@HiToWaMom … I know. It feels weird. We both have a tendency to want to overbook things because it all sounds fun and exciting. She will not be applying to any uber competitive schools so I want her to enjoy being 17, you know?
Last summer made me so sad because she overbooked herself and I was a rookie and let her. She started jr year already exhausted and I just refuse to do that again this year.
Yikes! Have you seen this thread? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1879403-why-upperclassmen-lose-financial-aid-p1.html It talks about maintaining a 3.8 GPA to keep scholarship $$. Now that is completely insane. A 3.0, 3.2, 3.3… I have no problems with my kids accepting those terms. A 3.5 is doable depending on the child. My oldest dd would have felt too much pressure and it would not have been a good idea at all. My ds, otoh, he gets mad at himself if he makes a 93. He thrives on challenging himself.
But a 3.8…that is just plain crazy.
Ha ha, @Mom2aphysicsgeek. Yes, back on page 193 you even responded to it! LOL.
Happy Friday, everyone! Again, good luck on those ACTs. Can’t say it enough.
LOL! @2muchquan I responded to the comment, but I hadn’t read the link.
Well, not everybody can read CC every day (like me!), so it sure doesn’t hurt to repost!
Helicopter mom? I’m a dragon mom. I fly AND breathe fire. But only when asked-that’s why I’m not a helicopter mom.
I would love to be able to Breathe Fire… I am not evening splashing water or vapor.
I am more of a Casper mom.
What I do has no effect on real person/child. What I say goes in one ear and comes out another.
^^Love this! I feel this way too sometimes.
I’m with you payn4ward!
I feel like more of a Roomba, wandering aimlessly about picking up after the kids, and running quickly out of energy.
I’m like @MotherOfDragons I am around for my kids when they need me however I make many suggestions without them asking. But there are times when I wonder what they would do without me. I might have been an enabler, they know mom will get it done. Uh oh
^^Yeah, I’m guilty of that and I’ve been switching over to more of a teaching mode than a doing mode this year.
My younger daughter got chocolate on the sweatshirt she borrowed from her boyfriend and was like, can you fix this? I can, because I obsess over laundry and there is almost no stain I can’t fix, but instead I gave her the stain stick and walked her through the steps. It’s hard because I’m impatient and I’m good at stuff so I have to remind myself to let them do it.
D17’s bf just texted her from a visit at Baylor “it’s 100 degrees here”. D17 looked at me and said “well Texas is off MY list” lol. That’s freakin’ hot even for southerners. And it’s April!
Hey @srk2017 and @snoozn - We are having a very busy spring and I’ve been more active on the Parents of 2016 thread, with all the news over there regarding admissions, but am trying to get caught up on this side, since we are focusing more on S17… finally!
Anyway, I wanted to share with you the awesome news that S17 and his Duo Speech partner qualified for State! They just missed going to Nationals by a bit, but this is their first year together. The tourney is next weekend, and it is the same week that S16 and his team are competing in the Knowledge Bowl State tournament. So it will be a very exciting week in our family!
-Proud Momma
@morningside95 - Congratulations to your son and his duo partner and to you also. I don’t remember asking which State you are from. I am assuming it is CA since state tournament is next week. My S didn’t compete in qualifiers due to conflict with SciOly and he has state tournament next week. Good luck to your S16 & S17.
So here we are talking about kids taking responsibility and tonight my D16 comes home from her bday dinner with a group of friends…she runs upstairs to change to go to a party and then leaves. I was in my room so at 10:00 I get up to turn some lights off, and in the kitchen there is her leftover food in a box sitting on the counter along with a bouquet of flowers not in water. Since I can’t help myself I put the food away and put the flowers in a vase. I texted her what I did and asked her what she is going to do without me next year. I need to let go!
Just when I thought her college list was complete, D decides she wants to study Arabic. Back to the drawing board…
My husband’s cousin did his Ph.D. at Binghamton, studying Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. He was from Indiana but picked Binghamton as his first choice because of their Middle Eastern program. However, that was 15 years ago so I don’t know how the department is now, or how the undergrad program is.
@itsgettingreal17 Foreign lang I can help with. (Insert long sigh bc I have been looking at schools for over a yr.) Are you in TX? If so, you are super lucky bc Austin has an Arabic flagship. http://utarabicflagship.org
If not look, here. http://thelanguageflagship.org/content/arabic
Flagships are fabulous bc of their goals. Foreign lang goals are based on proficiency levels. If you look at the small mission box on UT’s page, you’ll see their goal is superior. What a huge, huge blessing. To understand what that means, read the ACTFL website on proficiency levels. http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012
Different schools have different objectives. For example, most of the schools we have visited have int-mid as a graduation objective. Well, as you can see, that just stinks compared to superior! One French dept told us that their grad students are only at adv-low.
It would break my heart if I let it. Dd is already at or beyond college graduation objectives as a high school Jr. 
Anyway, if she is serious about Arabic, a flagship if affordable would be awesome. Next best, would be a program like Ole Miss’s which is trying to become a flagship. (They already have a Chinese flagship.) Or strong language schools.
Or then you are like us and trying to find depts that will work with the student. 2 yrs abroad with UKy would go a long way to developing those skills.
ETA: if you aren’t in TX, OK has large NMS. http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/recruitment/scholarships/NMpackage_2016_NonRes.pdf
(Gosh, maybe dd needs to switch to Arabic!)
College list complete? I guess I can dream. Sigh.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek for us out of the know, when you say a FL program goal is int-mid, can you compare that to HS AP Lang? Huge gap?