No summer program for DS17. Rejected from all 4 programs (3 are highly competitive) he applied. Back to drawing board for summer. I guess he will try for local university labs, volunteering, work on college apps and learn driving (turned 16 months back). Now he realized how difficult it is to get into top programs despite perfect GPA, great scores and strong ECs.
@srk2017 Sorry about the summer programs. Hey, silver lining is that your kid now DOES realize that things are competitive out there, and kicks butt on his applications. My daughter has a part-time internship at a childrensās hospital. Some of the rest of her time sheāll be working on essays, and adding to her book list. I hope.
@payn4ward I agree about it being harder to transfer into engineering later. The other thing to look at is that for arts and sciences there are typically a lot more core requirements which some STEM kids prefer not to take like foreign language and arts. It really just depends on your childs interests and the requirements for each school.
@srk2017 Sorry about the summer programs 
D was upset for a day after she did not advance from the semifinalist round for her preferred summer program. It was her first rejection/āfailureā ever.
But we has been discussing a strong Plan B all along (Summer College at Ole Miss, free with ACT at/above 33----sheāll attend both sessions for 8 credits each) so she was able to switch over, while vowing to try again for the next cycle lol
Looks like lots of our kids are considering Oklahoma! I wonder if theyāll have similar impressions 
OU will stay on Dās list even if she doesnāt advance to NMSF because of the Arabic program. I donāt think weāll be able to visit until September, alas. And weāll need to drive to Ohio State plus do deeper visits for all the DC area schools and perhaps fly to Arizonaā¦
Sorry about the program @srk2017.
DS did not apply to any program. He needs 100 service hours to graduate HS. He did not keep past records. So we know what we are doing this summer. lol
@snoozn the thing my D really liked about the SAT was that she had so much time to go over all of her answers, unlike the ACT which you really have very little time. I canāt wait to see the results from both tests.
@Agentninetynine I too feel like time is flying by. I am holding on tight!
@srk2017 I am sorry to hear about the summer programs. Hopefully he will use his time wisely as this is the last summer heāll have to make a difference on his apps. Some colleges ask what you did this past summer so he just needs to do something that will make him stand out. Some summer programs arenāt worth the money and the colleges know what those are. Now youāll get to enjoy more time with him as well!
@srk2017 Sorry about the programs. Working in a university lab along with doing some other things sounds good. DS took a 6-week university class (geology) and worked in a lab last summer. Iām sure your son will find productive and interesting ways to use his time.
Thank you all for the encouraging words. Hopefully he will find a lab to work. He will definitely do hospital volunteering since he is 16 now and may be more shadowing (he did some last year). He will be applying BS/MD programs in addition to UG. So hopefully he can use the time for essays.
@payn4ward - Is he in IB program? My DS is.
No intense anything for S this summer. He has some things to finish up, like his Eagle Scout paperwork and a badge or two, Board of Review, etc. Heāll start back to Tae-Kwon-Do now that robotics build and competition season is over. His team is still going both in fundraising and recruiting new team members. He would like to do some research in robotics at the local U. One of the FRC mentors invited him up to do that. He just has to set it up; however, he isnāt the most motivated kid and he doesnāt realize how quickly time flies until it has passed. I figure once school and all of the various testing is done, Iāll get on his case about robotics. We told him he either keeps busy with extracurriculars over the summer or he works.
@srk2017 sorry about your ds. I hope he finds something that brings him joy and satisfaction to do this summer.
Dd has decided not to follow through on several of the ideas she had for this summer. She is going a different and creative route for āpackagingā herself. She was inspired by Tulaneās 3 inch square Deanās scholarship, even though she is not applying to Tulane. She thought about some fun things she can do to incorporate into her applications that are more real her than competitive type stuff, bc competitive, heavy leadership type activities are not my introvertās āher.ā
If you havenāt heard of the scholarship, http://admission.tulane.edu/documents/dhs/TulaneDHSApplication2015-16.pdf
You can see some of the project winners if you google tulane deanās honor scholarship winners.
We have a lot more wiggle room for what we upload onto the CA bc we upload our transcripts, course descriptions, etc and we can include portfolio work, too, but many of the schools accept supplemental info as well. Her project is going to focus on her academic strengths, but be very atypical and very much her.
I am glad she is just planning on doing something fun. Last yr this time she was incredibly sick. It took months for her to recover and this is her last non-adult summer.
No, @srk2017 DS is not in IB school. Itās just his charter school wanting to help the students be more competitive.
I considered both an IB school and current AP-only āprepā school back when DS was in 5th grade.
I read about IB program and concluded that there is no way that my boys will complete IB diploma. I had DS start at current K-12 āprepā charter school since 6th grade (middle school.)
Although Iām mostly happy where DS is, I still have what-if moments as the IB school is much larger and provides more opportunities, etc.
Iām hoping DS would work on the audition recording for All States orchestra over summer but Iām sure it would be harder than pulling a tooth.
Sigh of Casper mom.
@mtrosemom Even a badge or two can take a long time. Suggest to your son and scout master to touch base weekly during the summer to complete it well before the application time. He is close to home stretch. Congratulations!
DSās best friend from Kindergarten is scheduling BoR. (DS17 dropped scouting in 7th grade.) I have been prodding his friend to get it going as the committee chair. He completed a very ambitious Eagle project over a year ago. I thought he would be an Eagle by 15. He is applying to service academies so I hope he gets BoR done in June to leave time for other things.
There is another junior who has 8 month left needing prodding.
And then DS19 needs to plan Eagle project. He thinks he has a lot of time, sigh.
@Ynotgo , congratulations to your son!
@srk3017, I am sorry to hear that. Hope he finds great alternate plans and has time to work on his applications.
@2muchquan @itsgettingreal17 Thanks for the ideas. He started slow but finally warmed up to the idea. I donāt think he added anything to his list except for maybe U Pitt but I still do not see him choosing that over our best state university. He did like Bowdoin and Amherst a lot but when he asked Amherst what they could provide in an education that our state school couldnāt, they said nothing really to make up the difference in price. At least they were honest. Vandy just had an alum and not an admissions officer and it almost turned him off completely from visiting because the guy was seriously less than helpful. I do not know why a school would even do that. Why make a negative impression?! He talked to U Houston because they are one of the free ride scholarships and when he asked if there is a community of high achievers there, the guy had no answer. X to that one. He loved that U Kansas wanted him to understand that it isnāt like Wizard of Oz. Lol - seriously?! Anyway - I think its looking more and more like our state school, Princeton, Vandy, and maybe Baylor. Nothing else seems to excite him at all. Well at least it will save me a lot in application fees.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek thanks for the Tulane link. Tulane is on my DD list but only if she doesnāt get into ED at her first choice.
@payn4ward my DD is in orchestra too and will try out for All States as well as All County (we live in Florida and that is something she has done every year in Orange County). She plays the cello. What does you DS play?
Regarding other summer plans, the basic hospital volunteering and hopefully she can shadow. She has cheer practice all summer and camp as well. And in between we have family vacations
Re summer - my DS will be relatively low key compared to past but still seems like a lot to do in 11 or so weeks ā -- college tours, start on Common App & supp questions, science research project, self study Physics 2 & prep for SAT 2 in Physics; intern at School Dist IT dept, some volunteering & hopefully - learn to drive. Oh yeah & go on a family vacation - need to plan that!!
For our summer, DS will continue to mow lawns and look for work here, where the only opportunities are fast food jobs. Still, itās good for oneās character . Iām hoping to get him to write essays this summer but weāll see! For every suggestion from Mom we tend to get an equal and opposite reaction so my best bet is to lay out the application requirements and the time frame needed, and let him come to his own conclusions.
DS has decided that he really doesnāt want to be in the lowest 25% of students, stat-wiseā¦heād rather go to school with kids that are his academic peers or lower. So academically reachy schools are off the list and weāre narrowing it down to SUNY schools and St. Bonaventure, the only Catholic college so far whose NPC is even close to working for us thanks to their guaranteed merit. Heās also mulling over the guaranteed merit at Florida A&M. Itās progress, hooray!
Current plans for S17 are to get a job, and a drivers license. Of course he has to stop terrifying me when he gets behind the wheel for the latter to happen. He will have a week of camp and possibly a CIT position if he is unable to find a job.
He is looking at some volunteer options but nothing firm yet. Itās his last summer and frankly I just want him to enjoy it. Iāve zero interest in paying for a program to beef up his apps. While a few of them look lovely they are also quite pricey and S17 isnāt in the free ride to summer program merit category. And thatās ok. He wants to go on the fall drama trip to London and heāll need a job to make that happen. I already funded the marching band trip to Ireland last month so my European school trip bank has been closed and finds diverted to college lol.
[quote=payn4ward]
Sigh of Casper mom./quote) Parenting almost adult and adult children is not easy and it comes with as many growing pains as being that 1st time parent walking through the door with your newborn. It takes a while to find your feet.
Fwiw, we have our threshold line. Our kids have been told since they were little that every decision leads you down a different path, so make your decisions thoughtfully. We tell our almost adult and adult kids once and only once exactly what we think, no holds barred. They know what we think, and they know what we think the outcomes of various choices will lead to, but the decisions are theirs to make. BUT, the consequences of their decisions are theirs to live with. We as parents have learned not to take it personally when they donāt follow our advice and crash and burn. We also donāt bail them out. The natural consequences of their decision are theirs to own bc they wanted to do it their way.
We can love them to bits, but we donāt take it personally when we are ignored. But it can be hard watching them learn that the path they have chosen is definitely the rougher road. At that point, I am absolutely a silent mom or a sympathetic ear, visible but not fixing it for them.
Natural consequences and procrastination can be especially painful to watch, but great growing experiences for them. That Casper (silent) approach has definite great qualities, but donāt make yourself invisible.