DS just completed the ACT. He had a 5th multiple choice test. I had told him that might happen. His was English but the answer grid had 5 options instead of the 4 that the English test typically has. He teased that considered filling out J for every question. I am curious whether everyone taking the ACT today had a 5th test and were they English.

She sounds like she is doing fine. The work load will naturally get heavier as she gets closer to college. Test prep in the Spring, followed by college essays and apps in the fall of Senior year and scholarship essays and apps in the spring has had my daughters ready for their college work load.

We attend a small, close congregation. My oldest DD used her experiences with this congregation as the basis of her Common App essay. Like the link recommended, the experiences she highlighted illustrated values (in her case, diversity, inclusion, and service). There was one reference to a well-known hymn was used as a means of setting context. As most of our activities are centered around this congregation, both of my daughters included examples from their church experiences, particularly service, to address the topics in many of their supplementary essays. They did not hesitate to make references which identified our denomination as those references added richness to their responses. These essays and supplements were used for primarily secular schools with no perceived side effects. Consequently, I would not hesitate to use religious references in college essays but be conscious of the purpose of essay/supplement and keep the recommendations from the link in mind.

How exciting for your daughter! I spent my third year of architecture school at the Technical University of Dortmund. I learned so much that year that had nothing to do with architecture and everything to do with culture, communication, and human kind. I wish your daughter the same.

My DD is a first year at Smith College. Initially she was disappointed that she was assigned to a single but after a bit of nosing around the housing website she determined that her house has a large number of singles and was good to go. Orientation was tiring as she is a definitely an introvert and needs her sleep. Enrollment threw another blow at her as she only got 2 out of 5 classes. However, after a professor opened up a class for her, she switched sessions for another class, and discovered a third class that looked interesting, she has a full schedule and is enjoying her classes. DD is gluten-free and food is always a question when going into a new setting. To date, she is enjoying Smith’s exclusively gluten-free dining hall and the freedom of being able to get a to-go box if she want to eat with friends in another dining hall. Extracurricularly DD is doing well. She auditioned for and was cast in an on-campus production not to mention trying out a couple of clubs. She is making friends and having fun exploring with a variety of people. We were also very surprised when she scored a rare work study job. The interviewer was quite impressed that she had written a cover letter.

My DC always include CC Honor Roll.

My college junior wants to teach herself HTML. She would really like a program which involves more than just learning commands but also includes projects to cements the commands learned. Any recommendations you may have are welcome.

I apologize for being slow getting back. May and June have been a whirlwind. Thank you so much all you shared. DS is wrapping up his school year this week; next week we are going to dig into NCAA. He did create a free profile and I found track and cross country times for various schools on www.tfrrs.org. He has a start of a list. It will be interesting to see how he starts shape it based on this new lens.

Both of my DDs homeschooled through 10th and then dual enrolled wit PS for 11th and 12th. I their case the PS accepted all of their credits and put them in the PS transcript. For that reason, they only had the PS and the CC transcript.

He is a distance runner who is just becoming competitive as he has finally began to grow. I realize that there isn’t a lot of money but he has a teammate who just committed to a local school with a scholarship to run. I imagine that it was small. My niece also ran in college. These are both D2 schools though he has been looking at D1. This will be an interesting lens to look at schools through. What type of camps? I have heard of one day soccer camps at the local university which seem exclusively for recruiting but I have not heard of track/cross country camps other than week long affairs. I don’t believe either his cousin or friend did one of the longer ones. A lot will depend on how much he wants to put into it. I am just doing the behind the scenes legwork.

We will get on line and start the process this weekend. I am certain that the NCAA will have information about the required paperwork but where is the best place to find out about the actual recruitment process? We have much to learn.

I was trying to find this also with no luck. An IRL friend had said there was a restriction on the number of hours but I question how up she is on the requirements.

Thank you for this information. I had read older threads that said to wait. We will get started on the paperwork.

He is currently on track to earn an AA through dual enrollment prior to graduating from high school. Will the number of hours or the degree impact eligibility? My girls did similar and they were allowed to enroll as Freshman but we’re not athletes; I want him to do the same with 4 years of eligibility.

Oh, I know. DS, a rising junior, told me Saturday that he was interested in competing in his sport in college. As we already dual-enrolled him at CC for the fall, I need to figure out if there are any restrictions with regards to dual-enrollment. And I thought that he was going to be easier because he is not shooting for highly selective schools.

My DDs had offers which were significantly better financially than the schools they picked. There were schools that were closer that were better known. However, like your DD, they wanted a cohort of academically focused peers. They wanted to be in the middle of the class not the top. They wanted classes full of intellectually stimulating conversation not where the professor was trying to get students to talk. They also wanted residential colleges. Food was real important. Both are gluten-free and they wanted schools that provided a diverse, robust selection of gf foods. Eating off the salad because there were no other gf options would have been disastrous. My DDs looked at the student population, the school as a whole, and the surrounding community. Being city kids, they wanted the option to grab a cup of coffee or to go to a theater production off campus. As they were both undecided, they were more concerned about the overall feel of the school and not individual departments. Ultimately we encouraged them to go with their guts, to pick the school where they would be most comfortable both on and off campus as long as we could afford it. We believe that they will get the education they are meant to get regardless where they go.

DD has decided to attend Smith College Why: LAC; Women's college; size; Sustainable Foods Concentration; 5-College Consortium; diversity; level of academic rigor; neighborhood; one of the least expensive LACs Major: Undecided.

That is my kids. In their case, we found attending classes, perhaps chatting with the professor teaching; eating in the cafeteria; and overnights beneficial to get the overall feel of the campus. A departmental visit would have been worthless for DDs. I hope that something will feel right.

That does sound like a good visit. I wish him luck.

DD had a good trip to Smith. On her layover, she received a text from the college that many of the classes Thursday afternoon would be cancelled due to protests. When the shuttle dropped her off, she was thrilled to be dropped out right by the protesters marching against the current chief of police. She really liked the social justice vibe of the school. There were social justice messages marked in chalk on sidewalks all over the campus. Her host ditched her after dinner (what is it with hosts, she has been ditched or passed on every over night visit that she has had) but DD hung out with a couple of students and their prospies in the dorm which suited DD much better. She hooked up those prospies the following day. They attended a couple of classes and a couple of presentations. I was quite proud that DD knew what she needed to experience to make her decision and deviated from the set agenda to get her answers. She got a better feel for campus. Our last visit was a rushed morning tour which focused only on the quad. She was pleased to find that gf-dining hall full and felt that there was a community and not isolating. She also tried the non-dedicated dining halls with success. In addition, she learned that the concentration that she is interested, though delayed entry and competitive, is not popular and typically has openings left not filled and there is assistance to develop one's application. I am still hopeful that she will decide later this week though it may take a little encouraging on her parents' part.

@Hoggirl, sorry for my delay in getting back to you...I meant that that the doubling when going from 2 to 1 student is more that we are currently experience when going from 1 to 2 for 100% though not for Yale. Does that clarify it?

Cuckoomama, that is one intense schedule of visits. My DD pared down her list because she couldn’t bear to visit more than one more school. Luckily she had seen most of them once and going back for a more extended overnight visit with students on campus.

Dd still has to decide. Over the last couple weeks she has slowly and relatively effortlessly whittled it down from 8 to 5 to 2 (Smith and Grinnell) though at this point she hasn’t officially eliminated any. She will be visiting Smith for Accepted Students Days this week. We all hope that she will have a clear idea as which way she wants to go once the exhaustion clears from her trip.

Yale’s projected increase for going from 2 to 2 is significantly more than what we are experiencing. We are currently doing the reverse. Next year we will have two in CSS schools. Our net pay for the oldest dropped 20%. I believe that we had to include on DD2’s FASFA (maybe also on the CSS) where the oldest was attending but on DD1’s, of course, we only put that her sister was going to college.

Dd in her second visit realized that there were a lot of “religion” classes which addressed religion’s interface with secular culture, the Bible in Film, and world religions. These classes though not her first choice would interesting to take.