Parents of the HS Class of 2011 - Original

<p>I don’t see the point in making the kids personally make appointments for college visits or interviews. All of these are done through secretaries or on-line anyway. I like doing College research and figuring out logistics. When it comes to talking in person, and deciding if he really wants to visit, I let my son take over, but not for basic secretarial and research stuff.</p>

<p>Cross-posted with Missypie. Great minds…!</p>

<p>I agree that parents can make travel arrangements. CC seems to attract some people who like to say that everything must be done their way. </p>

<p>My daughter plays three varsity sports, takes 4 APs, has church activities once or twice a week and plays the violin. My job is to take care of my family. What works for us is for me to make travel arrangements and do standardized test registrations; almost everything is done online anyway, so colleges cannot possibly care whether she or I was the one at the computer making the arrangements. She has given me all the codes I need and is grateful for my help. Other families can do this differently; our approach works for us.</p>

<p>She will be completing her own applications and writing her own essays!</p>

<p>Nickenzie, my kids’ high school doesn’t weight GPA. It uses the grades from all classes when determining GPA and class rank. We’ve never bothered with recalculating. It really wouldn’t make much of a difference, though, for my kids. I would check the websites of the colleges in which your student is interested to see if they indicate whether they recalculate GPA dropping non-core classes.</p>

<p>Add me to those who do the college researching. I made suggestions to my oldest on schools to which he might want to apply and he then went through the departmental websites to see which ones he ultimately was interested in. He scheduled alumni interviews. He didn’t do college visits until he was accepted and had free fly-backs.</p>

<p>^^ Have to agree with many of you…
my role as executive secretary is fine…</p>

<p>Our student handles a heavy academic schedule, varsity sport and other responsibilities–
I recently saw a piece of paper with details of what had to be done what day–and what was due etc…Prepping for the ACT, the SAT2s, the APs and finals…and then the SAT in June…pulllease.
This kid keeps a heavier schedule than most adults I know! And I think most JRs are all in the same boat…</p>

<p>Our kids need sleep and there is no “prize” for sorting mail… :rolleyes:</p>

<p>The research/culling the mail and junk,
and making travel plans - booking/registrering for campus visits
can be handled by me–
If I leave the mail to be sorted–it will sit for weeks and weeks–and frankly many of these schools are no-where on the radar…and wont be.</p>

<p>Hoping to hear more about the current Srs/2010 class and where they decide to go…
Interestingly a few have passed on higher tier schools for better financial safeties…and I think thats all good news for everyone.</p>

<p>So what is everyone doing tonight in the pre-ACT mode?
I bought a couple of sides of salmon and stuff to make a good salad etc. Want our student to eat, relax and get some sleep.</p>

<p>Oh–and apple pie for dessert!</p>

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<p>First D wasn’t going to see her BF at all. Now it’s an early dinner, then coming back to our house to watch a movie. I told her it has to end EARLY!</p>

<p>Pre-ACT? hoping the fever drops by the morning; daughter was home sick today…this really stinks…</p>

<p>Sorry to hear that rodney, it does stink!</p>

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<p>True, it really helps to know the basics of what they’ll feel comfortable with. </p>

<p>For D2, she prefers a college that is bigger than her HS and likes a city or suburbn environment over rural. So this doesn’t completely rule out all LACs, but I’m taking the ones that are in small towns and relatively isolated off the list. Too bad, as some of these have potential merit aid, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort if they aren’t going to work out in the end anyway.</p>

<p>Sorry to hear about your student & fever Rodney. Maybe tons of juice/seltzer etc…
Hope it passes by morning. I think there is an ACT in June (?) if your student is too sick–perhaps they will let you reschedule?</p>

<p>thanks…i’m not that concerned about rescheduling; she was probably going to take it again in June anyway… but she was more than ready…hoping it breaks tonight…giving her ice chips</p>

<p>rodney - Sorry to hear about your daughter. It’s a good thing that there is still time for another try.</p>

<p>Rodney, hope your D feels better soon. Good luck to everyone else’s D’s & S’s taking the Act Sat.</p>

<p>Here’s hoping that your daughter feels better soon Rodney, and good luck to everyone else’s kids for ACT Sat!</p>

<p>We’re going to be visiting a satellite campus of PSU tomorrow - only 4,000 students instead of the 40,000 on main campus!</p>

<p>arisamp, I feel your pain. Rochester is also on D1’s radar (after some parental nudging, helped by a friend visiting and raving about the school), but D1 will have the summer to find out more about the school before she visits at the end of the summer. I like to have D1 do whatever scheduling she can, though sometimes she just can’t manage it. The more pressing issue is being able to go into the interview knowing at least a few things about the school, reasons your D would like to attend. How about if you give her some resources to read? Say, the summaries in a college guide or two so she gets some flavor. Maybe look at something on other student review websites. The U Roch forum here on CC has some wonderful posts about “why Rochester”; copy those and forward them on to your D. Have her take a quick look at the Rochester website, not comprehensively but just a few things. That’s an hour of prep, tops. Then in the interview, she can talk about things she already likes, and also say that she’s not had time to research more about the school but that she’s really enthused with what she’s heard/read so far. </p>

<p>Good luck to all the ACT test-takers this weekend!</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone’s offspring on the April ACTs tomorrow. </p>

<p>kathiep, hope you have a good visit to the PSU satellite tomorrow. My OOS D and I ventured to Happy Valley in February. She’s enthralled with the whole Littany Lion mystique. From what I’ve heard, some of the satellites have quite a bit to offer. </p>

<p>I’m with the poster farther upthread who views her role as an “Executive Secretary.” You hear so much about how our students need to “own the process”…but there are only so many hours in the day and the focus now is to do everything they can to be worthy candidates. I feel torn as this is my second tour of duty and I was hands on for my S, but that was when applications had less of an online presence.</p>

<p>Good luck to all the test takers tomorrow :slight_smile: Ds is sitting the ACT out, in favor of the May SAT date-----ACT is not commonly taken here, though his school is a testing site.</p>

<p>Junior here, never planned on and never will take the ACT. Took the SAT twice and taking SAT IIs in May. Good luck to all taking the ACT tomorrow.</p>

<p>My son isn’t taking it, but I do wish the best of luck to all who are. He did, however, see his gc today and had a list of colleges he was interested in. He’d chosen UC Berkeley as his safety (even though we live in NYC) and she wanted him to choose a few more. She said she didn’t doubt that he wouldn’t be accepted to any of the 7 schools on his list, but that in our school, all students choose about 11. Whatever happened to 2 dream schools, 2 reaches and 2 safeties? Or did I imagine it, since I could’ve sworn someone told me it looked bad if a person applied to too many schools? </p>

<p>I do apologize if there is a previous thread on this topic…the search button is uncooperative.</p>

<p>^ Lol UC Berkeley as a safety and OOS as well? Sounds a bit presumptuous.</p>

<p>I know, it is a bit presumptuous. I don’t know where he got the idea that the UC schools are California’s version of our SUNY schools, which is why he chose Berkeley. I’ve mentioned SUNY Binghamton and Stonybrook quite a few times, but he hasn’t heard me yet. Eight more months of this college business, sigh!</p>

<p>Nickenzie, We visited PSU main campus at the end of the summer and son loved the IST program there, but was not enthralled with the size. I think he wants the IST program combined with the feel of the smaller LAC’s we’ve visited.</p>