<p>FlMathMom, whatever it takes to push them into action. I’m figuring on swapping role playing for interviews with family friends. We interview their kid, they interview ours. </p>
<p>Does anyone else here lurk on the 2010 parents thread to see what’s around the bend for us? Since I confessed there, I’ll also confess here that I look at the college subforums for schools that D1 is interested in.</p>
<p>slitheytove-guilty on both accounts here also!</p>
<p>Hello, new to CC and this forum. CC is extremely scary, all the kids sound just amazing. Yikes! My son goes to a tiny quirky school (2 kids in his graduating class) that doesn’t give grades, so I am somewhat freaked out.</p>
<p>Haven’t check out the parents 2010 thread
but have checked out some info on some college threads</p>
<p>and has anyone but me been reading the college newspapers online…
pretty telling/interesting
there is alot about a schools culture that you can read/see in a the newspaper…</p>
<p>still have yet to get kiddo online to dig into some of this–waaaay too busy right now…
and my thought is when?</p>
<p>Acck! Should juniors be lining up college interviews already? (and why did I let my son get a mohawk yesterday?!) We’ve done a couple of campus tours, but I figured interviews would be in the fall. Aren’t most admins busy with seniors right now?</p>
<p>Guilty on almost all counts. I haven’t looked at 2010 forum, but will now. Great idea. I have several friends w/seniors so I get the scoop firsthand.</p>
<p>Slithey - love the idea of swapping kids (Can we make it permanent?? Just kidding.) </p>
<p>relaxmom - don’t worry. Your child will be fine. All of ours jumped in the pool and are swimming. We are all here to support one another.</p>
<p>SDMomof3, when I talked to Pomona they were very discouraging on Juniors interviewing, said they often matured so much before the fall of the senior year and that lots of seniors who interviewed in junior spring called back and asked them to disregard the interview!</p>
<p>relaxmom-My S is a Junior. We live in FL but will be visiting schools in GA, MA, CA next week & during Spring Break in order to identify where S wants to apply. Since we have a very limited # of days my S can take off from school, we have to do our visits now (or never). The admissions people have been very welcoming and helpful setting up class visits and informal meetings with them and profs in areas of interest.</p>
<p>Thanks relaxmom, thats kind of what I was thinking. S had a lax tournament over spring break, so we won’t be visiting any more colleges until the summer. As long as the mohawk is gone by senior portrait time in August, I am OK with it.</p>
<p>We are doing California colleges over spring break but can fly back for an interview in fall if it seems important. Otherwise he will be visiting in New England which is where we live.</p>
<p>We have spring break at the end of March and will be in the NE…the only time our student can take off…and depending on summer commitments (sport and volunteer) may not get any more visits in …
unless we use the last week or two of summer break to see schools before fall term…</p>
<p>our student was out for 2 days earlier int he month for a n’tl sport thing and it was terrible trying to take AP cal early and make up AP chem coming back etc…</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter was slammed with official visits in the fall–leaving Thursday eve and being away on weekends for sports or visits–her fall was crazy. </p>
<p>Don’t want to be doing that as it hits the grades too hard</p>
<p>fogfog-our only time to do visits is in the 2 weeks right before school starts up . Planning a whirlwind tour of some MW LACs. Will also do some Friday visits to a few schools closer to home in the fall and MAY fly out to do a visit to a couple schools that I don’t feel like driving 14 hours to visit! It is going to be a hectic fall.</p>
<p>We’re pretty much in the same boat. Was hoping to do a few college visits over spring break, but it’s now looking like that will not be possible, so the next window of opportunity is late summer/early fall before school starts. My guess is that son will end up applying to some schools “blind” and do post-admit visits if he gets in. Not optimal, but he just seems to have gotten himself overbooked. And it doesn’t help that he still doesn’t really want to think about colleges until junior year is done. But at least he’s getting his testing out of the way, so I’m trying my best not to be too neurotic about it (a challenge for a NY, NY parent).</p>
<p>We went to a FA presentation at D1’s school. Nothing I didn’t already know, but the fellow did suggest keeping a separate calendar that was just dates relating to college apps: application deadlines, interviews, scholarship/FA deadlines, and so forth. That sounded useful.</p>
<p>We are in NY metropolitan area as well and my son’s head is really not there yet either - colleges etc just don’t seem real to him. Thank goodness psats and sats are over.</p>
<p>More crafts last night…this was a foam board depicting the travels of Huck and Jim. It ended up cute (I helped by cutting out construction paper hats for Huck, the Duke and the Dauphin) but BOY what a tremendous waste of time!</p>
<p>ACT tutoring starts next week.</p>
<p>slitheyTove - I agree - even a negative opinion is progress. D had been very high on Tufts, but after the tour and the fact that Tufts insists on two years of a foreign language, she might not care to apply.</p>
<p>D is signed up to take the ACT in april. Also signed up for the online ACT course. So far, nothing has happened on these fronts. She’s right now in Chicago, checking out schools there. Talked to her briefly last night - and she seems very positive about Northwestern. Visiting UChicago today.</p>
<p>We’ve a couple more schools that we’d like to visit - might take in one or two during the next break in April. Due to geography and time, she might have to apply sight unseen to a couple. Not the greatest - but I am sure it will work out.</p>
<p>relaxmon - Just a few thoughts. If your S is willing, set aside one hour a week to talk about colleges. First chat could be to discuss the type of school he thinks might appeal to him. Following week you could talk about different careers and majors. There are loads of articles and books that can help you with this. </p>
<p>From there, using his PSAT or SAT scores and grades you could put together a list of 20-25 schools to look at. Pick one of the college sites or books that reviews all the schools and review a few colleges a week. Hopefully your son will start to get into it. Even if he doesn’t, he will start identifying his likes/dislikes. He will be able to narrow his list down to a manageable level in no time.</p>
<p>He could also be putting together his ‘resume’ which he will use to fill out his apps. Starting in 9th grade, he lists all his classes, grades, test scores, ECs. The Internet has plenty of samples. He could identify the teachers he will be asking to write recommendations and give them a ‘heads up’ before the end of school.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove-S started the calendar altho he’s using Excel so he can put it all on one page. Separate list of contact info with school name, person’s name, title, phone, snail & email addresses, etc. My S is finally learning the value of organization, not just doing it b/c I said to. Keeps folders by school on computer with correspondence to/from each in folders. Also backs up up regularly now that important stuff is on PC! This entire college app process is truly an amazing journey. Such an opportunity for growth in so many ways. I treasure it.</p>
<p>FlMathMom - my teenage son doesn’t talk to me about anything! If yours does, you are doing great! Maybe these visits to California colleges will excite him. He goes to a tiny quirky school. Very progressive. There are no grades, gpa, rankings, etc. (And almost no EC’s offered). But I will update his resume, that is a good idea.</p>