Well, in the past, Class Threads were started around December of Junior year. This feels early. It seems March 10, 2015 madness was yesterday, but here we go. AppleMom (2020) made me feel like we 2019ners are slacking. 
No need to panic or rush though.
As we begin the process of researching, visiting and crafting our college lists, letās keep our tradition here - share useful insights, cheer and console one another. Celebrate, embrace, and support. Onward!
Question of The Month (QOTM) : What is happening college-wise?
- S2ās PSAT results came back good. So some test prep over the summer is planned with first SAT sitting on August 26th 2017, and ACT in September. Hopefully, he will be done with those testings early in Junior year before the onslaught of AP exams and finals in spring.
- Visited three colleges during last Fall parents weekend. We will continue to do a few college visits during long weekends.
- S2 needs to raise GPA if he wants to apply to selective schools as he says. Time management is issue. Bribery is not working
Parents are fine if his grades stay as is. We will just have a different list of good schools to apply to.
Now I do feel old: ChoatieCorporal will be graduating from college in 2019 (and Iām still here).
@payn4ward: Whatās the story behind your avatar change?
@ChoatieMom I had the Life Scout patch as my avatar forever. I wanted to update that to Eagle patch, but S2 is still 15 and quite away from that (5 partial MBs and the Project away.) So in the mean time I am going to update it to S1ās potential colleges.
S1 (not at Boarding School, although we went thru BS applications, etc) is accepted at UT Austin College of Natural Sciences (an in-state tuition school for us) so I changed my avatar to it. Around May 1st, I will change it again if he decides to go elsewhere.
Congrats to your older son, @payn4ward!
Thank you @doschicos !
@paynforward: My BIL was Austinās Chief of Police these past few years. He just took the job in Houston. We were there to celebrate with him (and a family wedding) in October. UTA was on ChoatieKidās list, too.
Congrats to your S1. Great choice. 
@payn4ward I knew that patch looked familiar as I had sewn that on a uniform in the past! My 16yo is almost thereā¦hopefully soon.
And, I have both a 2019er and a 2020er and all this college talk is freaking me out!!
@MAandMEmom - donāt worry about college too much yet! The intent of my post on the 2020 board was about thinking about testing so it isnāt all left to the end of Junior/beginning of senior year. We didnāt start official college tours for DS1 (current senior) until spring break of 11th grade. He had been to college campuses for events, including overnights, prior to then.
The college spamming started.
S2 was sure that he did not check anything that would initiate tons of college junk mail flooding his mailbox.
I think PSAT result with his email was sold.
He received 9 emails from various universities since yesterday. I hope he does not receive any postal mail.
I created a separate gmail acount for S2 for college application only, and I have access to it. It will be used for CollegeBoard, ACT, Naviance (when it becomes available,) CommonApp, scheduling college tours, etc.
I deleted all the college spam. :-w
^^ Yes my son has one from GWU and specifically mentions his area of interest (engineering)ā¦ Went to his school address so they must have sold the addresses or the students had to include them with their test materials maybe?
Not a class of 2019 thread! It canāt be!!! Where do you want to go to college, kid? I dunno. What do you want to do with your life? I dunno. Howād you do on the PSAT? I dunno.
Omg. My son has received several of those email too! Engineering from GW too! Hilarious. Not sure if he checked something ā¦
I read through all the emails last night and wonder about all the links and āoffersā for college planning materials, etc. Is anyone planning to engage with any of these schools yet? He received one from RPI thatās pretty interesting.
No harm if itās interesting, @MAandMEmom. Itās marketing. Some resonates, most doesnāt. Lots of kids will hear about schools this way because not all kids have the resources to search or get good guidance. If they have summer programs or visit weekends, itās helpful to know. How much you want to engage beyond getting information is up to you.
Iāve never had access to any of our sonās e-mail accounts, so I have no idea what his college spam level was, but I can tell you that as soon as the snail mail started arriving, it was a different story. At first, I just put the flyers on the desk in his room until he came home for break. Then, I got a folder. Then a box. Eventually, I realized what I really needed was a garbage can, and there it all went. So many treesā¦ (Iām looking at YOU, U of Chicago!)
All unsolicited snail mail from colleges goes directly into the recycling bin. Not that Dā19 has received any yet, but Sā17 has received enough to last us all a lifetime.
FWIW, I set up an email account, on the advice of those who went through the process, for the sole purpose of college admissions. I was told that I did not want my school email or personal email clogged up with crap at the expense of missing an important email. That was really good advice. The amount of spam email was through the roof.
And yeah, I concur with @ChoatieMom ; UChicago won the award for volume of snail mail. Too bad they werenāt even under consideration.
Ditto on the UChicago. Personalized postcards and all. Never considered by S1.
12 more college emails. Got GW, Oberlin, RIT, RPI, Swarthmore and Harvard summer school. All in Trash. Oh, kept RIT, RPI.