Parents of the HS Class of 2026

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
3770

Bless it, this is my daily mantra, lol.

I created a schedule for D26 for her remaining summer homework/essays/etc. Last night I was talking to D22 in the wee hours (because these vampire children sleep all day and then suddenly want to chat at midnight), when D26 came downstairs. I asked if she had finished the writing assignment of her first AP Lit book (she did finish the annotation yesterday), and she said, “I’m getting there.”

Me: “Isn’t that supposed to be done tonight?”

D26: “On your timeline, yes.”

:roll_eyes: :joy: :sob:

If you don’t have the space, then yes, I would choose “volunteer work” as the activity, and in the description, put NHS: XYZ charities, X number of hours. Other Club: XYZ charities, X number of hours.

But if you have the space, maybe just list them separately, both as volunteer work?

NHS is an interesting one because it’s so different at different schools. At my S25’s school, it was hard as heck to get in – he had to have three different leadership positions, write a bunch of essays, get rec letters, etc. It was ridiculous. And then the hours requirement was steep, and he also had to create his own volunteer project, recruit classmates, etc. In hindsight, I never would have encouraged him to do it, lol. It was so stressful.

At D26’s school, everyone with the minimum GPA who exhibits reasonable character is inducted. And the only thing she’s had to do for it is serve as an usher at baccalaureate for class of 2025. It was like 1.5 hours of her time. She’s going to list it under awards as “Honor Societies: NHS, Math, Science, English, Latin, Music” – something like that.

3771

At D26’s school, admission into NHS requires 1 letter of rec from a teacher + answer a couple of short essay questions + a min GPA. Then once you’re in, 35 volunteer hours per school year.

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3772

Activities like orchestra or band often take up a class period and are also listed in the activities section.

3773

D26 drove herself for the first time to school today. 35 min drive on freeways in rush hour traffic. I was a bit of a Nervous Nellie until she got to school and texted me that she got there ok. I’m going to be anxious about this until she has a few round trips under belt. I was the same way when D24 started driving to & from school.

Thankfully, her school day ends at 2:45 pm, so she should be able to avoid evening rush hour. :slight_smile:

When I was in high school and got my driver’s license, the drive from my house to school was only a couple of miles on quiet surface streets. Totally different experience!

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3774

What do you all think? S26 wants to email an admissions counselor at one of the colleges he is applying to - to ask if he should submit his SAT scores. His SAT is at the 25th percentile. I’ve read everywhere to not submit SAT if it’s below the 50th percentile. He says that if he doesn’t submit, the college will think his score is below the 25th which is not, it’s right at the 25th. Thoughts on S26 emailing the admissions counselor about this? It will also help demonstrate interest.

3775

Submitting test scores…

D26 is will be submitting her scores to all schools, for some, the score will be at the 25%ile.

Her rationale is that she worked really hard for that score and is proud of it, so wants it to be part of her story.

Is it risky for some of the highly rejective schools? Probably. But she is adamant, so we’ll go with it.

One school that was recruiting her told her they wanted all athletes to apply test optional, regardless of score. That categorically ruled the school out for her.

With respect to demonstrated interest, I would look at the school’s common data set and see how the school values it.

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3776

Well, it’s happening! D26 has been plugging away all day and has submitted several of her apps. I got a little choked up when she hit “submit” on the Common App for that first one and the green confetti popped up. I honestly cannot believe we are here already. This year is going to feel like so many “last time for…”. :sob:

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3777

Oh, well done you guys who are seeing apps go in! C26 is still a little stuck on the essays. They’re a good writer but find it hard to write about themselves. I think we may get some help from one of the locals who have experience with our school and helping kids get essays done. I think they really just need someone to help “unblock” them. (And that someone is never a parent!)

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3778

I think the advice varies on this. My D22 was a chorus kid, took the class every year of high school – and she was advised very strongly not to list it under activities, because that section is meant specifically for extracurriculars. The reasoning was that the admissions people would see it on her transcript, so they would assume if it were listed under activities, then that was an additional thing.

She did do some extracurricular chorus stuff – all-state, girls’ trio at the literary competition, etc. So she listed these instead.

ETA – my D26 has taken symphonic band every year. She isn’t planning on listing that because it’s a class, but she will list jazz band because it meets during a club time outside of class.

3779

Hooray! I think you get the award for being first in this group!

We’ve got some time before D26 has her essay polished and the first supplemental essay written. Her first deadline is Oct 15 for an in-state EA school, so she has to have that submitted with the school request for transcript/rec letters put in by Sep 26.

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3780

Music is both my kids’ most important EC by far. Orchestra takes up a slot on the schedule but also takes significant time outside of the class period. Everyone always advised my kids to include orchestra (and all the related stuff involved) under activities.

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3781

I hear you! I would probably push for the same if D26 didn’t have a lot of different marching band leadership stuff to list. But because she does (along with theatre and several artsy things), I think we’ll leave it alone and go with the school’s advice.

3782

Congrats on apps going in!

All my kids list marching band on their apps, even though it’s a class for credit. It’s a lot of hours after school, over the summer, and on weekends. More than other classes, so we’ve put it on.

I was happy to see the NMF scholarship was still there on the Alabama site. Whew. I was hopeful that some of the amounts would increase, but they are all the same as the past few years. In any case, S26 will have enough to go there, whether he is NMF or not. What a relief.

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3783

That’s interesting that marching band is a class at your school! I know at many/most colleges it’s also a class.

Not so at our school – purely an after-school activity.

3784

Looks like U of A added 2 optional writing supplements. And they changed their honors college app essay prompt from last year.

One thing that’s kind of nice about them switching from rolling admissions to EA & RD is that there isn’t the mad dash to try to get your app in ASAP starting 8/1. Just submit everything by the 11/1 deadline.

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3785

I guess C26 can’t really apply anywhere anyway until 11 August as that’s when they get their senior year schedule.

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3786

Good point. Mine doesn’t have his until Aug 14. Kind of forgot that.

3787

Just my opinion, but I think that the test score ranges reported on the CDS reports are artificially high, since only those students with high enough scores are submitting them. Where to submit her SAT score has been the subject of quite a bit of a debate at our house. This is even more of an issue because my kid’s course rigor is very high but her corresponding unweighted GPA is solid but not great (our school does not grade inflate). She’s taking the SAT again later this month (and in September, if needed), so we are crossing our fingers and toes that they are good enough that she can avoid going TO.

3788

My kid is including choir in her activities section because (1) music is a big part of who she is; (2) she is involved in after-school choir ensembles (audition-only); and (3) she holds leadership roles in choir. I think #3 is the most important – the opportunity to highlight leadership experience in her application is super important.

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3789

D26 successfully arrived home after driving herself to & from school today for the 1st time ever and didn’t die, so my nerves can calm down now. :laughing:

(disclaimer: the route to & from school is a ~35 min drive on major freeways which, during the am commute, is during prime rush hour traffic & freeway drivers in our area are AGGRESSIVE!)

I played 20 questions w/the child about the college counseling class because apparently they reviewed the syllabus today. Learned some interesting things:

  • graduation day is Thurs 5/14 (just like I thought it would be)
  • there’s an open Q&A session & presentation for 12th grade families next month
  • then there’s a senior project info session in early October
  • unlike in D24’s grade, they won’t be allowed to bring laptops from home and, instead, during “work days” in the counseling class, will be using Chromebooks which stay at school.
  • so everybody’s going to get a personal OneDrive folder to store docs that they’ll collaborate w/the counselors on (like essays, resumes, and such)
  • everybody’s been instructed to NOT jump ahead and fill out the Common App on their own. You have to wait until everybody does it together in class.
  • there’s a statement about AI on the syllabus. ‘Assistive AI’ (such as brainstorming & organizing) is allowed but ‘Generative AI’ (generating responses to written work or writing essays) is not allowed.
  • there’s 2 textbooks, 1 of which we have to buy because it’s a workbook that you write in. Anybody who can’t afford one can get financial aid for it through the school boosters, though, if you apply for that. 1 of the books (the one that stays in the classroom) is the book that College Essay Guy has written. Woo!

on 1st page of the syllabus, the 2 counselors have a list titled “our beliefs”:

  • we believe that all students can have great college options
  • we believe that all students are capable of greatness
  • we believe that you are worthy of our best efforts as counselors
  • we care about all students’ success, and we also care about their well-being.
  • if a student engages in the learning process of applying to colleges, they will better understand who they are, what their skills are, and how to present these to others.

And to everything in their list, I am like this:

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