She says she has thought about it a long time, because she feels that she will be ready to move on by next Fall, as most of her BS friends either have graduated or will graduate next year. She and her best BS friend, who graduated her BS and just started at this college, have been talking about it since last September when the friend was early accepted by the college.
She hasn’t talked about it to her BS yet. She plans to do so when the school starts. The college’s AO said that her last year’s SAT score and 9th-10th GPA are already strong and she should apply right now, even though she just registered September ACT and October SAT which likely will give better scores. I am wondering if I should change her flight so that she can visit the college on the way to her BS next month.
Academics aside, I would not be in a hurry to send a 16 or 17 year old to a college full of 18-24 year old men
I am not familiar with Grier, but at some of the boarding schools, like SAS and Thacher, senior students play important leadership roles in the community and it feels like an important capstone year that rounds out the whole experience. Sounds like that’s less the case at Grier?
I am not in a hurry. I am trying to carefully figure out how should I support her needs the best way. I feel confident about her being with older male students, for everyone’s safety and benefit, and will leave it at that.
I have learned that seniors play important roles at Grier too. Let’s not make too many assumptions. Missing senior year experience will be part of the price she pay, along with chance to apply for more prestigious and possibly better schools with more scholarship. We are not considering this lightly.
Well, @GoatMama, between two internships, ACT prep, SAT subject test prep, friends, and having two cars and three other drivers in the house, there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity/motivation! We have to do 10 hours of teacher behind the wheel + 50 hours of parent time in this state.
WHY CAN’T THINGS BE EASY LIKE THE OLD DAYS?!?
^^^ also a direct reference to college admissions process old days. Remember 3-5 schools applied to, one SAT, and you’re done???
@sculptordad --one of my kids left HS after sophomore year and went to Community College. Is finishing up six months early and moving on to what our family is calling a Gap year program of sorts in the Arts. We felt that said kiddo needs the additional gift of this extra year before heading onto a BFA program. Don’t know if that helps. I seem to remember that your DD has already completed CC at something crazy like age 13!
@itcannotbetrue I have recommended taking a gap year after graduating from Grier for full 4 years. I have heard so many good things about taking a gap year. But I have learned that parenting is supporting and not controlling. She has over 60 CC units that hopefully will increase her admission chance and getting adjusted to early college entrance.
After some ups and downs in her 9th grade, 10th grade at Grier was blissful. Workload was manageable and grade was perfect. Friendship was as hoped and she was respected by teachers and classmates. I wasn’t even thinking about her most of the year, and seldom visited college confidential or facebook. I only learned that she started dance seriously until she came home for the Summer!
Her junior year is also hopeful. Her roommate will be her next best friend. Her class choices mostly excite her. She is hoping to move up to intermediate dance team which is not pre-professional but still amazing considering Grier’s renowned dance program… Yet she claimed that she is emotionally ready and wants to explorer beyond introductory level science research in one year rather than two. She connects her more closely to rising seniors and feel that it would be a good time to move up too when they do next Summer.
It’s not the first time that she considered it. But up until recently, she always concluded that she would rather just complete another year after already spending 3 years at Grier. But now that Grier is completely comfortable for her, ironically, she feels even more willing to move on next Summer. For her, junior year might give good enough paramount of her BS experience.
I would say why not. @SculptorDad I think it is important for her to meet with her advisor and Guidance Counselor very soon so that they can support her application. We were not assigned the College Counselor until January of Junior year. If it is the case with Grier, she would need to have a GC assigned for her so that GC can submit the school transcript, profile, and teacher recommendation through naviance, common app, or other systems.
Update; She applied to Colorado School of Mines last month. And after an exhaustive research, I came to conclusion that this is really best for her. We are likely to receive the decision by end of this month, and if she is admitted, we are ready to commit.
DD was accepted by Colorado School of Mines this morning with max merit aid. We won’t know need based aid for a while but have some ideas. She will probably accept the decision very soon, after first she meets her BS counselor again about leaving her BS a year earlier. We love CSM because it seems to offer very small nerd school culture similar to more competitive engineering schools, with less but enough academic pressure.
Thank you everyone for all the help and support we have received.
Art is still her thing. These day she is into digital drawing. But she has separated it from her high school / college education, and also from career at least in early years. She enjoys it the way she wants without following any instruction or work order, and wants to keep it as a hobby. She is more strongly into AI, robotics, space travel and the like. I suggested her to spend a gap semester or year at a classical atelier far from home, or just have a long term traveling around. But she wants me to help her to find a laboratory or testing job at a tech company instead. I told her that she is so boring.
Congratulations @SculptorDad !
I’m not sure about the need based aid, Mines being a public school, but I heard there is a highly competitive scholarship. Hope it all works out.
Great school in a great town!
I am guessing only a small amount in need award in addition to $14k set merit aid. Our backup plan is moving to CO, which will give us low instate tuition plus adjusted $5k merit. We are visiting CO next month for a week, which is the second visit for dd. It will work out one way or another. Thanks.
“When we start being too impressed by the results of our work, we slowly come to the erroneous conviction that life is one large scoreboard where someone is listing the points to measure our worth. And before we are fully aware of it, we have sold our soul to the many grade-givers. That means we are not only in the world, but also of the world. Then we become what the world makes us. We are intelligent because someone gives us a high grade. We are helpful because someone says thanks. We are likeable because someone likes us. And we are important because someone considers us indispensable. In short, we are worthwhile because we have successes. And the more we allow our accomplishments – the results of our actions – to become the criteria of our self-esteem, the more we are going to walk on our mental and spiritual toes, never sure if we will be able to live up to the expectations which we created by our last successes. In many people’s lives, there is a nearly diabolic chain in which their anxieties grow according to their successes. This dark power has driven many of the greatest artists into self-destruction.”
– Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude
This was the reading chosen for Family Weekend Chapel at SPS. It was followed by a talk given by the interim rector about the mounting pressures on young people and the climbing anxiety rates. The message was further reiterated by teachers in the classrooms. There are so many things that stress our kids, we don’t need to add to it. We should back off about grades and focus on the joys of learning and discovery. (Sorry about being so preachy. I just really appreciated the message.)
