S19 is a 20 hour drive away. He does it in one stretch. The plan was to drive the car one time and leave it there until graduation, but since no one knew how long he was leaving for, he drove home in March. Now the car is here and needs to go back again. Sigh.
His current plan is to leave here around noon Saturday, and arrive Sunday morning. So my current plan is to nap Sunday, since I will be up all night watching his dot move on Life 360. I figure if he is going forward, he is still alive.
He does a pretty good job of lining up family and buddies to talk to on the trip. When he came home in March, he never got to the podcast he wanted to listen to. He pretty much talked to me or one of his buddies the whole drive. Itās hands free in his car, and people kept calling him during their slot to keep him awake.
I would say he will put me in an early grave, but thatās not true. That honor will fall to D25. She is #4 for us, but just a completely different set of challenges.
@Solstice155 is that for all states? I thought since most of the northeast arenāt on the list, we would be able to go with no problems. Of course, that list is changing on the daily, so who the heck knows what will be the deal late August??? this is so frustrating!!!
At least I made D21 go through her emails last night - and she did find a fee waiver from one of her safeties that sheās itching to apply to ASAP. Saves me $50 at least! LOL Iāll take what I can get at this point.
Apparently ACT felt bad for United Airlines, so offered to take some of the āmost hated company in Americaā heat for a while.
I would echo Creighton. It has a great reputation in Nebraska/Iowa at least, especially for pre-health and business. Lots of docs and business leaders in the Omaha area with Creighton degrees, and lots of their kids go there. Itās a 7 hour drive to Chicago but Interstate 80 the whole way. The alums I know are like Notre Dame alums (firmly convinced they went to the best school in the country, and they would love to talk to you about it).
@Mwfan1921 I took your very sage advice and started up the Pitt Class of 2025 thread. Tagged HailtoPitt and asked about the TO policy. Not sure what will come of it. But I feel better just putting it out there on behalf of the "havenāt yet tested at all"ers out there.
Feeling super thankful for CC right now. This is going to quite an admissions cycle for our 21ers.
@3kids2dogs I think Wisconsin and Clemson OOS are basically the same about 50-51K. Clemson will give some merit money with top 10% class rank and certain standardized test scores. UK was a good suggestion. Creighton I donāt think fits the marching band criteria. What about Iowa?
Iowa would be a good option. Their app is so easy that kids here say they apply while they sit at Starbucks with their friends and get an email acceptance before they finish their drinks. Lol. But, I will say, I have a friend with a super bright son who loves it there. He bombed first semester because the partying was too much of a pull but heās doing well now. Honestly, I worry about that at any big school. Weāve seen a lot of reports on the class of 2019 page about how much drinking and gross stuff has been seen by some of those kids on big campuses and, before you all say it happens everywhere, it does not happen to the extent that Iāve heard on some campuses. Parties every night can be a pull for some kids. Some campuses do not have somewhere to drink every night and parties are really only on weekends. But I digressā¦
Thatās my personal read. I think AOs at many schools wonāt know what to make of TO this cycle with so much up in the air, and frankly may not have had time to flush that all out. I think that when they receive scores that would have benefited students in past years, they will default to old practices and solid scores will help those who have them. Fair- no. I just donāt think that the schools who were not TO prior, or not committed (like those giving this a 3 year shot) will know what to make of evaluating students equitably when some have scores and some do not and the prior standard will come back into play when it can. I could be totally wrong, but Iām going to continue jumping through hoops to set my kid up with every piece of the possible puzzle, and if it turns out that scores didnāt/wouldnāt have benefited her, at least we were covered.
I have a friend who is an alum who said she can give a code to friends so they can apply for free. She has offered to give it to D21 20 times in the last year, lol.
Part of the ACT epic failure here too! IāM SO OVER IT!
I wish all colleges would get on board with Jon Boeckenstadt. He has been very outspoken and compassionate during Covid. āKids. Please donāt test!ā
I suspect with the ACT debacle, schools are going to become more like test blind than TO. If only a small percentage of kids can even take the test, itās no longer standardized.
Standardized means everyone takes the same test. This is by no means standardized when people literally canāt take the tests!
Like Lee Coffin at Dartmouth, who said it as well as itās been said:
āOptionalā is not a trick word. It is not a wink that signals a continued institutional preference for the upcoming admissions cycle. This is not a moment for euphemisms or gimmicks; there should be no parsing of intent with this amended testing policy. It is a clear response to an unprecedented moment that requires admission officers to reimagine some of the elements we have historically required as we reassure anxious students about their upcoming applications. Worries about oversubscribed test sites, anxiety regarding limited registration access and the incongruity of test prep during a quarantine can be set aside.
Thanks for all of the well wishes on S18. He just got back his test and it was negative. So probably this was just a garden variety bug making him kinda sick but nothing serious.
Dr told him to continue quarantine for another 24 hours, then as long as he goes 24 hours fever free he can do whatever. He was planning on coming home this weekend anyway, so I think he wonāt drive a 4 hour round trip for one shift on Friday, he would barely cover his gas. He still feels under the weather, so Iām guessing he will continue to nap in my basement and go back to work Monday.
I felt like 2019 was a bad year for my family personally, but 2020 is certainly giving it a run for the money. Main difference is this is shared pain I guess. Seriously Iām ready for a redo. Where is the reset button that takes me back to 2018?
@3kids2dogs - how about the University of Iowa as a bigger school option? Football, cute downtown, lots of school spirit. Ton of kids from Chicago go there.
@dadof4kids Iām glad your sonās test was negative. Iām sorry you are having a hard 2020. This year is so hard for so many of us on so many levels. I wish we could either have a reset button like you mentioned or better yet, a fast forward. Iām ready for this mess to be over and to move on!
2018 nothinā. I want to go back to 2009. Just saw some photos of when the kids were young and we had a fun day in the city. S19 with his new LEGO set we bought him and D21 with her American Girl Doll. Those were the days.
@Rue4 totally agree. Seeing a prior year top 50% score would be comforting to an AO, especially an overburdened AO with lots of apps to review.
We are pretty happy with the GPA, but I also kind of want to see how my kid can do on the ACT math to help assess what might be a bit too reachy for him. I donāt want to send him to a big name school and then have him completely struggle to compete. I feel like the ACT may shed some additional light on that.
@JESmom
I am interested in the Writopia essay classes for my S21. He does not like to write, and tbh, Iām dreading having to get after him to get started. He has started reading āWrite Your Way In,ā but itās taken him over a week to get half way through the book, and itās not a long book. I had signed him up for a local essay class, but he didnāt want to do it. But now Iām thinking he should just do something like the Writopia essay classes to get it over with. I want to convince him to do these classes as there is one for next week, before school starts.
Do you think it would be good for someone who doesnāt like to write, doesnāt like to express himself, and whose strengths are in the science/math area? In other words, what is your S21 like, and why did he find the workshop helpful?
This 100% describes my S21 and why I was dreading the essay process. He really benefited from someone clearly working him through the process from brainstorming, narrowing down the focus, drafting and revising and giving clear feedback throughout. They write during the workshop in google docs and the teacher provides feedback in the workshop and then also adds comments to the doc before the next session. I didnāt give him a choice about doing the workshop but also didnāt get much pushback from him. I think he welcomed having someone tell him how to get started. He said heād definitely recommend it.
I agree with this. I think colleges are sincere in saying they donāt want to consider it. But the reality is that if an admissions staff is used to making it a part of their process it takes conscious effort and training to tune that out. So, kids with strong scores will have an advantage. On the flip side, those with weak scores will have more options since they wonāt have to share them. I think in colleges that have been TO for a long time, they really are TO and have a process that reflects that.
