2 posts here since i last checked last night, 19 on the class of 2019 thread? The great inversion begins!
Parent of class of 2016 lurker here. Come on guys you are boring today!
I bought some school swag and a car sticker today 
Not much to do for son17 now except pay another deposit in a few weeks and maybe buy him stuff for his trip overseas.
At some point he will probably decline a few offers, but I told him to hold out in case there is another Great Fire of London or crazy zombie attack overseas.
OK. After 70 degree weather we had 6" of snow this morning. 70 again by the weekend. ho hum :bz B-)
Prom Friday. So early! [-( DS17 has no date. :!! He can just go with friends. :))
I am starting to knit a new hat. :bz
@dfbdfb Amateurs!
@youcee I wouldnāt call it coercion, but we (his parents) are pretty influential. From the very beginning of this process, he has had a blah-zay (sp?) attitude. He would rather enjoy his senior year (and keep his grades up) than worry about next year. Some kids are just like that. Unfortunately, they only get one chance to get this right, so I have stepped in to help.
During the initial selection stage, I turn to him and say āwhat do you think about XYZ University,ā and he would shrug his shoulders, take a quick look, and either give it the thumbs up or down. If he liked it, I would steer him to the application and help with the admin.
I introduced him to many many schools, so his application list is long (too long to say). Keep in mind that we have always been chasing Big MAC. At this point we are down to 3 first choices (VT, UF, and tOSU) and 3 second choices (USCar, ASU, and U Houston). They are ALL special in their own way. My bet is that on May 2 we have 2 deposits in and he is still deciding.
Money matters, and so Iām working on that with appeals and some other things.
You all are welcome to join the fun and share your wisdom on the 2018 thread! Lots of questions and eager anticipation over there! :-SS :-??
Iāll jump in as a newbid. Can I ask a question of the day?
Have any of you been reaching out to the new community of parents/students at your childās chosen university? Has the school organized anything to get the kids together? Have your kids organized anything?
I have been amazed by the parent support and information groups on facebook for my ddās school. There are parent groups for the class of 2021, a general parent group, and one for our geographic area. My dd is on multiple fb and groupme pages and has met some amazing students. She has met some local kids from our general area (1-3 hours from us) online and they are planning a meet up over the upcoming spring break. Many parents of upperclassmen often host āsend offā parties for incoming freshmen from the local areas, some at homes and some at public locations, so that the families can all meet and connect. This is all informal and in adddition to the orientations, camps, and back to school events that are official from the school. It is so much more than when I went to school and as a parent sending my child far away, I think it is awesome. My dd messages and talks with her potential roommate and suitemates daily and they are working towards finding a time/place to try and meet up (crazy logistics since they are from 4 very different regions of the US).
It has made it hard for her to stay in the here and now of enjoying the last months of HS with friends and classmates she has known her entire life. She feels like she is walking in two worlds and it is tough to balance, especially with now keeping up with the email and portals from the college asking for stuff. In addition, there is no senior slump around here since they are all still so busy trying to finish out these AP classes and prepare for the upcoming AP exams, writing final research papers, and maintain their GPA for graduation awards (along with senior recitals, final shows, sporting events and banquets, awards ceremonies, prom, senior diner dance, etcā¦). I am sure you are all in the same boat. Very strange time for us.
I am not part of any Facebook group. My son17 signed up for the NEU accepted students group, but I donā think he has actually logged in and talked with anyone. He is going overseas with a few hundred kids from all over the country so I donāt weāll meet any of the parents. Iād imagine the kids will organize some sort of group text thing or something. I think they have a meeting to attend this summer, a pre-orientatiion thing, so he will meet some of the kids. I am not anticipating meeting or talking to other parents at this point.
@RightCoaster ā not sure what exact program you are thinking of - my son did a research project & paper for the Regeneron Talent Search (and submitted it to a couple of STEM Fairs). He was selected as a Regeneron Semi Finalist. https://student.societyforscience.org/apply-science-talent-search
@STEM2017 I donāt coerce, but I sometimes have tried to strongly steer their thinking in certain directions. Ours has been admittedly easier with both kids because most of the choices each time are UCs which we are familiar with and are about the same cost, scholarships aside. They both grew up near a UC and with family on both sides with UC ties, so that has always been their focus and it matched ours. Any other contender always had to come in at a similar cost as the UCs too. So we were probably ignorant of some other options, but thatās OK because we are happy with our in-state schools and both of them ultimately wanted to stay in state. We have been fortunate to have a pretty good collaboration with both kids during the application and decision process.
Since @RightCoaster mentioned swag, we ordered a t-shirt to give to D17 on her upcoming birthday. Given the exorbitant shipping costs, though, and that there are so few places to get official-logo stuff for her small college of choice, weāll not be doing that again, I donāt think.
Yes, @CA1543 something like that! I was looking for something he could work on over the summer. for son19 I doubt heāll have a lot of time come fall.
Son17 never did anything like that. The things he competed in were all school sponsored things like DECA and ModelUN. But son19 likes projects and experiments and inventing. He could do something on his own during the summer when he has some free time.
Did your son enjoy that? How much time did he spend on that? I have done zero research and know nothing about these sorts of competitions so any advice and guidance is appreciated.
@bamamom2021 No, I donāt join groups. Call me an awful parent, but we just drop our kids off at college and see them when they come home for visits. We have never been to a parentsā weekend event. We really just sort of back off and let them be the adults they are. If they invite us into their life at that point, we are there for them. But, no, we donāt get involved unless specifically asked by them to do so. We let them call us; we donāt call them sort of thing. (Though I might text if I know they have gone somewhere just to make sure they are ok.). Fwiw, our oldest hardly ever called. (No surprise. His girlfriend now wife was there at school with him.) Our other kids have called quite frequently.
Outside of that, we have visited our kids at their colleges a handful of times: a couple of birthdays we have shown up to take them to eat or have brought a huge picnic and have taken them to the park with all of their little siblings and their dad has gone to a couple of sporting events.
Parent FB groups are just not my sort of thing.
@dfbdfb Iām sure your D will have plenty of time to buy swag once she gets there.
I canāt believe how many sweatshirts/sweatpants/tās my son has acquired from his high school.
@payn4ward Gee, where do you live again? Weather forecasters must be busy!!
When you finish your new hat, can you switch your avatar? I just cannot look at your current one. I want our brains hidden from public viewā¦
SWAG - We bought S a tee shirt to give to him. We thought to save it for graduation, but the seniors have a day where they wear a shirt from the college they are going to. Then the school takes a group photo. H also bought a shirt. I will wait until we drop him off to get a shirt and a decal for the cars. I have to try on the clothing.
Not a joiner of any FB or other parent groups for the schools either. I donāt even know if there are for the schools S and D15 will be/are at. S is not into social media much. I think he uses snapchat. D15 found her roomie on the accepted students FB page. They are roommates again sophomore year and plan to share an apartment next year with two other friends.
@dfbdfb Iām sure the shipping costs for the St. Andrews hoodie that is on its way to California were more.
SWAG
So far D17 has a t-shirt, suitable for 1-May, and a lanyard for keys. However, DW likes to swag up the whole family so she will be getting us all something at Easter, I think.
Of course, S20 has the most expensive taste. No, you may not pick the $95 UA golf shirt.
@Dave_N I encouraged son17 to buy the top of the line sweatshirt vs el cheapo T shirt. I said itās better to have one really good piece of swag that heād wear frequently vs. 3 t shirts that shrink and heāll never wear.
My one and only piece of FSU swag is the Nike Golf shirt. So nice. 
I donāt think weāll be buying any swag for the rest of our family, so 1 nice sweatshirt for son17 and I got him a sticker and a wall pennant for his room in London.
No swag yet, but I found this gemā¦
http://www.manhattanhokies.com/shop/ivtnytshirt
Heāll wear that one proudly.