We have news! accepted at : UCSB, UCSC, UCMerced, UCIrvine, UCRiverside. waitlisted at UCLA and UCDavis.

Hi Kai - the facebook group was a great help. we sent lots of info off (school profile, textbooks, course descriptions, transcript, etc, etc). we got an acknowledgment back that simply said "thank you. we will get back to you if we have further questions." and so far that is it. will keep you posted. ann

thank you! i have just applied. i hope they are speedy in adding me to the group. thanks again.

we are down to 3.5 days. does anyone have any ideas?!!

dd#4 just received an email from the University of California system asking who certifies our homeschool. we file a private school affidavit, which means we are legal. but not certified per se. all her AP classes are thru pennsylvania homeschoolers and are certified but ??? advice? suggestions? aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh....... they gave her five days or they will cancel processing her application. this never happened with the first three kids.

hi friends - two years ago i did this successfully. can i remember now how? no, i cannot. on the university of california applications there are two additional places for info. in the academic history one, i can upload either the course descriptions or the school profile. which? the second one is for an additional essay i think, but i could use it for the other of the two. suggestions? experience? help?

complete basket case. we dropped dd#3 off yesterday. you would think i would be good at this by now, but apparently not. i am crying at the drop of a hat. youngest is still at home, but now without her buddy. very, very, very hard. and yet its what we all want. getting to live your dream ought not to hurt so much.

we were really happy with AP Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. dd#3 took AP Chem and AP Calc A/B through them. (and got 5s!!). they are not as inexpensive as you are quoting, but the quality you get is worth way more than what you pay! hth, ann

College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley for dd#3 why? the college of chemistry is rated #1 in the world (who knew??!!). it is small, research focused, and the students hit the ground running; they had to apply as a declared chemistry major, there are only about 75 of them in the Bsc Chemistry each year, and about twice as many grad students and post docs as undergrads, all of whom like to have undergrads as part of their research teams. she is over the moon. (and turned down several ivys to go there!) it is also only a 6 hour drive from home, which is nicer than the other side of the country. (now if stanford moves her off the wait list, which is highly unlikely, it will be a Very Hard Choice).

dd#3 is Berkeley bound!!! she loved Cal Day. the college of chemistry is an amazing place with amazing people, and small enough that she won't get lost in the shuffle. i can see her there easily. the college of chemistry is one of the few colleges where you apply with your major declared. they had a meet and greet friday before CalDay, and we spent two hours speaking with current students, advisors, and the incoming class of 2021. (someone asked about wait lists; stanford says wait list students will begin to hear the middle of may. no idea what dd will do if that actually happens.... which is not at all likely... )

Its been a journey. right now, it looks as if she is Berkeley bound. wait listed at stanford (so sad - she has wanted to go since she was 4), accepted at Cornell, UPenn, and Wellesley (but not at Harvard, Princeton, Yale) accepted at UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, UC San Diego.... but for some reason, not accepted at UC Santa Barbara. accepted at Cal States for Music, for Chemistry, etc, etc. hoping she loves berkeley on cal day! ann

common app is super slow and i hope one of you can help me. under the gpa tab, it asks for beginning and ending dates. our debate is whether it should be may of 2016 (from grades reported) or may of 2017 (when she graduates). hopefully, ann

it seems to me as if you have come up with a good solution. (if i read it right, you will document like crazy, pay for a professional clean and then move in. i missed what was happening about the painting.....) an awesome safe neighborhood is worth its weight in gold. i am so sorry about the new neighbor at your old house, but am totally relieved that you are moving sooner rather than later. hugs, ann

i would break the lease, because it sounds as if this landlord isn't so great on honoring commitments, even legal ones, and it would make me nuts over the months. (and i intensely dislike legal events). if it wouldn't make you nuts, then cleaning and a gardening company might be a good solution. converesely, you could see a lawyer and have her/him write a letter to the landlord, explaining that the landlord has until date "x" (say maybe one week) to bring the place up to scratch or you will (a) hire companies to do it and take it out of your rent, or (b) consider him to have broken the lease because he didn't honor the terms of it (cleaning, painting, etc) and so won't pay anything. you could also ask the landlord to pay for a hotel for you and the family until it is habitable. (its always good to have a negotiating point, but also a financial consequence for him not having done it.) then, you either have a nice place to live or you can look at plan B without having lost money. fwiw, ann

pausing for one more second of thankfulness!