D24 has been working at camp for the past 4 weeks. She gets home today! (I joke that I’ve been practicing empty nesting all month, it’s gone okay, actually better than I anticipated). Tomorrow at 8:15 am she has her parent/student/advisor conference and then 9-3 is college application writing work session for seniors at school. I’m a little nervous about her making such a fast transition from the bliss of life at camp on a beautiful remote island (she’s been sleeping many nights outside in a hammock with a view of the ocean and seems to have made best friends for life in a short amount of time) to the intensity of senior year, it’s a really quick turnaround for her. School starts next Wednesday. Buckling up now for the ride.
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Dropped D20 off for her senior year, and D24 said are you ready to do this with me next year. Cue the tears. Not quite ready for my “baby” to leave. Can’t believe she’s starting senior year in 2 weeks. The time has surely flown by.
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I hear you. My youngest of four girls starts her senior year. I am trying to stay calm about it but it is tough!
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Schedules came out today. S24 has Ap stats and calc BC one right after each other with the same teacher in the same room! I am not sure if he or the teacher will lose their mind first, ha!!! This is a new one for us in 7 years in a mid sized suburban public school.
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Do they have block scheduling? if so imagine 3 hours of Math at a time?
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D24 had some interesting things to say this evening about college app stuff:
- in the college counseling class, this coming Monday, they all have to turn in their request forms for their letters of rec.
- D24 is having a 1-on-1 session w/senior counselor during lunch period on Thurs next week
- D24 pretty much has her list of colleges figured out for where she’ll be applying, but other students are struggling.
- 1 kid wants to major in industrial engineering, which is limiting his options. Not a lot of schools have it. He also wants to go to college in Boston.
- next Wed, they all have to turn in drafts of their resumes. There’s been a lot of lecture material in class about putting a resume together.
- seniors are talking a lot about where they’re applying and where they want to go. lots of them want to leave the state.
- D24 can’t remember where pretty much anybody else is applying.
- her AP Bio teacher is going to write her STEM letter of rec. D26 has him for bio this year and after class today, D26 & bio teacher nerded out about the new Ahsoka Tano series on Disney+.
- D24 asked for my help in picking another college presentation to attend at school. Sign ups are done on Naviance. She’s going to attend one for Creighton University. I don’t think she’d like the vibe there very much (student body not very diverse), but you never know. Won’t hurt to attend the info session.
- Senior counselor did a lecture this week in class about “co-op schools” and talked about Drexel University. D24 found this interesting. But doesn’t want to go to Drexel.
- Today, senior counselor did a presentation in class about “Jan term” schools. D24 said, “Mama, Austin College is 1 of those. Ms. counselor_name mentioned it.” (yes, child, that’s because she knows you’re applying there, lol).
- essay writing will start in early Sept. Counselor told the parents to not have them start yet (she must have a reason for this…probably has a specific curriculum, way of teaching it or whatever).
D24 starts a new part time job next Tuesday at Taco Bell, picked up her uniform today after school. So she’s going to add that to her activities list on the Common App.
D24’s grandmother (my MIL) is now under hospice care and we’re spending all day tomorrow in MIL’s corner of the state to spend time with her and to also start going through the stuff in her house. My SIL & her kids will be there, too. D24 is skipping hospital volunteering this Sunday in case we need to extend this to Sunday as well. the past 2 weeks have been pretty hard.
I guided D24 in how to respond to an email she got from an admissions counselor/rep from 1 of the colleges on her list. The art of writing a business-style email is definitely an acquired skill and she definitely needs more practice. 
Talked to her about how this is a way to demonstrate interest when we can’t really go travel there yet to see the campus in person because of other circumstances going on right now. The admissions rep responded with a link to a virtual tour and said that they’re still working out their travel schedule for our state for this fall AND said that they’d be happy to meet w/D24 in our area once they determine the travel plans…so D24 learned that she needs to respond to that “question that isn’t worded like a question.”
Hope everybody and your families have a good weekend!
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Yes. They do. But the blocks are an hour so it will be 2 hours at a time. He loves math which is why he is taking 1 math classes and wanted stats but this is going to take adjustment!
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Regarding Jan terms, some schools it’s optional and some require it. Also, there are schools that do a May term. Just things we found out with D18, when touring colleges. We loved the concept of Jan term and the class selections.
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Our block periods are 1.5 hours. So 3 hours which would have been hard to focus. Hope the teacher is good.
S24 is accepted in one of the fly in program with the school he is targetting. He is very excited.
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S24 took his second SAT this morning. Felt more confident this time around. We’ll see in two weeks or so. I think regardless of results he is done with testing. He feels good to have one more thing off his plate.
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Right now S24 is treading water on applications. The only schools that look as attractive to him as Tulsa with the NMSF package are some extreme reaches and some schools that would be unlikely to make the budget. But he won’t know if he gets NMSF for another week or two. If he doesn’t get it, he is going to have to make some hard decisions about match & likely schools. 
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S24’s first day of senior year! Can’t believe it is finally here!
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D24 had Senior Sunrise on Friday (which she found boring) and took the SAT Saturday. She already submitted all of her applications, and hopefully the SAT score will be the last thing to complete her file. She’s just a bit unmotivated to figure out how to close out process. Things like requesting transcripts and recommendations through Naviance was like pulling teeth. She seems particularly hostile to figuring out how to link up her SRAR and submit it.
One school she applied to over a week ago still hasn’t sent the portal log in, so today I had her look up and email the AO (the school seems to have had some turnover in our region, so it’s someone new, not the people who either came to her school last spring or hosted the event we attended a couple weeks ago).
Now the focus will be on starting on honors program applications. There are a couple she can do and submit now before being admitted, with admission to the program being semi-rolling, and since it can fill up, there is reason to not wait.
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S24 started classes today and found out he will graduate cum laude — half of the inductees are announced each fall at the start of the year, and the other half during graduation. It’ll be a nice accolade to add to his applications!
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D24 starts school on Wednesday, then jumps right into the Senior Fall Orientation trip on Thursday (overnight at a camp and a rafting trip on Friday). I’m trying to get her to sift through and cull the mountain of clothes on the floor of her room to get somewhat organized before school starts. (Marie Kondo, where are you when I need you??) She also hasn’t completed her summer reading assignment but has a week before that’s due. Her college app workshop at school last Friday went well, she got some feedback on her personal statement and will keep plugging away at it.
Also, we decided to book a quick trip to Massachusetts at the end of September over her fall break to visit one more college on her list, and maybe one extra in a nearby town while we’re there. I’ve lived on the west coast for 28 years and rarely get a chance to go back to New England (where I went to college), so we are both looking forward to the trip despite the long distance travel for only a 3 night visit.
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We have an almost close to final list of colleges. We may add/remove a couple of them but its close enough list for now. We have looked at all the essay prompts for these colleges and how many recommendations these school need. He has reached out to the teachers.
We are still unsure about ED at this point. NYU and BU are two schools we are looking at but not sure how we will proceed.
He also added a 6th period as TA for AP classes he took last year. This teacher will be writing a letter and S24 likes working with him.
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Is any other parent wishing we could just skip over the next 3 months? I know that whatever happens will be okay with D24, because she has been very wise and managed her expectations. She’s not great with uncertainty, though. I’m glad we’ll know from at least 2 schools (safeties) by Dec 1.
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I’d even take just skipping to October 15, which is the date by which I’m telling C24 that they need to be ready submit any early applications. I am very much not looking forward to nagging them through the next six-ish weeks, but I’m afraid that’s what it’ll take to get them to buckle down and finish their essays.
Meantime, today was my kid’s first day of school. They’re very much not feeling the school spirit/nostalgia, and skipped the car parade. I think they’re interested in their activity-related Senior rituals, but aren’t so much with the class-wide stuff.
And also? They got sent home two classes into the day because the school’s AC isn’t working properly. Which leads me holding little hope for the rest of the week, because it’s only going to get hotter.
Its mixed feeling for me. I want the college app period to be over but at the same time this will be the last year he will be at home so want to enjoy the time with him so would like to slow things down.
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