@RightCoaster, I second what @itsgettingreal17 said and @payn4ward SEE, another vote for snowboarding! Have the fam give it a try!
@picklesarenice yay for WWU! and life changing waffles.
@mamaedefamilia I donât believe honors or WUE will show up on the portal, admissions does not and Iâve not seen anything from WWU to create a portal until you make a deposit (but itâs possible I am missing something) .
@RightCoaster I am having that concern at one of Sâs schools. Random OOS school that now 4 kids from his clan are applying to. Historically itâs been 1-2 kids tops per year and no one has ever enrolled. Not an uber competitive school and all different majors but I do wonder a tad. Sounds like a fun xmas!
We are going on a 8 day western Caribbean cruise the day after Christmas with my extended family (35 of us!) The kids are super excited and right now I am feeling so releaved about no having to âdoâ Christmas at all this year. No decorations, no tree, no gifts. Everyone agrees they would rather spend the money on excursions and such. I didnât realize how much of less stress I would have when we booked this trip in Jan.
So Mom is feeling less stressed, D on the other hand ~X( Oh my she is at her limit. Between the struggle with the calc class and this crazy WF app sheâs about to burst. On top of that the relationship with her BF is super stressed because neither of them have time for each other and it is bothering them both. WF app will be submitted tonight. She has two more that are waiting on Why? Essays to be completed, and should be submitted by the end of the week. Then she will be done with apps. Sheâll just need to get through finals the week before Christmas and we will be off for a much needed break.
Her list is pretty much unranked. She wonât say it aloud but I know she wants to go to the one of the OOS options but she realizes they are all reaches, either financially or admittance. I think she wonât let herself really think about any of them too much.
The good news is she got confirmation of acceptance at Westminster College (MO) with merit today. So she has another safety we can afford in the bag. <:-P
@CT1417 - We are in exactly the same situation in our house. My dad was hassling me today that it was ridiculous for my daughter to file 7 more applications. I was trying to explain that she was applying to many schools with single digit acceptance rates so she not only couldnât take any of them for granted but that she would be lucky to get an acceptance from even one of them. He was truly incredulous that with her test scores and GPA that would be the case. I tried to explain that Brown accepts only 28% of applicants with perfect ACTs and that other highly selective schools are probably not that different. He finally was convinced that four of the seven would be acceptable to apply to. Definetly a smile and nod ending to the conversation while inwardly rolling my eyes. I cannot wait for this entire process to be over with.
@Fishnlines29 Actually cell-phones donât work at my ILâs house. (They live somewhere a bit remote.) But the do have internet. Except for those two days my FIL refused to try and fix the wireless. It was a bit amusing, since even the 2 year olds were going crazy with no internet. But I just spent a week with my ILâs, and so thatâs not the best place to run off to right now.
Congrats on another acceptance @picklesarenice and @stlarenas
Welcome @sdl0625 The waiting is by far the hardest part but at least you have an acceptance in hand. Congrats
Howdy fellow Georgian @sdl0625 ( someday youâll have to explain your username).
@stlarenas did you see the video I posted on the Facebook page of me wiping out on the flowrider? If you are cruising royal Caribbean, give it a try, but after youâve done all the other fun stuff you want to do, in case you bust your patootie like I did ( had to go to the chiropractor when I got back ).
D17 says her friend that we are helping does not want to be far from his parents so weâre definitely sticking to the southeast. I just had the thought that he should apply to uaâŠ
QoTD 1 D rearranged her list before starting applications, removing 2 that had been under consideration for almost a year (!!) She has 2 acceptances in hand, one w v generous auto merit (additional competitive merit could bring it to full ride) and the other w good merit but a scholarship competition for full ride. She prefers #2 over #1 but will attend #1 if the fullride for #2 isnât offered to her.
There are 2 other schools, one sheâs assured of admittance and expected merit brings it to the COA of our state flagship (the amt we will pay). The fourth school is only affordable with a very competitive full rideâinvites for those go out in Feb (?)
So basically, the decision rests on $$ not acceptance.
QoTD 2 Holiday plans: Christmas Eve at my sister-in-lawâs, âmidnightâ (10pm) mass after. We host my sisterâs family on Christmas since our parents are gone (her inlaws too). Our other sister will be visiting this year but w/o her partner this time. Our son will not be home 
So we continue w our parentsâ Christmas plan of a huge brunch at 11am w adult beverages, present opening after to torture the kids 
and an mellow dinner around 5. The day after Christmas is a do-whatever-you-want day. I usually read all day long!
we just got back from a 7 day western carribean cruise for thanksgiving. kids plus Dâs BF plus parents. kids all got to zipline and snorkel.
During Xmas break staying home, and hopefully D (soon to be 18) will be working during the break as a nanny/sitter.
nothing special about my username. All my other normal choices were taken, so initials and birthday.
@Testingearly â I think you are brave to even try explaining! It is too much of an education. I try, but my mother doesnât believe me, so I gave up.
Did your father tell you which of the four he approves?
It is not yet midnight and one honors app has been submitted with over 2 hours to spare =))
BU app submitted with Honors and Trustee essays. Yay!
For many years our holidays were week of Thanksgiving in NC or FL with my family and then 2 weeks in South America for Christmas with ILs. Then my D couldnât afford to miss class starting in 7th and from then until this year itâs been stay at home in PJs a lot for the week between Christmas and New Years. We decided to do something different - spend the money before we find out how broke weâll be once D starts college 
QOTD 1 - My son has not shared which schools are his top choices with me. He is not the type to get too attached to any school until he knows he is accepted and it is affordable. He has only visited 4 of his 11 schools, which makes it harder to rank the schools.
QOTD 2 - We are staying home for the holidays. My oldest daughter is starting a 6 month internship in Florida next week. So she and I are taking a road trip (18 hours) to drive there and then I will fly back. That will be more than enough traveling for me in December. So she will be gone for Christmas, and my other daughter is a nurse and working 12 hour shifts on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So we are going to have a very quiet holiday, too quiet probably!
My son finally got the USC app submitted, with a few hours to spare. He is swamped with finals/projects for his 3 dual enrollment classes, so I donât think any of the 4 remaining apps will happen until the semester ends in 2 weeks. He did get a letter from Michigan State today with honors college admittance, along with a tuition grant, professorial assistanceship and study abroad scholarship, which is nice.
@caroldanvers --ummmâŠunderstated? More than nice! Congrats to him! (And on finishing that needlessly trying USC app. They do, however, have a nice portal.)
" He did get a letter from Michigan State today with honors college admittance, along with a tuition grant, professorial assistanceship and study abroad scholarship, which is nice."
@Dolemite & @payn4ward â congrats on the âearlyâ app submissions!
I am very jealous of all of you with Christmas break travel plans. I will need to escape the endless essay writing. Am hoping that boysâ college break schedules align next year so that we can go somewhere warm in Jan. Cannot rationalize paying the Christmas week rates.
We have a Christmas tradition that dates back to high school when dh and I were dating and wanted to spend Christmas together. His mom started having their Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. I would go over there for Christmas Eve and go to Mass with his family and then dh would spend the entire Christmas Day at my house. When ds and our dil were dating in high school, well, like parents like son. So I started back up the tradition of Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve (it ensured our getting to see him!) before heading out to Mass so he could spend early morning opening presents with us and then head to her house for the rest of the day. It is something we havenât stopped since they started dating 12 yrs ago.
Another tradition is a new family game. We are huge, huge, huge gamers so this is one we all look forward to every yr. We play board games for hours every week and Christmas vacation is a game fest. I havenât had time to think about one for this yr. I need to get on it.
@nw2this Our school counselor tells kids that if they drop a class or a major activity they need to inform admissions of all their schools just like if they win an award or add a major activity they would also tell the schools. A mid year report goes to all the schools too. Itâs not worth it to even appear to be dishonest over something minor but not sure if a school would actually figure it out or not and if itâs something they would rescind over. Ask the counselor though preferably in writing so you are covered either way
@dfbdfb A practical girl like my daughter. She says she can fall in love later once she knows how much love the schools show her.
@sdl0625, welcome! I know what you mean worrying about a LD. My oldest D has one and went to a hs without any honors/AP etc. I donât think she was ready for college when she started, but sheâs gotten through with some struggle. Things got better the second year and even more so once she was into a lot of her major classes. If your D has an IEP with accommodations, make sure to contact the disability office where sheâll attend and find out what they need from her hs, doctorâs diagnosis, etc.
@adchai
No plans to drop any classes and not questioning the need to report schedule changes. I just wanted to confirm that a student could really have admission rescinded for dropping a class if they still meet all admissions requirements (eg. 4 years of math) because it just seemed unreasonable to me.
Welcome @sdl0625!!!
We had a short term free college consultant and oh that was nice in many ways. My S was better about being on time for her than for me (or really, himself) right?
It is hard to know where kids will succeed. My S has ADHD and does seem to have a grasp on the better environments for him but within that there is a huge variety. Weâve actually elected to skip reaches, primarily for financial reasons but secondarily many seemed to have an environment that might not be best for him. While he has no need to be the big fish, being a really small one isnât great for him and he will sink versus rising up. He needs to be a middle fish and then he wants to swim up, versus being convinced he belongs on the bottom if that makes any sense.
GW is ouch. My former main babysitter graduated from there not too long ago andâŠouch. She loved it though. I actually think American would be a decent fit for my S but financially it was a no go.
He would also like to major in âchange the worldâ