The list: Once she decided on her final eleven, she agreed to at least conceptually leave them unordered as equals until the finances become clear. She still would prefer one of her LACs, I think, but she also recognizes the value of a dollar quite deeply (she had to pay back a $50 loan to us as her parents in monthly installments with interest when she was seven, and she still hasn’t forgotten how frustrating that was for her), so it’ll be interesting to watch in March and April.
Holiday plans: Home, nothing but home. (We’ll probably host a Xmas Eve lunch for some friends, but again, that’s at home.) I have to travel for work every year right near the beginning of January, and so traveling to visit family over break (like we did two years ago) or traveling for work not long before Xmas (like I did last year) just makes things way too painful for us.
Summer travel: We’re trying to figure out if we can swing a trip to Germany and Austria this summer. (I’ll actually be in Berlin again for work this March, and the dates coincide with the beginning of our daughters’ spring break, but we decided that would just be too insane to work, coming as we are from beyond the west coast.) The problem is we can’t really schedule it til we know where D17 os going to college, because some schools have orientations during the summer rather than right before the semester begins.
D is working hard, both her body and minds now. 6 AP (including Physics C) with LInear Algerbra is a load she needs to work at. That also includes about 20 hours of HS swimmng a week. She goes to bed at 10 pm, instead of her preferred 9pm ( when she needs to get up for 3 morning practices a week at 5 am). So far so good on grades!!
We are going to Atlantis for Holiday break. Hope we can get reliable wifi if she didn’t finish all her apps by then.
The list is relative unchanged…even though she really wants to go to college at CA at this point. We are from east coast.
@DMV301, hugs are definitely good for calming down! I would add in binge watch something fairly light on Netflix together, make some of her favorite dishes (together if she enjoys cooking), go on a walk near a body of water (water calms me at least).
@MotherOfDragons, I feel bad for your D’s friend who feels he can’t be out. Sometimes I’m glad I live in a liberal bubble. S18 was in a pretty tight group of eight boys in middle school. One of them came out to his friends in seventh grade. Most of the boys laughed and said “yeah we’ve known for a while!” The one ever-clueless boy said “well I didn’t know!” which brought on more laughter. All my kids know LGBT kids and the support they’ve received far outweighs discrimination they’ve faced.
Regarding the CS with business focus major, my S18 plans on double majoring in CS and business. I recently posted his list on the class of 2018 thread, but no schools in the southeast. I especially love RIT for very integrated CS/business. GA Tech would probably be a reach if Purdue is, but what about VA Tech? Unfortunately I can’t remember which schools I’ve looked at (for both D17 and S18) have a video game focus, but I’ve certainly seen it listed. Okay, now I just re-read your post and see he wants computer information systems rather than CS. A lot of the schools I listed in 2018 have that too and others have a BA in CS which would be less techy.
We are deep into college app/end-of-grading-period hell here too. We’re also struggling with school absences. She missed two weeks at the beginning of the year due to her surgery and recovery time, and she misses days here and there for speech and debate tournaments and another EC she’s involved with. Throw in utter exhaustion (I think she’s still regaining her stamina) and the fact that she’s been truly sick during the past week and we’re doing a serious juggling act to get things done. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the school keeps looking the other way as far as attendance requirements go.
One super frustrating thing is that her AP Chemistry teacher, who also taught D’s chemistry class, knows absolutely nothing about chemistry. Like, nothing. The kids will ask questions and he’ll just say “I don’t know.” He’s ‘teaching’ using printouts from the Internet and just reads them to the kids during class. I’m realizing now (far too late) that D missed critical basic concepts during chemistry that are now seriously hampering her ability to understand the AP work. And the kids know it too. D and her friend, who are both super bright and motivated, are practically in tears trying to understand the underlying concepts. But (fortunately, I guess?) their grades are good b/c the teacher hands out review sheets prior to each test that are exactly the same as the test itself. So they just memorize the answers.
There’s no option to switch to a different teacher (small school in a rural community), who was likely hired because he’s also a sports coach. I can (and will) complain to administration but that’s not going to solve the immediate problem. As I told D and her friend (both interested in STEM-type careers), they now need to not only pass the class to keep up their GPAs, but also to teach themselves the material (because chemistry is super cool and important). We’re looking into review books from Amazon, YouTube videos and Wyzant (thanks all for that tip!), but the reality is she has not a single free hour in her day right now for extra tutoring. Hopefully that will change over the holidays.
Throw in the fact that her AP Language teacher has decided that her class isn’t engaging enough for D and her friend, and has decided to rectify the situation by assigning the two of them extra work above and beyond what the rest of the class does, and we’re having to take some serious deep breaths just to get through each day here. It’s crazy town.
Ok, whew. Thanks for letting me vent! Just a couple more weeks of insanity, one SCEA decision to weather, and then hopefully some downtime. We’re not traveling or anything, just planning to try to catch our breath and regain some perspective.
QOTD: D finished her 9 apps by 11/1 and is resolute about not adding more. She has one absolute favorite, a couple that are very close behind, and the rest are in a clump, except for the state flagship which is dead last. She REALLY wants to go out of state. So far she has acceptances at her two safeties, we should hear from three EA schools before Christmas, and the remaining four are RD.
This semester has been very stressful because D has to write a senior thesis and ended up switching her topic halfway through the semester. It was absolutely the right choice but it adds to the feeling that she is constantly behind. She is keeping up, but barely.
QOTD2: The two weeks prior to Christmas, we will live and breathe Nutcracker, D’s 10th consecutive Nutcracker! Then we are looking forward to a quiet family Christmas. Normally we take a few days’ skiing after the holiday but this year we are going to rest and recharge. D will get to pick a destination (within reason) for a summer trip to celebrate her graduation from HS
@SincererLove, you won’t have any problem with WiFi access at Atlantis. That part of the Bahamas is basically like being in the US, but with nicer weather and beaches.
Winter travel
We’re going to Germany over winter break and we are all extremely excited about it! We lived in Germany for about five years when D11 was little and D17 was born there (but only eight months old when we returned). We’ve been planning on a trip for years now, but it never worked out for one reason or another. We’ll be there seven full days and will stick to the areas H and I know. The route will go from the Mannheim area (including the little village we used to live in) down to Garmisch and then back. We’re hitting every Christmas Market we can because German Christmas Markets are wonderful.
Enthusiasm level and ranking
Only one already-accepted school fell off the list, but that was because of deal-breaker issues with the EE department. If not for that D would still be very interested in the school. Fortunately she’s gotten more excited about her safety after a couple of visits and I couldn’t be happier about that. Her rankings in general have actually gotten fuzzier. Rather than an ordered list, she more or less has categories of “enthusiastic,” “interested,” and “low enthusiasm with little research.” She’s also put reachier schools on the back burner in terms of thinking/worrying about them.
Class ring
D has no interest in a class ring, but we’ll give her a Pandora charm to celebrate graduation. (Shhh, don’t tell her!)
Prom
D bought her prom dress/outfit at Ren Faire this past summer. In addition to her hs prom there is a district-wide LGBT prom and for now she plans on going to both.
Senior and summer trips
No family summer trip since we’re blowing several years of vacation budget on Germany. I don’t know if D’s hs does a senior trip, but I doubt she’d be interested.
Too much stress on these kids - our teachers of seniors seem to have forgotten that they are in the middle of applications and some are still visiting colleges. D17 has 2 sciences and (AP Chem and AP Bio) along with AP Stats that are all loading her down. AP Lit has been OK so far since she has already read many of the books they are doing now. So happy that she completed Calc. last year or she would be involved in the dropping of courses discussions.
Wish we could take a holiday trip - no extra $ this year, this college process was a huge hit to our budget between visits, tests, sending scores, application fees, etc… then the senior year expenses that you have all mentioned, we have no extra this year. D17 realized this and when asked about a Christmas list comented that she doesn’t need or want anything and that she has taken more than her share already. - but the reality is that we know her phone has been glitchy and hasn’t been working well so she really could use an upgrade.
@stlarenas - Not sure if you guys made a decision about Calc BC, but I wanted to offer another thought…If you can’t convince her school to let her do Calc AB either this semester or next, how about seeking an online equivalent of Calc AB? A friend of mine did this with her daughter who was struggling with a bad teacher. It was a win-win…she got through the class at her own pace and met the college’s implicit (or explicit) expectation that she get at least through Calc AB.
Whatever you decide, I’m in the camp of dropping the class or dropping down. Struggling for a C with the extra time and stress involved is that last thing your kid needs.
@srk2017 we went to Costa Rica a year 1/2 ago. One of the best vacations we ever had. If you need any info I am happy to share my itinerary and drivers etc.
@Dolemite, D will be working on her essay this evening for BU as well. Arrrrgh. I’m good for all London suggestions having lived there! If your daughter is a Harry Potter fan, it’s worth a day trip to Warner Brothers Studios - I took D summer of 2015 and she went nuts over it! I just got an email from them yesterday about the “Hogwarts in the Snow” festival which will be running when you’ll be over there.
QOTD: Yes, D dropped a couple on the original list (one of which transcripts/scores were already ordered, oh well.) As long as she finishes her remaining apps, i think we’ll be in good shape. So far she’s applied to 3 safety, 2 match and 3 reach schools (with a chance). She has yet to finalize apps for her match/high match schools of which there are also 3 and one of which is her top choice. Those are next and I believe last.
QOTD2 With all this college app stuff, I haven’t even started Christmas shopping! Good for all those that have finished! holiday plans? I always want to get away that week, but we never seem to pull the trigger early enough! We are taking a long weekend in February (without D) does that count?!
@cleoforshort I might ask the counselor why she thinks the schools on her list are not good safeties? Also, if your daughter only got into her safeties, would she be happy there? you may want to add another match or two? And to @CT1417 's point about yield, i don’t know, I did worry D might not get accepted to her safety because they might think it’s her safety and she would decline, so we added another. But really I would start by talking to the counselor to get more insight on Why…
@Dolemite, ok, I’l check it out the link a little later tonight - you certainly don’t need a 3rd party tour guide! The studio is a one way adventure, everything is clearly marked and if you really want to listen in on someone’s tour you can linger behind and listen in but really I don’t see the point of paying extra for that!
Speaking of tour guides, I would take the Beefeater Tour at the Tower of London which is well worth it and free (once your in the tower). i’ll be back a little later tonight to check in and take a look at your other link
I was in a panic earlier this week when the GC’s at my S17’s school sent an email out reminding students of deadlines. The GCs will NOT be available over the holiday break and will have limited availability during finals week (12/12 - 12/16). Therefore, my DS’s grand plan of applying early to only 3 schools (1 reach and 2 “matches”) and no regular decision schools terrifies me. (He has one acceptance to an in-state school he doesn’t like.)
Me: Can I ask you a question without you getting mad?
S17: I can’t guarantee I’m not going to get mad.
Me: What if disaster strikes and you don’t get into or you get deferred from your schools? You haven’t requested transcripts, etc to be sent to any other schools for back-up. Since Mr. ____ won’t be available until after January 1st deadlines, do you think you should add a couple of safeties?
S17: I hadn’t really thought about it. When I submitted my apps, I figured I was done.
Me: I’m just trying to think ahead. What if you get deferred?
S17: That won’t happen. I’m going to get into _____.
@Fishnlines29 No, we haven’t tried snowboarding. They are good skiers though. It’s just hard to get their a$$ out the door. They would rather stay home for videogaming and youtubing.
@picklesarenice I understand the frustration of having a teacher not know how to teach. D17 took AP Chem last year & the teacher wasn’t very helpful at all. We had several conferences with her & D just never took to her teaching style. I think the teacher at least knew chemistry, but she was unable to teach it. D decided not to take the AP because she will need at least 2 semesters of it at college anyway & she definitely didn’t feel confident in it. The majority of the class took the AP test & the scores were pitiful - I only think a couple actually scored high enough to get college credit anyway. So we saved our money there, at least. And hoping when she takes it at college, she will finally grasp the concepts.
