<p>First off, did anyone have a problem getting onto CC today? All day I was getting error messages as soon as I clicked on the Parents Forum.</p>
<p>Don’t know what’s in the air, but DD sat down with my last night and we started looking at colleges a little further. And someone had mentioned Coastal Carolina. OMG I think she’s in love! She’s actually excited about it and spent two hours today (of course I had to nudge her), reviewing SAT math from the blue book. Anyone know of anywhere we can watch videos that directly mirror the questions in the book? </p>
<p>So excited that she’s excited. And this from a kid who thought Towson in MD was too far from where we live in NJ. All of a sudden South Carolina doesn’t seem so bad. :)</p>
<p>I’ve been gone a few days and you all have been busy – Welcome Labbydog!</p>
<p>We made a quick trip to So Cal to tour two colleges and get a day in at Disneyland. Was hoping to get some sun, too. It rained on Friday but the sun came out yesterday although it was 39 degrees at 7 a.m. That’s chilly for Anaheim.</p>
<p>I have a question, what exactly are rolling admissions and why are they so great?</p>
<p>Many state universities have rolling admissions. They may give you an admissions decision in as little as a month after you submit your application, even if you submit your application in August of your senior year. While you may need to wait to hear about admissions to specialty programs or scholarships, it still feels great to have an admission decision in hand as you go after more selective admissions choices.</p>
<p>And hope the science section has a bigger curve for eyemamom & o’lives dc’s! I wonder the same about the ACT scores - are there some schools that ignore the science? </p>
<p>Rolling admissions - the couple of schools that we’re looking at that have rolling admissions allow you to apply earlier and then he will find out quickly if he is accepted. No waiting months to find out! It can also work the other way - the end of the season and no acceptances that student likes…rolling admission schools will continue to take applications even after the other schools that do early or regular decisions.</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking for a few days, and now need to get something off my chest, which some of you might be able to understand…
DD14 (oldest child) took the SATs in December, and checked her score online. I don’t have hr username or password because she wants to do all of this stuff by herself, which I am encouraging. She was a tiny bit disappointed with the writing score because of her essay score, but the math and reading scores were right where she expected them to be. We discussed the possibility of a retake versus the ACT, and then let the matter drop, since the holidays and midterms were coming up.
Then last night we were discussing whether to include her scores on an application to one of the summer programs in our state (NH), and we couldn’t remember exactly what she got, and didn’t have a paper copy. So she got back online and discovered that she had READ THE SCORES WRONG, and that her reading score was actually the lower score and her math score was higher than expected!
So after getting a pretty good laugh over it, I then started thinking about what might happen in college if she does this sort of thing regularly. My understanding is that when she is in college, all of the information comes to her and not to us, especially the financial aid information, including the all-important deadlines, etc.
So should I be worried? She is a bit of a space cadet, but I figured that for something as important as the SAT, she would have looked carefully. I guess I figured wrong…
Anyway, if I could borrow that frying pan just for one evening, I’ll return it none the worse for wear.</p>
<p>PS - barnardmom, I am a Barnard daughter, sister, and aunt.</p>
<p>re: girl visit updates for Go2Mom and beady mom – sorry to say I was banished! So I have no good intel. The second S said he was coming over and girls were close behind he said “sorry mom can you like disappear?”</p>
<p>I heard music and laughter; not much else.</p>
<p>Next time I’ll install a hidden video cam in the living room. Maybe the stealth nanny cam via plush teddy.</p>
<p>Welcome Crusoemom! DD & I just set up a college email for this very reason. She’s usually very organized about her school work, but with SAT/ACT deadlines and upcoming college apps, I’m putting together a spreadsheet that she can check. She’s on her own once she’s actually enrolled in college.</p>
<p>Collegeof2015 - is your DS your youngest? If not, send in the younger kids for information updates.</p>
<p>Welcome Crusoemom! Just remember, she still has another year and a half before venturing out on her own with college. I bet there will be a lot of maturing with our kids between now and then! She’ll do great!! (and if not, you can have her copy her e-mails to you so you can help her keep up with things!)</p>
<p>Class - music & laughter = good!! Maybe you can send out a drone hummingbird to spy on them! (did any of you see that on CBS Sunday Morning today?)</p>
<p>@crusoemom - I had the same concerns regarding financial deadlines, billing, etc. At DS’12 college, students are able to include you as a payee. So at least as far as the tuition getting paid - the college has that covered! As far as anything else - grades, registration, etc. I don’t get any notification. The students learn to be more careful!</p>
<p>MomFullofQs: We toured Coastal Carolina at the start of our Christmas break. My son really liked the school. Thought there was plenty to do on campus. Liked the housing – AC is everything. Really enjoyed the business building and the fact that the math department is also housed there – he’s a real math kid. So it’s on his radar. My husband and I would like him to take a look at some of the PA schools, as my husband spends six months out of the year working in PA. We believe some of those schools could be good for him, too.</p>
<p>Thanks Momreads. We hope to get down there in the next few months and I just found out my husband’s cousin went to school there, so we’re waiting to hear from him.</p>
<p>Regarding students becoming more independent, S2s college allows him to set us up as a payer on his account as well as get an email any time there are charges. For finaid, since S2 included both DH and I as people who could get and give information on his account we get email reminders for deadlines. What we don’t automatically get is a list of ‘to-do’ items outstanding for either finaid, registration, etc. that show up on his student account. Technically I can log in with his information but I don’t (this is my self sufficient one). Many schools have an option for a parent acct here as well.</p>
<p>Belated welcome aboard to Labbydog and Crusoemom. Glad to have you join us on this soon to be crazy ride. I will captain the ship (SS Indecision - sailing date is March 31st) next year but each family has to pick their own point of disembarkation when they make their decision. Welcome aboard to anyone else I missed in the past few weeks. These pages are filling up faster than I can keep track of them. :D</p>
<p>DD finally took a break from homework to address summer programs and upcoming testing. It all started as I registered her for the March SAT on the deadline (the 8th) and of course, I uploaded the wrong picture of her! LOL. I used one from last year and of course she says she doesn’t look like that any more. :eek: My response was it is only to get you into the test. No one cares what it looks like as long as they can match it to you and your license its fine. She wasn’t buying but dropped it.</p>
<p>She switched from public to private school in the 9th grade. After seeing her older brother (DS-11) go through the local HS GC college program, we are glad to see that we are getting a lot more with the private school. The school hosted a two hour college admissions program last week and had admissions directors or assistant directors from four types of schools (major research university; religiously affiliated LAC; private LAC with liberal arts and a music conservatory and theater arts program; and one of our state universities). They had a round table panel presentation that covered everything from admission criteria, the common app changes for this year, financial aid, EA, ED and SCEA options, internships, coop programs, dual degree programs (BA/MD) along with a host of other questions. The floor was then opened to the parents in the audience for the last 15 minutes. They covered more in 2 hours that we got in 3 years at the public HS.</p>
<p>Yet to come this year is a similar financial aid presentation and the individual planning meetings with the assigned college counselors. The girls were switched from their 9th and 10th grade guidance counselors to college (and guidance) counselors that will take them through their senior year. D’s class of 170 has three college counselors. S’s high school of 1,100 had 3 counselors in total. What a difference. Where’s that frying pan? :)</p>
<p>It appears that D will participate in a school sponsored Immersion program in late June or early July that will take her to either Florida or Ecuador. She is also interested in a leadership and service program in late July at one of the major universities about three hours from us. If both of these become realities it should help her resume, EC’s, and give her plenty to write about in her essays next fall.</p>
<p>I hope that all of you in the northeast have your power and heat on and are dug out so that everyone can get back to normal this week.</p>
<p>I was also unable to load talk.collegeconfidential.com earlier day… except for that one time when it put me right into the system through a backdoor. I hope none of the savvier kids got that one.</p>
<p>I proctored S on a practice SAT at home today for most of the day. Slow and steady improvements, I think. The first real one is in March.</p>
<p>Avon - I’m so jealous of your counseling dept!! Here we are, half way through junior year and there has yet to be any communication from DS’ counselors to the parents. I tried to make an appointment with her the other day and she asked how the March sounded!! ugh!!!</p>
<p>Seattle - I tried to sign on that one time and got in the through the backdoor, too! pretty scary with all these smart kids!!!</p>
<p>We’re in a public high school but I feel that we are getting a good deal for our money in the counseling department, ha ha. Actually, we’ve already had several presentations from the counselors on the process, including two on financial aid. Earlier this year there was a panel with admissions officers from UVA (the famous Dean J), Duke, GA Tech, and another school I’ve forgotten and just before winter break there was an alumni panel. The alumni panel is what got my kid finally thinking, since these were 2012 graduates, and he knew them so was willing to take their advice. We have individual counseling sessions last week of February to plan senior year and discuss colleges. And of course there are those podcasts!</p>
<p>Speaking of senior year DS has confirmed that he is taking AP Econ (both micro and macro) online so hopefully it is a good experience as those here from NoVa have said! Still mulling over that last spot to fill but instead of narrowing it down, he threw in History of Science as a possibility! </p>
<p>Tryouts for his spring sport start next week and hopefully he is in decent shape for it. He sprained his knee playing indoor soccer in early January and has been in physical therapy and unable to work out so he’s a little worried. But he was on varsity last year as a sophomore so the coach knows him and the coach also knows about his injury so hopefully those things will count.</p>
<p>On top of that he’s been in rehearsal for the big international culture show his school puts on every year, and he’s dancing in two acts this year. This show is a big event – tickets go on sale tomorrow and they will be sold out in 20 minutes even with a ticket limit and people line up an hour before the show starts to snag good seats. There’s a healthy arbitrage market for extra tickets! Freshman year DS declined to even go watch, claiming that “nobody goes” but then had a complete turnaround as a sophomore, got involved in Persian club, and ended up dancing with them. This year he’s got a leadership position in Persian club and is dancing with them, as well as the Indian culture club. No, we are not Persian or Indian!</p>
<p>SAT scores come out on Thursday – Valentine’s Day! Let’s hope the test shows our kids some love!</p>
<p>^that would be the best Valentine’s Day gift ever!</p>
<p>I’m trying to plan a college visit over Feb break (which starts next week). Am I missing something or is there no efficient way to visit Sewanee (in Sewanee TN) and Rhodes (in Memphis)? Flying in to Nashville isn’t a day at the beach either – only affordable flights have 1 stop which means that the flying part of the trip is 4-5 hours long. Then Memphis is 3 hours from Nashville; Sewanee is 1.5 hours from Nashville but on the other side of the state. Picture a big fat triangle with Nashville at the top, Memphis in the left corner and Sewanne in the right corner.</p>
<p>Can someone make Tennessee a little smaller?</p>
<p>With K1 who is at Y, its all grants and so we pick up the hefty portion of the rest. K1 is a scholar-athlete and has practice daily plus is a STEM major. Just took an on-campus job to help build experience in the field. Being a ft student and ft athlete is a lot of skin in the game.</p>
<p>With K2 - who is also a scholar-athlete the time constraints are the same. Also K2 is twice exceptional with both high IQ and learning challenges. Every grade requires a lot of effort. If K2 does like K1 and maintains the same hefty schedule, thats enough skin for me.</p>
<p>If the grades drop off or K2 quits the sport, then there is plenty of time for a campus job to help foot the bills.</p>
<p>On the GC forefront…our school’s college GCs are just now sending out forms for parents to complete-- a questionaire which will help them answer things like “what makes this kid unique…” I tried to get to see the Naviance scattergrams (the school wont make them available to parents without being IN the office with a GC and will not print them) VERY lame .</p>
<p>GC won’t see me til having met with K2.
We were NOT impressed with the GCs the first go round with K1. The list of “suggested schools” indicated to us that the GC DID NOT read what K1 had wanted in a college at all…and it was a pro-forma list of reach/match/safety…</p>
She’s actually excited about it and spent two hours today (of course I had to nudge her), reviewing SAT math from the blue book. Anyone know of anywhere we can watch videos that directly mirror the questions in the book? </p>