Anyone else have high school Seniors this year? College applications, etc.
 

We only have 1 kid, he's a Sr. this year.

College "Early Decisions" are coming out this week, so he should be hearing soon. With Early Decision, you pick one school, and you agree that you will attend if you get in.

What a long road (and incredibly fun) road it's been. Very mixed emotions about it coming to an end.

Anyone else with a Senior this year?

Applied to ASU?!

What does he want to do? What schools?

As a sophomore, I'm shocked at how many trees are being slaughtered to send our daughter letters and brochures from colleges around the country... schools that she'll never attend. Her #1 goal is an appointment to the Naval Academy. We'll be in full application mode by this time next year. She really wants nothing else.

Keeping our fingers crossed for the appointment as not having to pay for college will be a nice boost to our retirement account. :) She's on the right track. Excellent grades and has been made XO of her JROTC Raiders team with expectations of being CO next year. She was one of 10 students out of about 200 in her unit to get an invite to an Armed Forces Career Officer's Day a few weeks ago.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1449816306.jpg

My son is a Junior and currently enrolled in Autoshop class, and welding at a technical trade school in the mornings, and high school in the afternoons. He's kinda like me with no aspirations of going to a big 4 year college, or any idea of what he would want to do if he went.

I believe he is more apt to go to diesel tech school as an apprentice somehwere, or run heavy equipment or farm help. He's just not cut out for a rigid college education, and I have NO problem with that.

I think this is going to be the future... more kids going to tech schools and less going to 4 year colleges. Too many are graduating with degrees that don't get them jobs while good trade jobs go unfilled.

Forbes: The Great Worker Shortage

My daughter graduated HS two years ago. He early applied and knew by about this time of the year. Best thing she ever did. Plus she agreed to enroll in the summer which got her a head start. All the other kids were waiting and waiting for the letters to come in.

My oldest daughter who's in here 2nd year of High School has already picked her career and college. My youngest has no aspirations. I'm not gonna waste my MONEY just to send my kids to College for NO reason. Let them do a DIRT JOB and realize that they have to set GOALS in Life, I told my 12 & 16 year old I ain't dishin' out any money to go to College to PARTY and SCREW OFF! Just like a job they have to convince me to sign the check book.

If you FOOLs out there think it is your obligation to give your child a College Education, without a firm agenda of your childs GOAL's. Your as STUPID as they are!

I paid my own way through High School, Tech School, and I never asked anyone for assistance, and I did it Myself with NO HELP!!

Hmmmm sore spot much? ^^ In your case I would recommend community college for your kinder

Every kid is different with a different set of talents and goals. Matching their skills to school and job is not always easy, so bravo to you that helped them get there.

My 3 kids all went to college with different goals and came out with degrees, good jobs, and bought their own houses. Yay! It did cost me the equivalent of a GT2 RS but who's counting ;)

Yep. Oldest is a senior and applied for early admission but is applying to other schools as well. Someone above mentioned the amount of brochures and mailings, I too can't believe the amount of solicitations we get from colleges. With 10 to 12 on her list I am intrigued to see where she winds up. I am impressed with the options for schools to which she has good chances of getting into. She has some aspirations of skiing in college but most of those spots go to the Euros or kids that do PG years.

Wow. What a bitter a-hole. Those kids are going to be out of your house in a heartbeat. Get your head out of your ass.

Good starting point.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Things-Fall-Apart-Difficult/dp/1570623449

P.S. Alfa's are Italian trash.

If you have daughters, there is a second reason to send them to College.
That is where they could potentially meet a partner with good future prospects.

The education opportunities and the relationship opportunities for young women is very much higher there than in the workforce generally.

I have good friend who had a similar view to yours for his daughters.
Now he is so concerned that his grandchildren need to be financially supported (by him) that he cant retire. He doesnt think that his daughter's/ grandchildren's families will ever be able to 'look after' him either, like with some of our other friends.

PS: I love alfa's - had a friend with a new 1600 GTC - he was popular with the girls!!

I think more of kinda riled up. I know a lot of people who parents paid their way through college, and they are an absolute deer in the headlights of reality. At universitaet I respect fellow students more who have worked for what they have, understand how brutal the world is, and are actually in a real degree program. Then again I know a lot of people who do poly sci degrees on daddy's dime, and other kids who kiss soo much ass to get an EA "governments dime". However, I am still young and almost done with my undergrad...

BTW, I'm also surprised no one has mentioned scholarships.

Lee, is she also an athlete? My nephew went to USNA and was a state champion swimmer with good grades. He did not get one of the coveted slots, but was placed on a wait list for the following year. The academy foundation paid for half his tuition at a prep school, the same as one of hie buddies. The next year, both were in the academy.

My experience with the Academy's is that they still focus on the buddy system. Sure some high achiever kids with no backing get get in but then so do a bunch of kids from high ranking folks with connections who ultimately need to be convinced to stay the course. Sad.

The quality they ultimately produce remains high, but the kids who would perform equally but don't have the "grease" are not represented.

Live goes on.

She's on (and XO of) her JROTC unit's Raider's team. Raiders is a physical fitness competition that involves obstacle courses, building rope bridges, carrying each other, land navigation, etc. Her unit is an "honor unit with distinction," which allows the commanders to make service academy nominations. She'll still apply for one through the political channels as there are relatively few appointments available for nominations made through the JROTC units.

It is really really really hard. I knew one person who had an nomination my senior year of high school. He ended up going to west point. I have seen more football players go to division 1, then nominations. I would recommend a regular nrotc, because those are really hard to get into with the current cut backs and all that other drama. But once you make it past the first year of nrotc they'll offer you an EA/contract. It's a little harder then the other rotc units, as you're required to take calc through 2 or three, and physics with calculus through two. Get those classes done senior year of high school through dual enrollment, or AP. And you'll look that much better.

Gone are the days where you can enroll in any rotc unit, and commission in any branch of service.

It has been that way for a long time.

My son was on an Army ROTC scholarship before he injured his eye.

It was a very, very competitive process. Seek out local help, especially the reps for the service academies.

The easiest way to get into the service academies, or to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Columbia, etc. is to be a very good athlete (good enough to be recruited by those schools, which usually means some level of national attention/skill), AND be in the ballpark with academic stats for the average student at those schools.

That's what my son did! :)

It's odd and probably not 100% fair, but the front door to any of the tippy top colleges is very narrow. Most people end up getting in through one of the many side doors - athletics, legacy/"development" (i.e. high donor) families take a lot of the spots, underrepresented minorities and low income take another big chunk, it leaves relatively few spots for the rest who need to squeeze through the front door.

A dear friend of mine has a 17-year-old daughter who is applying to colleges in the US and Canada (she was born and raised in the US but is also Canadian.) I was talking to her about her college-application process this weekend. She has top choices for schools, but says she's not so concerned with getting into her top three since it is more important to her to have minimal debt and to do as well as she can at a good school even if not a great school, as getting into a great school is much more important for graduate work (she wants to go to law school.) I'm impressed at the extent to which she knows what's what. I didn't know that much when I was 17, for sure.

Got one kid off to College next year. This past week she got into Williamette and Pacific University of Oregon but still a few more to go. At first I was horrified at the annual cost of tuition and board but she is a 4.0 kid so the scholarships have made it slightly less painful. Don't get me wrong, the cost is still ridiculous especially to a guy like me that grew up in the UK and was paid to go to university. This was many years ago of course.

+1. Our son was recruited for swimming at Yale, Ga Tech, Duke and Princeton, etc. He ended up at Yale and is doing great with school. He loves it.

The 15th is the day, right? What choices did your son get?

Our son is a sophomore who will be doing college in high school next year. He gets brochures practically everyday. We are starting to visit a few. Vanderbilt will be next month. On paper I think Vandy would be perfect for him but I think he wants to stay close to home. At least if he goes local, it will most likely be free.

I've got a college freshman and a high school senior this year, so this makes two years in a row of doing the college dance.

My older son was a good athlete and scholar, but totally unmotivated in high school. He really had no idea what he wanted to do in college. He goofed around his junior year and fell out of the top 5% of his high school class, so didn't get the automatic admission to UT Austin he was looking for. Got straight A's his senior year, but by then it was too late. He's at UT Arlington now on a program to transfer to Austin for his sophomore year.

My high school senior this year has always wanted to join the military, and had aspirations of the naval academy, but he struggles with the academics. He does well in class, but tests poorly. After giving up on the academy, he's focused more on finding a good naval ROTC program. He's #3 in his NJROTC battalion, and does over 200 hours of community service per year. Great looking application until you get to the standardized test scores... He does have an acceptance from the Citadel in South Carolina, but he's looking at a few other state schools as well. I wish there was something in state he was interested in. I really don't like the idea of paying out of state tuition.

Anyone here know anything about the Citadel?

Gary

A little high strung on the response, but my outlook is basically the same.

My kids know I'm not paying for their college. I've put that in their heads for a very long time, and encourage them to do well so their financial burden is much lighter (scholarships). I have 3 kids and 2 step-kids. I pay a ton in child support, which is just one more reason why I won't be paying for college. My oldest stepson is graduating this year and has done horribly throughout high school. I married his mother when he was 12, and have been trying to coach him and explain the importance of grades, work ethic and saving (he's had a job for a little over a year now). None of it is registering. He is Native American, will go to Haskell which will be almost free for him, but I foresee him failing out. Just who he is. He is a smart guy, just lazy as can be. He got into a program last year where he went to college for half a day and HS for half a day--would have graduated HS already with an Associate's Degree under his belt. He failed out in the first semester. I couldn't have been more pissed.

Anyway...my parents didn't pay for my college. I joined the Army, did that for 10 years, going to school when I had free time between deployments and other work obligations, while married and raising my very young family. The Army paid for degree in IT (GI Bill), but I earned every penny of it. My Masters was paid for through scholarship, and I finished that in my late 30's. My kids have seen me go to school while working and supporting them. I'm the first in my family to get a degree. I'm hoping they're smart enough to see that going to college is not a privilege; it is something you work hard for if you actually want to get anything out of it.

Oh, my 3 kids are all straight A students...

I've got a senior this year as well. For some reason his thing has been West Point, and has been for as long as he knew what it was. We haven't encouraged or discouraged it, but it has persisted, and he's put himself in a position for it to happen. He crushed the SAT/ACT tests, captains his Track team, and is in leadership roles in Civil Air Patrol and Scouting. Like the other poster's picture of his daughter above, he is always coming or going in full fatigues or dress blues, color guard duty, Veterans Day parades etc. He's a real patriot and by any measure has a strong shot. Problem is there are probably 8,000 kids just like him going after 1,200 spots. We have had to use blowtorches to get him to apply to anything else. He just believes it's his destiny, which is great, but I don't think he fully grasps how long the odds really are (even with his degree of preparation).

Yeah, we're having to push a little "plan b" reality on our daughter. Don't want to dissuade her in the least, but the numbers are pretty sobering. Check out the graphic in this USA today article. The article suggest a lot of nominations go to those who contribute to politician's campaigns.
Pride and patronage

Ergo my post #17 Not being a downer but there is reality.

Thanks for the link. Best of luck to your daughter and her dream to serve. Come back and update this thread when she gets in!

I'm proud to be able to revive this thread with some good news: my son was just offered an appointment to the USMA at West Point! Huge relief to have the waiting game over with, and with such a fortunate outcome. He reports on "R-Day" June 27.

My oldest is finishing her 10th grade, and is applying to do dual enrollment at hte college I work for. She'll actually end up wtih an AA (fine arts) a few weeks before her high school diploma. Then back to it for an AA for a pre-science track, then a BAS in clinical lab sciences. Then off to the world for a masters.

Awesome news! Certainly worth of a separate post.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1453572445.jpg

This is such a great thread.

Kudos to all of the families.

Best.

Congratulations! What great news!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

Congrats gsxr. I know that was a big relief.

My son and I just got back from a visit to the Citadel, and he's decided that's what he wants to do. I've got mixed feelings since I have to figure out how to pay for it... We're still in the waiting game to find out if the ROTC scholarship is going to come through.

Gary