My kids’ grades have actually been better during online. They are both still home, except for the occasional activity, but like the others, I wonder how much they are actually learning. I think AP scores and state tests will reveal a lot of issues. Next year will definitely be a challenge, and I’m convinced my daughter’s math SAT score was affected by online classes. I don’t think she has truly learned the material like she would have in school. I’m hoping prep courses and math videos and tutoring will help.
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Our district went back to 5days last week, after being at 4 days for two weeks, alternating 2-day cohorts for about a month and only about three months total being online, in two phases.
D22 survived it fine - grade averages were still 99+ - but I think there’s more actual learning going on, not to mention social growth, being in person. I can’t imaging being out of the physical building for an entire year.
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My daughter was in person hybrid for a very short time. Most athletes chose to stay online in season to avoid contact tracing. My D is returning for fourth quarter, after Easter. Like some others she has excelled grade wise being online but I also think it’s been watered down and hope she’s not in for a rude awakening next week.
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In addition to S22 going back in-person on Wednesday, my office is freely allowing people to return next week. Up until now, only a couple of people with special dispensation have been in. Masks and health attestations required, at-home test kits available, plexiglass barriers between every desk, desks reassigned to maintain distancing (if enough people say they’re showing up). I actually realized during the pandemic that I was probably going to the office too much before — none of the people I directly work with are here in Boston anyway — but I might stop by at least once to pick up the family photos I haven’t seen in a year, and patronize one of the increasingly desperate local lunch places. My company is reimbursing up to $75 a day in commuting costs during the pandemic, so I would drive in rather than take the T. Anyone else here working in person?
I was working from home before the pandemic (have my own consulting firm) but my husband has been home too (and, of course, my kiddos). His company may have them go back (to Boston also) sometime in June, but not full-time. I honestly don’t know if he’ll ever go back into the office full time. His company isn’t headquartered in Boston so there were only a handful of people in the satellite office anyway. He’s happy to work from home a few days a week since the commute had gotten to be really awful.
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I’ve been working in the office since April 2020; but my office is only 4 people, we have plenty of space and it is only 1.5 miles from my house. Everyone else returned in May-June. I am the managing partner of our branch, and the whole firm is not very big, so I had the call as to when to come back. Since I generally dislike working from home, it was an easy call for me.
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I have been working in the office since April 2020. In fact, so has my entire office unless someone has been ill or tested positive. We have large offices that are used by one person a piece. We wear masks. It has not been an issue. As an attorney, I have had many face to face meetings in our conference rooms (we still have to do closings, etc.). Life goes on.
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I’ve been working from home for years, pandemic only added family here at the “home office”. I gained co-workers when everyone became at stuck at home! Both kids (S22 and D25) will return to school full time after the upcoming Spring Break. D25 has actually been back at school full time for several months now.
Meanwhile, wife and I get first COVID vaccine doses today.
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I’ve been in person since the end of May. Community based health care. My H has mostly been working from home and only going in the office 1/week but now they are remodeling their offices and he won’t go back again until July. I will say that it felt weird the first week being with other people but it quickly became the norm again. We are also a small enough office that we formed a pod with each other.
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I am remote since March 2020. Hoping to stay close to fully remote after our internal deadline of July 4th. I absolutely enjoy working from home and can, possibly, go back once a week in person (to stay motivated to get out of my yoga pants:)) but overall enjoyed this part of lockdown very much.
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I’ve always been home, the rest of them invaded my space last March and never left 
At this point I think H will not fully go back. They were crammed into the space they have so he thinks it’s more likely they’ll go to a flex model where people rotate in some days. But that’s not coming in the near term afaik. They’ve been pretty successful with remote implementation, almost too successful. It honestly feels like he works more now, he’s lost his “commute” time, it got eaten by meetings. 
Kids have both been home as well. We could’ve sent D22 back for the last quarter, but they said her schedule would definitely change and there was no guarantee they could even keep her in all the same classes. So we just opted to keep her remote so she doesn’t have to deal with potentially losing classes that are going well for her. School ends May 21 so she just has to power through these last few weeks!
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I’m retired, so I’m always home 
My wife has been working from home since last March. Her “office” has evolved from a laptop on a small table in the family room to a fully adjustable standup desk with a large monitor and a wireless headset. She usually works from 7AM to 6:30 PM as she has a global team. Our S16 is working full time from his upstairs bedroom as well as completing his MSCS.
We’re all happy that our D22 started in-person classes a little over a week ago.
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Also retired, but my wife has been in the office for all but about a 3 month period at the beginning, and then another month in January at the peak.
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Hi all! I can hardly believe it is April of junior year. By this time next year, a lot of us will know where our kids are going to school (I say that, though both of my olders made decisions at the end of April, lol) We still have huge piles of snow everywhere, but the sun is shining. D22 got a spot on the varsity soccer team. She is thrilled, though she may be mostly cheering from the bench Practices/games are inside for the time being as there is no outdoor field surface currently accessible. Counting down to the next SAT testing date next month.
@DreamerMom , 36!! WELL DONE!!
I see a lot of other great scores in the group too. Congrats to all!
@MAmom111 , we were supposed to go on a trip last month but I broke my ankle, ugh. It turned out to be just as well though. We are in a geographically remote location (and Canada closed for non-essential travel still) so road trips not feasible. We are looking at a big trip in the second half of July. Hoping it works out. If nothing else, it would be nice for D22 to get some visuals.
@catmom1 re: visits, my observation is that a lot of the schools in the NE (and really everywhere) are not offering in-person tours right now, so I’d investigate that. We are making plans for later in summer (and corresponded with some schools who indicated they may offer tours then.) It may ultimately just be a self guided experience, which would be fine. I am thinking vaccination might be useful in gaining access. I am not looking forward to touring in the heat of summer!!
@tumagmom , my D22 sounds somewhat similar to yours. Her SAT was in the 1200s (can’t remember precise number) and she is testing again in May.
@Thorsmom66 It’s been interesting to see how energized my D22 has been since the return of in-person classes. She is just taking two at the building right now (the rest is homeschool) but she is clearly perking up. The interesting part is that she was very adamant abt homeschooling next year. I’m thinking the pendulum may swing back toward a building-based program though 
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We are back and unpacked from our spring break college visits. S really liked being on campuses as the virtual tours didn’t show the area around the colleges. We did no official tours as we have done those at other colleges and after a while, they all sound the same. But we did register with admissions when we could so the self-tour and demonstrated interest boxes got checked.
S feels good about what he saw, he took notes for each school, and has started to email admissions officers from his favorite schools. Just have to get through the last quarter of junior year. 
(He’s opted to stay remote; most of the students in his classes are still remote, too. The largest number of in-person (hybrid) students in his classes is 6 students.
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Which schools are filtering to the top of his list? Any surprises either way - you thought you’d like but turned out not so much, or you like more than you expected?
We’ve been in school 5 days a week since August with a few remote times here and there. Next week is hybrid coming off spring break this week and then back to full 5 days. My husband has been home since March though and he has no idea when he’ll go back. I would like him to go a couple days a week before the kids are all home for summer! I miss having the house to myself to get things done around here.
S22 and I did a tour earlier this week. It was his first. He enjoyed it and thought it was worthwhile, even though he did not originally want to go. I think it was a good starting point for talking about what might be important to him.
My husband had 1 dose of the vaccine and I had my 2nd this past week. I’m hoping S22 can get signed up this week. He would like his first to be in 2 weeks so the 2nd doesn’t interfere with important school things going on. Works for me and I’ll see what I can do.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to determine a budget. Do we want to give a budget up to what we CAN spend or do we limit it to what we WANT to spend? Do we vary it for the individual schools? Top choices are a higher budget? It’s interesting conversation.
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D22 is very clear on the top schools to which she wants to apply. Not so eager to ID the match/safety schools if the <10% accepts don’t work out.
I’m relatively confident with Purdue, even CS, and I always throw Penn State on the list. But it would nice to have something in between.
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Good question about what you can spend vs. what you want to spend for college. I’ve wondered the same. In theory we can afford any college our son is interested in (without financial strain or lifestyle changes etc). We’ve saved a lot in 529 plans and could pay additional $ on top of that, but I question exactly what schools are really worth $80k per year (my son is not a candidate for a top 20 type school which, in theory, could be worth the premium).
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Hi, I accidentally clicked on this thread instead of Class of 2021 just now but I have a current hs senior (my 4th kid - 3rd going into CS) and a sophomore daughter in CS/ORIE at Cornell. My oldest didn’t go to college and went right to work and has his own company so it doesn’t necessarily matter where one goes to college because in Silicon Valley or in the world of tech they care more about the skills you have than grades or name recognition so don’t take out loans for a name brand school.
That said, if you’re looking for a liberal arts minded top program, you should look at Cornell. You can major in CS in either Engineering or CAS. My daughter is in Engineering, is getting a minor in Dyson Business school and this semester decided to double major in ORIE (Operations research). She’s interested in Fintech/Financial Engineering. It is really challenging, yet collaborative there. First class they require you work in partners. Also, unlike other schools, almost all the classes are taught by the Professors. The discussions are then followed up by the TAs. A lot of schools even the intro courses are not taught by Professors. They also offer some sort of extra no credit class that you can take for extra reinforcement or if you don’t have the groundwork for some subjects. I don’t think she qualified because she had AP credit in the ones that were offered and/or she had no interest but they are great.
She has been really happy there. If she hadn’t gotten in, she would have gone to Michigan for Engineering instead which also has a similar deal. CS in either LSA or Engineering and is also a top 10 program a few slots lower than Cornell, but has a tremendous network. Depending on waitlists my son is down to UVA or UM. UVA is not engineering strong but he doesn’t want to go with 30 kids from our hs and UM is huge but it’s still one of the best so I guess we will see. Wasn’t interested in the smaller CMU, MIT, Cal Tech type of programs.
Good luck! Also as a girl the opportunities for her will be immense!!
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