<p>I feel I almost could have written your post. However, we're a little further behind. D has UF out (although she just got a note that they don't have her SAT scores even though sent by CB), her ED reach and only one other school where she needed to get it in by 11/1 for a scholarship app. She has the other apps on the back burner until their due dates (nothing filled out or essays written, though). If ED defers or rejects, we're going to have to visit a few of her other choices-during winter in the cold northern climes!</p>
<p>Sjmom, jmmom--Well, that's true, I guess, or at least it makes the rejections easier to take if one just shrugs and says, well, that just means I had a balanced list! I still think Carolyn's D will likely bat more than 50/50. I agree that one should include a couple of reach schools, IF those reach schools are in some way are a good fit, but many kids may just decide that none of the real reaches are what they want. So not every kid will have reaches (and higher chance of rejections) on the list. Um, so that's the same thing as Overseas said, now that I scrolled back and read more carefully!</p>
<p>For all you 2010 parents noticing your applicant's tendency to, shall we say, put things off:</p>
<p>I was just reminded of what you have yet to come, when I was cleaning out old computer files and noticed my Word document of August 2005, which I titled (hoping a little humor might work - it didn't) "Today's Unpopular To Do List." This was for DS as the days ticked down to departure for Freshman Orientation.</p>
<p>It still contained one last Thank you note to write for grad gift, but what really brought back vivid memories was the "Pack, pack, pack - mom will help but you have decisions to make." No packing was done by him until the day before. Fortunately, I had packed the obvious prior to that. Naturally, he "didn't know why I was spazzing about it." When we arrived at the hotel the night before move-in, he asked where <em>I</em> had packed his computer power cord. Well, I hadn't packed it as he didn't want me "messing with" his computer stuff and could "take care of it." </p>
<p>Oh joy. Yes, indeed, you have more to come.</p>
<p>I thought my daughter was the only one! I thought every other high school senior was spending every minute perfecting essays, studying for exams, etc. My lovely daughter has dialed out. She applied to one school ED, and that's it. Wrote the (complicated) application in a night. She says she'll apply to another college if she doesn't get in but doesn't want to"think about it" before she finds out.
A year ago my daughter was very ambititous. I don't know what happened, but it seems our situation is not unique here.</p>
<p>Yes, audiophile, we are on the same page. Plan is to visit Boston, D.C., and St. Louis in Jan/Feb if ED school rejects/defers (although she just may wind up at UF.. happily after all).
JYM - OMG, what a nightmare with the antibiotic reaction. I am going to be a bit of nervous wreck when she has the teeth out as anyway. I, like many CC parents, am anxious by nature.</p>
<p>Yes, Seiclan, your daughter will probably do fine. But what happened to my s, while not common, can happen. He had one dose (yes, one dose) of Cleocin, and ended up with a horrific case of pseudomembranous colitis. The antibiotics can, in some cases, throw off the balance of the normal flora and fauna that grow in your gut. In this case, it allowed something called c-difficile to proliferate, which led to the colitis. He had a very bad case. That is not common, especially from having had only one dose of an antibiotic prophylactically, but this particular antiobiotic has been known to be the culprit. OK-- don't mean to scare you, and hopefully audiophile calmed your concerns. However, the whole experience was not only un-fun, but it happened just a few days before we were to take him to college. Certainly threw a monkey wrench in the packing and pre-school organizing! we left for colleg 3 days after we got him out of the hospital, and he wasn't totally back on solid foods yet.</p>
<p>On a different vein, he happened to have had a bad bout of the flu (he's usually a healthy kid- but not these 2 times)- Anyway, he got really sick with the flu just before a national scholarship was due winter of his HS sr. yr. He could only stay up and out of bed for an hour or so, and then climbed back into bed and slept for hours. He has no memory of doing the application (I helped type it for him as he dictated-- he was so sick). He came in 2nd place nationwide! So, maybe if your d. finished her apps right after her oral surgery, she'll get in! Less obsessing over the details may have its benefits.</p>
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He had one dose (yes, one dose) of Cleocin, and ended up with a horrific case of pseudomembranous colitis
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<p>Wow, that warning is on the label, but supposedly extremely rare. Makes me nervous, because I frequently need to Rx that for Penicillin allergic patients. Glad to hear he fully recovered-not fun at all.</p>
<p>Thanks, audiophile. He fully recovered, thankfully. However, when they finally identified the bug, they put him on vancomycin to treat it, and he started to have the vestibular side effects! He was dizzy and kept falling over. Sheesh. But typical teenager.. we get him to college, arrive a day early to shop for all the stuff too big to ship/pack (dorm fridge, printer, etc..) and we got done early-- by late afternoon. He feels a bit better and decides that since it's the night before he moved into the dorm, that he and younger bro should celebrate their last night together by spending the night at the local six flags! Well, he was already dizzy. He figured a little more wouldn't hurt! (He was really better enough by then to let him do it).</p>
<p>By the way, the oral surgeon who removed his wisdom teeth was pretty spooked by what happened too, when we had to cancel and reschedule his follow-up appointment because s. was in the hospital!</p>
<p>My daughter had her wisdom teeth pulled on the same day by the same surgeon as her friend. She ended up with a horrible infection on one side two weeks later (!) that required drainage tubes. Her friend suffered from a similar antibiotic reaction as Jym's son. Guess the oral surgeon was just having a bad day. :) However, I know plenty of other kids who sailed through things just fine, so I wouldn't worry. Just keep a close eye on things afterwards and if you notice ANY swelling after the initial swelling has gone done, get your child back to the surgeon immediately.</p>
<p>Carolyn, the good news is your child will likely have many excellent choices. The bad news is that I found last year that waiting for my child to choose the actual college to attend was even more anxiety provoking then completing the applications and waiting for the results to come in. Again, it was a question of balance. I had a clear preference but I felt the choice was my child's to make. Luckily, at least for me, my child picked the school I preferred and is thus far very happy with the choice.</p>
<p>Carolyn, I don't spend much time here any more (or I should say, for the time being), but I am at a particularly low spot with my almost 16-year-old daughters--just constant moodiness, unpleasantness, whining, not to mention the messiest rooms on the planet--and somehow your post and the perspective it brings, is a breath of fresh air. I just want to say that I hope the very best for your daughter and I'll drop in at CC from time to time to see how things are going--for you and others whose year it is!</p>
<p>I guess we all have vulnerable points in the process--mine, with child #1, was definitely the early action phase and from there it got better. I can only imagine what it will be like when I am trying to cope with two sets of applications, expectations, etc... at once......</p>
<p>PDaddy, I'm absolutely sympatico. S1 applied EA (non-binding) to 2 excellent schools and was admitted to both. I was a nervous wreck from January through March.</p>
<p>Carolyn, all your observations are completely on target. It doesn't seem to matter what the project is, though, there comes a time when one has to release control and say "It will be ok." I remember being the chairman of the main parent fundraiser for S2's elementary school, an event that took a year to plan and prepare. At some point you have to say: The sun will come up, the hours will go by, and what we have done is done, and everything will work out the way it is supposed to be. It may not be perfect, but it will be the best we could do, and therefore will be the best. ;)</p>
<p>Oh patient. Ditto. Only with a 12 year old. It's been a down then up then down day. Trying to end on a better note . . . I bet her room is messier than your D's . . . </p>
<p>Quote: "I can only imagine what it will be like when I am trying to cope with two sets of applications, expectations, etc... at once......"</p>
<p>That was my life last year: one kid applying to college, the other to grad school. This timing was due to the fact that my older one took a year off before applying. Mercifully, though, the deadlines for grad school were later, and my son got in EA and then withdrew his other aps. So, fall was devoted to stressing about him, and winter (and spring when she had to make a decision) to my daughter. But the hardest part turned out to be having them both leave home at the same time!</p>
<p>Mstee, thanks, she is feeling a tad better, but still struggling with pain and difficulty eating.</p>
<p>By the way, Humboldt State (where she's already been accepted) has moved up a few notches on her list now that she's definitely decided to major in art. We spent several hours yesterday looking at their art department information and it has by far the best art program of all of the schools on her list. They also have an excellent art ed. certification program; she's only just starting to understand that if she goes out of state for school, she'll need to get that certification in a graduate program after college. Throw in the fact that she also has two good friends who've already decided they'll be going to Humboldt next year, and her ultimate safety school is starting to look very attractive indeed. :)</p>
<p>Of course, in the time it's taken me to write this, she's probably changed her mind. I'm beginning to think that investing in one of those 2 minute egg timers might not be a bad idea. At least that way, I could keep track of when she's about to change her mind again. :)</p>
<p>patient--you are missed. Sorry to hear those two girls are bedevilling you. </p>
<p>I learned something about naughty teenagers after watching "Supernanny". AS soon as my S2 gets carried away with himself, I whip that phone right out of his hand for a minimum of 17 minutes. The phone is the ultimate "naughty chair" for mouthy, unruly 17 year olds. S2 turns to putty without it and after a few minutes of pretending to be poilite, he actually forgets himself and is genuinely polite--just like those little ratbags on TV!! (Very few naughty children on CC, I know. 99% perfect children posted here. ;))</p>
<p>Last year marite posted a French saying. Something about "good enough". That's where I am with the whole process. We will hire a consultant to help S2 through the whole rigamarole but his safeties will get him where he wants to go in life. </p>
<p>My boys didn't want to know Hard Work in high school. Fair enough. I didn't either. Getting to know Hard Work when you are in college is a bit of a challenge but I did it. They can do it. <em>thanks God she doesn't have to watch the gorey details up close!! :eek:</em></p>
<p>Cheers, as usual, I bow to your more experienced wisdom when it comes to Sons. :) My son just got called up from JV football to play on the varsity team in the division playoffs. Needless to say he is walking on air, but having trouble fitting his swollen ego through doorways. That phone advice may come in handy over the next few weeks. LOL!</p>