Responding to a post I saw earlier, I agree not every student is in the studies and never goes to parties, or parties constantly groups. My S17 much to my concern, called out of the blue and said he was pledging a fraternity and was moving into the house second semester. We couldn’t really use the financial card because housing/food/dues were less than we were paying for dorm/food. We told him that he could try but if his grades dropped he was done. A year later he has a 4.0 in a STEM field, is the grade officer for his fraternity, is running for president of the fraternity next year, has gotten to know the CEO of a major company, dates a wonderful pre-med girl, and is profoundly happy. He does go to frat parties, yes I do know he has had drinks at said parties (not in the dry frat house), but does not party to excess and studies far more than he parties. He said people who only party are looked down upon.
Just something to think about if your “I’ll never join a sorority or fraternity” child calls out of the blue telling you they want to. At his school he still has plenty of non-Greek friends as do others and there is a lot of mixing. Not true at every college.
Good luck to all of you! State schools can be wonderful even for the high achiever types! Don’t forget that. Some 4.0 HS students are struggling and many 3.0 hs students are thriving at his school!
Well, lots of excitement over here this week. As of today, S19 has three acceptances. State directional and two LACs. Merit was successfully chased with the LACs. COA for both will be just a bit lower than the elevated PA state-related (Penn State, Temple, Pitt) in-state COA, which we can afford.
More than happy to add these to the Google Sheet. My kid is an AP/honors English/history and “regular” math/science student. He is not the kid who has a 3.4 in all AP classes. His GPA is higher than the range here because he made a decision to stay in regular track math/science. His test scores are CC low because of that decision.
And, he now has three great options. Still waiting on Penn State. With Susquehanna as the current second choice.
We should have two more acceptances in a week or two, so I’ll submit the 3 of them at once to eandesmom if she wants them. DD has a high GPA but an ACT of 27 and only 1 AP so she’s not entirely high stats.
One step forward and one step back on getting DD interested in the affordable school that has what she wants but other area kids go there…she mentioned at supper how much she liked the theatre professor she met. Then after musical practice she said “M” was thinking about going there which makes DD unhappy because she “was starting to warm up to it”. ((yay))
There are two girls at school I would rather not have DD have any association with after graduation and M is one of them. However, I told DD to not let the mere possibility of M attending sway her away from what she wants.
Tomorrow we’re visiting another 3 hours away more so to see a friend than actual interest in the college. So we’ll have lots of drive time to talk!
The idea that you get an extra scholarship for visiting a college seems a bit, well, off to me. I mean, I get what they’re trying to do, but it feels like giving someone extra money for being well-off enough to take a vacation, you know?
@mommdc Nice on IUP! My kid got some merit from Ship.
S19 wants to major in English and writing. Susquehanna is known for both. I took him to Creative Writing Day last year (no grant $ offered for that) and we both really liked it there. The writing profs were impressive as were the students who read. S liked the workshops. The campus is beautiful. As a writer myself, I was ready to go there. Nice mix of students. He liked that there were notices up for the D&D club alongside those for the sports clubs. He can participate in music without being a music major. And ROTC is an option (shared program with Bucknell).
Now, it is in a remote central PA location. The town is very small (not talking State College here) but right on the river. Quite picturesque. And there are basics (grocery, Wal Mart) close by. Bucknell is 15 miles north.
Definitely worth considering if the above description works. I have a young colleague who went there so we had some inside scoop going in.
@InfiniteWaves Sounds like you are in great shape. So happy for everyone. ‘We’ made progress on the CA essay today. Hoping the stress is at code yellow again. Last night was rough.
Next week Twin A is FINALLY (God willing) making it to Hobart & William Smith–canceled several times already. She’ll also see Fairfield U. Husband is taking her so I’ll have to de-Spock the review (IT people 8-| ) I’ll be taking Twin B for her final tour, but that kid is much easier and wants to be close to home. Then we are DONE! Hoping demonstrated isn’t a deal breaker for some of the schools on her list. I just can’t drive to Pennsylvania again.
Hey everyone! Congratulations to all on the acceptances that is so incredibly exciting. I could not be more thrilled for everyone. I have been absolutely swamped with work lately so if you’d like to send me a PM I will send you the link for the Google sheets And my apologies for not being around more.
As for us it’s a little bit of a mixed bag. No applications in yet and we are behind on essays but at least have some solid work that with some TLC can be finished up relatively quickly I think.
Grades are very solid at the moment except for one class which is an F. 1 forgotten assignment due to a cross country weekend trip and boom we an F. Best he can do on the late assignment is 60% credit so it will move to a D. since there’s very little in the gradebook so far. It is certainly recoverable but less than ideal to be sure.
@eandesmom finally a kindred spirit. It’s reassuring to hear there is someone else in the same boat as us. S has one app in, but I’m starting to get nervous about his common app essay which is still not written. He keeps waffling on the topic and just won’t start it. I’ve told S (and he’s agreed) that Sunday is essay day. He will have a draft of his essay by the end of the day. And my S’s grades are similar to your son’s - everything is good except for one D.
I am so happy for everyone else who is doing so well with college apps and acceptances, but almost feel like we have fallen off the bottom of this thread.
Don’t worry @me29034 you are not alone. I’m right there with you! I almost don’t want to read this thread because it makes me anxious knowing S has not completed any applications yet. I have not looked at his grades, but he started off the year failing his first Calculus test. He did tell me that all of the kids who had been in his previous math class also did poorly-the only ones who did well are the “naturally” smart kids in the class who are only juniors, meaning they are already advanced in math. I suggested a math tutor and he was open to that but he has not said anything lately so I’m hoping that means he has at least a C. He is doing fine in his other classes.
He is so far behind he is actually taking the SAT this morning. Long story, but major screw up meant he couldn’t take the August SAT. And his first SAT taken last year is very very low. He has test anxiety so I’m not optimistic. That will be the weakest part of his applications.
The only upside recently is he has some interest for his sport from coaches and had a recent major personal accomplishment (which also broke a school record and has him ranked). I’m not sure the schools he has heard from are the right fit for him…he is going to look at one of them next month. Sports/recruiting just adds another layer of stress. Fortunately, he said while he would be happy playing, he will not be disappointed if he does not get the opportunity. He will look to play club in his other sport.
That said, somewhat spur of the moment, we did go look at Towson last week when he had a day off. It’s local for us and would be a safety for him. I had preconceived notions based on 30 years ago when I had friends who went there. I have to say I was impressed with how much it has changed and S liked it too. I came away feeling a bit relieved actually. If recruiting falls through and his other choices for whatever reason don’t work out, Towson will be a decent option for him.
@eandesmom Ugh, how do teachers have no grades when it’s October? I hope he has something else to balance that out soon.
I think that all of S19’s transcripts should go out before the first quarter grades are ready, so there should still be time for damage control before the mid-year report, if necessary. I think he has some form of B in his two hardest classes, but didn’t do that great on his first tests so that’s adding some stress and I’m worried he won’t hang on to it.
@me29034 and @4kids4us We are in same place too. No apps in yet as essay gets final review from AP teacher and waiting on 2 out of three letters of recommendation. Dd also sitting for SAT today as she missed August due to illness. So hoping she goes up so there there are more opportunities for merit aid. All the direct entry PT programs have such small numbers (40-60) we also have to prep for the reality that she not have a lot of choices even though we have 10 on the list. She actually suggested applying to another school with her backup plan of secondary ed in science which was a nice surprise, although the school she suggested was a private school and I think she needs another SUNY on the list. And yes, she too is dealing with AP calculus and AP physics and additional APs and dual enrollment classes. Don’t understand why these kids loaded up senior year this. Wish she could exoerience the carefree senior experience that I enjoyed!
@4kids4us Hope SAT was good this morning and yay on Towson. It’s nice to have a local option.
@me29034 tomorrow is essay day for us too!! I’m refraining from making sarcastic treats like Groundhog Day Muffins, or 650 word layered dip. Just get the thing finished!!
@me29034 DS19 has 3 applications in, but only because there were no essays. We toured his last school today and tomorrow with be spent completing an essay that he can use for the last 4 schools and applying to one of his higher choices who will waive the application fee if he applies by midnight tomorrow.
So here’s the recap on D’s overnight for anyone interested.
After the 7+ hour drive on Thursday, we arrived right on time at the admissions office to meet our host - a current Junior who is also on the equestrian team (something of interest for my D). After a brief introduction, they were off and I was left to explore on my own.
I stuck around campus for a few minutes to get a feel for what a Thursday night looks like on campus. There was an organized activity in the “quad” that was pretty well attended, a handful of kids sitting at outside tables doing work, and then a bunch of kids coming and going here and there. In my view, it was a fairly typical 6pm evening on a Thursday night at college.
I promised myself I wouldn’t keep checking to see how the night was going as I figured that could be pretty embarrassing. So it came as a nice surprise when D texted me at 11:58p to say “I love college”. Seeing as just a few months ago she didn’t know if college was something of interest, I wasn’t sure if she was being honest or simply telling me something she thought I wanted to hear. Our plan was to meet Friday afternoon, giving her a chance to attend a few AM classes, have lunch and then visit the barn where she could meet the team coach and ride. When we finally met up, I could see she was exhausted, so I figured it must have been an eventful night.
Because the idea of college has caused her some anxiety, we typically don’t talk about it much, nor do I ask a lot of questions. However, she was pretty chatty and offered a lot of information without prompting. What I learned about her visit:
She loves college. Loves the idea of college. Loves the independence it offers. While I'm sure she didn't give me all the details of her evening, it did sound like she had a pretty social night. The upperclassman wanted to take her to a "raging party", but being it was Thursday it didn't sound like any huge parties were happening on campus. As such, she settled for going here, going there, hanging out here, hanging out there, etc.
She loved the school vibe and people. While her host is not someone she would likely be close with, she met lots of other people who she could see herself befriending. She was very comfortable on campus and the environment was "homey".
She attended two classes and loved both professors. One class she really enjoyed and even thought about participating in class discussion, but ultimately decided against it. She did not like the content of the second class, but that was ok. She still enjoyed the professor/student interaction and the overall structure of the class.
She's started to think about areas of study. This was shocking. One of her stress triggers is the feeling that everyone else knows what they want to do in life but she had no idea. Apparently a bunch of the kids she met provided a lot of good advice which has led her to start evaluating possible majors. That alone was worth the trip.
When asked about looking at other schools, she said “nope, I’m going here”. While I’d prefer a trip shorter than 7 hours, it’s not a deal breaker for us. And since it checks so many of her boxes, I’m okay with her decision.
