I know what you mean about growth during the last five months!
My daughter had a similar junior year. But I don’t think of it as a year lacking growth — it was more like a “chrysalis “ year. Now she is emerging from her cocoon transformed/transforming and it is happening quickly.
And you can definitely see its effect on the evolving college list favorites.
Oh, I really like the chrysalis image. That’s a much more positive way to think about it.
@LostInTheShuffle Congrats! That’s fantastic!
@lll1 Such a long process. I agree.
S22 just submitted his last application! (Application 14! When we started he only had 7 on his list.) Wow, what a journey it has been. Seems like we were anticipating senior year forever and now we’ve passed a huge milestone.
I guess we just twiddle our thumbs until March! Seems like that’s forever away. But proud of S22 for getting it done! Guess he’ll be joining everyone else in having “free time” again.
Congrats.
But don’t get too excited yet for all that thumb-twiddling.
I thought the same thing, but before I even exhaled, I learned about the “optional” video and the need to prep for 3 optional alum interviews.
Busy month with his sport and prepping for midterms/finals, so no resting yet for my jerd.
Congratulations on Oxford! What a great opportunity that is.
That’s awesome for Oxford! That must be a huge relief since it’s her first choice.
As for the long wait… that’s totally how I feel. DS’s top choices won’t announce for at least a couple months. He has to do his honors college application for CPP (he may not do the one for SDSU because he doesn’t see himself going there and it’s a lot more writing and prep than the one for CPP.) Both of those are due before acceptances come out. At least SLO doesn’t even accept applications until after acceptances. If he gets in, he’ll be motivated. If he doesn’t, then he doesn’t have to do the work. I wish more colleges did that. Those applications are a lot of work on top of school, activities, etc.
Re: healthcare POA. Don’t fret if you can’t get this done or if your child doesn’t agree to it.
Rare is the case where an adult single child is incapacitated and the medical providers don’t talk to parents.
And if the adult child is awake and talking, the child can refuse to allow information given out no matter what paperwork was previously signed.
Last app should go out this weekend. In good news DS22 got his first acceptance last night - UMass Amherst, our state flagship. Always good to have an acceptance in hand. As it was his only EA, there is just one more school he’ll hear from before March (rolling admission) so it’ll be a waiting game.
Anyone else with a kid with an ED acceptance seeing the start of senioritis? D is really counting the days for her new adventure. She is a hard worker and things won’t slide too much, but I can really sense her stress level about grades and school is way lower than previously.
Did anyone have pass/fail options on their transcript from the past couple years? Our school let them pick a grade or pass/fail in spring of 2020. My S22 took all letter grades. I’m wondering if anyone who has a pass on the transcript has a feeling about how it affected them being accepted to schools.
Now I have a younger high school kid who has that option for the fall semester and has 1 class with a B. Two years ago, I would just keep the grade. There is nothing wrong with a B. But now I wonder. I know the Rose Hulman scholarship invitation seemed to have a 4.0 uw as a cut-off, so this would make a difference for that.
The school says the circumstances will be noted on the transcripts. If the semester had been typical, I think the B would have increased to an A- or A. Grades were going up and there were more tests to come to balance out the tougher one.
Any thoughts on whether pass instead of a grade has affected kids?
S22 has always been a self-starter when it comes to homework and such, and he seems to be continuing with that since his ED acceptance. He had a C in AP Stats on his December interim progress report, which is unheard of for him – I think the first C I can recall him getting. Teacher said he struggled with a test on regression. We’ve discussed with S22 that we need to see a marked turnaround there, ED acceptance or no, and we know he finds it similarly unacceptable. But he’s never been one to appear overly stressed about grades or schoolwork, which I’m glad about.
He’s also got a busy schedule of varsity basketball practices and games. His team is undefeated, No. 6 in the local paper’s statewide rankings. Unfortunately, after missing all of last year’s truncated season with a torn meniscus, S22 has been out a few weeks this season with a sprained thumb. He’s mostly recovered, and we hope to see him play on Friday.
I do see quite some changes in mine. She’s mostly a self-motivated kid especially school side. Sudden interest in CADing and coding peaked, seems to be enjoying it quite well. We toured few SoCal colleges during winter break (Caltech in particular), I think she’s excited about college now.
Congratulations on the UMass acceptance! S22 also had only one early acceptance and it was just a huge relief to have that under his belt as we wait for the March-April news.
Any thoughts on NYIT? I received an unsolicited email from them with fee waiver and a message that implied I expressed interest.
Per Naviance, their 4 year graduation is 23% and 6 year is 44%. 
@songbirdmama, @Luanne and @Vineyarder Wow, guess what S22 is going through is pretty normal. He is also so ready to move on and is letting things slide a bit but not really stressing about it, when normally he does. Except he doesn’t have an ED from his top schools and colleges will still be looking at this semester’s grades on making their decisions.
Our school made all classes spring of 2020 pass/fail so kids didn’t have a choice. Hopefully with that listed in the school report, the colleges won’t hold that against him.
He also has a C in AP Stats and it’s his first C ever. He’s allowed to take one pass/fail this year and asked if he should use it for this, but I feel like he should still take it for a grade because it’s one of only 4 AP classes he’s taken his HS career. (Our HS only lets juniors and seniors take AP. And because of Covid restrictions, he could only take 2 AP’s last year). Thoughts?
I’d probably go for the AP Stats grade instead of Pass/Fail. I think junior year grades are the most important so if those are strong I don’t think just one C in a AP class will derail anything.
D22’s NorCal school reporting 50 percent of students absent and jaw-dropping percent of teachers out. Principal announced they are rethinking what finals will look like and they are preparing mental health modules to present in class and via video. Very stressful and dispiriting.
D22’s school calls symptomatic students and close contacts to the forum (aka “coronatorium”) for rapid testing and waiting for parent pick-up. There used to be a couple kids there each day and now there is a line of socially distanced chairs stretching out the door and down the sidewalk full of students.
Teachers are saying, “ They haven’t told us to get ready to go remote, BUT IF WE DO…”
And today my D22 texted me the following:
“i love that ari got called into the forum only for them to inform her that she was a close contact A WEEK AGO and to casually ask if she had any symptoms” 
Very dispiriting indeed.
Ugh. Our district has given up on contact tracing and so you just get these blasts that someone in the class tested positive. Long, long daily line for rapid tests. If no sub they will be herded into library or auditorium. 