@thshadow, big congrats to your D on RHIT! The mailman must have had some day. Our mailbox is about a half mile from the house up a steep curvy road. Luckily mail usually comes pretty early. If I drive past around 1pm I can be fairly confident it’s there.
@phoenixmomof2, I’m sorry for the tough news. I hope the decisions coming soon will be good and maybe the deferral turns into an acceptance.
@ohmyiamtired, that scholarship sounds amazing. I hope your S rocks the interview!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, how perfect that your D got a personalized note in Russian. D hasn’t received any personalized notes. D11 received a few (maybe three) complimenting her on her essay. That was nice since we worried the essay might be off-putting to some.
@itsgettingreal17 I’d recommend Linear Algebra as well. Easier class & depending on what you kid is going to do, Linear Algebra is more useful.
Congrats to all the acceptances. !!! I can’t keep track of who I’ve congratulated and who I’ve not…
**Schools still to visit. ** S17 has visited 4/7 schools he’s applied. The one school he’s gotten into (his safety) we could go visit over break. But its unlikely since they don’t have tours over break. And if he gets in anywhere else he won’t attend.
As for second semester senior finals. Graduation is scheduled onto of regular finals. So seniors take finals the week before. (And that means juniors who are in those classes often take them then…) It’s a bit of a mess… And many AP classes don’t even assign finals.
** Field trip chaperone ** Won’t be doing any of that this year. (Although I’m not sure AP Physics is going to Magic Mtn sometime in the spring. ) I went on two trips last year with S’s AP Bio class. They were a ton of fun and my son was OK with it as long as I didn’t hang out with him. Both were a joke that we had all these parents along, it was required. (You would think they would need a different adult/student ratio for H.S. kids than 1st graders.) Mostly the parents hung out together. Best group of kids I’ve ever been on field trips with, quiet and very responsible and the quietest school bus ride I’ve ever been on.
@ohmyiamtired, welcome back and good luck on Posse. Sorry for my ignorance, can you share a little about this opportunity and what school. Always want to learn from my friends here. @RightCoaster, Good luck of NEU decision. If i recall from earlier posts, you are not looking for Aid. Being Full pay at Northeastern might add a plus in your sons column. It does matter at many privates who don’t have the Harvard Bank accounts. I will think positive thoughts… @jpc763, Sorry about ND. We felt the sting this weekend. Our kids are resilient. Sounds like he has good choices. We will also be waiting on a Vandy decision. Down the road, it is one school that would be Son’s trump card. Good luck to your family.
@itsgettingreal17@ohimtired (love your user name!!) Absolutely!! The connection she has made with the schools has definitely influenced her personal rankings.
@snoozn I think complimenting her essay is definitely special. Makes the effort seem worthwhile!
@STEM2017 Has your ds visited the campus and met with the dept? If he has and he likes, what a neat opportunity. It will be interesting to see how everything works out in the end bc that sounds like it could be a blessing for his grandfather.
Congrats to new acceptances and awesome scholarship news for all of your kids. GREAT!!
Thanks @BigPapiofthree for the thoughts. We are, for better or worse, full payers so maybe it will help at 2 schools in terms of admission that are not need blind. Maybe a little bit. Unfortunately, he probably won’t get any merit either, and both of those institutions are pushing the $70K per year mark. He should qualify for some merit at the rest of his school list, so we’ll just have to see how it shakes out.
Only 2 acceptance so far, from state universities, so just the standard boring admission letters. Still good to have though!
Differential equations vs. linear algebra: I get all the people saying to go with linear algebra if there’s a choice, but I’d just like to say is that differential equations is where I learned to love math again. Anything where the solution to an equation is another equation (and where you can get there by basically assuming that all math is ultimately just addition, anyway), well, that’s simply fun!
Required volunteer hours: None at my daughters’ school. They used to have a requirement of 40 hours/year, but they did away with it three years ago after a review found that it was creating serious difficulty for some populations of students (e.g., those who had to work to help support the family).
Individualized responses: None for either of the acceptances so far (unless you count the steady drip, drip, drip of letters and such, some personalized, from Alabama’s various programs), but there were some schools that did so after tours, with Mt Holyoke doing the best at it as I recall.
@dfbdfb Thanks for that perspective. I will share it with D. MV was the first math class that she did not love. So finding the fun in math again is a huge reason to take it, I think.
QOTD – nope, but D2’s not applying to schools where we would expect them.
RE: schools we have toured – we’ve toured two out of the three (UMD and UAH) and we plan to tour both again, plus UA, during our Spring Break Road Trip 2016.
I’m always happy to be a CC substitute parent. We’re local for Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State, and very close to UIUC, Bradley, etc.
@ohmyiamtired Love your username! Congrats, I hope he aces his interview! And welcome!
QOTD special responses: D got her acceptance into WWU’s honors program yesterday and it quoted some language from one of her essays as something that impressed them. She noticed that. Also worth a mention is St. Olaf - their admissions people send personalized notes and letters by snail mail, most of the time they are handwritten. Not unique to D, by any means but it does make a good impression.
@dfbdfb - I got my BS in applied math and really did not love differential equations! I did love linear algebra, but the class that really got me into math was knot theory. That was a FUN class.
Now, 30+ years later I have forgotten it all. I went directly into software development out of college and then into management and up that chain. Up until calculus I was able to quickly scan the material, remember it and explain to both my sons. This year was the first year where I had to put time into relearning it so I could explain it. It got so bad that I finally hired a tutor for my son. Bummed me out that I have forgotten so much.
QOTD2: Do your kids get homework assigned over winter break? Both AP Lit and AP Lang assign winter break projects at our school, and it drives me batty. I know they are supposed to emulate a college-level course, but as an English Lit major in the 80s I never had assignments like this, nor does my D1, who is currently an English Lit major.
At D’s school they are not allowed to assign homework, but that doesn’t stop them from making projects due shortly after break. But this year, D really has nothing to do this break.
QOTD: Our oxymoronic requirement is 60 hours to graduate and 200 hours for a special tassel at graduation. Turning hours in is kind of a hassle; DS hasn’t turned any in since he got to 200 in 10th grade. There are 2 separate hours required per semester for NHS, but those have to be cleaning/landscaping school grounds.
@paveyourpath, @Fishnlines29, @payn4ward - WRT Purdue - I couldn’t take it anymore, I just blurted it out last night. She had no idea, and as far as I could tell she was never going to find out…
So she found out about two schools at 11:30pm last night…
@dfbdfb (My major is also applied math.) I took linear algebra & Diff Q’s and some completely unnecessary quantum chemistry class one quarter. Let me tell you I was dreaming in math by the end of the year. My take is it depends on the class and how it’s taught. Both can be taught in a very cookbook way, but with the right teacher can be inspirational. Honestly I liked both and it inspired me to be a math major.
My H’s story is that he was taking math & CS classes at a top university in H.S like your son. Because said university didn’t yet have a U. major in CS he was majoring in math. Turns out he’d skipped Diff Equations and had to take it his last year in order to graduate. He hated that class, way too cookbook for his liking and to this day considers the subject boring.
When filling out the Fafsa form, can you add only 1 college you want to send it to, and not send it to the rest of the schools a kid has applied to? Or do all the schools get notified that you have filed? Just curious.
I know nothing about financial aid process, did a quick query on Fafsa, but could not find the answer.
@jcp763 Thank you for your post. Nice to know I’m not the only math major who struggles with remembering Calculus since my career went more in the discrete math direction. Casting my vote for Linear Algebra - one of my favorite classes and I still use it.
Urban public school kids who the foundation believes have potential but might be overlooked during the admissions process are matched with a college and they attend as part of a team of ten kids (or posse). The group meets weekly to bond and prepare before they arrive on campus and then give each other support when there. My son is a finalist for a Posse which will attend Hamilton College. This is a simplified explanation.
My daughter’ll be applying RD so it doesn’t apply to her, but in case anyone’s child has applied ED, Colgate has dropped a couple hints on their Twitter feed that they’ll be sending out decisions on (of course) the 13th.
