Thanks, @eh1234 – we are hoping she can be somewhat close to home for medical reasons. (Just makes some of the logistics easier.)
I am once again throwing up my hands. D is talking about wanting to quit lax to devote all her after-school time to theater now, with the aim of becoming stage manager next year. She says she is penalized because she isn’t around for tech crew during lax season (they stage a play during this time that isn’t as big a deal as the musical, but still…)…
As for environmental studies, she said “I don’t really need a degree to be a park ranger.”
So.
We’re back on full-bore on theater.
I am sure this will change once again as soon as lax season starts, and as soon as she does some more outdoors stuff.
THIS is why the college we pick has to offer every major under the sun. THIS.
@Gatormama Sometimes I wish S19 wouldn’t tell me everything that’s on his mind. Maybe your D is just thinking out loud when she tells you these things. And she could change her mind again next week. I can’t tell you how many times I get concerned about choices that I think S19 might make only for him to change his mind again.
It’s also hard for us parents when they want to change something up junior year. At least for me, I envision the college apps making sense with activities being fairly constant for four years showing all of his interests. If they want to quit something, it might look bad. I don’t know the answer. I have friends who have insisted their kids finish out band or something else through senior year even when the child wanted to quit. It does seem illogical that 14 year olds will have stagnant interests for four years and, if they are replacing things they’ve outgrown with new interests, it shouldn’t look bad on apps. It actually makes sense that they would evolve!
S19 is laser focused on theatre. I insist that he develop a backup plan because there are not a huge number of parts for a short trans guy and so the percentage chance of making a solid career is quite low. So he’s also looking at a major or minor in psychology while he trains to be an Actor.
We went to NYC over the weekend for a quick outing, kiddo’s belated birthday present. Kiddo is now infatuated with New York and wants to revisit the idea of applying to a college in the city. Our quick google search last night shows Columbia (super reach lottery ticket), Fordham (super reach for the theater program, match for admission) and NYU (probably out of our budget range) as the closest colleges to Broadway. I had said I was only going to pay for one lottery ticket application, and for the past year kiddo has been fixated on Yale. But I could see that resolve wavering, with barely the tiniest glance at the Columbia website last night.
Heh. There’s a super low chance of getting into either one so I shouldn’t worry about the shifting list.
@ninakatarina you may want to consider Bard as well, even though it’s not in the city.
@ninakatarina - Julliard as well…
@ninakatarina I know very little about theater…so take this with a grain of salt…but maybe consider schools in Chicago as well?
My son is graduating from a private, Catholic high school in June but I’m hoping this post gives hope to students and parents in the Class of 2019. My son’s UW GPA is a 3.45. He’s taking one AP and is in Calculus. His only two C’s were in Spanish sophomore year
Hmm, the last half of my post was cut off and now I can’t delete it
(Cont.).
He got into 5 out of 5 schools so far: UC Boulder; Gonzaga (12k/yr); Boise State (14k/yr); U of Arizona (9k/yr); and WSU (2k/yr). Still waiting for LMU, Santa Clara, and UW. His top 3 are LMU, Boulder, and UW, the ones that won’t offer money
So I met with D19’s guidance counselor today, because after this semester she’ll have run out of math courses at her school (and math is most definitely her subject, to the degree that she’s actually stressed out at the idea of a year without taking math), and so I wanted to look into dual enrollment at the local college.
The answer to my main question was that it’s easy. But that’s not what I came here to talk about.
The other thing I learned was that, as of two years ago, my kids’ school district practices grade forgiveness: If you retake a course, whichever one you took that has the lower grade (or, if they’re the same, the first one you took) is completely erased from the transcript if the guidance counselor submits a form (which my D19’s counselor does in batches each semester).
As I’ve said before, she has a 3.7, but it’s perhaps the weirdest 3.7 in existence—it includes two Fs, which is why I started hanging out on this thread. However, the paperwork to disappear her 9th-grade F (replaced by an A!) has already been submitted, and assuming she doesn’t fail the retake of the class this semester, her 10th-grade F will disappear next fall (or possibly earlier).
So I really don’t qualify for this thread any more, but it’s a nice noncompetitive haven, so if y’all don’t mind me hanging around, I’d like to.
(Also, I’m not going to tell my daughter about the whole grade forgiveness thing, at least not for a while. I’m enjoying her drive to do better this time coming simply from a desire to do better, not to polish her transcript.)
While S19 is an ok to good student (3.4W), but not highly motivated to go above and beyond (unless it involves talking NFL stats, XBox, fly fishing, skiing) our D22 is an excellent student (4.0) who puts in the extra effort. With this whole college search process, I find myself researching schools there’s no way S19 will get into, but could be possibilities for D22’s future. I feel a little guilty about doing this, but suspect I’m not alone. #trueconfessions
Glad to find this thread. While my son is actually class of 2020, but we just got preACT back today and he is mid 20s, and while his GPA is high now, I think we are heading towards more Bs than As going forward. We are in NC and he would love to go to UNC (he knows that won’t happen) or NCSU but I know we need to widen our net. I think this thread might keep me from freaking out.
@dfbdfb - Wow, how the heck does she have a 3.7 with two Fs? Is every other grade an A?
I read this a lot - students with high GPAs, yet Ds and such, and I can’t figure out how my D has the GPA she has (currently 3.3). She’s gotten two Cs and I guess it’s that she has at least as many Bs as As
HaHaHa @nukesmom ! D19 and I recently did a college trip for her and added a drive-by of the local Ivy to check it out for D21! No insult to D19 by the way, she is my realist.
@Gatormama, it’s because they take a lot of credits, comparatively, each year at her school—unless they go with a study hall, they end up with at least 8 credits/year and can get up to 9¼, largely because of the intensive minicourses they have three times each year. Since her Fs are from single semesters (read: half credits) because failing semester one in those classes meant she didn’t advance to semester two, yeah, with most of the rest of the grades being As with a very few Bs, it’s the weirdest 3.7 possible.
Hey, do any of you guys know what would be the best Maryland universities, for Stem. My stats are 3.23 uw and 3.74 w and i got a 1020 on psat.
@okcfan Probably UMBC or Towson. UMD-CP not an option.
wrong forum 
Hi all. Here is my S: bright ADHD/dyslexic/dysgraphic/CAPD late-blooming school hater. He showed his contempt for all things school by refusing to do various assignments quite regularly throughout grade 9 and 10, resulting in many 0s and in consequence struggled to achieve Bs and a couple of Cs. S spent all of his considerable creativity and brainpower eluding my attempts to make sure he was working on HW/studying/reading assignments during this time.
During the third quarter of 10th PSAT scores came out and all of the sudden, S started considering college/his future. He had (FINALLY!) hit puberty and matured mentally as well and suddenly absorbed my oft-repeated warning that he was only really hurting himself by refusing to do simple homework. He achieved a 3.5 in the last semester of 10th and again in 11th. He prepped for the junior PSAT and scored a 1370 and sat the October SAT with 700v, 740m. His GPA is now 3.3 but attends a small private school that is not particularly rigorous.
We are looking at CS/Theater minor-??(his predominant EC) at a small LAC where he can continue to get academic support services or possibly a small STEM college.