^^Tell Santa I said hi, and I am super jealous you get to see Cinderella’s original castle.
@Gator88NE
Actually she has orientation next week then moves in the week after. It might as well be back to back the way the time is passing.
@dfbdfb Sounds like great fun! I was going to ask if it would be daylight when you went over the North Pole, but then I realized July.
@momocarly I did a semester abroad at Cambridge U! Of course, this was – ahem – a few years ago. It was one of the highlights of my college years. Glad your son loved it there too. 
@MotherOfDragons Look at you, in jail like a naughty child. Your truth telling holds no powers over prison time avoidance here, I see!
Jail looks good on her.
Well we are pretty much done for the school year! Yesterday DS17 graduated from 12th and DS21 graduated from 8th. Good ceremonies and good weather for both. Next year, DS21 is going to a different high school. I’m sure it’s a good high school and will be a good place for him. I’ll miss the old high school, though, as I like the administration and know a lot of parents.
DS is working on his writing placement test today. It’s not due until Sunday, but tomorrow is the Grad Night trip to Disneyland.
I’m not all that familiar with previous year choices at our school. On Naviance, which just got updated this week, for the most part it looks like kids took the elites if they got in, but not that many got in. We have one each attending Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, UChicago, Caltech, US Naval Academy, Rice, NYU, and Alabama (Roll Tide!). 2 kids attending Stanford: 1 academic and 1 athlete. Probably a few others at colleges I didn’t check.
But, as @srk2017 indicated, when you have the #1 public, lots of kids are not so attracted to out of state. We have 11 attending Berkeley, 6 to UCLA, 21 to UCSB (local), and 14 to Calpoly SLO. Our school has about 60% attend our local community college or “other”–but our local community college is highly-ranked and free to local students for 2 years.
Naviance says (not sure of accuracy) we had 1 Harvard acceptance but not attending. Looks like 1 kid turned down Brown and 3 turned down Dartmouth. We had 13 accepted to USC(alif), but none attending, which is a lot less than usual.
The winner for farthest travel is the kid going to University of Otago in New Zealand.
@MotherOfDragons A new challenge – designing avatars that look good behind bars…
@Ynotgo we are in the OC but my D18’s high school has 60% going to community college and 40% (+/-) going to 4 yr schools with instate most popular - similar to yours but we have UCLA outnumbering UCB. Anyways, I was surprised that 60% go the CC route but that may be a California thing with good CC’s and clear pathways to UC’s/CSU’s.
We are also in OC and probably about 50% CC
@Ynotgo How good is UCSB on the UC scale?My sophomore fell head over heels in love with it but I don’t know how smart it would be for me to fertilize this growing infatuation.
@JenJenJenJen UCSB thinks it is the 3rd ranked UC, but so does UCSD (and probably UCD). Score and grade averages are higher at UCSD than at UCSB. UCSB is more “holistic” – UCSB says ECs+essays are 50% of their decision and scores+GPA+courses are 50%. So, probably a better chance at UCSB with a lower GPA.
Ask Gumbymom for an estimate based on her expected GPA. If she is not applying in an engineering major, that will help her.
It’s a great school!
Thanks @Ynotgo that is really helpful. And, the UCs don’t have ED/EC so a Hail Mary can be thrown at a different school, saving the UCs for later…I believe…correct?
My D19 did better in school this past semester than she has before, so now the stars are in her eyes and a little bit in mine too. Uh oh!
@JenJenJenJen UC applications are due Nov. 30 and you find out mid-March. They will ignore her freshman grades for purposes of calculating her UC GPA. Happy to hear her semester went well!
One trick to potentially raise her UC GPA is for her to take a summer class at whatever local community college you have either this summer or next summer. The class needs to say UC/CSU transferable in their list. But, that could still include courses that might be of more interest and fairly easy to get an A. (I’m forgetting her interests–was it theater? Our community college has transferable summer classes in theater arts and crew.)
The UCs full pay OOS are over $50,000 though, is that worth it?
@mommdc JenJenJenJen is in state, so much cheaper.
@Testingearly I agree. D17’s party was today. We considered cateters but that felt a little lavish, so we did it ourselves. Next to our wedding, I think it’s the biggest party we’ve ever thrown. It went well, but it was exhausting. If it had been at our house, it would have been a little easier, but D17 wanted it at a state park, so we had to haul everything there and then haul it all home again. Thank goodness for several family members who pitched in. I don’t think there’s any way DH and I could have done it all on our own. It took 5 vehicles just to haul it all there. Several weeks ago, S22 asked if he had to have a graduation party when he graduates from HS. I told him yes, it’s non-negotiable. Well the last few days, I’ve changed my tune, and now I’m thinking a small dinner party at a restaurant would be fine, LOL.
Wow! lots of good things happening since I last logged on! Congratulations to all who have graduated! D graduated and we had a joint grad party for 7 friends. The girls made the friends to invite list, the moms planed the party. It was out doors and a huge success!
We Have everything for D dorm room purchased. D and I went shopping back in the fall before college applications were even submitted to take advantage of all the clearance dorm room sales at our favorite places to shop. We have all the basics. Since D will be flying to and from school she will vacuum seal everything she can before putting it in suitcases. Glad Southwest allows 2 free checked bags per person. If D needs additional storage we will purchase when we arrive for move in.
D just needs to order a new backpack and gig bag for her instrument and we are ready for move in. Parents just need to pay the bill!
We had D’s grad party today - luckily at our house, so no hauling anything anywhere. Since our house is currently mid-renovation, I could blame the mess on that! Plus, the room I had the food in is still waiting on carpet, so only have to sweep the cement floor. :)) I am currently listening to the last few stragglers - one boy from work & 2 girls from her community college class. I wonder if she knows the boy has a crush on her (maybe I should cross post in the librarians with cats thread?)
So now I can really look forward to being done with high school! I just have to finish clean up, but that can wait til tomorrow!
Good luck to all those hosting grad parties - I’m exhausted!
Hi, I have an incoming freshman in fall 2017. We are from northern NJ. Tickets to fly into Roanoke are expensive because it generally has a stopover and it is a smaller plane and infrequent flights. We flew very cheaply, less than $200 into Charlotte from Newark and drove the 2 hours north. speed limit in many sections is 70mph. it was easy.
We are done here and moving on to summer work and preparing for move in. S17 had graduation last Thursday 6/8; we did just a small family meal out on Friday and he left at 9:30 Saturday morning for a week of training for work. Given his work schedule - it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing a party. He’ll take a day or two around the 4th to attend a friend’s party and go on a ziplining tour with his siblings in Vermont. Then will be at camp from Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning until early/mid August. We’ll fly out on 8/16 for his move in which is 8/17.