<p>I am also in the '15 class. But at least I am a lot more informed this time.</p>
<p>amandakayak - Thanks. Armed with this Facebook as evidence, I think I will wait until the college cashes the deposit check before asking if they count it. </p>
<p>I know you all gave excellent quoting tutorials so how do you make those smiley faces?</p>
<p>Okay, still no luck on the quoting. Thanks for the help, rom. Do I need to type out
[/quote]
at the end? Not sure why this is not working for me. I’m out of time to play with this today. I fear I’ll be the last to know how to do this. Maybe that will be fitting, though. I might just be the last one on the SS Indecision, too.</p>
<p>OWM: What a wonderful resource you’ll be to those kids!</p>
<p>**The SS Indecision left port on April 1st.</p>
<p>The ship will stop in many ports this month with the last port call scheduled in 11 days when all final commitments to schools are due. The Cruise Director and his activities crew will be holding a special “Make A Decision” musical presentation in the teen center this weekend for those passengers who haven’t decided which port is best for disembarkation. For parents, we will be holding a special Bingo tournament with the top prize two airline tickets to the city of your choice for parent’s weekend.**</p>
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<p>I think it’s been suggested to flip a coin, since when the right one comes up they are happy and when the wrong one comes up they want to flip again! Psychology at work!</p>
<p>Congrats to those disembarking! I’m looking forward to dry land soon. If I can ever get DH and DS together to do the final discussion. It’s really a done deal, but DS can’t finalize the paperwork until we all sit down for the money discussion! We need him to know what his stake in this is (he knows, but doesn’t know as you can guess of a 17 year old).</p>
<p>Thanks to EmmyBet, fogfog, momdoc, holliesue, kinderny, amandakayak, psychmama, AvonHSDad, 2education, kathiep, ohiomom and olderwisermom for your kind comments. I appreciate each of them.
I am really relieved we have disembarked.</p>
<p>Congrats to Momofzach!
MyLB, that must be a sign, lol.</p>
<p>Pepper, Amanda & GaMom–I’m right there with you. It’s one reason I used the name I did–2015 for D1 graduating college and D2 graduating HS. I think we will be on a whole other route the next time, though! D2 has LD issues so the hunt will focus on where he can succeed! I’ll be looking for those schools that don’t use SAT scores, because D2 can tell you anything you ask about the subject, but has such difficulty passing tests I don’t see much hope in him learning those skills well enough to do well on SAT/ACT tests!</p>
<p>How many of you know what “4/20” is? My youngest mentioned it last night and the older two totally knew what it was. I had never heard of that “holiday” before. Jeez, I’m so out of it.</p>
<p>Even though school isn’t out until early June, D only has three days of real classes left! When the legislature mandated the school start date a few years ago, of course AP tests didn’t move. But because of the later start date, the manditory state testing was moved, so now it is the week before APs start. Since it’s during testing week, there aren’t supposed to be any other activities, so AP reviews have to be off campus and aren’t supposed to involve the teacher. By senior year, virtually everyone is done with the state testing. So D will have most of next week off, then the AP weeks, then whatever they do in AP classes once the tests are over.</p>
<p>We had a nice surprise last night; it was our high school soccer team’s end-of-season awards picnic. Certain awards are voted on by the players, and DS was voted MVP for varsity. That was nice, but not a complete surprise because he’s been a captain for two years and he is definitely the leader of the team. The big surprise was that he was also voted by the coaches of the seven schools in our district to First Team All-District. A coach cannot vote for his own players. Our high school team did not have a very good season at all because of some untimely injuries and a couple of kids quit right in the middle of the season. Instead of getting to play goalie full-time like he did last year, DS played on the field quite a bit, and in fact ended up as the second leading goal-scorer for this season. Kind of an odd stat for your goalie to have. So, it was a mixed-up season this year and to be voted First Team was a big surprise.</p>
<p>missy, I have no idea what “4/20” is . . .</p>
<p>momofzach check here re smilies [College</a> Confidential - Smilies](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies)
Can we wait to use those airline tickets so we can be sure they will be for a city our students AREN’T in?</p>
<p>I grew up and spent most of my life in Calif. Yep, 420 has been in my lexicon since the 90s or so. I am guessing D does not know as she is more into nerdy stuff than stoner stuff.</p>
<p>^ lol, kinderny!</p>
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<p>momofzach - That is a very very funny visual!</p>
<p>Pepper - D finally looked at the Shutterfly pages this AM (even though she thinks we are all crazy) and perked right up when she saw that your S is attending NEU.</p>
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<p>Whatever floats your boat - nautically speaking, that is. 
Actually, the prize will be a voucher for two tickets anywhere you want to go - college town or the other way!</p>
<p>Definitely the other way. :D</p>
<p>[420</a> Meaning: The True Story Of How April 20 Became ‘Weed Day’](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>420 Meaning: The True Story Of How April 20 Became 'Weed Day' | HuffPost Latest News)</p>
<p>cgpm59 - What a nice surprise!! Congrats to your ds!
And I have no idea what 420 is - over to google for a look see.
Today is “buy a car for the kids” day - since ds’ car (grandpa’s handmedown) went kapoof. Figure we should buy a good solid teen driver car since we will have 4 kids running through a car. Grandpa’s clunker would’ve never held up to 4 kids. Anyway, test drove a Jetta, Honda civic and fit. Right now, I’m pushing for the Fit. Anyone have any suggestions out there for small/good/cheap/reliable/safe cars?</p>
<p>I will be with you HS 2015s too. We are taking a break, though, from all things college as soon as D is launched. I need a mental health recess, but am glad to be on the next journey with some familiar faces. </p>
<p>S is just as bright as D, but is not as passionate about learning. He will not be shooting for the tippy top schools and I am THRILLED. These last 18 or so months have been so stressful for D because of her goals. Her peers that are aiming elsewhere are enjoying themselves so much more in their senior years. S will still need to work hard and I know we will have moments with him, but seeing his sister’s ridiculous efforts and accomplishments be met with only mixed (in her opinion, not mine) results has shifted his perspective. No double digit APs for him!</p>
<p>D’s accepted students weekend at Finalist 1 went well. We have tee-shirts and decals at the ready, but will wait until next week’s visit to Finalist 2 for a final decision. Then there are the 2 waitlist schools… UGH! </p>
<p>Anybody know if college National Merit money is announced before May 1? Finalist 1 has about 10 kids that get some (although it might be targeted for URM, which is not D) and we were told Monday that it was not yet determined. A little cash would be a factor at this point ;)…</p>
<p>cgpm: From one soccer mom to another, congratulations! Love it when one of our kids get the recognition he deserves, but the surprise element makes it extra-special!</p>
<p>amandak: Our “kid car” is a Civic. We seriously considered the Fit, too, but they weren’t willing to negotiate at all on those. I also liked that the Civic was a little bigger, just in case of a crash.</p>
<p>We bought our kids a Huyndai Elantra.</p>