I found CC when researching a summer program my hs junior S wanted to attend. That S is now a married father of two! Time flies!!!
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I loved Parentsoup!
Joined 2014 with a question about SAT math questions.
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I found CC when my son started applying to boarding schools in 2017. Once I started googling names of schools, I found CC threads with really helpful information. In some ways I got better guidance here than I got from the secondary school counselor at my sonās private K-8 school. Iāve met several CC users in real life since our kids ended up attending the same school. Itās just been within the past 2 years that I have ventured out from the prep school forum and onto other areas of CC.
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My profile says my first post was January 2010, but I think I had another username prior to that when working with my now-31-year-old son on his applications. I am listening to the podcast right now. I am honestly thankful for the community. Now that my kids are out in the world, I think the main message was this: Education is important.
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Yikes, I was looking at my profileā¦I guess 2007-2023 is a lot of years but Iāve started 1.1K threads!!! Good thing there isnāt a stat that tells you how much time one has spent on this site. 
If there isā¦donāt tell me about it. LOL.
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I found the site after an article in Time or Newsweek or something like that, listed it as something to avoid, maligning it as a hyper competitive group looking only at top schools. Lol. That made me look at it ājust to seeā. I have found it super helpful in my two kidsā searches. Posters on here know a lot of different things!
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I believe I joined sometime around 2007 when I was looking for summer programs for D1 who wanted to major in musical theatre. The musical theatre forum had wonderful advice for parents like me that were just learning what all was needed to apply to college. D1 was accepted to a college in NYC for musical theatre and I have always been grateful for the suggestions I received her on cc.
I have friends from here that I have met up with in person and I have even had someoneās wonderful son stay at our home here in San Diego when traveling the country. This place is truly a community and I value the opinions of wisdom of all of you here.
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You can click on your account. It says you joined in Mar 2008
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Thank you @jym626 . My memory was off by a year 
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Seeā¦ you are a relative newbie! 
Joined in October of 2012 as my oldest was starting his junior year of high school. He was interested in film school and we were clueless. This site was a huge help along that journey. Heās now working a stable job on the fringes of the film industry and is very happy. Iāve tried to give back where I could and enjoy the parent cafe, especially the cc book club.
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Now, I remember why I must have joined 
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Some parents joined trying to figure out how to get kiddo into an Ivy. Others like me joined look for ways to get good scholarships, leverage good stats and/or NMF status. I think along the way lots of us learned how to look for the best fit and value, even it it was not the most prestigious option or the cheapest option.
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So interesting to see how many have been here 15+ years! I found CC in early 2020 upon realizing that (1) D22 was likely going to be competitive for selective schools, (2) our public school counselors were not equipped to help with that, and (3) I had no idea where to begin. I lurked for a year or so until finally posting, and since then Iāve kept windows open on my phone, my work computer, and my laptop at all times. I canāt even begin to estimate how much Iāve learned here, not the least of which is that I have a weird passion for college admissions. To think how much time Iāve wasted practicing law all these years when I couldāve been explaining the CSS Profile to baffled parents. 
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Ironically I found CC when we were essentially done with the college search. End of March 2019 younger S (S19) was awarded a scholarship at one of his schools and I was trying to find out more about it. I believe when we would find out the amount.
I was very active on running forums beginning in the late 1990s. So many good friendships were made. We discussed everything. But over the years people drifted away and it was essentially defunct. I missed that and CC - beginning with the fitness thread - seemed to be similar. Iāve learned so much about anything and everything here.
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Yes, I remember coming here from another place. Started there while helping with my 2002 HS gradās search.
Think we got here in 2002. I also had a 2003 HS grad, pretty sure his search timeline was all here on CC. There were lots of early adjustments and @thumper1 is right, quite a lot of us were given ānewā start dates.
Wow, I have been here over 2 decades; my youngest just turned 35!
It has been quite a while since I went anywhere other than the Cafe, but the supportive, informative, friendly group of people I have met here have been invaluable to my life.
I have met many in person and hope to meet more of you.
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@mominva didnāt my kid give yours a tour of a college? I think it would have been the 35 year oldā¦May eā¦ The beauty of CCā¦connections.
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Yes, indeed, the 35 y/o at SCU.
Hope to meet you in person one day!
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Wonder if some of us get a 20 year award next year!?!?!
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