I wanted to put both 
and 
on your post!
Congrats to your D on the new SAT score, that’s awesome! But I really feel for her about the stress. My D is feeling stress as well.
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Thank you!!
It was actually the June test, not May. It feels like ages ago, I can’t believe it was actually just earlier this month!
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Congrats on the Improved SAT Score! Wow that it a lot to do this summer 
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@jessvig that is an insane amount for a kid to have to do over the summer. That so many kids don’t get a true break to refresh, enjoy and focus on other pursuits (like that summer job she has which sounds cool and worthwhile), without stacking tons of things - including hefty summer homework assignments - is one of the great shames of this era of childhood for ambitious kids in my opinion. When fall hits, they will be grinding on school and applications. They should not feel so much pressure (to be clear I am not suggesting this pressure is from you, it is cultural) to do so much over their last summer as high school kids. As others have said, huge congratulations to her on that SAT score, and it is a shame that she doesn’t have more time and mental energy to celebrate that accomplishment rather than stress over the mountain ahead of her this summer. I really wish things were different for so many of these highly successful kids.
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Wow. I am astounded (and, honestly, saddened) by the amount of summer homework some of your kids have been assigned. And grateful my S26 has none so far (he has 4 AP classes next year but none have sent him any homework). He’ll have plenty to do with his 2 week pre-college program and 1-week philosophy program, touring a few more colleges, and working on his common app essay. So far he’s been sleeping in, seeing friends, playing video games, playing his drums, doing some reading for the philosophy camp and making his college list. Oh, and practicing his driving as often as he can (still doesn’t have license yet)
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Also happy here no homework, especially as C26 has ended up with such a busy scheudule -th 2 week art camp assistant, now the architecture program for 4 weeks, and then a week after that the engineering program. The arch program also talks a little about architectural engineering, which is something they now also want to look into a little though I think at the end of the day they will be more likely to settle on a more design-centered degree. But all that doesn’t leave a lot of time to finish the common app essay which I really want done before back to school… hopefully with one or two college-specific essays at least started by then. Those ones will probably come easier after the summer programs are done. We have tentatively scheduled a couple of college visits just before school goes back (one target, one reach and if we go out we’d visit a likely/safety too) but right now both of us are thinking that with the time constraints left in summer we may skip the college visits and do admitted student events rather if they get in.
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Dude, some of your kids have a boatload of high school assignments. Like…a LOT. It’s no wonder so many HS students get to college and are already burned out.
D26 is almost all healed from the wisdom teeth surgery, didn’t need any pain relievers today like Tylenol or ibuprofen.
Got her back on the road this evening for more driving practice because she needs her driver’s license before the school year starts on 7/31. We live a 35 min drive from school and the route involves going on busy freeways during rush hour. So we’ll be doing a lot of practice this next month for that route to & from school during rush hour times of day.
have had zero success with convincing the kid to get more work done on her college app essays. And I’m almost ready to throw in the towel and not ask anymore because I only have so many spoons to deal with things…and I’m dealing with a lot of other big things going on at the same time right now. So this will have to give a little bit.
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Wow, this is fantastic! Congrats to your kiddo! 
But OMG, that amount of work is crazy – I will stop complaining now about my kid’s two AP Lit books and associated assignments, lol.
Oy. Hope she’s able to pound through it and still enjoy a bit of summer.
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Egad, that is quite the reading list. 
And your kiddo has exactly the opposite mindset as mine when faced with a lot of work, lol.
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I’m planning to encourage her to try to finish up with at least a week left before school starts so she can have at least one full week of true down time.
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Well, I guess summer is finally officially here. As I sad before I think we are the only district left in the state that is not out for summer. So I decided that D26 did not need to go today or tomorrow! It is 8 million degrees today and they have no AC and they called half days anyway so she is missing nothing. She will have the shortest summer she has ever had due to the late release and earlier start in August. She was supposed to work a a camp for a week and just found out they are overstaffed so she decided to take her name off the list. I am fine with that as she will babysit and make great money from that and will be away for 8 days in July. She will have time to work on her essay(s) now too and can’t complain t hat she is too busy. Her third and final ACT attempt scores should be out today. Anxiously awaiting to hear from her and hoping she at least when up by the one point she was hoping for.
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New media design or interactive media and game design – every school calls it something different, but she wants to do the design/creative side of UX/UI and maybe some game design. She’s an artsy kid but doesn’t have any traditional studio art background. And she’s kind of techy – so something in the intersection of art and tech.
She also doesn’t want a SLAC (she’s at a small private high school right now and is chafing, so she thinks she’ll regret going to a small school) – but she also doesn’t want a giant public university where she’ll get eaten up (and where the bands are just too big and time consuming and competitive).
It’s been a journey to figure out what she wants, lol – and it’s still evolving. 
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Not sure if anyone heard, but University of Arizona is ending Rolling Admissions. This year they will have an EA deadline of 11/1. They are also beginning a holistic review process for admissions and scholarships. Interesting change as they have always been one of the ones kids can apply to super early and hear back from super early.
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Did they actually annouce that they will not be processing applications early in the season? There are other schools that process early applicants in a rolling manner before their EA deadline (such as UMN, Oregon State, etc.)
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That is what my middle son is majoring in - Digital Narrative & Interactive Media - along with Computer Science. It’s how you describe it, UX/UI, game design, programming. He’s taking a Game Design class next semester! He loves it!
I get not wanting a SLAC if she’s coming from a small private school. Yes, it’s definitely a journey guiding our kids to figure out what they want! I am hoping that my son’s experience this next 2 weeks at Kenyon will help inform him if a small rural school is for him. So far, everything on paper about Kenyon points to being the best undergraduate creative writing program for him, but there’s that other side of the equation - if it’s socially the right school for him and if it’s the best place (environment) for him. We will see!
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We got back late last night from touring Clark University and WPI – I posted our impressions on this thread:
I think we’ve exhausted all the schools that D26 is willing to look at. Stevens is still niggling in the back of my mind, but it’s too much to plan another trip to go visit before application season – kid is busy the rest of the summer.
So with that, she has five schools on her list that she’s likely applying to – RIT, Miami Ohio, WPI, Georgia Tech, UAH. That doesn’t feel like enough to me because D22 applied to ten, but D22 had mostly reach schools, and these are all targets for D26 except for Georgia Tech (which is a reach for everyone, but she has a decent shot being in-state and female). UAH is a true safety.
I am ready to be done with building the list – we need to move on to the essay portion of the application process, lol. She has read the College Essay Guy’s guide, has a decent idea that’s brewing, and she’s emailed her college advisor to ask for feedback on said idea before she writes it. Waiting to hear back.
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Wow, that’s so surprising! I wonder why!
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Where is your middle son in school?
Kenyon seems to have such a strong program – I’ll be curious to hear what your son thinks!
I wish someone would send me to an idyllic place to write creatively for a couple weeks.
I hear you! S26 has only 3 on his list of schools he’s definitely going to apply to. THREE! At this point because of his crazy summer schedule, I’m going to steer him towards considering others we did not get to visit and add at least 5 or 7 more. We will visit if he gets accepted. Summer is essay writing time after he gets back from Kenyon.
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