Very true. Heck, I did not visit a single college until I was accepted and only saw the two I was deciding between.
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No college tours planned yet. May plan for a couple of local schools (with in 50 miles) before the winter and other schools for spring break/summer (east coast schools).
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So S applied for a major national competition that starts releasing results tomorrow. He has a 0.00001% chance of being in the winners pool that will get phone calls tomorrow (bigger chance of the other named winners that will be announced in early December) but I am unreasonably nervous about it, ha!
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We are doing a college tour road trip during our spring break in March. Unfortunately, it looks like thatās going to be the same week that almost all of the schools weāre visiting are also on spring break. Canāt do anything about that and right now, am not willing to pull her out of school for a week for that. Trying to keep travel costs to a minimum (hence the road trip instead of flying). So weāll make do with what we have to work with.
Tentative plans are:
- Sun - 6 1/2 hr drive to Albuquerque (we live in Phoenix area)
- Mon - tour UNM, then overnight in Tucumcari, NM (Iāve always wanted to stay thereā¦tons of old timey Route 66 neon signs at all of the businesses & motels there)
- Tues - drive to Sherman, TX
- Wed - tour Austin College, then drive to Georgetown, TX
- Thurs - visit Southwestern Univ
- Fri - head west
- Sat - maybe visit NMSU (but not a must do, we can always visit here on another trip). 5 1/2 hr drive home from Las Cruces, NM
This spring, Iām going to force ODD to watch some Youtube videos and do a virtual campus tour of Centre College and if she gets admitted and the financial aid package is appealing, THEN we will go visit there in late winter/early spring of senior year.
ASU is totally out of the running (she hates it there, too large, plus way too close to home). Also not going to apply to NAU because she doesnāt like the elevation (~6900 feet above sea level).
UNM would end up cheaper than U of A assuming that D24 lived near U of A campus all 4 years (ABQ is ~ 1-1.5 hr direct plane ride from PHX airport), but my sister lives in Tucson and has offered D24 a free place to stay for sophomore-senior years of college (so that means we wouldnāt have to pay rent, utilities, etc., but D24 would need a car for those 3 yr of college).
At one point, I was considering a tour of Ole Miss, but D24 is very anti-sorority/Greek life and Greek life kind of dominates the social scene there. Their OOS merit scholarships would make it same cost as going in state here in AZ, but the campus culture would be a huge turn off for D24.
Univ of Alabama-Huntsville is another school thatās being eyed, but sheās not going to major in engineering or computer science or anything related to thatā¦sheās interested in becoming a PA. UAH has a nursing school, but she doesnāt want to become a nurse. Honestly, she could major in pretty much anything and go to PA grad school. UAHās OOS merit scholarships do require test scores and if she gets at least a 28 ACT or 1310 SAT, then tuition, room, board would be just under $21k/yearā¦which would put it in the running.
ā¦BUT if we then compare it to the free lodging at my sisterās house in Tucson, then thereās that factor. I think that D24 would fit in well with the general student population at UAH (nerdy, science-loving, not into big time college sportsā¦these are the sort of kids she hangs out w/at HS every day).
DH doesnāt want D24 to go OOS for college at all. UAH would be the farthest away and in terms of ability to travel home for breaks, is probably the most challenging. Weāll probably tour that school during senior year.
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can totally relate to being Nervous. Sometimes I feel more nervous than S24 
Good luck. Hope he gets in.
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Iāve been given the task of trying to get Taylor Swift tix tomorrow 
D26 got a special verification code for the pre sale at 10am tomorrow. Lucky me gets to spend all morning (while I am at work) trying desperately to get tickets for her and her friends. Lord have mercy. Meanwhile S24 offered to stay home from school to try to get them for herā:rofl:
such a loving brother!!
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that is definitely one of those things that you wonder how hard you should be trying, ha!
My husband has been given that task too by D24. LOL.
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Same task this morning for me!
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Many Texas colleges will have Spring Break mid-March, so check those dates if you want to be sure to have kids on campus.
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SAT scores for the Nov test are coming out on Friday. Ironically, D24 wonāt know her PSAT score until Dec. Go figure.
same here
DD24 took her SAT in Nov and eagerly waiting for the score. targeting 1500+ as she felt the test was easier 
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S24 first marking period is officially over. Didnāt do well with English:( hopefully it will get better in the end.
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Communicate more effectively than what most in this country have recently been able to? 
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D24 didnāt have stellar grades this grading period either.
This sem has been hard for S24 compared to all his school years. Itās a combination of Rigor going up quite a bit and also the sports/ECS. Looking like he will end up with a couple of Bās this Sem and after no B so far he is taking it hard. He was not keen on outside help for quite some time and now it may be too late to catch up for this sem. So I am planning to tell him do his best for this Sem and after that we will focus next sem on the grades.
This has definitely been the toughest semester yet for my son, too. Junior year classes are so much harder - heās taking a few APs and he needs to study a lot more than in the past.
I feel like we havenāt done any real college planning yet because heās been so focused on his grades and schoolwork. He doesnāt want to take days off of school for college visits - but I think I need to plan a couple local-ish day trips this winter.
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This is notoriously the hardest semester for kids and throw into it them trying to be normal teenagers after three years of the world of COVID, a few Bs are not the end of the world. Lots of hugs.
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Well, right now, D24 had 2 Cās on the latest trimesterās report card. Would love those to turn into Bās by the end of the school year. Some Bās isnāt the end of the world, unless youāre targeting a lottery school like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford.
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