@burghdad I’m so sorry for your Clemson D. I hope she feels ok and recovers quickly.
Eight honors essays!? Is that for eight schools or some schools have more than one? Miami is all about the Love and Honor. I know alums who have bumper stickers that say that. 500-1000 words is crazy long.
@burghdad that sucks, I’m sorry for your D18. Ring Day/Ceremony is HUGE at TAMU as well, my nephew is getting his in November and I know he would be devestated as well if something detailed that…especially covid quarantine. I hope your D is feeling better soon.
Probably any of you who care already know this, but I was skimming old emails hoping in vain to find a fee waiver for a college D21 is actually going to apply to.
Not a fee waiver, but Whitman will do a financial aid preview if you send them FAFSA and CSS. I’m probably going to take them up on that, even though it’s up in the air if she is even applying there. I guess depending on what it says it could sway me!
@1Lotus of her 4 classes this semester only 2 were live to begin with. So yes they can elect to be online if they chose or if they have to be quarantined. Because she is living in an apartment they had food. However probably by the end of the weekend they are going to have to get contactless delivery of food.
@homerdog Not sure. And maybe she exaggerated the number. But she is applying to 7 schools that have honors colleges and 1 UMD does not require a separate essay. So if she does in fact have eight one requires more than 1.
@Momof3B thanks for the well wishes. Being from the Northeast I had never heard of ring ceremony. But it something they build up from the day the kids step on campus. Alumni come back and participate. In some circles it is more important than graduation. That is why she was devastated that she gave down with Covid three days before the ceremony
Ugh…fb messaging back and forth with a parent of BAMA freshman. This is her comment about this year.
“Honestly, there has been alot of second guessing. I now wish XXX had taken a Gap year. It has been just a wasted year with really difficult circumstances not really conducive to learning for her major ( engineering) and learning style”.
Edit most of her classes have been online and hybrid only meeting once every other week.
Don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer. My anxiety is ramping up. For us, since admission renewable scholarships are of upmost importance, it is gap or start in Fall 21 and not be able to take a semester off and keep admission scholarships.
Anyone else worry about this?
@burghdad Hope your D and her friends recover soon.
@TVBingeWatcher2, I think S will head to school next yr, since there isn’t much for him to do if he stays home. I hope by next fall things will have improved. S21 has good friends at big schools like TAMU, UT, and Oklahoma and they are enjoying being at school even with all the restrictions.
I agree with @Aguadecoco. S21 will be heading off to school in the fall…his friends from last year who are freshman now and others we know who are at TAMU, UT etc are adjusting well, even with the reduced activities and online classes. There wouldn’t really be anything for him to do if he took a gap year.
@TVBingeWatcher2 it is anxiety inducing, but trust that it will all work out in the end!
@Aguadecoco , I sure hope vaccines are wide spread by next fall and things are much better. D would work full time. She did not do well in the spring with school and lost all motivation with school so she and I are worried about this but really we also worry her being 13 hours away and having difficulty finding her tribe with such restrictions on campus as they have had this fall so far.
She is 70/30 leaning towards gap but if things do in fact vastly improve she will be in school next fall.
@TVBingeWatcher2 If school is not very close to normal in fall, D21 will not go. I don’t really care what she does in the meantime. If waiting means just waiting for the better experience, she will wait. Lots of her friends who are college freshmen are super unhappy and she sees no reason to show up for remote classes and such stunted social options.
That being said, I think I mentioned on another thread that Bowdoin (which has been super conservative in their Covid plan) is saying they really think that fall will be back to normal. The president of Bowdoin has been in touch with the NIH and many scientists, etc., and felt comfortable being optimistic for fall 2021.
Same for S21. Understandably, different choices are right for different kids/families. I also can see how perhaps kids planning to go to schools that are popular from their high schools might have an easier time socially during a time with limited social options (already knowing some people from high school who they will be on campus with). That’s not our situation.
Plenty of kids struggle with the college adjustment during normal times (including kids who were very social and confident in high school)…I think there’s no right answer here except what makes the most sense for your particular kid in the context of their particular college. For S21 I think that will almost certainly be a gap year unless Fall of 21 is extremely close to normal.
I am sorry i don’t have the quote, but for the parent commenting about the residential system at Duke, I wanted to share that housing completely changed this year and the consensus on campus is it will not return to what it used to be. With Covid, upper class students were allowed to request a housing block with up to 10 students and the person representing the block ranked dorm preferences, that’s it. My D’s block of housing includes girls from 5 different SLG’s and sororities and she said that seemed typical for sophomores she knew. And after this year, with no social activities and living arrangements that would have typically tied sophs to SLGs or greek groups for the long term, it would seem counterintuitive for Duke to start up group housing again when it’s no secret that admin was trying to get rid of it anyway.
@2ndthreekids – This sounds right to me. I think Duke has been trying to promote more social cohesion, for lack of a better term, across the student body, so I think this is a good step.
@burghdad – So sorry about your daughter. Hope she continues to fare well!
@burghdad Sorry your D18 is sick but glad that her symptoms are mild. Yes, it’s hard to lose out on those big milestones!
@TVBingeWatcher2 I am reasonably confident that things will be better enough that D21 will be headed to college in the fall. However, if I’m wrong, I don’t know!? We have expanded her list slightly to include more drivable options and a couple of true financial safeties just to be on the safe side. Fingers crossed.
D just got an email from LMU pushing ED. And here’s a new one - everyone who applies and is accepted in ED is guaranteed a $2500/year scholarship, early registration for all four years and priority housing. I feel like colleges are pulling out all of the stops but this is the best offer so far!
And, no, she can’t go ED to LMU. Haven’t visited and I’m pretty worried about LA County coming around even by fall to have kids on campus. I hope I’m wrong.
I checked the mail today and there were about 20 envelopes from
different colleges and all the same kind of letter offering a fee waiver and fast track application. They must have all hired the same company to produce the letter.
@evergreen5 lots of Hail Marys and nervous students applying widely. I think colleges aren’t going to admit a ton more kids from each high school though. Maybe a few more than usual. In the cases of schools that look for demonstrated interest, I bet those kids (if they have the grades) will rise to the top.
@evergreen5 which page on Naviance can you see number applying? I don’t think parents can see those numbers here but I want to make sure I’m looking in the right place.
Also, just FYI, at the end of the day, that all of those kids apply. We always get a spreadsheet at the end of the year printed off of Naviance and it shows number applied, accepted, waitlisted, denied and the number of applied never adds up to the rest. If kids start an application, it’s counted as “applied” according to our GC even if they never send it.
@homerdog I’m just referring to the purple bar for 2021., above the scattergram. I think you said you can’t see it. Minimums apply - there needs to be a sufficient number for the bar to show up. And yes, I think the numbers are sketchy vs actual apps, though I’m comparing them to what prior years show in Naviance (similarly sketchy?).
@evergreen5 neither are likely completely accurate but if you see a big increase in any particular college then I bet many of those aren’t quite qualified.
For what it’s worth, my husband (an infectious disease doc who is involved in vaccine trials) thinks that emergency use authorization for two of the vaccines will start in January/February, and by April, states will be able to start vaccinating people in their planned phases.
The system in NY is:
Geographic regions with higher transmission will be prioritized.
DH thinks that by August 2021, we will have gotten through 1-4 and will be distributing vaccines to the general populace. Everyone should be able to return to campus vaccinated.
DH is not a wishful thinker or even an optimist, so I am inclined to have a lot of hope for our 21’s to have an almost normal freshman year. (And we should know the timeline before we need to make gap year decisions.)