@homerdog@Midwestmomofboys. The questions are about what to do with language. D20 is taking the full IB curriculum which begins her Jr year, next year. But she is also in the most selective choir, Varsity Marching Band, JV volleyball, first chair in symphonic band and has been since her FRESHMAN year and she works.
StO recommends 4 years of language. She doesn’t know what to give up, an IB class, or Spanish 3. She’s already taking her PE credits, Health, and Financial Literacy over the summer which are required to graduate from our district because there is absolutely no room in her schedule. As we’ve learned through this process her JR year is the most important.
And as stated in regards to my D we’ve been discussing, our IB is very small, and creates many scheduling conflicts.
It’s a legitimate question that her GC can’t answer.
Does she have time to do a language on line? There are some great options out there. One of which is BYU online high school. It is secular, widely accepted curriculum (our picky district accepts it). She could do it over the summer as well. Mine knocked out a health course in three weeks.
@Veryapparent ^^^^ this is something I need to learn more about. Also how do admissions view her Spanish coming from an online school? I would think health wouldn’t be a big deal. Is it very pricey to do it that way?
OP, in my opinion, you need to be careful with all of these calls to SO. I’m telling you that schools are not dying to have families who call and call with questions. I do not think it’s normal for a soph to be emailing AOs and asking for advice on classes. And this could start hurting you. You may be becoming the family that the whole office knows as pesty. If your D20 is a go-getter then that’s terrific. She can find the answers to her questions on their website. That shows independence and smarts. From everything I’ve read about how to communicate with an AO, kids need to be very judicious in their amount of emails. Too many and too early are a red flag.
@homerdog I agree but there is not an answer to this question on the website. She sent one email (I think), I didn’t have anything to do with it.
I’m also not going to discourage my kids from being their authentic self. Some schools will appreciate and admire her for trying to prepare herself using whatever resources she can, others might not. If they don’t value who our kids are, do we want our kids at those schools?
I’m not sure it’s a big deal and it’s already done. If my daughter 20 takes initiative, kudos to her.
They might appreciate that initiative more at a different time of year. It is a crazy time in admissions right now. I do agree that it is possible to hurt your kid’s chances with too many calls and contacts. Your kid is one of around 6,000 students applying.
Regarding the Spanish, I think it will be fine as long as she takes that 4th year in the classroom. One of my kids self-studied a semester of foreign language due to a scheduling conflict in HS, and it worked out fine because she stayed on the track for the next fall in that languages. Colleges did not care at all.
OK. But our S19 has had to make decisions about which classes to take to be most successful in his search as well, just like every other student. We don’t call each school and ask their advice. If SO suggests four years of FL, then that’s best case for admission to that school but I’m sure it’s not a complete deal breaker. And what she gives up in order to do FL might be the thing another school really wants. Every single high school student has to figure out his schedule and make compromises.
The AO telling you that D18 is “all set” means no more phone calls or emails.
Again, I’m not trying to be obnoxious. But I really think it’s in your best interest to stop reaching out.
@homerdog I actually didn’t reach out to her today. She emailed me. I responded to the email but did not initiate it.
She was letting me know she got official scores and grades and congratulating my D on her successful semester and improved scored.
That being said, I hear what you’re saying. Everything is submitted she got the extra time for the fine arts scholarship and they have everything the need. Now we wait until 2/1.
I did call the FA office to make sure they had everything because I hadn’t heard anymore about the NCP issue. I thought they would need a waiver form. They did not, they just took the documents I provided.
I found the waiting very difficult last year. We had to wait until the end of March and into April to sort out FA and scholarships. Try to do some other things to distract yourself if you can. Best of luck to your daughter. It sounds like good news for her and she has made the best out her disappointment.
@Grinnellhopeful You really can’t compare her Grinnell app with her StO app. She has a much better chance at StO. Grinnell, with a sub 20% admit rate and a 26 ACT was very very unlikely. StO with a 40% admit rate, a 30 ACT which is strong for them, and the ED boost, is an entirely different ballgame.
@wisteria100 It’s not so much even comparing the app that’s bothering me, it’s comparing the experience and the language used by admissions. We’ve heard these things before…and it didn’t work out. And now my D believes she’s getting in and she’s vested in this school. I’m just worried about her if it doesn’t work out.
But that’s probably my own stuff rearing it’s ugly head.
I think there really is much to be optimistic about this time.
I started to really worry late in the evening yesterday. But I was able to convince her to “consider” two more full need schools. Although, she said it’s pointless. I kind of understand why she’s in that place. She’s maxed her comfort level of options.
I’m starting to feel well beyond maxed myself. I think SO feels right and all fronts. I’m going to be hopeful.
Our school accepts them but I think there are limits. I know several of her friends did AP course over the summer online…its pretty common where we live. So definitely talk to the GC first. If I remember correctly it was about $150 a semester per class…maybe even less.
Remember that though the posts might sound like tough love, they are written with the aim of helping. Read the comments, decide what makes sense and what does not, and do what is best for your daughter. BTW, this thread has (right now) thirty-seven pages, 550+ posts, and over 24,000 views! A lot of people are learning from this thread, many of them lurkers.
This thread is so long (and it might top an “actual results” thread that is a decade long and has like 150 pages) because, clearly, everyone is captivated and impressed with your daughter’s story. The fact that as a parent you are attacking this so diligently, considering quality LACs (only 2% of of people graduate from LACs), and seeking the best for your daughter is what has caused so many of us to post and to check back, hoping for good news results. To think that just a couple months ago you were a complete newbie (to admissions, to FA, to the landscape of colleges in general) is mind-blowing.
Wherever your daughter ends up, she’ll have a truly life-changing experience. Yes, the degree is ultimately what one is going for, but the education one receives on the way to that degree is just as important (maybe, arguably, more important). You and your daughter seem to get this; not all students and parents do.
@Hapworth Thank you for the kind words. Your post almost made me cry and terrified me at the same time.
I probably overshared at maybe at times was less than gracious. I hope my D isn’t easily recognizable.
But on the other hand…if it helps someone else, I’ll be thrilled and I know my D would be as well.
It’s a journey for sure and one we should have started long before we did. If there are any lurkers that are late to the game, if you take anything away from our experience, it should be this. It’s not too late. If I can learn anybody can.
If you find your state school isn’t affordable, don’t think twice about exploring LACs with high price tags. I believe my D will get a much bettter experience at ANY of those schools she’s been accepted to than she would have at her state school. I’m not knocking state school, but it isn’t for everyone.
My D needed a smaller, more personalized, education. And even if she doesn’t get into a school that meets full need. After Merit Aid at the schools she been accepted to, her price tag will be the same or less than her state school.
My D is a great student, but she doesn’t have a perfect ACT score, she even had a C on her transcript.
I will pay it forward and will always answer questions if anybody feels their student (or themselves) can relate to our experience. IGNORE the trauma in our life, it doesn’t really factor into her application or essay in any way shape or form. maybe just a little, but it was not the focus on my D’s application at ALL. And I’m sure that every one of us can show some adversity in our life. Because, life is challenging.
@Hapworth your kindness warms my heart, Thank you for always being so encouraging.
Thank you in return! Let me real quickly just address a few of your points.
Yes, for some families, an LAC can be as affordable or even more affordable than a public university. One must add in the fact that due to several reasons (poor advising, tangled registration, sometimes a culture that makes it appealing to have fun and blow off class), students at universities take five years (sometimes six!) to graduate, not four (NOTE: though I am biased in favor of LACs, I have had the benefit, both as a student and as an educator, to have direct experience at just about all levels of post-secondary education: community colleges, small private schools, and large public universities. I have had great experiences at all and have had amazing students).
The education at LACs is very highly personalized. Your daughter will not only get to know her professors; she will know most by first name. She will be invited into their homes. She will meet them for coffee. She will have long talks with them and not feel as if the professor is looking at her/his watch.
You’re right. LACs are not for everyone. There are no Division I sports. One cannot lose themselves in the crowd. LACs are typically residential, meaning that one lives on campus, eats on campus, sleeps/naps on campus for all four years. I loved that! It matched my romanticized notion of education: everyone in it together, not bolting from campus to become, in effect, commuter students. This is highly individual. Some students, like me, loved the residential experience. For others, it would be claustrophobic. Once your daughter knows where she is heading, perhaps you’ll have questions about the positives and negatives of attending a small LAC (NOTE: St. Olaf, while small, is actually quite large by LAC standards, around 3,000 students, I believe).
I’ll end with three short anecdotes. When I interviewed at Knox, the admissions officer, seeing how interested I was in the school, grabbed a worn book from her shelf (it was a history of the college written by one of its most beloved members), and said, “Here, take this to read learn more about our college.” When I asked how I would return it to her (I was from the Chicago area), she said, “Just mail it back to me when you’re done.” That’s what I did. I read it and mailed it back with a polite thank you note. Second, when I first arrived on campus, my advisor invited me and seven other of his new advisees to his home. He ordered pizza, and after eating and chatting, he met with us one by one in his office to discuss what classes we were thinking about for the fall. Finally, my senior year, I confessed to my professor that I was a bit behind because, due to money issues, I was purchasing each book as it became assigned for a given week (it was a lit class where we read one novel per week). His response: “You should have told me. I would have just given you thirty bucks so that you could buy several of the books.”
Your daughter, no matter where she goes, will have her own stories to tell.
OP, I am one of those lurkers who has been learning a great deal from this thread, and I’ve been cheering for you and your daughter from the sidelines.
There are quite a lot of parallels between your daughter’s story and mine, including serious financial challenges. Our difference is that we are coming to the table much earlier - my daughter is a HS sophomore, so we have more time to plan.
I have learned a lot from your experience, and will probably be in your shoes in two years. Hopefully I’ll be well armed, though, by what I’ve learned from this thread and others. Thank you for sharing your story, and I wish your family all the best.
@Dancingmom518 Thank you so much for coming out of the shadows. I can honestly say I was not paying attention to how many people have viewed this thread. When Hapworth pointed it out I got really panicked. I also have a daughter who is a sophomore, I am hoping that I will be much better prepared. Please keep me posted. I’ve pretty much stripped myself naked for the whole world to see, I realize this now. So, It will make me feel good to know that it’s helping other people.
There are some of the most amazing human beings in this world that have contributed and really guided me so that I could best help my daughter. The knowledge here and the support has been amazing. And I have lived in almost complete solitude for so long, I think I had forgotten the power of community.
I’m not sure that I’ll be an expert anytime soon but I will always be here to answer any question I can regarding what worked for us. I still had to do a lot of advocating for my daughter. And some of the things I did it would be in conflict with advice given here.
But I’ve never been good at politically correct…Or even knowing what the rules of etiquette would be.
I think that’s clear by this thread
@Hapworth I adore you more more each day. Please continue to share your anecdotes with me. You make me love Knox as much as my daughter does. If she doesn’t get into SO and if we can get the FA package we need, in her mind that’s where she’ll be. It’s clear it’s a very special school. And you have made it quite obvious how amazing it is. I do believe the president is trying really hard to meet the need, bridge the gap. That’s why I don’t know what our financial package will look like there yet. I believe 100 percent that AO is working on it for her.
I wonder if we can find that book? You’ve made me want to read it.