Had my second Pfizer dose Thursday. No reaction to first dose, super tired and headachy the day after the second dose. I *think it was vax related, but I broke my ankle and had surgery the previous week, so energy levels have gone up and down. Plus visited the dentist and started Invisalign the day of the vax, so headache could have been from moving teeth. Regardless, fine two days later. 🙂 Big bruise on my arm from the vax. The staff giving the injections are not people that normally do this as part of their job, but were trained for this specific situation. She was wiping off something that ran down my arm after the injection, and I was hoping it was not the fluid itself, lol.

My experience is as the parent of someone who spent time on a ventilator and a few months in residential treatment after a suicide attempt (and is doing great now). Spent several years navigating the system through mini and major crises. Unless there's an immediate medical threat, it's really unlikely 911 or even a visit to the ER is going to be useful. There tends to be a lack of open beds even if an immediate psych need is identified, and ERs are rarely helpful as far as identifying ongoing help. Frankly, even inpatient psych units are rarely helpful in identifying specific ongoing resources. Honestly, I have my doubts that the school will be terribly useful either, unless it is an exceptional place or you have the good luck to speak to an unusually knowledgeable counselor. It might make you feel better to call though. Bottom line, even with a motivated person who has helpful support people, getting help is exceptionally difficult. You could always try to identify some resources, maybe even make a few initial phone calls (without giving names; just asking general questions about accessing services). Your son could pass these on to his friend. Keep in mind that waiting lists for good therapists can be weeks to months long. It would be great if you knew the parents, but it sounds like that is not the situation. At age 18, even parents have limited ability to force treatment on someone. I would definitely caution my son against becoming involved in any deep way, past perhaps passing on resource ideas. He's not equipped to navigate a mental health crisis. It's a good life lesson, about identifying the need for healthy boundaries. It's hard though, when you know help for a suffering friend is difficult to come by.

I grew up in Atlanta, went to college in Minneapolis, spent several years in New Mexico and on a reservation in Arizona, a couple years in DC, a good bit of time in Mississippi, Washington, Oklahoma, and New Jersey (longer than a vacation), and the last couple decades in the Far North :-) Have traveled to all but 2 states. Interesting to read everyone's perspectives! My impression is that everywhere I go, people are people are people. Some chatty, some not. If you came here (or to Atlanta in the 70s-80s) and ran into my husband out and about, he'd go out of his way to avoid you. If you ran into me, I'd probably get your life story out of you. Sometimes there are cultural differences, especially in situations where people are hyperaware of being the subject of tourist curiosity. That was often true of Native people on the reservation where we lived, and I imagine plays a part with the Amish as well. Sometimes people are in a hurry or have things or their minds and just don't want to talk. Sometimes they are understandably cautious, especially if it's a male trying to chat up a female.

Investigate functional neurological disorder. It can manifest with multiple physical symptoms, and falling is one. It’s typically diagnosed by ruling everything else out, so you need to get the full Neuro workup. It can be tough to find good treatment, but I have recommendations if this turns out to be your situation.

Depends on the school and depends on the applicant. A person whose characteristics are less common among those who generally choose that major might have higher odds of selection.

We found EA options to be fairly common, and often necessary for scholarship consideration.

I am just now seeing this. I think all of us who have dealt with young adults and mental illness totally understand how complicated these situations become. Praying for a good outcome and then a path to health for your niece. Absolutely terrifying.

It’s important to run the calculators and have a good sense of cost. The one circumstance where it is acceptable to decline an ED acceptance is when the financials did not turn out as predicted.

Lots of great acceptances! Excited for all the students making their decisions!

I wish I had some searching advice for you. Both of mine connected with programs through their schools. Summer vs Semester probably depends a bit on the student's major requirements. My engineer would have had a hard time taking off during the semester (and would have been reluctant to miss out on regular school activities anyway.)

Holy moly. Both my olders had study abroad experiences but we would not have been able to do $40,000. I think it might be one of those things that is technically a good value but just not necessarily doable for everyone.

I understood. 🙂 I did enjoy hearing the specifics from MIT though.

Excellent point. If a kid is very competitive in sports, it will become all consuming in the high school years. So many hours.

In my daughter's case, she just did Calc AB in 10th, then Calc 2 and 3 at the university junior year. Stats (and Comp Sci, so technically math) during senior year. Freshman year Calc went fine, meaning, A grades and on the high end of the curve.

Admittedly I am an old mom on the point of burnout, lol, but this just sounds too complicated for me with a dubious gain at the end. If he was going to continue to homeschool, sure, go for it, kid! (Meaning he should go for it, not calling you a kid)

I do bring up my daughter's experience, because I think parents of gifted kids (in particular) tend to panic about math matters. And, really, my daughter never did get her programs beefed up. She was busy with sports, music, volunteering. The TT was fine, DO was fine, the University classes (and, really, our local U is essentially a community college) were fine. Math once she got to challenging classes at Princeton was not a problem. Not saying this will work for all. I do have two other daughters who are technically gifted but not motivated in the same way. One, when asked if she would like to move from Math 6 to Prealgebra by her public school middle school teacher said, "Nah, I'm good." Exact quote, lol. She was my Beast Academy and Singapore kid when we were homeschooling (up to 5th grade). She just did not have the interest in the end but is competent enough. Junior now, and Covid homeschooling again with Derek Owens, getting A grades.

That's a really nice way of handling the varied math backgrounds.

Ha, well, for us it was Teaching Textbooks Algebra. Which really was fine, but I know causes mathy types to recoil, lol

Probably has little to do with prealgebra vs algebra in 6th grade though 🙂

Eh, in my opinion, not much of a difference. I think the robot building and other hands on applications would be more valuable. People get hung up on the idea of having to "repeat" certain math classes at university. That thought never bothered me. I do think it can be an advantage to have already been introduced to the material, especially in the midst of a generally tough freshman engineering sequence of classes.

You know honestly...that sounds like a healthy option. I would probably leave it up to him. If he wants to cram in prealg now, well, that's his choice. He could always stop and restart in fall if he decides the prize is not worth the time. Cousin may ultimately slow down too. Editing to add, now that I am reading that you don't intend to continue homeschool...well, to me, the acceleration would be way more headache than it is worth in an institutional school setting.

My second daughter did algebra in the 6th grade. She was a highly motivated and independent student though. The primary con for us was the scramble to find appropriate resources to continue the math sequence in a homeschool setting. She was a busy person, and scheduled classes were a challenge to fit in, so we were reluctant to use university courses more than necessary. I think that would be easier now, as there are probably a greater variety of asynchronous university options. A less significant con was the need to do special math review before the PSAT/SAT, as the tested math was a few years past. Luckily we clued into the problem early with a 1oth grade PSAT that showed a big math dip. Pros are allowing a student to work at the level that engages them 🙂 My daughter was well prepared for engineering coursework at Princeton (graduated near top of her engineering class, and now interviewing for Ph.D programs.) We used (the much maligned) Teaching Textbooks through Alg 2. Moved on to Derek Owens for precalc and Calc AB. Calc 2 and 3 at university. Stats through AP Homeschoolers.

Our school district has set up an alternative high school where the curric is essentially (very basic) college coursework via the local university. It's becoming increasingly popular every year as people are eating up the idea of earning college credits, in whatever form they come, at reduced cost. The result is that students and funding are being pulled from the neighborhood high schools, with decreased choices for classes for those who choose to remain (for example, our local school has no physics course that is not AP, and high schools are having to combine certain arts courses.) I am all for choices and competition, but I'd be hard pressed to call what is going on with college courses in this particular program a superior education academically.

It would be useful for him to talk to recent grad students in the program in which he hopes to enroll. Find out what makes a competitive candidate.

I typed out a whole reply and then think I forgot to post. Hopefully this is not a repeat. First, multiple colleges from a high school student is not going to be an issue (or UNLIKELY to be...I should never say never). It may be more expensive for you, sending transcripts from multiple colleges to various places she may apply. But will not be a negative factor for admissions. I am personally not a fan of early graduation. My gifted kids graduated at the typical age, with advanced high school curricula (which was sometimes dual enrollment.) There are a lot of interesting extracurricular things they can do in the teen years which would strengthen college applications, both academic and non-academic, while they develop personal maturity and life skills. That said, plenty of people go the route you are describing above. There will be pros and cons, things she misses out on and things she gains, regardless of the path chosen. As far as private colleges and transfer courses, you need to keep in mind that there is a wide variance in the selectivity of private colleges. The UCs will be more selective than many, if not most, private colleges. In general, some schools will accept transfer credits and some will not. More selective schools tend to be pickier about what they will accept. It's not uncommon for a school to want basic courses required for one's major to be taken at the school. If you have specific schools in mind, you might take some time to look at their specific requirements. Of your choices, I like #1 the best, with the caveat that she uses her time to bulk up her extracurricular resume and gain leadership experience. And FWIW, I've graduated two homeschoolers from college; one selective state flagship, and one Ivy League private. Have a high school junior and starting to think about her choices.