College Results
And Zoë's college results are in, mostly. She got in everywhere but was deferred to the regular round of admission for UMich. It means she doesn't know where she's going yet, since she likes Michigan. Her next choice is now flip flopping between Univ South Carolina and Penn State. I prefer South Carolina, because they gave her scads of merit money (it works out cheaper than even our in-state schools that also gave her scads of merit money). But it's her decision, other than my telling her she needs to basically treat UMich as a pie-in-the-sky, and get down to the serious work of deciding between South Carolina or Penn State.
I'm going to try to work out with her a way to visit both the in-play schools. I'm not going to make her visit the rest of the acceptances since just getting to her two top choices will be a challenge. If it happens. Penn State can at least be a day trip, but it won't be a real college visit. It'd let her spend some time on campus and get a feel for the environment. It's been a while since she's been to Columbia, so we'll need to get back to South Carolina as well. I was also debating heavily encouraging her to go to Purdue. But I'm not sure visiting would push it up her ranking any, so probably a waste of time. It's a great school, though. Anyway, instead of being in the final stretch, turns out there're a few more months to wait. (Though if we're lucky, in deciding between Penn State and Univ of South Carolina, she'll fall (back) in love, and Michigan will just naturally cease to be that interesting.) I guess I'm fortunate that she's not waffling among all the schools on her list. Given everything, I was surprised she had done so well. Applications are up insane numbers at a lot of schools.
On the other hand, this isn't a bad thing because it means her second semester senior year is semi-meaningful (assuming she ultimately gets wait listed at UMich) so she can't write it off. Which is helpful, because she's having a hard time staying interested. Though she really is doing a bang up job, even with everything that's going on. Though she's already said it doesn't matter what she gets on the AP Bio exam, she's not taking college credit for it because she doesn't feel like she's learning enough. She's got something like a 98 average in that class though, so maybe she'll rethink it depending on her result. That, too, is months away though.
We're definitely feeling in the home stretch though. She's got both feet out of the door from high school, a consequence of covid I think, as well as just being ready for high school. I reminded her she could do a gap year or something if she wanted, but she has no interest in wasting time and the thought of being "old" (you know, like 22) when she graduates from college is horrifying. Which does make some amount of sense since she's thinking dental or med school after undergrad. And she wants to have kids, so she keeps calculating career + child bearing and raising, and feeling like she's somewhat on a rail if she wants to meet all her goals. I expect she'll be surprised when her plans shift radically as she gets older. :)
I'm going to try to work out with her a way to visit both the in-play schools. I'm not going to make her visit the rest of the acceptances since just getting to her two top choices will be a challenge. If it happens. Penn State can at least be a day trip, but it won't be a real college visit. It'd let her spend some time on campus and get a feel for the environment. It's been a while since she's been to Columbia, so we'll need to get back to South Carolina as well. I was also debating heavily encouraging her to go to Purdue. But I'm not sure visiting would push it up her ranking any, so probably a waste of time. It's a great school, though. Anyway, instead of being in the final stretch, turns out there're a few more months to wait. (Though if we're lucky, in deciding between Penn State and Univ of South Carolina, she'll fall (back) in love, and Michigan will just naturally cease to be that interesting.) I guess I'm fortunate that she's not waffling among all the schools on her list. Given everything, I was surprised she had done so well. Applications are up insane numbers at a lot of schools.
On the other hand, this isn't a bad thing because it means her second semester senior year is semi-meaningful (assuming she ultimately gets wait listed at UMich) so she can't write it off. Which is helpful, because she's having a hard time staying interested. Though she really is doing a bang up job, even with everything that's going on. Though she's already said it doesn't matter what she gets on the AP Bio exam, she's not taking college credit for it because she doesn't feel like she's learning enough. She's got something like a 98 average in that class though, so maybe she'll rethink it depending on her result. That, too, is months away though.
We're definitely feeling in the home stretch though. She's got both feet out of the door from high school, a consequence of covid I think, as well as just being ready for high school. I reminded her she could do a gap year or something if she wanted, but she has no interest in wasting time and the thought of being "old" (you know, like 22) when she graduates from college is horrifying. Which does make some amount of sense since she's thinking dental or med school after undergrad. And she wants to have kids, so she keeps calculating career + child bearing and raising, and feeling like she's somewhat on a rail if she wants to meet all her goals. I expect she'll be surprised when her plans shift radically as she gets older. :)