<p>The Superbowl party for our kids was at our house. At one point I came downstairs to raid their food stash and the boys had gotten out a coloring book on of DD’s friends gave her when she was in the hospital and they were coloring pictures. I love these kids!!!</p>
<p>S2 received an award from the School Board tonight and they misspelled his last name! He tweeted “Our district is so poor that they can’t afford the final “R” in my name!” Guess that certificate won’t be going up on the “wall of fame.”</p>
<p>Congratulations! What is the award?</p>
<p>^Thanks, nellieh. It was just a recognition of making All State choir. He leaves tomorrow for the 4 day workshop and the All state concert in San Antonio. He has to re-audition while he’s there for a couple solos, so I’ve still got fingers crossed for him.</p>
<p>Morning!</p>
<p>Ds got his updated GPA and rank. He’s very excited that he moved up in rank. Unfortunately, because some kids have left the program, he didn’t move up that much percentage-wise. Still, he got excited about how to get extra credit and such to keep moving that direction this last semester.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, soccer keeps going. They’re 3-0 in district play, winning all their games in shutouts. :D</p>
<p>D finds out official GPA and rank on Friday when grade reports are issued. She is very excited to find out where she stands. Among the schools she is interested in is our state flagship, and although it is a holistic review, historically her high school is only issued acceptances to the very top of the class. I think last year her school received less than 5 admits, so it is a seat in the first year class that is prized by those who wish to attend.</p>
<p>Regarding college mail: My D, now a college freshman, was a NMS. In the time between taking the PSAT in October and the following August when she made her decisions as to where to apply, she received thousands of emails and 24 pounds of snail mail!</p>
<p>My son, a high school junior, has started receiving a lot of email and snail mail. As a result, he has discovered a college he wasn’t previously considering that he thinks interests him. It is far away, but in a city to which my H travels frequently.</p>
<p>dadotwoboys–when your S and W go to Chicago to look at colleges, be sure to have them spend about 10 minutes standing on the portion of Northwestern’s campus that was created by filling in part of Lake Michigan. That’s where our tour guide positioned us to tell us about the north part of campus, which we didn’t have time to tour. I was begging my kids to stand right next to me to block some of the wind, but of course they were teenagers, so all I got from them were funny looks.</p>
<p>Thanks Schokolade. I’ll pass that along. Gave my son hat, scarf and gloves to bring along and he borrowed a winter jacket from a friend. I think he’s ready.</p>
<p>My kid hasn’t been getting much PSAT mail. But I’ve added 2 colleges to his list that I otherwise wouldn’t have considered because of it. Only one school that was already on his list has sent PSAT mail. Most of the mail has been from in state schools and New York. </p>
<p>He has his first track practice today! I’m so thrilled that he found an activity on his own. Kids on the spectrum aren’t known for their athletic prowess, so you can imagine my surprise when he mentioned joining a sports team. They had a team meeting yesterday where the captains were named. He couldn’t tell me what their names were. I asked if he forgot and he told me that he just didn’t pay attention in the first place…lol. I had to let him know that it’s kinda important to know who your team captains are.</p>
<p>Reeinaz, same here, not too much mail, 1-2 pieces a day. Great news on your S. My S15 has executive processing issues, adhd, and is socially awkward to say the least. I have been encouraging his joining cross country. Your S joining as a junior gives me hope. LOL at your s not knowing names. My S15 doesnt remember all the names of the kids he eats lunch with.</p>
<p>Nellieh, my son wanted to join cross country but by the time his doctor was able to complete the physical form, there were only 3 meets left in the season. He just came home and looks exhausted…lol. First workout included 2 trips up the Art Museum steps (Rocky). I’m hoping the activity will help with his schoolwork. On his own, he noticed he concentrates better after a workout.</p>
<p>Ree - great news about the positive impact of track for your son. </p>
<p>Mail keeps coming in (paper and e-mail) and it gets ignored. D asked for the college spreadsheet to be sent to her tonight. For some reason, she and her friends have been talking about Colorado School of Mines. It is not on her list, but she has mentioned it twice. </p>
<p>Anybody doing visits on President’s Day? We have decided to stay home.</p>
<p>megp - Good luck to your son! Hope he gets a solo.</p>
<p>reeinaz - I had told son a while back that I am pulling the Mom card and will be selecting financial safety schools that I want him to apply to. I wanted to give him a list of 5 and tell him to pick 2. I’m really struggling to add a state school. He doesn’t want cold. Some appear to have a very large drinking culture. Blah, blah, blah. If you have any opinions on PASSHE schools, please let me know. I continually hear good for Millersville, but also continually hear about the lack of career prep/job search for non-education majors.</p>
<p>Son went on a field trip to NYC to see the 9-11 memorial. It really had an impact on him.</p>
<p>We’re visiting a few schools president’s day weekend. We have a tiny spring break (2 days only, but in the middle of spring sports season) so this is our last chance before summer to hit a few places. Hitting one school for an athletic clinic and another for a tour/info session. Lots of PSAT mail here, it is overwhelming to sort, so we are discarding anything in the western and southern halves of the country. Colorado School of Mines has sent several e-mails and snail mail here too! Heard from Shimer today; had never heard of that until someone mentioned it here on CC.</p>
<p>Longhaul, with Gov of PA proposing more cuts for the PA State system in his next budget, I am not sure how the schools are going to cope.</p>
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<p>We got the letter too. An engineer friend spoke very highly of the school’s reputation and how it’s graduates garner top salaries and are in high demand. I also heard it is a beautiful campus and an outdoor paradise. </p>
<p>I am just concerned about the lack of options if my S wants to change his major. Also a little concerned about it’s isolated location and low girl to boy ratio. I suppose if one’s child has really strong mathematics skills and loves engineering/ science subjects, then there would not be much to worry about.</p>
<p>Longhaul, I don’t know much about the PA state schools either. I have Kutztown in mind for my son just because I’m assuming it will have more artsy people. I have coworkers with kids at IUP and they all rave about it. When I graduated highschool in 90, Millersville was the go to school because of the party rep. I know people who dropped out of Lock Haven, East Stroudsburg, and Slippery Rock. I think it was mainly due to the culture shock of leaving Philly and being on campuses with very low minority presence. West Chester is by far the one with the best reputation academically and the only one that gets much mention on these boards.</p>
<p>After thinking of ways to get coverage for younger sibs so we could visit schools during Presidents Week, we realized we were driving the whole thing and DS was not remotely interested. So I read the ‘to EA, ED, or not’ (or some such name) thread and decided that’s that. We are not doing ED, we are not visiting any schools this winter and probably this spring, and we will just sort it out in the fall. Not my style at all (I was looking up AP exam times at work today–I prefer to plan), but DS needs to engage. Q: is it demonstrating lack of interest in or knowledge about a school if you don’t visit before you apply?</p>
<p>We are going skiing over the President’s holiday, so no school visits. My son was supposed to go on a school trip in April over Spring Break, but it got cancelled. I can’t get time off of work, so I am going to have my mom take him on a few visits locally.</p>
<p>We’re visiting Washington University at St. Louis over President’s Day weekend. It’s about a 5 hour drive so it won’t be bad. </p>
<p>We’ve got six more visits spread out over the spring on an odd day off or two plus spring break. That will leave 5 schools on her list that she hasn’t seen yet, but I’m anticipating some type of revelations after the spring break military operation, um I mean college tour ;)</p>