Also, yesterday Kenyon sent us the loveliest personalized email from the admissions officer who read her application. They really have nailed every aspect of the process and making it clear how special a place that school is.
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On end of school year stuff, I sympathize with all of you who have kids preparing for exams and APs on top of all of the other end of senior year stuff.
We are fortunate in that department. D26s school does not have AP classes so no APs for her. On top of that, seniors who have at least a B in the class so far, do not have to take the final for the class. So, no finals for her either. She has a project and a presentation to do as things wrap up. But no tests.
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My kid is very stressed because she has finals, five AP exams, the senior concert where she is playing a difficult concerto, and a big competition in her sport. And she still hasn’t decided where she is going to college. It is all happening at once for her, and about every other day she bursts into tears.
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FYI. Cant remember who it was but there’s a CC poster whose son is at UVA. She said her son lost a lot of weight because the food there is terrible.
Great school but the dining options weren’t good. You may want to check out the parents FB page so you can be prepared.
I think we may have the same issues because the food at Brown isnt supposed to be good either and when we walked around the edge of campus, the restaurant options didnt seem great.
We have the same thing here. I think T-shirt day is before may 1!
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No APs here either and I have to say I’m glad. She has some finals but only one is an exam.
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Also I thought my daughter has made her decision, but no final word. I think she just isn’t excited about picking one of her options.
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What a great update! Awesome news!
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No AP’s here either. D26’s school had senior week way back in Feb. 1 of those days was ‘wear a college Tshirt/sweatshirt’ day and I thought it was kind of silly since a lot of schools hadn’t released decisions yet at that point. 
D26 had her last meeting with her mentor for her senior project yesterday. Next Wed is a practice presentation run w/her faculty advisor at school. And then next Sat is the final presentation and then no more work for high school! Only thing after that is graduation on 5/14.
I ordered D26 a night cap drink cover thing from Amazon. D26 doesn’t drink and says she’s not interested in drinking in college, but I still want her to have something to cover up a beverage with just in case.
I’m a little envious of all you parents who get to attend a college orientation with your kid. I loved doing that with D24…her orientation was over move-in weekend. At D26’s school, all of the orientation stuff is virtual/online…which is great if you have to travel from far away because it saves a lot of money on travel expenses. But at the same time, I think that in person orientation is really great because it creates a sense of community early on.
Best wishes to everybody whose kids are still in the final parts of decision making!
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Thank you. Fortunately, my son didn’t mind the dining hall food and actually thought it was good! I guess it’s all about personal preferences. We went during a non-admitted student day too. My son is not that picky (thankfully). He based his decision on the strength of the program, campus setting (prefers non-urban), campus size (to him, UVA was the perfect size, not too big, not too small), places to walk to (to get a bite to eat, to shop) outside of campus, and a gut feeling.
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Perfect. Just wanted to share since I know someone mentioned the food.
My S is very stressed as well. So much going on! - AP exam reviews, 2 concerts, prom, organizing & making sure their first ever poetry reading happens, finishing up on their Lit Mag (he’s editor in chief), prom, a senior trip.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to share what worked for us….we asked S26 to set aside 2 hours on the weekend (so maybe tomorrow?) to focus/talk about college after dinner (this was crucial to our S26 because if we sat him down hungry, it wasn’t going to go anywhere lol). It helped my S26 to write down all the likes/dislikes/preferences (with no particular college in mind). Then we went down the list of colleges in his top 5 and started narrowing it down. Pros/Cons lists helped him see that College A has more Cons than College C, etc. It also helped him that he talked about what he likes/dislike about each college out loud. He asked us for our observations, findings, etc. After two hours of discussion, he felt at peace. It was the college he knew deep down all along. They know which one deep down. They just need some time bring it out in the open and for you to say, it’s ok. You’ll be ok.
Hang in there and good luck to your kid!
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S26’s college has welcome weekends for new students and their parents. These are once a month starting sometime in the spring. Ideally, S26 would have attend one of the earlier sessions as advising and registration are part of the activities. All of the school year sessions conflicted with other obligations, so he signed up for the June session. Accommodations are not included. We booked a hotel room as soon as he registered for a session. If he had not been able to attend any session, I believe advising and registration is also offered the Friday or Saturday before freshman move-in.
The official freshman orientation is the week before classes start. S26 will move in on Sunday afternoon and start orientation that evening. Upperclassmen other than those helping with orientation move in the next Saturday.
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She’ll probably get excited once she attends and meets some kids. Everyone is just making educated guesses on the right school because no one knows.
Most kids end up enjoying college because college is a fun experience. Hopefully she has a good roommate and can join a few social clubs.
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I’ve been in my best mood in weeks today! Starting to imagine her life there, look at the website in more detail, look at dates of things, peek at the merch in the online bookstore, etc. I’m also realizing how great all of her final options are as wife and I could get excited for any of them. But, it feels so good to start imagining her at a specific place. And feels even better finally knowing that she wasn’t just paralyzed about the options when she completely shut us out for a week and told us absolutely nothing. I just can’t get the smile off my face today.
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Quick question, are your kiddos hitting the decline button in the portals of the schools they didn’t choose? This is our first go, so I didn’t know if there was proper etiquette.
I love that at our school it’s a month after decision day. Let’s things settle, get the shirt, and some kids will get off waitlists as well.
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If your kid feels ready (and perhaps eager) to decline offers, it’s great to go ahead and decline. However, they shouldn’t feel obligated to do so before May 1 if they do not quite feel ready. Kids can go through stages of decision making where they feel that they have mostly decided enough to deposit at one place… but still not feel 100% finalized in that decision… so the choice about when to actively decline offers can be a stage in their process.
My D has declined most offers, but still has several that she hasn’t declined even though they aren’t on her short list… she just doesn’t feel ready to let those go yet.
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Yes. WIth 9 acceptances D26 has done it in stages.
When a school dropped out of her top 5, and she couldn’t see it getting back into the top 3 slots even with a major increase in Merit Awards… she declined it.
When we got down to the last 5 she clipped one school at 5 to go to 4 and then to 3 pretty quickly. She hit accept to UF and we paid the deposit, she then declined the third position school. That leaves her with her UF acceptance, her second choice left open for this last week just to see if anything else happened as a quake-shifter, and the UNC-CH wait list.
I don’t see an issue with her holding out on one school for for the one week before “Decision Day” after she decided on UF and accepted, she’s already notified the other 7 schools by that point. I don’t see a purpose in holding onto 5+ school acceptances that the student really has -no- intention of attending.
I do think schools track their decline rates before May 1st to help them gauge where they are stacking up to historical predictive factors - and this may or may not influence them to offer more incentives to their accepted students who have not accepted them back… or even to feel comfortable releasing some acceptances to kids of the wait list even before May 1st.
Others M.M.V. It’s just an opinion.
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My kiddo still has 4, even though she’s wearing the shirt of the schools she’s decided on, but hasn’t yet committed to. It’s a lot to think about for these kids. My S22 was the same with needing time to make it all final.
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