It’s fine. 🙂

When my second daughter graduated in 2016 after 15+ years of homeschooling (starting with her older sister), it was so strange. The homeschooling was such a significant part of my adult identity, especially after I left nursing. I did end up homeschooling again. My third daughter, who had left homeschooling for 5th grade public ed, decided to return to her roots in the midst of Covid for junior year. And now it looks like senior year too 🙂

I want to add too that AP courses are not necessarily horrific time sucks. You do want to choose the instructor/course thoughtfully, of course, and plan on some test prep. Busywork will vary according to instructor. I generally prefer an AP to the hassles of dual enrollment, which many seem to view as a gentler option. Many factors to consider.

So much of the growth and learning both my daughters experienced in college (Ivy and otherwise) occurred outside of the classroom, in interactions with other students in academic and non-academic activities. Online simply cannot replicate that, though it is an excellent option when in-person becomes impossible. My ‘20 grad has been employed in a remote job for the entirety of her post-grad working life. Recently she had the opportunity to go to the offices and work in-person. It has been such a joyful experience for her. Although she is naturally introverted and has not suffered as m

It was originally from College Confidential, but college counselors have picked up on it. There are actually a number of people who decide to become college advisors after their parental experience on College Confidential :-)

Ha, I remember Stanford's prompts seemed so random! :-)

Sorry, I wasn't clear: students do move out for summer. But that is much more doable than having to vacate for winter and spring (and in some places Thanksgiving) breaks. That sort of thing was a real problem for me during college without a solid home base. Summer, longer term, housing is easier to arrange.

I went back and looked at The List too. To me, it reads like something an intense high school senior would put together 🙂 It’s probably useful for parents to understand that the “Who’s Who” type awards that involve paying for a listing are a bit of a scam.

And, just to clarify, great scholarships at SOME public universities. The financial picture will be different for different people. For my daughter, coming from a solidly middle class family, Princeton was the second most attractive financial option. She applied to a large number of places, all sorts of institutions. The true full ride options are not common, even for a NM Finalist. Even if tuition is covered, housing can be quite high. One institution offered a decent scholarship, but it was clear that the various hidden costs were going to be high...for example, a charge of $250 to attend a

Excellent summary. Generally, students from an area with many resources and other high achieving students will be expected to have higher level accomplishments. And students will be expected to demonstrate that they made the most of opportunities available to them.

Yes, I will agree. I also think there can be a big letdown if the goal has been a particular college. Once that is achieved, the reality of life there can be a letdown. And there’s some loose ends as the student tries to figure out what is next.

You are much more creative than me (and it shows in your current exceptional life choices too!) I was probably doodling bubble letters in the margins of the notes 😂

I will say that I think it can be somewhat difficult to gauge whether one would be at the top or bottom of a class. My Princeton daughter really did not have the transcript/resume of a lot of her classmates. She spent a lot of time on sports (but not enough time to be a college athlete). I have mentioned before that her physics and chemistry was Apologia and math through Alg 2 was Teaching Textbooks. No research experiences, no math comps. But she did end up among the top group of engineering students (and top quintile of the class of 2020 for GPA, which is as narrowly as they ranked.) She rec

I’m smiling because I would have hated “finding my passion” too in my “gifted student” days 😂 One of my early academic memories is how much I loved this color coding reading level system our school had. I relished rushing through the levels. Not a darn thing creative abt it! Loved checking boxes. Still do 😂

My daughter had quite a few APs because they made sense for what she needed academically. I get the impression that many think an AP course is incredibly life consuming? I suppose it could be, depending on the teacher. Some do like a lot of busywork. It was just another course here for that particular student. 🤷‍♀️ And this daughter was a good test taker, and liked that, so AP exams were not overwhelming. She will tell you even now that she very much enjoyed those courses.