Oh gosh, one of my younger colleagues is totally interested and her kids are I think 5 and 7. She is an immigrant, but interestingly she knew UIUC - her immediate response was “wow, that’s a good school!” I said “I’m surprised you know about it, seems most don’t” to which she replied “us immigrants know all the schools” 
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I love this. Both my girls are hardcore Latin kids and loved taking the NLE every year, lol – and both listed their awards on the NLE on their college apps, incidentally, and had good success with acceptances – so if he likes this area, more power to him!
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That’s about as cringe-y as what our next door neighbor said to me about the yard sign I put out celebrating D24’s college choice. Neighbor said, “Huh, I haven’t heard of it, so it must not be any good.” As of a few months ago, she is no longer our neighbor and we are thrilled about that!
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My D26 asked me to decline her offer from her #2 school today because she couldn’t do it. My husband and I are also sad. He and I read the final email we received from that school before declining - it was just perfect 
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Honestly, I think it’s better when casual people haven’t heard of a college. It makes it harder for them to make some glib stereotype-rooted assumption. And when you know, you know….
I find the $ assumption more annoying, since LAC’s are often generous enough to make the final cost equal to or below that of state schools for most families.
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+1 for national latin awards - C26 had a couple of national and a couple of state ones and I’m sure that helped their applications. They had nothing else at national level other than NM commended.
Oh, in the midst of everything else I forgot to mention C26 had their last spring concert last night (last choir concert, but second-last school concert as musical theater does one later this month too). “You don’t need to come” they said to us, well of course we did. What the kiddo had not mentioned to us was that they had a couple of solo spots - I have mentioned before how this kid used to have terrible stage fright so this was a first. Well, they were great. They also got flowers and a farewell card from the other chamber singers, and I was awed at how lovely the comments from the others were, especially from the younger students in terms of supporting them, etc. (I am not sure I mentioned this before, but they also got the Legacy Robe for the musical, which at our school is voted on by the cast members in a similar vein.) With all the drama they have had with the music teacher this year, these are such lovely reminders that they are valued by other students. They have signed up to audition for one of the ensembles at UIUC and I really hope this continues.
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I totally hear you. We got the final “Today’s the day, [D26 name]!” email from my alma mater, and I decided that I just needed to bless it, delete it, and let it go.
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Thank you, yes, that’s why S26 chose it. Literally the best of both worlds for him (liberal arts education and that big school feel). So your S is applying to UVA Law?
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Random things to report:
- it appears that whatever team/dept handles sending incoming freshman advising emails goofed this morning because the email included a link for new students to use to scheduling your advising appointment BUT the link they provided allowed you to book appointments now, not starting later this month like they’d planned. So D26 & other students scheduled advising appointments for next week and then got notices to reschedule to any date on or after 5/26. So now she’s got an advising/’enroll in falll classes’ appointment for 5/27 instead. No worries. She’ll still likely get everything she’s hoping for since it’ll be very early on in the freshman course enrollment timeline.
- She set up her senior project final product at school today & spent some time socializing with classmates who she hasn’t seen in quite awhile. Presentation is tomorrow morning!
- She now wants to do a minor in History in addition to the minor in Intelligence & Info Ops.
- learned that because of her AP test scores, she’ll only have to take 3 History classes for a minor instead of 6.
- She announced today that she wants to take a Greek or Roman mythology class because she loves Epic the musical and the Percy Jackson series.
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I love all of this so much (except the part where they didn’t tell you about the solos, lol) – what a lovely way to close out their HS choral experience!
I hope they are able to continue singing in college. My older one found that she didn’t quite have what it took to join an a cappella group, but she loved singing with the chorale (which only did classical choral stuff, but that suited her voice). She never had a solo because there were voice majors in the same group, lol, but she got a very nice note from her director saying he was sad that she was graduating, and would she consider staying another two years until he retired? 
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Breaking the bad news: marketing from schools that students didn’t attend will start up again in late first semester/around the new year…with something like ‘if you aren’t happy at the school you chose, put in a transfer app! We’d love to have you and will offer the same financial aid as last year!” (there are always many exclamation points!)
These emails can be surprisingly effective and/or cause an emotional response, especially if coming from a school that was in it until the very end. You won’t see the Ivy league/other highly rejective schools do this type of transfer recruiting, but many schools do.
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Yikes. I’m glad my D22 and D26 used their school email accounts for all college things, then! Those disappear in the summer after graduation.
S25 didn’t have that option because his school email account couldn’t receive anything from a non-school account (which I found really weird), but I don’t know if he got many transfer marketing emails – he didn’t mention it to me, if so.
My kids never tell me about solos either. I missed one of S24s. I figured it out when they acknowledged him at the end
He heard yesterday that he made the cut for the matching band at Bama! He’s so excited!
We are at worlds for robotics and are done with our matches. It’s a very odd feeling and he was taking it hard. Such a huge part of life for 7 years and it’s over.
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@luanne - fwiw, a friend’s kid, who is graduating from college this month, found that one way to not have to miss robotics is to volunteer as a mentor to a high school team. He was at worlds with them (and you!). Worked well for him and his team, so tossing that out there for your son!
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Feels like it’s time to chime in with my annual reminder about the dangers of Greek life and sexual assault. 
As kids are thinking forward to next year, I recommend looking at the Greek System with a very critical lens. Make sure you and your kids are aware of the heightened risk of being a victim or perpetrator of sexual assault (and hazing, and alcohol poisoning).
“Research has found that fraternity men are three times more likely to sexually assault a woman than non-affiliated classmates. Additionally, for women in sororities, it was reported that they are 74% more likely to be raped than other college women.”
Of course, everyone has stories of their Greek experience being great. But there are many opposite experiences, and some good experiences would not come close to canceling out the bad if it happens to your kid.
Let’s Get Greek: Sexual Assault Trends Within College Greek Life ~ Making Waves
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Well… at the last minute… 11:45 PM… D committed to Davis! It’s been a long, confusing couple of days for sure.
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I wish I could use both the astonished and the celebrate reactions for this! Congratulations!!!
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Me too lol
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What changed her mind?
(I was kind of hoping D19 would do this by the 4/30 Chicago deadline but no go 
)
Much more academic flexibility… she isn’t sure what she wants to study and she wants the freedom to explore and change majors if she wants, and there is a MUCH lower bar to do so. (I personally feel that this is really important, but I’ve been keeping my mouth shut as much as possible during this process.) Less stress about exams and grades, because at Davis her ability to choose a major she wants will not depend so much on getting high grades… at UBC she might have ended up in a major she did not want. Much better access to music opportunities as a non major. Much lower cost… which we told her was not an issue… but will reduce her stress level, and she will have money left over in her 529 for grad school / professional school (and maybe she wants to do pre-health).
But… all of that said… I think the main reason is human vibe. She really likes the people from her school who are going to Davis, and she really likes the other people she knows and that she has met at Davis, and she wants to be around people like that, and have these people be her friends. I think this is why Davis was her dream school originally (back in 2024!) and it seems like the deciding factor.
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