 24 hours and we’ve been honoring that, but it’s really hard! Imo her list is a little thin in the “colleges that are highly likely admits AND we know are 100% financially feasible” category. I just don’t want her to get to March and be like, “uh oh”. I think it’s unlikely, but I’m a worrier.
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My S22 wanted to just apply as who he is, without writing all of his essays about the transgender journey. My “inner college application coach” wanted to shriek “but that’s your hook! without it you’re just another kid from the suburbs!” I stayed quiet, and he’s happily attending UW Tacoma (not a fancy T20 or anything, but a decent college). My C25 has put it into more of their essays. We will see how it turns out once acceptance season begins.
6 out of 7 applications submitted. Still working on an essay of 250 words “about character” – and, well, I’d be hard pressed to write that, although I have way more experiences to draw from so I could come up with something, I’m sure… Deadline for that one is 11-15, so it’ll be over soon either way.
Both kids used a geographic filter first before investigating any college. My younger also filtered for “near extended family in case of emergency” which makes my heart a little calmer as some of these places seem so far away compared to the 45 min drive for S22…
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I’ve been totally fine with my son applying to schools cross country until very recently. Now I’m wishing he had options closer to home. I’m getting more worried lately. I’ve convinced him to tour Occidental, which is about a 45 minute drive from us.
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I visited VT at a November open house in 1992, and all I remember is that it was cold and rainy and the auditorium they had it in smelled musty. Oh, and I think it changed to snow on the way home. LOL. The musty turned me off…goes to show that the day matters.
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Geographic filter was the first one. Northeast…or at least not the south for political reasons and within 6 hour drive.
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S25 had an initial list with all these schools in warm and far away places… until it came time to actually start applying. He changed it completely and decided he wanted to be within driving distance from home.
It IS hard! S25 has only one college on the list of “colleges I’m applying to” in Naviance, and that is the college where he is committed for swimming. Still, I explained that there are no guarantees, you just never know, and he needs a few safeties, just in case, but it’s been weeks and he won’t add any others. He shuts down every time we mention the other ones.
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I’ve seen some of the southern schools extending EA a few days because of the hurricane. Many people lost power or had major damage
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We toured last February and loved V. Tech
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Yep, same on my 1995/96 visit. Cold, cloudy, freezing rain, campus looked like a prison. Imagine my surprise yesterday - much less prison like AND sunny!
Would you be willing to share what the merit scholarship is like? New Paltz is the one SUNY school S25 was potentially interested in applying to, but we are just above the cut-off line for the Excelsior scholarship, and the impression I got was that SUNY NP does not do merit. So this is interesting news to me.
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My S25 for some reason has just two schools in Naviance, but applied to more than that! I can understand those feelings of feeling so-so when on a tour, and maybe the school isn’t the kids place. Could still apply (although I don’t know if VTech is on RD now?) My kid wasn’t drawn to Tech and said it was industrial? I don’t even know why that was the feeling, I didn’t go on the tour.
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S25 had two college interviews within the past week and couldn’t have been more different. He is a strong interviewer and he applied EA to both. Both interviewers were on Zoom with fairly recent graduates of the schools who now work as AOs.
School #1: AO arrives 6 minutes late. Does not say anything or apologize when they join the call. Appears to be reading questions off a card or paper in front of them. Very generic interview questions. The AO nods their head but never cracks a smile and does not respond to any of S25’s answers.
School #2: What was supposed to be a 20-30 minute interview ended up being nearly one hour. The interview was a real conversation, back-and-forth, asking each other questions and laughing. The AO was genuinely engaged and interested in what my son had to say. Questions were fun and the AO kept relating my son’s answers back to coursework, orgs, or programs that my son would find interesting. REALLY knows his school inside and out.
The result is that, in my son’s opinion, school #1 went way down, and school #2 went way up.
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Sigh. Why do HS grades have to be so weird? My kid is in AP Chem. On his schedule, it’s two class periods. On the report card one period is for the classwork grades, one is for the labwork grades. The quarter ended 10/31. As of 10/31 there were NO grades entered for the “lab” part of class. I assumed that the teacher was just combining them all, and the same thing that was showing for the class side would be used for the lab grade. Not so! Yesterday, all the students and parents in the class get this:
I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you about the process for Lab Reports in AP Chemistry (the majority of the Selected Topics Grade).
The grades for their first attempt at a full Chemistry Lab report will be going in over the next 24 hours. That grade may be very different than what your student usually earns or may be right in line with their normal academic performance. Regardless of their initial grade, every student will have the opportunity to rewrite their lab report for the highest grade possible now and for the entire first semester. After the first semester, we will be going to the 80% max for individual student rewrites.
For this first marking period, I will be adjusting their grades with Counseling after their rewrites by submitting grade change forms for those who have earned different letter grades after their rewrites are graded (within two weeks from today). This is due to the timing of the end of the quarter and the time needed for rewrites. If any student needs college transcripts sent before the end of the first semester, please have them speak to me.
My goal is to help the students understand how to write quality lab reports and get them to proficiency quickly, but in a supported manner for the first half of the year. If they follow my instructions and rewrite their labs properly in the first part of the year, they will be in a great position to finish the year with ease.
If you have any questions or want further information, please feel free to contact me.
I appreciate the opportunity to correct things and for grades to be adjusted. But this does NOT feel good. Do you know what grade my kid has currently entered for this class? A 46%. That’s an E (we don’t do F’s, we do E’s). My kid who has gotten straight A’s all through HS, is currently failing chem lab (he has a 97% in the class, based on the tests, class participation, HW assignments, quizzes etc).
The entire lab grade for the quarter is based on ONE lab report (and two small participation grades), that was due the last day of class, with no rubric or feedback opportunity. Once S25 gets it back he’ll fix it, and hopefully get a much better grade on the lab report, which will then change his quarter grade, which will have to get submitted to the school counselors, who will then have to change it in the system.
Because, you know, those counselors for seniors have OH SO MUCH EXTRA TIME right now! In the grand scheme of things, hopefully this is nothing. But his top choice school is a definite reach, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they ask for grades. This better be fixed by then. I really appreciate that the teacher has laid out a plan to deal with this, but I’m annoyed we’re in this situation to begin with.
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