<p>Poop, another waitlist. At least it was at a school he wasn’t particularly interested in. 30,000 apps for 2000 spots. It’s brutal this year.</p>
<p>Amanda: After (& before) prom is always a challenge. Last year D took sweet friend from church to Jr/Sr prom. School requires before/after/transportation plans to be on file in advance, and as boy knew no one from her school, she reported that they would be going directly home afterwards. H picked them up, delivered boy home, no issues. D only learned later that “going directly home” is code for “going to have sex”. So now D. has the reputation of being a dark horse despite her otherwise straight- and-narrow image. I loved it!</p>
<p>Momdoc: I’m sorry to hear about another waitlist. They just seem to prolong the agony. It IS brutal this year.</p>
<p>Our PTA hosts an elaborate After Prom party that keeps most of the kids safe for the evening. The week after graduation most of the seniors in our county head to the beach for “Senior Week.” My daughter will be staying in a house with 5 other girls. I’ll worry all week, but I consider it a rite of passage. Amanda, a chaperoned trip sounds pretty good to me.</p>
<p>I just have a feeling it will be more than awkward to be the one guy without his date - with two middleaged women hanging around. Ds is figuring when all the action is happening, he will be hanging with two older women discussing college plans.</p>
<p>Northwestern University sent emails with links around 6 PM this evening. They had not announced an early release date and time. I saw the email and told S who just got home from baseball practice and was eating dinner. He dropped dinner and ran to the desktop in the den to logon to get his decision.</p>
<p>Northwestern said YES!</p>
<p>1 down and 7 more to go. It will be a crazy week.</p>
<p>Congrats, AvonHSDad!</p>
<p>Congratulations AvonHSDad!!!</p>
<p>D came home today to find an acceptance to her dream school USC! I am glad she got home before me, it would have been hard not to steam that package open. She is thrilled beyond belief and immediately went online to sign up for housing. hApPy DaNcE!!!</p>
<p>Congratulations to AvonHSDad!</p>
<p>Congratulations to mommylaw!</p>
<p>Congrats AvonHSDad and Mommylaw!</p>
<p>Ditto the congrats to AvonHSDad and Mommylaw! Hope there is more to come…</p>
<p>Congratulations to mommylaw!</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the congrats for Northwestern’s yes for S. It is one of his top 3 choices and it was great that he could get a yes before some of the likely rejections and bad lottery picks that will arrive over the next week. It was also one of the schools that really hadn’t provided any clues other than the basic “by March 31st/April 1st”. Now we have to endure the heartburn waiting for the FA information.</p>
<p>Here’s wishing everyone the best of luck in the coming days!</p>
<p>AwesomeX2 for AvonHSDad and Mommylaw. Great schools, great news. So happy for you both.</p>
<p>Amandakayak: I swear our boys are related. Mine says “I’m sorry” about everything. I keep saying, I’m glad that he is sorry but if he’s sorry about the same thing over and over again (like the homework/book/NHS t-shirt that I take to school) that’s a problem that needs to be fixed.</p>
<p>After prom is a problem here as well, but we have no shore (except the Missouri River). Last year, 12 kids came to our house for games, movies, food, a little sleep and breakfast with double parent supervision. If you leave the house, you don’t come back in. Only parents answer the door so that if anyone unexpected shows up, he or she can pass the sobriety test and leave all bags with us. We are the nerdy parents of geeky gifted kids, but this year the same group plus about 8 more will do the same at another house–and requested it. But that type of party will be the exception. Other parents will provide alcohol and go to bed with a house full of teenagers. The drinking parties are often pool parties but with the prom on April 9, that’s less likely.</p>
<p>Post-graduation is a lock-in, all-city event at the local college recretational center. Run by parents through community donations. Kids park in the mall parking lot and are bussed to the campus. You have to stay until the buses return at 5 a.m. Security guard watches the cars in the mall lot.</p>
<p>momdoc - sorry about the WL. It is brutal this year. I do think that the WL will see more action this year than usual. After all, the overall # of the US seniors went down this year, but most of the colleges reported 10-40% increase in the # of applications. It cant all be attributed to the rise in international applications or to the fact that more of the HS graduates apply to colleges. S goes to a strong public HS that has 7 (I think) Presidential Scholar candidates and most of them at this point have an acceptance to the state flagship and 1-2 WLs. But I cant imagine these kids not ending up in a nice university. </p>
<p>AvonHSDad Congrats! I wish your S many more acceptances, but even in the worst case scenario he will be going to a great school. Just learned that my Ss friend got accepted there as well. So if those 2 boys end up there, its the first lunch date that you can set up next year. ;)</p>
<p>Mommylaw Hooray to your D on her dream school acceptance! And to you for being done with the college selection process so fast. Happy Dance indeed. </p>
<p>Amanda I admire your sense of humor.
Sounds like a lot of fun (not!). And he has to pay for the part their hotel, etc. expenses?!</p>
<p>S was invited to Chancelllor’s reception last weekend and has been admitted to engineering program. how did you learn of CCS acceptance? S was asked to apply to CCS by a math prof at UCSB (didn’t know about it before this), so he submitted app in January, but has not yet heard anything.</p>
<p>As expected (based on earlier intelligence for CC), D was rejected at UC Berkeley today. She is the highest stat kid EVER to be rejected from UCB at her high school (according to Naviance). Fortunately she has an accept at UCLA and a likely letter from an ivy, and it wasn’t her first choice. But, it makes me wonder, particularly, when seeing the stats of kids who are accepted (also on CC), what is the probability that the application review was accurate, or even thorough? Inaccuracy doesn’t bother me for the private schools, but as a CA taxpayer, it does bother me for the UCs…</p>
<p>SOrry momdoc, WL’s can be hard. I think the app rates may be way up- D applied to 11 which I thought was high but worked for us. Fingers crossed for good news soon.<br>
Hurray for the news from AvonHSDad and Mommylaw.</p>
<p>camathmom, Berkeley and UCLA use a holistic review process, very much like many private schools. That means the review is not just based on stats, but on the whole student. It’s as unpredictable as a selective private school.</p>
<p>You know what? I say congrats to all of you, because it is evident by all of your posts how much you care about your kids, how much you have given of yourself and how much you are willing to cede control when it really matters, to let your kids grow and figure it out for themselves. I watch in wonder as my kids mature - S1 is about to graduate from Tulane and is waiting on law school admissions, D experienced a huge disappointment when she was turned down after auditioning at UT Austin for music (her 1st choice), but went on to two kick-ass auditions at Blair/Vanderbilt and Manhattan School of Music (falling in love with both schools along the way), and just found out she actually made it into Blair; S2 (age 15, HS frosh) just told me that he is reconsidering his interest in physical therapy because he thinks he’d like to “go into medicine” and become a pediatrician (he is my surprise 3rd child and a surprise straight A student - completely hyperactive as a youngster). My husband and I both came from extremely dysfunctional, broken families and although we have respectable jobs - he’s a catering chef, I’m a HS librarian - we never had the support and guidance I now know we would have needed to really pursue our dreams. My husband’s family had three straight generations of fathers who abandoned their families. My own father was a deadbeat dad and my mom just didn’t have a clue as to how to pursue success. I look at my kids and constantly shake my head in amazement. Despite our shortcomings at times, and despite our near constant financial struggles, our kids are turning out to be well adjusted, successful people. They are self motivated, don’t abuse alcohol or drugs, are kind to others and have dreams that they are pursuing. I think just growing up with the security that they are loved, that they have limits and that we are there for them is enough.</p>
<p>So to all you parents - don’t stress, take a lesson from your kids and experience the joys, disappointments, whatever, and move on knowing that you have done your job well. I work in an inner city school where kids are thrilled to get a 27 on an ACT and are nearly all the first in their families to attend college. Lots of their parents don’t attend student conferences and have no idea how to support their kids’ education and career aspirations. We’ve all done well, and hopefully our kids will reap the benefits by taking all they have learned and make this sorry old world a better place.</p>
<p>I looked at my daughter today and thought how far she had come in three months’ time, from sobbing on the phone to me when she missed All-State by one seat, and messing up from nerves a local concerto competition that she knew she could ace, to standing in front of a jury at a top NYC conservatory, confident, mature and sounding like a real musician. </p>
<p>Enjoy the rest of the spring y’all, and even if things don’t turn out exactly as you or your children have planned (darn, I won’t be going to see my daughter play in the UT Trombone Choir and won’t be able to meet her for lunch/dinner on occasion!), their futures are still brighter than most. Lucky kids, luckier parents (don’t we know it? ;D )</p>
<p>Calreader: I know the that UCB and UCLA use a “holistic” review, but I wonder how well it is done. (D also has great ECs.) I see a lot of sloppiness with the UCs, which is not surprising since they are so underfunded. Oh well, since Cal is not a top choice, it is unlikely that I will follow up with this issue.</p>