Chestnut Hill College! It's technically in Philadelphia, right on the Montgomery County border. It's a Catholic college, with about 1300 students. The campus is beautiful and on the historic register.

My daughter is in Ms. Serbicki's AP Lit class with PA Homeschoolers and it has been very, very good! There are weekly live classes, but you are not required to attend them live (just listen to them). The assignments have been well thought out, her expectations clear, and her comments very helpful. I can recommend her class without reservation.

My daughter got an amazing merit aid package from Lawrence University (more than $100,000 over the 4 years), and an excellent one from Clark University as well ($80,000). I see that Lawrence is on your maybe list but I would strongly consider it. And Clark University is excellent for academics in an up-and-coming city - it's my daughter's top safety choice if she doesn't get into the more selective schools she applied to.

As a person with a background in linguistic anthropology I also agree with this approach. Our story: my daughter did not have much grammar in school and actively hates it! She is also an excellent writer, and reads a ton - probably 300 pages a week for fun in addition to school reading. She scored a 790 on the reading/writing section of the SAT. In my experience, the intuitive sense for English that comes from a lot of reading is MUCH more valuable for a good SAT score than grammar study.

There are a few overlaps with us lol: Clark, Pitt, Lawrence, & Fordham (her safeties); now Franklin & Marshall, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Vassar, NYU, Barnard & Dartmouth. Swarthmore was her ED.

Wow! Her list was up to 17 at one point, but she was able to cut back. And I think one more supplement would literally put her over the edge at this point. She does have at least one interview scheduled, with a couple of other ones possible (they are request only after the application is submitted). And we are visiting a few schools in the next few months as well. But such a relief to have this part done. I'd be very curious to see your list of schools if you are willing to share it!

We were up late last night not because we were celebrating, but because my DD wanted to get her final apps in yesterday (even though they weren't due until today or tomorrow). A unique way to ring in the New Year lol! She submitted applications to 4 schools last night, all needing individual supplements/essays, and some needing two of them. At a certain point it all began to swim before our eyes! She's applied to 12 schools altogether - 1 ED (rejected), 3 EA (her safeties, accepted to all), 1 rolling (accepted) and now 7 schools regular decision. All her RD schools are very selective, so while she's got good stats it's hard to say what's going to happen. But she is so relieved to have this part of the process behind her - now it's just waiting. She's convinced that she's not getting into any of the selective schools - I think she has a decent shot at getting into at least some of them, but who knows. She was accepted to all of her safeties with good merit scholarships, and they are all safeties that she would be willing to attend (so important!!). So she'll have somewhere great to go next year, and that's what really matters. Last kid, last time for this. I'm relieved as well! Such an exhausting process.

Final EA school results are in - DD accepted to Clark University with a $20,000/year Traina Scholarship! She really liked Clark when we visited, so this great news. Her heart is still a bit broken about not getting into Swarthmore, but she's gearing up to finish her RD applications. But no matter how that goes I think she could be really happy and do very well at either Clark or Lawrence.

Just saw your updated first post - I didn't have time to read all the responses but I wanted to chime in because anemia is something I know quite a bit about. I have aplastic anemia - this is a life-threatening bone marrow failure disease when your body attacks your bone marrow and you stop being able to make any blood cells. It's very rare (1 in a million) and thankfully your daughter most certainly does NOT have this because then all her blood lines would be low, not just Hg. But mine came on so slowly that when I was tested at my doctor's at a routine physical my platelets were 24, white count low, and Hg 7.4 and I just felt "a little tired." So this can totally sneak up you and you might not even notice your body is running on fumes because it's gotten used to it slowly. (BTW I've been treated for this and I'm doing really well right now, but it's a dangerous disease that can come back at any time). There are lots of different causes of anemia - low iron is just one. For instance, for aplastic anemia patients adding iron to the diet does nothing and in fact because of frequent transfusions AA patients are more likely to deal with iron overload (yes that's a thing) than too little iron. There are also types of hemolytic anemia, where you body makes red blood cells but they are destroyed, anemia caused by low EPO, etc. - so it's important to understand what you're dealing with before starting treatment. But if all indications are that this is due to low iron then that is good news because that is generally pretty easy to treat. Finally, my son also deals with anemia - the regular iron-deficient kind thank goodness! He was in treatment for it off and on for a while, but being a young 23 year old guy was not following his doctor's orders about taking care of himself. Late last February he was feeling really unwell - tired, fuzzy brained, etc. and one day just was feeling so upset and anxious that he hung up on his dad who was just trying to help him. I made him go see his PCP and low and behold his Hg was 6!! No wonder he was so agitated - his body was not getting oxygen at all. They sent him straight to the ER and he was in the hospital for 4 days getting transfusions and iron infusions. So anyone who says that the fact that you are functioning (barely) means you don't have low Hg doesn't know what they are talking about. Good luck to your daughter and I hope you are on the right path now!

Thank you! She just got her decision from Lawrence University - accepted with $28,000/year in merit scholarships: the Light! More Light! Scholarship and the Lawrentian Award! She was more than a bit overwhelmed and happy! One more EA school to hear from, probably by Wednesday, and then the long wait!

It was a no from Swarthmore - lots of sad tears :(. She had really wanted to go there. I know she'll land on her feet but right now she's not sure what she wants to do. But - to keep with the up and down day, then a letter in the mail came from Pitt (already accepted) awarding her a $5000/year Pitt Scholarship. These are crazy days!

Exhaling a bit finally! DD accepted to Fordham Rose Hill with a $15,000/year Dean's Scholarship! So excited for her. And in about 1 1/2 hours she'll know about her ED application to Swarthmore . . .

We did Santa at my house. I did have one child who told me that she knew Santa was real because I would never lie to her, and yes that gutted me a bit. But within the year she had figured it out and it was totally not traumatic for her. She then loved bringing the magic to her younger siblings (which I had loved to do as a child also)! My mother would never quite admit that Santa wasn't real ;) - she called him the spirit of giving - and I think that has been what we brought to our family as well. And at this point my kids are ages 18-26 and love giving gifts to their siblings even more than receiving them! But I am so glad that they were too old for EOTS! Beside the creepy factor, I think I would have been tempted to go completely overboard with it. I feel like I dodged a bullet!

Ours usually show up in the late afternoon - 4 or 5 ish. We live on the East Coast. As for what the "College Board's problem" is - I'm afraid I can't answer that one LOL. I'm so glad to be mostly done with them!

And to add one more perspective, sometimes stepping away from school for a time is the best decision. My son is very smart, but has always struggled with time management, motivation and breaking down large projects into manageable chunks. After just barely graduating from a large public urban Magnet High School (he rarely did homework and his class grades were generally a bunch of 0's and 100's that ended up with him passing by the skin of his teeth) he moved to an art school for college. Again, he was either "on" or "off" and he ended up failing out after one year - his grades were an intriguing combination of A/B's and F's. After that he tried CC in our city and a CC in another city with more or less the same result, before we all decided that obviously the best thing was for him to take some time off and work for a while. About 18 months ago he had made some life changes and decided that he really wanted to go back to school. Very much to our surprise, he decided to attend a very small, religious school near us (we're in Philadelphia) where my mother had taught sociology for 40 years. He's not religious at all - but he liked the size and they had a fledgling innovative program in building arts that we was very interested in. So he went back to school as a freshman at 22. And it has been a slam dunk! There have been a few bumps along the way - some pretty big including a very poor teacher for a computer science class that he'll need to redo, the death of my mom :( who was mentoring the heck out of him, and a health crisis that put in the hospital for a week. But except for that one class he is getting mostly A's and some B's, and actually won a scholarship that a local company to the building arts student with the best GPA. Most importantly he is now experiencing himself as competent and capable, and his motivation is coming from his own desire to succeed and do well. In his case he just needed a few more years of maturing and brain development. It sounds like you have a lot insight into your son and what types of supports he needs. I think you can trust your gut on this!

I really wish I had thought of this! My DD's inbox is inundated - and yes she has missed an occasional important message amid all the junk.

. . . waiting for those EA and ED decisions to come in? I have my fingers and toes crossed that my DD gets some good news in December. It will be a big difference in the Christmas mood depending on what those answers are :)

I'm just curious - why are kids taking the SAT in 7th and 8th grades? We weren't homeschooling at that point (in fact, my DD was in a Waldorf school through 8th grade so standardized testing was discouraged) but that would never have occurred to me. She did take the PSAT in 9th and 10th at her public HS - sadly missed the critical year for PSAT in 11th due to an unfortunate timing issue - and ultimately as a homeschooling 11th/12th grader she has earned a 1500 SAT superscore. Does taking it at a very young age provide any advantages in your experience?

So glad you went in! This was my sister exactly 10 days ago, and she had surgery within 12 hours of going into the ER. She is doing very well now and was so glad to have the pain disappear. Good luck with your surgery and recovery.

My gluten-free husband LOVES rice crackers, and they are easy to find at regular grocery stores. They are great with hummus as well as cheese (for the dairy-free folks).

Nope - once you hit "submit" on the first school you cannot make any changes to the counselor material (recommendation, school profile, etc.).

Yes I learned the hard way that a bad therapist (or even just a "bad fit") does not just prolong the issues the child is having - it can be very detrimental. After a very bad experience with a therapist, my daughter refused to see another one for almost 2 years. This is during a period of time when (on top of her existing anxiety issues) she had just developed epilepsy, was having a difficult time dealing with both the diagnosis and the medication and was in a tremendous amount of distress. I was so angry with myself that I had not stepped in and made a change sooner, but it was all so new to me and I thought that things would just get better. Luckily when she was ready to see someone again we had already vetted a person who we were sure she would like - and we were right. This therapist was a life-saver. ETA: I did learn from that mistake. When my younger daughter was in therapy (also for anxiety), and she started feeling panicked about going to her therapy appointments I listened to my gut instinct that this therapist wasn't working for her and made a change. I stuck to my guns even when that therapist insisted that her reaction was just "part of the process" - this could have been the case, but it didn't feel that way to me. We found a new person who has been amazing for her. It took about 18 months, but she is now doing incredibly well and back to activities that we were not sure would be possible for her again.

I have had lots of experience with this - for better or for worse lol! My kids don't have ASD/ADHD but both of my younger daughters have had anxiety issues which led to school refusal and many other issues. Without therapy neither of them would have been able to make it through HS so successfully. The key with a counselor/therapist for this age group is that they have a good rapport. The child needs to mesh with the style of the therapist, and they have to trust them. Both my daughters went through one bad experience with a therapist before finding a therapist that worked for them. This is frustrating, particularly when symptoms are bad, but you need to be willing to change providers if it doesn't seem to be working. When it works it's amazing and makes a HUGE difference! However, it still takes time, and progress is incremental. In both cases, once they were with a good therapist there was some relief in symptoms fairly quickly, as well as a different attitude to therapy and the start of feeling some optimism. But for both my kids it was about a year before I could really see a difference in results - in their cases "results" was being able to deal with stress in a healthier way (tackling it vs. avoidance), and no longer having panic attacks. There should be some communication between parents and therapist for the partnership to be successful. That can look like a number of things, including sitting in on sessions from time to time, phone calls, e-mails etc. My older daughter needed absolute privacy for a while with her therapist because her previous relationship with a therapist had actually been destructive (long story), but we found ways of communicating nonetheless. Good luck.

OK, my DD hit "submit" on her ED application to Swarthmore today! Luckily we got it done before we had all completely lost our minds. She spent ages on her essay and I think it ended up being pretty good - but man, writing these LAC supplements is HARD. She's really not feeling confident that she's going to be accepted, but I'm glad she's going for it (and think she has a shot). And for good measure she submitted an application to another LAC (much less selective) that I had been recommending - no supplement, not even a short question to answer (yay!) and a fee waiver if you apply before December 1st. So she's now submitted 6 applications so far. I'm so proud of how she's been approaching this process.

I love the Italian Market area! We lived near there for several years in Queen Village before we had kids - and while I love living in Northwest Philly with the beautiful parks and trees, I still miss the convenience of living there. I actually used to cry when I borrowed my parent's huge station wagon (I didn't need a car most of the time when we lived there) and had to park it in that neighborhood. Now I'm a parallel parking master, and so are my children! Temple is still not a great neighborhood, but it is a LOT better than it used to be. Center City is slowing creeping both northwards and southwards, and some of the really bad blight on North Broad is now completely gone.