Ooh I hope my kid gets that (I’ll have to jump out and check the mail). She’s not applying there but she is a HUGE Gilmore Girls fan! I swear, she would probably keep that forever.
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When we were touring LA colleges we took a day and did the Warner Bros studio tour. It was a school year weekday so small tour group. Tour guide found out we were Gilmore Girls fans and then tailored a lot of time on Gilmore Girls spaces, sets and facts. We took pictures in the Lorelei/Suki’s house, the stars hollow gazebo, by Luke’s etc. The tour guide had so much info on the show catered to us that, while I was geeking out too long in the house and my D26 and some others were already outside, a mom of a 12ish year old on the tour started asking D26 if the show was age appropriate for her kid.
Also, they do these Gilmore Girls events every so often where they recreate the entire set and make the area Stars Hollow again. This winter is the 25th anniversary so they are doing it big we were told. Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood Holidays Made Here Dec. 18, 2025 – Jan. 4, 2026 - Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
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This looks so fun! D26 and I started watching Gilmore Girls a few summers back after D22 went off to college, but we only got a couple seasons in before falling off. (I liked it, but she’s more a nerdy anime kid.)
But I gotta be real, every time the storyline would mention Harvard and Yale, we’d yell THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS at the TV. 
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1st acceptance! Gustavus Adolphus – it’s a safety –and with the initial scholarship offer comes in at the same price as our state school. Yay!
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It has been a long time since we watched, so I do not remember the details at all. But it was like 2003, so things certainly worked differently than they do now. And, at least for Yale, my memory was that (spoiler alert!) Rory was a serious blue blood New England legacy. And my experience back in my day, which was earlier than that but not by that much, was that blue blood New England legacies could feel pretty confident they’d get in if they had done enough and came from the right school.
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Does anyone know if the ASU Honors Program is good? Thanks!
I know people who have raved about it, and chosen Barrett over (non honors) admittance at significantly higher ranked colleges. A friend’s daughter went a few years ago and they posted pictures of the dorms - they look fabulous. (Beyond that I don’t know, C26 is not interested in the extra work any honors college requires 
)
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Since a few of us hype YCBK here (
), I’ll say that the interview with Tara Williams, the dean of Barrett, was quite good. I thought she repped it really well.
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How exciting! Congrats to your kiddo!
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Hooray!! Congrats! The first one is so sweet! 
That YCBK interview of the ASU honors college representative is very good, worth the time to listen to it.
A lot of seniors from our high school end up at ASU and a lot of them get into the Barrett honors college. I think it’s a great program. When D24 was looking at colleges, D24 & I went to this half-day event at ASU geared toward high school students and we went on an optional tour of the honors dorms at the main Tempe campus. The Barrett dorms there are pretty great. I think in total, ASU has ~7000-ish students in the honors program.
One thing that people from out of state might not realize is that ASU has 4 campuses. So just be aware of which campus your student gets assigned to. Each campus does have housing, including Barrett honors housing, but I think for the 3 other campuses (downtown, West campus, and polytechnical campus in Mesa), the honors housing is within the regular dorms.
We’ve been to the polytech campus in Mesa a couple of years ago for a robotics competition…that place is a graveyard on the weekend. If your kid attended at that campus, they’d need a car to do anything or go anywhere.
West campus is in Glendale. Glendale is known for not being all that nice of an area. But the ASU West campus is nice. Most freshmen attending ASU really prefer to be on the main Tempe campus because that’s where all the action is. ASU runs shuttle buses between the 4 campuses, so be mindful to allow for sufficient travel time between campuses if your kid has to take a class at a different campus from the one they’re on most of the time.
Another thing to be aware of, in general, for any large public university these days is, in my opinion, about the increased reliance of public universities on online instruction.
ASU does this a lot. Honestly, so does U of A. For example, you could sign up for the in-person “section” of the class that you want, but by the time you’ve signed up, the in-person section is full and then sometimes they’ll just automatically put everybody else in an online section of the class.
By being an honors student, priority registration will increase the odds that you can avoid such situations because you’ll basically sign up for classes right after athletes do.
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Yeah, that’s fair. We watched not that long ago, so I didn’t think about how much things had changed in admissions.
I mean, pre-Supernatural Jared Padalecki was ages ago, lol!
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And even though it is a safety - at least she knows she is going to college somewhere! It was very motivating! We got another application, an honors/scholarship application, and some ‘hidden’ supplementals completed!
2 more EA applications and one honors essay to go in the first batch!
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C26 was way more excited about their safety acceptance than we’d expected and I think exactly for that reason. “I’M GOING TO COLLEGE!!!”
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I mean, after some of the horror stories we read about kids not getting in anywhere – it’s such a relief! 
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I’m still waiting to my D26 to get her first application in. Clock is ticking. First ones Due a week from tomorrow. 
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D26 applied to 4 out of her 5 schools this evening! Woo!
Counselor has already sent school report & counselor LOR to them + 1 of the teacher LOR has already been sent out. Teacher #2 told D26 today that he’s 75% done w/hers and it’ll get sent out on time by 11/1 (because the counselors hassle the teachers about it until it’s done).
School #5 will have its application submitted next week.
I told D26 that now the process moves into the phase of “check for email from these colleges daily.” Also told her that for each school, they will likely send her instructions on how to create a portal ID and it’s through the college’s portal that you’ll get the formal notifications of status, next steps, etc. Some colleges also send you a reminder email to your personal email account, but some colleges do not do that (they rely on you checking the portal regularly).
D26 said that she’s going to be stressed out until teacher #2 completes his LOR.
I’m super glad that she’s not applying to a boatload of schools because my kid’s stress level would be through the roof right now if she’d done that.
Feels like my kid has moved up to the next level of a video game or something. 
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D24 was the same. She heard back first from her super duper safety school and was so thrilled that she called me from school during her lunch period to share the news. She said, “At least I have SOMEWHERE to go now! I’m going to college!”
I think that once they receive their first acceptance, students are, understandably, on pins & needles.
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Hi all, S26 and I are not in agreement, so I’d like to see what others might consider here. He has a few schools that won’t look at his application unless there is a teacher recommendation submitted (several due 11/1). He asked two teachers at the start of the school year and emailed them his CA essay and some info suggested by the counselor. Neither has submitted one that we can see. I think it’s time to remind and thank them again, while there is still time or know if he needs to scramble and ask another teacher. He feels like they will do it at the wire and reminding is just irritating. While I am trying to let him lead on applications, I think I may insist on a reminder email.