Aw! Your description of your D26’s band competition brought back wonderful memories of my time in high school on the drill team. We performed with the band during our fall season, and I remember those competition days well—we had a parade performance in the morning and field show at night. Waiting on the field for the music to start, running our formations on the football field, awaiting the judges’ results, the bus rides home after a great performance… it is really a special experience. Enjoy this last season with her!
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UCSB has been a party school for generations! My dad went to UCSB in 1965–partied too hard and got kicked out after his first year. He went to high school in Los Olivos, with a tiny graduating class of about 30 people, and he says he just wasn’t prepared for the massive increase in social opportunities. He remembers it as a super fun time in his life 
despite getting the boot. He ended up in the military (Vietnam War) and finished his degree at Berkeley about 8 years later. All to say, that UCSB manages to be a total blast and an academically respected and rigorous institution is to its enormous credit, imo.
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For some students, studying is their idea of fun! We know a very happy student at U Chicago. It’s a “fit school” but it’s great for the students who fit it.
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Honestly, this is the reason I suggested it! Can all these people be wrong?!
They’re not super excited by the suggestion tbh but ok to give it a go and visit later if it ends up being an option. (I’m a little nervous about the small number of schools on the application list…) DH chimed in the discussion that one of his associates graduated Pitt a few years back and loved it and still visits the city regularly.
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We have not visited, either – it’s a bit of an outlier on my kid’s list. My D26 is mostly intrigued by the location (Pittsburgh looks like such a fun city), and the program she’s looking at is a little different than others she’s targeting, but interesting.
I think the school and the marching band might end up being too big for her, but you never know – it might be a great option. And yes, I have never met anyone who had something bad to say about Pitt!
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Oh, the other “news” is the C26 ordered a dress for the hoco dance! (There was a bit of looking as they didn’t want one of the currently trendy super skimpy ones but I think they found a nice option - basically a goth dress but will work for sure.) The reason that this is news is that they have never dressed up for the hoco dance before! when I said - happy to get something for you but curious why this year is different - “because I’m a SENIOR, mom”
The choir is singing the anthem at the hoco game so they’ll be at the game, like last year - the only one of the season they tend to go to.
Also the musical casting has taken place and they did not get the role they wanted, so there was a bit of sadness - well, a lot of sadness - for about a day, but now they’re all like “well, being sad won’t change things and we’re still going to have fun”.
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Yay on the dress! I’m laughing at how much our stories overlap – my D22’s best friend in high school was someone who often wore suits to hoco and other dances, but she chose a dress for senior prom, and her mom (who is a dear friend of mine) was like I WILL TAKE ALL THE PICS. 
And it was my D22 who only showed up to games where she had to sing the national anthem with chorus. I’m not sure she even came to watch her sister in the band, lol.
I’m sorry about the musical. Did they get an ensemble role instead? Been there with my kids, and it’s rough.
My D26 plans to audition for her winter musical – she’s always done costumes (which is really her wheelhouse), and she doesn’t really sing, so she doesn’t expect anything more than an ensemble role. I still think she’s going to miss doing costumes, but the show they’re doing will have fun choreography, so she wants to be a part of that for senior year.
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They got 3 small named roles (all with humorous lines) as well as part of the ensemble (I’m not super familiar with musical structures but I think I have described it correctly). I still think this is huge for them as they have always had such stage fright before that even being onstage in ensemble (no named role/solo lines) was a big deal a couple of years ago. (That was when MT class wasn’t big enough to fill all the roles so they took outside participants - class size was fine last year and they weren’t in MT so weren’t in it.)
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Oh, this brings back so many memories! I loved my time in HS marching band (colorguard). I’m so glad they were able to get the part and kill it in finals!!!
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I will very much miss high school marching band! I’ll probably go for a competition next year if I can. It’s such a fun time!
Congrats to your band!
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Ok. I decided to start delving into what’s involved for completing the FAFSA this morning. It appears that the student and each parent has to create a studentaid.gov account. It also seems that the FAFSA from is supposed to be completed by the student through their account, and then the parents fill out their parts as contributors, is that right? I’m inclined to have D26 set up an account, but for us to actually do the FAFSA form filling out as she has enough things on her plate for applying that genuinely need to be done by her. Rather not have her spend her time trying to figure out how to fill out financial aid forms at this juncture. Supplemental essays are where her energy should be spent.
Going to look into whats required for CSS Profile this afternoon. Fun!
We haven’t done the FAFSA since 2021 – need to do that now for D26 – but yes, that sounds right. We’ll probably complete her portion, too – I’m with you, the kid does not have time for that right now.
The CSS Profile is MUCH worse – the nickname on this site for it is “financial colonoscopy” – which is pretty accurate.
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I am LOL’ing at your CSS profile description!
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My S23 is at Pitt. Pitt prioritizes based on stats from what I learned back then. The higher the stats, the sooner you get an acceptance. I’m surprised your kid hasn’t heard back yet. Maybe because you’re in-state, IDK (OOS = more $$ to Pitt). Did you do the STAR? Check the portal/account for anything missing.
YAY for a fantastic performance! Congrats to your D! Wow, that is some crazy last minute fix! I would be STRESSING lol!
I’m with you! I am loving marching band season right now, even though S26 is not even close to finishing his essays LOL. Our band had its share of equipment failures literally minutes from performance. Nothing like the Pit Crew setting everything up, plugging everything and then realizing the synthesizer is not working just 2 minutes before “go” time! Eeek! I love how our band director and staff are cool cucumbers and basically MacGyvered something and made it work. Thankfully they took 1st place in that competition! Shheeeeeesh! S26 had a marching band competition yesterday too - 1.5 hours away from home. It was an 18 hour day (between short rehearsal at the school, going to the venue, performance, spectating, awards, ride home, unpack instruments, debrief) yesterday. We got home at 2:30pm! But it was worth it. They took 1st Place again in their class (3A) out of 12 bands and were 5 points away from the 5A 1st place band!
Our kids have 3 more competitions to go plus Senior Night and Homecoming. Oy vey! All this month! God help us on the college apps lol.
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Congrats to your S, too! First place is awesome. I know you get it – it’s such an exhilarating experience. Oh my goodness, five competitions is next level – we only do two!
Same, our competition was an hour away, and we got home in the wee hours. And I love hearing her decompress and tell me about the day while she eats Triscuits and cheddar in the kitchen – always her post-band sustenance of choice. I always get the rundown at like 2am, lol.
After I woke her at 1pm, my kid is currently working on an essay for English due tomorrow on a Flannery O’Connor story – NOT her strength – and then she has so much work for her STEM class. Oy. Who needs sleep, anyway?
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Thanks! Yes, I get it 100%! I love being a band mom! Yes, same here, I hear all about the day of the competition at 2am lol, if too tired, the next day for sure!
Goodness, I feel for our kids! Marching band takes up so much time, and then homework, always on Sundays on top of chores. Right? Sleep? What? (sigh). We’re (you, me, our kids) going to get through this!
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Oh… I just realized Maia is basically updating live for the current year with # of applications and admittances… not exactly “live” live as C26 just applied to UMN and none listed for class of 2026 yet, but there are others that have gone up so I guess a short lag of some sort.
For sure!!! It’s awful.
S26 and I just looked over his list of schools to determine whether he will submit SAT scores or go test optional. He determined that he will go test optional to just 2 schools on his list - his 2 reach schools. Good thing I dug deeper. Out of the 10 schools (yes, 10!) he’s submitting his scores to, ONE school requires OFFICIAL SAT scores for application review! So S26 jumped on College Board and sent official scores to that one school. The one huge accomplishment to date for S26, lol! The rest of the schools on his list accept self-reported scores.
So if your kids are planning to submit scores, check to see if they can self-report or if the school requires official scores. It takes 4-7 business days for College Board to send scores.
Edited to add: Some schools allow self-reported scores but you need to download the Score Report from College Board! Double-check your schools! I’m sure you all are more on top of this than we are over here, but just in case some of you didn’t know.
Also, DH just finished FAFSA for both S26 and S23! YAY! (SAI 
) Just CSS for 7 schools 
.
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