Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 1)

congrats to your daughter!!
i dont know much about them, but do know the academies are elite and are not the same as enlisting. Can an academy kid do internships? study abroad? do they get summers off?

Thanks! The appointment is a big deal. The process is VERY involved and unique. Compared to my 2021 son’s applications, it seemed like 3x the amount of work.

I didn’t know much about the academies either until this past application cycle. I don’t think they do internships like they would at a civilian college, but they can study abroad, and there seems to be a lot of opportunity to travel. I’m still learning about the academy experience, but they get three weeks off in the summers, and I think that’s it. The rest of the time is spent on specialty training, like survival training, maybe jump/flight training. I don’t want to give you incorrect info, but this is my general understanding.

We are very excited by D, but also facing the reality that she will be gone at the end of June and we won’t really see her until Thanksgiving. The timeline for her last semester home feels accelerated.

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That’s amazing. My friend from college has 2 sons there now. So impressive! Congratulations to your family!!

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I am concerned about wrangling at one school my kid is considering, because of the labyrinth we’ve had to go through for scholarships, housing, etc. However, when I finally got through to people, they are all so nice and helpful, and we are definitely keeping that school high on the list. We’ll learn to work with it. But it’s nothing like what’s happening to @2plustrio’s son.

@2plustrio, he has lots of good options, so you could just forget this one, or if it were me I might ask that they still consider his uploads because it was an error on their part.

Congratulations!!! Huge accomplishment!

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A lot of kids go into the military as a pathway to college (read: the GI Bill)—a pretty solid chunk of the students where I work came in via that route, in fact.

It’s a high-risk high-yield path, though—I’ve had a decent number of students who were fighting with sometimes-severe disabilities they acquired on their way to college via the military. But if you don’t have the funds, our system pushes you to into certain risks.:pensive:

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First, I want to say congratulations to your son for knowing what he wants and having his relatively modest plans in order. If he is going to college, then he has his pick!

Second, I have such mixed feelings about these things, but mostly I think they should not be done, and I’m sorry he and you have to think about this at all. It’s bad enough we compare ourselves to others. It stinks when there is an event that includes it. I can’t stand any of the stories about kids feeling down on themselves and their first pick schools, because some other kid–but often an adult–comments on their choices.

I hope your son will feel proud of himself and his plans, and also maybe he’ll want to add a detail about what cool thing made him choose his path. Like a random example, but Joe Smith will be entering X University, where he will study abroad in Spain on the X instrument. Or where he will pursue XYZ thing that he is looking forward to.

My kid is going into jazz studies, and his list of schools is eclectic. Non-music families often look at us weirdly when he tells them where he’s applied.

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Excuse my ignorance, but what do these acronyms mean?

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Yeah - it’s a great path but I was referencing @tamagotchi and the others (and I did it too) who go to these celebrations where one by one they announce where they are going
as if you’re not going anywhere you’re deemed a misfit
at least in the moment.

That’s what’s sad.

We all have different paths - and that’s ok.

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Those kids might even end up in a better place down the road than they would have otherwise. I know I made my college decision pretty randomly way back in ancient times when I was 17. Having had some time to mature, I might have chosen with a little more direction. In our state, so many students of all stat levels go to community college for a year while they figure out what they want, because it is free for all students with a GPA of 2.5 or higher.

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They are high school orchestras in the San Francisco bay area. Sorry about the acronyms, I was just replying to @GoldRush2 :slight_smile:

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I’m not saying it isn’t a problem. If you see my other post, you’ll know I’m against these kinds of comparisons. But I do think the parents are often more invested in comparison than the kids. My son’s XC team does a banquet like this, and last year the most applauded student was going to community college.

I think it was this thread where people were discussing all the deadline extensions that came rolling into email inboxes. My favorite one came the other day. “Congratulations on your acceptance to XYZ College!” When I opened the email it said, “To confirm your acceptance, we just need your transcript and need you to answer a few questions.” In other words, we need you to apply. :laughing: Today, that same school (which sends the emails to me, not my kid) sent an email about how I had received scholarship awards. LOL.

ETA: Apparently they are impressed with my grades. They must have unearthed my transcripts from 1986. :person_shrugging:t2:

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Ok phew! That’s so funny. We must know so many people in common. I bet D26 knows my college friend who is music conductor at SFCM. And SFCM collaborates a lot with my D23’s chorus. I’m sure YPSO will be gracious about wherever S23 ends up. :wink:

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What would that indicate? That she was worried she wouldn’t get in anywhere and had to do a lot of them? I don’t feel like 8 is very many. We made our kid apply to at least three more that were not initially on his list, because we needed an array of price points, and some of his top choices admit 15%. I think he’s doing 12.

(For an audition-required process, that’s about the limit we could make him do. He just got back from Texas, and that’s the last of his trips. :slight_smile: )

If we hear from our kid that additional guitars need to be purchased, that’s going to be a conversation. :slight_smile:

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If my son (not a music major) could figure out a way to convince me that extra guitars were a requirement for his classes, he would absolutely do that. :rofl:

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To me, the listing off colleges thing publicly at an event is like a group of adults having all their car makes listed. And I do have a high stat, apply anywhere (but he really couldn’t apply anywhere) kid at a flagship U.

My own kids would be super uncomfortable with this, so weird. And not because they’d be embarassed about their own school. But because they get it’s quite a bit about dollars. They do a lot of high end music with both kids from high end privates,some scholarship kids and everything in between. There are kids doing the same types of ECs that end up at CC’s and ivies in our circles.

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Mine would, no matter what! Unfortunately for our wallets, with his degree it may be required freshman year. :sob:

Our school has kids commissioned to a military academy every year. It’s highly competitive and an impressive accomplishment!

My D17 applied to 22 schools. S23 is light with 14.

The Cal Poly SLO parents facebook page is gold. I was so thankful for all of the information when my daughter was there.

Our school announces college plans at graduation and it’s printed on a big poster with their pictures placed around campus. :joy:

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