<p>I just got the mail and now have three envelopes in hand with College return addresses. All are from colleges where son has been accepted. Two should be financial aid information, one is from Elon and I’m assuming it has the official Congratulations paperwork. Son heard from them first via e-mail. Unlike some of your kids, my son is not very territorial about college info and has still not mastered opening an envelope without ripping it apart. In other words, he wouldn’t care if I opened them. But I’m waiting. I do not like waiting.</p>
<p>I also appreciate the AP advice. Our high school is currently evaluating our AP classes, weighting of courses and discussing why kids choose not to take the AP test. I think the reasons regarding their future colleges use of the credits is spot on. Some of the school board directors just think the kids are wimping out when they don’t take them but if the kids know that none of the credits will be accepted, it makes little sense to spend the money and take the test. In our school, you still have to take a final or do a final project after the AP test.</p>
<p>omg, omg, omg For jollies I have been checking the school S is most likely to attend daily to see if they have made the final merit awards. He got an additional award which brings the total merit up to about the cost of tuition and we only have to pay a little more than R&B!!! yeah, yeah, yeah.</p>
<p>Hooray for mamom son! Hoping for big $$ for Kathiep
Most kids at our HS take the APs even if they do not want to use the credits in college; sort of a cultural thing in the school even though parents pay. D will take all calc and science again in college. we are on block system and she is ahead, so she’s not going into college DiffEQ 1.5 years after Calc BC! She can skip as many english and history as she likes though.
Fun night with the gals planned and some warmer weather = smile on my face. Still anxious about Ds sporting event this weekend and March 30, but will do my best to push it aside.</p>
<p>Mamom: Fabulous news!! I love to hear about a good school and good $$.</p>
<p>kathiep: Congrats on the Elon acceptance for your son! One of my son’s best buddies is headed there next year. I really liked Elon when we visited, but it didn’t make the final list here.</p>
<p>As for AP’s, kids at our high school are required to take the AP exam if they’ve signed up for the class. I know from S1 that S2 will use few of the AP scores to opt out of classes. I think S1 got out of some required English courses, but that was it. S2 will probably be in a similar situation. I just wrote the big check (over $500)-- and winced when I wrote it because I knew that he really wouldn’t use the scores to get out of much of anything.</p>
<p>Congrats Mamom!!! Love that good news!
Kathiep - You don’t even want to take a little peek? I mean, half my mail comes preopened due to some machine, or how my mailman shoves it in the box, or steps on it, or snuffs out his cigar on it…(me and my mailman, we have issues)
Why is it that when I go to the mailbox, it’s all junk? No merit $$, no acceptance letter, damn. Wish he had applied to more colleges RD so we could get in on this “fun.”</p>
<p>Ds may have heard a word or two this afternoon from the irritable cranky 40-something unpaid college counselor about his lack of purpose and procrastination-as-a-lifestyle-choice. I mean, if it was Great Expectations, the Odyssey…I can understand putting off the inevitable. But this is effort for monetary reward. Why he doesn’t get it is beyond me. He’s upstairs playing his blues away on the alto sax and damn he does sound good, he is a good kid, just scattered. But, I am tired giving him the benefit of the doubt all the time and excusing his behavior away while I am at it…he’d make a fine politician - he has this way about smiling and apologizing and walking all over you. Not sure if this is senioritis or whether he really needs to be given some tough love.</p>
<p>Mamom, thanks for checking on sb. She pushed herself to go to school today even though I thought she should stay home. </p>
<p>At 11 she called to say that she was really sorry but she felt exhausted, headachey and unable to focus, and would I come pick her up. </p>
<p>Of course I did, and on the way home explained that sometimes it’s better to get that extra day of rest and really recover, than to go back too soon, expend what little energy you have, and set yourself back.</p>
<p>She said, “I’ll remember that and I’m really sorry…I just thought I could make it.”</p>
<p>Hard to be mad when a kid is apologetic and agreeable. She’s back in bed and sound asleep. Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.</p>
<p>Kinderny, we love Meet Me in St Louis! (And, being old-house people, we love their house and the one next door!)</p>
<p>Amanda, in my view that is a 4-point scale. My d has a 4.3 on a 4-point scale. The weighting of certain courses doesn’t affect the main scale. At least that’s how our (excellent) GC explained it to me.</p>
<p>mamom: How awesome is that news! Wonderful.</p>
<p>Kathiep: maybe you should buy your son a fancy letter opener for graduation.</p>
<p>Great meeting with the principal this morning about the gifted program and my vision/passion. She is awesome. I may be hanging out at the school next year even with no children there.</p>
<p>Mom arrived safely–10 minutes early. She was coming out of the gate area just as I got there. Very proud of her to overcome her anxiety about traveling. We stopped by to see older son at work on the way home. And now she is sound asleep! Four generations at our house for dinner tonight. Amazing.</p>
<p>Poor little songbird!! It’s hard to get through a school day feeling bad. Good thing she called you.</p>
<p>On the 4 vs 5 scale, ds (oh, I mean ME, on HIS email posing as him) sent the scholarship people a quick email giving them unweighted and weighted GPA with a short explanation of how it’s calculated - he had changed the scale to 5.0 after I went to bed, and then submitted it. He’ll be lucky to get any of these scholarships given how little he can communicate lately. Everything seems to be a re-hash of an old essay that has lost all semblance of being from a bright passionate person. He has become a shell of himself these last months. Don’t know if it is the process doing him in or senioritis, or he really is this shallow politician.</p>
<p>Opened the envelopes. We have a new second place winner in the low cost category (not Elon, BTW)! BUT - a day’s drive each way if we are to visit! We’re already planning to go to what was the second place low cost winner, which is almost a day’s drive in another direction. Oh my! Son is pretty laid back about the whole thing and has no problem just waiting to see how all the finaid pans out, but I know that there are just so many days that would work for visits and there are a couple that he hasn’t visited or saw in the summer sans students.</p>
<p>LOL. I made the mistake of replying to an email a dept head sent S about a scholarship he won. I thanked him for the scholarship. Wouldn’t you know he replied back and we had our own little conversation going for a few days. I couldn’t get S to reply and I felt obligated to continue writing. Never, ever again.</p>
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<p>woohoo! Hope you are able to fit in a visit.</p>
<p>OWM - glad your Mom arrived safely. Sounds like the gifted program will be a reality!</p>
<p>MOSB - hope D gets rested up and feels better Friday.</p>
<p>Amanda - I hope it is all good for the rest of the month. Big letters coming - give that mailman a workout.</p>
<p>It’s only been a day–but I am hopelessly behind on well wishing and aw-shucksing. This group has a lot of new info. Glad to see some new de-lurkers and know that SB is taking it easy (sort of) and answers are coming for many. I know I’ve skipped some great acceptances about a zillion pages ago. Please forgive.</p>
<p>I’ll just jump into the madly rushing river of news and congratulate the kids of mamom and kathiep for earning extra $$ for merit. How lovely! I’m currently at the stage where (here it is–mid-March) I must now adjust to S2’s great luck with college acceptances so far and move to the next stage of fear (grief?)–how to pay for it. Decisions for his not-quite-a-secret first choice college and, more insanely, into a 3% acceptance major are rumored to be coming tomorrow. These talent-based admissions are impossible to call but even if his great streak continues–he wasn’t in the running for their top $ merit awards. ACK! (Where is “Cathy” when you need her?) </p>
<p>So I appreciate all those who are in the same boat–wishing our kids get into their top choices but wondering if the buck will be stopping here. And I am practicing the art of positive thinking while I still can. :)</p>