Colorado cold and snow is SO DIFFERENT than NE cold and snow, don’t you know that? 
I’m pretty sure the humidity, or the elevation, or the longitude, or… something…makes a huge difference. 
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When’s the last time your DS flew any where?
DS2022 said he didn’t care of the location of the colleges (he doesn’t mind cold/humidity/heat, rain, etc), when we were putting together the college list.
BUT then he went on a Boy Scout trip to NM and CO summer before Senior year.
After the flight home, he said he doesn’t want to be a flight away.
So we scrambled to revise his list to drivable by car (really just 5-6hrs away, with the exception of UVA, since it was near family).
Good luck.
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Not just snowy…the SNOWIEST. Go big or go home, LOL.
I am always amazed (and not in a good way) on the ways in which my D24 spends/wastes money. It has gotten a bit better once she started working and paying for things with her own, but she still doesn’t really seem to understand the concept of prioritizing spending.
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We always have a chat with S24 before he agrees to go out with his friends. We tried to instill how one have to pay for it without putting the hammer to the piggy bank. (The only thing we did paid full for S24 was his tux for the junior/senior prom)
Luckily, even though some of his friends’ families have very very “deep pockets”, while others don’t, they usuaully all opt to gather at one of the family’s house and hang out. Eat pizza and watch movies. All of them actually are very observant of how much to spent and where to do, so that everyone is comfortable and feel included.
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My D24 might not be the norm…she rarely gets together with friends outside of school (she socializes w/them outside of school, but it’s over the phone). Once in awhile, she’ll go to the movies with a friend or 2, but when that occurs, it’s usually at a mall which has a movie theater attached…and if they eat afterwards, it’s at the food court. Haven’t run into your situation yet! However, D24 is a cheapskate, so it would have to be something big like going to the prom that would prompt her to go to an anniversary dinner-type of restaurant. 
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Well, we figured out why S24 failed his Sociology test. It was multiple choice with twelve terms to match with twelve definitions. The answers were: A, B, C, D, E, AB, AC, AD, AE, BC, BD, and BE. If the answer was two letters, you needed to mark both on the scantron. S24 had the first few questions correct. Then, it all went to hell. He wrote a lot of correct answers on the test, but penciled in all kinds of wrong ones on the scantron.
S24 often has scantron issues. For example, the questions sometimes vary between those with four answers (A, B, C, D) and five answers (A, B, C, D, E). He will get used to D being the last answer, and will mark E instead of D if E is added.
But, this double-letter format really is the worst he has encountered!
Colleges should publish what type of evaluations their professors favor. S24 would find a school where his grades are based on participation, papers, short answer, essays, presentations, projects—anything but scantron!
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That is SO frustrating! I can’t stand Scantron tests where you have to bubble in >1 answer on a question.
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this week, I think my D24 is wishing she was back in France, footloose & fancy free. Haha. She’s working 23 1/2 hr this week. And we’re doing our “15 min let’s talk about college stuff” this evening. Stuff I’m going to talk to her about includes:
- finish the Calculus practice CLEP questions on Modern States this week (since next week is the Summer Scrubs day camp all day)
- take the practice CLEP Calculus exam online on Modern States so you can then request a CLEP exam voucher (getting the voucher last time took about a week, and I really think she should take this by the end of this month)
- finish the French lessons & practice questions this week on Modern States.
- Write a 1/2 page free-write about anything you want about your France trip.
- Write a 1/2 page free-write about any topic. Even if it’s “this is stupid, why is my mom making me do this.” This and the one above are prep work for Common App personal statement essay later on (I’m going to make her do a 1-page free-write once or twice a week this summer).
D24 is going to whine, but probably not complain quite as much as before she started working the McD’s job. She misses the days of 7th-8th grade when the only thing on her agenda for the summer was to sleep in, watch TV, and play video games.
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Current student answer - my friends and I usually just get boba but if we get food it’s not expensive. In N Out, Chipotle, Panda, etc. We often get pho or sushi from inexpensive places. We have been to Denny’s a couple times if it’s really late.
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Every school on his list is a flight away since we are in New England and all (but CU Boulder) are in the south so he knows it will be planes, trains, and automobiles to get to any of them.
I feel like ALL these places are expensive now. I remember being able to get Five Guys, Chipotle, etc. for around $10. Recently a Five guys little cheese burger, small fries was >$15- it’s nuts
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Ok, did the “talk about college with the kid” thing. She resisted the free-write like I thought, but it was because of her standard “BUT WHY?!” question. Explained why and then she said, “Oh, ok. I can do that.” She also said a prompt of “write about whatever you want” is too hard, too open-ended, so I’m going to come up with random topics twice a week for the rest of summer.
DH joined for part of this today. He kept interrupting D24, drove her mad, they snapped at each other. Good times. DH left the room after a few minutes.
DH asked what honors colleges is D24 going to apply to. Thought for a sec, “Here we go again. We’ve talked about this many times already.” Out with love, though. Told him & D24:
- asked senior counselor this specific question earlier this spring. Counselor said that at U of A, for example, this past school year, only kids at our HS who had unweighted GPAs of 3.7 or above got into the honors college. At ASU? Similar. But then she threw in a “But D24 should still apply anyway.”
- Is D24 going to have an unweighted GPA near or above 3.7? No.
- U of A honors college app means more letters of rec to get, more essay questions to write answers to, including probably a standard “Why do you want to be part of the honors college here” sort of question.
- So then the question becomes one of “Is it worth it to apply to the honors college, knowing the odds are extremely high that it’ll be a ‘no’?” (to this, D24 said she didn’t think it would be worth the bother, and I’m inclined to agree w/her).
- But at the 2 public univ’s that she’d have a decent shot at getting into the honors college (UNM & NMSU)? Yes, definitely worthwhile to submit honors college app there. D24 just needs to bring ACT test score up a tad and she’ll automatically get accepted to NMSU’s honors college…and even if that doesn’t happen (bringing her ACT score up), she can still lobby the dean of NMSU’s honors college (the guy even said so back at the info session we attended earlier this year) and state her case to him.
- None of the LACs she’s applying to have honors colleges because, well, the entire school is basically run like an honors college anyway. She’s going to apply test optional to these and will be focusing efforts on Common App personal statement & supplemental essays for these schools.
I bet she could write a great piece about something from her day at McD’s.
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It’s the 300 days a year of sunshine. At least that’s what they told us at Colorado State.
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Your son has dyslexia, right? He can get accommodations for a scribe for scantrons. Either someone fills in the bubbles for him or he circles in the book and someone transcribes it.
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Totally.
When she was doing the “BUT WHY”’s, I gave her this example:
“Ok, so the other day when you came home from work, you were complaining about the 2 boys who were slacking off and not paying attention, right? And then you complained that even after the manager yelled at them, they still didn’t listen. and how frustrating it was because you and everybody else there had to pick up the slack because they we’re screwing around, right? (At this point, she’s nodding)
…is that all annoying and maddening? Yes. But WHY does it bother you?
Maybe it bothers you because you want everybody on the team to do their fair share, put forth their best effort (she nods again).
…kind of like how at your HS, there’s, like, NO bullying. No harassment of any kind. Everybody is very collaborative and supportive. Very collaborative learning environment, not a ‘dog eat dog’ competitive sort of thing, right? (She nods again)
…and there’s maybe a parallel to the VEX Robotics team you were on last year at school. How everybody worked together really well, right (she nods again).
…so what does this say about your values? You could say that you value a collaborative learning environment, where people are accepted for who they are, where there’s a culture of being free to openly discuss a lot of different ideas without being mocked, shunned, made fun of.
…and maybe this means that you could say that you’re looking for a learning environment and culture like that at college.”
Then her eyes got all big and she said, “OHHHHH…I get it now.”
Yep…it’s not about the little thing you’re complaining about. It’s about WHY it bothered you. College admissions people have said in podcasts and the info sessions I’ve listened to and attended that they really want to understand how the student applicant THINKS.
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Yes, you’re right! S24 has dyslexia. He was declassified after 9th grade, so he no longer has a IEP. His only remaining accommodation is extra time, which he needs to arrange with each teacher.
He went to see his Sociology teacher again yesterday to show him the test booklet and explain, and the teacher gave him all the points back. (S24 is also still writing a paper on the concepts to show his understanding.) I shouldn’t have worried about it!
S24 told me that he would have been fine with the failed grade as all his other grades are good, and he did learn the material. He also reminded me that he’s very comfortable advocating for himself, which is what he will need to do in college. I will make sure he knows that he could ask for scantron accomodations going forward. Thank you for pointing that out!
I really do need to work on trusting that S24 will find his way. He needs my support, but also my trust.
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I love everything about this update.
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Just for some thoughts for students this summer. If you want a nice early acceptance at a very good, friendly, good academic college look into Kansas State. My dyslexic son thrived there, had great, helpful professors that spend time with students that ask, have a great study abroad program with fun mini sessions. My son found it challenging yet supportive and had a great time there. He was from a big city in TX and loved it there. So much he is starting his 4th year of vet school there now. COL is very low too. Just something to think about. Application is super easy and there are rolling admissions.
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