The ones I know actively participated and volunteered at the regional Math Circle, meeting monthly at the local University through middle and high school. They competed in MathCounts (middle) and AMC[8,10,12] contests for 7+ years. They went onto compete in National MathCounts in Orlando as State representatives for 3 years in middle school. They also competed in ARML for 4 summers in high school. They were also US(J)AMO, i.e. did well enough in AMC[10.12], and then in AIME, to join about 260 US(J)AMO students out of 350,000 nation-wide contestants.
One wrote a play that was staged by the metro performance theater. She chose Stanford over MIT.
@STEM2017 you were admitted to what, a Psych hospital?
KIDDING! sort of, I might join you in the next room over
@youcee ā the signing of apt leases begins in Sept of the year prior at my sonās school. Housing is guaranteed for soph year but via lottery, held the month after Jan fraternity/sorority rush, since the Greek organizations all have houses. Most of the following yearās rent has been paid by the end of May, before the start of the school year. Quite the racket! And the same rules apply whether living in a brand-new luxury building or a firetrap above a bar, like my son!
Hi all-this is my first time posting back to this thread in years! Love seeing all the old posters, along with many new ones. Lot of medical/financial issues with family kept me busy and off CC and the 'Net in general, but weāre all back on track now. D is doing very well at Hon Cllg of regional univ and hoping to xfer to East Coast LCA this fall.
S has been accepted at 4, waiting on MIT, RPI, and Mines. He lives & breathes Physics, and is thankfully very easygoing about the whole college app process, unlike D was. So @STEM2017, Iām right there with you, while heās more concerned with seeing how much sushi he can stuff in at the āall-you-can-eatā joint.
Good luck to everyone and letās try to stay positive and doing other stuff in the next few months. This might be a good time for me to finally reorganize that one room with all the boxes in the houseā¦
I canāt keep up with you guys, Iām always daunted by how many posts are in here when I come back! NHS is somewhat of a joke at our HS too, though my daughter and her friends actually did do their volunteer hours, maybe other kids lie about it and I just donāt know.
A few acceptances to some back up schools has changed my daughterās whole attitude, at least she knows sheās going somewhere! Cal Poly Pomona, San Francisco State, and Seton Hall with a 25k merit scholarship, so at least thatās something. Now she waits and bites her nails on the schools she really wants to go to.
@twoforone99 I had to reply to your post āI was surprised how much I was bothered by her nonchalance. I guess this is my cue to start stepping back on this process!ā
I absolutely agree! My S was like āehā when he heard back from 'Bama, a school he was all about a few months ago! I really have no idea what heās going to pick, but I, like your D, will have adopt his calm demeanor about the whole process.
No NHS at Sās HS, so we have not had to worry or deal with any of those issues. Also, there is no required Community Service requirement, but many/most of the kids are very active in their community. I am glad that S was in Boy Scouts, because that was much of his CS hours.
The college mail and e-mail has slowed way down here. We are waiting on a couple of schools, but I think that we will hear next month about those. S has unsubscribed from most of the schools he wasnāt interested in, so that is probably why he now gets nothing. #:-S All regular apps are in and he has two to three honors college apps outstanding. Of course, he needs regular acceptances before he can apply to two of those honors colleges! 
DS accepted to CU Boulder for Mechanical Engineering. <:-P
Congrats fo your son @jmek15 !! He would probably love it there.
I hope this motivates him to finally submit the scholarship application. Itās due in 2 days but he has been working on the final draft for the last week. Have to admit Iām a little psyched to visit CO!! It looks beautiful.
@jmek15 It is beautiful! My son loved being there for 6 weeks this past summer. He especially loved the food and the hiking. Congrats!!
@jmek15 - Congratulations! CU is a beautiful school. I live about an hour from the CU campus and worked in Boulder for 7 years. Let me know if you have any questions!
Congrats @jmek15! Unusual timing on the acceptance but excellent news!
Not much emails.
After S19ās PSAT, he is getting spammed by colleges. I delete at least 10 emails a day in āhis college emailā account.
S17 still gets some emails about Jan15 deadline.
Northeastern sent a nice personalized video, your NE journey starts here. NE is still on the table as we could afford it. He has never visited (I did visit, liked it better than BU which S17 ended up not applying. Too many supp for scholarship) so we should probably do a NE visit.
S17 has a bad cold (I hope it is just a cold) I am trying not to get myself and DH sick. ~O)
NHS: D1 was not eligible, as we moved here her junior year and this school has a requirement that you must have held an elected leadership position within the school to qualify. (What a crock.)
D2 could have applied, but chose not to. She already volunteers, and didnāt want to waste the time going to required meetings just to sit around. Itās really too bad that so many chapters seem to have adopted this ādo the minimum just to get it checked offā attitude. NHS used to be a great service organization!
@ct1417 S applied EA and CU Boulder releases their admission decisions as they make them. I think their latest EA response date is Feb 1st. In any case, we were happy to get good news and the sooner the better. This process is just a whole lot of waiting at this point.
@jpc763 Thank you for the offer of Boulder advice! We are thinking of visiting in February so I may be looking for some recommendations.
@payn4ward sympathies on your S17ās cold. I am just getting over it (on round 2 of antibiotics for a sinus infection). Ran into my neighbor at the drug store today and she has the exact same thing. Itās not the flu but almost as bad. I also like NE campus much better than BU. Went to NE ug and BU grad so Iāve experienced both.
NHS at our school is a good organization, this past weekend they served food at a camp for homeless teens. Many had been kicked out of their homes for being lgbt. It was an eye opening experience.
Racking up cs hours seems like it is valuable for outside scholarships and even competitive school based scholarships.
@jmek15
In February, consider squeezing in some skiing.
Two more acceptance letters in the mail today, both with 20k plus scholarships- Duquesne University Pennsylvania and Carroll College Montana! Acceptances are so much fun, so relieved to have a few in the bag!
@thshadow, Iām like you on being a late realist. With oldest D I didnāt have CC (until after the apps were in) and the list definitely tilted too high. And I wasnāt even shooting for a certain tier. I looked for schools that had the kind of dance she wanted and figured as long as she was above the 50th % she had a good chance and that even above 25th was worth a try. Most embarrassingly, I had magical money thinking - ālook at all these scholarships on fastweb! All the schools will give her scholarships too!ā Out of eleven she was accepted by five, waitlisted by one and rejected by five. And only three were affordable. At least we werenāt as bad as some of those awful threads that show up on CC in March.
Iāve done better with D17, but we still looked at schools that we shouldnāt have in hindsight. Iām sure I have it all figured out for S18!
@jmek, congrats on CU! Not only is it a great school, but Boulder is the BEST college town! I can also (try to) answer questions about CU or Boulder if you have any.
NHS: DDs HS just recently had its NHS induction. DD was inducted last year, but I tagged along for this yearās ceremony because a bunch of her friends were either speaking or being inducted. Itās actually a bit of a challenge to get into our HS chapter not because of service requirements, but rather a requirement for verifiable leadership (with supporting recommendation letter confirming the leadership role). For example, being a varsity captain isnāt good enough by itself; you have to have shown leadership by doing something extra like scheduling and running pre-season captainās practices.
My problem with NHS is itās sold as another hoop to jump through that schools tell kids will move the needle on admissions that really doesnāt. Can you imagine an admissions person choosing between two applicants and saying ālets go with this kid, because they made it into NHS.ā ? I realize thatās not exactly how it works, but stillā¦
And completely off topic, I have to ask: @thermom , is your avatar a sleeping cthulhu?