Hi All, Question about college GE: (not all, but many) foreign language college GE requirements – some places allow Am. Sign language taken in college, to fulfill this GE requirement (e.g., UCLA does allow); other state no, since its not a “foreign” language. Haven’t been able to find answer on UCB’s site. Brown - this is N/A (they have open curriculum). Anyone know answer for UCB? other places?
@CT1417 thanks, I guess it makes sense and I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have an extra option.
A belated welcome to @MA2012 and congrats to @itsgettingreal17, @Mom2aphysicsgeek on scholarship stuff. I know I’m missing a lot, so I’ll just cut and paste from @mamaedefamilia’s post (please excuse the plagiarism):
@RightCoaster Good for your son for having integrity!
Congrats to @Dave_N @twoforone99 @nw2this @NerdMom88 @socalmom007 @jmek15 @itsgettingreal17 @CA1543 @thermom for acceptances, scholarships, great grades, etc.
@STEM2017 Sorry on the deferral!
My D17 just pulled out her 4 scholarships apps for WUSTL today (how’s your D holding up, @Dolemite?)
@Fishnlines29 - I don’t know anything about UCLA’s LEAP program; I just came upon it when I was doing a search on their HS summer institutes in answer to @thshadow’s query.
QOTD - Spring admits: I think that it’s best handled the way UC Berkeley or Princeton offer it (esp Princeton as it’s fully funded!) – a Freshman year/semester that starts abroad where you are with a cohort that studies together and enters together, rather than just leaving kids to their own devices.
Prom
What if your DC says “I will be going over to XXX (same sex friend) and sleepover after prom!!” Would you believe it or call the friend’s parents to verify it?
@HiToWaMom I’m lucky in that D’s always been completely up front. But I would still probably verify under the guise of making sure the other mom doesn’t mind the girls staying over!
I would like to echo what @mamaedefamilia and @LoveTheBard said. Congratulations and best of luck to @Mom2aphysicsgeek and @itsgettingreal17 Ds on scholarship hunt!!
Question: Did your kids join the Groupme or Facebook or whatever for admitted students? Any of your kids fall more in love with their schools everyday since they joined the admitted students social media?
D is with U Chicago. She loves the kids there, though they usually become more active after 12 am, when she is in dreamland. 
She had to immediately came out GA Tech groupme, as they were talking about partying and getting high there!! Not her crowd!!
My D has joined Groupme/Facebook and, yes, it did contribute to her opinion of the school until she realized that they are only the people who were accepted (vs definitely going). But it is undoubtedly a good feeling to click with people - at least on the surface.
I call to verify all sleepovers because we had an incident. I didn’t before.
@socalmom007 I also learned about automatic scholarships on cc. Here are the lists, they are not 100% up to date.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Prom: Our school has prom at a hotel, and the entire school is reserved for after-prom. It’s a huge event with lots of food from local restaurants, entertainment in the auditorium, games in the gym, and really great raffle prizes. It’s pretty tightly controlled – you have to register in advance, check in (no bags allowed), and check out. Because there’s a list, parents can call to see if their child is actually there. My D1 went just to the after-prom her junior year, and to both prom and after-prom her senior year with a group of friends. D2 went to both with friends, and DH and I worked it – until 4 a.m. We didn’t see her all evening (even though her friends stopped by our table) but I knew she was safe and having fun.
Full disclosure – if this event didn’t exist and my kids wanted to spend the evening/night with their friends, I’d be ok with it as long as they weren’t driving around; I know and trust their friends.
Question / mini-rant: DH works for a national corporation that has a scholarship program for employee’s families administered via the National Merit program. The whole process starts in 2nd semester of their sophomore year, and culminates with an application due in December of senior year.
I knew the results were announced in spring, but I’ve just found out that it’s not until May. Why so late? The awards are a few thousand a year, but for D2 her financial aid packages are likely to be close enough that knowing she had that scholarship in her pocket could quite possibly make the difference in which school she accepted. They’ve already narrowed the field by PSAT scores in junior year; they really need that much longer to make a final decision?
rant over
@SincererLove D opted to wait until she decides where to go to college before joining any sites.
@SincererLove - Yes, D17 is having a lot of fun on the Yale accepted students Facebook and other social media with the accepted students cohort. She even went to a local get-together and seemed to enjoy the company and I believe they are talking about setting up another meetup.
She – and we – especially like the daily Handsome Dan photos (Handsome Dan the XVIII – Yale’s newest mascot who was just a tiny puppy back in mid-November (the timing was probably not coincidental) and is starting to look like a big, bruisin’ bulldog, last seen frolicking in the snow.)
@HiToWaMom I’d trust, but verify. I’d call the parents and make sure, but not tell my kids I did so unless the mom was like, huh?
The stakes are way too high that night for me to assume they’re not going to be stupid. Most of the time I trust them and most of the time that trust is validated, but there have been enough normal instances of stretching the truth and fibs that for something like prom night, I need to know 100% that they are where they agreed they’re going to be. I don’t care if that makes me the mean mom; it’s better than the mom who had to bury her kid after prom.
@SincererLove D and I are both waiting for her to choose before we join any sites.
I hasn’t heard about the spring admit/year deferral upward trend, so I polled The Usual Suspects (what DH and I call S’s gang of 6). They had indeed heard about this, and all but one of them thought this was a cool idea in theory. Really?! Because that’s not how I would have viewed it in my day. If it happens to any of them I’ll check back in to let you know.
@STEM2017, so heartbreaking for you guys–I want you to know that I absolutely agree that “I would prefer a rejection to a deferral.”
S is waiting to join any sites until he chooses.
As for prom, if an overnight is proposed I will be verifying, and letting my S know ahead of time that I will. Stakes are too high. Prom is an a local venue, not the school. The lock in night is after grad. Hi hope isn’t really a lock in, we take the kids somewhere cool all night but same idea of keeping them safe.
At someone’s house, depending, it might be ok. @Fishnlines29 yep, the pink haired flute player. She’s cute but seems mute in front of me which is hard to reconcile with my S’s personality lol. I don’t have a read on her at all.
@nerdmom88 I would check with the universities she is considering and make sure that her FA package won’t just be reduced by the amt of the scholarship. They might just reduce the student contribution, but they might reduce any institutional grant $$ instead.
@STEM2017 I will go a bit against the grain re the deferral. Disappointing? Yes, but it means it’s not over. A co-worker’s son was deferred at VA Tech a few years ago. Then didn’t get in on the first wave of regular admissions. Finally got accepted in March. He was ecstatic because that’s where he wanted to go from the beginning and why he applied early. Now happily attending the school. If your son’s really interested, he still has a chance. In terms you may understand, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
@nw2this, @MotherOfDragons I hear you. We had an incident, too, to make me not 100% trust what D says now. Sigh. I’m not close to any of my D’s friends’ parents. So, to verify, I will have to ask D to get their phone numbers. Maybe that alone might scare D enough to be honest about her whereabout.
Well, we went through the pile, and this past week, for the first time ever, D19 (who’s gotten on some college mailing lists as a result of things like taking the PSAT 9th grade and such) got more snail-mail college-junk pieces than D17.
DD17 is about as trustworthy as they come, but we still always just proactively volunteer to host any overnights. Makes life easier all around, and DD appreciates it because she can be sure that there won’t be any drama. Plus it’s amusing how many waffles, whipped cream, maple syrup, chocolate sauce, fruit, and bacon a dozen teenage girls can eat in the morning!