I am also worried about the cost. We don’t have too many great in-state options in MD. College Park is not an option with his GPA and I doubt he would do well in such a large environment anyway. Possibly St. Mary’s College in southern MD. I’d love to send him to a Catholic college but they seem so expensive. They cost more than I gross in a year!
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My S23 is the same. He’s really into gaming which eats into his study and homework time. His teachers are really nice. One teacher cc’ed me on an email she sent to S23. She told him that he had 3 days to turn in a week’s worth of homework he hadn’t turned in yet. I was flabbergasted because 1) he didn’t turn in that much homework and 2) the teacher game him an opportunity to make up the work - albeit with points taken out. The teacher said the grade he’d be getting if he didn’t turn in his homework is not indicative of his true ability in the class. I was thankful for what the teacher did. Another teacher did the same thing (ie gave him a 2nd chance at turning in homework) in the spring when they went virtual.
He still reads a lot though oddly enough. He got a bunch of books for Christmas that he had on his list.
S23 did real well in the pre-ACT so he has a shot at our state flagship (UIUC) if his performance translate the same to the real ACT, but his GPA may not be where it needs to be. We’re also concerned about his performance when he’s left on his own. He’s got a couple years anyway so maybe he’s just a late bloomer.
I’m not to familiar with the quality of MD public universities other than UMD. You definitely can’t go wrong with UMD.
So public universities like UMBC and Frostburg State don’t have a great reputation?
UMBC has a good reputation but we live very close to it. I’m sure the nearness to our home might turn my son off but we still plan on looking at it. Same situation with Towson. Frostburg and Salisbury don’t have the best reputations. My son tends to do what is expected of him and nothing more. He needs to be challenged or he will do the bare minimum.
I went to a Jesuit college and it was right up my alley. He is currently in a Christian Brothers school and it suits him. They haven’t let any expectations slip due to Covid. It’s business as usual which is what he needs. If he was in public school, he’d be waiting until the last week of the quarter to hand everything in. Apparently this is allowed in our local public school with no late penalties. That would be a nightmare for him. He would say “See? They don’t care when you hand assignments in.”
Happy pre-New Year, fellow 2023 parents and fingers crossed that next year is better!
We are sneaking off to an isolated house we rented on an isolated Florida beach (yes, there is such a thing); stopping for grocery pickup on the way and don’t expect to be within 6 feet of another soul for the entire two weeks.
College-related question: the kid is likely to prefer cities when all is said and done, and since we are in PA, we’ll likely apply to Pitt and Temple.
Which city would you prefer to live in as a young adult? I’m thinking I’d prefer Philly, but that’s because I’ve never been to Pittsburgh 
My 2021 son also attends an all boys Catholic high school in MD, and based on your description, probably in the same area. He has an LD and is in a specialized program in his high school. He is my third kid, and I went in with low expectations as he has a 3.4 GPA, only a couple of honors classes and no APs. We targeted mostly Catholic/Jesuit colleges and he applied TO. I was pleasantly surprised at the merit he has received as I figured he would really get next to nothing with his average GPA and no test scores.
He has zero desire to stay in MD (he got into Loyola MD with nice merit plus an automatic grant for attending a Baltimore Catholic h.s, but the cost was still quite high!). We made him apply to an in state safety (Salisbury) but he is nearly 100% decided (and accepted) to a Jesuit university out of state.
I also have a 2023 daughter so I’ll be here in CC for one last go ‘round. With S21, I mostly participate in the Class of 2021 Parents 3.0-3.4 thread since the schools my son was targeting were more in line with the kids/parents in that group than the regular 2021 thread. I’m sure at some point there with be a similar thread started for the 2023 kids.
Xavier correct? There’s some majors there I think ds would like but I would have to convince him that staying in the Midwest isn’t horrible. He thinks 4-5 hours from home is too close.
@2plustrio yes, Xavier. It’s an 8 hour drive for us so not too close to home. He is really big into sports but those types of schools (think SEC, etc) were just too big/overwhelming for him. I thought the mid-size Catholic colleges would be a hard sell since they aren’t known as much for sports/school spirit, but Xavier is having a great basketball season this year LOL. He and dh were able to tour campus in September and it has been at the top of his list ever since.
Small world! This area has so many choices for Catholic schools. My son’s school has a LD program and my son was in the school’s academic support program last year. He learned a lot of skills that I tried to teach him in middle school. I guess some things come off better when your mom isn’t the one to teach you. 
I’d love to know which schools were on his list and which ones had some merit money available. I just started looking at colleges this week since I am off school myself. So far, I’ve looked at LaSalle and St. Joseph University in Philly and Manhattan and Fordham in NY. Fordham looks like a reach. My alma mater is Loyola here in Baltimore but I have a feeling he won’t want to be this close to home. I’ll add Xavier to our list.
D19 is having a fabulous time in Philly! We feel it’s a vibrant, affordable city with lots of entertainment options for young adults. D can go to a museum or a concert, wander around the public markets, hang out at one of the riverfront parks, or catch the train to NYC. There is always something going on. The only thing she really misses is abundant nature but that was to be expected moving from Colorado to an urban city. We’ve also never been to Pittsburgh; it could be just as great as Philly.
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His list included Fairfield, St. Joseph’s, Loyola, Xavier, Univ of Dayton, Salisbury and JMU. He had a few more on his list that he would’ve applied to RD but after his first few acceptances came in, he decided he was happy with his choices. So many other Catholic schools we could have looked at. We also were not limiting his options to Catholic schools but he/we wanted a mid-size college/university and just seems to be a niche full of Catholic/Jesuit choices.
I’m a Fordham alum. My oldest applied there with much higher stats but they are not generous with merit. It was the most expensive of her options and tho it was her top choice, we all agreed it was not worth paying nearly full price. Broke my heart as an alum, but just could not justify it. With S21, it would be a reach for sure to even get in but it was never on his list anyway.
The LD program my son was in was a life changer. Prior to high school, there were many tears and lots of frustration as he struggled to get through middle school. Huge sigh of relief having that responsibility taken over by the program at school. Rarely had to help with homework, prepare for tests, etc. It has been an amazing transformation over these last 3.5 years. I’m glad your son was able to benefit from the support program at his school as well. For us, it has been worth every penny. In addition, we are so thankful to have our kids in private school during the pandemic as they have really not missed a beat with remote/hybrid learning (my D23 goes to a co-ed Catholic school and both schools have done a great job).
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My D16 and D19 applied to Jesuit schools too because I told them having a couple Catholic universities from which to choose is always good. All my kids have gone to Catholic schools since 3PK so I don’t think any of them wanted to go to a Catholic university if they had a choice. I don’t think they wanted to be forced to take the typical required courses in philosophy, religion, etc… They had no choice but to attend Catholic grade school and HS but once they graduate HS it was up to them. They applied to the typical midwestern Jesuit schools of Loyola Chicago, SLU, and Creighton. They didn’t bother with Notre Dame or Georgetown as the work needed to put in an application would have been too much for schools that would have been their lower choices. Again, lower choices not because of the quality of the school, but because they didn’t want to go to a Catholic university. I was good with their decision so long as they continued to go to mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation. They’ve been able to keep up with that requirement.
Philly is a good place to live for a few years. My D16 goes to school in St Louis and I’m pleasantly surprised it’s not a bad city at all for it being full of Cardinals fans. 
As young adult, I think my D16 and D19 would like bustling city but not too busy like NYC or LA. They may be more in the Charlotte, New Orleans, Orlando, or Las Vegas type city.
As for my S23, I have no idea of his taste of city as his favorite activity has been gaming at the cost of his school work. Ugh.
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Great to hear his program has been so successful. It certainly takes some stress away when it isn’t always the parent doing all of the reminding about classwork, homework, etc.
Can you tell me how you decided on early decision/action? This must not have been very popular when I went to college. It seems like everyone just applied regular decision back then. Is the benefit just knowing sooner? Do the decisions come with the financial aid decisions or do you have to wait for those? I wouldn’t want my son to get excited that he got in early but then not know for another month about financial aid.
My D16 did both ED and EA.
ED is an excellent choice IF your student is absolutely sure of the school. Also, the school that my D16 applied to is known to give a distinct advantage for admission to ED applicants. Finally, knowing of her acceptance in mid-Dec was a huge weight off my D16’s shoulders during her senior year. IF she didn’t get accepted to her ED school, then she would have had to submit additional apps before the normal 1 Jan RD deadline which is extra time spent with the essays and more app fees for us to pay. As it was, with her mid-Dec acceptance, she didn’t need to apply to other schools on her list like Vandy, JHU, and Northwestern. I think their app fees are ~$75 each. So, for my D16, applying ED was to give her a shot at the higher acceptance rate and to know earlier in her senior year. An ED acceptance will provide the financial aid package at the same time or very soon thereafter.
D16 pulled her EA apps when she got her ED acceptance.
My D19 applied EA so that she can know earlier of her status. That’s really the only reason why she applied EA. She didn’t need her first semester senior year grades to put in front of the adcom to state her case for admission. In the end, it also saved us money because she didn’t have to apply to other schools high on her list once her #1 civilian school (Michigan) accepted her EA in mid-Dec. Soon after, she got her EA acceptance to UIUC too. Once she had Michigan and UIUC acceptances in hand, she didn’t need to apply to Vandy or Northwestern by the 1 Jan deadline for RD which was her plan if she got rejected or deferred by her EA schools.
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The previous poster gave an excellent explanation of the advantages of applying ED. My D19 also applied ED to her top choice school to leverage the admissions advantage given to early applicants. The year she was admitted, the ED admit rate was 18% versus an overall admit rate of 7% for all applicants. We submitted all the financial aid forms within days of D submitting her application and received the financial aid package with her acceptance letter. It was a huge relief for D (and us) to be done with the college process by mid-Dec. MIT as a recruited athlete was her second choice and she was happy to not have to complete that application since they don’t use Common App.
Still, D had a few applications to pull after being admitted. She had already applied to CU-Boulder, our state flagship, on the free college app day that occurs here in October as well as to a couple of SLACs because they gave her a fee waiver. If she hadn’t been admitted to her top choice school, then she had other applications ready to go because she had spent the summer before senior year writing essays for her intended targets.
In the end, the whole process was surprisingly easy. I hope to use the same strategy for S23.
Edited to add: I ran the NPC for D’s top choice many times to make sure it was affordable before signing off on ED.
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As a counter, though, remember that ED—and, though to a lesser extent, SCEA—can lock you into a less financially advantageous situation. If you’re accepted to your ED school, then you’ve committed to it even if you would have gotten a better financial package elsewhere. Yes, the contract can be cancelled if they make it financially unfeasible, but not if it’s just not as good as you were hoping. And if you’re after Big Merit Aid®, ED restricts your ability to work the market at the one point in the process where the applicant has any sort of power whatsoever.
So yes, ED means a higher (sometimes much higher) chance of getting into a hyperselective, but if you’re chasing scholarships, it’s not your friend.
EA, though, I see as the best of all possibles for an applicant who is suitably organized.
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We’re running into a brick wall here trying to find volunteer activities for the twins to safely participate in.
Thing 1 is still working part time at McD’s to fill his time, but Thing 2 hasn’t had any luck finding a job nor any volunteer activity. Poor kid is literally just at home building Lego sets and reading or YouTube’ing. I’m trying to get him to pick up something on Coursera at least. Thing 2 is applying for the Summer Senate Page program through one of our State Senators, but I honestly don’t even see that happening if Covid cases don’t start drastically declining 
Both twins are still studying for their private pilot license with my husband. I’m thinking that may be the extent of their EC’s. I feel so bad for our 2023 kiddos…Freshman and Sophomore years both wiped out by the pandemic…it may be too late to get involved in anything meaningful by the time college app season starts for them.
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I hear you. I’m sad too about our kiddos missing out on the fun parts of high school.
Have you checked with your local food bank? Around here they are accepting volunteers from the same social/family pod. Also, if it’s the twin who was accepted to NHS, have you explored options through that group? Our NHS sponsors and staffs all of the service projects for our high school which makes it easy for those kids to fulfill their community service requirement.
In other news, S23 finally got his learner’s permit! I was worried the DMV would close again due to Covid but we found an opening—hooray! 2020 hasn’t been a total bust.
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Forgot to update, Thing 2 got his NHS invite also lol…seems like it was a clerical error after all 
I found some volunteer opportunities yesterday that can be done with social distancing (our city’s Keep Beautiful dept has some roadside clean up kits they give out to high schoolers for service hours and also some opportunities with a local charity that provides “love pacs” (food and hygiene supplies) to families in our school district.
We’ll start on those in January!
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My D16, D19, and S23 are volunteering at a food pantry. Thing is they had to lock in their slots in mid-Nov. The food pantry has a website in which they are required to sign up. Because of the pandemic, they couldn’t allow as many people to help out as in the past. There was another opportunity they saw in Nov (for Dec volunteer dates and times) at the pet shelter. Problem with that is they would have needed to take the required training in taking care of the dogs and cats. They didn’t want to do that with only 4 weeks at home. They wanted to get right in and start volunteering.
With limited slots from the pandemic, it’s tough to find volunteering opportunities at last minute.
For the summer, my D16 said she’d start looking to volunteer at the food pantry again about a month out from when she’ll be home to make sure she locks in a slot. She’s applying to the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps so her time is dependent on when those opportunities start.
Of course, if D16 volunteers this summer, then S23 (to his chagrin) will be right along side his sister. 
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