Parents of the high school class of 09

<p>sheesh, am I late to THIS party! Looks like I have been stressing alone for nothing, I could have had some sympathetic ears here.
We spent Thanksgiving holiday weekend working on the apps son has put off for months. Since he is apply RD there was no looming deadline, BUT most of them are due Jan1, and he didn't seem to "get" that when he asks his teachers for recs and his counselor for her reports, it does not happen within a day or two. It could take several weeks. So now we are slammed, and he is writing his essays and short answers while I am plugging in the info from his resume. NOT what I had planned.
But we are almost DONE! Yea!. Two more to go, the hard ones of course, and the ones he REALLY wants to be accepted to. MIT and Caltech. These ones have the most writing involved, not so hot for a math geek who hates to write. So he procrastinates, and meanwhile is falling behind in his school work while I am looking for a train outta here.
So while many of you will have your answers soon, I'll be waiting until spring, waving my whip to keep him motivated to keep his grades up, because he will think it is all a done deal. But if we can just get these done and move on, it would be fanatastic.</p>

<h1>theorymom:</h1>

<p>Well, if you're looking for stress levels rising, check out the MIT EA waiting threads on the CC board. MIT even has an item you can add to your desktop that counts down the days, hours and minutes to decision day.</p>

<p>Can you all in the DONE room keep it down a little? :D Or at least clean up the cups trailing outside the hall. </p>

<p>One way or another, we'll be there Dec. 16. </p>

<p>Today's big distraction: I have to make follow-up calls from S1's school's annual campaign. The big challenge will be keeping it light with the family whose son is applying to all the same schools as S1. I don't mean that I feel competitive - more like, I'm afraid the call will disintegrate into "I CAN'T STAND IT ANY MOOOOORRRREEEEE!" Oh well. As we all know, a little venting never hurts (as long as the kids are out of earshot).</p>

<p>D was deferred at FSU, they requested better SAT/ACT scores. Anyway, East Carolina U is looking better and better now, she's excited about their football team, too At least they want her to come for Fall 2009. :P</p>

<p>I have to assume there are primarily moms in this thread! My DH simply cannot comprehend why I focus so much on the application process. Last night his comment was, "he only has two to go and there's nothing you can do about it, so let it go already." WHAT??? No wonder the first thing I do (okay, second while the coffee is brewing) is to log on and see what's going on with all of you and your kids.</p>

<p>JSM, it sounds like you and your D have the right attitude - the school that wants her is a great option, and if choice #1 comes through, that's great, but not the be all and end all. Fortunately, S hasn't visited enough of the schools on his list to fall in love with any of them.</p>

<p>Most of S's schools are common apps, so we haven't received any confirmation of the application yet, guess I'll have S follow up on the supplements, etc. just to be sure.</p>

<p>HistMom, nice that our kids have some overlaps!</p>

<p>Harriett: what a wonderful holiday trip--now will your daughter come home for Christmas too--or another time? </p>

<p>haggis....mmm, not so much...or giblet gravy. DH would have the scotch....and both S1 and S2 are also in calculus he@@, though S2 finished first trimester much better than he thought. welcome back!!! The ED wait is a little painful, so its a great distraction to hear about such a great trip!</p>

<p>Cpeltz: congrats--wow that was fast. </p>

<p>oregon101, I could drive over and hijack your mail, calling you immediately with the result, and see how long your daughter really wants to wait..... Ok, that would be mean....maybe it's because S2 and I had a long discussion about the 'telling your parents" protocol if he logs on at school and finds out his ED decision....he seemed to think we could wait a bit (these parents who took him on two trips to the ED school, and paid for studio time for the pre-audition tapes, etc., etc...I stopped short at the 3 months of colic and all....) I did mention that I will probably be obsessively reading CC and finding out if other kids around the country have info...and I might take my time sharing my gleaned info with HIM!!! rumor is he might know before the end of next week....that DONE thread sure would be fun with Historymom hosting...but if he doesn't get in, DONE won't come until auditions are over in late Feb. :(</p>

<p>cpeltz, when I was stressing over D's college list and helping her find safeties, matches, and reaches, my DH said to me "why are you so worried, she'll get into ALL the schools". I had to tell him that admissions decisions and competitive applications have changed since HE went to college 30 years ago - and he went to an in-state safety!!!! HA!</p>

<p>Not done :P</p>

<p>Supplements to the Common App for one university need to be done - supplements got bumped in order to get scholarship apps completed for other schools. </p>

<p>IMO it's the fault of the university for requiring 4 (yes -4) supplements to the Common App. </p>

<p>And D revisited the university over Thanksgiving and it slid somewhat down on her list (and I must admit - mine) so its going to be harder to be enthused with this push to the finish.</p>

<p>Next admissions decision for D is Purdue on Friday Still waiting on Drexel and Temple decisions. </p>

<p>After that, it's one more SAT and ACT testing in January and February - if D wants to get into the 3 schools she is so far deferred from because of her scores.</p>

<p>Otherwise, it's FAFSA and decision time for D as to where to send the deposit to the 4 schools that have accepted her so far.</p>

<p>oh JUST what I need FindAPlace. LOL</p>

<p>Son got his last teacher request in for a last-minute addition to his list. And gave thank you notes and Borders giftcards to the two teachers who wrote recs for him. I loved the letter he wrote to his Latin teacher, whom he has had all four years - very personal and touching note.</p>

<p>Now I'll pull up a chair in front of the fire and watch the early decision results come in on CC in the next few weeks. Then it will be a bleak winter of wait...wait...wait. Y'all only think now is stressful!</p>

<p>Thanks for the thank you reminder - S will work on those two notes tonight.</p>

<p>Just got off the phone with one of his schools to follow up on transcripts - she swears they have nothing. Funny how the rest of the schools received their information and it was all sent out the same day! Further evidence that we/our our D/S need to stay on top of it.</p>

<p>This all amazes me. What do the majority of kids do who don't have parents like us and who aren't uber-organized?</p>

<p>What do the majority of kids do who don't have parents like us and who aren't uber-organized?</p>

<p>My son's friend was trying to get into the Honors College at a large State U. She didn't hear from them and didn't hear from them and finally put down a deposit at her second choice. The large state U kept missing parts of her app. After the first go round, the dad - who was unemployeed and had lots of time - took over. He'd send one thing, then they'd say they were missing something he'd sent two weeks before. This went on and on. She was finally admitted to the Honors College, but had the dad not had so much time on his hands, it never would have happened.</p>

<p>^ ^ ^
Unbelievable how involved all of this is. I just spoke to one of DS top choice schools, a small, not top tier LAC. They received over 600 applications just in the last two days for their EA deadline. Yikes.</p>

<p>Thanks SJTH--actually, if I knew for sure he was in I would put balloons or something on the mailbox. Better not. That said--somewhere late last night some/part of my sanity returned. I had one of those Zen moments where I realized that HE is fine and HE can easily accept his second choice and it will be OK in the end. S wants to be done and he is satisfied that he likes both schools AND that they are both 45 minutes from his GF. S cannot tell you what he wants for dinner if he is not hungry when you ask him so it is just not possible for him to think of life without her or that she could go to school (she is a Junior) farther away.
So --deep breathing here--I feel like I rode the roller coaster and now we must just land. I probably owe him just a little apology for beings so nuts lately! Maybe after he thanks me for his amazing life...LOL.
As far as the transcripts not getting filed/arriving/etc. That has been so very frustrating and in retrospect I wish I/S had called right from the get go, as many times as needed. He sent his appl. in Sept 29th and due to the transcript being filed twice and therefore the computer kicked it out....so I wonder how many apps the school recieved between Sept 28th and two weeks ago......
Thanks for hand holds everyone. I think that I will not go to mailbox today but wait and let S. But I have a client tonight at 6 so I will not have a celebration drink with you until 8:30 Pacific Time--oops, guess this might be tomorrow but we will see. BUT one school or the other the DONE factor will be the focus. At least for now--but yeah--glad I know good breathing exercises.
Oh-I will purge my soul here--I am ending book 2 of the Twilight series and all the bookstores were out of #3. I ordered it from Amazon overnight mail ($$--bad me) and it just arrived! So--things come in 3's...waiting for 2 more good things to happen today...</p>

<p>Ah, I just love you Class of '09 parents. We'll have to keep getting together once the admissions process is over!</p>

<p>I cheat and come over to your board now and again (DS is class of 2010.) I must say, everyone's survivial instincts are awesome. And since I live in SoCal I still say, if I were more of a writer, I'd spin this into one of those survivial TV programs.</p>

<p>LOL findaplace!</p>

<p>Oregon, so you're loving the Twilight series? I'm a big reader, but thought they'd be too "romance novely." I'll keep my fingers crossed for your son AND you that your mail contains a big envelope.</p>

<p>Missypie, once admissions are over we'll be agonizing over the moving, adjusting, separating...oh, and CELEBRATING the newfound free time!</p>