@JanieWalker My S21 had a girl over to the house for the first time this weekend. We are monitoring the situation closely. 
Love these stories! My S18 did his senior slide Feb/Mar of junior year and had to work his butt off to get back mostly what heād lost. D21 watched that saga and consequences. Weāll see if she can avoid repeating his mistakes. So far so good. And while S18, did get waitlisted at his #1 choice, Villanova, he got into several other good schools, so happy story at the end of the day!
@VikkiG5 if you donāt mind sharing where is S18 going to attend? My D18 like Villanova as well but ultimately decided not to apply because she could not get any money.
From my avatar I guess folks can figure out that ny D18 is going to Clemson.
Canāt believe itās been a year since I checked in here! S18 should be committing to a college tomorrow. D21 is having a great freshman year. Trying new things and taking charge. Joined softball even though sheās never played before and many girls have been on travel teams since they could walk. Her college search starts May 1!
D was named an āalternateā for state finals for academic octathlon. She will still take all the exams but her scores wonāt count. He low essay score knocked her out of the top 3 that go on to compete. Her teacher did meet with her yesterday after I emailed and explained her melt down and worry. teacher gave her some ideas how she can improve. for next year.
D is working on getting over her disappointment of not making the team.
She has been climbing into my lap and resting her head on my shoulder and letting me soothe her with back rubs and gentle encouragement ( her: tiny: 5ā0 86 lbs, me: definitely not petite)
We are off to Houston tomorrow for Hamilton. And if Hamilton canāt make her happy, nothing canā¦lol. Great to read the stories of our kiddos. Many struggles and good times ahead of them.
@BingeWatcher, hugs to your D! Mine is four inches taller than I am and I often wish she could still sit on my lap. Your D is lucky to have your support, and I truly believe that resilience is like a muscleāyou have to use it to develop it, so this is so painful but good in the long run.
Witness the kids on this thread pulling themselves out of slumps! (Our D19 became very prone to FOMO this yearābad timing . . . )
@BingeWatcher thatās very disappointing. Sheāll get the experience and hopefully make it next year. It can be very motivating, even though she wonāt want to hear that now.
@burghdad, congrats on your daughterās decision! He was accepted at Providence College (no $), Ithaca and saint Josephās university (both honors program and good $). He decided that Saint Josephās was a good fit and took himself of the Nova waitlist. #hawkhillbound #SJU #thwnd
@ vikkiG5 St. Joes honors with money better sounds like a good decision. Congrats to your son.
Well since we were in the Bay Area yesterday we attended what I would call our first āofficialā college tour at Santa Clara University. I was pretty impressed with their Engineering Pgm and the opportunities for Internships as early as end of Sophomore year. Due to where we live D21 has been on many campuses due to school trips or summer camps. Mostly Stanford. D has stayed in 3 different dorms on the Stanford campus and she said hands down SCUās are better.
@EGHopeful thatās good that your D has a familiarity with some college campuses and would agree to go on an official tour! Even though weāve been looking for a year now with D19, D21 has been dead set against joiningāshe says itās stressful, sheās not ready, and sheās only a freshman. The only time she has been on a college campus and actually looked around is when visiting a family friend who she loves so she acquiesced. We will have to do the whole search over again for her, which I guess is only fair, plus, I do like college trips 
.
@3SailAway understood. My D didnāt have a choice. Her Middle school had Teams since the school was so large. Each was assigned a college and they visited their college in 7th grade as well as another one in 8th. Plus she was in AVID so they also had visits from college admins as well as visited colleges. Nope it was not me. The school principle also pushed that college process starts in MS NOT HS as many believe. Sooo yeah, our public school district is pretty serious about getting students thinking earlier than later as they have seen too many disappointed students come 11th grade who are not prepared for the colleges they are choosing. This school also paid for ALL 8th graders to take the PSAT 8/9. She is in private now but even there they have college sessions early in the year geared for all grade levels.
@3SailAway My D is similar. She came with us on a few tours because it was a family vacation so she was thee anyway. The first one she was excited, second one she did because it was the school DH & I attended, by the third one she said no way - she had realized there was no way she could go to school in the cold weather so she just wanted to sleep in that day!
She also says it gets her stressed when she hears D19 and I talking about college so much- makes her feel like she needs to think about it already. Iām glad to see she is not putting too much pressure on herself though. Most kids at our school hate to take electives because they are only worth 4.0 vs the 6.0 of APs and AICE classes. D21 took theater this year and has applied for the school newspaper class next year. She knows it isnāt considered the most rigorous class but she loves photography and applied to be the newspaper photographer. I am happy that she might get to do something she loves. (and the rest of her classes are all honors, AP & AICE so it will be nice to have one āfunā class.)
Oh - and she took her AP Environmental & AICE Marine exams last week and thought they went OK. I can;t sleep track between my two girls but I know she has more tests this week - between AP, AICE and regular exams the poor kids are bombarded these next few weeks!
Plus we are surrounded by colleges so by default even participating in some sportsā¦ Itās on a college campus.
@EGHopeful I didnāt mean to imply that you were pushing your D! I was just noting my Dās college aversion. Iām actually a little concerned that her aversion is coming from stress . . . itās probably in part because watching her sister (and parents) go through it this year is hard.
@momtogkc The rigor thing drives me a little crazy. Iāve started to think of rigor mortis every time it comes up! Our high school is so challenging that two graduates we know well, one at an Ivy and another at top 10 LAC, report college as easier than HS. You take fewer classes at a time, no busy work, you donāt have to maintain the super time consuming EC involvement, and you arenāt stuck in the classroom from 8-3 and beyond.
D21 is psyched for Drawing and Painting next year. She isnāt gifted in art at allājust loves it.
Btw, @momtogkc, I love your typo above: "I canāt sleep track between my two girls . . . " Sometimes, I canāt sleep between my two girls either, let alone keep track of their testing schedules !
We have not thought of doing official college tours yet. Thanks for mentioning it, perhaps we should.
Similar to some others that have posted DS21 has gone to a few summer camps at colleges so is a bit familiar with Georgetown, UNC and Macalaster. He has also done some competitions at a few others, like Duke, Furman, Davidson, College of Charleston. So far, even though he has seen quite a few and walked around the campus it does not appear he has a preference at all. He is going to UCF this summer for a competitive programming camp and we told him to try and pay attention to see if he prefers a large campus vs small, he said he did not see himself considering size or food quality when he decides where to applyā¦it will be interesting to see how/if things change over the next few years.
He was recently selected for our stateās ARML team and is very excited about that. The competition for our region will be at UGA so he will get to see a bit of their campus in a few weeks. Three AP exams over the next week so it will be nice to get those behind him and let summer begin!!
Hi all,
Congrats @burghdad and @3SailAway! Welcome @havenoidea, @AlmostThere2018, and any other newcomers!
@yearstogo Congrats on your son making the ARML team! S17 did that and really enjoyed it (more for social reasons than actually winning).
S21 had to tag along on some of S17ās college visites, but we didnāt make him attend the info session or tours. So, his impression of those colleges is mostly based on how fun they were to skateboard around and whether they had good WiFi all around the campus. He did like UC Santa Cruz and heās heard from friends that CU Boulder is nice. Thatās the extent of the impressions heās shared so far.
I think maybe we will tour some for him during spring breaks in 10th and 11th. But, other kids could be ready to tour earlier; this is just him.
His school is trying to schedule an East Coast college tour for the summer after his 10th grade. I have no idea why so far in advance. They already cancelled plans for a DC to North Carolina trip due to ālack of interest.ā How you could gauge interest 2 summers in advance, I donāt know. Now the plan they are trying to sell is Boston to New York. At this point, I donāt really see any of the schools on their 2 lists as a fit for S21. But, I donāt really know what he will want or even a major at this point.
@EGHopeful I know a kid at Santa Clara U who really likes it.
That was the catching up on discussion topics. Hereās the S21 update:
S21 has his first AP test tomorrow in Physics 1. They already took the class final, and he got a B with the curve, so he is hoping for a 4. Heās never taken a 3-hour test before, so weāll see how that goes. My kids are 4 years apart; S17 was an old hand at APs last year. This is all new for S21.
School goes until June 7 here, so there is a lot of school left after the AP tests.
S will have at least one or two Bs this semester, but he has been working hard and school is still going well. His name and gender change is official, but there is still paperwork to do. We did the Soc Sec card most recently, and plan to do his passport next.
He has applied to a program at our local natural history museum that will last for the rest of high school if he gets in. He should find out within a week or two. The admission rate is about 50%. Fingers crossed! :-SS If he gets in, itās a commitment of 20 hours per month during the school years and 25 hours per week during summers.
Wow! One thing Iām so shocked about is the number and level of APās students are taking in 9th grade. My p D will be lucky enough to have had 3, MAYBE 4 before she graduates. Too many prerequisites. One canāt even take Calc BC before taking AB. And you are ONLY allow AP World in 10th grade unless you come in at a yr 3 language. Also the Max AP/Honors per year is 3. So D21 is taking one AP and 2 Honors next year. But thatās a good balance I guess. She is not stressed at all. Says itās easier than MS but she only had 2 Honors this year.
Our kids canāt take AP courses freshman year either. Iām surprised any ninth grader is ready for an AP class. They are crazy hard at our high schoolā¦ but the kids do tend to get 5s. D21 will take AP Euro next year. Itās one of only two offered to sophomores, the other being AP Comp Sci A.
Sheās hanging in there this semester. Guessing she will end up with one B. Our S19 is an exceptionally good student so we spend a lot of time telling D21 that sheās not competing with him, that sheās a fine student in her own right and she needs to stop comparing herself. Heās a very good role model for her and helps her when she needs advice but, in some ways, it may be good for her when heās off to college (as long as she can Skype him for calc help when sheās a junior