<p>fillintheblank, it makes me sad when I hear kids worrying about a school because they think it will keep them from getting into med school. Please realize that the point of college is learning! If you get some less-than-A grades, you’ll still get into med school. Both Brown & Emory will most likely prepare you very well for the MCATs … and your MCAT score is the really important piece of the med school admissions puzzle, as long as your gpa isn’t below 3.0 (although obviously it helps to keep it as high as you can – and it also helps if you have activities that show that you are well rounded & well balanced). Go the the school you like the best!</p>
<p>Mom2three, what a great brother! I am glad I read this thread … I have until the end of May before D has exams (much to her chagrin - all her friends are home already) … I just put a note on my calendar to send a care package in time for exams. :)</p>
<p>fillintheblank, please think about what YOU want and not what you think you SHOULD want. Both are excellent schools anyone would be proud to attend. But, you are the one who has to live there for 4 years. At this point you have clearly done a lot of good, hard work to be in such a position. So, maybe rather than listening to your head (reason) it is time to listen to your heart…?</p>
<p>yes yes!!! Prom report please!! And pictures? Thanks for the cold weather advice. S bought a Johnston & Murphy coat in the P-burgh airport after our last visit and has a North Face. You also reminded me that we HAVE a very rarely used down comforter just waiting for a duvet to cover it — great idea!! Oh - and does anyone have a boy that wears the Eddie Bauer flannel-lined jeans??</p>
<p>I’ve got cashews roasted in my oven since I got raw ones by mistake. Butter, salt and a dash of cayenne, pretty good if I do say so myself!</p>
<p>On an evening like this, I think we need to be around the fireplace. Enoying those wonderful spiced nuts with, hmmm, Glenfiddich? Or would you all prefer Jameson’s? I have both.</p>
<p>Hooray for helpful brothers, and timely reminders about care packages.</p>
<p>And PROM REPORTS! Yes, please. :)</p>
<p>This Vigil Lounge is where all the action is. Prom pictures can be posted in the internet. <em>They</em> don’t have to be virtual. Aren’t I the naughty girl. I do think we need to respect our children’s privacy, so prom dress descriptions will have to do.</p>
<p>My D only wants to get married to get the dress. Her three prom dresses (one for eighth grade, I kid you not – worn to official ceremonies) have a place of honor in her closet, but sadly, little else can fit in!</p>
<p>My goodness–it’s balmy in VT–I think it’s Margarita time!</p>
<p>Well, I just got caught up reading everything I missed out on today.</p>
<p>Owlice, I’m so sorry about your friend’s little girl - I’ll share my box of tissues with you because I need them too.</p>
<p>fillintheblank, I’m sorry you are having such a hard time deciding which school to attend. I’m thinking that your head is telling you Brown, because it’s Brown, but that your heart is saying Emory, possibly because it’s closer to home or you just felt more comfortable there. Either way, you will make the decision that is right for you - and truly, they are both great schools, so it’s really a win-win decision for you.</p>
<p>Harriet and owlice - those Peppermint Patties sound quite delicious, and I would like to try one, if you don’t mind. </p>
<p>mom2three - that was so nice of your brother to deliver a care package for you. I can’t picture any of my brothers doing that - unless I begged and promised a favor in return. Well, maybe they would if it were for my kids…lol.</p>
<p>mythmom, did your D really go to three proms? At D’s school, they can’t go before sophomore year. She is going to her first this year, so I guess it’s possible she’ll go to three also - but she doesn’t seem to think so. She figures this one - her bf’s senior prom, and then her senior prom 2 years from now. 2forcolleges, we really do need to hear the details - first of the prom, and then of the hopefully successful Blitz.</p>
<p>Bethie, it’s not so balmy here on LI!! No fair.</p>
<p>Mythmom, I have only boys so please give details on these amazing dresses!</p>
<p>I have been busy in the kitchen today, as well-- S1’s last full week of school before exams starts and apparently much partying to be done in various classes, so I’m obliging with brownies for tomorrow, cookies for Tuesday and cupcakes for Wednesday. Other S’s must be fed as well, of course, so batches have been tripled.</p>
<p>Reminds me of way-back-when being kindergarten mom and constantly supplying treats for class parties. That isn’t so popular in this day of “healthy snacks” but after four years of high school a couple of days of sugar can’t do too much harm!</p>
<p>When the last brownie has been packaged I have a glass of chianti waiting for me, leftover from a lovely Italian dinner a couple of nights ago. It’s chilly enough here that it will be comforting to relax in front of some mindless tv show with a comforter over me. </p>
<p>A decision has been made so we are all letting down a little. Check has been written and will be mailed tomorrow. However, due to my S’s waitlist preferences, we will still keep the vigil until that saga is over. But at least he’s moved on with the options at hand!</p>
<p>As I said, D’s middle school graduation had the girls wearing gowns, the boys in suits. There are only 80 of them. Then they had a dance.</p>
<p>She wore: a floor length, silk dress, in grey silk that caught the light in green and purple, (in the folds, not really iridescent) cut on the bias. It is strapless, with soft pleats, gathers across the stomach caught up in a huge self rose. We got it at the Chinese Laundry, a designer label, but it was an outlet store so we could afford it. D got voted best dress, but she hated that. She wants to be known for her mind.</p>
<p>Junior Prom: Jessica McClintock. D wore a black strapless dress, very tight bodice with huge black ball-gown skirt. Shirt split at the side to reveal a slice of white tulle. Also set of by fabric rose (D’s signiture.)</p>
<p>Senior Prom: Jessica McClintock mauve/lavender silk dress, strapless, large skirt "pulled up or gathered) into stylized flowers (like four of them) throughout the skirt. It glimmered.</p>
<p>At their senior prom, which is at our high school, they are announced on a red carpet and each couple or single gets a hand. The whole town comes to cheer them on. D arrived with her date, the previous year’s Val and quite a local celebrity, in a vintage car.</p>
<p>S wore a tux we bought (for less than a rental) to his prom with peach vest and tie. He also wore a top hat and cane. Just by luck his date had a Gatsbyesque dress. They went with another couple in a horse drawn carriage and D and date were the first couple announced. Got a huge hand, as you might imagine.</p>
<p>Our prom is at the end of June, after Regents (NY nonsense). One year it was actually in July. The parents spend nine months making the facade and decorations for the school. Almost all senior parents work on it. A theme is selected in Oct and off we go. We built, draw, paint, design, and then the parents get into costume and run the prom.</p>
<p>D’s prom was Cirque de Soleil. There were stilt walkers, acrobats, etc. outside the school. The facade was a circus tent. I built a circus museum for the lobby. Someone created twenty life-sized figures doing acrobatics all around the room. The ladies room was a dressing room and the men’s room had distorting fun house mirrors on the stalls.</p>
<p>S had Pirates of the Caribbean and you can just imagine the decorations. The facade was the ship. And since we’re a seafaring town there were plenty of local in jokes.</p>
<p>Mythmom, we have the solution to the prom dresses filling the closet problem: be the youngest and have 2 now-vacated closets to use!
We now have one closet dedicated to fancy dresses, letter jackets and graduation gowns.
This is last year’s news, but my D found the most amazing prom dress (when she put on the poufy strapless ones with big skirts she came out grumbling “… I feel like a freakin’ Disney Princess…” )
It was deep gold (but not metalic) satin with spaghetti straps and slim lines down to a deep ruffle in the same color lace. A little beading along the neckline and down the back to the skirt but very subtle. H nearly had a heart attack. Our little non-conformist looked so beautiful.
Maybe we need an online trade? What do you do with them?
My dad is the original Mr. Clean-it-out but somehow my sister’s and my own prom dresses still exist. Lordy, how times change. Mine was way cool… in fact it may have been Jessica McClintock back when that was brand new. Blue. Puffy sleeves. Satin ribbon under the bust and a row of those flat embroidered daisies around the neckline, across the shoulders and then double-file all the way down the back. Yeah, and Dad was unhappy that it was $60 at a “sample size” outlet store.</p>
<p>dragonmom, my D would be so jealous to know that you have spare closets in your house! At the moment, a good part of her closet is still full of cocktail dresses that she wore to Bar/Bat Mitzvahs in middle school (they still fit), plus a few from Sweet 16s. By the way, your D’s prom dress sounds absolutely gorgeous.</p>
<p>mythmom - sorry, I misunderstood what you said about the 8th grade dress. My D’s school doesn’t have a junior prom, by the way - sad. I think my D would have loved the dress your D wore to her junior prom - it sounds like something she would wear. This year, D’s BF requested she wear a specific color(turquoise), so she was somewhat limited in her choices - but she ended up with a beautiful dress. I would describe it, but I can’t remember all the details, and it’s off being altered now. I also don’t know the designer name because the store cut out the label and sewed in its own! I didn’t realize that stores were allowed to do that. It’s not like the dress was discounted or anything - it was quite expensive (a treat from her grandma).</p>
<p>It’s my 1900th post…so it seems appropriate to announce that DS has made a decision! I suggested a walk with the dog early yesterday evening to clear the cobwebs from our heads, and S started telling us about the linear algebra he used to design a decision matrix. DH was questioning this methodology. (I later said to DH, “And it’s a surprise to you that he used math to make this decision? You’re the one who gave me 17 reasons why it made financial sense to get married…”)</p>
<p>When we got back to the house, S went downstairs and printed out three copies of his analysis, organized by various considerations, their relative weightings in his mind, and the scores he assigned to each school. We all talked, calmly, like adults, without defensiveness. (I think DH was HUGELY relieved when he saw the matrix results.) </p>
<p>After he made his decision, we talked about the money issues and S was just so bloody mature about the whole thing. Between the merit money, his external scholarships, working and loans, he is going to be able to pay 40% of the cost. Then DS went to play video games and DH and I took the college catalog and campus life book and went out to dinner.</p>
<p>S is going to UChicago. Know where I can find some ice skates? :D</p>
<p>Wow! Congratulations, CountingDown! What a incredible way your son reached his decision. (Sounds like a pretty fun proposal story too.) Math sounds like his field, certainly. Editing to add, maybe he can fund his education by selling college decision making software. :)</p>
<p>He saw on their website that each dorm has a Tech Support RA, so there’s a job with his name on it, too…</p>
<p>CountingDown, hooray! </p>
<p>Want my old ice skates? 
They were hand-me-downs from my mom, and always a bit too tight on me.</p>
<p>Thank you all Moms with D’s for posting the descriptions of the dresses. What fun and how different they all are!
CountingDown, congrats to your son for his excellent choice. He sounds like quite a young man and I’m sure he will excel there.</p>
<p>CountingDown, many congratulations to you and your S. Welcome from a fellow Chicago parent (twice over!). Forget the skates, just get a very warm coat, and lots of layers! And the kids think the dorm restech guys are great…saved my son when he was moving in 5 years ago.</p>
<p>Harriet,
The skates are for DS…my knees would not be able to take it!</p>