<p>Two days left for DD and we ARE counting! We will be so happy when this junior year from h*ll is over!</p>
<p>Senior year and application countdowns to start very soon. :D</p>
<p>Happy summer everyone! :)</p>
<p>HI All
K2 spent the last 2 days playingā
the beach w friends
dining out and sleepovers back to back</p>
<p>Today when k2 rolls in (told to be in the house by noon) the ACT prep begins for Saturday.</p>
<p>I have tried to get this going for months-- and have to remind myself this is k2s journey and what k2 earns is k2sā¦</p>
<p>When I remind k2 of thatāI get a comment likeā¦āi know you think I am going to be living in a box!ā</p>
<p>teenage angstā¦ grrrr</p>
<p>Itās very hard striking the right balance between reminding and nagging. And I think our kids are just so burnt right now. I told Sā14 he could always take ACT for the 3rd time in the fall if Saturdayās scores arenāt where he needs them to be; he just looked at me. His scores are his scores; he is not his scores. Some school will want him.</p>
<p>DD14 will be done with school a week from tomorrow - canāt believe it! But sheās definitely so ready to be done as itās mostly watching movies and study periods for her at this point. Although today the leadership kids served as honor guards at the funeral of the father of a just graduated senior - very sad.</p>
<p>Her school came up with a new brag sheet and posted it on their website today. The questions are much more in depth than the ones on the prior brag sheet. And will take a lot more thought for the kids to answer! However, I think that thinking about the questions and answering them will help with the application process (Explain why each college is a good match for you? What is the most important consideration for your first choice of college? List awards - which has been the most important to you and why? Leadership - list roles, what have you done to demonstrate leadership, how has this role impacted your life?)</p>
<p>DD14 and I will be doing the final college tour road trip in a couple of weeks. I looked at the calendar and it was either then or in July before a family vacation and then weād be out of town two weeks straight. So weāll leave once she is done with school and when the public high school is still in classes/exams. Weāll get back before theyāre done and be able to enjoy the beach day we all go on together. Maybe weāll talk about the brag sheet or essay question possibilities during our drive. Or she can learn SAT/ACT vocabulary!</p>
<p>Weāll be visiting Drew, Princeton, Bryn Mawr and Ursinus as well as driving around Villanova, Haverford and Swathmore. Interviews and tours are scheduled for Bryn Mawr and Ursinus but the others will be more open timing. And Princeton we donāt need to register for so weāll catch the tour and info session closest to when we arrive. Iāve figured out the trip down there, now just trying to figure out how far back into to New England I can make it if we leave Bryn Mawr about 1:30 on a Friday. It all depends upon the traffic around NYC I guess! And how far we want to drive and who to stay with on the way home. Luckily the other nights are with relatives so that makes it easier on the budget and fun to catch up.</p>
<p>Yuck - NYC traffic on a Friday!! :(</p>
<p>You know what they say about NYC traffic on a Friday - the only place an hour away from midtownā¦is midtown. It can literally take you 45 minutes to go around the block.</p>
<p>Iām hoping I can avoid the worst of the NYC traffic by going around 287 to the Tappan Zee Bridge and getting to the Merritt that way. Of course that could be very bad too but hopefully it will be okay and Iām sure it will be much better than trying to go through the city. And I may have DD do some of the driving leaving PA before it gets too bad! Itās just not something Iāve ever really done before so it will be all new to me also.</p>
<p>Akmom - you should be fine. Avoiding the city is smart, and the Merritt is a nice road to be on. The Friday afternoon traffic is the worst for people heading out to the Hamptons.</p>
<p>akmom: Swarthmore has had the best info session weāve attended and the worst tour. Turned S off and we crossed it off the list.</p>
<p>The Fri afternoon summer traffic is a nightmare the entire length of the NE corridor! There are people heading to the Jersey shore from Philly, NYC and all over NJ. While the Tappan Zee should be better than the GWB, none of it will be easy. The Merritt backs up with those avoiding 95. I agree that you are wise to avoid driving through Manhattan. Have lived in NYC and Boston with cars, had beach houses in NJ & the Hamptons, and now live near 95 in CT, so have spent many hours contemplating how to avoid traffic!</p>
<p>Wishing you the best of luck on that drive.</p>
<p>Two days leftā¦ and RAIN for graduation tomorrow nightā¦ glad my guy graduates next year. Hopefully the weather will be better then. Weāre also shifting our school schedule to start one week earlier and end May 30th. I think that will feel REALLY good next spring!</p>
<p>All the driving info makes me really glad we live in the semi-boonies where a traffic jam might delay us 5 minutes. Weāve lived in a large city before. All the āthingsā were much closer distance-wise (stores, movies, etc), but I can actually get to them here much faster due to low traffic. Itās more in gas costs, but far less stress (for me). Iām glad many of you prefer cities (and suburbs). It keeps less people around hereā¦ That said, there are areas that are too rural for me. I wouldnāt want 30 min+ just to a grocery store. I can be to ours in 5 - 7 minutes (about 3 miles away). Larger shopping areas take us 15 minutes and are 10 miles. When I lived in the city it took me 15 minutes to the close grocery store and 25 minutes to larger shopping areas - most of that due to traffic lights.</p>
<p>The great thing about cities (and the more walkable suburbs) is that if things are close together, you donāt need a car. I can walk 5-7 minutes into the main street of the suburbs where I live and get: dry cleaning; groceries; imported cheese; fine wines, etc. I donāt need a car. So all the āthingsā are close by and I donāt need a car to get to them.</p>
<p>I really think cities are a much āgreenerā alternative than suburbs. City people often live in apartments and use public transportation which is a much greener lifestyle than one family in a large house with manicured lawns and at least one non-fuel efficient car. For example, to get to work, I walk to public transportation (and have for 20 years). </p>
<p>To each his own.</p>
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<p>Oh I absolutely agree. As I mentioned before, Iām glad many of you prefer living in cities. ;)</p>
<p>I just prefer my walk around our property to be a 1 1/8th mile trail next to pastures, through woods, and alongside a gorgeous creek while seeing the local wildlife (herons, eagles, deer, turkey, etc) and hearing the frogs vs hearing the traffic.</p>
<p>Many city dwellers who come here wonder how we donāt get bored and tell us itās too quiet. We go to cities and wonder how they can put up with all the noise/action. (I consider it a crowd allergy.) </p>
<p>IMO itās great that there are both types of areas for both types of people. The āfitā is quite akin to the āfitā for colleges.</p>
<p>Sā14 didnāt have finals in either of his classes that would be testing today so he is officially done with the Junior year! ACT tomorrow morning.</p>
<p>Weāre having car issues here. Sā14 got his license the week Barnardgirl went away to college. Now that she is home, oy, what a mess. Tomorrow, I have to be at a shower 2 hours away at noon. Barnardgirl has to be at work at 11 am about 10 miles away. Sā14 has to be at the ACT from 8-noon about 10 miles away. Thankfully, my SO has a couple extra cars so Iām using one of his to go to the shower. </p>
<p>Barnardgirl doesnāt plan on coming home next summer so I donāt want to get a third vehicle for only 3 months. This is really taking some planning though.</p>
<p>Do any of you second (or third) time parents know what the purpose of these āInvitation to Applyā letters and emails are? I assume that the schools want more students to apply but does anyone know the criteria for sending these announcements?</p>
<p>My sonās SAT scores are far higher than his GPA, but he is a completely unhooked applicant, so I am confused by the marketing.</p>
<p>BarnardMomāam with you on the car situation. Trying to decide do we replace a thirteen year old car or a seven year old car and then allow S14 to drive one of the old cars to school next year. Once he is off to college a year later, third car will sit idle for a year until S17 has his license. There is no actual āneedā for him to have a car but I seem to have bought into the right of passage, and we can afford it, but the wastefulness of owning a third car is my hang-up. Granted, if this is my biggest problem, not something to lament!</p>
<p>DS wanted a car and we already had three cars so he could have had one of those. The issue is that the one he would have gotten is a stick shift and he was very uncomfortable driving one, especially in the notorious DC area traffic and Beltway. So we struck a deal ā we would allow him to buy a car, so long as he paid for it all himself, including gas, maintenance and the increase in insurance from having a 4th vehicle (we paid the increase when he first got his license, which was the big bump).</p>
<p>He agreed, did a ton of research and found a reliable used vehicle with 130,000 miles on it for $5K. He still doesnāt drive it everyday, since we have a carpool in the mornings and he can take the bus home in the afternoons. It was essential to have during spring sports season though, since we live so far from school that it would have been a pain to have to get him after practices. And sometimes they had morning practices starting at 6:30 am so I certainly didnāt want to have to drive him to those!!</p>
<p>He carpooled with a friend who also played soccer and alternated driving days. He already has plans to carpool with his football buddies in the fall. Also, the soccer team does not take a bus to away games since they have a pre-game ritual of team dinner at a playerās house who happens to live near the away venue (he goes to a magnet school that pulls from five surrounding counties so there is usually someone on the team who lives close to the away school). So they need drivers!</p>
<p>The car will sit idle when he goes away to college, and since he bought and paid for it all he is understandably reluctant to let his younger sibling drive it. Besides, she is only 13 so it would sit for a couple of years before she could drive it anyway. But it was his money and his choice.</p>
<p>BarnardMom ā have you looked into a long-term car rental for those three months? Not sure if thatās practical but I have heard that it can be done. </p>
<p>CT1417 ā I assumed the invitations to apply are simply marketing. I just throw all the snail mail in the big plastic filing box and dutifully screen the emails too, forwarding to DS only those in which he might be interested. They do make it tempting though, with application fee waivers, and no supplemental app. Heck, if all you have to do is send one more Common App and it doesnāt cost you anything, I can see why it would be attractive particularly if itās a school you can use as a safety.</p>
<p>The invitations are, indeed, just marketing. My high stats guy had about 2 feet worth of snail mail from oodles of colleges - Ivies to really low level (he kept them out of curiosity). My 1800+ guy has more than 1100 college e-mails in the college folder of his e-mail (he opted to keep those out of curiosity). He tosses many of the snail mail versions unless he has an interest in the school.</p>
<p>The more kids the schools can get to apply, the higher their standings are. Selectivity goes up. The mailings have absolutely zero influence on chances of acceptance. For lower level schools with high acceptance rates, they hope to get more student recognition.</p>
<p>I feel for those kids at school who really donāt have the stats to be considered at some of these schools (or at best a reach), yet get their hopes set on them thinking they are āspecialā due to mailings (of either type). They often go around saying they are being ārecruited.ā Not really. Their stats came up on a mailing listā¦ thatās all. Yes, theyāll get accepted at schools in their range, but no differently than if they hadnāt received the mailings.</p>
<p>Nova & Creeklandāthanks! That is what I expected. </p>
<p>We donāt actually need a third car b/c nothing is more than a few miles away (perhaps four or five miles at most). The 5:20 am departure for swim practice does make it appealing though. CT does not allow teen drivers to drive other unrelated teens until one year after obtaining the license. This is the difficult one to police & enforce as everyone flagrantly ignores it.</p>
<p>NovaāI am impressed that he could save that much money. Very impressed! My sonās earnings seem to go toward replacing his laptop or shattered phone screen.</p>
<p>Just wondering if this thread is for high academic students? My D14 has around a 3.7-3.8 at a small private school. Sheās in NHS and her highest ACT so far is 24. Sheās taken college prep classes with some AP courses. She wants a small school environment but hasnāt narrowed it down yet. Sheās looking at PT, OT, or ST as a major. I got her into some shadowing programs this summer to she the occupations in action (both inpatient and outpatient) and (adult and pediatric). Is there a more specific thread for her level? Thanks!</p>