<p>I love reading this thread! Legend of Max, thank you for the update and wonderful first person report of how oldfort was there for you at the right moment in your most tenuous year. Cheers to oldfort! the best story.<br>
I have taken phone calls from many parents over the years who were interested in my two sons’ colleges who “met” me here. One of the earliest threads at Vanderbilt was started by Bridie of NY whose eldest was toying with the risky prospects of applying to a school he worried was “too southern.” Eons ago, her first child graduated from Vanderbilt and my second child matriculated to Vandy, and her second child started at Vanderbilt. We enjoyed coffee together one day near campus, and while we had our only face to face visit, several clusters of students came in who were also students who haled from the NY corridor. Geographical origins at Vanderbilt are now decidedly very very diverse, as rapid a transformation as any other school has undergone.</p>
<p>Just needed to say “THANK YOU” :)</p>
<p>One guy gave me a place to stay when I had to visit a city on short notice. </p>
<p>People I don’t know have offered me advice or helped revise my admissions essays while expecting nothing in return. Of course, I did my best to return the favors. </p>
<p>My parents were high school dropouts and didn’t know a thing about getting into college. I learned practically everything about it here. </p>
<p>I have already completed grad school, but I still come here (parent cafe) to procrastinate because it is an interesting forum with lots of good, smart people.</p>
<p>Someone just sent this link to me. Let me just say that there were a lot of posters who offered to help Legendofmax out - giving him a ride to NYC, sending him ties, offering him great advice…I was just one of many, but I am touched that he remembered. I am very happy to know that he is doing well. </p>
<p>I’ve asked for advice on CC when our kids had issues, from health to school, and I’ve received help from many posters. One in particular was when we thought D1 was being stalked by ex BF, we received great advice from a parent whose D also had similar experience few years back.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten real help online from CC members, when I’ve had questions. The first set had to do with helping my oldest child fill out applications when he was both a HS student and homeschooled. Many lesser things over the years. </p>
<p>One of the regular posters on the Class of 2013 thread arranged for my daughter, who was thinking of switching to nursing after one semester of studying biology, to shadow a nurse (carefully picked out to match my daughter), and then suggested the school which she now attends in a BSN/MSN program where she’ll become a nurse practitioner. She’s thrilled.</p>
<p>I’ve never had an offline conversation with xiggi, but both kids followed his approach to preparing for SATs/ACTs and achieved/exceeded our and their expectations.</p>
<p>I have supplied advice in PMs over time to people in areas of my expertise. Some the recipients report has been very helpful. I hope the rest was helpful, but who knows. In addition, I gave some offline advice to an extraordinary kid who really needed some mentoring. On the street in HS, self-supporting. Had gained admission to Stanford and was trying to decide on graduate programs/life. I’m not sure the advice I gave her was all that helpful.</p>
<p>wheatstonebridge, how nice of you to post. somehow we all know you will pass it on…</p>
<p>Okay, this thread made me cry. In a good way.
Laf, I’m a major creep/lurker on that thread and I remember that member! I hope she’s doing okay.</p>
<p>CC people have been amazing to me! I met a woman who lived in my community, whose daughter was several years older than me and who dated one of the same guys my mom dated in high school. She was really helpful in my freshman year. Another on here talked me through Greek life at USC. And I wound up meeting another CCer during Parent’s Weekend last year!</p>
<p>I love this place and the social life it provides. :)</p>
<p>Just this week, I read about students having difficulty uploading their photos while registering for the October SAT. I didn’t even know kids had to do that now! Anyway, sure enough, when I tried to register for my son, the photo wouldn’t upload. I looked back at the thread and read that using a different browser would solve the problem. So I tried that and it worked! I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. College Board had NO info on it that I could find (which seems weird to me).</p>
<p>Hard to know where to begin. Have used innumerable tips posted on this thread. Have NOT met anyone who posts because they post on CC yet, but who knows? It was helpful in recommending to S where to look for housing when he was starting his 1st job 5000 miles from our home, in VA/DC. This is just a great place to share info & get a little boost of helpful insights and affirmations.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten great advice, but nothing done for me IRL</p>
<p>What a wonderful topic for a thread!
There have been several CCrs who have touched my life and that of my D. One, who no longer posts here, had a son going to school in the city where I lived while my D had just started school near her. She and her husband stopped by and took a load of things out to my D and also helped her out when she managed to get herself injured and end up on crutches the first week of school.
Several others here have become good friends. That’s extended to taking my D out for lunch when they’re in town to giving me first option on great Ikea furniture when one of their D’s moved (and helping to deliver it too!) and offering a place to stay and help getting around as my D will be doing her grad school auditions this season. I chat daily with a couple of them and we share a lot of things that we understand better as our kids have similar backgrounds. I value their friendship greatly (you know who you are, glassharmonica and BeezMom!).
The sage advice from several other frequenters of the Music Forum- especially those who also have D’s who are singers- has proved invaluable and I thank all of them from the bottom of my heart. You’ve made the journey not only easier, but a lot more fun!</p>
<p>I’ve learned so much from CC, have great respect for lots of posters and enjoy every poster/posting that I read. I did reach out to one CC member for advice who recommended another member up thread, but I didn’t act upon her suggestion. Her support, however little she might think, helped a lot in someway. Family members asked me to get off CC, no way.</p>
<p>If it were not for the encouragement of CC members, I would not have been able to self-study an AP exam in high school and get the only 5 in my school on it (okay, it was Psych, arguably the easiest AP exam. But still, helped my confidence a LOT).</p>
<p>People ruthlessly tore apart my original common app essay (this is a good thing). It was a terrible essay, and I rewrote it until it was pretty good. I am now at the University of Chicago, and definitely might not have been here had it not been for CC.</p>
<p>Our family owes a big thanks to Entomom and the posters in the Hispanic section of the admissions forum, that is how we learned about NHRP. S just missed the cutoff for NMSF, so this was a biggie. Thanks to CC and the resulting knowledge of how to qualify for NHRP, he had acceptances and tons of merit money from schools that otherwise might not have offered $ or even accepted him.<br>
Where he ended up at college the NHRP probably didn’t matter, but our entire spring of his senior year was made so much calmer/better using the information gained here. We still have a high school sophomore and a pre-k caboose kid, so I will be here for a LOOONG time and hope to pass on the knowledge the posters have given me to everyone still coming up the ranks. I do so love CC, I have no real need to be on it at the moment but I still wander around just about every day. (And is it weird that I take pride that one of my posts made it into the Neurotic Parent’s Guide?).</p>
<p>Really enjoyed this thread - thanks! I really enjoy most of the topics on CC, love when people have funny replys, I can’t believe how much there is to learn, just ran out of children so now I help other families and come to here all the time as my go to resource.<br>
Ditto to Wheatstone’s :
“I still come here (parent cafe) to procrastinate because it is an interesting forum with lots of good, smart people”</p>
<p>After 5 years I still don’t know how to block quotes though! and I wish my CC had spell check… oh and a “LIKE” tab would be great to reward the funny zingers!</p>
<p>Agree this is a great thread, revives my faith in the human race and it is a nice counter to all the terrible things we read and hear in the news everyday.</p>
<p>I have had many folks help me navigate the “college application” process. One of the most helpful was mom2collegekids, who was instrumental in guiding us with our first son’s application and acceptance with “full ride” to U of Alabama. Although he did not attend Alabama, we were very impressed and thankful for her help. She went above and beyond just answering forum questions for us and we will always be grateful. THANK YOU mom2collegekids. I know she still helps others on this site.</p>
<p>
Do it like this:
[noparse]
[/noparse]
which gives
</p>
<p>As for spell check, I use Firefox, which has spell-checking built in.</p>
<p>google chrome also had spelling check built in</p>