@mageecrew what/where is ONP? That’s not a name or acronym I know at all lol.
@jmek15 I vote for college color balloons.
@eandesmom I’m guessing ONP = Olympic National Park
A few weeks ago a few of you posted results for the top 10 kids in your DC’s high school. I’m a bit late… @CaucAsianDad may find this interesting (as compare to his DD’s high school).
We had Senior Awards night on Thursday, so we got to learn which schools the top 10 students ended up choosing. It’s an Cambridge AICE (similar to IB) magnet public High School, with about 600 seniors of which about 100 are in the AICE program (others can do duel enrollment, AP classes, honor classes, etc.).
One of the top high schools in the country (Stanton College Preparatory School) is a magnet school in our north east Florida school district, and many families with dreams of sending their children off to Ivy league schools, would pick Stanton. Many of the kids in our local AICE program could have selected Stanton, but they would rather not deal with the commute across town, and preferred the large local HS or had other reasons to choose AICE. These kids and their families tend to be more practical in their choices. I think that “practicality” comes out in the schools (and majors) they picked.
- UF-Pre-med 2 FSU-Pre-med
- UF-Electrical Engineering
- UF-Aerospace Engineering
- UF-Mechanical Engineering
- UF-Pre-med
- UCF-engineering?
- UCF-pre-med?
- UNF-pre-med? The only DE student, the others on this list are in the Aice program. 10.UF-Civil Engineering
- UNF-Health sciences (the grades were not final, so they awarded top 10 to 11 students).
I only know a handful of the students, but I know one choose FSU over JHU, and two choose UF over GT. All that choose FSU, UCF and UNF got significant merit scholarships. All will get Bright Futures (full in-state tuition +$300 per semester for books). I think only one UF student (DS17’s roommate) got a merit scholarship (NMF= Benacquisto=Full COA), but they did all get BF. Several may have gotten need-based aid (like Pell grants, etc.).
We had a special presentation for 6 or 7 kids who all got merit scholarships to attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona). Didn’t know that was a “thing” at our HS.
Of the other 8 seniors on DS17’s cross-country team (Band of Brothers), 1 has a cross-country sports scholarship to Mercer University (Georgia) to study business, 1 will attend UNF (Business), 5 will attend UCF (all Engineering majors) and 1 will attend FSU (pre-med).
@Gator88NE That’s awesome to see so many great kids staying in state! Florida does a lot to keep their kids there and it looks like the programs and scholarship incentives get great results.
As opposed to my Ds top 2%–I know of at least 8 that are going OOS. Texas offers no such incentive and it shows. They lose a lot of kids.
Sorry about that, lived here for 40 out of my 50 years and have never heard/seen Olympic National Park abbreviated! LOL.
Have you factored in travel time? Not sure where you are staying over there (which side of the park) but it can take quite a long time to get there depending on ferry schedules (if going by ferry) and summer traffic. In my experience you’ll want 4 hours and it may tell you 3. Research restaruant times if you plan to eat over there as things may not be open by the time you get there if it’s all evening travel.
Seattle hotels are pricey year round and brutal in the summer. There is also a TON of construction downtown so that can detract from the experience a bit. Are you staying at the airport when you land?
Tough to prioritize what to see in Seattle with only one day as you won’t want to spend it driving. So given that, I’d stick to the main downtown things. Waterfront, outdoor sculpture park. Pike Place Market, Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, EMP. That’s more than can fit in a day but some good options to consider.
Depending on what time you leave the city you could consider ferry over, dinner in Poulsbo or Port Angeles and then to your hotel if it’s on that side of the park. If you are at Lake Quinault then drive around. Just know that while the ferry will show it as a longer trip, it also skips driving through Tacoma (bad traffic) and Aberdeen (ugly) and is a much prettier drive. Plus everyone needs to ride a ferry once if you come here!
Although it if’s at night the prettiness won’t matter as much but the ferry is still cool lol. Personally, my suggestion is to not consider Aberdeen as a possible dinner stop. It will be VERY dark on the drive if it’s at night for the latter part so just be prepared for that.
In the Olympics, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Quinault and the Hoh Rainforest are must stops for us. Port Angeles is a fun half day
I think 2 nights there is good, Though it doesn’t sound all that far, it feels far when you are driving it and the idea of only one night and then doing that drive again really won’t let you experience all that much. Plus the weather can be variable and this ups your odds of at least one decent day.
After the Olympics, if you want to go to Rainier, you’ll want to spend the night there (or near there) or plan on a LOT of driving. And if you want to spend the night book asap if you can get anything. Again, it will likely say 3 hours to get there from the Olympics but it will easily be 4 or more depending on conditions. If you like to hike, it’s worth it for sure, but if it’s just to see the mountain, I’m not sure it’d be worth the huge detour as you’ll eat up 3-4 hours there and then back to get to Portland or elsewhere. If you do want to stay near there but can’t get anything in the park, Enumclaw is pretty cute and has some good dining. Not sure about lodging but they definitely have some.
I agree, you’ll either need to pick 101 or 5 and then decide from there.
If 101. Canon Beach and Seaside are 2 favorites of ours. I’m not sure if the Tillamook Cheese Factory (in Astoria, on the way) will be open or not as they are moving to a new facility I think but that’s always been a family favorite. Self guided tour and great ice cream!
Keep going and you’ll hit Lincoln City, Newport, Depoe Bay and then Florence. All which have good options so definitely poke around.
If 1-5
Mt. St. Helens is off of 5. Great to see but not much in the way of lodging around there so you’ll have similar issues/challenges as with Mt. Rainier. Really kind of depends on what you think is more interesting to see. In Portland itself Powell’s books is the best bookstore in the world. A must stop. Voodoo Donuts and the Rose Garden are highlights for us as well.
Multnomah Falls is gorgeous but rather out of the way, you’ll eat up time getting there and back so just plan accordingly. Snoqualmie Falls is only 45 min out of Seattle but with your lodging choices that won’t really work unless you came back via Seattle after the Olympics, hit Snoqualmie Falls and then head to Rainier from there. Gorgeous lodge there but very pricey (we were married there).
@youcee she will be in De Neve Plaza which I think has AC. I was thinking about getting her a lamp that clips to the headboard or something like that, but a little shelf would be even better.
Anyone have pros/cons to share regarding living-learning communities? D17 is considering a health and wellness one, but the school’s website doesn’t give much detail. She has to make up her mind soon as dorm preferences are due this week.
@NolaCAR - I like the idea of living/learning communities. Being able to live among students that share your passion for learning about something and want to incorporate it into their daily lives is great. It’s one of the many reasons that my daughter chose her school – they have a strong and coherent living/learning program in a subject about which she is very passionate.
@youcee and @eandesmom Thanks!!! I am loving all these suggestions and I am so glad I asked you all for ideas. I love planning vacations, but I was feeling kind of lost when it came to this trip. I was having a hard time narrowing down all the choices, so this is helping so much. And it’s getting me extra excited for our vacation!
@eandesmom We are staying very close to the airport when we arrive, and then staying in Port Angeles for two nights. You are right - I am finding that everywhere I look, lodging options are getting more and more limited each day. I need to sit down and just start booking things. I am looking at AirBnB as well as hotels. In Seattle, I saw what looked like a cool tour - called Seattle Free Walking Tours (a pay what you feel it was worth thing). It was highly rated on tripadvisor - any experience with that?
Long time lurker, first time poster. DD17 will be attending Vanderbilt this. Add when you update @jmek15 .
@ProudMom17 - welcome to the group 
Bandy is dandy! What be will be your dd’so major at Vandy?
@NolaCAR I have no personal experience to share with the living-learning communities but since S17 was interested in the living-learning communities I wanted to learn the pros/cons as well. I learned that the health and wellness community does not always have students who are there based on their own desire to be there. The health and wellness communities are said to have some kids who are in recovery, partied a lot in HS or when they started college, and their parents have placed that as a condition of living on campus. While I have no doubt there are many health and wellness communities that do not have any issues at all, it was a con I heard about at more than one school.
S17 also considered the language communities. Some students said they had great experiences, others found there were too many native speakers in the house which left the non-native speaker with a less inclusive environment.
By the time decisions came out and S17 chose a school, he decided to hold off on a living-learning community until his 2nd year on campus so he could figure out what his school’s living learning communities are like.
She applied as a Biomedical Engineering major, but wants to add Public Policy as a double major.
It was Prom this weekend and I survived 
Less than 4 weeks to graduation here.
QOTD: We received information about a parent/family portal - Does your child’s school have a Parent Portal and what information can you see? Grades?
No parental portal here that I’m aware of. I don’t check D’s portal now and wouldn’t check a college one.
@Dolemite – not certain about family portal and probably varies from school to school, but I wanted to comment that the one your D will need to set up is the payment portal, or whatever the school calls it. The university bills the student and the student needs to extend an invitation to the parent in order to allow the parent to pay tuition. I find this mildly amusing.
@CT1417 The Princeton Parent Portal takes care of links to the payment site Most likely the main motivation for it.
@Dolemite For UCLA, the parent creates an account, then the student has to accept that account as having access to the student’s portal. There are quite a few permissions that can be set up - ability to see grades being one of them. The main purpose for us was to connect the accounts to make bill paying easier.
@Dolemite — I am not far enough in the process with Yale to know how they operate, but they mailed a postcard to my son this week telling him to be sure to invite me. Older son definitely had to invite me to pay, but I don’t recall any other parent access.
No portal, no access for anything.