High School Class of 2016/College Class 2020

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I have twins that are seniors . Hard to belive that they grew up so fast! DS is going to graduate midsemester. He's already been accepted to Northern Illinois University and is going to major in computer science and minor in history. DH is so proud because he got his BS in Computer Science from NIU. DD just received a National Merit Scholarship Letter of Commendation, only 4 girls in their class of 700 received that honor. She retook her ACT and scored very high. She has her college choices narrowed down to four and needs to complete her visits this month. She just doesn't know what she wants to major in yet. We are so proud of our kids and it has been pure joy raising them!

 

[indimom]

HannaBelle: I really hope you can get a handle on the migraines, that must be difficult. That would probably have me seriously considering a single room. Hope it improves soon.

Mom2DDs: my daughter can't stand transition/change, never could. She just desperately wants to get this finalized. So, I never really had to push her on the applications. She spent quite a few evenings complaining about how long it was taking for test scores to get to the schools. lol.

Overseas? Now, that's exciting!! Is it her top choice? That would be both exciting and frightening! Will you be able to visit during the year?

wishesuponastar: DD says she's not coming home except for holidays, ha ha. I felt the same way when I went, and I really didn't come home often. So, I guess I earned it.
She does have a car though, so she'll just drive back when she wants to. The furthest school she's looked at is only 4 hours away, and her "top choice" is less than an hour from home, so they are all pretty close.
I'm going to do my best to let her have her freedom once she's there. It will be hard, since it'll just be me and the boys at that point, but I don't want to smother her...

 

[DawnM]

Update for us:

My son, 17, has decided to go to our local CC in the Simulation and Game Development program. He will start this next semester as a high school student in dual enrollment.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Update for us:

My son, 17, has decided to go to our local CC in the Simulation and Game Development program. He will start this next semester as a high school student in dual enrollment.

That sounds like an interesting program, Dawn. And probably very affordable, too!

Anyone else read Debt Free U? Someone mentioned it on a thread several months back - it's a good read!

 

[wishesuponastar]

Indimom- that's nice your daughter will have a car on campus. You never know, she might pop in for a visit every now and then. Mom's cooking might look pretty good afterall lol

 

[DawnM]

That sounds like an interesting program, Dawn. And probably very affordable, too!

Anyone else read Debt Free U? Someone mentioned it on a thread several months back - it's a good read!

View attachment 127529

Yes, it is a new program added this past year. I am hoping he will be able to follow it through. It is a 68 credit program with only 6 credits being general Ed classes (one English and one math class.) The rest are specific to the program.

Our local CC is $72 per credit hour, or $1080 max per semester. I don't ever see him taking more than 15 credits per semester, so we will need to pay the $72 per credit hour. Pretty darn cheap. And we should get some tax benefits as well, so it will most likely be less.

The next issue is that he won't drive. So, we were moving anyway, but we will make sure we live on the bus route somewhere. He isn't really keen on taking the bus, but we cannot be his taxi all the time as we have other places to be and things to do. Hopefully after a few times he will feel ok about the bus. We will drive him to the bus stop for now because we live a few miles from the nearest bus stop, but once we move, I want him more independent.

Dawn

 

[Kimberlyann11]

DDs marching band got straight 1's at festival last night and then she came home to her first college acceptance letter. It's not her first choice, but it's a pretty nice little school about 50 minutes from home (University of Michigan - Dearborn campus). Then today we got a call that her senior pictures are finally in. She's been having a good couple of days.

 

[Mom2DDs]

Well, my DD hit the button last night to over half of her college apps. She came home all excited with the news that one of the college reps that was at her high school yesterday told she could probably get a full ride based on her ACT, SAT and GPA to one of the state colleges she's applying and he must have spoken to the Admissions officer because I got home to a message from them. They want for her to come and meet with them - so let's see - it's not one that I liked because of the area surrounding it but if they give her lots of money, I'll get over it

 

[punkin]

DD hasn't sent out any apps yet. I'm getting a bit nervous.

 

[indimom]

It's so interesting hearing about all the different plans and paths these kids are taking!

Pea-N-Me, that sounds like an interesting book. Do you think it's something an 18yo would read (assuming they do have an interest in limiting debt while in school?) ??

 

[punkin]

DD has been working on essays all day...the common app essay is mostly done. Two supplements are finished and a third started. It's a lot of work and she had 13 schools on her list.

 

[okeydokey]

The applications DD will upload have a word limit of 500 to 650 words. So, concise and meaningful thoughts. She hasn't gone past the thinking stage yet. One of the applications is due Oct 16 for early decision. It's a good thing she works well under pressure.

 

[Pikester]

I have twins that are seniors . Hard to belive that they grew up so fast! DS is going to graduate midsemester. He's already been accepted to Northern Illinois University and is going to major in computer science and minor in history. DH is so proud because he got his BS in Computer Science from NIU. DD just received a National Merit Scholarship Letter of Commendation, only 4 girls in their class of 700 received that honor. She retook her ACT and scored very high. She has her college choices narrowed down to four and needs to complete her visits this month. She just doesn't know what she wants to major in yet. We are so proud of our kids and it has been pure joy raising them!

Your daughter and son sound just like my DS18. He wants to major in Computer Science and loves history so I could see him minoring in that. He also received a NMS letter of Commendation. It's a huge deal here in my town as he was the only to do so in a few years. Our high school has less then 400 kids in it.

Congratulations to your daughter and I hope both of your children have a great college experience!

 

[Pikester]

HannaBelle: I really hope you can get a handle on the migraines, that must be difficult. That would probably have me seriously considering a single room. Hope it improves soon.

Mom2DDs: my daughter can't stand transition/change, never could. She just desperately wants to get this finalized. So, I never really had to push her on the applications. She spent quite a few evenings complaining about how long it was taking for test scores to get to the schools. lol.

Overseas? Now, that's exciting!! Is it her top choice? That would be both exciting and frightening! Will you be able to visit during the year?

wishesuponastar: DD says she's not coming home except for holidays, ha ha. I felt the same way when I went, and I really didn't come home often. So, I guess I earned it.
She does have a car though, so she'll just drive back when she wants to. The furthest school she's looked at is only 4 hours away, and her "top choice" is less than an hour from home, so they are all pretty close.
I'm going to do my best to let her have her freedom once she's there. It will be hard, since it'll just be me and the boys at that point, but I don't want to smother her...

That's great that the college will let your daughter have her car on campus. Many of the schools my son has looked at do not allow Freshman to have cars so his will stay here at our house to be used by his younger brother (once he actually gets his license that is )

 

[MomofKatie]

DD has submitted 4 applications so far (God bless the Common App!) and has 3 left to finish by the end of the year. She has heard back from Alabama so far- she was accepted with a full tuition scholarship! Now she needs to apply for their Honors College and Fellows program. She applied "early action" to the big state university here (UNC), so she should hear from them as well by mid-December.

Finals for Trimester 1 start on Friday. She comes home next Wednesday for Trimester break, and we head to Tuscaloosa to visit U of Alabama the next day. Then she heads back to school in time for the 11/10 start of Trimester 2. She will be taking the following classes:
AP Calculus BC
Intermediate Latin
Classic Genetics
African Culture and Literature
Mentoring (off campus research at UNC Chapel Hill twice a week in her area of study- DNA chemistry)

The senior portrait proofs came a few weeks ago and they are beautiful. I teared up a little, thinking of my BABY graduating soon! Orders for cap/gown and graduation announcements will be due in another few weeks. It feels like senior year is racing by!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Stresses many of us can relate to!

Having a HS Senior

http://www.disboards.com/threads/having-a-hs-senior.3459795/

 

[punkin]

DH and I have an appointment with DD's school's college counselor later this week. I have no idea what we should be discussing.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Pea-N-Me, that sounds like an interesting book. Do you think it's something an 18yo would read (assuming they do have an interest in limiting debt while in school?) ??

Sure - the author was in college when he wrote it, so if someone's super motivated to save, I could see an 18 yo reading (it if they could fit it into their busy schedule). I think it'll probably mainly be parents reading it, though, realistically. I found there was a lot of good information in there that made a lot of sense to me.

DH and I have an appointment with DD's school's college counselor later this week. I have no idea what we should be discussing.

Interesting - and good that you have counselors just for college! We don't have that, persay, and I haven't found our general counselors to be particularly helpful. But I guess things to discuss would be career choices, whether particular colleges would be a good fit academically and financially, looking at all the options, your DD's specifics like GPA and SAT/ACT scores, as in, which schools would she get into with them, etc. One thing our school did do was plot students' numbers on a graph with other kids from their school who've applied to the colleges they're applying to and see where they fit in, which was helpful.

 

[punkin]

Interesting - and good that you have counselors just for college! We don't have that, persay, and I haven't found our general counselors to be particularly helpful. But I guess things to discuss would be career choices, whether particular colleges would be a good fit academically and financially, looking at all the options, your DD's specifics like GPA and SAT/ACT scores, as in, which schools would she get into with them, etc. One thing our school did do was plot students' numbers on a graph with other kids from their school who've applied to the colleges they're applying to and see where they fit in, which was helpful.

DD and I already did a lot of that research on our own and I am pretty happy with DD's list as it stands. She has a couple reaches, several matches, and entirely too many safeties (but that was her choice - she's very anxious and is positive she won't get in anywhere). I guess, we'll just go and see what happens. I vaguely remember doing this 6 years ago with my oldest and I don't particularly remember it being very useful. The school requires it before they send anything out though.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My two are done with their applications, thankfully. Sent in. DD was able to just use the Common App, and DS had to do both Common App and regular online application for a school that didn't use the Common App. They'd done a lot of it in school.