There’s a great book by college admissions specialist Dave Marcus titled “Acceptance”. It’s about how to find the right college fit, as opposed to chasing after some “best” college (not that there is such a thing, except perhaps for each individual). As I like to put it: “You are always better off at a college where you can thrive instead of just survive.”
This thread is refreshing. The parents have their heads screwed on straight, which is more than can be said over at ones where kiddo got a 4 on an AP test and the only question is which form of ritual suicide should be employed (don’t worry, that was hyperbole).
2plustrio, the camp was wonderful. It was a Monday drop-off late afternoon and Saturday mid day pickup. So they really only had 4 full days. There was a one hour concert on pickup day and since I that is my hometown, my sister and brother in law, and my grandmother (age 96) all attended, and we were all absolutely blown away by the quality and how much they had taught those kids in that small amount of time. Very intense schedule from around 9 am - 9 pm daily with private lessons and a lot of attention from the top professors in the music department, who conducted the concert and were visibly very involved with the kids on a personal level. All of the kids performed music from classical/modern/musical theater/opera genres with some nice choreography. So I went into it as a Stetson fan and came out much more impressed than I thought I would be… really just goosebumps that my daughter was part of it. The college has an excellent reputation in Florida as well as the music department. A good place to look in my opinion! What is your son’s instrument?
Thanks @Frogger73, I love your user name And love the story about your son putting the sticker on the water bottle and wearing the shirt… always so nice to get a small sign we may be on the right track!
Passing along a tip from our school counselor -
If you haven’t done so yet, have your kid create an account/profile on Raise.me. It’s this micro-scholarship website. Several colleges offer small scholarships based on lots of different things…certain GPA, going to a college fair, doing an extracurricular activity, doing community service, etc. One of the LACs we’re eye’ing uses Raise.me.
Was going to post this on the regular class of 2024 thread, but I think that y’all might understand a little better than others might…
D24 came home today with an invitation to join NHS. For her, this is a REALLY big deal. I know that for the “average” CC person, NHS might seem like “everybody” is an NHS member. But for THIS kid, it’s a big accomplishment. Super proud of her. She’s really proud, too. She had the biggest smile on her face when she told us. The application is due a week from Friday.
This morning, I signed D24 up for a Univ of Arizona campus tour on 10/15! They also have an in-person honors college info session & tour that same day about an hour after the campus tour is done. My sister is going to go with us (she lives in the area).
U of A will definitely be a safety for D24 since we are in-state and she has the GPA to get an auto-admit. It’s also far enough away from home that it could end up feeling to her like she’s “away at college” as long as DH agrees to not just pop in on her unannounced as a surprise. LOL.
Had interesting discussion w/D24 & D26 yesterday during dinner. D24 was lamenting about “all of the kids in my grade who, like, NEVER have to study and they just get straight A’s without even TRYING!”
D24 is the kid who has to work her butt off for A’s and B’s. Getting a B in math is hard for her. D26’s strong suit is also not math, but her math teacher this year is better than last year’s math teacher.
I told both kids, but especially D24, that most of the kids in HS who have never had to study or work hard for their grades will be in for a rude awakening in college. Why? Because they’ve never hard to develop any study habits, so they don’t know HOW to study. Whereas my kids? Heck, by the time they’re done with HS, they’ll be pros at knowing how to study for various subjects’ exams.
Also told D24 that, in my opinion, some, not all, of those end up crashing and burning in college for awhile because:
they assume that the level of difficulty of their college classes will be like a cake walk in HS
they assume that since they’re just naturally super smart, they won’t have to study or work hard
then add in how Mom & Dad aren’t there to nag you to go to class, or do the reading, problem sets, etc.
and sprinkle in a little too much partying…
…and you end up with the engineering student who thought everything would be a piece of cake, but he/she is left sort of shell shocked.
I told my kids, “1 of the best ways to help yourself succeed in college is to just show up. Go to class every day. Don’t skip class. Pay attention. Take notes during the lectures. Do the reading when you’re supposed to. Do the HW. All the stuff you’re already doing. Just continuing doing that. It’s half the battle.”
All A’s in high school (thanks to a sympathy A from my French teacher), plus two years of Calculus at my local CC. Great study habits, or great enough anyway. Off to Brown and getting 85-100’s/100 on the engineering homeworks, but then along comes the first test consisting of a few simple Statics problems – not unlike what you would see in a good HS Physics class. 14/100.
I’m in agreement with what sbinaz wrote. The above is simply a case in point that as one moves from HS into college (of any sort – CC can be a great stepping stone to success), bring your best game but be ready for setbacks one way or the other. I was surprised by my low score – one of many in the class as we adjusted to the new reality-- but not flustered. Buckled down (a bit) more, and just kept plugging away. It worked out fine.
D24 has an opportunity to audition for this national honor choir, which performs at a big national convention in February in Cincinnati. Asked D24 if she’s interested in auditioning and she said, “No. Why would I want to go to Cincinnati? There’s nothing interesting there.” I pressed her some more and she said, “Mama, no. I like choir because it’s fun. Auditioning for some big thing feels like work, which is stressful, which makes it NOT fun, so I don’t want to do it, and then I won’t like choir anymore. I just want to do it for fun. So…no.”
Head, meet desk.
But I understand her reasoning. DH & I are choosing to respect her decision instead of forcing her to audition. She’s got a big work load with school this year already anyway.
I can’t believe Junior year is here. This weekend we signed up for PSAT’s and registered for three college tours. That was no small feat with his rigorous XC schedule. Looking forward to see what this year brings.
School starts one week from tomorrow for us. D24 has some trepidation about a very heavy first semester, but I think she’ll pull through.
We have decided to push off sitting for the SAT until spring when she has a much lighter academic load. Seemed a no-brainer to lighten the pressure a bit for now.
We are going to start touring schools at the end of September. D24 has no idea what or where she wants, so I thought it would be a good idea to do some local, in-state tours first to give her a sampling of private v. public, tiny v. mid-size v. very large, LAC v. University, and so on. Feels like doing that would not be a big time or expensive commitment, as there’d be no overnight travel associated with it. Also, since she’s a bit overwhelmed by it all, I thought keeping it casual and low-key and “hey, let’s just go look at a school for fun” was the way to go. Once she gets a sense of the different options and (hopefully) starts to figure out her preferences, we can expand our touring in the spring.
We are in MA and start on 9/6 as well- I feel like our district is so late this year. S24 will take SAT in March- he plays football and there is no time for him to study and prepare until it is over in November. Our plan is for him to start a class in December.
Cancelled this past Saturday’s SAT for D24. There was no studying over the summer, so seemed like no point. Was hoping to use it as a dry run for PSAT. She used to be an off the charts test taker with realistic chance at NMF. Anxiety etc over the past couple of years has impacted that severely. Will regroup and try again.
And love the story about your son putting the sticker on the water bottle and wearing the shirt… always so nice to get a small sign we may be on the right track!
