Parents of the HS Class of 2023 (Part 2)

Thanks to you all, now I know about narcan. :pray:t2: Having the resource seems vital, but I do think itā€™s weird for that to be mentioned more than once on a college tour. I have learned through these boards to try to take a tour guideā€™s nature, and what they choose to say, with a grain of salt, but that is strange.

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Totally agree. More than once is unnecessary and a bit odd IMO.

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Congratulations, those are fantastic results. Has she narrowed the list any?

Thatā€™s ballsy. I donā€™t know what a safety is anymore. My kid was accepted by UC Berkeley and rejected by San Diego State. :joy:

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We are DONE! Iā€™m so relieved! My Dā€™23 is going to Cornell and Sā€™23 to Colorado School of Mines! Both engineering. Iā€™m So glad Iā€™ll only have one child applying next round!

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Dang, and I thought my kids had all done well on the COA front!

A couple of those are financially stunning, and many of the ones that arenā€™t quite as eye-popping are still very excellent. And knowing some of what lay behind this college search makes it all the cooler.

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Yeah. One of many issues is that anything can be laced with fentanyl. Food, drinksā€¦

It is definitely responsible to offer Narcan. Drugs are, indeed, everywhere.

Iā€™d be more worried about the school that tried to hide the situation. The schools saying nothing are benefiting by withholding info.

I just told my kid to only buy weed from a dispensary if they decide to do it. Heck, I will help them find it if that helps them avoid getting something laced with fentanyl.

23 doesnā€™t want to do drugs or drink and has chosen to take a pledge not to. But I still offer to help them be safe if they do change their mind.

Our local school just had a boy die in the bathroom from fentanyl. 14 years old.

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Iā€™m oblivious. I donā€™t get why people add fetanyl to stuff.

I hope my daughter is careful and she claims to rarely party (itā€™s made her social life a bit lame she says but sheā€™s over the partying) but who really knows ?

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Thanks for clarifying. Itā€™s just our heartbreak talking like that I apologize if I sounded arrogant. Itā€™s hard to see your kids work really hard and not getting what they want. For us Rutgers is OOS but I have heard good things about it. Kids ditching NYU to attend Rutgers due to various reasons.
We are grateful for Rutgers merit scholarship as well as getting into Schreyers. She will calm down and make the most of it I hope.
Schreyers seems to be a very good option too.

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Many kids seem like their in state public is a let down where there are likely kids who turned down Ivy to attend - especially the flagships.

A kid from Ohio may be hoping for Rutgers but not the kid from NJ. The kid from NJ may hope for Ohio State but not Rutgers.

Even though on the margins theyā€™re mainly interchangeable.

And both with brilliant kids.

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Drug dealers make more money with fentanyl. Fentanyl is a more potent opioid then the rest, so you need to use less of it in a pill to get the same high. The rest of the pill is inactive ingredient. The problem comes when the mixing of fentanyl and the inactive ingredient is incomplete and when the pills are measured out some have no fentanyl others have way too much fentanyl in it. Itā€™s not that they intentionally want to kill people, there is just no quality assurance for fentanyl pill makers. Taking a pill is like playing Russian roulette.

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One of the girls on my HS softball team got accepted to the Coast Guard Academy. Such a great admission. About 15% acceptance. Almost no one accepted with less than 3.8 and SAT of 1350. Not only is it a completely free education but they get paid while in school. A place folks might want to consider when chancing merit.

Iā€™m so proud of this young lady. Great kid, hard worker etc.

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Did anybody else have a relatively uneventful application process?

For us, prior to the application process, we visited various schools that we had some affiliations with, such as Stanford, Northwestern, UChicago, Cal and UCLA, and we toured the campuses. These were schools that either my wife or I went to, had family who went there, or had family members who worked there. Various friends and family gave us tours when we visited, and we also signed up for campus tours to learn.

At the beginning of the process, DC and I discussed which schools he was interested in, and we agreed to look at the T20 schools, our flagship state school, and colleges in other states where we can get in-state tuition. After the tour, he loved the vibe of UChicago and it became his #1 choice. He applied there and the other schools we visited. He also applied to some Ivyā€™s but he said he didnā€™t feel a personally connection, except for Brown. He got in ED1 at UChicago and he withdrew everything else all before Christmas.

We would have been very happy if he went to our state school, especially my wife who wanted him to stay close. I feel happy for him because I knew it could be stressful, but it was relatively painless for us. Being full pay also obviously helps.

He spent the rest of his senior year going out with his friends (seemingly almost every single weekend) and continuing to compete in Science Olympiad and other competitions for fun. He is a good natured boy and has enjoyed his high school experience. He looks forward to next year.

Now onto child #2 next year. Iā€™m hoping that it will also go fairly smoothly.

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My S23 got dragged to a college fair with S21 when he was in 8th grade. He talked to an admissions counselor from Northeastern and was intrigued. He went on a school trip to Boston and loved the city.

When application time rolled around for him, Northeastern was still the front-runner. They offered a financial pre-read that allowed him to apply ED. He got in, pulled all his other applications, and didnā€™t look back.

After navigating the application process with S21 and dealing with cancelled tours, cancelled SATs, and not knowing what test-optional was going to mean for admission odds, this has felt strange! I keep feeling like we are neglecting some huge thing. S21 didnā€™t make a decision until end of April. S23 was done mid December.

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Thatā€™s quite a family to have affiliations with all of those schools. Did you grow up in a family of professors?

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Thanks. You all know how hard this has been. I have done my best to guide him.

My oldest has LD and was on an IEP at age 3. He is 22 and trying to figure his life out but happily living 3 hrs from home and figuring himself out. He works part time and pays his rent and doesnā€™t ask me for money but I always knew his path would be longer and slower.

So I went into S23 search a newbie. Adding in the TE benefit possibilities plus his wish to do music plus a ā€œlowerā€ gpa meant it was not going to be easy curating a solid list for him. The end result is that he has to compromise a bit perhaps on location or size. I just hope that he is happy with whatever school he chooses!!

Also I agree 100%. My child had to explain his 3 day suspension junior year to every college he applied to. He was struggling mentally and emotionally and began vaping. One of the vapes they found had thc. We got him support and he was diagnosed adhd and prescribed vyvanse. My son admits that the vyvanse clears his mind which imo is a safer way than vaping and/or getting thc from strangers.

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No one knows the greater context. Maybe a parent asked about in a earlier tour that day or even right before the tour began before everyone gathered. Maybe something happened on campus and there were mass emails about it that morning and it was fresh on the tour guides mind. Who knows? Most likely if you went to the tour the next week with the same student it wouldnā€™t be mentioned once.

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Congrats!

To answer your question, Iā€™d think the most uneventful process would be when you are full pay and can easily apply ED without any financial worries.

Also, it helps if your child isnā€™t ADHD or anxious or dealing with an unpleasant home life and has all the supports that money brings.

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I donā€™t know if thatā€™s universally true. There are a few students from my sonā€™s private high school who are high stats/full pay and got denied from an ED that seemed reasonable. Then denied/waitlisted from EA RD schools. Parents are left bewildered and scrambling. If you miscalculate the ED selection, most of the advantage goes out the window.

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