I didn’t even realize Allegheny has an Honors Program lol! That’s wonderful though, even if she isn’t interested in applying it’s lovely to be asked 
Oh my word. I can’t even cut and paste my own kids data right (or type it right the first time, then the cut and paste wouldn’t be an issue lol). I should be fired from my volunteer data position. LOL! Just realized I had S17’s gpa wrong on all of the outcomes. Too funny. Oh well, at least it was understated not over. I guess.
For those waiting on CO Boulder results my son said a bunch of kids found out last Thursday at our school.
I know a couple of the kids and they would be good candidates for this thread, B students, some OK EC’s.
Congrats to your kids who got acceptances, merit $$, honors college etc. Good stuff!
For CU Boulder. Got on email today, saying to encourage S17 to log into his portal. The message goes on to say that those who get the apps in by EA are guaranteed to know by Feb 1st and by the Jan 15th by April 1st. I guess this goes in the bucket of schools we won’t know about until the end of March. OH well. Won’t make a difference as we will be waiting on Cal Poly and UC’s.
@klinska - CoyoteSon got that invitation to Allegheny Honors program also. I was surprised, and while it is nice to be asked, I don’t think it is worth an early commitment on Feb 24th =; CoyoteSon will still be waiting to hear yea or nay from his other schools! And in direct reply to your question about whether it is normal to require an early commitment to join the Honors Program, CoyoteSon knowingly applied to George Mason’s Honors College, and the acceptance for Honors College is the exact same date for regular colleges everywhere: May 1st. That’s only one data point, but it doesn’t seem fair to claim your student qualifies for Honors, but only if you sign up early. It really hit the wrong note here at CoyoteHouse.
Honestly, I don’t see the point of an honors program at what is already a small LAC, which is supposed to have great advising and internship opportunities for everyone. I think CoyoteSon would rather pass on “the opportunity” to have monthly lunches with faculty and College Trustees. Which is just as well for the distinguished lunch guests - CoyoteSon has terrible table manners, despite years of nagging, lol.
I think CoyoteSon was more flattered by a handwritten compliment on his “great essay” by his AdCom on the acceptance letter from Wheaton. It wouldn’t surprise me if they personalized every letter that way, but it was a nice touch, because it was specific to his essay.
@mackatarinasmom - great news on Kzoo! Congrats! Looks like a great school, though the high international/semester abroad emphasis knocked it off Son’s list. Fingers crossed that you get great FA from Beloit too.
@eandesmom: good luck in your continued quest for FA from both Goucher and Ursinus. Too funny on the typo in E’s GPA here – as long as it was correct in the CommonApp, I think you’re OK!
Also - best wishes to all sons (and any D’s) struggling with Calculus - CoyoteSon scored a 77% on the latest test, and will be able to get half credit on the problems he missed, which should bring his test grade to 89%. Yay!!
Just wanted to share that the weekly tutoring sessions have made a tremendous difference - the D+ he had last month has inched up to a B- after just 4 sessions with the math tutor. So it seems his biggest trouble was not understanding the material as it was being taught in class. Fingers crossed that this successful 1-on-1 help is serving as a good model for next year, when almost any college offers help through the writing center or professor’s office hours.
I think his Physics grade just crossed up into B territory as well; just two more weeks plus mid terms. Then I’m ready to stop worrying so much about high school grades…
Oh a rating system. This will be tough. I’m one of those people who panics when the doc wants to know where my pain is on a scale of 1 - 10. I vacillate between 4 and 8 and then settle on 6 for no real reason other than it’s halfway between my two subjectively chosen numbers. I can spend fifteen minutes trying to decide if I should rate a Netflix movie at three stars or four. But I can do this!
I may have missed it, but I have no idea what “donut” is. Merit that gives you enough to buy one donut a week and no more?
Luckily an easy one came in this week. Rose-Hulman was generous. I highly doubt she’ll go there, but it could be good leverage. I think Rose is an excellent school but not a great fit for D.
@mackatarinasmom, congrats on in-budget merit from Kalamazoo! The aid packages are kind of like the real acceptances. Hope Beloit comes through as well.
@klinska and @CoyoteMom, so a student has to enroll in Allegheny before they can apply to honors? That sounds crazy so maybe I’m misinterpreting. None of the honors programs my D applied to required any commitment. D is really only concerned about being in honors if she goes to a big school. She’s applied to all the programs though in hope of more merit.
@eandesmom, I shall request that the muse of cut n’ paste return your skills to you post-haste! ^:)^
@CoyoteMom, you inspired me to check S18’s calc grade – low and behold he has a solid A. Now I’ve just got to hope it will stay that way.
I’m glad the tutoring is working so well! Oldest D (my totally non-mathy kid) said to me a while back that she had tutored a HS student in math. I thought she was joking at first! But she had indeed tutored her dance teacher’s son when the regular tutor didn’t show up. He goes to the same little alternative school she attended and they both share the same LD. At any rate it worked out great. Happy kid. Happy Mom. Free dance lessons for D.
lol. Donut applies to FA not merit. As in donut hole…aka nada.
Or… gee! We will let you have your full federal loan only
Grrr calc just dropped to a C+ barely. Finals this week. Investigation required.
Ok checked. Missing stuff, if he does ok on the finals we will be ok but he’s got to get the missing stuff in. That’s a nag for another day though. We need to survive until Saturday first!
@CoyoteMom you pretty much summed it up for me–I don’t see much benefit to the extra individualized attention being in the Honor’s Program garners–it’s already a pretty high-touch school. Priority for sophomore housing might be a perk, but not worth the downside of having to commit early. Further investigation makes it unclear whether or not you actually have to submit your enrollment deposit by 2/24 in order to participate, though–the enrollment page has a caveat that one won’t be officially enrolled in the program until the enrollment deposit is submitted. D17 seemed less than enthused about it–probably not worth my spending anymore time thinking about it!
In other news, I was happily surprised to find out that D17 has signed up for a Model UN event for the spring. I guess she’s just a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to ECs.
So son17 in classic fashion will probably end up with his usual 90.000025 average for the semester. He has super high grades in his AP Gov class, Public Speaking, Honors Lit, and will offset them mediocre scores in AP Stats and H Pre Calc. It’s comical really. He could have his highest quarterly GPA this term if he had just scored decently on his last tests in stats and calc, but no. Oh well, standard fare for him. He just cruises along getting pretty good grades with minimal effort. Meanwhile Son19 is studying like a madman, and trying to achieve the highest possible GPA he can, he’s become very competitive about his grades. Son17 though, just doesn’t care that much and is happy just cruising through. That’s why he fits in here, lol. He wants to do better, but can’t be bothered with the work needed to get him there. I can’t really give him any grief, as he does pretty well overall, makes the high honors list every term, and doesn’t get into any trouble at all. He’s a good kid.
@klinska S17 joined Model UN for the 1st time this year, too (and was promptly elected president of the Model UN club). I’m surprised he didn’t do it earlier because he’s totally a history, politics, current events kind of kid. He went to his first conference in Oct, and he and his partner were named most improved delegates–they started the session pretty clueless, but we’re rock stars by the end of the day… He had another conference 2 weeks ago, and loves it. It’s a nice complement to his mock trial work.
Calculus–SIGH… He has a 78 for this quarter right now, but lots of ungraded and a few missing homework assignments that hopefully will get turned in/graded and maybe bring him up over 80. Plus, I think there’s a midterm next week. He had an 81 last quarter… He’s just not a fan of math this year. Everything else is over 87 for now, with super high grades in History, TOK, PE, and Psychology…
When this group of struggling calculus sons makes it through to the end of the year we all need to raise a glass (or two).
I really don’t know whether to believe it’s him not putting in enough effort or the teacher. We knew going into it that this teacher doesn’t suit his learning style and gets off track easily. I think because the class is all seniors she’s spending WAY more time chatting with the girls about gossip. I’ve heard from more than one boy in the class that they’re fed up with it and just want to learn the math.
@MSU88CHEng that sounds exactly like my S’s calc grade &79.61 lol)! missing assignments, hasn’t done the tutoring yet, etc. He “should” be able to squeak out an 80 or slightly above but we will see. Outside of that his lowest grade is an 87 as well.
He did a group study for the take home aspect of the final and I think that really helped him. For once he worked with some of the stronger students and I could see the stress level on that part go down a bit. We will see how he feels after today though. He didn’t feel good about the quiz last week and those grades aren’t up yet.
I just checked TacoSon’s AP Calc grade after a few weeks of anxiety-fueled avoidance disguised as “he’s heading to college; I can’t be checking in on him all the time!” He currently has an 83, which is a relief. Just hope it holds! He says he has been asking for help and has met a couple of times with classmates, so that’s something.
That Allegheny Honors condition is unusual for sure! But more and more I’m hearing about strange ways schools are looking for commits. A friend reports that her son’s (large, private) chosen school starts drawing payments the moment he hits “accept” on his admissions offer. She was dumbstruck at having to pay for something 9 months before the services are rendered.
No Allegheny honors invite here (or if there is, it hasn’t arrived yet…but then again neither has the free t shirt). The Feb 24 thing really bothers me and honestly is the first ding against the school in my book. RD kids have no chance at honors then? It’s not like they’ve had an honors program before (or if they have, not at all advertised) so really the whole thing just sounds…odd. And perhaps a tad desperate. Which sounds horrid to say but…
Just killing time right now…
My son just finished his semester finals. I’m amused to see some call them midterms, other’s finals. I guess at our school you get credit for classes per semester. All grades go back to zero at the start of the next one, so they are considered finals. End of year finals are usually only for the second semester.
While the last three tests aren’t in they aren’t likely to change anything. He pulled Econ up to a B- by doing excellent on the final. But Physics that I don’t think he can pull his grade up out of a C, even if he did do well on the final. What frustrating is if you only took the grades on the second half of the semester he would be easily getting a B+ in the class… but it took him too long to figure out you really HAD to turn all the homework in. And that you HAD to do the homework, or you didn’t do well on the tests. Still he probably will end up with a 3.6 weighted GPA for the semester. Good enough to keep status quo.
@CoyoteMom Glad the tutoring is helping bring the Calc grade. My son is so prickly and hates to get tutoring. It’s partly because learning the material isn’t his problem. It’s turning in all homework/seatwork on time. His B’s are usually because there is always a missing assignment or two. I’m hoping that going to a large state school will fit him and that in many of his classes the grades will mostly depend on tests. (His strength.)
Daughter’s status on the CU Boulder portal FINALLY changed to “Your application is complete and being reviewed by the admissions committee.” For anyone trying to track how long it’s taking to get to that stage, i.e. @curiositycat333 she submitted her app by 11/18 but it wasn’t complete with school report, transcript and counselor letter until Dec. 1. So about 7 weeks from it being complete til it switched to being reviewed. Now how long it stays in this stage, I’m not sure.
So glad to have this fab group of parents to commiserate with on Calculus! Wohoo to Snoozn’s D who has gotten to the holy grail at an A, and yay for TacoSon who’s managed to get to a very respectable 83! And that 90% overall sounds good for @RightCoaster’s Son. CoyoteSon is up to an 81, and I so sympathize with @eandesmon, @MSU88CHEng at that evil 79% where CoyoteSon was last week (fingers crossed that the tutoring helps him manage to keep a B even with the upcoming midterm). And @curiositycat333 – I think if your Son does well on the tests, then he will be much better off in college! And big hugs to @smakl70 - I would be very upset to hear my kid’S teacher was gossiping with students instead of teaching.
CoyoteSon tends to lose focus a bit and miss a step, or a negative sign, so he can get the concept, but still makes mistakes on either the homework or the tests.
So the big college search has had the beneficial side effect of finally convincing DH that engineering is not the only worthwhile major, and maybe an LAC is a good idea for a kid who likes to play with big ideas, but doesn’t always get the right answer! ;))
Honors programs: Wow, that seems unfair that they would require an ‘early decision’ and that would leave a bad taste in my mouth as well. D was thrilled with her acceptance at Drexel and I suggested she apply for the Honors College, application due Feb 1st. I hope, if accepted, they wouldn’t make her decide early! She is also waiting to hear from a few others. Also, although she really has no interest in going to Rutgers, we are expecting a decision for the Honors College any day. It’s a brand new facility and I think that could potentially ‘sway her’ if she were to be accepted. The regular dorms are just dark and depressing so that was a real turn off when we toured.
Semester grades: Congrats on all the Calc grades! Despite D’s best efforts and her upward trend, she failed her last (AP Physics C) test. Luckily since she was doing better overall, her total grade only went down one point BUT from a 74(C-) to a 73(D+). I was kind of freaking out, but D reminded me, her school doesn’t report letter grades, so MAYBE that looks a little better when we send it in to colleges since most consider a 73 a C? Hopefully? (you can just lie to me here and say yes) Anyway, she has one more test on Monday, last chance to bring it back up to a real C. I wouldn’t normally care about one grade but this particular one just has such bad timing!
@snoozn i wasn’t sure what donut was either but I guess that makes sense, zip zero!
@Fishnlines29 If they just report the percent and not the letter I think she should be fine. I’d still be hoping she can pull it up with the final test too though.
S bombed his calc final and the work he’d put in to pull up to a B disappeared. It was mere points away but C’est la vie. I’m hoping he learned from it but senioritis is creeping in.