We find attending classes very important. You would assume that a school would only open really good classes for prospective students; however, my dds have attended some filled with very unengaged students. When DD19 can home bubbling about a Calcus III class, I knew that she had found her school. To this day her favorite part about her school is the classes.

Work study or an on campus job is an easy way to make that kind of money. Have her put in where ever she can. Did was unable to find one her first year but snagged one in the spring of that year for the next year after making some connections.

Definitely a pain but the new schedule will allow him to do an internship each summer which could set him up well for finding a job after graduation.

NT

DD also was accepted at St. Olaf with a Presidential Scholarship. How exciting @kokotg and @FuzzyCat that your DSs got in also. DD wasn’t expecting anything thing from St. Olaf until March. DD is pleased as St. Olaf was a match/reach, the gf food is so good there, and she feels like she now has good options in the financial aide comes in where the calculators said it would. We may be headed to MN for a visit over Spring Break. Happy February 1st!

This will definitely help. I would also recommend making a list of possible schools and perusing their requirements, what is optional, what they accept, and what they don’t. By doing this and logging the info in a spreadsheet, I was able to see the trends of my DC’s choices and and together DC and I were able to make more informed choices. Best of luck in this process.

I am also a fan of summer programs. Summer programs give students a taste of the prospective school/program/campus/city with fairly minimal investment. I am not familiar with the UCLA program but, as an architect, I can give a couple of insights. 1. This program will give your student an opportunity to explore one of the popular design softwares. 2. The program appears to focus on 2- and 3-dimensional objects and relationships. I doubt that there will be little if any building related content in the class but is building a base for future classes. 3. That said, the outings and instructors will give you a taste of the dialogue to come in archtecture school. 4. Probably most important, however, is that the program will give your student a fill for the way studios work in architecture school and also the work load. Make sure your student is prepared for working nights and evenings on his projects. Please let us know what you decide.

I am sorry that your DD is having troubles putting together a room for next year. I have no advice as my DD has had similar problems. She has gone potluck 3 times and after her first abismal roommates she has had decent luck. Her roomies though not her best friends have been communicative and civil. In fact, I would say that the maturity level of her potluck roommates has been higher than that the average student in her year. I hope that things all work out for your DD.

How exciting that your son got a response from Wilson. Both of you should be proud.

I suggest that you check and see what the admissions rates for ED as opposed to regular decision. At least one of DD’s colleges had less than a percent difference between the two while others ED was twice a likely to get in.

Grinnell

I have my DC print off syllabi as we haven’t digitized the others yet.

We ended up with similar issues. We went east to visit schools during spring break last year and 2 out of the 4 were on spring break and got stopped by a major snow storm. Then Dd17 ran out of steam so we did three August visits as one of the three schools had a visit day. Though the out of session visits were not as good as in session visits, they were enough to give her a feel for the schools. She will go back to visit this spring if she is accepted and the school is still in contention.

Spring will be here soon. Many juniors make visits in March and April.

We have some overlaps also: Grinnell, Carleton, St. Olaf, and Macalester. March is going to be interesting.

This has been our experience. My oldest had no questions and my younger daughter who is now going through the application process right now has none either. In fact, schools have no idea that they were ever homeschooled if they don’t mention it which my oldest didn’t. My younger DD did mention it in the Other Information section.

This semester was mixed for DD. She started out gung ho taking Arabic only to discover that the workload for that one class was intense. On the recommendation on her Dean of Class, she dropped it. This left her a half a credit short which she quickly corrected by applying for and getting accepted to a Winter Session class in Barcelona. Having one less class made her hopeful that it would be an easy semester but it wasn’t. The reading and writing load for her two English classes was intense. Despite that, she declared as an English major and had a major advisor. Looking to next semester she is wary of the workload with her first semester taking only humanities. She discovered that the office hours of her career advisor matched well with her own and stopped in frequently to get direction and clarification. Friendships started promising at the start of the semester but fizzled as the stress of classes mounted. She came home much more settled than previous breaks with a clearer idea of where she is heading but uneasy about the semester to come.

Has your DD talked to her CC about transferring DE credits to the schools in question? They may be able to give some insight and/or direction.

I believe that I would follow the simple route with regards to wording. I hope that your local lead comes through for her. France sounds iffy as a plan B but what about a Canadian company?

DD checked the portal for each of her schools.

We used Brave Writer to teach writing. The skills my Dds learned through that program plus the advice they received to show as opposed to tell served them well.

I am glad you brought up this topic. DD requested to have her dual enrollment CC transcripts sent to all of the schools requiring mid year reports but one asked not only for a mid year report but also a mid year transcript what is the difference. As she is dual enrolled with a public high, she also going to request that her counselor send her high school transcript with last semester’s grades but TBH I am not sure what is really being asked for.

DD received notification in the last week that she was accepted to the University of Missouri - Kansas City, Truman State University, and Drake University (Presidential Scholarship). She got into her safety and matches. Now we wait until late February for news from her reaches to start rolling in. It has been exciting to watch the acceptance come in. Best of luck on those yet to come.

Last night DD had her ACT test results to the remainder of her schools. She had two tests that she did not have to pay for having the test results sent (December 2017 and June 2018). Did anyone else have that happen to you also. I am definitely not complaining, just was pleasantly surprised.

I am so glad that DD was able to do all of her applications with the Common App. For some of the schools, it was a bit akward as it appeared to be their first year but every one took it.