Same here

Anyone know much about how Sweet Briar is doing now, several years after they almost closed due to financial problems? I see very limited and mixed information online. The enrollment numbers seem to be gradually increasing, but it's still very small. I saw on a College Confidential thread that this year's freshman class included over 300 students. The financial picture is murky to me. Their bond rating has improved, but I'm not sure about a long term prognosis. Dd17 would probably be admitted easily. She has a friend going there, and I think only my general discomfort with the school's stability and future has persuaded her not to apply. But she'd love some things about the school, and I wonder if I'm discouraging her too much. Would you consider it if a dd was interested?

I'm so sorry, Dawn. At least no one was hurt. This sounds embarrassing and possibly expensive, but nothing really important in the long run. It still stinks for you, I know. Hugs.

Melissa, still thinking of all of you. This defies imagination. And the folks in Mallacoota... Stay safe.

Holding you all in my thoughts, Melissa.

Melissa, I'm thinking of you and your boys, and of all the other people in danger. May they all stay safe.

Agreed. This is awful.

This article describes a far more pervasive tracking system. I agree with Serenade that mandatory attendance has its own set of problems, but the system as described is monitoring all sorts of different aspects of student behavior: how often they eat, how often they go to the library, whether they leave campus. As one person said, it would allow individual students' daily patterns of movement to be tracked. That's both Big Brother oversight, and potentially dangerous if a stalker could get access to the information.

If it's just about tracking attendance, couldn't they limit the system to only collect that information?

Apparently a lot of schools are starting to use their Wi-Fi networks to keep track of whether students go to class, the library, the dining hall, and so on. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/ It sounds like the practice started as a way of making sure college athletes were going to class, and has expanded to encompass entire student bodies. I had not heard of this. While I'm sure they can influence behavior, I dislike the whole idea. Thoughts?

I hope she heals quickly and feels better soon!

For dragons, if they might like historical fiction mixed with fantasy, check out the Naomi Novik Temeraire series. His Majesty's Dragon is the first. Think Patrick O'Brian crossed with Anne McCaffrey.

Hope you're sound asleep now, but sending hugs for later. I hope Saturday brings some rest and everyone starts feeling better.

What a great little apartment! Hope she loves getting settled in her own space.

Please give him a gentle hug for all the hive aunties.

I'm so sorry. Poor kid, he's had a rough time.

That is just weird to me. Why on earth won't they?

I'm so sorry, Dawn.

Yes. My dd's testing was highly misleading because she couldn't /wouldn't complete all the subsections until she was in her teens. Her results indicated more about stress levels and emotional regulation than they did about intelligence. One evaluator used caution in stating conclusions based on incomplete testing, another not so much. Dd.Is rarely talkative, so people who didn't know her well couldn't see what was going on in her head. The faulty testing led to some inappropriately low expectations.

I think the doll is a wonderful idea. Let him have fun nurturing his doll and playing with his car. I think you're smart to show him boys aren't any more limited than girls in the activities they can enjoy.

One of her top choices is highly competitive, but others are less so. If I just don't mention the AP she didn't take, then, it sounds like that might give the impression that she took it and did badly. That sounds worse than not taking it, maybe.

Dd hates standardized tests. She has taken 2 AP classes, but chose not to take the test in one. She had not felt like the class was a good fit, didn't enjoy it, and was just generally having mental health and stress issues at the time. She did get an A in the class. How would you address this on college applications? The health issues are not being mentioned, unless dd chooses to in her essay. She did take the other AP test, and did well, so that one is listed on the transcript. Would you just not mention the test she chose not to take, or say she decided not to take it? Will the omission be glaring? Additionally, she took the SAT for the first time in the spring of her sophomore year, and then decided against going to a four year university, so she didn't want to repeat the test. Her scores were fine for the community college program she wanted to do. They're fine for most universities, too, but not stellar. Fast forward to fall semester of her senior year, when she decided she did want to go to a four year school after all. She took the SAT one more time, verbal went down, math stayed the same. No time to do more. Is it all right to just report the better score on her transcript, or do we need to include both? I am addressing her changing goals in my counselor letter, fwiw. I'm debating whether to mention that she just hates and gets stressed by high stakes tests, but inclined to leave that out.

I do have the names of the providers listed, though they are part of the heading for each course, not at the end. It just didn't read to me as an attribution for the wording of the descriptions either way. But it sounds like there's a consensus that providers are assumed to be the source of description wording, so that's all good. Thanks for the help!

As I go through old threads I see many people use or adapt course descriptions given by online providers, community colleges and so on. I find that I'm squeamish about heavily quoting without stating that's what I'm doing, so I've put a blanket statement at the top of the course descriptions explaining the providers are the source. Does this seem appropriate and reasonable? Having done that, can I dispense with quotation marks? Some descriptions have needed editing and additions, but many are fine without modification.

Yes. Ignorance, mostly, I guess. In our case, I think the aunt is probably on the spectrum herself, but almost 70 year olds didn't get diagnosed in their day. It's her own sort of rigid thinking: she'd have been thrilled to buy jewelry or books for a tween girl, but a list composed of pet supplies was not something she could deal with, however much dd wanted them. And then she wonders why the kids don't have a close, chatty, confiding relationship with her, even though she showers them with presents. She never *sees* them.