Parents of the HS class of 2014 - 3.0 to 3.3 GPA

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
661

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>^^^I can relate…My S is right up there with all the other procrastinators! However, he did start AP reading and this coming week he needs to finish up. Luckily this is the only summer work required…well he did have one book to read. He also read 3 books of his own choosing ( non school related). He has not picked out his essay - but has at least looked over the list. He writes poetry and I noticed he has been writing…so that’s my boy - likes to read and write but not what he needs to do…sigh…I told him that he needed to finish up his AP work this week…next week we go away for a week and totally unplug! Time for writing - the essay. His GF is coming this year because he could never unplug for a week - they txt constantly…she is great and it will be fun to have her around. They will both be working on their essays! She is an A student with high SAT scores! So hopefully they will get something accomplished! …</p>

662

<p>Oh yes, procrastination has been an issue here, too. Luckily, all the HW reading for school got done on the PA/OH trip (thank goodness D likes to read in the car). And then today, after a week of nothing, D suddenly got motivated and filled out almost the entire Common App :0 Still has to do her extracurriculars and the essay but the rest is done :slight_smile: I’m scoping out the supplements, most of which don’t look too bad so far, and figuring out overnight visits for this fall. Finally feel like she’s making some progress :slight_smile: Thank goodness…swim team starts next week and school the week after!</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone during these last weeks of summer!</p>

663

<p>Six days 'til our one-school warm-up; and 11 days 'til our 2200-mile, 9-day, 8-night, 4-state, 11 school road trip.</p>

<p>I pick up my boy in Canada (where he’s been working at a summer camp for 9 weeks), cross the border, & visit St. Lawrence U.</p>

<p>Home, rest, prep (exhort child to complete friendly Common App essay draft), then:</p>

<p>Wheaton College in the lunch (Norton, MA)</p>

<p>Drive for half a day. [Write your essay, boy!]
<a href=“Happily,%20I’ve%20had%20a%20lot%20of%20practice%20driving%20the%20600%20miles%20between%20Boston%20&%20Toronto.”>size=1</a>[/size]</p>

<p>St. Mary’s College (St. Mary’s, MD)</p>

<ul>
<li>a day & half in D.C. (since we’re there), then -</li>
</ul>

<p>Baltimore -
McDaniel College
Goucher College</p>

<p>Philadelphia -
Ursinus College
Arcadia U</p>

<p>Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA)
<a href=“followed%20by%20a%20spritely%20drive%20to%20Selinsgrove,%20PA%20%0A(a%20bit%20tighter%20than%20I’d%20prefer)”>size=1</a>[/size]
Susquehanna U</p>

<p>Allegheny (Meadville, PA)</p>

<ul>
<li>Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (since Cleveland is sort of on the way) -</li>
</ul>

<p>OWU (Delaware, OH)</p>

<p>CoWooster (Wooster, OH)</p>

<p>and home (~12 hours).</p>

<p>/exhale</p>

<p>I figure that during the road time, my captive scholar can finesse his essay and finish his summer reading.</p>

664

<p>Holy cow, expat, that will be quite a trip! I’ll be interested to hear your impressions as D is applying to a few of these schools. Is your son interviewing anywhere?</p>

<p>Look for the black squirrels at College of Wooster…kind of freaky and cool at the same time (at least for us as we’d never seen one)!</p>

<p>If you’re still looking for places to stay, we stayed at a very pleasant and friendly B&B, Mayor Lord’s House, near Allegheny. It’s down the street from the college, and college visitors get a $75/night rate on any room, including breakfast.</p>

665

<p>

</p>

<p>Cool! :cool:</p>

<p>Have always wanted to visit there.</p>

666

<p>Black squirrels are kind of common in certain parts of Canada. I agree that they look neat to those of us who usually only see the gray varieties.</p>

667

<p>I grew up in Toronto, where black squirrels are the norm.
[russianAccent]Look, Boris!! Moose and squirrel![/russianAccent]</p>

<p>Aside from the quality father & son time, there are other benefits – get the required summer reading finished, and ensure that my son preps for his ACT rewrite (I’m reasonably certain that he wrote it ‘cold’ the first time, and can beat that 27 – if only because of the 23 in Math).
Luke, I am your father.</p>

<p>Going by memory … interviews at

[ul]Wheaton
[<em>]Goucher
[</em>]Ursinus
[<em>]Muhlenberg
[</em>]Susquehanna (?)
[<em>]Allegheny
[</em>]OWU[/ul]</p>

<p>Father & son impressions will be posted.</p>

668

<p>expat - You are hilarious, and I look forward to your college visit reports!</p>

<p>We brought our son home from Pittsburgh where he attended a six week pre-college program for Musical Theatre. I have vowed to take a more gentle approach in my prodding of him to act than I did last year. He has much more interest in applying to schools and all that entails with auditions/pre-screens, etc. than I had hoped, so I’m letting him ride the wave, so to speak. He has begun writing his Common App. essay, choosing the option about the place you feel “perfectly content”. He wisely decided not to write about his bed, and chose the theatre instead! I can’t believe that in six months all applications, etc. will be submitted and we will be waiting for the results.</p>

669

<p>haha re squirrels…</p>

<p>Funny we noticed the difference in squirrels too. Color and size.</p>

<p>A few years ago K1 and I were SHOCKED at how huge the squirrels were on K1s U campus. I guess they eat well from the trash bins?</p>

670

<p>I love the squirrel stories - my husband hates squirrels because they are always eating the bird seed and have destroyed several bird feeders …lol</p>

<p>S and I met with a College Consultant on Monday -very helpful. S does not want to look at any more schools -is happy applying to 6 schools. We added a few more to have a balanced portfolio. The plan as of today is that S will apply to Colby D1 (knowing it is a reach) He will take the ACT in Sept and retake the SAT in October ( this time he will prep) - about 2000 with no prep - looking to be at about 2150 - 2250 with prep. He is finally motivated (or appears to be). He decided on a topic for the CA essay and the plan is to work on it next week while we are away - unplugged! </p>

<p>His GPA is the issue but he will explain in his essay…the consultant will work with him on the wording.( edit if needed) It is what it is…</p>

<p>He will also interview in the Fall at Colby (at the college) and if offered will interview locally for other schools on the list. </p>

<p>The consultant (who has a great reputation in our area) was very positive and focused on S strengths - what he is vs what he is not! ( I am the bad Mom who has harped on him to join more clubs and be active - leadership is important…blah blah blah …)
She instead looked at his accomplishments and praised him for having interesting activities. She also focused on his Math and Science grades and suggested he get recommendations from his math and science teachers. </p>

<p>She feels if he can increase his SAT score he will have a good shot at Colby applying ED1- His writ. score will be the focus…we’ll see…it is worth a shot however, S will be happy at any of the schools on the list…</p>

<p>The 6 on the list</p>

<p>Colby
Conn college ( my favorite ;>)
Brandeis
Wheaton (MA)
University of New England
Hobart and William Smith</p>

<p>other colleges - not seen but interested in
U of Rochester
St Lawrence
Quinnipiac
Mulhenberg
Bates (reach)</p>

<p>S is finishing up AP work this week - 2 more chapters…3 weeks to school starts - 1 1/2 weeks for EC to start!..The Fall is going to be busy!</p>

671

<p>^^^I should clarify - My S will apply to all the schools listed above ( well not sure about Bates) if ED to Colby is a no go. . I just separated out the schools we did not visit. But as we all know things may change…</p>

672

<p>We visited U. of Rochester a week ago and much to my surprise, my daughter really loved it. (Me too!) It’s a little smaller than what she’s looking for (she goes to a high school with 5500 students, oy!) and a little farther than home (6 hours by car vs the 5 hours it takes to drive there from our house) but we ended the tour with her smiling.</p>

673

<p>If you have URoc questions, my middle son is soon to start his sophomore year there (Brain & Cognitive Science + ASL + Pre-med). He absolutely loves it and is glad he chose the school. It doesn’t appeal to my '14 guy though… he wants tropical Bio - not something URoc specializes in… Different strokes for different folks.</p>

<p>There are a few other parents of Yellow Jackets here too…</p>

674

<p>A number of the schools to which T is applying have a supplemental question or two. However, only one of them provides a max word count (of 100 words). Is there a limit? I don’t want to have T spending hours crafting a masterful response only to have a technological limit of half the words. Any guidance? Thanks.</p>

675

<p>@heikedog: I have run across the same thing. I have personally seen suggestions of 250 words and one that was up to 500 words on a few of the supplemental or personal statements.</p>

676

<p>@heikedog If the prompt lists a limit- it is important to be at or under that limit.
Those prompts are actually fun to read because the students must be concise and be interesting. When K1 did them–the drafts were longer. then the drafts got edited…looking for extraneous words etc. Those were my favorites to read.</p>

<p>fyi when a prompt says a 100 words and kids write 250–it is NOT a good thing and admissions notes it as such</p>

677

<p>heikedog - Grab something that’s already written (anything!) that 650+ words long, and stick it in the space and see what happens.</p>

678

<p>Hi. I’m double posting here and in the parents of 2014 forum to widen my net of responses.</p>

<p>We’re getting ready to leave later this week for our 1,500 mile Illinois to NYC college tour road trip. While looking at the big, old Rand McNally atlas this morning (yes, it still comes in handy once in a while when you want to see a really big map instead of a 14" screen), I noticed that we’re going right through Buffalo, NY on the I-90 on our way to Syracuse.</p>

<p>What kind of time frame realistic to get a quick glimpse of the Falls from Buffalo? Is it worth a stop? We’ve never been to upstate NY. We’ll have a long day of driving so our detour time is limited.</p>

<p>Thanks for opinions.</p>

679

<p>fogfog … I was looking for a limit when one isn’t specified. Surely the capacity of the textbox isn’t unlimited, and I didn’t want my child to invest time and effort in writing a response that ended up being far too long. He went with the suggestion to target 250 words unless the directions say differently. This is regarding a school’s supplemental question(s).</p>

680

<p>Whew! Four apps submitted, writing supplements for four more, waiting for an app waiver code from another and then to start on three more darn essays for ApplyTexas. Why on earth can’t they use the Common App??? I might pull the plug on ApplyTexas … no real interest there. At least there’s light at the end of the tunnel!</p>