It’s nice to see everyone off to a good start to the year. D27 got her license a few weeks ago and it felt as if it was the first big milestone of their junior year. Classes are hard but she is enjoying them. I do not think we’ll have time for college tours until spring break. We are starting to make an itinerary for that though.
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The driving lesson this morning was harrowing. This driving training thing is not good for my blood pressure.
The Kid killed it on the SAT. We are proud of him.
The Kid requested that we visit a fancy school across the country, so we are trying to make that work. He is probably going to move somewhere with an awesome subway system or some other great public transportation, and all these driving lessons will be for naught.
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The driving lessons will never be for nought but I do agree that it certainly raises the blood pressure! C27 recently received their license and wanted to visit a friend from camp a few towns over. Our state has a strict no phone/accessory law until drivers are 18 which includes GPS. I drove and they followed to get to the friend’s house a few towns away, how embarrassing!
Grades are going as expected, but still very challenging. Two weeks until PSAT and then will study for Dec SAT, then do a prep course and take SAT and ACT again in the spring. It’s going to be a LONG…yet quick year as there is only few more weeks of their fall sport.
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I was a student at F&M in the early 90s and would walk to the Amtrak station (there was a big pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks- not sure if it is still there) and take the train into NY to visit my boyfriend at the time. Fond memories! We also walked to downtown occasionally to have a “fancy dinner” before I had my super cheap car on campus my junior year. It is a longish walk, but we did it even in the winter time.
S’27 is currently in heat of competition for his sport right now, with another month or so left in the season. We are squeezing in two more college visits over fall break (over a long weekend before he has to be back to practice with the team). He might do a few local visits (driving himself) the week after as he has a second week of break. He hasn’t done any reviewing for the PSAT, so hoping I can convince him that would be a good task for this weekend….
S’27 driving has been such a HUGE thing for me (lots more flexibility in my work schedule in the late afternoon and early evening and freedom to get stuff done on the weekend), but I kind of miss the talks in the car. I feel like that was one time we always had great conversations– it can be harder to get more than the typical one word teenager answers out of him now!
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+1 to missing the car talks! I’m so happy to not be shuttling D27 across town to her high school anymore, but those drives were our best catching up time. She is adamant, however, that once high school is done, she’s never driving again. She’s aiming for a big city with great public transit for college life and beyond. I think our city broke her: awful traffic at all hours of the day and mediocre public transit that is mostly buses stuck in the awful traffic. She has the worst commute in the family, so I don’t blame her for never wanting to drive again!
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D27 is taking the PSAT this morning – good luck to everyone else who’s in the same boat!
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D27 took the PSATs also. Sending positive thoughts for good scores. I know she will not qualify for National Merit, but it’s good practice to see what she needs to study for December SAT.
Their first term ends in a few weeks. It’s been a really busy fall and she’s looking forward to her fall sport ending so she can breath for a few weeks before winter sport begins.
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Mine takes PSAT this week too. it is unlikely they will be NM either… they are taking it only because it is good practice on concentration, effort, and timing! They have been prepping for ACT, so they will be curious how different the actual PSAT score is from the practice (proctored) they took in spring.
They are having a rough semester overall, though:( Their science is REALLY hard, and I think they are in the wrong level (long story) which is annoying me as we trusted the school on placement. They hate the books they have read so far in English, too, which makes papers super painful. argh. 10th went so well, and the rumor around the parents/kids is 10th grade spring is the hardest semester, so I was lulled into thinking this fall would be ok.
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PSAT here was last week. I think my S27 might have a small chance of National Merit if things went especially well (he had some practice tests that would be high enough in terms of score) but he is definitely one of those kids who doesn’t necessarily perform as well under pressure as in a relaxed situation at home, so my expectations are tempered in that way.
We are going for our first campus visit this Friday (to Iowa State, where his older sister attends) and have been working on his list for other visits. We hope to maybe fit one more visit in this fall, and a few in the spring. He is interested in some kind of Engineering but hasn’t narrowed it down any further than that, so we are also just looking broadly for him to learn more about Engineering options while taking tours.
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PSAT last week here. She felt like math went well but that the reading sections were much longer than practice tests and some of the vocab questions were words she had never seen. Her friend group is overthinking it into theorizing that the difficulty cranked up this year in response to the much higher NMSF cutoffs in some states this past round. Whatever works to calm their minds until scores come out, I guess! She likely won’t get high enough for NMSF in our state but maybe commended? As she said, it’s an all-upside test: good score gets awards, bad score goes away forever and no one has to see it.
And I’m trying not to bug her about spring break visits, since it’s still many months away. But I love having a trip to plan so it’s hard to wait for her to tell me what she’s thinking!
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My son took the PSAT last week and felt the same way. He had already taken the SAT and said that the PSAT reading was much harder than on the SAT. He had done lots of practice before the SAT and felt that the PSAT reading was also way harder than all of the practice tests he had taken. He felt the same as your daughter about the vocab too. I had the same thought as your daughter’s friend group - that they made the PSAT much harder this year because the scores were so high last year.
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I feel this! We intend to spend spring break doing tours and I’m trying to pin D27 down on where. Her career ambition is to be an animator, but she wants to go to a SLAC rather than an art or technical school (you know, the ones that offer animation majors. I say this sarcastically, but I actually think her reasoning is quite solid). She’s looking at schools in CA because she thinks it would be good to be near the industry, even though she’s not really into the idea of going to school in CA. So we’re either going to check out schools in CA (Chapman, CalArts, Scripps, Pitzer) or NY/NJ/PA.
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The Kid has the PSAT on Monday. He did well on the SAT in September, so I am hopeful that he will be a NMSF. He likes NAU (Northern Arizona University), and I thought they offered free tuition for NMSFs, but I can’t find that info on their website anymore. Maybe they changed their policy. WSU (Washington State University) is another possibility. They offer a full tuition waiver for NMSFs.
The Kid has asked to visit one school, which is thousands of miles away and has a 5% acceptance rate. They do not consider demonstrated interest. I don’t think it’s worth the time and expense to visit before he gets a decision. If the Kid gets in, we can visit during spring break of senior year or some other time that semester.
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Skipping the PSAT and will focus on ACT instead, although all schools on the list at the moment are test optional or blind, so not too concerned with the tests. We never submitted ACT scores for S25. The focus here is on athletic recruiting and that process adds another layer of complexity. I’ve been though it once, so at least that’s helpful.
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DC took PSAT this week, interested to see his score. (He will not be a NMSF.) He’s starting to show some slight interest in colleges, having stated he wants “not too far away” and “not in the middle of nowhere”. He did express some openness to a college tour through central/western NY this summer Though having grown up there, I think that CNY/WNY might be both “too far” and “too in the middle of nowhere” but I think some SUNYs might be worth considering, even though we would be oos. With privates, we would need REALLY good merit and I’m not sure how realistic that would be.
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D27 is hyper focusing on college this last week. I think because she has a lot of friends who are current seniors and same year high achieving peers who are starting the process. Today she wanted to discuss an option of EDing to her top target school. (A lot of her friends had older sibling who ED’d) Her reaches are also financial reaches so not an option to ED to those school. Not an hour after this conversation a huge mailer showed from one of her reach schools. 
It’s going to be one heck of a roller coaster ride.
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I haven’t posted for a bit but happy to see the 2027 board getting some traction! We have had a big month. D27 got her license. I am also missing the car conversations.
She made the HUGE decision to quit club soccer. We had been looking at playing D3 for college, but she decided that was no longer what she wanted. It had seriously narrowed her college list, so I am glad to expand her list a bit. She is my baby and only travel sport kid (out of 4). I have really enjoyed traveling with her and cheering her team. I am feeling a little sad but she is feeling free, so clearly the right choice. Sticking with high school soccer. Lots of fun despite lots of losses.
She took the PSAT yesterday. We tried not to put pressure on her but I know she felt the pressure of 2 of her siblings getting national merit. She is competitive by nature and who better to beat than your older sister lol. Agree that the verbal section was quite hard. We will see!
The Parents of the HS class of 2024 really helped keep me sane. Planning on checking in here on a more regular basis.
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Congrats on the license! I have a C24 also. I did read the board some but was more on the 3.0 group. They were an athletic recruit so I agree it is a different process.
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Not that you’ve asked for suggestions @Momof242729, but reading this made me think of a few different colleges your D may want to research.
The Atlanta-area is quite rich in terms of media opportunities, movie studios, etc, and there are two liberal arts colleges in particular that could be worth exploring.
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Agnes Scott (GA): This women’s college of about 900 undergrads is in a walkable area of Atlanta and is part of the ARCHE consortium which allows students to cross-register for college classes at other participating colleges in the area. That includes Georgia Tech (and offerings in their Computational Media major might be appropriate additions) and Georgia State’s Creative Media Industries Institute. Agnes Scott still lists SCAD-Atlanta as an ARCHE partner, though I would double-check this. If SCAD still participates, there are tons of animation offerings through them. And Agnes Scott has its own Creative Arts major and Film & Media Studies major in terms of its own offerings. Though this is marketing material, I think that Colleges That Change Lives profiles do a nice job in presenting the ethos of a school: Agnes Scott College – Colleges That Change Lives
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Oglethorpe (GA): About 1500 undergrads attend this Atlanta school, so there are all the same benefits of the ARCHE consortium that I listed for Agnes Scott. It also has its Flagship 50 program that offers the same price as a student’s in-state flagship if they meet the requirements. Its Studio Art major includes concentrations in Film Production and Medical & Scientific Illustration.
Florida is another location with lots of animation opportunities with at least two schools that might be worth checking out.
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Flagler (FL): About 2400 undergrads at this school in St. Augustine. Though it offers BFAs in Fine Art and Graphic Design, it also offers regular Bachelor’s in those fields (Fine Arts & Graphic Design) as well as in Cinematic Arts (which includes design & animation), and an additional minor in illustration.
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Stetson (FL): About 2300 undergrads offers a major in Digital Arts (which includes computer animation) as well as its regular Studio Art major.
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Also happy to see this board getting traction. I’m looking forward to learning more about various colleges and the application process from others with older children (or more proactive guidance departments!).
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