High School Class of 2016/College Class 2020

[punkin]

...talk about busy kids...DD will have youth orchestra, tutoring kinds at a low income school, private language lessons, interning for a political campaign, private music lessons. I don't know how these kids do it all. Oh, did I mention she wants to go back to the sport she dropped after 9th grade because she had no time for it? How? When?

She will take her last ACT in a couple of weeks. I do not hold out high hopes; she is an extremely anxious test taker. However, her grades are good so we will see where she ends up. Good luck to everyone with the college applications.

 

[momof1princess]

My daughter has also put in her application for Alabama. It is the top of her list right now. She will qualify for the full tuition scholarship and wants to save as much money as possible because she's hoping to go to med school. We visited and it's an impressive school.

DD17 won't qualify for full tuition, unless she makes a 32. She's just 2 points short, so we're hoping this super-expensive tutor ($50 an hour! that's a LOT of money down here!) will make the difference! Less than 2 weeks to go!

 

[momof1princess]

Oh that had to be really rough with the band director leaving! And good for the kids on pulling together-shows a lot of class!

It's been really hard on them, but I was so proud of them when they took the field for the first football game last week! Only 8 more days until the next BOE meeting, and we'll hopefully get a new band director. I've heard they've done at least two interviews, but no word on who they interviewed, or how it went. The band parents run concessions at the football games, and I have to tell y'all, the first football game was a DISASTER! The woman who agreed to be in charge kept leaving because she "couldn't handle it", and practically none of the parents who signed up to help showed up! Oh, they were at the football game, and they didn't forget to sign in at the Pass Gate that they were working concessions, so they got into the game for free, they just never reported to the concession stands to help! Me, my husband, and 3 other senior band parents ended up going in and helping, although we weren't supposed to have to (the only perk of being a senior band parent). I was so mad! It was only about 5000 degrees in there, and I ran into my former boss after I left the main concession stand, soaked in sweat and looking like something the cat dragged in. Other than that, it was a really good night. Our football team lost, but our band won.

 

[Mom2DDs]

Well my DD first day as a Senior was yesterday and she had a great time with the only bad thing that even though the high school got AC over the summer some of the rooms still have to be regulated correctly - it was 94 degree outside and she said one classroom was freezing while another one was an oven! She loves her teachers. She was very happy that she got a parking permit so she'll be driving herself & DD15 to school everyday, no more "Mom, can you drive me" .

Now, she's going to try and finish her Common Ap this weekend - so that should be a fun time. Her HHS is having a Senior parent meeting before the back-to-school night on the 17th....so that should be a fun time

 

[Marymom]

Hello all! Just wanted to check in and tell you that my daughter heard back from her first choice college, a small liberal arts college in Alabama. She was accepted! I sent in the housing deposit to insure she would get a room into the new dormitory. Now, she has no motivation to apply anywhere else or to retake the SAT. I am trying to decide how hard to push her. She is one point away from getting Florida Bright Futures-which she can't use in Alabama but what if she changes her mind and decides to attend a college in Florida?!-ugh.

 

[Mom2DDs]

Marymon - which college in Alabama?

 

[Mom2DDs]

OK...not sure if anyone is experiencing this...my DD is only applying to one "safety" school and I'm so afraid that she's going to be disappointed!

She's also applying ED for her super reach university and doing two EAs. I think that I'm stressing out more than she is since it was never like this when I was applying back 30 years ago

 

[Cinerbelle]

My daughter has enlisted in the Navy. She ships out on 7/6/16.

 

[zoemurr]

OK...not sure if anyone is experiencing this...my DD is only applying to one "safety" school and I'm so afraid that she's going to be disappointed!

She's also applying ED for her super reach university and doing two EAs. I think that I'm stressing out more than she is since it was never like this when I was applying back 30 years ago

It's hard to tell what is really a safety or not.. my DD has all very high powered classes and great extras.. even really good test scores but her classroom grades aren't going to blow anyone away. I'm afraid she is reaching too high also, but she is doing 5 schools EA. I told her if she doesn't get into any of those she needs to seriously reconsider her second group of applications. I don't think she'll have trouble getting into SUNY schools though, which is what I would rather pay for anyway. She doesn't seem stressed at all either. I'm trying hard not to micro manage her, but I'm worrying it wouldn't get done otherwise.

If your DD gets into her ED is it affordable? I would love for mine to do one ED and have it be over with, but I also want to be able to compare financial aid. She has quite a few friends who got into great "name" schools but ended up going SUNY because the price was so much more reasonable. Good luck!

 

[MomofKatie]

Hello all! Just wanted to check in and tell you that my daughter heard back from her first choice college, a small liberal arts college in Alabama. She was accepted! I sent in the housing deposit to insure she would get a room into the new dormitory. Now, she has no motivation to apply anywhere else or to retake the SAT. I am trying to decide how hard to push her. She is one point away from getting Florida Bright Futures-which she can't use in Alabama but what if she changes her mind and decides to attend a college in Florida?!-ugh.

Congrats on your DD's acceptance! It is hard to know if or how hard to push them to retake the SAT/ACT to top out their scores. If she is set on the school in Alabama and won't change her mind, maybe it is time to let her relax and enjoy the rest of the year knowing she already has her future set. But, if she isn't 100% sure yet, it might be worthwhile to get that bump up to the Bright Futures qualificaton. Just make sure she is motivated and ready to really apply herself toward getting a higher score- senior burnout is pretty tough for the kids!

DD has her Common App all set and has turned in her UNC and University of Alabama applications so far. We should hear from AL in the next 2 weeks or so (she's a lock to get in and get full tuition, per her SAT and GPA), then she will apply for the AL Honors College. UNC will mail out decisions by Dec 1st for EA. The rest of her apps are going out in November and December.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Glad to see others are grapplng with this also!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Hello all! Just wanted to check in and tell you that my daughter heard back from her first choice college, a small liberal arts college in Alabama. She was accepted! I sent in the housing deposit to insure she would get a room into the new dormitory. Now, she has no motivation to apply anywhere else or to retake the SAT. I am trying to decide how hard to push her. She is one point away from getting Florida Bright Futures-which she can't use in Alabama but what if she changes her mind and decides to attend a college in Florida?!-ugh.

Since she is so close I think I would like to see her keep all her optons open. What I said to my son is that you don't want to have regrets later.

 

[Marymom]

Thanks for the replies. My daughter will retake the SAT in December. A higher score could mean a higher scholarship offer from a college too. She was accepted to Montevallo.

 

[indimom]

So glad to see this thread pop back up, and see that we're not alone in stressing over all these plans. lol. This is our first child off to college, so we're breaking new ground here.

DD went through a long drawn out process to review her school options. Applied to several, both public and private, and accepted to all of them.
When she couldn't settle on a decision, she created an excel sheet to break down all the pros and cons, finally settled on one in particular and was getting excited about putting down a deposit and making her room request.

Then, just this week, she was offered a decent scholarship to one of the others (Presidential, $18,000) and is up for a larger award following an interview process in the spring. It's exciting; but, unexpected (grades are great, but test scores are just 'ok'), and now we're conflicted.

It's hard to pass up ANY money when you're talking about college, but we want to make sure she also chooses the program that will give her the best opportunities after graduation.....
Ugh.

She is retaking both the SAT and ACT in the next month. After getting this offer, she's hoping maybe she can improve her scores just a bit and she'll get a small offer at the favored school also... but they don't announce until spring, so it'll be a long wait to find out.

And of course, she's now frustrated because the dorms are first come, first served at her Choice School. So, waiting to make a decision means she'll probably be stuck with the older/not-so-nice dorms freshman year.
Yeah, that's what she's worried about now.

She's decided to e-mail both departments to get additional information on their respective programs, hoping that will help her decide between the now-cheaper option and the favored option. We'll see if that gets us anywhere closer to a final decision.

Good Luck to everyone with the planning! This is exhausting!

 

[MomofKatie]

Thanks for the replies. My daughter will retake the SAT in December. A higher score could mean a higher scholarship offer from a college too. She was accepted to Montevallo.

We lived very close to Montevallo (Pelham, AL- also in Shelby County) before DD was born, back in the late 90s. Montevallo was a nice, sleepy little town and the university was the biggest thing there. The "big city" of Birmingham is nice and close, too.

 

[HannaBelle]

I agree, it nice to see others are fighting through all of this! Misery loves company, lol...

DD has not applied anywhere yet and I am trying not to pressure her too much. We have a visit scheduled for Monday at my alma mater and I not so secretly want her to love it! Of course, the final choice is her but she already eliminated DH's alma mater, it was too big. She is re-taking the SAT and ACT again in early December, we are making her, she is not happy about it

We have 2 more visits in November and then she has to decide where to apply! She decided not to attend any of the schools we visited last year. None of the schools we are looking at this fall are "reach" schools, her grades and test scores are more than sufficient for acceptance. She is really struggling with chronic migraines and we are still working through her treatment. She is more than a little bit concerned about sharing a room next year and how that will work if she needs darkness and absolute quite. =/

 

[Mom2DDs]

indimom - wow! that's great that she's already applied and got accepted! I wish mine would finally press the dang send button for the Common App. She's almost there- the essay is in the final review. She has to do it all before Oct. 29th since that's when she leaves for a trip to Atlanta with the high school Debate Team!

We're still going to visit a couple of colleges in the next week. The college that she wants to apply that's overseas has finally put their application on their website...so that's what she's working on right now

Marymom - I had a good friend from high school that went to Montevallo. I graduated from JSU (Go Gamecoks!).

DD just re-took the SATs last Saturday to see if she gets a higher Math score and then she's taking two SAT-Subject Tests on Nov. 9th. She got a 33 on the ACTs but still wants to take the SAT Subject tests. I wish she would just leave it as it is

 

[Marymom]

My family is very excited that she might go to Montevallo. Her great-great grandmother graduated there in the early 1900's with a teaching degree. She told me she wanted to go to a small school, so we visited because of the family history and she loved it!

 

[wishesuponastar]

I agree, it nice to see others are fighting through all of this! Misery loves company, lol...

DD has not applied anywhere yet and I am trying not to pressure her too much. We have a visit scheduled for Monday at my alma mater and I not so secretly want her to love it! Of course, the final choice is her but she already eliminated DH's alma mater, it was too big. She is re-taking the SAT and ACT again in early December, we are making her, she is not happy about it

We have 2 more visits in November and then she has to decide where to apply! She decided not to attend any of the schools we visited last year. None of the schools we are looking at this fall are "reach" schools, her grades and test scores are more than sufficient for acceptance. She is really struggling with chronic migraines and we are still working through her treatment. She is more than a little bit concerned about sharing a room next year and how that will work if she needs darkness and absolute quite. =/

I hope it all works out regarding your daughter's roommate/migraines. That's really hard for her.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Just found this thread. My daughter is going to visit one more college next week. She is filling out the common ap and she has 4 schools she is interested in. One of them is her top choice that is 3-1/2 hours away from home. I am hoping she chooses a college in our State so she can probably get a better financial package.

How do all of you plan to work out visits to home? There is a bus our daughter can take if she needs to come home but I think that only takes her to an hour from home. We will pick her up there or see if there's another bus that takes her the rest of the way. She wants to come home to go pumpkin picking next October as it's a family tradition she doesn't want to miss.