And I went to the mammogram (first ever) and I got a callback for an ultrasound. They released the results to my chart and saw that I was being called back before they called to schedule. I went for the ultrasound and thankfully everything was fine. I am very relieved I followed through on all of this!

I'm back. I went to my appointment. I was so tempted to cancel but didn't. I have an appointment for a mammogram in March. Everything went fine at the appointment. It was a huge relief to go. Thanks for the encouragement!

Thanks! I will report back. 🙂

Good for you! I have an appointment this month. I have rescheduled it several times and have told myself I am not rescheduling it again. I am way overdue. Like years. Not sure why I have such anxiety, so I need to just get on with this stuff and do it. Thanks for posting about this. I feel less alone!

My daughter majored in biology and minored in chemistry and Latin.

Congrats to you and your son, shukriyya! Today is the first time in a long while that I have visited these forums. Homeschooling was a huge part of my life for many years. I joined these forums when my children were quite young at the beginning of our homeschool journey. My youngest is in college now, my middle in medical school and my oldest is married with a baby of her own. Time flies. I loved homeschooling so much but to everything there is a season. Enjoy these years while they last!

Here's a link to a CC thread that lists the 1-99 in post 4. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1922891-wsj-ths-rank-usc-at-15.html

Since it is college application season, I thought this might be of interest to some of you. Case will now be meeting the full demonstrated financial need of all admitted students beginning with the class that enters in 2017. Here is an article regarding the university partnering with The Posse Foundation that mentions their decision to meet full demonstrated financial need. http://thedaily.case.edu/new-partnership-posse-foundation-seeks-increase-college-access/ ETA: Here are a couple recent articles on need-met colleges. One also includes info on whether schools are loan-free. However, the best way to find out how each college handles their financial aid is to ask them directly. :) http://blog.collegegreenlight.com/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/#sthash.4O7eZV8T.dpbs http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-09-19/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need

Wooster was a school my daughter considered. I loved everything about Wooster. For a serious student, I think Wooster would be an awesome place to be. It seems like a supportive academic atmosphere. I thought it was great that they have an early childhood education program that can be added to any major there. They also have a lot of different language majors from what I recall. Dd was looking at Classics and possibly Russian. The campus is lovely, too. My daughter has a friend at Miami now. She likes it, but she says she is not crazy about how "preppy" the atmosphere is. I think it is also dominated by Greek life and has a large party scene. We know a girl who went to DePauw, too. The school has a huge Greek life, and it is a major party environment from what I understand. HTH. :)

Classes started a little over a month ago. Dd was really not ready to go back. :unsure: She was very happy about being in a new major but worried about having a heavier course load. She also had to take engineering chem, which is an extra credit hour and supposedly harder than the premed chem because only the engineering chem is offered in the spring. She'd planned to do some prep over break but didn't. She's happy and relieved all her classes are going well so far, but the workload is intense. It seems to be a constant juggling act to stay on top of it. Sorority rush the first few weeks of the semester was exhausting and stressful. She is a new pledge now. :) Then she has her other activities. All fun, but a lot to manage with classes. And she found out yesterday she got an RA position. She'll get a free room plus a stipend. :hurray: I think it will be a great experience for her. She wasn't thinking she'd get a position because it's very competitive. So, feeling really thrilled and grateful! She also gets to choose a friend to have on her floor (because she got a position as a second-year RA) and that will be her current roommate. I'm so glad they get along and have become friends. Also, she may have the opportunity to take a classics field course in Greece this summer (funded by the department). Overall, second semester is off to a good start and first year seems like it's flying by.

We pay out of current income. Our oldest has finished college and our middle daughter is a freshman. Our girls take basic federal loans, contribute from savings and employment, and both received institutional scholarships and grant aid as well as outside renewable scholarships. Oldest dd also received tuition reimbursement from her employer of about $2,000 per year. No private loans, home equity, etc. I work part-time. My earnings and no mortgage and car payments helps. Our youngest may or may not go to college. If she does, she'll start at our community college.

My daughter came home Monday after her last final. She'll be working over break--starts today, so she did have a few days to relax. Grades are in, all A's. Her roommate surprised her with a Christmas gift-a scarf she knit for dd. Dd had gotten her roommate a gift, too. They seem to have become friends, which is really nice. It was a good first semester. Spring semester starts January 11th. She'll have a new major, classics and either a double major or minor in biology with premed. She's receiving an additional merit award from the classics department, so we're thrilled about that. Who knew starting Latin as homeschoolers during elementary school would lead to a college major? Wishing all of you a lovely holiday season!

Dd is doing well. Midterm grades were all A's. She will be registering for classes in a few weeks and is declaring a new major. It's a highly academic atmosphere. Somewhat of a stress culture in my opinion. She seems to be managing okay so far. She has 14 credit hours this semester and will likely have 17 or 18 next semester. Socially, her school seems to be a good fit. She is considering sorority rush next semester. She will be home for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, then finals, and then she'll be working over winter break.

To the OP's question: How do we find a balance between encouraging our kids to "follow their dreams" and at the same time to "know thyself"?" I think all we can do is encourage kids to try things, be supportive of their efforts, and set an example by living a life that emphasizes the values we hope they will adopt. It doesn't work to tell people what does or doesn't suit them. I agree that this is something people must learn on their own. It's not usually those who pursue dreams and fail that are bitter and hard to be around IMO. Like creekland said, people don't generally "lose" from experiences as long as they aren't incurring unreasonable debt while pursuing their goals. Our oldest daughter pursued a six-year professional program right out of high school. She did fine in it, and she worked in a pharmacy starting the spring of her senior year of high school and all through college, so she had an idea of what she was getting into. She also could have switched out of her program and graduated in four years with another degree like biology. She graduated a few years ago and likes it. Middle daughter wanted to study medicine for a long time but eventually decided to pursue a BSN when she started college this fall. She liked a lot about nursing when she shadowed and felt it would be a practical degree. She quickly realized the heart doesn't care about practical. She still thinks she wants the opportunity to work toward going straight to medical school after college even if she has some concerns about that path. So she's considering changing her major to something in arts and sciences with premed for next semester. She isn't sure she is ready to commit to a professional program yet. Of course, she needed to discover this on her own.

I don't think it is a waste of time to apply. I think it would be better if you had a third year. Can you come up with a home-based course for him for Japanese 3? It may not be perfect, but you could give it a try. If you do this, you could explain in the course description that this class was home-based due to the college not offering more advanced studies in the language. Maybe you could find a tutor for him. Rosetta Stone offers Japanese, I believe. I know it's often viewed as insufficient for credit, but you could add other things to it to strengthen it.