That’s a great approach!
Grocery store clerk interview done. They told D24 that they’d get back to her in a couple of days. We’ll see. I asked her what sort of questions they asked her and I got eye rolling from The Child in response. 
She’s working on practice CLEP exam questions now.
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No word yet on the grocery story clerk job. I think she’ll get a rejection from them. That’s ok, though. Working a summer at McD’s will provide some good life experience. 
She had to fill out paperwork & submit it today for the Summer Scrubs camp. We got the tentative schedule from them yesterday as well. I wish that I could go because it sounds really cool. Right now, here’s what they’ll be doing…SO many sessions with different medical specialties!
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That Summer Scrubs camp looks very good (and busy!). Congrats on ur D24 on getting into it. I am sure she will learn and a lot and have tons of fun in the camp.
Now I wish my S24 would have applied to it.
Allow me a moment to celebrate - May 6 SAT scores are out and my D24 did it! She brought her ebrw score up 50 points (from 680 to 730) from March. As expected, math dropped (680 to 650), but the big bump in ebrw brings her superscore above 1400, which was her goal. I’m proud of her amazing test-taking skills and happy for her that she is done! She is ecstatic.
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YAY!!! Awesome!
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D24’s end-of-year choir banquet was last night. She said that was fun. There was a promo of winning a free Amazon Echo device if you completed all of this really big music theory workbook within the month. She used it to prep for the AP Music Theory exam. Learned that she was the only choir kid to finish it!
She leaves for the school trip to France tomorrow a.m. Still needs 1 more pair of jeans to bring with her (she lives in leggings and shorts most of the time and it’s going to be ‘cold’ by our AZ standards in the south of France next week!). And apparently a couple more t-shirts. AND she wants to use a shampoo bar instead of liquid shampoo. AND I need to get some cash out of the bank for her since she needs tip money for the tour guide.
Learned from school counselor that D24 has already completed all of the required 120 hours of outside fine arts instructional hours, so once she turns in her last 2 logs today at school, she’s completed her fine arts credit for graduation.
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Trader Joe’s sells a shampoo bar in case you have one close by. I don’t love it, but I haven’t tried any others to compare.
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Oh…excellent! Gonna head to Trader Joe’s today to get one.
Kid got home from school, then 1 of the brackets on her braces promptly popped off. Off to orthodontist we went for last minute appointment to fix that. Then to Target for t-shirts for trip. Then Gap Outlet for extra pair of jeans. Then Trader Joe’s for shampoo bar soap. Then bank to get more cash out for kid. Then home. Whew.
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D24 is on her way w/school group to France. Teacher/chaperone has all of us parents in a WhatsApp group keeping everyone updated. 1st flight was to LAX, then changing planes for a direct flight to Paris. Then a 2 hr high speed train to Nice.
At the PHX airport, French teacher sent a group chat msg that said this:
“Kids all passed the first test of getting back to the rendez-vous place on time. Just waiting to board. Will update again when we arrive at the next gate in LAX.”
And this kind of made me laugh.
It’s quieter in our house now today. D24 did NOT put her clothes away like I told her to…she left them on her desk in a lump. AAAHHH!
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Hope she has an amazing time!
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My future wife went on a school trip to France while in high school. In Paris, a drunk Frenchman decided he liked her, picked her up, and started to carry her away. Her French teacher hit him on the head with a bottle and he put her down.
May your daughter’s trip to France be nearly as interesting, but not as interesting.
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I hope your daughter has a wonderful time! Travel teaches so much!
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What an amazing experience she will have!
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Got proof of life from Kid today. She texted. 
Other parents in the WhatsApp group are bugging their kids to check in with them daily. We told D24 that contacting us is optional and only if she wants to, we’re assuming all is well if we hear nothing. French teacher sends regular pics of the group so that’s been great. Tomorrow is first day of language class. Then a tour of Nice in the afternoon.
I think that this trip will end up being a big confidence booster for D24.
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How awesome for the trip to France!
I am trying to come up with a plan for S24’s college visits. Is it worth it to go visit colleges in the summer when no one is there? I went last summer because my S23 needed to look and we were first-timers but walking around empty college campuses was… OK? I don’t know. We went back during the school year and had more student involved tours but I guess it was fine either way. Does anyone have opinions on this?
DS24’s junior prom was this past weekend. I had some time to talk to him and asked him what he thought about the schools we visited with his older brother last summer (UW Whitewater, Parkside and Green Bay). He said he did not like Whitewater. He also said he would like to stay closer to home (we live in the MIlwaukee metro area – so WW would be good for that but OK maybe he didn’t like it, but maybe we need to see it again.) I also asked him if he wants a smaller campus or city/rural. He said he does not mind a city campus (whereas older brother does not like big cities, he did end up at UW Stevens Point, within a small city).
I said maybe he wants to apply to UW Madison (I don’t know if that is pointless with a maybe 3.2 GPA and a 24 ACT). That’s a big school. I don’t know if I should take him to tour Marquette (downtown Milwaukee). He liked Parkside which is nice and small. I am thinking about taking him to St. Norbert (Catholic and small, but also $$$). I don’t know where to take him. I think for now we will just do some college tours on a not-so-serious level this summer and have him form some impressions.
Any advice? Closer to home would be Parkside, UW Milwaukee (and extensions), Marquette, MSOE, Whitewater, Carroll, Carthage, Concordia… then maybe Beloit, Marian, UW Oshkosh, Lakeland, what am I missing?
He had expressed some early interest in UW Stout or Eau Claire, which are both far away so… IDK.
#2 might be harder than #1. I can maybe recommend UW Stevens Point for #2 for the sake of my own convenience but I think he will be inclined to go to a different school than his brother.
Thanks for any comments!
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While visiting in summer isn’t ideal, we are doing this for 3 college visits in June. It requires a flight, car rental and a few nights at an Airbnb, and the school year was packed so we are working with what we have. Any last trips/tours before applying will be in September when D24’s school has a 4 day weekend for Fall Break. I feel the summer visits are somewhat helpful to know whether or not to apply, and we can do second visits if needed after she knows where she’s be accepted.
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That is sort of what we did with S23. We visited colleges in summer when we had more time, then went 2x to the final decision school to make sure it was the right one.
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If you’re thinking of visiting St. Norbert, then I’d add in a visit to UW-Green Bay as a good way to get an immediate contrast of a medium-large school (9300 at UW-GB) vs. a small school (1900 at St. N).
If you’re thinking about Beloit, what about Lawrence (about 1500 undergrads)?
Some schools over the Illinois border that you may want to consider are:
- Lake Forest (about 1700 undergrads)
- North Central (about 2400 undergrads)
- Elmhurst (about 2900 undergrads)
- North Park (about 1800 undergrads)
Maker sure you run the Net Price Calculators, as some may be surprisingly affordable. Looking at the net price for families on College Navigator, there may also be “discounting” merit aid where nearly all students get it, regardless of their stats, as a means to make the school more affordable, regardless of what the family’s EFC is. Also, consider yourself fortunate that you have so many great in-state public options in Wisconsin!
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