Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[bethbuchall]

That stinks! He still has 2 quarters so maybe he can pull his grade up and it will change again. The difference between our #1 and #2 is like one is 110.47 and the other is 110.44- the difference is so small that it wont be determined until the end of the 4th quarter 2 days before graduation!

Our school cuts it off here. This is official. He'll be ok. And he's even said that the girl who ended up valedictorian wanted it way more than he did. It's just that he was a bit blindsided this morning. I'm sure that the difference is small here, too.

 

[aprilgail]

Our school cuts it off here. This is official. He'll be ok. And he's even said that the girl who ended up valedictorian wanted it way more than he did. It's just that he was a bit blindsided this morning. I'm sure that the difference is small here, too.

oh that sucks- sorry for him!

 

[robinb]

In the grand scheme of things, this will end up a blip, but my ds is very disappointed today. They've been telling him at school all year that he's the valedictorian. They told him as recently as last month when second quarter grades posted. Today, they made the official announcements, and he's #2. He said that he would have been thrilled with #2 if they hadn't told him that he was #1 so often. (And he still is happy under the disappointment.) He'd also told people that he was valedictorian based on what the school was telling him, so he's embarrassed. I don't know what changed. No new grades came in. I ended up picking him up this morning because he was in no shape to face the rest of the day, but he's doing better this afternoon and knows that he needs to go back to school tomorrow.

Well, crap. That really stinks. Why in the heck would they tell him he's valedictorian before it's really official anyway?

 

[bethbuchall]

Well, crap. That really stinks. Why in the heck would they tell him he's valedictorian before it's really official anyway?

That's what I've been saying all along. Why tell anyone numbers until it's official? All his official transcripts that went out to college/scholarship applications before now listed him as 1/336 anyway. It won't matter in the long run, but it stung today.

 

[robinb]

That's what I've been saying all along. Why tell anyone numbers until it's official? All his official transcripts that went out to college/scholarship applications before now listed him as 1/336 anyway. It won't matter in the long run, but it stung today.

That makes sense then if it was on his transcript. The other girl must have snuck in an extra advanced class last semester which bumped her up.

 

[J'aime Paris]

There are private dorms where you can get exactly what she wants. I know that Lucky Dorm is very close to campus and they set aside a couple of floors for freshmen.

My daughter is also an only child who's never had to share. What we did was make a priority list. She'd rather be in a situation where she only has to share a bathroom with a few people than one of those huge floor bathrooms. She'd be willing to share a room if it meant having this type of bathroom.

This was an important consideration in looking at schools. As was food and seeing regular people. That's why all the schools she applied to are in cities.

My suggestion would be find out what's most important and go from there.

Good luck.

My daughter got a false impression of dorms last summer when she was dorming at Brown University- the dorm rooms were SO big, more than twice the size of "normal" dorm rooms we have been seeing. I am glad she saw the size of a dorm room she could be assigned to. She is also an only child, her bedroom is 12X24 so it is bigger than most dorm rooms they squeeze 2/3 into. She is getting the privacy tent for her bed for sure. She wasn't thrilled with the group bathroom/shower situation but she lucked out because her room was right next door to the handicap bathroom so they all used that for a private bathroom since it was just one big room with toilet and shower in it.

Thank you all for the replies. I will need to find out which freaks her out more---sharing a bedroom or the bathroom.
She may be able to room with a friend. I;m sure that would be more comfortable due to familiarity. But I'd heard rooming with a friend can be a recipe for trouble!?!
Robinb, I will check out Lucky Dorm. I've never heard of it.

 

[jasmom1022]

So just out of curiosity, how much schools did your senior apply to? Did you visit all/most of them before applying? Is there a clear favorite?

DS applied to 5. We visited 4 of them plus 2 others he didn't apply to. He was not interested in visiting UMASS-Lowell, as it's his last choice. I made him apply there as his safety school and it's only 20 minutes away from home.

So far, he's been accepted to UNH and UCONN. Still waiting to hear from Northeastern, which is his first choice and UMASS-Amherst.

-Dianne

 

[robinb]

Thank you all for the replies. I will need to find out which freaks her out more---sharing a bedroom or the bathroom.
She may be able to room with a friend. I;m sure that would be more comfortable due to familiarity. But I'd heard rooming with a friend can be a recipe for trouble!?!
Robinb, I will check out Lucky Dorm. I've never heard of it.

I think I'm lucky that my DD's boyfriend lives in a UW dorm and she visits him there a few times a month so she knows what she's getting into. My DD has joined a couple of Facebook groups for newly admitted students at Iowa State and Wisconsin in order to "meet" people in advance.

Lucky Dorm: http://www.dormsatmadison.com/lucky-dorm/ .

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

In the grand scheme of things, this will end up a blip, but my ds is very disappointed today. They've been telling him at school all year that he's the valedictorian. They told him as recently as last month when second quarter grades posted. Today, they made the official announcements, and he's #2. He said that he would have been thrilled with #2 if they hadn't told him that he was #1 so often. (And he still is happy under the disappointment.) He'd also told people that he was valedictorian based on what the school was telling him, so he's embarrassed. I don't know what changed. No new grades came in. I ended up picking him up this morning because he was in no shape to face the rest of the day, but he's doing better this afternoon and knows that he needs to go back to school tomorrow.

This makes me so mad at your son's school! I am sorry this happened to him; it's like they set him up for disappointment. Getting valedictorian is a big deal and to have the rug pulled out from under you is awful. Does his school do salutatorian and have the salutatorian also speak at graduation? That would be some consolation at least.

 

[lilia78]

My son only applied to one as was accepted to that one back in early December and he accepted his position and has paid his housing deposit as well. While he didn't visit this university in grade 12 he's seen in probably close to a dozen times in his life, so he's very familiar with it.

 

[SmallWorld71]

That's what I've been saying all along. Why tell anyone numbers until it's official? All his official transcripts that went out to college/scholarship applications before now listed him as 1/336 anyway. It won't matter in the long run, but it stung today.

How frustrating! I am sorry.

 

[bethbuchall]

This makes me so mad at your son's school! I am sorry this happened to him; it's like they set him up for disappointment. Getting valedictorian is a big deal and to have the rug pulled out from under you is awful. Does his school do salutatorian and have the salutatorian also speak at graduation? That would be some consolation at least.

Thanks for understanding his feelings. Yes, he's salutatorian and will speak. Though the only part of valedictorian that he wasn't looking forward to was speaking at graduation. I guess he should have tried for #3. Once he calmed down and we talked about it, he said that he was mostly upset at how it was handled. He wouldn't have been upset if several people (principals, guidance counselor) hadn't told him on several occasions that he was going to be the valedictorian. The guidance counselor told him before grades posted in January that as long as he had 90s in everything, he would stay on top. They said after grades were posted that he was #1. But I guess all that wasn't official and something changed in the calculations. They didn't acknowledge that his expectations had been set high and that he was disappointed in the fact that he didn't get what he was expecting. They simply said, "Congratulations, you're salutatorian. You can go now." When he showed disappointment, they told him that it was an accomplishment and that he was still smart, etc. He wasn't thinking that it wasn't an accomplishment; he was thinking wait, I was told that I was going to be valedictorian, and I'm really disappointed that's not true. He's also embarrassed because a lot of people were expecting him to be #1 and now he's not. But he is completely fine now. He just needed a little space to process it all without his classmates around and a little validation that his feelings weren't wrong/petty. (There's also a lot of backstory with the girl who is now valedictorian...)

I think that knowing they had him set up like this, they should have called him down on Friday afternoon and told him what was coming on Monday. Then he could have processed it over the weekend instead of in front of everyone at school.

 

[sksjasams]

Thanks for understanding his feelings. Yes, he's salutatorian and will speak. Though the only part of valedictorian that he wasn't looking forward to was speaking at graduation. I guess he should have tried for #3. Once he calmed down and we talked about it, he said that he was mostly upset at how it was handled. He wouldn't have been upset if several people (principals, guidance counselor) hadn't told him on several occasions that he was going to be the valedictorian. The guidance counselor told him before grades posted in January that as long as he had 90s in everything, he would stay on top. They said after grades were posted that he was #1. But I guess all that wasn't official and something changed in the calculations. They didn't acknowledge that his expectations had been set high and that he was disappointed in the fact that he didn't get what he was expecting. They simply said, "Congratulations, you're salutatorian. You can go now." When he showed disappointment, they told him that it was an accomplishment and that he was still smart, etc. He wasn't thinking that it wasn't an accomplishment; he was thinking wait, I was told that I was going to be valedictorian, and I'm really disappointed that's not true. He's also embarrassed because a lot of people were expecting him to be #1 and now he's not. But he is completely fine now. He just needed a little space to process it all without his classmates around and a little validation that his feelings weren't wrong/petty. (There's also a lot of backstory with the girl who is now valedictorian...)

I think that knowing they had him set up like this, they should have called him down on Friday afternoon and told him what was coming on Monday. Then he could have processed it over the weekend instead of in front of everyone at school.

It really was handled badly, and I feel awful for your DS. It would honestly take all my will power not to go down there and let them know just how badly it was handled. I'm glad your DS is doing better now. Hugs to you both...

 

[lovesdumbo]

Beth-I'm so sorry to hear what DS had to go though. So poorly handled. It sure illustrates his character that he was able to bounce back so quickly! When does he hear from U Buffalo about presidential scholarship.


DD is at overnight at Oswego. She texted me last night "I definitely want to go here." I pick her up at 9:45. Can't wait to hear what she has to say.

 

[bjscheel]

Track practice started yesterday, officially. She's been weight lifting three days a week at 6:30 am for a while now though, and running on her own at the Fitness Center whenever she got a chance. Hoping for great things this season (and for good weather). Just going to be a little tricky getting her work hours in too. She was going to ask if she could drop her Meal Prep class to go to work at the end of the day, but I don't think she has asked yet, or if that's even a possibility.

As far as class rank, DD's last report card briefly said 2nd, and we were pretty excited, but then the ranking disappeared from the site. The transcript she requested for a scholarship said 7th, so whatever...we know she won't get 1st because that belongs to the only girl in school who has taken an AP class and is over 4.0.

DD entered a Create A Greeting Card scholarship for a greeting card company for $10,000. We'll know 3/7 if hers is up for this round's voting (I expect it will be- they put the best 100 on a month and many of them are pretty amateur looking). I just don't like that we will have to try to get people to vote- that's annoying. The judges do have some say as well, but enough votes can get you moved on automatically so of course we'll try.

 

[sksjasams]

DD entered a Create A Greeting Card scholarship for a greeting card company for $10,000. We'll know 3/7 if hers is up for this round's voting (I expect it will be- they put the best 100 on a month and many of them are pretty amateur looking). I just don't like that we will have to try to get people to vote- that's annoying. The judges do have some say as well, but enough votes can get you moved on automatically so of course we'll try.

Can we vote? If so, feel free to post a link! Good luck to your DD - that is a huge scholarship!

 

[bjscheel]

Can we vote? If so, feel free to post a link! Good luck to your DD - that is a huge scholarship!

Yeah, I'll let you guys know when it's posted. You have to like the company's FB page first too, but you can unlike it after it's over I guess! DD is going to get her multimedia teacher involved, because she is the queen of getting the kids to vote on things, but she'll have to unblock FB from the school laptops! Not to mention the school will also receive $1000, so she'll be all over that.

 

[Tinijocaro]

The transcript she requested for a scholarship said 7th, so whatever...we know she won't get 1st because that belongs to the only girl in school who has taken an AP class and is over 4.0.

Why don't girls take AP classes? Most of our top ten are girls, although many of them didn't take APs. My ds is #10.

 

[bjscheel]

Why don't girls take AP classes? Most of our top ten are girls, although many of them didn't take APs. My ds is #10.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like it was just girls, AP classes aren't a thing here for any of the students. I'm not sure if the #1 student took it online or at another school.

 

[aprilgail]

Sorry, didn't mean to sound like it was just girls, AP classes aren't a thing here for any of the students. I'm not sure if the #1 student took it online or at another school.

What do they offer in place of AP? AP is big here- my friends son started college with a year and a half done thanks to AP classes- what a savings that will be!