That was my thought as well. She did a lot of targeted practice with prep books, etc to get her math up to where it is. None of the schools has a guaranteed scholarship tied to a particular composite score and she is well within the parameters for consideration for even the top scholarships. I think it's time to go with what she has and let her focus her efforts on writing the best essays she can and doing well in her DE classes rather than spending more time on test prep. Thanks all for the confirmation.

It looks like it all came together wonderfully. I love the way everything turned out! Congratulations!

We're trying to decide whether to have our daughter take one more ACT in the early fall of her senior year or to let it ride and pick a different test to meet state requirements. She's applying to several mid-range colleges, not highly selective ones, because those are the ones in which she is most interested and most likely to get good merit aid. Based on the info available on collegedata.com, she is already in what looks like the top 10% or so of scores for those schools. The only areas in which she really has much room for likely improvement are math and science. Math is her weakest area and I'm concerned her composite (currently a 32) may go down on a fall test since she finished her alg/geo sequence in April and will just be starting DE statistics in late August. She'd have to bring up math, science, or a combination at least 3 points in order to improve a super-scored composite over the one she already has (at least a couple of the schools she likes super-score the ACT). With her science already a 31, I'm doubtful that's likely to increase a lot, and we're thrilled she scored as highly as she did on math last time, so not expecting any substantial positive change in this section. Test dates are in mid-September and late October and she will be trying to apply early action as much as possible, so mid-September would be the most likely for that, but it will conflict with a good opportunity in her major extracurricular. The October one may be too late for scholarship applications to some of the schools. She'd be happy to be done with the ACT and just do something simple to meet the state requirements, but isn't stressed at the idea of taking it again. So, to sum up: 1) Would a (potential) drop in composite on a single test look really bad and potentially hurt scholarship chances more than trying for a possible increase in a subsection might help? 2) How likely is a 3 point rise in math or science scores at that level after only a few weeks of a DE stats class?

As my daughter is a junior, college recruiting mail isn't lacking around here, but sometimes you have to wonder what was in the marketing person's head. Yesterday, Bennington College sent her a two-foot long mailing tube. Inside was one item---a 2x3 foot poster of a reading list compiled from suggestions by students and a link to their Tumblr page. What's the oddest thing your student has received?

I'm considering getting my daughter a lighted makeup mirror for her birthday later this summer and would appreciate any recommendations or ones to avoid. She has talked about liking her friend's tri-fold one, but says it gets hot really quickly. I'm thinking maybe a tri-fold, since she says she has trouble getting the side edges of her face right, and maybe one with natural lighting, if that's possible and not incredibly expensive. Shouldn't be something that has to mount to the wall, since she will likely want to take it to college with her in another year, but open to corded and battery options. Thanks!

Both/either

I love the chocolate covered cocoa nibs from TJ, but plain ones, not so much.

There's discussion in our closest large city about using some sort of physical barrier--bollards, planters, etc-- to create protected bike lanes. http://plancharlotte.org/story/protected-bicycle-lanes-bikeways-through-uptown-charlotte

If you feel compelled to offer an excuse, try, "Sorry, wish I could, but I'm not supposed to drink while on this antibiotic for my ear infection. Enjoy a glass for me!"

Neon green clown wig

Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfairlingerie.com/lace/rosette-lace-full-slip/10103.html#start=4 (also sold at JC Penney) Shadowline https://www.shadowlinelingerie.com/shop/undergarments/slips (cotton and nylon)

My daughter just picked up some cotton knit Forever 21 legging shorts to try under her dresses. She's a size 10, but has inherited the proportionally larger thighs from my mother's side of the family. We had seen a recommendation to try buying lace leggings and cutting them off, but then saw these for less than $4. http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?BR=f21&Category=bottoms_shorts&ProductID=2000064887&VariantID= They also seem to carry a lace trimmed cotton biker short that might work ($5.90). http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?BR=f21&Category=bottoms_shorts&ProductID=2000091570&VariantID= Since dress and skirt styles are currently above the knee for the younger (than me) crowd, it's been a bit challenging finding something that's not too long in the inseam for her. I wear skirts/dresses exclusively because I prefer them and couldn't live without my pantalettes/split slips that I usually get from Woman Within or Roamans. I don't wear anything that's shorter than about mid-calf, though.

My daughter likes the Elf illuminating eye cream.

Sean Connery as James Bond in "Goldfinger." http://clothesonfilm.com/goldfinger-sean-connery-in-a-towelling-playsuit/20021/

May. We chose it because the May date engraved in the engagement ring (which had belonged to my husband's great-grandmother) fell on a Saturday in that year.

I got to it through the pinned thread http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/475909-transcripts-credits-ncaa-college-applications-first-time-at-college-scholarshipsfinancial-aid-career-explore-past-threads-linked-here/ under "Transcripts: Grading and GPA" and it was the first linked thread "Grading and GPA---post tips here, please." The individual thread was http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/475917-grading-and-gpa-post-tips-here-please/ second post.

OK, it's an order of operations issue. I multiplied out each individual class, so the A in a quarter-credit college class was 1.25 and the A in the half-credit regular class was 2.0, all the rest were 3 (for a B regular), 4 (A regular), 4.5 (A honors), or 5 (A dual enrollment). I added all those together then divided by 22.25 and got a 4.34. That's reasonable. When I tried it for unweighted, A=4, B=3, half-credit A=2, quarter-credit A = 1, I have an unweighted of 3.91, which makes sense. Thanks! I was feeling incredibly dense to have made As in calculus but being felled by arithmetic!

I have been using a free gpa calculator website (gpacalculator.net) until now that has all the features I need, but evidently I have exceeded the maximum number of classes it will calculate at a time (20). I tried hand-calculating using the tips from Lori D. in the pinned post on this: " How to Calculate GPA: 1. first determine your grade point scale (weighted or unweighted) 2. each letter grade = amount of "grade points" from a grade point scale 3. add up the total number of "grade points" from ALL classes 4. divide by the TOTAL number of credits attempted" This seemed to work for the weighted grades but gives me greater than 4.0 on unweighted, which shouldn't happen, so I'm missing something somewhere and no longer trust I'm doing the weighted correctly. On the face of it, this shouldn't be that complicated! Our situation includes regular, honors, and DE classes (weighted 0, 0.5, and 1.0), full credit, half credit, and quarter credit classes. The free online ones I've found all have some issue--won't handle quarter credits, wrong weighting scale, or can't handle enough grades at once. I know very little about Excel, so I haven't been able to set up a spreadsheet. I want weighted and unweighted. Here's what I've done, according to the above info: 7 As at 5.0 = 35 8 As at 4.5 = 36 6 As at 4.0 = 24 2 Bs at 3.0 =6 for a total of 101 22.25 credits (includes 21 one-credit courses, 3 quarter credit classes--all As in DE-- and one half credit class--A, regular weight), so 101 / 22.25 = 4.54 weighted, which is higher than I expected even with all classes this semester being DE. 7+8+6+2 = 23 As at 4.0 = 92 2 Bs at 3.0 =6 total 98 98/22.25 = 4.40, which can't happen with an unweighted 4.0 scale, particularly not with 2 Bs! My guess is that I'm supposed to do something different with the quality points for the half and quarter credit classes, but what? Her previous GPAs using the gpa calculator were 4.25 and 3.89, prior to the three full credit and one quarter credit DE classes this semester (As). If someone could point me to an Excel spreadsheet or explain how it should be set up in Excel, my husband to help me do it, which would probably be ideal so that I don't run into the maximum entry issue again. Unfortunately, right now I don't know what to ask for.

OK, in running around our town yesterday we saw 45 US flags, 8 NC state flags, and 2 Confederate flags. The majority of the US flags were outside of businesses. Surprisingly, we passed several schools and none were flying a flag at all, even though it was during the school day while school was in session. One US large US flag was flying from the bed of a pickup truck. I was surprised we didn't see more Confederate flags as I am used to seeing a few on any given day. I suppose the decals and clothing with the Confederate flag are more common than actual flags. Both the ones we saw were flying at houses, and didn't see any of the ones flying both the US and Confederate flags on this particular trip, though we have come across those before.

I'll try to remember to have my daughter tally the number of US and Confederate flags we see while out tomorrow.

Our master bath has a garden tub with a weird counter space at the end and separate shower stall on the other side of the room. If I could have designed it, I would replace the garden tub with a longer tub with included shower and turn the space given to the separate shower into a linen closet. We don't use the garden tub because it's too short to stretch out your legs in, particularly for my 6 ft tall husband. I think the people who built it cheaped out on the size of the tub as there's room to make it a decent amount longer. I also despise the glass shower door with all my being and would hate having to clean a jetted tub. Definitely neutral tile and add interest with some sort of art you can take with you--maybe a stained glass panel to hang in the window?

Her interests are technical theatre, creative writing, history, and social justice, particularly around LGBTQ issues. Some of the activities overlapped the beginning or end of the typical semester. before 9th grade: assisted her father in props and backstage crew for an adult production at the local community theatre--free part-day week-long drawing camp and part-day week-long painting camp through the rec center--less than $100 each, I believe served as a junior intern for a half-day summer children's drama camp at the local rec center with her art teacher (who also teaches drama, was the set designer for one of the adult productions my daughter worked backstage for in the previous year, and got my daughter and husband involved in local community theatre )---free did an online Spanish II class with a teacher in Barcelona through Harari College Worldwide--free, though I don't think they are doing stand-alone language courses anymore before 10th grade: our one-time big splurge for summer programming because this was so specific to her passion ---a 2-week residential summer camp in science-fiction and fantasy world-building creative writing that included working with professors and published writers at a college relatively nearby--$2100 which grandparents paid. This was a game-changer for her in her confidence and skill level in writing and in being independent.before 11th grade: served as junior intern backstage run crew with the local children's theater for their end of season intensive---free attended a 2 week summer day camp at local children's theater in technical theatre where they built the sets and props and served as run crew for the production done by the acting camp that ran simultaneously (Evita Jr)--$500 this summer: the first part of the summer will be a concentrated DE class to get a gen ed out of the way--tuition is free, so only books ($150--it's science) a 4 day writing residential camp at one of the state universities she's applying to --$500. Hopefully this will give her a feel for living on that campus, some insight into the writing program there, and expose her to some different aspects of writing, since they will have working sessions on poetry and creative non-fiction as well as fiction. a week-long day camp focused on activism with the local LGBTQ youth support organization--free.. applying for a paid internship with the same support group and/or looking for a part-time job may be doing a MOOC through Stanford on being an active citizen in the digital age--free Other than that, she's pursuing her year-round activities of aikido, Girl Scouts, a local monthly writers' meet-up, being active in an online writing community, active with the youth support organization, and doing some childcare and other activities through our church (paid and volunteer). We live on the edge of a pretty metropolitan area, so there are probably more options than would be available in a less-populated area. Some things I searched for and some, frankly, rather fell into our laps through other activities. Check parks and rec, library volunteer opps, Scouts, 4H, community service organizations, local colleges/universities, and local history museums or historic sites (a friend's daughter was a volunteer docent at one).

I had a similar take-away after reading the book. My daughter has done several different things in interest areas during the summer and school year that I might not have thought of if not for the book, though most were local and not high cost.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

My daughter is attending a summer program in Wilmington in mid-July (Tues-Sat) and we're considering making it a short vacation for us as well rather than driving 4 hours one way twice in a relatively few days. We can stay in Wilmington, but also want to check into other options. Are there any suggestions for places to see and things to do within about 2 hours drive of Wilmington? Beach is fine, but not required, since we prefer to be oceanfront with a pool if we stay at the beach and that is very expensive high season. We love museums, historic attractions, great used book stores, etc and it would just be the two of us. Doesn't have to be the same area for the entire time. We're way out of practice going on vacation by ourselves, and we would usually head to the mountains, so this will be new territory for us.