<p>mamabear1234 - Hey, our kids must have been on the same trip! D had a great time and is contemplating next year…on to test prep!</p>
<p>fineartsmajormom - Your reunion sound like a blast from the past! So much fun. I was recently contacted by my HS friends and we are getting together towards the end of the summer. It has been years since we have seen each other. By your name, I am assuming that you have gone thru the portfolio process…we just finished it with D1…and yes, she also is at an expensive school. D2 will not be going through the portfolio process and I am very relieved!</p>
<p>Our College Search has just become more interesting! D has my H’s GI Bill to use as well as Florida Prepaid and if instate Bright futures, I just fund out two of the schools we have yet to look at Rollins & U of Miami will meet all remaining need after the GI Bill so D would be refunded, the prepaid and bright futures monies…now we just have to see if one of those two schools can win her heart :)</p>
<p>We got the bill for S3 for the insurance and it was only an extra $80 for the year. Of course we already pay a lot, both of our cars are old, we have 2 cars and 5 drivers, and 3 of them are teenagers. We got a little discount since D1 and S2 are away at school a lot of the time.</p>
<p>Longs, what great news. I called today about ds1’s Texas guaranteed tuition plan. We couldn’t afford one for ds2 and haven’t touched it for ds1 so we’re hoping to roll it over when the time comes.</p>
<p>Insurance for ds2 wasn’t as bad as I feared. He spend part of this evening doing an online course to knock $57 off the cost.</p>
<p>Last day of summer vacation here. Junior year officially begins at 7:30am tomorrow. D2 had a scheduling snafu which she solved to the best of her ability; not ideal but workable and really affecting just one class. She hasn’t heard back from the GC, but she was told it should work. Hoping I don’t start off Thursday with one of “those” phone calls.</p>
<p>She has been diligent about working on her college list: 1 a day and doubling up when she’s had to miss a day. The kid is brutal: nothing smaller than her HS, anything super preppy and/or super Greek is immediately off. The sea of red on the spreadsheet is astounding. Good news is that she’ll have a very manageable list when she’s done. Will make planning visits easier too.</p>
<p>I have to pick up S2’s schedule for him tomorrow since he’s working. He found out a couple weeks ago that he had not been registered for show choir, which means that his whole schedule is messed up. He and I had sat down with the GC last spring to plan his schedule which now seems like a big waste of time. At least I know that she made notes in his file, so I can appeal to that if she gives us a hard time making changes. Ah, bureaucracy!!!</p>
<p>RobD
My son is making progress on crossing off colleges too! In addition to his no colder than home rule, he has now crossed off all schools whose state has a boring name – Iowa, Ohio, Georgia have all been nixed. At first I thought he was joking. Oh well, Oberlin looked like a fit to me, but I’m not complaining because his list was far too widespread. </p>
<p>Counting down to our trip in 2 weeks. We’re seeing 3 urban schools that have “some green” campuses. If he doesn’t like them then it will knock off all urban since he knocked off schools like Drexel/Temple/Penn. </p>
<p>He has also looked at the Common Application site and has added schools without supplement requirements.</p>
<p>LOL about the boring state name D is on the Ohio portion of the list as of yesterday. I think she examines Oberlin tomorrow which in her mind is at the top. But she’s ruthless and if it doesn’t meet her criteria then it will be red. </p>
<p>I haven’t been terribly surprised by most of her decisions. I thought Mizzou would have stayed on the list but no. And she was quite amusing when discussing eating clubs at Princeton (also off the list.) After vetting 26 schools only 6 are green, 7 are yellow and 13 are red. 11 more schools to look at. 5 of those I’m pretty sure are going to be red, and 4 or 5 should be green. She’s going to do another pass at the yellow schools and read their profile on the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) listing to decide if they go red or green. I’m thinking she should have a well thought out list of about 12-15 schools by September 1st.</p>
<p>I think that’s great progress, Rob! It’s funny that ds2 has had a list pretty much set for a year. He’s tweaked around the edges, but it’s so much easier this time around because he knows what he wants to study so it’s a matter of finding places he likes that have that emphasis. In fact, I hope we’re not narrowing his list too much too soon!</p>
<p>I’ve given up trying to engage my son in the college process at the moment. I gave him 3 extremely dissimilar colleges to look at, Kutztown, Hiram, and Emerson and asked which one he liked best. He determined that since academically they were pretty much the same ??? he liked Emerson the best because he liked their dorms.</p>
<p>I’m starting to work on a college spreadsheet for D. I’ve got separate columns for acceptance rate and female acceptance rate. (NCES College Navigator provides breakdowns for male/female acceptance rates.) </p>
<p>My interpretation is that any non-tech school that has a higher male acceptance rate is purposely giving an admissions advantage to males in order to keep the male/female ratio within a desired range, since girls tend to have higher grades. Sometimes there is a 3-4% difference in acceptance rates one way or the other. </p>
<p>But I was absolutely shocked by the Ithaca College numbers. Female acceptance rate 48%, male acceptance rate 97%!!! The male acceptance rate is fully double the female acceptance rate, for an overall acceptance rate of 69%. The male/female ratio is 44/56, which is closer to even than a lot of the smaller schools without engineering schools.</p>
<p>LOL HeavyLidded! She did help one of her friends start a spreadsheet, but most of them want no part of the process yet. For a few it’s because an older sibling just graduated this past year or is a senior this year & they’re sick of hearing about college. A few others don’t know where to start. Some know that they’ll be going to one of the 3 state schools that 50% of our hs ultimately attends. </p>
<p>reeinaz: Emerson is one of the 5 green schools on D’s list as well. </p>
<p>saachi: that’s crazy about the Ithaca split! I never thought to look at female/male acceptance rates. Hmmmm</p>
<p>Got S2’s schedule all figured out today. I found out that his GC retired and the new GC had no idea that all kids in the show choir also had to be registered for the varsity choir. But she was very nice and made all the changes he needed. So, junior year schedule is (remember he’s in an arts magnet!):</p>
<p>English 3
PreCalculus
Show Choir
Directing for the Stage (2 hr class)
Varsity Choir
AP US History
Physics
Theatre Production</p>
<p>He’s finally reached the point where he has more arts classes than academic classes - just the way he likes it.</p>
<p>Today was supposed to be ds2’s last day at the internship, but – surprise! – he wants to keep working. His new last day will be next Thursday. That’s only one day off before he starts school on the 22nd. Two interns leave this week, so I think he likes the idea of being the last man standing of the HS interns. :)</p>
<p>Anyone who is interested in the NY tri-state area schools, we are starting our visits next week. My D is still not in optimal condition after this whole lyme scare as her bp drops severely when she stands (she’s having an ACTH stim test and a tilt test today). We STILL are unsure of where she will be going to school this year (I NEVER thought I’d ever be in this position!). Divorce kills you financially for sure. My D would like to do her gap year this year as she has a lot of projects upcoming that school might not let her take off from if she does attend (fingers cross she will be better).</p>
<p>We will be doing NYU, Columbia, Fordham U, Fashion Institute of Technology (as a red herring - I went there and back then it was 2 yrs; now it is 4 and I can’t speak higher about their journalism and photography programs let alone the kids with all the talent in the fashion, textile,jewelery, and interior design progs - they’ve also added a lot more). University of Chicago (my d’s reach) is coming to our area to speak as well. Then we will hit Yale, Trinity, Quinnipiac, CT College, UCONN; then the MA schools. </p>
<p>medavinci: good luck with the tests. I had similar blood pressure issues and the tilt table test was inconclusive although the dr. was able to manually measure the blood pressure drop when doing from laying down to sitting to standing. Have they done a cortisol tolerance test? Could be adrenal insufficiency. But I’m not a dr. Just know what I know from experience.</p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear your take on Columbia. It remains on her list (yellow) although I don’t think the city setting will work for her. </p>
<p>Day 1 of junior year complete with no major issues. We’ll see how today goes. As I mentioned this morning, when she gets home this afternoon only 178 school days left till she’s a senior ;)</p>
<p>megpmom, your S’s schedule made me think of a question: How do colleges view a Fine Arts focused transcript if your child decides not to persue Fine Arts? My D has been heavily involved in Music & musical theatre for most of her life. In HS so far she has taken Advanced Show Choir every semester for 3 years, Advanced Drama one semester & AP Music Theory this year. She has had 2 years of Latin & 3 APs so far. The school requires two electives every semester & this year AP Music theory was offered. I guess I would rather have her involved in music than random electives.</p>
<p>RobD thank you for your input. My d had the acth stim test today and she had cortisol measured once a month ago in the am but that was normal. It doesn’t mean a thing because she is very stressed out right now for sure and during the day and night things could change. Instead of the 24 hr urine test, the endocrinologist decided to do the acth stim (my dog had the same test when he was alive as he had cushing’s disease). I have a thickened adrenal gland as well - stress in this house right now is at an all time high. What can go wrong is going wrong. Her blood pressure during an orthostatic test was 88/56 when standing, but normal while sitting and laying down. However,during the period where the lyme disease was being treated with the 22 meds it dropped to 70/49 and she was couldn’t get out of bed. After several other dr’s opinions, they felt not only was the treatment criminal, but it was not true lyme (they are trying to find a better test). You need 5 IGG bands and a positive western blot vs 3 IGM bands (which she had) and a negative western blot. The lab explanations are mind-boggling. But the treatment should only be one antibiotic 100mg doxycycline not 400mg and not 1000mg of another antibiotic, anti-malaria and anti-fungal pills plus activated charcoal. They have shut this dr’s center down sadly I could have lost my d’s life. And he was highly respected. You just never know.</p>
<p>As for Columbia, my d really doesn’t want to consider it because they don’t have any of the majors she is thinking about, but she does do a lot of work with the Millennium Development Goals, sustainability and the Mill Villages Project that is part of their Earth Institute… She really wants to study broadcast journalism and political science/foreign service so Georgetown is her first pick. I agree, the neighborhood is not the best, as with most ivies. U of P, Yale, terrible neighborhoods - my husband and brother went to both schools. I absolutely hated living in Philly when he was in grad school (2 yrs) and would rather have lived in Jakarta (where we were sent right after). </p>
<p>Socialdramamama I wouldn’t worry at all. My d has done theater since age 4, and continued in summers and through high school, and she also took a cappella, bel canto, and was the lead singer in the advanced musical improv group at her school (she was the only girl), and it will show a passion. As long as she keeps her core courses, she is fine. The head of my d’s school advised the same thing - do not take geology, micro or macro economics, marine biology as electives - stay with the music as it is more interesting on the resume. I trust him implicitly. Now changing schools my d may not have as many opportunities as she did when in private, but we will have to think positively once we determine where she will wind up. </p>
<p>socialdramamama: My older D (class of 2010) was also at theatre student at the performing arts magnet. She took the same classes as S2. She took a couple more APs than he is going to, just because she was interested in the material. I think she graduated with 7 APs. She had no problem with college acceptances - American U, Boston U, SMU, TCU, Muhlenberg. She is a double major in musical theatre and history. Since my kids are at a magnet school, most of their classmates have similar schedules, and only about 20% major in arts in college and they have very typical college acceptances. So, I am firmly in the camp of letting your kid choose the courses that interest them. Class rank and SAT scores are as important, or more, than rigor of courses.</p>
D is on the Ohio portion of the list as of yesterday. I think she examines Oberlin tomorrow which in her mind is at the top. But she’s ruthless and if it doesn’t meet her criteria then it will be red. </p>