<p>Thanks, Agentninetynine (she was my childhood heroine, btw.) Wrestling has a lot in common with gymnastics and track in that you sit for a long time to watch very little. S1 did track all four years of high school. S2 segues into lacrosse right after wrestling, which at least has a time limit.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Lacrosse does have a time limit as does soccer. The coldest Iāve ever been was last year as scorekeeper in a 33 degree driving rain. The girls were icicles. </p>
<p>Iāll meet your gymnastics competitions and raise you a taekwondo tournament. One particularly memorable tourney, DD reported at 7 a.m. and finally competed at 10 p.m! Oh, the horrorsā¦</p>
<p>At least gymnastics had a start/stop time, and once we got out of the compulsory levels, I didnāt find the competitions boring at all. Fencing, however . . . . Everybody fences everybody else in the pool, gets a ranking, then the competition starts, h, and my favorite, I havenāt been to one yet where there was anyplace to sit and watch! Granted, the adults donāt bring a lot of spectators, but even the youth events were void of an audience area! All day standing or sitting on the floor? No fun, no fun at all.</p>
<p>Ordinary, yes at least we did have cold hard benches to sit on. Better than nothing! I wouldāve brought chairs. Lord knows we drag enough gear with us for soccer games. Last year was so brutal, I literally wore my cold season kayak gear ā dry top, pants and all!</p>
<p>You should see the back of my car. Bag chairs; bleacher seats; ābagā with sunscreen, snacks, sunglasses, jacket, socks, gloves, hat, extra cash; two really cool roll up blankets; umbrella . . . Seriously, you might think I was moving.</p>
<p>ā¦and yet, after the hours of staring at the wall, getting sunburn, windburn, rained on, driven untold hours - when theyāre gone youāll kinda miss it. Or at least youāll laugh at the horrendous conditions you sat through to cheer them on.</p>
<p>DD18 and I head out of town this weekend for a soccer tournament a couple of hours away. NO, we are not in a warm weather climate. Both of my kids had soccer practice yesterday and both were icicles when they got home. DS had 630 am practice today and then another after school.</p>
<p>At least we parents donāt have to be outside in the cold, rain, and snow during practices!</p>
<p>K2 texted me this am about a college fairā¦
For the life of me I cannot find this years participating schools listā¦I can find last years.</p>
<p>100 + schools. There are about 1/2 doz that could be on the listāthough of thoseā1 we are seeing in March. </p>
<p>Should be a BIG eventā¦I donāt know if I have the stamina for it (and K2 hasnāt printed labels etc to make things simpleā¦</p>
<p>sigh</p>
<p>@ go2mom, you and your daughter know what sheās capable of doing. It sounds like homeroom teacher hasnāt been paying attention to all sheās been doing these past couple of years!!! Go undaunted into that senior year!!!</p>
<p>That said, this whole forecasting for senior year, along with meeting college counselor last week, and planning college visits over spring break trip had my dearest darling D totally tripping on Monday. She truly seems to believe that there is a ārightā next step. There are so many steps, in different directions, toward different destinations, with detours no less! We practiced breathing (at least I did).</p>
<p>eyemomā¦ I can totally sympathize with you in regards to gymnastics. DS12 was a on a competitive gymnastics team for about 5 years when he was youngā¦ quit when he found out that to be a top competitor he would have to practice 4-5 hours a day 7 days a weekā¦ that was not happening. Anyway, I thought I was going to scream from extreme boredom during the meetsā¦OMG!!! I HATED it! My DS 14 is also a Varsity sailor. I agree with youā¦ the best spectator sport:))</p>
<p>collage1 and CT1417 ā saw Lafayette and liked it. Solidly on the list for S. Itās set up on a hill so when you come in, you have this dramatic view of the Lehigh river. 2400 kids, so a nice size. Campus is very walkable (youāre never more than 10 minutes walk from anything) with lots of traditional brick and stone buildings. Biggest class is 70 kids. We walked by one class in session with the door open ā lively discussion going on. Guaranteed on campus housing for all 4 years. Big new gym and spiffy football field (they compete in the Patriot League against Lehigh, Bucknell, and others). Nice tour guide. I asked him where else he considered going to college. He said his family all went to Holy Cross so he wanted something different, but he also looked at Gettysburg and Franklin & Marshall. Good advising system (sounds like they really help you select classes that will be interesting and meet the requirements). Core curriculum; solidly liberal arts but also strong in engineering. </p>
<p>Most importantly, there were a few meal plans (3 in all). Unlimited, 20 meals a week, then another one. I asked if you could buy more than 1 meal plan. The answer was no, but I had to ask. :)</p>
<p>Thank you 2015! (Is there a reason that is your screen name? Did you have an older child who was 2015 from college? Just curiousā¦I was very unimaginative when I signed up, never thinking I would be spending as much time as I have on this site!)</p>
<p>I need to winnow our list of small LACs to visit in PA but am not sure that will be possible. We also plan to tour F&M, Lehigh, Lafayette, Dickinson, Bucknell and Villanova. My son commented today that he thought Villanova would have too much of an athletic focus. I do not know the personalities of these PA schools so have no idea if he is correct. He reached this conclusion by seeing many photos of Villanova tee shirts on website, so no serious research involved. </p>
<p>We toured Holy Cross this summer and I found it small, but it has more students than some of the schools on the list. </p>
<p>Thank you for the excellent feedback! Is there a meal plan column on your college spreadsheet?</p>
<p>
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<p>Thatās the only thing thatās on there :)</p>
<p>And you guessed right ā Iām named after my daughter (sheās college class of 2015). I tried for other screen names ā its her journey ā just breathe ā they were all taken!</p>
<p>PA has a lot of good LACs, doesnāt it? Iāll add one more ā Washington & Jefferson (score optional!). But itās closer to Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Soccer mom here. I am used to the weather issues but the season he played tennisā¦ that was hard on me. Iām not used to having to keep my mouth shut in the stands. ;)</p>
<p>Have never heard of Washington & Jefferson but that is probably b/c I have lived my entire life on the east coast. Would be interested in hearing of GPA-optional schools but definitely will not be looking at any test-optional as he has cleared the bar on the SAT.</p>
<p>Since my S will be satisfied with any cafeteria that offers burgers, I have not been evaluating the menu offerings. He, however, does glance into the cafeterias to ensure burgers are on the menu. The presence of a Five Guys on or near a campus would tilt heavily in its favor.</p>
<p>classof2015 - i have a hungry boy freshman, literally he ate us out of house and home in high school. My bills dropped probably by 2/3 with him gone. We are a family of 4, I used to cook for 6, now I cook for 3.</p>
<p>His biggest complaint about school is the food - he has a unlimited meal plan, howeverā¦the lines are long, and he claims the portion sizes are tiny. He still managed to gain weight at school, but the dining hall is a huge bone of contention to him. Not enough to get him to make some food in the kitchen on his floor though.</p>
<p>Cafeteria eating has been a big adjustment for him - he was definitely spoiled growing up in this house as both of us cook and we have dinner as a family every night.</p>
<p>^aahhā¦good point (for the boy who is always hungry). </p>
<p>As we toured Lafayette, and I was trying to gauge his interest in the school, he looked at the buildings, the students, the campus, then leaned towards me and confided, āI think Iām gonna need a lot of food.ā</p>
<p>He asked where we were staying between Lafayette and Loyola. I said Philadelphia.
S: āCan we have Philly cheesesteaks?ā
Me: āThen weāre going to see Loyola in Baltimore.ā
S: āCan we have crab cakes?ā</p>
<p>I could make a map of the world with different food items on it.</p>
<p>This may have been said before but just bringing it up again, if any of your kids need SATIIās, have them sign up to take them at the end of this school year for classes they are in now. Most schools that want IIās want them in different subject areas, say math and history or science an Englishāthey donāt want 2 math or a math and a science or History and English, etc.</p>
<p>For SATIIās - is anybody taking 3 in one day? Thinking of limiting it to 2 for our kid. 3 seems like a lot to properly prepare for in 1 day. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I think the max is 2 SAT IIās per sitting. Maybe I am wrong?</p>