D1 graduated from college four years ago. I feared she wouldn’t be able to walk at her high school graduation because she had to serve detentions for all the times she was tardy to her first-period class. Even though we live within walking distance of the high school and she nevertheless had a parking permit, often I ended up driving her to school just to save those precious few minutes. I’m so glad to be past that stage and have a nearly fully functioning adult child whose tardiness doesn’t affect me!
My daughter wakes up on her own no problem, however, when I’m up, most days, I do make her lunch for her! Not helpful to her independence I know. In Paris, there is no meal plan, they have to buy/cook their own meals. So it’s going to be a huge change for her!
She does her own laundry, phew.
@Fishnlines29 - Great new avatar! Wow, didn’t know your D’s choice of school, since you posted it way back in February! We have 2 good friends headed to NYU, in the fall, but I haven’t heard that they will be going to Paris the first year. I’ll have to find out.
We love NYC too and visit often with my sis in NJ. (Ssh! Don’t tell anyone that we are Bridge & Tunnel people!)
Doesn’t everyone in Paris just have black coffee and a croissant for breakfast (or petite dejeuner!)? Our boys went thru a French Immersion program K thru 9th grade, and we finally all went 4 years ago. Of course, as a Californian, I took Spanish growing up, and my farm kid DH didn’t get any foreign languages in his little HS, back in the 70s. Can’t wait to return to the City of Lights, someday. What fun times you’ll have! Where is the campus located, in the City?
Wow - that’ll teach me to leave for a long weekend. You guys have been busy! Congrats @MSU88CHEng on the decision and anyone else’s that I’ve forgotten (it was a lot to read!)
S17 managed to get up on his own for the days DH and I were gone. He sets multiple alarms for himself which works great but he never remembers to turn them off before he goes to shower. I doubt his roommate will love that next fall.
The calc tutor seems to be helping (or at least the forced calc study time). I’m hoping he can pull off a 4 on the AP test but it may be a reach. Right now everything is more focused on S14 who is finishing his Assoc. of Engineering degree at the local CC. Apparently all the profs have decided that having tests every other week the last 2 months of classes would be “fun”. The end is in sight but still seems just out of grasp!
Hi There! I haven’t been posting often but congrats to everyone who has new decisions! I just wanted to share that my daughter has decided to go to U of Oregon. Go Ducks!
@rosered55 I am laughing because I think we have the same daughter. 
So many tardies [and cuts, because if you’re more than 10 mins late you get a cut]. We live a 7 min walk from the HS, no excuse for being late but sooo many tardies…I am really hoping that she can choose the times of her classes a bit and not get any 8ams.
Congrats @CAtransplant on Oregon–quack, quack!
@smakl70 Kind of jealous of the calc tutor, but not sure if S would really push himself with it–I’m hoping he pulls out a 3 on the AP, but it will work out if he doesn’t.
@Fishnlines29 True that the Paris experience will push D to independence–that should be great for her.
@morningside95. I’m wondering if your S’s speak their foreign languages with a bit of a Scandinavian accent like I do? :))
S15 was even worse about waking on his own than S17. So for his birthday before college, I got him a really obnoxious alarm clock. It does work, and his roommate hasn’t thrown it across the room yet, so I may get something similar for S17.
On scholarship apps… our school district has a huge award ceremony where probably 80% of the students in the class get some scholarship–at least $250. The application is due on Friday. S17 and I have a date to finish it up tomorrow–there are a couple of good matches for him up in the $1500 range, so it’s worth it to at least try.
And I broke down and ordered MSU swag for S17. Because of me, he has MSU wear–that’s our main big college sports school, and we’re all fans. But I got him a t-shirt & hoodie for MSU class of 2021. Now I have to figure out our travel plans for orientation (and then for move in–it will now never end…)
I saw my post from last night where my phone made some pretty questionable auto-corrects, so I’ll try to proofread this a bit before posting…
Congrats @CAtransplant! Ducks are only slightly less fun as a college mascot than UCSC’s Banana Slugs! I think I actually saw a live BS, when S17 and I were hiking in a forest near Univ of Portland last summer! It was huge, had no shell and was a amazing lime green/yellow color.
@MSU88CHEng - No. Our school recruits French students who are just finishing up, or just out of, University, to intern with our students. That way they have a native speaker in the classroom. BUT, S16 switched to Spanish, in 10th grade, and for 2 yrs spoke Spanish with a French accent!! Now he’s planning to take Mandrin, in college!
Techson17 can’t wake up in the morning. He has missed so many first period classes and we live about a 5 minute walk from school. He dropped sociology this semester because it was first period. I am hoping that he will learn to wake up earlier and on his own at school and that he won’t have 8 AM classes.
There is hope. I had to drive D to school almost every day because she couldn’t/wouldn’t wake up. Now, at 25, she’s a morning bird.
On the AP front, he did a practice US Govt test and got a 62 on the multiple choice, His comment - but mom, I did better than my friend, X, who is planning to major in history! Oy, 2 more practice tests due by Thursday. For his APES final, the teacher gave a sheet with 10 essay topics and said 3 will be on the test. I have been reviewing them with him. He seems fairly solid but I am glad to have one more night before the final. Tomorrow, I will tell him my predictions for the 3 finalists. I have a pretty good track record on picking which questions the teachers will actually use. I picked the correct essay for both the AP Psych mid-term and final last year.
Now that most of us have college decisions in - when is graduation and when is the prom?
Techson17 will graduate on June 22 and the prom is the next night. Up until 3 years ago, graduation was on Friday morning and prom was that night. After people passed out in the heat at what would have been S14’s graduation, had he chosen to attend, they switched graduation to Thursday at 5:30 PM. How about you? I am guessing that out in the Far West and down South, you graduate earlier.
@MSU88CHEng My son also choose my alma mater. I’ve very pleased, although I also think it’s a very good choice for him. I agree it was a bit tricky to not to push too hard. And I had my parents & husband telling me to back off a bit about it. A bit worried he wouldn’t consider it just because it’s where I went to school.
BTW although he told me his decision a week ago we didn’t put down the $$ till today. He had to decide on his preference for UCSC’s residential colleges before he hit submit. He had to rank his preference for 5 of the schools, there are 10 total. I honestly don’t know what he put down, but it doesn’t matter I’m sure I’ll know where he is going by mid May when he finds out.
As for getting up in the AM. This is one of the things my son is good at. My husband & I usually stay up late andI trained him early. He gets up and gets himself out the door by himself and has since he was in 9th grade. But the kid has other issues… We still don’t turn in all the homework in on time for example. But he is very punctual & can manage to get himself up and out of the door. It’s one of the reason’s I know he’s ready for college.
He doesn’t do his own laundry but he knows how & has done his own loads when necessary. I just think clothes get cleaner if they are separated into whites & darks and this works a lot more efficiently when you are doing several people’s clothes. He also knows how to cook. Made himself & his sister dinner tonight & said it came out well.
Sounds like you’ve trained your “Young Padawan” well Obi-CuriosityCat333! ^:)^
Thanks @MSU88CHEng and @morningside95! Yes, I think the Ducks are a very fun mascot, as does my daughter and U of O really knows how to play up the Duck theme. For instance, the orientations over the summer are called IntroDUCKtion 
But the Banana Slug is also an awesome mascot and, living about 45 minutes away from UCSC, I too have seen them in person
@CAtransplant Congratulations on Oregon!
@techmom99 Last day of school 5 weeks from today! Graduation 8pm on 6/2. No prom for seniors, it’s a junior prom here.
@MSU88CHEng it certainly came in handy to have older DS and know some kids who stayed around at the local U to study math! Plus I’ve known this girl forever and her mom and I used to volunteer together.
Graduation is May 22 here but Seniors are done with classes on May 11 (son’s birthday is May 13 so I told him it’s his gift). Not really sure when Prom is cause if my kid went to a school dance we’d all be shocked!
I knew when I got back from this weekend trip things were going to FLY by but sheesh I’ve been back a day and feel behind already. I’d better actually hit the button to order the grad announcements. At least I ordered the cake before I left - we only have 1 bakery in town (others aren’t far though) and I knew they’d get swamped fast.
Graduation here is June 16. Some of the seniors will still have finals or Regents exams AFTER graduation–S won’t, thankfully, he’s taken all his Regents, and most of his teachers realize that the seniors won’t focus much more after AP and IB exams. In fact he’ll have very few finals and not a lot of real work after IB and AP exams. And like @smakl70 , I don’t really know when prom is because S has shown no interest in it–much to my dismay. I even told him that I wanted the pictures, but he wouldn’t budge. I think it’s mid-May, though…
It’s a crazy time for these seniors, and I think the stress of it is getting to some. One of S17’s friends just changed his mind on which colllege to attend after having a deposit in for over a month. I’m glad he figured out NOW though whIle there’s time to swap everything around. S is kind of stressing about exams, but very much looking forward to the last month of HS when he’ll basically just have time to enjoy being a senior.
@MSU88CHEng I try, I really really do, to fix spelling errors when posting from the phone but try as I might, they seem to persist. Fat fingers I suppose. At any rate, I feel your pain, excuse any errors and apologize in advance if there are any in this post!
@techmom99 Prom is June 10 and graduation June 18. I am amazed yours is so late, I thought everyone on the east coast was earlier than we are. S19 isn’t out until the 23rd.
@CAtransplant Go Ducks! Lots of Ducks in the area here, funny story. My BIL is a HUGE Ducks fan, and is from Oregon. We had always always assumed he went to U of O as a result. Nope. He graduated from UPS. Had no clue until S17 was applying there and my mom mentioned it. I agree though, one of the best mascots.
@curiositycat333 I do agree that things get cleaner that way. Which of course is NOT how my kids wash their clothes. However when you have 2 boys, 15 months apart with the same size of clothing but very different styles, keeping their stuff separate was a nightmare. Much easier for everyone to simply wash their own. Folding now…that’s another story and doesn’t happen.
Then again, I’m not big on folding either, it goes straight from the basket to the drawer or hung up. And I’m not naive enough to think he will fold in college. He does know how to iron…and does so. Which them makes me think…how in the world do they iron in college if they need to?
@Fishnlines29 I love the new avatar! And really want to go to Paris now. I will admit, when I have been, definitely lived on cafe au lait and a petite dejeuner for breakfast. Occasionally a croissant and maybe a hard boiled egg. These days it would be black coffee but oh I have fond memories of the giant bowl of cafe au lait. I do still occasionally buy a petite dejeuner on the way to work at the grocery story and have it with my coffee.
Congratulations, @CAtransplant @curiositycat333 @msu88cheng and @cameo43 as well as to the many others who have posted decisions! Our DCs will be scattered far and wide! @Fishnlines29 the NYU/Paris program sounds amazing. What a great experience.
Just skimmed about a week’s worth of posts and saw something about alarm clocks - for D15 we picked up a battery alarm clock that also vibrated at BB&B for underneath her pillow. She sleeps very soundly and hates early mornings, and was concerned about waking up her roommate with a loud alarm. She said the alarm clock worked great and her roommate never heard it. I asked her not to sleep with her phone on the bed (and especially under the pillow) because it’s a fire hazard. Fortunately, S is amazing about getting up and out on time. He likes to arrive early and hopefully that will continue at school. He will not care if his alarm wakes up his roommate.
Studying for AP exams. Just. Can’t. Talk. About. It. I’m going to put all the books under his pillow tonight. Perhaps then he will notice them. I may also hide a $20 in the middle of the book just to see if he ever finds it. LOL Actually, I just realized that I am willing to go with a Bribe for a 5 approach.
I thought once the “where to go” decision was made things would calm down, but it seems that the opposite has happened! There is less stress but lots more to do. I agree with @smakl70 - the days are suddenly flying by too quickly!
Not sure if anyone else follows Grown & Flown online, but I just came across one of their articles “Advice for graduating high school seniors: Don’t romanticize college” that I really liked. The article talks about how no college is perfect, and going in with rose colored glasses is not a good idea. Rather “students must embrace the complexities of college life and opportunity and accept the imperfections” and using this approach can help kids navigate all areas of life. Simple but true! I’ll share this wisdom with S - anticipating a full-on eye roll in response.
Good luck and hugs to anyone who is still in the middle of the decision process!
:)>-
S17 has an alarm clock, but cannot get out of bed in the morning without prodding! Before he got his license, he would miss the bus a lot & I would have to drive him to school … he now drives himself. I guess the frustrating part is that I always like to arrive early to events, whereas, my son shows up to events “on time”.
S17 will have a suite w/private bath dorm room & the students are responsible for keeping their room & shared bathroom clean 
Son can cook, but cooking is not allowed in dorms (except microwavable items). He claims he knows how to do laundry & household chores (by watching me … lol). I’m not concerned about my son heading off to college … he IS responsible … just spoiled rotten
S17 has no plans to attend the prom next month … he claims dances are just for couples. Classes for seniors end Memorial Day weekend. Graduation used to be held outdoors on the football field, but (thankfully) was moved indoors to the gymnasium & is always held the Sunday in June before/after the last official day of school.
AP exams at our HS are required if a student wants the GPA bump, otherwise they’re required to take an “alternate” in-class exam. S17 says lots of in-class studying is taking place, but I haven’t seen any studying at home. CNU requires 4’s for placement credit for the AP exams he’s taken/will take.
Anyone have parent-itis? I’m so done with high school!
@CoyoteMom - I just LOVE the sock story! What a clever marketing approach!
As for being late in the mornings, D was late most mornings during elementary and middle school. It made me crazy – she’d miss the school bus and I’d have to chase it… or I’d have to drive at top speed on the way back so I wouldn’t get the ‘stink eye’ from my boss when I arrived late!! (Let’s face it, telling a young kid ‘you missed the bus, so you’re staying home from school today’ is not usually seen as a consequence! LOL) She has been a boarder at prep school since freshman year, and one of the benefits of that experience has been her enlightened perspective on showing up on time. She is now often the first one to show up, and is usually ten minutes early… for everything, even when she’s home.
Graduation is May 27th. Prom plans seem a bit up in the air but I believe I’m taking her shopping for dresses this weekend (prom dress, awards ceremony dress, senior ‘tradition occasions’ dresses… ). For some reason, all-girls’ schools in particular seem to require a multitude of special dresses during graduation season. LOL
What is everyone doing for graduation gifts? I admit to being super-excited about my idea: cooking has been a passion of D’s since she was very young… and she binge-watches Food Network shows when she’s home. So, for a graduation gift, she will be spending a week at “boot camp” at the Culinary Institute of America this summer, under the tutelage of master chefs! I’m really hoping she’ll love it, and not look at me like “Mom… what the heck were you thinking?”
Question for the group, for S19. Currently in this groups stat range but may bump up.
tl;dr
- act versus sat if baseline tests are equal and the kid doesn’t have a strong preference?
- college ideas for the average white boy who wants CS, urban, able to see water, not south, that he could get into and we can afford.
Long version.
As I expected, he is FAR more interested in this process than this big brother was. Unfortunately his grades don’t quite live up to his interests and expectations (or abilities but that’s another story) in many ways. He literally asks a college related question every day and I can tell he is chomping at the bit. I think looking at schools right now is too early. His course load next year will help him dial in on interests a bit and that could really change things, both interest and gpa wise! But he is on his own time frame and I can tell he’s going to want to start researching several over the summer ( I think the kid has asked me when are we going to visit schools at least 4 times in the past 4 weeks and brings up college related questions every other day) and we may tour some locally simply for size and feel earlier just to get him started. Then again he may be angling for a trip or feeling like he wants to be part of the college thing as so much is going on with S17.
I worry his will be a difficult and frustrating search so would love some early input on colleges and on ACT versus SAT.
Current stats are 3.49 UW. Hopefully he will tick it back over the 3.5 mark with 2nd semester grades. He “should” be able to have this in the 3.5-3.6 range by end of junior year. Highest possible rigor, French has been his nemesis and gpa killer but he won’t have that next year. Junior year course load will be AP Lang, AP Physics 1, AP CS, AP Calc AB and APUSH. Plus 2 band classes lol. We don’t weight but I’d estimate if we did, he’d be around a 3.64 and IF he keeps semester grades where they are, more in the 3.74 range weighted. I’d have to figure out his UC/Cal GPA but it would be a bit higher than that I think. I’ll bother to look at that after 2nd semester lol.
EC’s are XC, Track, Scouts, Camp Counselor, Jazz, MB, Regular Band and founder/president of the Philosophy Club. Some community service and a local Bio Expo competition, some composing for the HS band. Nothing earth shattering but not sitting on the couch either. Philosophy club is definitely the only leadership role. That one is cool as his club is now up to 40 people! Poor thing has run for office multiple times and never wins. He does plan to try out for drum major but I am expecting similar results. He is on the edge of the spectrum with some related social skill issues…I’ll leave it at that. Has made huge progress in this area.
He just completed a diagnostic test for both the SAT and the ACT and we need to decide which one he will take a prep class for. I’d hoped for him to do it over the summer but with his schedule I think we will be looking at an October class start for the December test.
Really not sure which test is a better fit. With the SAT he did have exposure to the format, having taken the PSAT. ACT he thought was more difficult but he also thinks they are quite similar.
SAT: 610 CR, 670 M Total 1280 (PSAT was a 1220 so slight bump)
ACT: E 24, M 25, R 24, S 32. Composite 26.
S17 improved about 5 points on the ACT with prep so if I think about it that way it’s not a bad starting point but none of the other kids did SAT so I don’t have a good bead on that, not to mention it’s the new SAT anyway. Test prep place said they are basically a wash so he should pick what he likes best. Like is not really the right word but whatevs.
The 1280 concords to a 27 and the 26 to a 1260 so technically he did mildly better on the SAT but I wonder if the strong science score would help an app. I think he’d need to be in the 1480 range to have a shot at NMF and that seems too great of a reach, not to mention if we went that route he’d have to take a Sept prep class and that will conflict with his Sat XC meets. He does test well, he does study well, but that’s a big gap.
Q#1. Which test?
Q#2. Early college ideas.
Areas of interest are Computer Science (that’s the difficult and frustrating part at his stats), Physics, Chemistry and Screen writing / Film. He “thinks” he wants to be in a city and really wants to be able to see water. Is more open than his brother geographically but doesn’t want the south for weather reasons or super conservative areas but isn’t as hung on on that as S17. California is ok, not terribly interested in Arizona. At the moment, given his interests, is leaning more towards bigger state schools but is pretty open. He will likely want to continue in music in some fashion but not sure what that is. Pretty outdoorsy kid so hiking nearby would be good, as would be decent running paths. I could see him doing intramural or club type XC but he will never be recruited.
Early list has a total of 2 schools. Our flagship (UDub) which frankly he needs to up the scores to get in. I really think he can pull that off but I don’t think he can get into CS there, he’d have to do Physics or something else. Our Naviance (which has a LOT of data points lol) shows a 3.78, 1301 SAT and 27 ACT as the average. His GPA can’t get there but I am fairly sure his rigor will cancel that part out and he’s capable of exceeding those scores. But…it is likely it won’t be CS. UDub is changing some of their direct admit percentages and that may help S19 but it’s too early to say.
The only other school on his list is RIT. Somehow he stumbled on that on his own.
I don’t think he will be competitive for CalPoly in CS, maybe Physics or Chem? It’s not exactly the urban setting but I think it is a solid fit, as is CSU and at CSU the honors college could be an option and plan to encourage him to look at both. San Diego State would seem to be an option but…it’s competitive as well so not sure how realistic that is. UC’s will be too pricey and he is not interested in CU Boulder or, at present, either OSU or U of O. U of O would be too pricey anyway. I do plan to have him visit Seattle U and think U of Portland could be an option as well. Possibly Gonzaga though he is less thrilled with the location he is open to considering it.
I don’t count DigiPen, think I talked him out of it.
As with S17 we will be hunting merit. Target is around 36 or under but with prices going up I suspect I’ll have to up that to 40 so will look that high if the potential seems there. I worry that S19 is far more “typical” than S17 in the EC/interest coursework etc area and as a result a bit less interesting outside of what will likely be decent but not spectacular stats. Or…another upper middle class white boy with ok grades who wants CS. Dime a dozen. That’s the fear. And if he tanks next year with those courses, it just complicates things but at the moment…I think he will actually be fine. Time will tell though.
TIA!