I haven't been on this board in a long time, and usually I am a lurker. However, someone I love has very recently been going through this same thing, so I feel compelled to answer. I am so,so sorry, as I know that this is very painful for your family. I agree completely with others who have urged you to go to Al Anon or Nar Anon meeting as soon as possible. There you will find others who can offer you wisdom and support. A support group, as well as a professional rehab counselor, can help you understand how to care for yourself and the other family members as well as think through how to respond (or not respond) to your son's behaviors. Your ds, even if he is not high or drunk at this very moment, has a brain that has been affected by his drug and alcohol use. He will not be able to make sound judgments, as his thinking is what led him to the current behaviors. Also, it is a given that he is lying to you, whether it's about how he obtains the drugs or how much he is using or anything else regarding his behavior. I would disagree with the person who thinks that continuing going to school is a needed thing. That sends the signal that addiction is something to manage rather than a serious disease that needs to be treated or it could kill him. The most needed thing is for your son to be in a rehab program. While you can't force him to work the program, you can use leverage to get him there. If you are paying for school or supporting him financially in other way, then his going to rehab could be made a condition of his receiving any of that type of support in the future. He may decide that he would rather drop out of school and/or move out of your home. That would be very sad, but it would be his choice.

Oldest dd is about to graduate from Samford University (in Birmingham, so that's at the far end of your dd's scope). She was undecided, and one of the appeals of the school is that they have a number of options for majors. As a member of their honors program (University Fellows), she received good scholarship money, top-notch advising, and Fellows are allowed to register ahead of all other students for classes. (And, another awesome part of the Fellows program is a trip to Italy during the Jan term of the sophomore year.) They work well with homeschool students.

Once your child submits your name and email address as the counselor, you will receive an email from Common App informing you that your child's name has requested your recommendation along with instructions for registering with the system. Once you are registered, you will be asked to fill out a personal profile, a school profile, details about your school, and you will be asked to certify that you will do what you have been asked to do (upload transcripts, etc.). There is a separate tab for your particular student, which is where you will report gpa, curriculum, class rank, etc. Under that tab there is a section for homeschools, where the counselor can provide further information about the methods used, grading scale, etc., used in your school setting. The school report will also include an evaluation of the student, written by you (the counselor). Though I suspect the reader may ignore whatever I wrote (after all, it is a mommy recommendation), I used specific and professional language to outline my dd's strengths and tell how she has grown academically and personally. If you have younger kids who will be applying in future years, my advice is to be sure to copy and paste all that you write and save it for the future. The school profile, recommendation, etc., is not kept on the Common App site from year to year. ETA: I didn't address my recommendation to anyone. I wrote it more like an essay. I have a link that someone (perhaps here at WTM?) once posted that is helpful about writing recommendations: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs

Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama, hosts a Great Ideas Summer Institute for rising juniors and seniors. It's one way of advertising their Fellows program. My dd has thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Fellows program there, and she worked as a counselor one summer for the GISI.

Susan, My dd recently applied to UNC-G. She applied online, after setting up a Spartan Link. On the basis of her test scores and gpa, she was invited to apply to the International Honors College via the Spartan Link. Then, just today, another invitation - to apply for the Scholars Program - showed up on her link. They also said that an admission decision was in the mail. I'm guessing that if they are inviting her to apply for scholarships, then she has been accepted. The admissions information (from the website) indicates that any applications submitted after the November 1st deadline will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning December 15th. The application is fairly simple, with only one essay. If your son is interested in UNC-G, then a sooner-rather-than-later application would put him in a better place for receiving scholarship money, I think.

Since we live in NC, oldest dd (20) and I visited UNC-G when she was looking at schools, and the next dd (18) and I visited it again - just a campus tour and information session - a couple of months ago. In just those few years, the university has renovated and improved many of its physical facilities. It has the feel of a midsize public university, and they have done a lot to promote learning communities, which seems to offer more opportunities for connection (important for an introvert like my dd). Dd does not have the resume/breadth of high school courses that would enable her to gain entrance into Chapel Hill, so she is applying to several other state schools. UNC-G has most of the areas of study in which she is interested (all in the humanities). She will be applying for entrance into the Lloyd International Honors College, which offers a scholarship toward study abroad. If she is accepted into that, we will likely be making another trip to the school to allow her the chance to sit in on a class.

Are you blocking your pop-ups?

I was curious, so I googled it and found this.

I noticed here that the NCLEX passing rate at Samford is 90-100%.

This is what I did, also. I merged the transcript document and course description document into one file and labeled it something like Common App Transcript. That was the document I uploaded for the transcript section. (I'm sure I knew to do that after reading about it here!)

My niece has been a part of it. She was in the inaugural class, and it was a LOT of work. I think that TPS was supposed to have trimmed the program somewhat after that first year b/c of the complaints of the parents. She loves the track, however, and has formed some good friendships, joined students on trips to Washington, D.C., and participated in the TPS mission trip to Thailand. If you need to talk to someone, pm me, and I will see if my sil would be willing to give you her opinion.

Regular Decision has come in! Dd applied and was accepted to: UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, Elon, Wofford, Furman, Centre, and Samford. Samford awarded her a very nice merit scholarship. She has small scholarships/scholarship potential at most of the rest of them (junior year scholarships or National Merit), and she will hear by the end of this month whether or not certain schools will offer her a larger merit aid package. We are all looking forward to the day when we can definitively answer those who inquire, "Where will she be going to college next year?"

I agree with this!

Thank you!

Dd is writing a mini research paper for a tutorial writing class. One of her sources is a google book. In other words, a portion of a book (out of print?) can be seen through google books. When she cites this source, would she cite only the information regarding the book, or does she also need to include the google book website? (Do you even understand my question?):confused: