Went ahead and had DS check with teacher on missing LOR, and he said they were mailed on Halloween. Phew! This particular teacher is also our Mayor, and with the elections I was afraid it might have slipped through the cracks. Glad to know it didn’t. DS and DH just boarded flight to PA to visit Haverford. Then he’ll decide Saturday between Pitzer and HF which is ED 1. Cutting it close to the 11/15 deadline, but he’ll just make it. Luckily, there’s ED II if he doesn’t get in to first choice. Congrats to all for the acceptances and honors. You guys sound like you have a very talented bunch of kids!!! And very supportive parents.
@CA1543 my D16 and S17 went to the Open House last year as both were/are considering WPI. It was very informative for them.
Finally received confirmation from the two State Schools and WPI that S17’s EA applications are received. It’s like pulling teeth to get any information from him. 
For some reason I thought Pitzer was a women’s college but I guess not.
Both very small schools with about 1000 students. I wanted DS to look at LACs, we visited a few, but I don’t think it’s his cup of tea.
Haven’t visited Claremont colleges. Haverford campus is very pretty. I like their Honor code. S19 did a summer camp there.
@CA1543 I would be interested in WPI report for S19.
I signed up for Meet me at Mines invitation Saturday but DS does not want to go. [-( [-(
@payn4ward I’m not sure about Pitzer but many women’s colleges have gone co-ed in the last 20 years. My D12 applied to several of these schools.
@curiositycat333 Yes. I looked up their collegedata, and it looks like their gender ratio is 2:3.
Boys might get slight advantage there as well as at Vassar, Colgate, Skidmore, Wheaton (MA), etc.
@payn4ward, Scripps is the womens college in the Claremont consortium.
Ah, that is it. Thanks @mtrosemom
Alabama’s Blount program: My daughter’s applying to it, and I actually do think it’d be good for her. (In fact, getting into it might tip Alabama from Well, if it ends up that I have to to Hey, this sounds pretty cool for her.) One caution: It requires working through a very specific minor, which, depending on the program(s) your child’s looking at, may or may not be easily workable.
DS’s grades are giving me ulcers. [-( ~X(
No F’s finally, but no A’s either… [-X
@payn4ward, it seems that just as @CaucAsianDad’s child is my oldest, is your child my second-oldest? I’m starting to think our machine overlords who are feeding off our brains’ energy in the matrix are toying with me. 
Congrats to @bigMACguyver! I love your screen name!
Finally able to eat after a day and night of post-election stomach trauma. S17 still not interested in Canadian colleges, feels committed to making this country work. D15 wants to move now.
@MotherOfDragons - I can’t believe you are still behind bars. Do you need us to visit and bring you brownies so you can plan your escape?
@dfbdfb S17 is naturally smart but never put in effort kind. Or he is efficient in his work, I should say. He has great grades and test scores with no work.
S19 has to work for his grades. Very different kid.
S17 puts in the same amount of effort this year as he did last three. It’s just that classes are obviously getting harder, 8-| so his grades are slipping. AP Physics C and Calculus 3/Diff Eq. are no walk in the park. So is AP Psych. I’m glad this is happening in HS not in college but it still gives me ulcers. [-(
Thanks @pittsburghscribe. It’s a weird day, partially due to my lack of sleep I’m sure. This whole process seems to have slowed down now. It’s almost surreal. My kid actually has a place to go that she LIKES (woah) and is within our budget (double woah!) (I never told her we could go over-budget a bit ) We have other acceptances, but nothing that is both super-desirable and affordable (as yet). This is our first.
It’s very exciting, and we still have more schools to hear from, but this just makes the whole thing so much more…relaxed I think. Yes, one or two more RDs will come off the list. I hope you all get to experience it very soon, and I know some of you already have. 
I wonder if someone slipped me a Valium, in which case…carry on and ignore my ramblings!
@bigMACguyver Congrats to your D! How exciting!
@payn4ward Senioritis has set in over here too…big time! Having some acceptances in hand has really changed his drive to finish every little assignment. I can’t say I blame him. I do not obsessively check his grades like I used to.
RE: Portal and unified log in
Somewhere I up thread I brought this idea up and I still think it is a viable business idea.
I used to work for a company, a start up, that aimed to integrate a lot of financial data from various institutions into one portal to make it easy for a small-medium size business run their business more efficiently. I was VP of Business Development and I was tasked with working with all many different types of companies to figure this out. We did indeed figure out how to do it and we ended up being acquired a large financial institution who wanted to leverage the platform for their own.
I actually I think I could figure out how to develop a unified portal log in and market it. My old bosses have run numerous start ups, worked at incubators etc. I might run this idea by them. I do think it’s a problem that deserves to be resolved. It would be pretty cool to figure it all out. I am not doing anything right now and have been thinking of starting something else up. I wasn’t going to go back in tech, but this idea intrigues me at the moment because it causes me some frustration.
- Soccer update: Bummer, team lost after 2 over times and penalty kicks, Came down to the last shot. Some poor kid had to take it and suffer the heartbreak associated with missing it. Brutal. The kids were so bummed out. This was a great chance for them and unfortunately they could not capitalize. The injuries to key players was too much to overcome in the end. Son17 was out, not feeling good and still injured anyways. Son19 did not get a chance to play, but perhaps he should have. Coach made a tactical decision to stick with the seniors who got them there, but in the end they did not have enough to score. It was a good lesson for my kids either way I think. You can't always get what you want, even if you try your hardest. You need to learn to move on from defeat and accept it. Easier lesson for son19 though, as he gets to come back next season. The seniors, that was it. Finished. I coached a decent amount of them growing up, so it was kind of a sad moment for me too, but still proud.
** congrats to @bigMACguyver on acceptance news, sounds great!
I’ve been reminding my S17 that, if all of his EA schools defer him, his first semester grades WILL MATTER big time. It’s been a great way to keep his grades up. If he’s accepted at any one of them, all bets are off for 2nd semester! 
Portals - Every day I ask my S17 about portals. He got 2 invites right after he applied EA, but one school never sent a link. We were assuming that the school would notify him if anything was missing. I kept checking the CC Thread for the school and no one is posting about portals. Last night, as I’m saying goodnight, I ask if he’s gotten a portal invite. “Oh, I got an email that said my application is complete.” UGH! What part of YOUR MOM WANTS TO BE KEPT IN THE LOOP did he not understand. All’s well that ends well, I guess. But, goodness, if I don’t ask, he won’t think about telling me.
Looking forward to December results!
@payn4ward - I’m getting ulcers too. DS has AP Computer science and while he has a B right now. No grades have been entered for over 5 weeks… He has done lots of assignments but it’s all online and his teacher hasn’t graded the stuff…So I have no idea how he is doing and neither does he. I just want him to pass the class…
@RightCoaster Sorry about the soccer loss. A loss on PK’s is particularly hard on the players, especially the one that took the shot. D couldn’t handle the pressure so never took a PK.
Portals.
Currently fighting that now with one of D17’s applications. It’s “a click here to get an email to set-up a new password” kind of show. Email never comes. “Are you sure we have your email address?” I kindly reminded them that is how D’17 knew to try to set up the account.
I got to play 3 rounds of “That’s not my department, let me transfer you” tag and then back to the start and another transfer to…
Dial Tone.
Trying to be rational about this. It’s a merit aid target school, (aren’t they all?) so I haven’t blown up. I shouldn’t let this color my opinion of the the school, but I must admit it’s trying my patience.
@RightCoaster, low tech risk I agree. I was playing with a few things based upon the spreadsheet. But business model, business model?