blue plaid
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Posts posted by blue plaid
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23 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said:
I'd like to hear about your experience with a scholarship weekend.
Is he liking a particular school (Baylor, Illinois, etc) or noncommittal at this point?The scholarship weekend was really nice! Friday evening was an optional reception with lots of fun local desserts; he was able to talk to a few faculty members and students. Earlier in the afternoon we toured a residential college where he would most likely choose to live if he attends. Saturday there were separate programs for students and parents. We had a welcome session and then the choice of several panels over the course of the morning. Students had their own welcome session I think. He was in a group with potential engineering/cs students. They then visited several labs --- in each one a faculty member told them about the research they were doing. They also were broken into groups for a group project -- something about building a structure out of straws that would hold books I think. After the weekend they were required to respond to an essay prompt -- essay was due two days later (they were given the prompt ahead of time.)
He seemed to really like it and is leaning towards Baylor -- I think it is likely he will end up there. The engineering school is really very small, but they have the type of engineering he is interested in, and he seems to really like that it is small and the focus on community.
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22 hours ago, MagistraKennedy said:
I'm sorry! Is he upset about it, or more 'que sera, sera'? This admissions stuff is beginning to feel more and more bananas every day.
He seems fine with it and not to really care, though this kid is good at hiding his feelings. I think it is very likely that I am more offended than he is. Which is good. He has had a tough year and is a fabulous kid so I had hoped for more encouraging results for him.
3 hours ago, catz said:Are you in state for Illinois? Nothing surprises wrt to these popular flagships and out of state admissions anymore but gah,I would be angry in state. I had a kid with pretty much the same stats apply a few years back and he had some weird results too. Hope he has a good set of affordable final choices.
We are out of state. So yes it would be much more of a thing if we were in state! My dad graduated from there many years ago though and my parents lived in Illinois for many years -- so I totally get that doesn't come into the equation for admittance but it makes it feel more personal/shocking.
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Son was rejected at Illinois. At least this time I could laugh about it. (Kid has 35 ACT, 4.0 unweighted GPA, 2 years dual enrollment with super solid course work; he was applying to engineering but not one of the most competitive majors.) I have started to wonder if not having a super-specific engineering interest/career goal is hurting him (everyone seems to ask why you want to study your chosen major and Illinois even asked about his career plans post-college.) It kind of makes me crazy that to study engineering there seems to be some expectation that you've already studied engineering enough to have deep specific knowledge about exactly what you want to study or what you want to do with the rest of your life. Perhaps I have too much of a liberal arts mindset in that I think of college as the time to investigate and explore a bit before settling into a specific course of study. Especially engineering -- since engineering courses aren't generally available in high school how can you really know what kind of courses you are going to find interesting and like the math for until you try some out? But maybe it is just the low acceptance rate thing though -- I don't know. I know that I was warned about the craziness of admissions and I should have believed it a bit more! Good news is we are all pretty happy with one of the schools he was accepted to. I think he will probably end up there although he still has 3 schools to hear from.
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We are just hanging out waiting here as well. Son had a scholarship weekend at Baylor a few weeks ago. He didn't get that scholarship (but he earlier did get some other scholarship money from them,) but he did seem to really like the school. He is supposed to hear from Illinois this Friday. Besides that he is waiting to hear from 3 highly rejective schools, which I assume will probably release in late March. I have degrees from 2 of these, not sure if that will slightly increase his odds at the crap shoot or not. I think Baylor could be a really nice fit for him. But we shall see. He doesn't seem too concerned one way or the other but sometimes he is hard to read.
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So I appreciate the heads-up and decided to have my son practice using the Desmos calculator to check problems as we worked through Algebra 2 today. So he solved the equation \sqrt{2x+1}-\sqrt{x}=1 and got solutions x=0 and x=4. When he put the equation into desmos it looks like only x=4 is a solution. So now I am not sure what to think of encouraging him to go all in on using it for the SAT! If anyone wants to tell us what we did wrong in Desmos, please do!
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How old is your house/the popcorn? I was concerned about it in our ceilings to the extent that I got permission to scrape some off and sent it in to be tested for asbestos before we purchased the house. No asbestos here. So I think it is good to be cautious but it may not have asbestos in it. I did scrape ours and then painted. (Our house was built around 1976.)
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I like the milk chocolate covered pretzels. Also Inca corn (giant corn nuts.) pork gyoza (frozen) too.
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Well, no good news here. Son was deferred at Michigan and out right rejected at Georgia Tech. Still wrapping my head around Georgia Tech -- I really wasn't expecting that. Kid has top grades, coursework, and test scores -- thought he would at least be deferred. (It was one of his top choices.) So we are moving on but my optimism for the other schools he applied to has taken a hit. He was invited to a scholarship weekend at one school he was accepted at and that is in a couple of weeks. He is unsure about this school at the moment -- so I am really hoping the visit will be good and that it might be a good fit for him that he will feel really good about.
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I think it could be normal but know of similar situations when the kid was hiding serious depression. So I would at least sit him down and have a short heart to heart and ask some direct questions. But hopefully it is just senioritis!
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He has taken BIology, Chemistry and Physics already, so I though Calc-based physics would look strong. Instead he is doing a General Chemistry 1, which should be commensurate with Chemistry required of first year engineers I think, so really it should be fine. I think I was just freaking out because all of this college stuff is stressful etc. Really I think he will be better off taking physics wherever he ends up going next year but again, he needs a 4th science so was trying to pick something strong (and initially he was pretty clear that he did not want to take chemistry, but now he is pretty happy with chemistry particularly given the alternative.) He hears from one early action school on Friday so maybe I will wait until after then to send in a mid-year report. He had to switch his English class as well because the one he initially chose was cancelled due to lack of enrollment. He has also added a special topics math class for fun so maybe that will be good too. I did call Duke University to ask about the switch and they seemed pretty chill. But I know the acceptance rate there suggests that admission in any case is a crapshoot.
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Ok I called one of the schools he applied to and seems like it is probably fine if he switches to chemistry. I think I am just super worried about messing this kid up (me messing up, not the kid.) Sorry for the freak out.
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So my senior in high school doing dual enrollment just came home from his second day of Engineering Physics class and says it is a clear drop (professor is sarcastic in a non-funny way and comes across as a bit of a jerk.) But he is applying to some highly competitive schools for engineering so I think that dropping this credit seriously hurts his rigor (drops from 4 sciences to 3 etc.). Any thoughts? We are looking to see if he could switch into a chemistry course instead -- would this look reasonable? Any other ideas? Am I overthinking this -- I assume this really matters but does it? Thanks.
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Son managed to finish 3 applications this week, two of those just a couple of hours before the deadline. So he is finished with applications — not sure which one of us is happier to have them done! Now we wait.
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I am so sorry.
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These spatulas are great, and they seem to be on a great sale!
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/gubbroera-rubber-spatula-black-white-50527354/#content
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Bake them with the butter and seasonings! I do this all the time. I am sure if you want to just mix them in at the end it is fine too.
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Son got in to two safety schools (yay options!) but won’t get EA decisions for the schools he is more interested in till end of January. There are a couple of other schools I think he is motivated to apply to with early January deadlines and I am hoping he adds another school that is a more likely yes as well. Christmas break though and I don’t believe progress/a start has yet been made on the school specific essays. So we shall see!
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Nevermind. I went to the College Board website and saw that he should have his score by now so started to create a College Board account for him, at which point he told me he got a text on November 6 about downloading an app for his scores. So he finally downloaded the app today. Sigh.
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My son took the test on October 11 and still hasn't gotten his score ...
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My son received his first acceptance yesterday, to the University of Kansas. 🙂
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That response would freak me out too. I don’t have an opinion on what you should do but my reaction would be the same as yours — regret that I had texted in the first place.
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Son just about an hour ago got his first four applications submitted -- all for early action deadlines of tomorrow. His second teacher recommendation finally came in today as well. This last minute thing is really not my favorite but I am so thankful some of it got done! One school he was going to apply to early action he decided to pitch, and one I was hoping he would squeeze in is now a maybe to apply for regular decision. (He is applying to several pretty selective schools so I just want him to apply to enough schools to have options -- at this point though I kind of feel like -- whatever. He will definitely get in our state flagship.) Anyway, hurray he is over the first hurdle!
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Still working on applications for the Nov. 1 deadline here. I think son is finally making a real effort to get it done. Main common app essay is essentially ready, just working on school specific ones. Hoping to get 4+ schools applied to. I modified my counselor rec letter to add some major-specific anecdotes. It is essentially ready to submit but I have held off in case I need to round-out things. Oh and one of his teacher recs has still not been completed! After submitting her name in August he finally made contact in mid-September -- not sure if the common app email to her went to spam or into the netherworld. He is supposed to email again tonight to politely remind her about the deadline. (Common app says the rec has been started.) Looking forward to November 2nd! Though there are more schools to apply to, so he won't be finished, but it will be nice to have the first round done.
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Getting a new US passport when renewal not available
in The Chat Board
Posted
My son applied for an “adult” passport at the end of March and has already received it. Seems like processing times are pretty good at the moment, at least here.