Thanks! I will!
Well, S22 made the varsity basketball team – and tore his meniscus at the third practice. He’ll have surgery next week and three months of recovery, so his season is over. Ugh! I know it’s awkward to “like” bad news, so I’ll take any likes as expressions of support. 
Looks like he won’t be helping us to move D19 into her new apartment tomorrow (it’s down to the wire – she and her three friends have applications in but don’t know which place they’re getting yet). And I’ll have to find someone else to play tennis with, once facilities reopen after the current Covid restrictions. He’s in good spirits and not actively in a lot of pain, so at least there’s that. Poor guy.
Happy New Year to you all! Has to be better than this one, right?
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@Vineyarder - What a perfectly miserable way to end 2020 
I hope the surgery goes well and he has a speedy recovery.
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Thanks, @OrangeFish. It’s lucky we’re in the Boston area, with its embarrassment of medical riches. The consulting physician told us the likely surgeon is one of the country’s best, doing a pretty simple procedure. And S22 is good about following a disciplined routine, so his rehab should go smoothly.
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@Vineyarder, that stinks. I hope he mends quickly. Is basketball a primary passion for him, or one of several? Rehab will have its ups and downs for sure, but in the end he’ll emerge a stronger person.
My S22 soccer player and runner has spend most of 2020 rehabing first from a broken foot and then from a severely broken fibula that required a pretty large plate and screws. He has an appt next week to see if the bone has now healed and if he can start practicing with his HS soccer team.
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Oh no :(. Hope he has an easy recovery!
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Thanks, @momofboiler1 and @vistajay. It is indeed his primary passion, so really unfortunate. I was very much looking forward to seeing how he would do at the varsity level, and I know he was, too. But he has a good attitude and really seems unfazed. Good luck to your S22 with his soccer, @vistajay!
Thanks @Vineyarder! He still has a lot of strength and conditioning to do even when he can run, but we remain hopeful he can get on the field again during the HS season. His team is currently no. 1 in the state, and have a great chance at a state championship this year, so he’d really like to be a part of it.
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Awesome. My S22’s basketball team has been in the mix for state championships in past years, though last season was a bit of a disappointment. Hope they’ve got a good team in 2021-22!
I’m really sorry to hear that. Hopefully surgery and recovery goes well for him.
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@jellybean5 Our first crack at motivation for the tests was “get out of our small town”. Then after cruising around the financial aid and scholarship sections of likely schools, we changed tact. I posted a piece of paper on our fridge 4 years ago for our S who’s now a Soph in college. It’s still there for our D22. It lists ACT scores from 27-36, since 27 was the first guaranteed merit level at one of the schools. It then shows a corresponding amount of $$ that I would give to the kid directly if they got that score. It’s a sliding scale topping out at $6,000 for a 36. That way, studying and moving their score up was basically like hourly work with a payoff on test day. We save much more than this in tuition if they hit any mark on the list. It sounds like a lot, but the $2500 I gave my S for his 34 is nothing compared to the reductions in cost of college for that score.
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@Vineyarder sorry to hear about the knee! But glad your S is in good spirits about it. Best of luck with surgery this week.
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@professionaldad YES this is what I’m telling D22. I showed her the auto merit calculator on ASU’s website to show her the difference between getting say, a 1100 and a 1300 SAT score. It would definitely be more helpful if she had a better idea of what she wanted to major in/ do in life. Then she could be goal-oriented about it. 
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What is that 1100-1300 difference worth to your wallet over 4 years? You could offer some of it to the kid.
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Well some schools don’t offer merit aid, like UTx @ Austin. If she gets in there, that would be something. I already told her if she gets a super high score I would buy her pretty much anything. She isn’t in to big ticket items, thankfully, but needs to be challenged.
That SAT and GPA is excellent! It’s a drag about the PSAT, because Nat Merit would have opened up more options. There is a thread in (I think, without double checking) the Financial Aid forum about schools with auto-merit for certain stats. She will certainly qualify for great merit aid in places that offer that, and possibly be a strong candidate for competitive scholarships.
For one of my daughters, we cast a wide net for merit aid. She ended up with great options, but it was a huge task. Living in a state with awesome choices nearby is a fantastic thing (we did not have that!)
One daughter is a Princeton grad. Not any aid above $200,000 generally, but they do consider individual circumstances (in our case, a medical issue with a sibling brought additional consideration.)
@LostInTheShuffle, I think it’s really hard to say what role SAT subject tests will play in admissions in the next couple years. My personal feeling is that if a school is considering them at all, and the student is a decent test-taker, it’s probably a good idea to try and do it. Going to try and get D22 to take at least Math2, but we will see. I think sitting for three subject tests at once would be a lot but totally depends on the student. My older daughter did two at once successfully.
@vineyarder that really stinks about the knee! I hope he will be improved for senior season! @vistajay I hope your soccer player gets good news!
I intended to post an update last time I was here, but messed up by posting replies two or three times in a row, thinking that they just went under the post to which I was replying. I am still figuring out this new board. We have been doing some virtual visits, which do seem to have the effect of making the colleges a little more real for D22. She is putting more effort into SAT prep and will try again in March. First semester grades were fine. Yes, she is homeschooled now, but they really were fine Some progress has been made in setting up a summer shadowing situation with a physical therapist, which is great! It looks like her volunteer situation from last year (tutor/assistant with an afterschool program for disadvantaged youth) is not making a comeback this year, which is unfortunate, as it was a good fit for her. She is putting in a lot of barista hours at the 'Bucks. Cross country ski season is in progress. She is not a highly competitive team member, but it is good for her to participate.
She is starting to say that she might continue homeschool for senior year, which is pretty surprising! She was the daughter that really did love school.
Bring it on 2021!
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Thanks, @GoodGrief16. We were hoping to be done with standardized testing but perhaps D needs to sit through one more.
@GoodGrief16, sounds like your D is making the best of the situation!
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Hi Class of 2022 'rents. Taking a break from my S21 college app cycle. I’ll try my best to check in after March '21 but wanted to share some tips that I found helpful with my son and will use with D24.
- Start the activity list. Org, role your kiddo played. Make it resume format with action words, hours per week they spent and weeks per year and dates. This will help you in the college app process.
- Co authorize a credit card for them if they are responsible. Will build credit history. My son used his card to apply to college, request ACT scores, AP exams, CSS profile. I just don’t want to be bugged about it.
- Scholarships external to the schools all have early deadlines. We focused so much on college apps that we missed the Coke scholarships, etc. Some schools have earlier deadlines for merit. USC was due 12/1/21 for merit and that deadline was found on their site and not common app.
- Expect 650-word common app essay. Then each school will have their own supplemental essays. Plan for 250 word essays for those. Have your kids think about their top 5 traits that they want to highlight. That could help them frame their essays. TBH, the essays my son wrote for UCs and MIT (ended up not applying there) were essentially repurchased for the other schools. That’s about 8 that he used interchangeably. You could check out their prompts now if you really want to prepare ahead.
Good luck!
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