He actually leaves in 12 days. Yikes, it’s all coming so fast.
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Greece is two weeks from yesterday. WOO HOO!!! Can Not Wait. Stuff is organized for the trip, the biggest issue at this point, frankly, is going to be convincing my husband that no, we canNOT pack for 10 days only in carryon bags. I wish we were those people. We are not.
Before then, though, we have two admitted students visits (starting the drive to Clemson within the hour) and for all that is holy my kid needs to drag himself over the finish line for the third quarter. He’s working on overdue English assignments as we speak.
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I feel like my kid applied to reaches and safeties, nothing really came up as a Target for him.
In the end
13 applications
8 reaches - MIT (deferred/denied), ND (deferred/denied), Michigan (withdrew application after deciding he didn’t want to go there), Carnegie Mellon (accepted), Georgia Tech (accepted), JHU (WL), Rice (WL), Cornell (WL)
5 safeties - UMD (accepted), Wisconsin (accepted), Delaware (accepted), Purdue (accepted), Rose Hullman (accepted)
In hindsight maybe less safeties although 2 of them required no additional work on his part. Maybe 1-2 more reaches, I don’t know. Should have possibly done Duke and Stanford.
He curated a thoughtful list based on his intended major of Chemical Engineering. We all agreed that trying to collect acceptances to schools that didn’t offer this major the way he wants it didn’t make sense, was just way too much work, etc.
I feel had he ED to JHU, Rice or Cornell he prob would have gotten in, but none of them were his #1 and in our opinions that’s a lot of money to commit to if it’s not your absolute hands down first choice. Plus I have lots of negative feelings towards ED in general and I’m glad we didn’t do it for those reasons too.
I know he’s a little disappointed but I’m really proud of this kiddo and I know he’s going to do great things anywhere he lands. I hate that he bought into this insane narrative you have to go one a “Big Name School” to be great, because I can tell you plenty of people I know who went to one of those schools who can’t hold a candle to someone at a big public state uni in terms of just sheer brilliance in their field.
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No real spring break here. Kids get Thursday, Friday and Monday of Easter off…This also happens to be the Friday that is his admitted students day, so we’re making a weekend of it.
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That is a very impressive list of acceptances for ChemE. Wow. My husband got his PhD from UDel and his undergrad from Purdue in that area, and he was very well-prepared. Congrats on the results, truly!! 
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So much this. I’m struggling with this idea in another thread (the student who wants to be convinced that CWRU is a good choice, because he didn’t get in to any “good” schools.) The kid is young, and just had a loss in the family, so I’m holding my tongue because he’s having a hard time. But I want to be like Dude! You got into a great school! Just because it’s not an Ivy doesn’t mean you are a loser! (Which is basically what he said.) So many great and talented students go to schools at every tier of acceptance rate.
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Probably the smartest girl in our HS is heading to UDel for ChemE. I hardly know this young lady, but I’m so proud of her - where we live UDel is often a safety school and so many people have looked at her like wait, you’re going where? And she’s doing a tremendous job of schooling folks on how awesome the ChemE program is there. Plus it’s just a really lovely school to attend. I feel like it doesn’t get enough credit.
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I mean there are so many people at my son’s school with the Ivy/Ivy adjacent or bust mentality it’s toxic. And I’ve always said I don’t care where you go kiddo you are going to do well because it’s not them its you. All of these places have strong engineering programs (except for ND, he did that for the Catholic mission and in the end that didn’t work out, so they are now dead to me), so he can do well at any of them.
I’ve heard soooo many teachers telling me that he just comes to them to talk about topics he’s interested in and wants to learn more. I have zero doubt these professors at whatever school he is attending don’t know what’s coming, lol. We joke that he lies in wait for them in the hallways at his high school.
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The best school for any student is the one where they will be happy, be supported and be challenged academically (which can look like many different things).
These parents in our area forcing kids to major in obscure major kid has no interest in just so they can brag they got into 5 ivys, I just don’t understand the logic. We were always steadfast in this is what he wants to study and as such those are the schools we will focus on. Those are conversations I smile and nod and say good for your kid and keep my opinions to myself, but also know it also poisons the well of the school with kids thinking it’s this or you have no shot at success.
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You and your kid have such healthy mindsets about all of this! Good job to you guys!
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Spring break stars a week from tomorrow. We’re doing the senior trip to the Dominican Republic.
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We had another “fun” night in our house. S25’s prom date backed out a week before prom and decided to go with one of his friends. He was really upset last night. He hasn’t even met her yet, but it felt like rejection. (And a bit of a betrayal by his good friend.) But by bedtime he had secured a date with one of his close female friends that he’s known since elementary school. They will have an absolute blast, and the only issue is how much trouble they will get in together. (Her mom and I texted last night to joke about them getting kicked out of prom for their possible shenanigans.) So disaster averted but it was a rough couple of hours.
So happy to read about more acceptances and excitement. And well done, parents, in helping these smart, capable students have perspective on their options.
TGIF!
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Sounds like he will have way more fun with his friend anyways! Sometimes things have a way of working out 
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I don’t get a break when my child has spring break. I already had my spring break, which is just work without teaching. And somehow I still didn’t get enough work done, but I did read two novels! That’s right, my break was not working on a weekend and instead reading for fun. I never read for fun during the academic year, so I am simultaneously proud and regretting my choices.
D25 applied to a lot of likelies and fair number of targets. It was hard to find enough that would meetUnfortunately, she did not do as well as she had hope with the targets. I think it’s hard when you’re applying to small schools from a small high school and so are your friends, at least two of whom have higher stats. The pattern seemed to be that if a little higher stats friend applied, they were admitted and D25 was waitlisted. A third friend with an amazing essay but slightly lower stats than D25 was rejected. They had 2 or 3 schools in common…same pattern. At the targets with somewhat higher acceptance rates, more than one student from the high school was accepted. But those are also a bit larger schools. D25 said she felt like the perpetual second choice. 
Suffice it to say she got until all of her likelies and into about half the targets. Waitlisted at the other half. Waitlisted at two reaches. Rejected by the reachy reaches. Or maybe the targets were more of a reach than we thought. No idea and it’s not like her counselor could tell her anything. We don’t have data for where students at her school apply, get accepted, rejected, etc.
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Would never do a family pillow for our D25 (she would be horrified), but I may contemplate one of the kitty ones! 
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Similar here–just finished a spring break that wasn’t exactly a break (except that I got to read a novel, take a long bike ride, and I went out to breakfast one day). Congrats to your D–and to everyone’s kids–on the acceptances! (And condolences on the places they coveted but didn’t get.)
The wrinkle here is that my C25’s spring break is THIS week, and the class is on a trip to Europe (the first for C25 and virtually all classmates; it’s a small urban public school) . . . and in order to get maximum enjoyment from the trip, C25 has decided (wisely, I think, if nerve-janglingly for me) not to open this week’s decisions for a few days, possibly even until Duke comes out on Monday–which will take place while they’re over the Atlantic, flying home. The countdown to Ivy Day continues here . . .
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Again, I could have written this same post about S25. Some of our targets may have become reaches because he applied TO. It wasn’t the grades, which were always within range. We don’t think it was the essays since he is a strong writer (his Common App essay won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award for personal memoir) or recs since he is well-loved and super active in his school.
Final reach rejection came last night from his #1 school. We had tears, and he said he is in mourning today. Doesn’t want to talk about other schools for a few days.
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After making fun of DH for several years about his new best friend ChatGPT, I tried this and it was pretty cool. 
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The catstudio college pillows are expensive but really nice. We also have a collection of their glasses:
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Totally!! I need a break, it would be amazing. Just think of all the things I could do! I could manage to take a day or two to catch up on work, and then spend the rest of my time in just pure holiday mode…
Oh wait. Spring break was two weeks ago. Guess I won’t be getting a vacation after all.
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