I don’t think he has a favorite. We haven’t visited Fredonia yet. We have to set up his audition on line. I need to figure out if we will fly up or drive, but driving actually depends on if my D or my 20 year old son will come as I don’t like to drive that much and techson has only had his license for a few months. I think techson would be fine with a local school but his friends are teasing him about not going away.
@cameo A friends kid when to Wheaton, MA. They were pleased with it. But it still throws me. I lived in Wheaton, IL when I was a little kid and so that’s what I think about when I hear the name. But the two schools are really nothing alike.
@techmom99 Looks like he has some great options. Looks like a hard decision. Great to see he got a good offerer at POST as that is an expensive school. I personally would be partial to SUNY Purchase But that’s because the only two I know anything about, and they are both schools I’ve toured. But Post is a lot closer to home, and for your son it sounds like that would be good. If they can give him more $$ based on his portfolio. It’s likely to have a smaller classes and a smaller program. I do think you should tour SUNY Fredonia because my guess is that is one of your more affordable options?
As for my son… He did manage to talk with his English teacher and now has 50% credit for that missing assignment with a deadline of next week to finish the second half. And there is still the final essay & final in that class so… It’s up to a B… and could still make it back to an A- by the time all grades are back in.
Semester finals are Wed/Thursday form him with with little other homework but studying. And he’s working on his last two apps as I speak. (For boulder he just had to write one ‘why us’ essay…) I will be relieved when those are submitted tomorrow, and the semester is done on Thursday afternoon. Online health is finally DONE and it’s been removed from his classes for next semester.
I’m looking into details of how to get to the mountains next weekend. (He has a 4 days weekend with NO HOMEWORK!!!) The simplest option might not be the best as the weather in our local mountains are predicted to be bad.
Yes, one of the SUNY’s would be cheapest, most likely, unless he lives at home, in which case Post would be about $10K LESS!
The portfolios and the play are the killer. For tech, they want pictures, diagrams, drawings, etc. of work he has done. The main problem is that, although he wants to do tech, the plays he has worked on involved relatively little building as the sets were rented and most of what he did was lighting and sound. Those are sub-areas but not what he wants to concentrate in. I am hopeful that he will get past the pre-screen so he can explain at the in person interviews.
Techson’s midterms are next week and the week after. Has he begun studying? Nope! It’s a three day weekend now but he’s sick…
@curiositycat333 S17 was born in Wheaton IL. Ok technically in the town next door from a hospital perspective but he did live there for the 1st year of his life.
@techmom99 I am grateful S17 isn’t applying to tech programs. The sad thing is that he has done a TON of set design and actual builds from scratch (some seriously cool stuff but oh, the power tools in kids hands…crazy some of the stuff they made!) but he doesn’t have anything to show for them in terms of a portfolio. Notes tossed away, no pictures, etc. He would have a hard time putting together a portfolio despite a pretty high volume of actual experience.
Hello all!
I’ll be posting the updated the big fat list tomorrow. If there are any additional updates or changes (merit received etc) please let me know. I think I have everything sent to me since the last update but you never know.
Also, I am going to take FA off of the list from an actual $$ perspective but, if folks want to note FA, just let me know if it was
Generous
Decent
Stingy
Crappy
I don’t think anyone really needs to know more than that for research purposes. Plus is cuts down the character count. LOL!
Don’t be surprised if it’s 6 pages now!
How old is your son? Where I am, nobody under 18 is allowed to touch the power tools. Techson uses them at home, with H, but not at school.
Tonight, I went on to the website of the summer program he does. The site has been updated and stocked with photos from the past 10 or so shows. We found some showing techson and the work. One shows him sitting at the sound board with his head set on and others show him standing by the sets with other crew members. We are going to pick a couple from each show and use those. They want 3 to 5 or so samples for the pre-screen and then he brings the rest with him. He has taken one year of mechanical drafting as well as a 3-D printing class but he has nothing to show for those other than A’s.
@eandesmom I can’t remember any more what I had given you the first time - I know I wanted to give you APs taken – any idea what page or post number the last time you posted it was so I can go back and look? Thanks so much!!
I’ll check
@eanesmom My father worked at Fermilab back in the very very beginning. There was nothing but corn fields between Wheaton and the lab. I lived there from about 6 months - 8 years old. I remember getting intentionally ‘lost’ on the way to school and wandering around the Wheaton campus.
I think you can put down Crappy (or None) for ours so far. I’ve been waiting for mail about any financial aid from UofO, even something tell us all we can get are the loans almost anyone can get. But so far nothing…
@techmom99 They aren’t allowed to use the power tools? Really. Our school lets our kids use them. Back when D12 was in tech, they would have these Saturday work days. The teacher requested about 3 parents volunteers at all time to help supervise. But we weren’t supposed to do anything just watch them use the power tools and make sure they weren’t cutting their hands off. Ok…make sure they were using the proper safety equipment and not goofing off around them.
Maybe some of you ‘tech’ moms should suggest to the theater teachers that all students should be taking photos, saving programs, saving notes of plays and pieces they work on. or just pass it on to the next set of parents. If the 9th grader doesn’t continue in theater, no problem just throw the stuff away. If they do continue, you’ll have all the info in one place.
I really wish someone had suggested I start a notebook in 9th grade just noting the classes, teachers’ names, saved a program from a play, taken a picture of the costumes. I have most of those things, just not all together. For one daughter it would be all the theater stuff, for the other all the sports stuff (I never saved the stats, just the awards). It would have been so easy to fill out the applications…if only.
@techmom99 D was allowed to use power tools, but I had to sign off on something. Also, congrats on your son’s accpetances! Sounds like he has some terrific options.
@twoinanddone Yes, after catching up on the last few pages, I agree, I plan to tell D’s school. Had no idea colleges requested these types of portfolios. I’m not sure a portfolio is possible for Lights and Sound like @eandesmom mentioned, but certainly keeping track of what you did for each show, event, etc. I guess is possible.
@eandesmom Congratulations on the Goucher College acceptance! D has a friend accepted and attending there in the fall! (also catching up from a few pages ago about homework and calc)
I can totally relate: it seems like there is a direct correlation between whether or not they see the point of something and if they are willing to put in the hard work. When my daughter was much younger, she used to question why they had to learn math all the time. I never knew what to say. My brother told me to tell her that it’s not necessarily the math itself (it could be of course) but that it’s developing important study habits and important critical thinking skills that you will need in college and throughout life. Fast forward to present day, although D doesn’t particularly like calc, in the context of Physics (her favorite subject) she realized she needs to learn it now. (not curbing the senioritis much though lol) @RightCoaster D gets frustrated with her calc teacher and showing work when half the time she’s doing it via legitimate shortcut.
@rolani88 Congrats on all the acceptances, it’s nice to have options!!
@snoozn I don’t think it’s silly to be influenced by the dorms, I mean I know some people don’t care, but I think your living space can make a difference in the way that you feel/overall mood etc! Suite style does sound ideal. I think D prefers any dorms that have their own bathrooms, not community baths. When touring, I personally would take note of how the rooms are laid out and what kind of light they have, but pretty much have been keeping my mouth shut about it.
@curiositycat333 glad to see son got in the missing assignment! My daughter is hanging on to a low C in Physics, not sure how she did on test this past week and I think she has one more before the semester’s over. Never thought I’d be hoping for a C in something! I feel like it could make or break upcoming admissions decisions. Cross your fingers for us! So where will you hit the mountains?! My girlfriend has a place at Gore, she is there right now. My S/O wants to head to Park City - we have friends out there, I’m starting to feel old, I don’t really want to go anymore. I’m getting nervous about ‘extreme sports.’ It’s silly, I know.
@CAtransplant here is what I have for your D
U of O
Other factors: moderate ECs (soccer 2 years, track 2 years, volunteer at soccer camp for underprivileged kids 150 hours, proficient in Circus Arts - trapeze, silks - and some volunteering at camp for kids in that area)
@curiositycat333 funny. I used to market to many of the huge labs and production facilities around the greater area. Wheaton itself was less cornfields but then but as you drove west…LOTS of them. I had a half acre house there with a huge garden…miss being able to grow that kind of food, just don’t have the weather or exposure for it here. Or time but that’s another matter entirely!
I have to decide what crappy means. Is crappy zero? Or is it when they offer just a subsidized loan in combo with a non. I lean towards the latter simply because the school counts that in their CDS. I am not sure if they count the non subsidized portion since that, by their definition, isn’t “need”. You’ll get yours from U of O, I suspect they are later, I know UVM isn’t until sometime in march. We’ve only seen 3 FA letters out of the 6 schools. Maybe it should be crappy (subsidized loan) and donut hole. LOL! We’ve gotten 1 crappy offer and 2 donut holes.
@techmom99 and @curiositycat333 I do not recall ever signing a release. We do have an amazing performing arts supervisor who oversees ALL of the set building and it’s a core tight group who does the real builds but yeah, power tools. He was so excited. All the stuff we won’t let him do with H’s tools. Freaked me out freshman year. But if you think about it really, if supervised is it all that different from wood shop, auto shop or metal shop? They are actually doing some of it in his theater tech class this year. It’s the first year they’ve offered tech as a class (used to I guess but that was years ago) and he is loving it. But like your S, he’s done a lot of lights and sound and that is hard to demostrate. Although I suppose he has all the audio files so could maybe do somethign with that if he had to.
@twoinanddone that’s a good point. In our case though it’s been all EC, not class, until this year and the class was a new offering. The cast has a lot more available to pull from. I feel like mentioning it myself to the teacher though as for kids interested enough I suspect they will take the tech class and to understand a portfolion might be required would be good for those kids. It’s really not any different on the music side, we have amazing teachers but they’ve not suggested kids save programs, or video performances or really push solo outside work, that’s where the private teacher helps. I think for kids in both worlds that go above and beyond (a lot of community theater, local youth symphony, state honors bands and competitions) then they probably get that input. But for the normal artsy kid who does a lot but it’s not at that level…they may not be saving or tracking what they need to. We had some scrambling to find all the old theater programs, which thankfully I’d saved, and work backwards for positions but did get it captured on his resume. Same thing with some of his community band performances. I am trying to track stuff better for S19 but he’s less pointy in many ways but still, there are little things I will forget. Although with him, his memory is pretty amazing so he will likely recall stuff I don’t.
@Fishnlines29 Unfortunately I get the “you never took calculus and you graduated college” argument from him. Which is all very very true. I stopped taking math after Algebra 3 and trig and managed to avoid it entirely in college. I’ve expressed to all the kids that it is one regret but I do empathize as I can’t say I like it either! It’s frustrating to watch to see he knows what he needs to do to make it better (and really if he did it would be far more enjoyable…he is not bad at math at all, just stubborn!) but really doesn’t want to. That said, if I know my kid, I suspect that he will cave on that front and at some point seek help if he can’t really corral it on his own. But it has to be on his timeframe. Which of course is always far far later than prudent in my opinion but…it is his battle to fight. He knows we are here if he wants help. He just fiercely doesn’t. Cracks me up though as it will be a “you made me take Calc” when he knows full well that was not the case. It was never a question. AP Lit was a question and we supported him not taking it (he chose to anyway) but he never, ever considered another path outside of calc. Or if he did, never verbalized it!
@eandesmom thanks - I will send you a bit more info in a minute.
@curiositycat333 just for frame of reference, my D received her letter of admission to U of O dated December 6 and another letter dated December 12 advising of merit scholarship. Then another letter dated December 19 arrived inviting her to Scholars Recognition Day which is on January 27. They say in the letter “This special event is designed specifically for high-achieving students like you.” Sounds like they plan to promote the Clark Honors College and have faculty to speak about what they say are their highly ranked academic programs and have members of Admissions, Housing etc. there to answer questions. (She doesn’t plan to go to this - we already visited and toured the college and also did a tour of the Honors College and she already decided it’s not for her). So they have already sent some merit scholarship decisions - but they could have gotten behind from the holidays I imagine also? And they also have a Top Scholars Duck Days Scholarship Dinner in March and April which they mentioned in the Dec. 19 letter by the way.
Hey everyone - running out the door - here are my two quick bits of good news:
- like Cameo43’s D, CoyoteSon was accepted EA at Wheaton College in MA (no cornfields, but sadly not much of a college town either). $27K in merit aid. (@eandesmom - not sure how easy to change the big list - all of CoyoteSon’S acceptances were EA, with exception of Juniata, which only has RD, but treats like rolling admissions).
- my favorite news of the day - all the applications are done and submitted! Wohoo!
Will be more conversational later tonight - Congrats to Rolani88 and all the sons and daughters on our wonderful list!
@CAtransplant & others … last update of outcomes was Jan 9th, pg 167, post #2497.
@eandesmom … great list so far!
ALL … congrats on acceptances … looks like U of VT is the clear favorite among our group w/5 acceptances
Did any of your children read The Secret History for AP Lit? It takes place @ fictional Hampden College in VT.
S17 wouldn’t even consider U of VT after reading the book (LOL).
S17 was deferred @ James Madison U (2nd choice). Sort of glad, since it confirms that it was the right decision to apply ED @ his in-state favorite.
@eandesmom My D never took Calculus. She graduated college with passing Algebra II in H.S. and one super easy Math for art students class in college. It really isn’t necessary unless you plan on going into specific majors. For more liberal arts kids AP Stats might be more useful. While I love Calculus, the push for everyone taking Calc is bit overrated IMO. You do need it if you plan to study Business or any major that needs real college level Statistics. This is why you need it if you study Biology, pre-med, psycology or cognitive science.
Or what I believe is H.S. kids need a practical math class their senior after Algebra II. How to understand interest rates, loans, and baking. (Pre-algebra material but the students need to review this stuff at.) Some desecrate math… how to understand probabilities (what your chances really are of wining that lottery), a bit of linear algebra. Practical everyday math you would use in the working world. But that isn’t what colleges are looking for so no one would take that class.
As for the tech. Nope… never signed a waiver for using hand tools. Tech was/is a class but not a ‘UC’ approved class, meaning it’s grade never went on the kids academic grade. (Like sports and marching band) When my D took it would be after school, but now I believe it’s a 6th period class.
@MomStudent2017 I read A Secret History when it first came out, I think I still have my copy and you’ve inspired me. To re-read it! I forget was S is reading in AP lit now but it is a book I’d never heard of.
@curiositycat333 given that S is bouncing between environmental science and studies (and at registration time, engineering) I do think it is good he took calc. Stats would have been ok but if he does need to take (re take) calc in college this will help him a ton.
I think “A Secret History” was based on Bennington. That was my older daughter’s second choice school, probably partly because of the book.
Our drama program is an EC only. If it was a class, perhaps they would learn to use power tools but I live in a really helicopter parent district, so I think that the district doesn’t want to take any chances on kids hurting themselves.
@MomStudent2017 , sorry about JMU deferral but I’m glad to hear it underscores the ED choice. Which ED school, and when will you hear (or have you)?
I’m very impressed hearing about the theatre tech work. Resumes and portfolios never once occurred to me throughout TacoSon’s time in high school, though there’s a section for resume in Naviance. We threw together a music resume for one of his schools and I have no idea if what we did is right. I have a younger child with a disability and I am unsure of the plan for after high school for her at this point, so I don’t even know if these admissions lessons will be useful to me later on.
I do see the value in calculus for our kids – struggling and not struggling – but never took it myself (ended with precalc). For some reason, my college put me into prob-stat my first semester, and it was a bloodbath. I would have been better off in calc!