Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
462

The last 2 wk of regular instruction are upon us. D24’s AP exam schedule (which is also same as her final exam schedule since the AP exams will count as the final for her AP classes) is:

  • Wed 5/3 - AP English lit
  • Fri 5/5 - APUSH
  • Mon 5/8 - AP Calculus AB
  • Thu 5/11 - AP French
  • Fri 5/12 - AP Music Theory

No idea right now when her honors physics final exam will be.

Guided D24 yesterday evening through the process of sending a thank you email to the admissions directors assigned to her from Austin College & Southwestern Univ. Of course, she threw in some dramatic sighing and a fair amount of “I don’t know what to write/don’t know what to say.” The not knowing what to say I can understand because she hasn’t really had to do this sort of thing before.

At start of the school year, I bought D24 an AP Calculus AB exam prep book. She hasn’t cracked it open all year. :roll_eyes: Frustrating, but at this point, what’s a parent to do, right?

Am making her submit 1 job application this evening. When it’s something she doesn’t want to do, man, this kid needs to be pushed a lot. Left to her own devices, she’d be happy to spend the summer laying around watching Youtube.

Found out that the prom is, in fact, on the same day that her school trip leaves for France, so she’s bummed out about that.

International Night at school is at the end of this week. We’re definitely going. Any family who wants to can set up a table/booth at International Night featuring their country of origin…must provide some sort of food item to try, preferably an activity as well. It’s super fun. Every year, there’s booths for Ukraine, Mexico, China, Korea, Japan, Ethiopia, Italy, often Sweden or Denmark, France, India, a couple of South American countries (maybe Columbia & Ecuador?). Often there’s a Kenya booth, too. The food at the Ethiopia booth is the best out of all of them. Lots of people get dressed up in traditional styles of dress, too.

I’m going to be a bit of a nervous wreck until AP test scores come in, so International Night will be a nice reprieve/distraction. :rofl:

4 Likes
463

D24 is officially mad at me because I just made her apply for a part time job at In N Out Burger. :rofl: She thinks that retail will be easier than food service jobs. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Also, got the final exam schedule yesterday. D24 will be done w/all of her final exams by 5/11!

2 Likes
464

Fast food jobs are incredibly hard. I worked at Burger King decades ago, and I can compare to many other jobs (waitressing–equally as hard), retail (easier), etc. Customers at fast food are terrible. I didn’t have this happen–but my sister had a customer say he was going to cut her up into little pieces (he wasn’t mad about service, he was just psycho). If you want her to go through the experience, it will make her grateful for the rest of her life that she isn’t in that job anymore. However, I’ve chosen not to make my daughter do it.

465

This. I’ve insisted that D24 have summer jobs for the past few summers, but made no demand about where/what kind. We are fortunate to live in a summer tourist destination, so there is an abundance of options, but even if there weren’t, I don’t think I’d force her to work in a type of job she wasn’t keen on.

1 Like
466

Clearly, nobody here has worked a retail job before where customers would use the changing rooms as a toilet.

3 Likes
467

Where was that, Saks 5th Ave? :joy:

2 Likes
468

It happened regularly when my DH was working retail full time early on in our marriage. He worked in a department store in a nice part of town where we were living at the time.

1 Like
469

Gives new meaning to “Cleanup on Aisle 2!” :scream_cat: :biohazard:

1 Like
470

Just got home from an exhausting but productive week of college visits. We flew down to Atlanta and then drove to Auburn University. Spent two nights there at their on-campus hotel which was lovely. The campus is gorgeous and the friendliest people we have ever met. The students all looked extremely happy and were in groups walking, hanging out on the grass, walking to classes, etc. The tour was great, given by the sweetest sophomore who mentioned at one point that she chose Auburn over UVA because it just “felt like home”. I could feel that. S24 liked the school, but was really focused on our University of Alabama tour scheduled for the next day, so I was frustrated that he was saying things like “this is nice but I think I am going to like Alabama more”, rather than just focusing on Auburn while we were there. We went to Alabama the next day, and as expected, he loved it. It is a big campus, very well maintained, pretty. More diversity than Auburn for sure, through def lots of blonde sorority girls and LAX bros walking around. DH and I kept whispering to each other about how we just loved the Auburn vibe so much more. But alas, this is S24’s journey, not ours. We had a rest day that was much needed and spent that in ATL with friends and family. Thursday we visited Clemson and none of us liked it. It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms. The town of Clemson in two blocks with some shops and restaurants, five of the shops being Clemson merch shops :joy:. The campus has a weird layout and lots of the building are are ugly- look like they were built in the 1960’s and haven’t been updated. Resident halls were depressing. We were all super disappointed by Clemson, but S24 would consider this a reach so I guess it is good he is eliminating it from his list. Finally, we looked at UGA unplanned on our way back from Cleson. We al LOVED it. Gigantic campus- literally gigantic. 40+ minutes to walk to certain parts of campus. BUT the campus is really nice, and the city of Athens is awesome. It was by far or favorite in terms of towns. UGA is a very high reach so again, not holding our breath, but he wants to apply and see if something crazy happens​:joy:. So S24 says UA/UGA tied for #1, Auburn is #2, Clemson is off the list. U of South Carolina is #3, NC State (another reach) is #4. He will apply to Ole Miss, UTK, UKY sight unseen and then visit if he is seriously deciding between those. Still has ASU and U of A off his list but unsure if he will apply. ACT scores coming out this week I think so hoping he was able to bring his scores up a couple points- we shall see.

9 Likes
471

DS23 has worked for the local school system in maintenance/janitorial for the last two summers and will do so again this summer. He actually loves it! Maybe because there is a task that has a clear goal and ending rather than dealing with crazy customers that may have demands that no one could ever meet. I think the best part of it is that it gives credence to his claim that he’s not just another spoiled boarding school kid. They almost didn’t hire him when they saw where he went to school because “kids from there don’t know how to do this type of work”. Meanwhile, he was their best student worker and they were thrilled to have him back for subsequent summers.

9 Likes
472

I love this.

2 Likes
473

God help me because today, I’m out of patience. D24 tried this evening to apply to a 2nd Starbucks job, but she forgot what her login ID and password are that she set up a few days ago.

So she used both their “forgot your username” and “forgot your password” links. Tried to login using the reset password. And…it didn’t work. Then tried to set up a brand new login ID and it wouldn’t let her because it said that she already had one set up for that email address.

AND there’s nowhere on the Starbucks website for you to go ask for help with this sort of thing. Their individual job #s lists a disabilities email address if you’re disabled and need help applying. So I had her send an email to that out of desperation and made sure that she explained everything that was going on, explained that she’s NOT disabled, but just needs to be pointed in the right direction on how to fix this.

Meanwhile, apparently 2 yr after she applied for the job at Ross, she got a “thank but no thanks” email and she didn’t even realize it. :roll_eyes: Great attention to detail, kiddo.

She’s making all of the mistakes that some of the customers make that I have to deal with for my job all the time and it’s just driving me bananas today. We yelled at each other a bit and our 20 min thing turned into 45 min.

She looked yesterday on the Staples website but the location near us isn’t hiring. Petsmart? You have to be 18. Target? Only hiring floaters right now who pick up random shifts. Grocery store bagger? The one nearest to us isn’t hiring, but there’s one about 10 min away that is…D24 needs to be prepared to move grocery carts when it’s 110 out…and doesn’t like that idea. AND at the same time, doesn’t want to work in fast food.

So I yelled at her and told her that she’s dragging her feet and I don’t give a care if she doesn’t like it, she needs a job this summer, gosh darn it.

Oh…and then I had her try to apply for a different In & Out job at a different location and you have to wait 60 days before applying to a different location if it’s one that you didn’t initially apply to. :rage: :roll_eyes:

There’s a new McDonald’s opening up in about a month that she could go work at. Kid doesn’t want to work at McD’s. I’m to the point now where I don’t really give a rat’s butt…it needs to be A job. ANY job. I don’t frickin’ care if you don’t like it.

Burlington Coat Factory? They’re hiring. But it’s a measly $13.85/hr. The McD’s closest to us is $15/hr.

I can’t even talk to DH about this right now because he’ll lose his mind and spend the next hour yelling at her.

AAAAAHHHH!!!

So I told her a 30,000 ft level description of how applying for jobs works…you go to company website. You create a login ID and password. You set up your profile with your personal info and job history (of which she has none). You apply for job. Job website sends you confirmation email to tell you that you created a login ID and that you applied for a job. She got neither of those from the Starbucks job that she supposedly applied for the other day.

She ended up in tears over this whole thing.

And I just yelled at my 9th grader for procrastinating her english essay that’s due tomorrow. And I’m mad that we were out of printer paper and it cost me $12.47 for ONE ream of paper at Walmart. And I’m mad that gas is $4.99/gallon here right now and that I had to spend $70 to fill up my car today.

1 Like
474

Re-entry today after a week off for April Break. It was a brutal wake-up for all this morning. I told S24 that I am hiring him a math tutor b/c his grade that he had brought UP an entire letter grade from first to second quarter went back down a letter grade third quarter. He started to roll his eyes and argue about a tutor and then stopped himself and agreed. But now I need to find someone available. He has 9 more weeks of school and SAT on June 3, so finding someone ASAP would be great. Feeling some anxieties about him loving one of the schools that we did not. Nothing bad about the place, just could not picture him there and worried he would get swallowed up, be distracted by the fun, etc. But he loves the place. Hoping he finds other, better fits that he likes more.

I also found out that my current position which is grant-funded, is getting eliminated at the end of June, which means a job search, new job, etc. all during senior year for S24. Change is always hard, and this timing is crap. Not to mention I will lose over a month of sick leave because I have never called out sick in my time there and they do not pay it out :sob: Anyway, just a tough couple of days. The New England weather isn’t helping- 40’s and raining/overcast off and on for the next 10 days…

1 Like
475

@sbinaz I hate when I lose my temper with my kids, especially when they’re just making typical kid mistakes and saying typical kid things! This happened a lot when we had three teenagers in the house…my blood pressure is going up just thinking about it :grimacing:. I had to figure that it was okay for them to see that I’m a regular person and not a Buddhist monk with zen-like calm. I’ve also gotten better at apologizing for yelling and just moving on.

S24 is lucky because not only have I seen and heard it all, our household is much less chaotic with just one kid. I wonder if part of his easy going personality is a reaction to me running out of #$@%'s to give. :wink:

5 Likes
476

@coastal2024 just a thought on the math tutor—we’ve gotten great student tutors by asking whichever teacher is the head of the department for names/contacts of students who are willing to tutor. Maybe there is a senior math whiz who is done with college decisions and can be flexible about when your son needs some help. Students are much cheaper than adult tutors. D21 didn’t have a set time with her tutor. She would come over whenever D21 needed help with a particular unit, difficult homework, or the day before the test.

Also, I’m sorry about your job! For awhile, DH did grant funded research and it was so stressful and heartbreaking. I get it about the timing and the weather, too. Sunshine makes everything better. I feel like you should be sick for the entire month of May :wink:.

5 Likes
477

Seriously- it is SO tempting. And I will look into student tutoring. They have free tutoring at the school by NHS students but it is hard to coordinate (we tried for Spanish back in 9th grade) but I will have S24 ask about math.

1 Like
478

Instead of student tutor, I asked the chemistry teacher at the school if he was willing to do PT tutoring for a few weeks with S24. He agreed and that had helped him a lot.

Also we did tried using student tutor once for Math, but I made the mistake of hiring a senior from his school… both of them slacked off and goofed around almost the entire time… :expressionless: I wised up and hired one who has Engineering and Math degree with tons of references through NextDoor. He is still helping S24 but now changed to focus on helping him to raise his SAT math score.

3 Likes
479

Huh—that’s not good. We’ve had good luck. In our area, only the honors kids who are motivated to help and make money will tutor.

480

Maybe you’ll be surprised. I totally didn’t picture my child in a big school when we began looking but by mid-senior year he had changed so much I knew he could handle it and that he would have possibly “outgrown” the smaller schools I was hoping for .

481

Yeah, it isn’t the size necessarily- we loved a school With 30,000- it is more the setting I think. Somehow the one we love makes 30,000 feel like a close family and the one he loves feels like he would just be a number. He has time and more to figure out, I know it is early and you are right, they change.