Parents of the Class of 2019

[bigbabyblues]

My son doesn't know what he wants to do either. If he doesn't finish his essay for the second school, his choice is going to be made for him. I wish we had a good community college near us, but the one we do have is a joke.

His last soccer game is Monday, and he is just now realizing what that means. He has already decided that he doesn't want to pursue playing on the college level, but he doesn't want to hang up his cleats either.

 

[mjkacmom]

My son doesn't know what he wants to do either. If he doesn't finish his essay for the second school, his choice is going to be made for him. I wish we had a good community college near us, but the one we do have is a joke.

His last soccer game is Monday, and he is just now realizing what that means. He has already decided that he doesn't want to pursue playing on the college level, but he doesn't want to hang up his cleats either.

To play at the college level, you really need to start getting stuff together by sophomore year with videos and recruiting. However, ds20 played intramural soccer freshman year, and then club. They just missed making regionals, but might end up going to nationals.

 

[bigbabyblues]

To play at the college level, you really need to start getting stuff together by sophomore year with videos and recruiting. However, ds20 played intramural soccer freshman year, and then club. They just missed making regionals, but might end up going to nationals.

Congrats to your dd, what a great opportunity! Intramural and club are both options for him. His major will be Mechanical Engineering and he knows it would just be too much to try and play and keep up with his work too.

 

[soccerdad72]

5 applications in this weekend - one or two left to go.

 

[soccerdad72]

Congrats to your dd, what a great opportunity! Intramural and club are both options for him. His major will be Mechanical Engineering and he knows it would just be too much to try and play and keep up with his work too.

My son's freshman year, he played varsity and the four seniors that year were all really strong players. They all got recruited by DII and DIII schools, but all chose not to play because of the time commitment and their concern of it taking away from focus on their studies. One even made a Division I team his freshman year as a walkon, but turned down the roster spot. He said he wasn't going to be getting any scholarship money for it, plus being one of the last on the roster, he figured he wouldn't get much playing time either. Figure the 18th man on the roster has the same time commitment as the starters, without the chance to play.

 

[lovesdumbo]

My DD was playing club ice hockey last year as a freshman but her practices started at 10:30pm. She knew she couldn't do it this semester with 17 credits-calc 3, physics, stats, climatology, & honors sociology-calc 3 is 8am 4 days a week. She's still good friends with a girl on the team-they had 2 out of state games this weekend.

 

[laughinplace199]

5 applications in this weekend - one or two left to go.

I'm jealous! DS will have 2 in by then end of the month - only because those schools accept the common app and don't have supplements.

 

[soccerdad72]

I'm jealous! DS will have 2 in by then end of the month - only because those schools accept the common app and don't have supplements.

All 5 of these were Common App schools - one required an additional short essay which he wrote over the weekend. One he's still yet to submit is for Case Western and that's because they require a second teacher recommendation, which he still needs. We still would like him to apply to one school in the southern area (VA or NC), but he doesn't want to apply to VA Tech now, because they aren't Common App.

 

[Eureka]

I'm jealous! DS will have 2 in by then end of the month - only because those schools accept the common app and don't have supplements.

Yup, here too. He says he wants them all in by then and some have supplements and some are non-common, non-coalition but he's not done with any of the writing. He and DH were working on the FAFSA this weekend.

 

[laughinplace199]

Yup, here too. He says he wants them all in by then and some have supplements and some are non-common, non-coalition but he's not done with any of the writing. He and DH were working on the FAFSA this weekend.

Glad I'm not alone! DS is now shooting for Thanksgiving to get everything in. He's applying to 8 schools. Most have supplements and one has its own app and doesn't use the common app.

 

[design_mom]

My son's planning to apply to 4. He's hoping to have the 2 with November 1 deadlines in by this weekend. Both are Common App but have supplements. His big hold up is National Honor Society. He didn't qualify last year, but does this year. NHS acceptances were supposed to come out in early October, but they're not out yet. The advisor is on maternity leave. (His counselor told him that if he is eligible and got everything in on time then he's probably OK to list it, but he's nervous about the what-ifs.)

He's had a great cross-country season. His last regular season meet was Saturday, and he got a new PR (by 20 seconds!) He's been plagued with injuries in previous years, but he stayed healthy this season. He earned his varsity letter this season, and decreased his 5K time by 2:15. Normally, the last meet would be the end of his season, but they do an Open race at the district level, and he qualified for it this year, so he gets to run next weekend, too. (After that, only 7 athletes get to continue to Regionals and States.) He also got in invitation to Nike Cross Midwest Regionals which he is very excited about. That's not an official school-sponsored event, and he won't be 'competitive" there, but the whole weekend is apparently a lot of fun. I'm thrilled that it's ending this way for him. I will miss cross country. His coach is amazing. Thankfully, we'll see him again for track season.

 

[mjkacmom]

I’m letting Dd stay home from school today to finish up applications. XC is 6 days a week, dance has been 5 days a week (and she has a competition Sunday). She might be going a complete different direction with her common app essay, which is very solid and well written, but very ordinary. She wrote a rough draft about a very humiliating event that really makes a great essay, and even her counselor agreed it was one to run with.

 

[tink1970]

Glad I'm not alone! DS is now shooting for Thanksgiving to get everything in. He's applying to 8 schools. Most have supplements and one has its own app and doesn't use the common app.

We're aiming for Thanksgiving, too. Last night DD submitted ONE (argh!) with her coach so now there are 6 US schools left plus the UKCAS (UK common app). Eight down, seven to go...the child is definitely on her own timeline

My alma mater sent her a letter inviting her to apply and listing the scholarship amount she's guaranteed--she said she'd apply to make me happy but I'm not sure that's a good reason. On one hand, I think she would love certain aspects of my school, on the other hand it's not exactly what she wants, major wise. Of course, it would be yet another application to do but hey, what's one more at this point?

 

[soccerdad72]

My alma mater sent her a letter inviting her to apply and listing the scholarship amount she's guaranteed--she said she'd apply to make me happy but I'm not sure that's a good reason. On one hand, I think she would love certain aspects of my school, on the other hand it's not exactly what she wants, major wise. Of course, it would be yet another application to do but hey, what's one more at this point?

My wife and I met in college and a number of friends of ours have asked if our son was planning on applying, but it's more of a business and liberal arts school and doesn't even have engineering majors (well, they do a 3+2 with Case Western, which he's already applying to directly). So, maybe our younger son might be interested in business and think about going there.

 

[mjkacmom]

Last night was xc senior night, got my first flower of the year, track and choir will be in the spring. It was at our home meet, and Dd came in first for her team. Letters of recommendation have been sent, SAT and ACT scores have been sent, common app essay almost finished, half of supplemental essays finished, I think she’s just waiting on NHS officer elections to submit her applications. I’ll be happy when November is here and this is all done.

 

[Lynne G]

3 applications ready to go. Stressing her, that she really wants to go to her top picked school. Homecoming dance done, now wants to go to the Snow Ball, hmmm, and I forgot the costs of dresses. LOL

Yep, we did the soccer college thoughts last year, and decided, particularly for girls, unless you are a super star, not much scholarship money at any level. She's hoping there's an intramural soccer club at the college she wants to go to. I am sure there probably is. Glad our soccer season is over. She's focusing on her classes and cannot wait to graduate. She, and she said, about half of the seniors, are more than ready for college.

Still cannot believe she is a senior. And happy to read about all the others, too.

 

[soccerdad72]

My son was talking with some of his former soccer teammates and it turns out, this year's soccer season was a complete disaster (somewhat validating his decision not to play). The seniors that decided to stick it out hated the coach all year and the team ended up only winning 1 game all year and only scoring like 6 goals in 17 games.

 

[Colleen27]

We're home from Wellesley/Harvard, and more stressed about application season than ever! Wellesley is totally "it" for her and she just falls more in love with every new interaction. She did feel like her admission interview went well, and she got some pointers for revising her supplement essay from an English professor and the dean of admissions in one of the student sessions while she was on campus, so she's revising that this weekend to get everything finalized.

I suppose I should just be glad she didn't fall in love with Harvard. There were two things our student-guide said on the tour that I knew would be major turn-offs for DD. The first was when she asked him about going into the city, and he said Harvard students really don't do a lot of that because there's so much to do in/around the campus. There is, but DD loves cities and I knew that kind of insular campus culture wouldn't impress her any. (We got similar answers about Xavier, and she crossed that one off her list shortly after our visit). Wellesley is further from the city center with a slightly longer/more difficult commute by train, but the students there talked quite a bit about working, volunteering and socializing in the city. And the second thing was when another kid asked him what he *disliked* most about Harvard. Our guide was an education major who wanted to work in the classroom in disadvantaged communities, and he talked about feeling a lot of peer/professional pressure to be/do "more" than "just" be a classroom teacher (either grad school/research or a more prestigious field). DD is driven but not ambitious in the conventional sense - she's aware that she's going for a PhD to make less than her brother the welder - and she didn't like the idea of a campus culture that pushes/values high-dollar and high-prestige paths over helping professions. There was a lot she liked about it too, but she's only interested in applying if she doesn't get into Wellesley.

 

[yeahdisney]

DS went with 3 apps. We sent his school an email request to send his transcripts and they replied done: that was in Sept. We keep getting calls asking for his transcripts. He asked the counselor again and she said they were done. More calls So I instructed him to address this with his counselor this week - they did not send them! So they went out Monday, today he got an email he was accepted to his safety school.

He was going to apply to Purdue we were 3/4 done with the application, the cost there was over $30000 a year, the speaker there said they really give no money. So our outlay would be more than if he stated in state at UofI with no money from them. So I asked him would you be happy at Purdue and he replied no so I had him scrap the app. He said he would rather go 2 years community college then transfer out then go to Purdue.

 

[Eureka]

We're home from Wellesley/Harvard, and more stressed about application season than ever! Wellesley is totally "it" for her and she just falls more in love with every new interaction. She did feel like her admission interview went well, and she got some pointers for revising her supplement essay from an English professor and the dean of admissions in one of the student sessions while she was on campus, so she's revising that this weekend to get everything finalized.

I suppose I should just be glad she didn't fall in love with Harvard. There were two things our student-guide said on the tour that I knew would be major turn-offs for DD. The first was when she asked him about going into the city, and he said Harvard students really don't do a lot of that because there's so much to do in/around the campus. There is, but DD loves cities and I knew that kind of insular campus culture wouldn't impress her any. (We got similar answers about Xavier, and she crossed that one off her list shortly after our visit). Wellesley is further from the city center with a slightly longer/more difficult commute by train, but the students there talked quite a bit about working, volunteering and socializing in the city. And the second thing was when another kid asked him what he *disliked* most about Harvard. Our guide was an education major who wanted to work in the classroom in disadvantaged communities, and he talked about feeling a lot of peer/professional pressure to be/do "more" than "just" be a classroom teacher (either grad school/research or a more prestigious field). DD is driven but not ambitious in the conventional sense - she's aware that she's going for a PhD to make less than her brother the welder - and she didn't like the idea of a campus culture that pushes/values high-dollar and high-prestige paths over helping professions. There was a lot she liked about it too, but she's only interested in applying if she doesn't get into Wellesley.

Harvard is right in Cambridge though and there's SO MUCH to do in and around Harvard Sq so maybe that's what he meant? But it's an easy T ride into Boston and so many colleges around that it's a great place to go to school. I went to college not far from Wellesley and there's plenty of opportunity to get into Boston from there too. I hope it all works out for her, sounds like she's found her fit.