Congrats to your daughter Denise! My freshman son is loving everything about SCAD. I wanted you to know there is a fairly active SCAD Parents Facebook group that was very helpful to me last summer/fall in figuring out all the logistics. Several equestrian parents in the group if your daughter is going to be on the team. My son is a varsity athlete, and it is hard but doable. Good luck.

It is the end of the season and Conference meets are starting so coaches are very busy. I would have my kid send an email-easier to answer since the coach can reply at any time. Her email address should be on their website. Good luck! My freshman son is swimming in college and having a great time.

Denise- I will PM you. Don't want to clog this thread with school-specific information. For others though, I do realize I made a mistake and my niece has academic, artistic and leadership scholarships. My son was offered academic (he did not submit a portfolio) but at SCAD students can not combine athletic money with other scholarships. Currently you can combine non-athletic scholarships.

My son is a very, very happy freshman at SCAD. My niece is a very, very happy freshman at SCAD. Submit as much as possible for the most scholarship money. Would she be on the equestrian team? The facilities are amazing! My son is on athletic scholarship, my niece on academic and leadership. I would be happy to answer questions.

New this year is registration and approval for students competing for NAIA schools. The process is similar but easier than NCAA. I have had experience with both NCAA DI and NAIA and it is not that hard. Easier, imo, than getting approval to compete for the local public school in FL. I agree that the people at the NCAA are very helpful. Never had to call NAIA but they are slow to process paperwork and will not give early approval to homeschoolers....ugh. Hopefully that will change--this is the first year that they are determining eligibility.

Last month I joined Groupon in my son's college town. So far, I have picked up a couple of restaurant coupons and a couple of fun, recreational activity coupons. I plan to send him him one every couple of weeks. His cousin will be at the same school so I have been buying them for her as well, hoping they can spend some time together. My older son appreciated anything edible. And money.

You can't control the weather or lots of other things. But if you focus on 2 classes to get done and then take 2 more, it may be less stressful. Just a thought but you may deal better. My kids did best with 2 at a time--averaging 4-5 FLVS classes a year. Unlike a pp, we had a good experience with FLVS. Not as rigorous as our home classes, but a decent introduction to the "real world" they are both dealing with now. And we were able to get good LOR from FLVS teachers. Both my kids were accepted at each college to which they applied.

Have you taken any classes through FLVS? My kids have taken 8-10 FLVS classes. A FLVS teacher suggested only taking 2 classes at a time. The kids both feel this was good advice. Generally they finished the class early and then started another. But they like block scheduling so maybe you would enjoy 4 at one time. If you have any computer problems and most of your coursework is online, you could end up very far behind. We went through hurricanes one year, and even though we had power and access, the instructors were unable to grade for a couple of weeks.

My oldest left last year and my youngest is set to leave in a few weeks. Because our kids are moving on to something new and exciting, we can sometimes forget exactly what they are going through. Yes, I will be coming home to an empty nest, but it will all be familiar. My bed, my kitchen, my (private) bathroom. My son, on the other hand, will be dealing with all NEW things. Sharing a dorm room, cafeteria eating for all meals, sharing a bathroom, learning his way around campus, etc., not to mention acclimating to classes. My older son said the complete lack of the familiar was the hardest part of transitioning. Not really sure if we moms can do anything about that. I just was not as aware of that when my oldest first left and I hope to do better this time around. Good luck to all you moms who are launching children over the next few weeks!

I would want to go during the regular school year. We hit a couple of schools during Spring Break and there is not much appeal to a half alive campus. I have done the tour and info session at UNC-W and I am not sure you need to worry about your "talker" on the tour. It is a very active tour (lots of walking) and very relaxed. They split us by major and I think our tour group only had one other family. There was so much activity going on around us, (long boarders, cyclists, groups with tables set up) that I had to fight to pay attention to the tour guide. The info session is not very useful, imo. Would your oldest be willing to do the tour and info session alone? You could drop her off and take the younger kids over to the beach which is so close and just gorgeous. Hope you find a solution. I love Wilmington!

I used a very simple template for my transcripts, for both the NCAA and colleges. To be honest, I don't remember what the NCAA example looks like. I just listed the class name and grade by school year along with where the class was taken. I found FHSAA (the high school sports association) much more difficult to deal with than the NCAA in regards to homeschooling. I felt like the goal of FHSAA was to keep homeschoolers from competing. I did not get that feeling from the NCAA at all.

My kids have taken Biology (honors), Marine Science (honors) and Chemistry (regular) through FLVS. Marine Science was their favorite. My older son did fine with the Chemistry class. My younger son took it a year later and it was "new and improved". Not. Many kinks and typos--I would never have my kids take a newer course again. Chemistry had a couple of collaboration assignments which were a huge pain, just like they can be in public school. Labs were kitchen labs when my older son took it. He was mailed a kit with supplies. The new and improved Chemistry used all "virtual labs". Think click on a beaker after putting on your virtual goggles. Meh.

Both of my kids have taken several FLVS classes, though never a math class. They did take a few science classes and I think those were the hardest to take on-line. I probably would not have continued with further science classes, but FLVS is NCAA approved and my kids wanted the option to continue their sports in college. If I was going to do it again, I would make sure that the class your kid is taking is NOT a new version. My oldest took Chemistry with few problems. My younger took it the next year and it was a "new and improved" version. NOT. Lots of kinks to work out and many typos/mistakes throughout. I agree that the instructors are available and helpful. My son was able to build relationships with several that wrote very nice recommendation letters when he was applying to colleges. As a pp said, you have a month-long grace period. I think you could figure out if it was working for you in that time period.

Robin-- Congrats to your daughter and your whole family! I know how hard athletes work---my son is headed off next year on a swim scholarship. I anticipate wonderful things for him in college. The team is very cohesive and strong. I am sure your daughter will flourish both on the field and in the classroom!

My son's school has a Facebook page for incoming freshman and they are meeting and finding roommates through that. I am not familiar with Room Surf, but curious as to why there is a fee. I will have to go look it up!