Parents of the Class of 2019

[mjkacmom]

If they have AP Lang or Lit as sophomores, yes. DD didn't take an AP English section until junior year, so she just started this past spring... which is still a lot better than the "deadline driven" habits she has when she is pacing herself! And it really is a great idea, far better than the 'capstone' projects and papers I've heard the public school AP sections assign to fill the post-test weeks of the class.

Oops, I meant junior year, and yes, she did the capstone project, would’ve preferred the college essay!

 

[StephMK]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED? DS shared that he might like to go ED once he picks between his two top choices. I'm ok with it financially because the EFC are the same and both meet full financial need since we'll have 2 in at the same time for 3 years.

I'm more worried because his choices changed so much in the last 6 months. His major interest has stayed the same but he's revised the size of the school, focus, and direction. I guess I have a little fear of commitment in case he changes his mind during the year. On the other hand, I'd love for him to get an early answer one way or the other. He'd either be done and spend less on apps and it would ease the wait or he'd apply to his handful of good options and decide in April.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Eureka]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED? DS shared that he might like to go ED once he picks between his two top choices. I'm ok with it financially because the EFC are the same and both meet full financial need since we'll have 2 in at the same time for 3 years.

I'm more worried because his choices changed so much in the last 6 months. His major interest has stayed the same but he's revised the size of the school, focus, and direction. I guess I have a little fear of commitment in case he changes his mind during the year. On the other hand, I'd love for him to get an early answer one way or the other. He'd either be done and spend less on apps and it would ease the wait or he'd apply to his handful of good options and decide in April.

Thanks for any advice!

Early decision is not an option for us because of the finances. He's looking at state and private schools and the price tags range wildly. He is going to apply early action for anything that offers it (that's also almost always the date to be considered for scholarships too). I know a couple of his schools have rolling admissions/decision process but others you still need to wait to find out. He has three favorites right now but not in any order (and one of those is a stretch so no guarantee it's even going to become an option) so he doesn't want to limit himself at this point anyway.

Oh, and he texted me at work the other day, one of the essays for one of the schools is about Harry Potter!

 

[mom2rtk]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED? DS shared that he might like to go ED once he picks between his two top choices. I'm ok with it financially because the EFC are the same and both meet full financial need since we'll have 2 in at the same time for 3 years.

I'm more worried because his choices changed so much in the last 6 months. His major interest has stayed the same but he's revised the size of the school, focus, and direction. I guess I have a little fear of commitment in case he changes his mind during the year. On the other hand, I'd love for him to get an early answer one way or the other. He'd either be done and spend less on apps and it would ease the wait or he'd apply to his handful of good options and decide in April.

Thanks for any advice!

I have an embargo on Christmas or birthday shopping for my DD until 2 weeks prior. When she shops, she returns half of what she buys. No way would I ever encourage her to go ED.

She has decided to give the September ACT a go. She really needs one more point. 2 would be great.

 

[tink1970]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED?

I would love for DD to do ED and get it over with. Unfortunately I'm not sure if she should since last semester's grades were horrible (her grandmother died and she "asked for help from the wrong people" a learning point but argh) and she needs to get them back up this first semester. If she did decide and was accepted it would be awesome, no more college stress, no more applications, etc.

I have an embargo on Christmas or birthday shopping for my DD until 2 weeks prior. When she shops, she returns half of what she buys. No way would I ever encourage her to go ED.

She has decided to give the September ACT a go. She really needs one more point. 2 would be great

LOL! DD takes forever and a day to make a decision but once she does she digs in her heels and won't budge. Certainly someone has a child in the middle.
Good luck on the ACT; I'm really hoping DD's summer math studying pays off for Aug SAT but I'm not really holding my breath

 

[Colleen27]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED? DS shared that he might like to go ED once he picks between his two top choices. I'm ok with it financially because the EFC are the same and both meet full financial need since we'll have 2 in at the same time for 3 years.

I'm more worried because his choices changed so much in the last 6 months. His major interest has stayed the same but he's revised the size of the school, focus, and direction. I guess I have a little fear of commitment in case he changes his mind during the year. On the other hand, I'd love for him to get an early answer one way or the other. He'd either be done and spend less on apps and it would ease the wait or he'd apply to his handful of good options and decide in April.

Thanks for any advice!

My DD is applying binding ED to her top choice, and even if I wanted to try to talk her out of that I don't think I could. She's really set on Wellesley and once she's as locked in on something as she is on this, there's no swaying her. She's still on the fence about applying to her second and third choices early as well, since they're non-binding, and I'm encouraging her not to. If she doesn't get into her top choice, I think she should think about retaking the SAT to try to get her score up a bit more before applying standard decision to the remaining schools on her list. All three meet full need and have no- or limited-loans policies, so the financial aid package won't be the deciding factor. It just comes down to which she can get into.

I feel like she's pretty settled in what she wants from a school now, though, so I'm not worried about anything changing significantly over the course of her senior year. She settled on her top choice in April, but the broad strokes of what she wants from a college haven't changed much in the last year and a half and she's been adding/eliminating schools based on the same basic criteria since Jan. of her sophomore year. If she wasn't so clear on what she wanted, I think I'd be inclined to give her the extra few months to figure things out, maybe tour a few schools with friends that she wouldn't have found on her own, and really take the time to make the final decision.

 

[soccerdad72]

Anyone have any thoughts on applying ED? DS shared that he might like to go ED once he picks between his two top choices. I'm ok with it financially because the EFC are the same and both meet full financial need since we'll have 2 in at the same time for 3 years.

I'm more worried because his choices changed so much in the last 6 months. His major interest has stayed the same but he's revised the size of the school, focus, and direction. I guess I have a little fear of commitment in case he changes his mind during the year. On the other hand, I'd love for him to get an early answer one way or the other. He'd either be done and spend less on apps and it would ease the wait or he'd apply to his handful of good options and decide in April.

Thanks for any advice!

Our son doesn't have a definite #1 choice right now, so he's likely going to apply Early Action (non-binding) as much as possible so as to get the application process over with earlier.

He's decided to take the SAT one more time. He's literally right on the border, score-wise, of two scholarship ranges and an additional 10 more SAT points could mean the difference of $3,000-$5,000 more per year from a couple of his choices. I think he's done with ACT's though - after 3 tried, I think he's probably about at his max scores.

 

[tink1970]

DD just ran in, dropped off a sheet of paper (front and back) with important Senior Dates for the next 10 months (ACK! I am not ready for this yet!), then ran out to assist with freshman orientation. I have a feeling this year is going to go by really fast.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I have a feeling this year is going to go by really fast.

Yep.

A Little , a little , a little .

 

[Colleen27]

DD is home! She had a fabulous experience in Japan and has already started planning a return trip in 2020. Or more precisely, she's tasked me with planning a return trip at exactly the time we had said we DIDN'T want to go - during the Tokyo Olympics. Hot, crowded, expensive... but she really wants it to be then because several of the other kids who were on the exchange with her are going back for the games. She's having a surprisingly hard time re-adjusting to American food, though! It is a good thing stir fry is what I do when I'm not feeling like making "real" food, so I'm making things a little lighter and less greasy/cheesy/sauced to help her adjust.

She, meanwhile, has 10 days to manage her AP Bio summer homework since the book was too heavy/bulky to pack, and there's been a TON of teacher-drama at her school that has her feeling a bit down about her senior year. Both religion teachers and both science teachers at the school have resigned, mostly because of the workaholic principal's ridiculous expectations for summers, nights and weekends. Two of them are her favorite teachers. Schools starts a week from Thursday and DD doesn't know who will be teaching 3 of her classes because they haven't hired replacements yet. I am NOT pleased to say the least, because this isn't the first time this principal has done something that doesn't seem to be in the best interests of the school or students.

 

[mom2rtk]

DD is home! She had a fabulous experience in Japan and has already started planning a return trip in 2020. Or more precisely, she's tasked me with planning a return trip at exactly the time we had said we DIDN'T want to go - during the Tokyo Olympics. Hot, crowded, expensive... but she really wants it to be then because several of the other kids who were on the exchange with her are going back for the games. She's having a surprisingly hard time re-adjusting to American food, though! It is a good thing stir fry is what I do when I'm not feeling like making "real" food, so I'm making things a little lighter and less greasy/cheesy/sauced to help her adjust.

She, meanwhile, has 10 days to manage her AP Bio summer homework since the book was too heavy/bulky to pack, and there's been a TON of teacher-drama at her school that has her feeling a bit down about her senior year. Both religion teachers and both science teachers at the school have resigned, mostly because of the workaholic principal's ridiculous expectations for summers, nights and weekends. Two of them are her favorite teachers. Schools starts a week from Thursday and DD doesn't know who will be teaching 3 of her classes because they haven't hired replacements yet. I am NOT pleased to say the least, because this isn't the first time this principal has done something that doesn't seem to be in the best interests of the school or students.

What an amazing experience she has had! And so great to have her home. Sorry she's having drama at school. I hope things settle down quickly.

School starts here in 2 days. Tennis is plugging along, only with some drama added in from one of the players and her parents now. They attend every practice and have been injecting themselves a bit too much lately for the rest of the team to like. Hopefully once matches get under way that will settle down. We've always enjoyed a drama free team and that has been part of the appeal. It seems by the time they get to senior year, odds are pretty good there's always something dramatic to make them ready to move on.

 

[Eureka]

We don't start school until after Labor Day and the kids are still plugging away on their copious amounts of summer work in addition to their paid jobs, and the fall sports season officially opens tomorrow. DS added a school to his list so I think now he's up to applying to 7. We have not visited it and may not have a chance to before he applies but that's fine, if he gets in we can go look. It's only a few hours away. We already sent scores to the other schools so he needs to send scores to them and has to call/email an admissions office of another place. Is it normal for there to be an application fee if you don't use the common app and it be free if you do? Because on their website it says $50 but when he was showing me the common app, that school was listed as $0. He also wants to go sit in on a class in his area of interest this fall (the school is only about 90 min from us) so I said just contact them and find out both things at once. He's also started (or started thinking about? I was a little fuzzy on which, lol) one of the prompts for yet another school, so we are inching ourselves into the whole process. Still not ready!!

 

[PollyannaMom]

General question on college tours -

Do your kids e-mail thank-you notes after?

 

[laughinplace199]

General question on college tours -

Do your kids e-mail thank-you notes after?

Mine did not write thank you notes for tours, but she did hand written thank you notes after interviews.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Mine did not write thank you notes for tours, but she did hand written thank you notes after interviews.

Thanks for the quick answer! That's kind of what I thought, but reassurance feels good.

 

[mjkacmom]

One thing that dd22 and ds20 didn’t do, didn’t think of doing, was writing thank you notes to the teachers who wrote recommendations. Dd16 has been so busy babysitting, especially for one family that pays her $20 an hour. She also has two tutoring jobs during the school year. She is also quitting Dance after regionals in November, which is surreal after 10 hours a week for over the last 11 years. Worlds are in the US this year, but she decided she wants to try and do track in college and wants to concentrate on that. She also wants to break up with her boyfriend who goes away to college in a week, I told her to wait a few weeks.

 

[tink1970]

One thing that dd22 and ds20 didn’t do, didn’t think of doing, was writing thank you notes to the teachers who wrote recommendations.

Excellent reminder! DD has asked her teachers but I have no idea whether she's delivered her resume to them yet.


We're on day 5 of 160 (they have 3 weeks off in May to study/take IB/AP tests). Yes, I'm counting...it is going to be so chaotic and hectic until everything is in and done. I know she's worked on her common app and is scheduled to take the SAT next week...I think she's holding off on doing much more than working on essays and collecting letters of recommendation until after the SAT results come in since that will help her narrow down her reach schools.

I did tell her to apply to her safety schools first so she wouldn't be too burned out to do that and then have any ugly/disappointing surprises. Deadline for those are Labor Day (my deadline, not hers of course!).

Strategy for getting through-taking things day by day. Otherwise she (and subsequently I) get overwhelmed. Did I mention 155 days left?

 

[bjscheel]

Our small town Chamber of Commerce posted that students needing volunteer hours could help at their office so DD went in there yesterday. She's been interested in jobs in Parks & Rec, social media, tourism, etc. so it seemed like a good way to test that out. One thing they would like her to do is run the social media because the director's two assistants are old and can't spell. Their Instagram has one post. They also want to do some projects with the school who has been resistant so maybe she can use some pull as senior class president? Maybe plan an event for teens as well. If this gets very involved, I'm hoping it can turn into a paid job...

Still struggling with the college selection. Thought we were just going to visit two more, now DD says a girl at camp who goes to one of them says it's not that great so DD wants more options. But, our budget is limited and not all schools offer Parks & Rec if that's what she wants. And I don't want to drive all over the countryside on visits.

I think her short list is:
Minnesota State Mankato- has Parks & Rec, 4 hour drive, in budget, possible competitive merit, family not too far away. Friend says Parks & Rec dept is good but school is "not that great".
Winona State MN- has Parks & Rec and the courses sound like the type she wants, but 6 hour drive is a lot, it's a little out of budget and she's not in the pool for competitive merit.
University of South Dakota- 3 hour drive, in budget, possible competitive merit. Doesn't have Parks & Rec, but they don't require that many Gen Eds and their theatre minor is free choice of classes so she could tailor it and include some musical theatre. Communication major is only 33 credits so she could kind of be free to pick a lot of electives to her liking. With many gen eds done in high school could maybe graduate early. But "what would I do with a communication major?" Can't find another major she wants there except maybe International Studies? If they had Parks & Rec I think she could be sold.
Northwest Missouri State- has Parks & Rec, 2 hour drive, in budget, but she is dead set against going "where everybody else goes".
University of Central Arkansas- really affordable, visited and liked, would probably major in Geography, but 9 hour drive, takes just as long to fly so she wouldn't get to come home much.

 

[soccerdad72]

Just home from RIT - visit went really well, very nice campus and spent about an hour and a half extra time visiting with a professor from the Mechanical Engineering department. I think it's probably #2 or maybe even #1 on his list now.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We've seen a couple of small schools over the past week or so - one about two hours away and one only 45 minutes. We liked both more than we thought!

The problem is neither of them have the "major of the week". (Of course, they're still on the list, because as "major of the week" implies...that could change.)

Open house for the current favorite (UNE, in Maine) is in October, so we'll see how that goes.