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Due to popular demand, this is a continuation of the never ending thread. Enjoy

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 04:52 pm: Edit

yay! new thread!

ugh today was the first day back, and got my midterm grades. UGH UGH UGH. i think im going to wind up with 3 A- final grades *faints*

Class/1st q/2nd q/exam/final grade
AP French/A-/?/?/? (i would ask but i dont care)
Latin 2/A+/A+/A+/A+
AP English/A/A/B(!!!)/A-
AP Calc BC/A/A/A/A
AP Enviro Sci/A/A/B(!!)/A-
AP Bio/A-/A/--/A

adasghgaj;as. so those might not look *that* bad, but those are the first 2 (possibly 3)B's i have ever gotten on exams in my life, and the first B's that will ever show up on my report card.

the AP English one was due to the fact that she let the other class use their books, but didn't let ours. well she didnt *let* them, but she didnt say they couldnt, so they did. then she realized what she did, and told our class we COULDNT. this is after the other class confirmed to us that we COULD, so thus half of us didnt study, assuming we could flip to the page and find the answer...aghhhhh! i worked so hard and wound up with a B on the final for the STUPIDEST reason.

oh, and nobody got an A on the AP Environmental one, because idiot teacher is stupid. people in the regular enviro sci class averaged a D and he still wasnt smart enough to CURVE IT. *fumes*

i hate exams. they cant RAISE your grade, but can hurt it. i worked hard for those A's, only to be brought down by one stupid test for various DUMB reasons and DUMB teachers. i know A-'s dont look that bad to any of you guys, but i am just so angry because i had been straight A/A+'s for so long, and now i only have 1 A+...while fresh/soph years i almost had straight A+'s.

and now midyear reports are going to be sent out and my grade trend will appear "downward"...and now i'm afraid my class rank will DROP (!!!!) because of my "terrible" grades (the top 10 are all really close, and i know my grades werent as good this semester as some of the kids below me).

okay i need to stop freaking out. i was totally happy i got an A on my BC Calc one, so i'll just think about that for now.

my H interview is tomorrow at 11 AM (yes, during school). i have a 1.5 hour break in the middle of the day thanks to studyhall/lunch back to back so he is coming in then and we are meeting in a conference room. ergh, i dont want to get all dressed up for an entire day of school, so i think i will compromise my attire a bit.

to top it off, we've got Model UN meet this weekend that we need to meet for everyday, and Latin Convention (JCL) stuff is starting this week and i have to go to practices for Certamen and start going to workdays and begin my projects, Academic Challenge practices have been doubled becuase our team is appearing on TV (AHH!), and we just received our AP Registration stuff...and i have 3 new projects in AP English...and the Valentines Dance is in 2 weeks and its girls ask guys and i've been so caught up i didnt realize this and now i dont know who to ask (lol...).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

how did i get myself into this? im scheduled every second of the day and its freaking me out. thank goodness i have an extra study hall to get stuff done.

Good luck to your D on her Calc exam TheDad.

Hopefully i wont make a complete fool out of myself at my H interview tomorrow (hopefully i'll remember to show up!!!).

hopefully the Legally Blonde occurence is a good sign

By Spiffybrownboy (Spiffybrownboy) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 05:21 pm: Edit

Oh no... an A-... let me get you a gun.

Calm down.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 05:30 pm: Edit

Sunshine:

Bring a change of clothes to school... dress up for the am if need be, but after the interview, throw on normal school clothes.

Good luck!

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 06:52 pm: Edit

This is the thread that never ends.
It goes on and on my friends.
Some people started posting here
not knowing what it was,
and they'll continue posting here
forever just because,
This is the thread that never ends....

By Bigtmushett (Bigtmushett) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 08:07 pm: Edit

Since when did an A- become a tragedy? Many people get into the top schools with them on there records. Many even have (gasp!!) a smattering of B's on their record. There's no need to wig out because you didn't get straight A+'s.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 08:48 pm: Edit

Do most schools do the whole plus minus thing? We just get As or Bs.

Argh, one last exam. *scary*

Harvard interview is looming on Friday, but i"m not worried about it. lol. yes, essie, keep telling yourself that.

No school tomorrow because I don't have exams but the calc test is thursday which i need to review for. erk. While, calc isn't my worse subject, I can't go into a test blind :-P. And then no school til WEDNESDAY. I know, i keep repeating that, but it's the only thing that keeps me studying.

One test until i'm a second semester senior. I can't help but count down. and i can't really think of anything else. :-P good luck everyone.
oh, and an A- is NOT bad.

all we have to do is wait.....

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 08:49 pm: Edit

oh, and chinese new year is on the 22nd this year right? :-D i love being half, i enjoy all holidays!

-i

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 09:12 pm: Edit

second semester senior year is awesome, granted i've only had one day (Today!), but i started it off right on target by completely not doing my AP French hw despite the 5-day weekend

yes yes i know the A- will not keep me out of college etc etc, but im just mad at myself and mad at everythng because I HATE MIDTERMS. *throws a fit* im so glad those were my last ones of high school. i just...cant stand them! and i am SO mad that one of my best friends' schools that planned on having them this weekend decided people with less than B averages in classes were the ONLY ones who had to take the exam. not.fair.

ah, thats okay. i'm an american idol addict, so now i must waste an hour a day in front of the television. i have yet to start my hw, but thank goodness i dont have *too* much.

tomorrow we're going out at night to celebrate Chinese New Year but im staying after school to finish Model UN stuff so tomorrow will be a *VERY* busy night.

off to calc hw

*crosses fingers for a good H interview*

good luck Esmerelda & Upandover, and HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! (red envelopes rock!)

thank you for the suggestion Aries- i will surely bring a change of clothes. im not the dress-up sorta girl

By Slayer (Slayer) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 10:55 pm: Edit

weird, yall's schools differentiate between A, A-, and A+?! mine doesn't record that at all. it's just A or B or whatever, there's no diff between a 92.5 and a 100.

By Audreyhepburn (Audreyhepburn) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 10:59 pm: Edit

YAY for the new thread...
a toast to twinkle for inspiring it!

Digmedia- LOL

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 11:06 pm: Edit

the +/- system is used to ensure that there is only one valedictorian, as its very difficult for two people to get the same number of plusses and minuses. i know the val this year has almost complete A+'s...im #3 with about 1/2 A+'s, the other 3/8th A's, and 1/8th A-'s, and my friend whos #9 has more A-'s and even a few B+'s (all in honors/AP/weighted classes).

however, at our school. honors=AP weight wise and difficulty wise. both are the "advanced" track. classes are either REGULAR or WEIGHTED.

By Slayer (Slayer) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 12:00 am: Edit

ohhhh...see that makes sense. our school would probably benefit from that. my class rank isn't so great because a lot of people get honors for things like JOURNALISM (from like 10th grade on) and chorus and band and classes like that which i dont have.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 02:07 am: Edit

The +/- is a potential penalty to good students because many places won't give the A+ but will give the A-. The A- is the b*tch grade for top students.

Bigtmushett, when you're competitive and have a great record, you don't want to yield on anything. The academic equivalent of fighter pilots. My D isn't quite in that league, a solid 3.9 student...of her five non-A grades, three are in math and one is in Physics.

Thanks, AT, but the final is over. She thinks she did okay, she knows she didn't bomb it. I just think she'd be mortified to get a C. She loves the Calc BC class, the Calc BC material, and the Calc BC teacher...it's just the kind of thing she couldn't get an A on without dropping ballet, for which she might as well stop breathing. By my calculation, she needs a 77 to squeak by with a B-. The B- goes on the report card but the "-" isn't calculated in the GPA. I think she needs an 86 to get a straight B...not impossible but I wouldn't bet on it, this teacher's tests are *hard*. She doesn't even let the students keep them or copy questions down when they're looking at them afterwards...the students see them, no writing materials allowed to be out, and then have to turn them back in.

The Calc class is interesting. The teacher also teaches at UCLA. The class is one of those rare AP classes (imo) that is college level material taught as if at a college, as opposed to college level material taught in hs.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 10:52 am: Edit

TheDad:

My best wishes to your D for getting a B in calc. It's tough that the teacher won't let them keep their exams - I always found it easiest to review for finals by looking at old tests.

If it is any consolation to her, I had a very difficult calc teacher in high school - he taught at Bentley shortly after "retiring," then came out of retirement to teach at my old h.s. again - something about the college kids not working as hard as we did. At any rate, many students got Bs (even Cs) in the class and 5s on the AP - regardless of her grade, she could do quite well on the AP and save herself from re-taking it in college.

When I was a senior, we did countdowns until the end of school. (We celebrated 100 days, 50 days, and had posters and such for each of the final 25 days.) First off, how many days do you guys have left? Secondly... how many days until the long-anticipated 01 April?

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Thedad- I second the best wishes to your D getting a B in calc. Supposedly the Calc AB class at my school had a rough go of it on the midterm (and most of the kids in the class are math-inclined... most of the kids who have a real humanities bent are in the non-AP calc class), so I can only imagine what a Calc BC midterm/final (whatever your school calls them) would be like, especially with a teacher who teaches at the college level at a university.

I agree, those A-'s can be real...pains in the butt. We record grades numerically and there are major differences in the reward of grade points for an A+, A, A-, etc, even with weighting for AP and honors classes. Sometimes it even works out where getting an A in an easier class would reward more points than getting a much harder earned B in a more difficult class, but usually, the weighting helps avoid those discrepancies. Sometimes it's unfair because classes like anatomy- which is one of the most difficult- is weighted as a regular class (no honors and of course no AP since no such thing exists), and is weighted the same as environmental science, of which there is no honors/AP, just regular, and supposedly it's a real cakewalk, so sometimes GPA/class ranking can be a numbers game...one I've chosen not to get myself involved in, for the most part. The difference between an A- and a B+ is .5 of a grade point here, where as the difference between an A- is something like .3 of a point. Doesn't make much sense, but that's how it works.

I hate the dreaded B+ more than the dreaded A-. I could have a B+ or two this term (I know there are a few weak A-'s straggling along out there),which irks me, but not as much as it may have last year or sophomore year (not freshman year, obviously, when I was fine getting anything as long as it wasn't a C-F).

Working on stuff (not at school ;-P). My tonsils are actually bad, so I have a legitimate excuse, but this gives me a chance to get some things that have been accumulating on my list done.

SUNSHINE, have fun at the Harvard interview! (I hope you wore something pink)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 02:30 pm: Edit

AT, my D's Calc BC teacher has had *three* students in 10 years not pass (3 or better) on the AP test and a very heavy percentage of the class do get 5's...a remarkable record. D's remark was that you can understand all the concepts and still get an "F" on the class tests. One girl was crying after the test yesterday...so much stress. I've told D that if she gets a "B" in this class it will be worth more than many of her "A's."

Twinkle, yeah, B+'s suck, too.

Sunshine, California has the same system: all classes are either regular or weighted. I think there's a real problem in that the hs won't offer 11 and 12 English Honors because only one class can be weighted, and that's the AP class. But there are so many students, including lots of very bright lopsided math/science kids, for whom AP English is just too formidable but regular prep English is too boring and unchallenging. The administration keeps saying the solution is to make prep more challenging but the range of students is just too broad.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Twinkle:
Part 1 is in your inbox.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 05:59 pm: Edit

TheDad-yeah that drives me crazy. especially with English. some of the kids i know are brilliant at math/science, but not as much in English, and struggle in AP English. some eventually drop down to "regular" English which is a complete joke-they have 3 months to write a 5 page paper and have "free reading days" once a week and watch the movie instead of read the book. PATHETIC.

i can relate to the AP Calc BC thing. my teacher is hardcore as well. as in-last year someone got a C 1st sem and an F 2nd sem and still managed a 4 on the AP exam. it doesnt *seem* like a hard class by glancing through the grades because i think everyone has some form of A or high B. but the intellect in that room is amazing-the avg SAT math score is something like 790 in that class, average test score-95, average % right on the Mult Choice part of the Calc BC Exam (on practices) 92% (thats like an automatic 3 even WITHOUT the free response)...etc. its just crazy. im probably middle of the pack at best in there. there are SO many guys who are horrible at humanities but math/physics geniuses. and my teacher is psycho. i think the guy who failed and got a 4 last year was the only person in the history of the class who didnt get a 5. *shudder* talk about pressure.

A-'s are just AHHHHHH. they're not BAD, they're just so incredibly annoying.

ahh, H interview today. i realized that he came to my school because he wanted to have a nice chat with some of my teachers AND my counselor (eek!) as well as interview me-it was scary...i hope nobody said anything bad. he was really nice, graduated in 1964-had some great conversations. he told me that i was "definitely a young person i would love to invite over for dinner one day" and that my topics of conversation were "refreshing and interesting." it went well in all sense of the word "well," but interviews have almost no part in the admissions process, so i am still expecting a rejection.

the worst part was that it occupied my double period with lunch/study hall so i had classes all day without any sort of lunch or break but it was a great hour, and we had a lot of fun talking. he told me he could tell i was the talkative type hahaha boy is he right about that. overall, i really liked him. he was definitely personable and genuinely interested in what you had to say, and answered all questions directly.

the hardest questions? "What do you want me to know most about you? Now what do you NOT want me to know?" <---required a few extra seconds of thought. i managed to think of something though. in the end he told me that i could make all my dreams come true if i keep going down the same path, and that i had a solid head on my shoulders and was a very nice and grounded young lady, and a good fit for H because of my want for "academic freedom." i know that doesnt mean im going to get in, but it makes u feel warm & fuzzy inside. oh, and H has the alum fill out SAT I/II scores, GPA, Rank...the only school so far that even asked about objective academics!

interviews are really not so bad

ahh well chinese new year celebration tonight and my daily string of 2395793257 hours of homework awaits.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 06:02 pm: Edit

oh Twinkle-almost forgot! i went in classic black dress pants and a white turtleneck sweater=business casual. however, i decided it looked too "boring" so i curled my hair and wore a PINK scarf to bring out my *other side*. i actually debated going in with a casual sweater and nice jeans on just because it was during school, and it was more "me" but i didnt want to take the risk of him judging me on clothes alone

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 06:12 pm: Edit

Sunshine (and anyone else):
As an alumni interviewer, I can say that you don't really notice clothes except to notice if they are "nice" i.e. if the person looks recently showered and dressed... jeans are a no-no (I know I'm young, but still). I usually wear khakis and a sweater when interviewing... contemplated one of my business suits, but thought that it might turn students off... would any of you care to share thoughts?

CONGRATS! Sounds like your interview went well.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 06:16 pm: Edit

K'ang Hay Fat Choy or however you want to transliterate it. This is the year of the... the... Ox. Must be the Ox as everyone plods towards the finish line devoid of energy.

Sunshine, my D feels pretty good about her BC class. It's a bit along the lines of yours. Only 45 students between two sections out of a senior class of 800+. The few, the proud, the psychotic....

Congrats on your H interview. It sounds as if it went very well.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Aries-no i dont think a suit would be scary! i went in jeans for my MIT interview, but only after he insisted TWICE in the 10 times we contacted each other (literally)...

TheDad-800+ senior class! whoa...we have 11 kids in a senior class of 550, but i thought 550 was big!! WOW. Year of the Ox...ahh, yes.

i am going through this sort of debate in my head. i've been drowning in applications for so long. now that they're done, im beginning to reflect on my list...and it's sort of shocking the schools i applied to.

Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Williams
Skidmore
Case Western
Purdue.

10 schools. thats a LOT. my counselor's jaw dropped when i handed them to her. am i being over-ambitious? am i just CRAZY? i mean, i know *certain* people on CC applied to like 28, and i know that is just out of pure stupidity or indecisiveness, or in the case of many asians-pushy parents who want kids with a raffle ticket at EVERY top school...but 10. and of the 10 4 of them=HYPM. i didnt apply to Stanford because my parents are against me going to california. then 3 more are Cornell & Williams-both top tier. then i have 3 safeties. but i have no real *matches*...everything is either SUPERREACH/REACH/SAFETY.

10 schools. and yet im uneasily waiting for April 1st. i'm afraid i will walk away with only 3 acceptances. but if i am accepted to more, how will i make a decision? was it a bad bad idea to apply to this many?

i am starting to feel bad, because i seem like such a prestige-freak just looking at my list of schools, but i can really really justify every school on the list...

but everyone at school thinks im crazy. 10 schools. am i? because honestly, 7 of them are lottery tickets...

HAPPY YEAR OF THE OX.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 07:15 pm: Edit

Is it really the Ox? I just pulled that out of thin air, thinking I couldn't remember having had one recently.

Sunshine, your list of schools is ambitious but reasonable.

Hmm, if there are only 11 kids in your BC, that would explain why it sounds even more selective than D's...it is!

Breaking News Bulletin: D tied for 4th highest (both sections combined) on the multiple choice part of the final, worth half the grade. The teacher called her at home about something else and gave her the news in passing. As D said, "Thank you for taking a load off my mind this weekend!"
Of the other half of the test, there were only three problems. D got the first and third and it appears that everyone she's talked to bogged down halfway through the second. Teacher curves...this may be okay. 4th highest = 71 percent, highest = 77 percent.

When I was in engineering school, I remember a test where 23 was an A. Sigh. I got a 9. The next semester I became a Political Science major.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 07:38 pm: Edit

lol, wow, okay, my school seems to be so different from Sunshines or thedads. In both good and bad ways.
First, (thank goodness) our school does not rank at all. I think the school board decided to end ranking because, well, most of us would turn into cut throats. I know I would. lol.
We also don't have pluses or minuses at all.
And, while honors and AP classes do count as the same, we have both honors english 12 AND AP Lit. The regular class and honors are really joke classes though. Also, the people in BC calc at my school arent' consitered smart at ALL. So many people take multivariable calc senior year at my school, that even THAT class is not even consitered elite, or whatever. which doesn't stop me from regreting my mom not letting me into the class even though i passed the stupid test in 5th grade, but whatever.
Anyways, we have 2 BC calc teachers, and they each have two classes of 25 some students, so that's like 100 people. Out of our 500 some senior class (although there are 20 or so people juniors in the class too)
My friends in AB calc call it their slacker class.

our school has been pushing (read: shoving) students into these AP classes so much it's getting ridiculus. People who want small, hard-to-get-in-to, fast-paced classes are out of luck. I dont' think any of our AP classes are anything like college classes.
bleh.

Calc test tomorrow. Am I ready?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 07:50 pm: Edit

whoa TheDad, i completely didnt realize its not the year of the ox.

YEAR OF THE MONKEY

lol

CONGRATS TO YOUR D!!!!! its such a good feeling to do well on an exam after so much studying.

you know whats sick? the kid who did the best on our AP Calc BC exam, Mr.Caltech, got a 104/108...WITHOUT A CALCULATOR!! when at least 7 of the questions required one. he did all the work paper/pencil because he forgot his. AHHHH!

a 104/108 is REALLY good considering the first 54 pts were Mult Choice questions taken off of previous AP's, and the next 54 points were old AP Free Response questions. had he had a calculator, its practically guaranteed he would have gotten a perfect.

a perfect 100% on an AP test. wow. no wonder he is going to Caltech...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 11:47 pm: Edit

Esmerelda, the implicit question you raise about AP classes providing a college-class-like experience is dead on, imo. Not all AP classes are equal.

For context, last year Pre-Calc/CalcA had about 90 students...only half enrolled in Calc BC this year. Their may be a smattering of students who take multivariable calc at the community college or UCLA but I don't think there that many. You're really lucky that your hs supports such an advanced math track.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 12:42 am: Edit

wow esmerelda.

my school is totally not like that. to give you an idea...** by the ones i take

**AP French-6 students
AP Latin-8 students
AP Spanish-7 students
**AP English-30 students (17 in my class)
AP Calc AB-55 students
**AP Calc BC-11 students
**AP Environmental Science-17 students
**AP Biology-35 students (20 in my class)
AP Physics-80 students

by senior year, NOBODY takes the advanced track, because things get incredibly difficult. i think im the first person in the history of the school to have taken every advanced science course offered an AP class is definitely taken seriously as a college class...from the straight lectures to not collectiong homework for any points and taking grades only from tests/exams. it can be brutal, but its definitely challenging, yet worthwhile if you keep up.

what i dont like about it is that there is no happy medium class. a class for kids who want to be at an above-average level, but not college level. the average high school classes are complete JOKES.

multivariable *shudders* my crazy math teacher begins that with us as soon as the AP is done. we actually finish 2 chapters of it in the 3 weeks we have after the AP. what a psycho! teaching after an AP test

wow, its almost 1 AM and i havent started my math hw, and we have 10 IMPOSSIBLE calc questions (lets just say that our class had 30 min to work on the problem set in class and only half of the class figured out the first problem-and its supposed to be the easiest...eek). i have 100 pages to read, a paper to write, and a translation to do. hahahaha no sleep for me.

went to a CHinese New Year party...which was great. wow awesome food-restaurant owners held it-thats why. mmmmmmmm...tasty. except i never wnat to eat again in my life there goes my attempt at a healthy diet.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 03:36 am: Edit

Just realized before I turn in, it's now Thursday...only ten weeks until nominal RD notification date.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 03:48 am: Edit

on dear. 10 weeks. *ONLY*

i am still up aghh!

i was reading the stupid ED article in the daily princetonian which completely shattered any confidence i had.

1800 applicants
580 acceptances

makes for a 32% ED acceptance rate

AND I DIDNT GET IN!!!!! 32%!!!!!! 1/3...and it wasnt me. if i cant get in with 1/3, how am i going to get into HYM with 1/10? how am i going to get into Cornell with 1/3? JHU? Williams with 1/4?

32%!!! THIRTY TWO! AND I DIDNT GET IN. what. was. wrong. with. my. application????

i didnt even send in supplementary stuff to them for RD, and i really need to. like...next week. *sigh*

they accepted 30% more engineers than usual. dangit, i knew i should've applied engineering, but i was too lazy to write the extra 3 essays (ergh, well i was pretty stretched for time).

Princeton and I were seriously NOT meant to be. *sob* now i have to wait 10 more weeks.

and its almost 4 AM and i am still doing homework. PATHETIC.

2nd semester is not going any better than 1st. all the teachers now know that are apps are done and APs are looming so they are flooding us with assignments/projects/extra hw/the whole deal. i just wanna relax.

10 weeks...really doesnt sound that long...

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 12:54 pm: Edit

10 weeks is not that long - 10 weeks ago (minus a day), most ED apps were due. Okay, maybe that isn't a comforting thought...

TheDad:
A story from my college days during organic chemistry... obviously, the tests were hard, and some of the grades were really low. On the day of the second orgo test, I had a physical chemistry test as well (which was scheduled right before orgo, nightmare situation). So, when we got the tests back, I was talking to a junior and lamenting about how badly I did.

Me: "I did horribly on this. I'm sure you did better."
Junior: "Trust me, I did worse than you did."
me: "I got like a 30. I don't want to hear it."
Junior: "You S*CK! I got a 4!" (Points directly at me, leaning forward)
Me: "Yeah, I'm going to drop [the class]. I'm a freshman, so it won't show up on my transcript."
Junior: "You S*&%!!" (but he laughed at himself - wasn't really being mean about it.)

I now understand why you went from engineering directly in the opposite direction. Congrats to your D on her calc test - her effort really paid off!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 01:08 pm: Edit

Sunshine, look at this way: those 580 Princeton ED acceptances won't be in your way at the other schools.

Also, I've been following this stuff for a while, including all the acceptances/deferrals/rejections/waitlists from last year. It's so non-predictable: students will get outright rejected at H,P, and M, and accepted at Y and S, and waitlisted at Penn State.

AP's looming...yes indeedy. (Speaking of finals at D's hs, I wonder if Toesover2 will come back up for air. Who was that masked man? I meant to thank him.)

Funny story, AT. Truth is, I hit my absolute wall at fifth-semester calculus but while I've got a decent analytical mind and can put the "anal" in anal-retentive, temperamentally I'd make a lousy engineer...I just wanted to work on the space program *so* bad. The career I probably *should* have had was as a survey research (political polling) or political columnist. Oh, well. As they say, life is what happens while you were making other plans.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Fifth-semester calculus? We only got to take three semesters (and differential equations)... wow.

Is "anal-retentive" supposed to be hypenated there?

Regarding quote: John Lennon, Beautiful Boy, right?

Personally, I was hitting the wall but bouncing back reasonably well up through the summer before senior year (when Surface and Colloid chem, one of my favourite classes, showed promise of revitalizing my engineering interests), but process control did me in. There came a point when I realized that I *could* work in the engineering field, but my career options would be limited as there is no way I'm ever sitting through a chem-e class again.

Space programme, eh? That probably wasn't a bad place to be a few years back - kind of like nanotechnology today.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 06:41 pm: Edit

LOL...no, the hyphen isn't supposed to be there in that usage. You obviously recall the story about the t-shirt a colleague gave me.

Yeah, I got through the first two semesters of Calc in decent if undistinguished order. The third semester of calc I, ummm, had to take twice. (First "Danger, Will Robinson!" signal.) Then Differential Equations I did even worse and had to take twice. I should have taken that as a glowing neon warning sign suspended in mid-air saying "Wrong Way. Go Back." Then I hit...I forget the name of the course, it covered topics like complex-variable-plane caclulus and was taught in the Engineering Dept. and let's just say, along with my three other engineering courses, I did a metaphorical re-enactment of Pickett's Charge.

To backtrack: I was in a 3-2 Engineering program, starting where I worked as an engineering aide at the local Navy base (Pt. Mugu, a test/evaluation facility) a week after graduating from high school. The idea was that we would go to the local community college in the morning and work at the Navy base in the afternoons, thereby accumulating cash for living expenses and building up some cash for when we went to whichever big U. we decided to go to. During the summers, including the first out of high school, we would work at the Navy base full time, rotating into different departments every one or two semester/summer time blocs.

Well, taking morning classes only made getting the number of units on the tight side, so they arranged for us to take U.S. history at the base from a credentialed college instructor who was also the work-study program coordinator.

Years later, after I'd switched majors & everything, he told me that he knew in the first week that I'd never graduate to become an engineer. He was lecturing on Washington's retreat from Long Island and noted that it was a magnificent accomplishment (most generals don't ordinarily get recognized for their retreats) and that some generals retreated better than others. In about 3/5 of a second, I blurted out, "Polish generals?"

He said that between my interest in history and the quick wise-ass verbal skills I wasn't going to be no engineer.

Bingo on the Lennon quote. Just how much cross-generational education do you have, anyway?

AT, I agree with you about nano-tech. I don't really think it's going to happen but D could do worse than to get a biology major or minor--not necessarily for grad school but to put together with her writing ability and carve out a niche in nano-tech/bio-tech. The corporations will need such people and it's also a niche that most conventionally trained journalists don't know worth diddly.

I also suggested over lunch today that she consider taking a couple of years of Chinese language...I suspect it will be very useful in the next 2-3 decades. Ni hao ma? Hun hao, shih-shih.

By Toesover2 (Toesover2) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 08:23 pm: Edit

Thedad - As you know, it's finals week and I've been busy studying for my AP Calc final and other AP's. I've really got a full load this year. But that's all finished now....plus - the surf's up. What makes you think that I'm a "masked man"?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 08:34 pm: Edit

T02, never mind...it was an allusion to the old "Lone Ranger" show where the LR disappears at the end...some old codger from the town/farm/whatever would always say, "Who was that masked man? I meant to thank him."; hadn't seen you around in awhile, thought you'd disappeared. See also, "Weird are the ways of adults." --Gimli the Dwarf, from his notebooks at Dwarf School.

Good luck on the remaining final(s) if you have any tomorrow.

===

I think Esmerelda is D's mirror image. D has a timed writing in AP English tomorrow and hasn't had a grade lower than "A" all semester.

By Toesover2 (Toesover2) on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 09:58 pm: Edit

Hiho Silver ! My TV history doesn't go back that far. However, my literary history does; I'm going "On the Road" tomorrow. *Beat* that. I'm trying to make the most of the 3 day semester break - no homework! (for once).

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 12:57 am: Edit

I still have one midterm/final to take (call them whatever you wish). We don't have all of ours set up within a certain week or whatever because __technically__ we don't have them, but they happen anyway :-/

It's funny that you found you would be temperamentally bad as an engineer, thedad (which in some ways surprises me a bit because you're rational/even-keeled, but then again, that's not the only factor in determining whether one is temperamentally suited to a career) because I was thinking about it and its so hard for me to envision myself in ANY career right now. I can't imagine having a "serious" job... maybe it's part of the fact that I'm still 17 and haven't tried one out yet. I have work experience, but even then, I'm not in love with the structure of it. I think if I didn't have so many other commitments, it wouldn't bug me so much in that department, but for now...

I am interested in law school, but somehow I have a hard time seeing myself as a lawyer, not that I wouldn't *want* to be a lawyer- I do think I have some of the qualities necessary, but the jury is out on others. Yeah, I definitely need to stop rambling now because I'm talking in circles but not making much sense.

Aries- I got both of your emails! And will respond, I DID write about half of one, then I brilliantly X'ed off the window and lost the whole thing. (I have a tendency to do that, which is why I berated myself for thinking that I'd be able to get away without saving it)

Toesover-where are you off to?

I have sooo much work to get caught up on, and the harder part is that even with a nap that I really didn't have the time to take, I still probably won't be able to stay awake to finish everything (I slept around 15 hours Wednesday and it really didn't change anything... not all in a row, of course ;)). I'm not sure if it's a product of being sick, or being overly worn out (which would be really funny, because I've been overall non productive this week), but either is bad, because I am both crashing AND burning...yikes. Or perhaps my body is non receptive to sleep because I haven't been very good in that department for a few years. Whatever it is, it needs to stop before it really starts affecting my grades/performance in school.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 01:53 am: Edit

Twinkle, when you're really short of sleep, it takes more than one day to recharge, even if you sleep 15 hours. Probably better to sleep 10 hours a day for three days than 15 hours a day for two.

The problem with me and math was that it became just too abstract for me to visualize. It's ironic and funny, because there are lots of things I visualize as mathematical abstractions, be it shapes, matrices, whatever...I mean things like group social relationships, political interactions, stuff like that. As for being rational/even-keeled, I plead guilty...it's one of the common paths (not the only one) for people who have grown up in extreme chaos. If you've ever dabbled in Myers-Briggs personality temperament, I'm a solid NT, relentlessly N and heavily T; pretty much on the borderline of introvert/extravert scale, somewhat more inclined towards process than goal (they call it perceiving vs. judging...non-standard usages of the words, imo).

As for finding a vocation, sometimes the vocation must find you. I must say--and I will anyway--that I think you're an excellent candidate for the traditional liberal arts curriculum, sticking your nose into lots of subject, lots of experiences. It could be that you're a natural Tigger (from Winnie the Pooh), bounding along and then saying, "So *this* is what Tiggers like!" Tiggers...Twinkles...see?! They even sound similar.

TO2: just don't mistake a kerouac for a kayak.
Who's teaching Beat Lit. this year? I thought Mr. Sawaya taught it last year...and he retired. Damn shame because his Shakespeare class was sublime and my D would have twisted her schedule to do both it and 12 AP at the same time if it was at all possible. Dicey...most of her classes are singletons or doubletons as it is.

By Toesover2 (Toesover2) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 10:45 am: Edit

I'm leaving after my A period final for the destination in Jack's most famous book. It's actually an 'assignment' of sorts...I signed up for Beat Lit because I thought Mr. Sawaya would be teaching it, but he left Mr. Sanders in charge...who then promptly adoped a child, leaving our class with a sub for 2+ weeks. We now have Mr. Harris, who has 'read all the books' but never taught the class before. It's been a rocky 1st semester for that class and I'm looking forward to a fresh start next week.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 11:38 am: Edit

TheDad:

I took a few personality and learning tests - one came out as an NT - Intuitive thinker - and another came out as INTJ - introverted intuitive thinking and judgmental.

Engineering frustrated me eventually because it wasn't abstract and intuitive enough - advanced quantum didn't bother me, being abstract and logical, but the engineering was too... concrete and counter-intuitive for me. I probably would have done well as a chemical physicist or something similar.

LOL to the "He said that between my interest in history and the quick wise-ass verbal skills I wasn't going to be no engineer." Makes you well-suited for writing novels and chatting to young persons online!

In retrospect, those large neon signs are easy to see, aren't they?

Regarding cross-generational education: depends on the subject. Modern history (i.e. anything after the nineteenth century) really escapes me. I hated history with a passion in high school, as memorizing the exploits of dead white men really held no interest for me. Some of the reason I went into engineering was to escape history, until I was forced to take it for my classics major (which, until then, had been a delightful sampling of literature, ancient medicine, and Greek). The first day of Roman History, my professor put up a slide which said "DWEEMs" on it - dead white elite European males - the writers of history. That approach to history got me hooked on it... but I still know remarkably little about anything after WWII.

Now, if you are talking about music (JWL etc), my dad is responsible for a lot of my "cross-generational education" as you call it... he took pride in "weaning [me] on classic rock" as he put it. That, combined with being fairly anti-social/introverted and enjoying the company of adults, I sometimes feel as if I get along with your generation better than my own.

Oh, and I do *not* understand modern spellings of anything. Since when did every word with a Greek root drop the 'a' before an 'e'?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 12:53 pm: Edit

TO2, I'm sorry you got screwed about the teacher shuffle. D's counselor warned her off the Shakespeare class on account that she thought that D wouldn't find the teacher challenging enough. D is *so* lucky that she got Jago for 12AP...everyone I've talked to says Nation is a horror. Have a good trip...and may the second semester class go better. Wait...isn't Beat only a one semester class, paired with something else?

AT, oddly enough, *conceptually* quantum makes a poetic kind of sense to me...as long as I don't have to do the math, I'm fine. I love physics and have oft compared it to poetry.

Hindsight is 20/20 but I was pretty stubborn about those neon signs. I just *ached* to work in the space program, doing a small part in something Really Big that I believed (and believe) in strongly.

Hmm. I haven't influenced my D so much with music--a bit of Al Stewart, Irish folk, Simon & Garfunkle--but I've been fairly assiduous with exposure to movies and selected books. I can't think of many hs kids who have Zero Mostel in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" as one of their favorite movies...sneakily introducing her to Sondheim as a whole. Or "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye or "The Great Escape" (we had a DVD double-feature with "Chicken Run") or...you get hte picture.

Her musical exposures, from classical to alternative rock, have probably had more influence on me than vice versa. Now it's true that when I went to a Green Day concert with one of D's friends and her mother, the mother and I sat *way* in back to preserve our hearing.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 03:32 pm: Edit

Thedad- The thing is, though, when do you get the chance to sleep for ten hours a day for multiple days in a row? I didn't go to school Wednesday so *that* is how I got my 15 hours in, but I'm pretty dead right now. I really don't think having 15 hours one night and then two naps the next day really helps much, though, plus getting sicker has totally sucked out all of my energy. That's okay, though, because I banged out a massive 14 page paper and handed it in, which takes a huge load off, but I still have a lot to do.. I'm not starting it until this weekend, however. I think this is bugging me so much because I'm normally Ms. Energetic --even on 2 hours of sleep, but as of the beginning of this year, I would really rather do nothing but sleep the majority of the time, which has made work and getting homework DONE (I have actually had to go as far as to ask for an extension on something, which I did get, because the combination of overload and being excessively tired is not conducive to my productivity) Hmmm. Maybe my lifestyle has caught up to me...that could make for an interesting New Year's resolution.

So you would be an...I/E (are you *right* on the borderline or slightly more one than another?)... I/E N T... P? You're more interested in the process than goal, so I think that's a P... judgers seem more like they want the goal more.

I took a test and remember being something crazy like 89% extroverted (although, I swear, I used to be a really shy kid! That changed, apparently but every now and then a little remnant of that will squeak out. Hence the lack of 100% extroversion. Random fact of the day #1.), moderately more intuitive than sensing...(I don't get that one at all. What's the difference between an N and a S???)and the rest of it is a mess because I am borderline T/F...lately I'm more of an F, though, but I do think I balance the whole thinking/feeling thing... sometimes I base decisions on reason, and then sometimes I'll just do something because "it feels right". And the same goes for J/P... it's pretty borderline, as well. I thought it was kind of odd that the tests never come out completely clear cut all the time for me, especially for two of the mentioned criteria, so I guess that would make me either:

ENFJ

ENFP

ENTJ

ENTP

Those are four entirely different animals!!!

You know, Tigger was always one of my favorite Winnie the Pooh characters (Pooh is #1, and I've always had a soft spot for Piglet because he's so timid and innocent, but Tigger is great because he's full of energy, bouncy, always happy, always busting Rabbit's chops...ahh...how do I miss the good old day of watching Winnie-the-Pooh episodes in syndication!) Anyway, I think that getting to sample different things that I want to try in college WILL help, and hopefully give some direction... I don't exactly want to career-hop my whole life. Change jobs? Sure. Change fields? Perhaps, perhaps. But I don't want to try a bunch of things and repeatedly not like anything, nor do I want a job where I only have the skills to do that job and nothing else. Well, then again, that IS what college is for- to learn to think in different ways, to gain a multitude of skills, to explore different options, etc.

I like the idea of getting to study what I want to, but I HAVE decided and made a little pact with myself that I am going to take calc and/or physics in college. Like thedad, I performed a re-enactment of Pickett's Charge at the start of senior year, but somehow I feel that I skimped and it really bugs me that pre-cal is ALL of the math I know. I thought that was pretty good at one point, but look at all of the math that is out there. I'm not interested in taking multi variable calc, or anything THAT complex, but I want to conquer the math beast as something to do for myself. I'd love to never look at math again- with my horrid experience and loathe of the subject, that would be perfectly okay. But it really bothers me and makes me feel like I'm somewhat uneducated when the most math I can ADEQUATELY perform is up to algebra 1/2 (nothing in geometry, which you can't take as a course in college anyway, so I will never understand that subject...oh well!). I mean, I'm good at lots of other things, and I've accepted the fact that math is really not one of my strong points. However, I am determined to get a tutor in college who will sit down and help walk me through the problems because there is no reason why I shouldn't know math through basic calc.


Musical exposure... my mother likes to say that I should have been born in a different generation because I'm really into a lot of older stuff, but I also like a lot of "newer" music too... from ALL genres except music like bluegrass which makes me want to jump off a bridge, ugh. And I can't stand the pop-punk poseur wannabe band Simple Plan.(No offense to anyone anywhere who is reading this thread and has a fond adoration for either) There's still a lot I haven't been exposed to- like Irish folk- that I'm curious about. Right now I'm really into alternative/rock, but it changes every month.

My mother has also exposed me to a lot of good books, which I never appreciated fully until recently. I was really anti-reading for a long time, so I basically read the bare minimum of whatever I HAD to read for school, and even then, that was tedious. Reading is one of those things that is tricky for me: 1) I need complete quiet. Meaning no TV, low/no music (where as writing I MUST have music...otherwise nothing happens. That's one of my weird idiosyncracies), no one talking, nothing. Just quiet...otherwise, I get completely distracted and it takes me forever to finish what I'm reading.

Btw, does anyone like the movie Point of No Return? I am absolutely fanatical about it... I'm more of a comedy/ love story person, but sometimes I get really into action movies, especially the aforementioned one.

Oops...off the soapbox, later, kiddies ;)

By Volley17 (Volley17) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 04:56 pm: Edit

Twinkle, I loooooovveee Irish folk music. In my opinion, it's up there with Celtic and bagpipe music. Good stuff.

Sleep. I haven't met up with this good friend for a while. Last year, I started school at 8:50 and now I start at 7:00. Too drastic of a change, ugh.

Me, if it's a good book, I can block everything out and just focus on the book. If it's bad, then my own leg shaking will distract me. Whereas with writing, if I have stuff to say, which I do when I pick a good opener for me, then it comes along great, but I agree music is a must. Classical, IMO, is best for this. Eminem and essay writing? My head will explode, haha.

Point of No Return? I've heard about it, but I'm not sure if I want to see it. Please tell more about it. *smiles*

Well, I'll stop hijacking the thread now. Toodles!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 05:06 pm: Edit

No, it's disco and rap that should make you want to jump off a bridge. Disco was one of the many things that made the 1970's a depressing decade to live in.

Once, while driving cross country, I stopped for a meal in a small cafe where the waitress boasted that the local radio station had both kinds of music. Both kinds? "Country AND Western."

Twinkle, I'm pretty much of a functional ENTP (Enterpreneur). An "I" couldn't do the things I do with the ballet company or the orchestra that well. Somewhat to my surprise, I'm getting to be a better public speaker. I still can't hold a candle to our fundraising chair, who happens to be the screenwriter of a movie whose title everyone would recognize. But I'm close enough to the two balance points (I/E and J/P) that there is the INTJ (Scientist) in me that likes to mull over data and the ENTJ (Field Marshal) who likes to plan things.

The difference between an N and the S is thus: the S (75 percent of the population) processes the world according to what their senses tell them, the N (25 percent) processes the world as a mental construct.

I believe you when you say that you're near the F/T border, for that's how I experience you. For P/J, I have insufficient data. It sometimes helps if you can use the archetype associated with each type as a touchstone...you realize, m'god, I'm acting like a _____________ right now.

Truth is, people aren't etched in stone and they'll wobble around, within limits, depending on time and circumstances.

But I've found the whole Myers-Briggs thing useful for explaining why some people are absolutely horrid in some processes or situations. I confess, the first time I was reading about SJ's, I was thinking "This is b.s., nobody would ever--" and then realized that it had explained a host of people that I had never understood and who drove me nuts.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 05:40 pm: Edit

A few musings...

One of my friends has "become a wild woman" as her New Year's Resolution. Someone told her that I should be her model for that.

Regarding physics and poetry - I did think that chemistry (more of the phys. chem. side) is similar to poetry, so understood. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed working through the mathematical machinations - probably mostly because I also enjoy multi-variable calc, which is a huge part of it. Complex analysis was one of my favourite classes - one of my friends was in it, and she struggled, said that the intuitive stuff didn't come to her at all. Then again, linear algebra was my Waterloo, and she aced it without a problem.

As I told Twinkle, most of my work two years ago was in the space elevator - designing high strength cable. Conceptually, it's a really fascinating project, but even that wasn't enough to keep me in engineering. I went to a conference on it, and the part that most interested me was a woman from Ole Miss who was an expert in space law and discussed the legal implications of building the thing. Insert neon sign.

Ah, even some of us young folks have heard that country/western joke!

ENTJ comes out during ballet, eh? I do recall something about tons and tons of Nutcracker booklets... right?

I do have a good memory - especially for numbers. (My friends will not let me even *see* their credit cards, as they got tired of hearing me tell them the number six months after the fact.) It helped out with engin. and math for a bit, but it's utterly useless in the actual practice of engineering. I realized that I would do better to go into a field where there is a larger focus on writing and where the amazing memory would be an asset... yet another reason why law came up as a career path.

Bio and writing would be great - most engineers cannot write, and many writers just get a distressed look on their faces when someone talks science. Technical writing really is not emphasized in the engineering curricula. Only one semester of expository writing was required of engineers at my alma mater, and liberal artists had to take two semesters.

Chinese could be good and practical. Eschewing the practical, next on my list is Latin.

Ah, Winnie the Pooh. I'm a diehard Eeyore fan... "thanks for noticing." Twinkle = Tigger for certain.

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 08:10 pm: Edit

hey - i haven't been around much on the board lately but decided i would stick my head in and check on this thread since there is always some interesting and intelligent, if somewhat obscure, conversation going on here.

It is really funny that you brought up the Myers-Briggs personality types because i have a book on it and took a few tests a year or so ago and got back into it just recently. For the longest time I couldn't decide whether I was INFJ or INFP. Finally, after a lot of research I determined that I am more of an INFP a couple weeks ago. I am a definite I, no doubt about that. And iNtuitive was pretty obvious for me. While I can be Thinking, my preferences are definitely toward Feeling, even though most people at school who don't know me well would probably think I am a Thinking type. The J and the P choice was tough, but I have never been one to make schedules or to-do lists, and I am the Master of Procrastination. More importantly, I know I like things to be open rather than set in stone. Some people think the personality types are useless, but personally I think that they can explain a lot and it's been really helpful for me.

ANyways, while most of you have finished your midterms, our school hasn't started them yet. We are supposed to start them on Thursday, but if we get a Snow Day (which, with snow in the forecast for SUnday night, Monday, and Tuesday, is likely) then they will be pushed back even further. In a way, while an extra day off would be so nice for me to catch up on a lot of things (non-school related), I would rather just get the tests out of the way so atleast I can kick back a *tiny* bit more.

Well, anyways, I finished my last 2 applications last weekend for a total of 9 (down from the 16(!) that were originally on my list in october). So now I can join the club and wait with everyone else! But you know what, I don't really mind the wait. It's sort of nice to have this time to imagine where we're all gonna end up. Anything is possible at this point. WHoa, its already 8pm.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 23, 2004 - 11:02 pm: Edit

Damn, damn, damn. D sprained her ankle in ballet class. First ever trip to the emergency room, this one's pretty bad. SAT's tomorrow and Spring Show auditions next Saturday. She'll be lucky if she's dancing full out again in four weeks. Damn, damn, damn.

By Xiggi (Xiggi) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 01:43 am: Edit

Sorry to read about the ankle. I hope it is not as severe as you think.

Good luck!

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 03:04 am: Edit

Ow, i'm so sorry to hear about the arm! aik.

Ok, I don't go on this site for like 2 days, and suddenly i missed approximately 20 LONG entries. lol. Crazy.

Okay, to catch up: Back to the whole really hard tests where EVERYONE in the class fails- I took this class when i was taking Algebra II, which was like a prep-class for Pre-calc (essentially the guy taught us Pre-calc...why I had to take the class, I DON'T KNOW) Anyways, my friend and I started it in the middle of the year, after everyone had already learned all this stuff. Our first test was really hard on topics we had learned in the class already, but didn't really have the background to understand completely. Anyways, it was ridiculusly hard. My friend and I get our paper's back look at the score and are afraid to tell each other what we got. It turns out that we tied for second highest in the class....with 14/44. lol.
The same friend was in AP World with me, and we had a long term substitute at the begining of the year who didn't teach anything, and we didn't realize that we needed to read the book to get anything out of the class yet. So, anyways, during the first quiz, the subsitute LEAVES THE ROOM. Which you shouldn't do in my school. Anyways, essentially everyone in the room except for my friend, another friend across the room, and me talks and cheats and stuff, until he gets back. They looked in the BOOK! Anyways, the substitute decides to be really mean and passes the quizes out with the highest scores first and the lowest scores last. And guess what. All those cheating freaks got 48/50 (the sub: "Good job, you are obviously very hardworking and intellegent") and my friend and I both got our quiz at the same time. dead. last. we had 33/50. My first D on any quiz/test worth more than 10 points. Needless to say, i went home and cried. ah well. just had to mention those incidents when i read your convo before. lol. God, I sound so bitter. it's awful.

Another thing: Chinese is the best language to learn EVER. So much fun. Even though I got my B in the class. :-P If i went to yale, i would have done Yale China (where you go to china and teach people english while learning chinese)

Ok, now i want to say why I didn't read this for 2 days. I took my calc test which was hard...but not too hard. Decently hard anyhow. i didn't really study much, so i'll be happy with whatever grade I get. We'll see. Okay, then, thursday night, I went to dinner with 3 friends to celebrate being second semester seniors. We were at the resturant for 2 and a half hours and shared this ginormous (lol, not a word...) piece of chocolate cake. HUGE! Then, i slept in and on friday i went to DC for my harvard interview, bombed it (totally drew a blank at some points....ugh, i'm so bad at talking to people) and then went to my friend's spa party. Then at 4 I went to art class to do my self-portriot (which looks AWFUL!) and then went to another party :-P where we just hung about with everyone and played 10 fingers and board games.

I love being on break until wednesday. Anothough APPARENTLY, my college statics class starts on monday, so i have to go in anyways. At least i'll be able to find out my test grades...erp.

ok, it's 3, i should probably at least pretend i'm trying to go to sleep.

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 08:48 am: Edit

i seriously MEANT ankle when i wrote arm. I think i was a *leetle* tired....

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 08:31 pm: Edit

A day of potential SAT miracles, despite the sprained ankle. (D can already put light weight on the foot, flex it some, etc. Physical therapy appointments made for Monday, Wednesday, Thursday already.)

I picked up D, on crutches, from the SAT. First, she said that she did well...she has NEVER expressed optimism after one of those tests. Then, on the way to lunch, she started discussing specific questions/answers...she NEVER does that either, even when I've read some of the discussions here on CC. Finally, the word "disintereted" appeared on one of the analogies, a word that throws a lot of people who think it means "uninterested"...and we had just discussed that very thing over dinner last night. D says she would have gotten it anyway but it saved time, so what the heck.

By Coureur (Coureur) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 09:59 pm: Edit

Sorry to hear about the ankle. Between basketball and running I've had some seriously sprained ankles in my day, so I can sympathize. For me it takes two weeks to walk without pain after a serious sprain, three weeks to run. I have no experience with ballet, so I can offer no estimate how long she will be off her toes.

Does she have a big swollen black and blue knot on one side of her ankle? If so, it will turn amazing shades of blue and green as the bruise heals.

By Volley17 (Volley17) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 11:10 pm: Edit

LOL, art out of a badly sprained ankle.

I wish your D a speedy recovery, Thedad!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 24, 2004 - 11:25 pm: Edit

Thanks, Volley.

Coureur, I don't know if you and I have crossed posts on this subjects but once upon a somewhen, I was a cross-country runner in hs. My best time was 10:34 for two miles and to this day, I'm proud of my splits: 5:15 and 5:19. I ran only my senior year, deciding to do it after transferring to a new hs, started on JV and running the last two races of the year varsity. I wonder how I would have done if I'd started earlier. Alas, these days my knees and ankles wouldn't take it though I *might* try it if I have some more success with Atkins.

The outside of D's ankle isn't turning the colors yet but this is her third sprain in the past five years. For ballet, the tough thing about a sprain is going up on pointe *really* stresses the ligaments.

She seems on a good recovery path so far, definitely being able to put light weight on the foot. However, we're going to the Huntington Museum tomorrow which has a *lot* of winding paths and D has consented in advance to using one of their wheelchairs. Any distance at all on crutches is boring. I'm hoping that she can ditch the crutches by the time school starts Tuesday.

By Coureur (Coureur) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 12:08 am: Edit

TheDad,

I didn't start running until age 20 (to strengthen a broken leg after repair surgery), and I turned out to be reasonably good at it. My post age 35 PR for 5K is 16:40, which probably would have been good enough to get me on the cross country team at a small college but not good enough to win any races or even make the team at a Division 1 school. I don't know how much faster I could have been with formal coaching and training.

Now at post-50 I feel pretty good if I turn a 5K time somewhere in the 19s. My knees are slowly wearing out, but more than 32 years of running has kept me fairly fit and trim.

BTW, Coureur is French for "Runner".

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 12:34 am: Edit

Certainement, c'est bien entendu. Il est tres longtemps depuis j'ai l'etude le francais, mais quand notre jeune fille ete plus jeune et sa nom de jeu ete La Petite Grande Oreilles, LaMere et moi parlez en francais. Mais maintentant, elle (la jeune fill a etude la francais pour trois ans et meme devant cette temps, elle a apprendu quelques mots de francais par sa classes de ballet...je crois que maintenant il faut que LaMere et mois nous devons edtudier le chinois si nous peut parlons sans LaPetite comprenant.

``````````````` ''''''''''''''''
(accent marks to season according to taste & custom)

I'm sure that it comes across as if written by a Bulgarian of dubious habits but I *think* it conveys some passing semblance of reality. I had to fake one idiom (nickname) and I see whatever grasp of past imperfect(?) [would speak] has evaporated but I believe that one must approach foreign languages fearlessly if one is not to be intimidated into silence. At least a waiter would not bow and ask how I would like my tractor broiled.

By Audreyhepburn (Audreyhepburn) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 12:57 am: Edit

Thedad! Je parle francais (un peu) aussi! je souhaite que sa fille (le D) aille bien.

i think i butchered that.

well, i'm glad to hear that her SAT's went well!

By Pc4eva (Pc4eva) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 03:50 am: Edit

ok i know, i know this has absolutely nothing to what you guys are talking about...but i have to ask one question! "Thedad", who are you? Do your kids mind that you hang out on this forum? I haven't read alot of your posts, but i've just seen you on almost every thread i've gone to! i'm new to this site and you seem like a regular, and i dont mean to be rude at all, but if you are someone's dad what interest do you have in this site? looking out for your kids future? i dunno...just confused...i've seen some other parents on here too but i've seen you like everywhere...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 01:35 pm: Edit

My D's apps are in and she has never minded that I hang out in this forum...she is simply too busy to participate here herself...I think she's made half a dozen posts under my name.

I first came here when we were in information acquisition stage and I've found it worthwhile to stay. My posts came to the attention of CC management and they encouraged my participation.
I've found it useful in terms of my own education--consider it Total Immersion in College Applications--and rewarding to be helpful in return, plus there are some folks I simply enjoy socializing with.

Some students Don't Get It. Shrug. That's their problem.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 10:31 pm: Edit

TheDad:

Best of luck to your D in recovering. From the three sprained ankles I've had, a few notes: if all the ligaments are torn, and if the pain was intense immediately, it'll be a while. I did that my sophomore year of college - which took me out of track commission for quite some time. (Hello to my fellow runners!) If the pain was not immediately apparent, then she might be in good shape - I had one which wasn't too bad, was horseback riding a week afterwards. Best of luck to her anyway. Physical therapy is good.

Nice times for TheDad and Coureur - mine are considerably slower (5k at age 18 in the 18:30 range at best... two mile was always terrible, but I could get my mile down to the 5:40s).

Also, best wishes for TheDaughter on her SAT. It sounds like it went well - I hope the scores come along as expected!

French (with sprinklings of accent marks) seems quite sensible. My parents and I do a similar thing with the little siblings (who are in elementary school) as they are now learning to spell what we say.

Have we lost a Twinkle? No posts since Friday afternoon, which must be a record.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 10:51 pm: Edit

im back from Model UN! what a great weekend! i met so many awessome people!

anyways, this has to be quick-TheDad-sorry about your D, i sprained my ankle before, and its such a pain. hopefully the SAT scores bring good news though

huge snowstorm expected tonight. they actually shortened Model UN because some people in the cincinnati area had snow expected early in the morning. hopefully we'll get a snowday tomorrow ,but if not, im not going in anyways, because i've got SO much hw i havent started on

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 01:39 am: Edit

Yes, where *is* Twinkle? It's quiet...too quiet.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 03:31 am: Edit

Wow... so many posts! I will try not to ramble too much, but I haven't been here for a few days so I have to catch up!

Thedad- Agh...that is a major pain about the ankle.. I hope it is improving quickly I have also had a few sprained ankles (among other injuries that cover a wide span of varieties and body parts involved, which is a whole different post in itself- although some are kind of interesting, like how I fractured my pinkie...but anyway) and those are a royal you know what. What is the spring show that she will be auditioning for next week? BTW, keeping fingers crossed for 1530+ SAT scores, it sounds as if it went extraordinarily well! All right, I'll bite: what does disintereted mean? I could look it up in a dictionary, but that would spoil the fun.

My best mile time was in the 6 minute range on pure adrenaline but normally I'm more around 7:30ish because I'm not a runner. My 6 mile thing got me recruited for track, but I couldn't handle running that much all the time and I had too many other things going on at the time.. and running is not great at all for people who dance. (BTW, private lesson on Saturday morning went well)

"I believe you when you say that you're near the F/T border, for that's how I experience you. For P/J, I have insufficient data. It sometimes helps if you can use the archetype associated with each type as a touchstone...you realize, m'god, I'm acting like a _____________ right now." I can't decide if I'm a P/J either... I can be totally spontaneous and love the process and procrastinate, but I'm also picky and perfectionistic and hate doing anything half way...so maybe that's borderline too. Although, it's kind of reassuring that I'm not I/E, N/S, T/F, AND P/J...all borderline. I can't decide how I fit into the archetypes... why isn't there a TNKL category... I'd fit beautifully into that.

What do you think of the South Beach diet? You mentioned you were still working with Atkins, but I was wondering if you looked into the other one as well...it's supposed to give Atkins a good run for its money.


Aries... lol at the using you as the wild woman role model! I've given up on new year's resolutions, except this is what I've decided to do (but not carved in stone...screw commitment, I don't need it).

I need to stop worrying about what other people want and what they think, and trying to solely make other people happy. If people don't like what I do or how I am, tough. I really don't need the negativity. It's not a rampant problem, but I've gotten tired of doing everything for everyone else. It's not like I'm going to become some self absorbed brat at all, though. I also have to clean my room every two weeks. I throw tantrums every morning trying to find the perfect outfit and my room becomes a mess on a daily basis as a result, much to the dismay of my mother who has given up on telling me to clean it because it's just going to get wrecked again anyway in terms of clothes being everywhere. Oh..and what else. I could say to stop biting my nails, but I can't. I've been saying that since I was seven and I've given up. I can't keep New Year's Resolutions if they're too out of my reach.

BTW your email=90% done! I really need to stop hitting that darned delete button... so I've taken to saving them every 12 seconds because I hate losing entire paragraphs.

Volley- Oh, I think something really loud and wonderful is perfect for essay writing (not Eminem though...ever)Although, you've got to keep in mind that I do my essay writing LATE because it's quiet and I can really focus. Totally oxymoronic, but I can't have people distracting me, telephone calls, other priorities, etc. I sit with my music and just me, by myself, and my computer, and write and I think sooo much better.

Okay, Point of No Return=one of my favorite movies, go out and rent it now! Bridget Fonda is in it.. she's a druggie/murderer who ends up on death row I think...either she gets executed or becomes a bounty hunter for the govt, but trust me, it's really exciting and has good action scenes. I have a really broad taste in movies, so I have other recommendations if that's not your thing.

Ch2- we're supposed to get our snow Tuesday and Wednesday...keeping fingers crossed for SNOW DAY too! I'm excited and hope we have one because I already made plans for what I will do... fun in the sun... I mean snow... even though I don't like snow because it's cold and wet, it will be fun. And ESMERELDA is lucky that she doesn't have to go back till Wed ;) Although, I don't mind. I'm excited, I have new classes tomorrow and nooo more GYM! YAY!!!!

Grades: A- : govt, A: Italian, A-/A=English A+=Psych, Gym=whatever random grade was decided to be given and Spanish... I don't know. :-/ I'm kind of scared because I bomb all the reading quizzes but do really well on everything else... so I hope it balances. Whatever, second semester senior now!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 09:54 am: Edit

SNOW DAY!!!!!

but i still havent touched hw from the weekend...

By Coureur (Coureur) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 10:52 am: Edit

>>All right, I'll bite: what does disintereted mean? I could look it up in a dictionary, but that would spoil the fun.<<

Disinterested means impartial, one who has no stake in the outcome. Uninterested means someone who doesn't care about the issue and is probably bored by it.

An example of someone who is disinterested but not uninterested would be a baseball umpire or a courtroom judge. They have no preference about who wins, but they better be paying attention to what is going on.

By Mauretania (Mauretania) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:26 am: Edit

Hello, Twinkle
I was just passing by and heard you mention "Point of No Return." That was actually a US version of the French film "La Femme Nikita" from the early '90's - you might want to check it out.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 12:01 pm: Edit

And today's word for post-breakfast discussion was "zeitgeist."

I noted to D that her desultory review of vocab lists had never gotten beyond the letter "L" (not that I'm a big fan of that kind of review but if you're going to do it...) and since I had quickly perused it, I asked her if she knew what "zeitgeist" was.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 12:57 pm: Edit

LOL to TheDad - that's a great word. I first encountered it a sophomore in high school when I wrote a paper on Pavlov.

Twinkle: may I suggest writing in Word, then doing a copy and paste into an email?

Long, long weekend for Aries - actually relieved to be at work today.

Question for all of you college-savvy types: I got a letter from a law school, telling me that they will take more time to review my application (everything is rolling admissions) in order to compare it to their applicant pool. What course of action should I take? Send a note letting them know that I am eager to hear from them and asking if I can interview or send additional materials? Just send more materials (i.e. recommendations, update on work, life, etc, extra essay) anyway? Call them up and ask? All of the above???

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 06:12 pm: Edit

We haven't gotten our snow yet, but it's okay because we WILL!

A in Spanish!!! Now all I have to worry about is the randomness of the grade given in gym and how good my English paper was. Not worry, but consider... I don't panic over grades.

Aries- part 1 = sent! (check el mailbox!) That is good to know for future reference though... word is smart too because you can spell check it for any flagrant typos (which I tend to make and not check because I'm a speed demon when I type and hence make a lot of errors along the way I don't correct in mail/AIM but usually do here for some reason).

Mauretania- Ooo cool! I will add "Le Femme Nikita" to my "to-watch" list... I have quite a few movies accruing on that list. I think I will watch it with my sister... we both got really into "Point of No Return". She really liked "Tomb Raider", which I wasn't particularly a big fan of... (We watched them together on the same night so I associate them with each other for that reason) it just lacked that certain something. My movie rant could easily take up a whole post, so I will save it because I don't want to be too rambly.

"Disinterested means impartial, one who has no stake in the outcome. Uninterested means someone who doesn't care about the issue and is probably bored by it."

Coureur, thank you! I had always assumed like 85% of other people they were synonymous, but apparently not. That's so confusing though...if you were to break them down using prefixes and steams and whatnot, you don't get that they mean two totally different things- at least I didn't. Un- means not...and dis= means not too...or does it? I have to look that up.

Thedad, I have never heard of the word zeitgeist or had known that it WAS actually a word... hmmm. I like picking up new vocab words, though, and knowing them really well and using them in regular conversation. (Although, then there is the potential for other kids to be like whooooa big word...and for me sometimes I just use them when I'm talking and am so used to it that I don't think about it too much. My mother has an extensive vocabulary, so being around her too has exposed me to a broad range of words)

Today I have officially decided that I am not going to EVER learn how to type with all of my fingers. I had an experience with that today, and let me tell you, it is a nightmare. I like my two finger method; it works for me despite my errors. I mean, if I ever get a job where I have to type and people see me doing it, I'm sure it will look unprofessional, but Peter Jennings also types with two fingers, and it hasn't cost him work, so I'm sure it's not going to be that terrible of a deal.

And the program spreadsheet gives me a headache, I hate it, it's tedious for me. I mean, it serves a good purpose but it drives me nuts. Other than research, typing papers or chatting, computers drive me CRAZY!!!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 06:22 pm: Edit

Twinkle:

LMAO at your email! Just checked the inbox and had to muffle laughter so colleagues would not think me odd.

By Volley17 (Volley17) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:00 pm: Edit

I'll check out Point of No Return, thanks!

Haha the two-finger typing method was how I typed for around 9 years. I just recently discovered how to type with all of my fingers so now I can type much faster. Accuracry? We won't delve too much into that. LOL. Whatever floats your boat,I guess.

Ahh I hate spreadsheets too. I tried making a graph with Excel once. Two hours later and no graph. I was never more frustrated.

Extensive vocabulary=heavenly essays. I always have so much to say but my lack of words always stifles me. I try to pick a starting sentence that gives me the jump start I need because then I write like no other. On the other hand, I absolutely cannot write in English. My words bump and scrape against the floor, the walls, the ceiling, all whilst screaming bloody murder. Bah.

We got our final grades today in class. I was so proud of myself. I *barely* scraped by with an A in English. I got a 90.04%. I honestly think that had I gotten one or two less points on the final, I would have gotten a B. I'm not too sure if my teacher rounds up or not, so I'm glad that I'm not faced with that problem!

Mock trial competition is tomorrow! I can't wait!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 11:40 pm: Edit

Twinkle, if you can type two-fingered at 50wpm with no errors, go for it...otherwise, put touch typing on your list of Things To Learn. I learned to type when it was just beginning to be "okay" for boys to type and I've never regretted it...it gives me an increased boost of productivity because there's so much I can do quickly without relying on other people.

Mauretania, thanks for the plug for "La Femme Nikita." It was highly recommended to me when it first came out and I didn't see it. I think I'll have a lot more time to watch movies come September....

D is off crutches. Two weeks before she can resume ballet at all, probably 4-6 weeks before she gets back into shape.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 01:34 am: Edit

Wow, I just reread my last post and all I have to say about that is that I really must proof/edit before I put up a message. It looks like a massive/ highly charged brain dump.

Aries- Thank you again... lol... it's like someone passing you a really fantastic/funny/explicit note in class and you have to do everything in your power not to burst out laughing because people will try to figure out what's going on. My note days have dwindled significantly, but frosh year I had 1 or 2 classes where the environment was strict and I couldn't talk as much as I wanted to... so I remedied that by fiercely scribbling notes after finishing a worksheet, when we were going over notes I already knew, etc. I really can't NOT talk, which is why I can't see myself being happy in a lecture... I'd lose my attention because of the lack of interaction, and no talking to other people, but I guess I will learn to manage/adapt.

It makes me wonder if it is ADD, or if it's that I am just so extroverted/learn better from interacting with others. I know there is only one way to find out, but after learning about multiple intelligences in depth I could just fall into a couple of those categories heavily. I guess what really got me thinking about it was that I was reading a bunch of stuff for psych because I'm doing research right now, and I read this one thing that said kids with ADD can really benefit from listening to highly stimulating music (like rock) when trying to study because it helps them block everything else out, especially outside distractions, and allows them to focus on what needs to get done. The reason why it works is because it can create a calming effect, not unsimilar to that of psychostimulants (such as drugs like Ritalin), stimulated the cerebrum, helps block outside distractions and reduces motor activity by reducing skeletal tension. I have nooo idea if this has any connection at all but it made me laugh because like TWO days ago I posted the thing about how I need energetic music to concentrate when writing or otherwise my attention flies out the window.

Anyway...wow...major digression.

The two finger method works for now... I forgot to mention that the left thumb is used for spacing. The left thumb is also extremely useful for hitting the shift key. I guess that's just how I taught myself how to type, but I am right handed so I found it funny that I use my left hand more than my right when typing. I have nooo idea of what my WPM is, but I can type a lot quickly...sometimes I have to hit the backspace, but it doesn't take that much time. I think that a Touch-type class is in my future... if it can pick up the speed, then why not?

I don't know what my English grade will be... this was a tough quarter. Yay Volley for getting an A! My grades are all down this semester, but considering the classes, amount of work, and everything I do outside of school, I don't need to kick myself for it and feel bad...what's done is done, and it's not horrible either. A-'s are annoying but I have a bunch, and when they're averaged with 1st semester grades they'll come out to be A's so at least on my transcript, everything will seem a little more solid.

Thedad- Hurrah for D being off crutches! Will she still be able to audition for the Spring Show?


Yay...back to writing mass amounts of essay responses and research and reading...later.

By Voigtrob (Voigtrob) on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 01:44 am: Edit

Howdy all... just joining the Twinkle party, hahaha. Glancing thru your profile, Twinkle, I am left with a few questions/comments:

-Whereat you applyin?
-Wooo for Grad School 2, haha.
-Great Gatsby, smashing book (that lucky Fitzgerald went to the school I wanna go to ;P)
-Diet Coke?! Pshaw, original any day.
-Goal - agreeeeeed.
-Explain this acceptance/rejection box thang to me, I am curious.

;P

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 07:35 am: Edit

SNOW DAY #2!!! *does a snow dance*

i actually still dont have 75% of my homework done from this weekend, despite the fact that today is my 2nd extra day off ahhh, senioritis is kicking in. i fell asleep at 11 PM last night and didnt wake up til this morning, jumped up & down when i saw the 571 school closings in my area (sleet, icy, freezing rain with thunderstorms).

TheDad-glad to hear your D is off crutches. hopefully she can recover soon and go back to ballet. it must not be so fun missing ballet for so long

Voigtrob-hahaha Fitzgerald...erghhhh. Princeton. errrr. deferrals. errrrrrrrrrr...

ahhh, well i think im actually going to make an effort to finish my work early so i can go out tonight (like any NORMAL teenager!).

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 02:05 pm: Edit

TheDad:

Glad to hear that your D is off crutches.

Twinkle:

I guess it does remind me a bit of note-passing days. I'm working on a reply to your email, and the cow government is in your inbox.

My sophomore year at college, all the chemical engineers had to take a thermo class. The professor was quite... uninspiring there - he would drone on in a monotone ad infinitum. So one Friday afternoon, the professor was running over. Ten minutes after the class was supposed to end, one of my friends leaned up behind me and whispered, "Just throw a book at him and we'll make a run for it."

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 12:25 am: Edit

No, it's not fun for D to miss ballet for so long. Tonight she went to a rehearsal just to watch.

And where is Twinkle? She surfaced and vanished again. This is unlike her. She must have a tonne of work.

Small Victories Dept.: D pulled a straight B in Calc B/C. One nice thing about the class is that after the AP exam, the rest of the year is spent in "class bonding activities." As long as it's not class *bondage* activities I suppose this is okay.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 02:37 am: Edit

Thedad- good call, you're right, I have a **tonne** of work. (over 115 pages in reading for English, 74 pages for gov. to take notes/answer ?'s on, some psych essays, myth. questions, Spanish AP sheets, soc. reading/questions were all on the plate for tonight... made a dent but not done yet...hoping for a snow day tomorrow!!) 2nd semester has started and I have more work than ever and an additional two classes (which I already *really* like...it's going to be a good semester in those terms, great teachers and kids AND interesting subject matter for both, not to mention I'm still psyched that I get to take both because I literally almost didn't get into them)

A on English term paper and a 7/9 and a 6/9 on in class AP essays (we write in class essays but these were the first to be graded according to the AP rubric) are looking good... I think I pulled an A in English for this quarter I went through a bunch of my papers and most of them are A's/A-'s with a small smattering of B+/B essays, so I think I'm in good shape. As long as I don't get some randomly weird/low gym grade (which if I do...it will screw with my GPA and make me become a momentarily angry Twinkle), my midyear reports should be in good shape.

Congrats to D pulling a straight B in BC Calc!! I knew that was a point of concern, but I'm glad she got it. Not to mention that a B in BC Calc, from what I've heard here and from kids in other towns who take BC (we don't have it but I know people who don't go to my school who do), is something to be proud of because it's not an easy feat.

LOL @ class bondage activities! I was going to say something, but since this is a public forum I'm going to keep it PG-13 and keep quiet

Voigtrob- Since I'm short on time I'll quickly explain the acceptance/rejection boxes:

Get two boxes. Well, 3, in case of waitlist.
Label one "rejected" (or box of doom) and decorate it to look really threatening/ominous. Label the next waitlist (or box of limbo) and put lots of little question marks on it. The final box should be accepted!!! (box of YAY!) and put confetti and other fun things in it. When you start getting replies from colleges, file accordingly

I know I missed a lot of stuff, but I must get back to writing before the sun comes up/I fall asleep (which ever happens first)...snow..snow...snow...they are Nazis when it comes to giving us snow days- we're supposed to get 10 inches though so I should be in good shape, but just in case...

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 05:43 am: Edit

NO SCHOOL!!! (*runs victory lap*) Okay, so it was pointless to stay up and work when I could have been sleeping. At least when I awake in another 5 hours or so I will be a little bit closer to catching up in this horrible mountain of work that has piled up and I am drowning in.




I have more stuff to catch up on here, but *yawn*... I have to sleep first.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 06:56 am: Edit

SNOW DAY #3 IN THE NORTHEAST OHIO DEPARTMENT!! everyone in this area has had 3 straight...the roads are sickening. im talking to Twinkle right now...who ALSO has no school. YAY!!! *does a snow dance*

yay for your D for getting a B in AP Calc BC! speaking of calc, we were *supposed* to have a test today, but its going to get pushed to Monday now ahh, but our class doesnt do "bonding activities"-we start multivariable. yuck...

well i would go back to bed, but i FINALLY finished my hw from the weekend last night (hehe 2 days late, but still done) because i figured there would be no way we would get out of school today (wrong!)...went to bed at 10:30ish, and now im so awake i cant take a nap. so i think i will do another snow dance.

*snow dance*

HYPER!!!!!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 06:59 am: Edit

SNOW DANCE INDEED!!!

*cranks random 80s music and launches into a new rendition of the ever infamous snow dance*

I am really awake right now too...sleep will be later!!!!!!!!!!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 01:21 pm: Edit

Cheers for TheDaughter! A straight B in calc sounds like quite an accomplishment. My calc teacher kept assigning homework after the AP... class bondage, I mean bonding, sounds like an exciting alternative. Recall the Twinkle essay: smart is sexy.

Also, I hope she is dancing again soon.

Cheers for snow days! Some of us have to go to work (ugh) despite the snow... but enjoy your days off! Sunshine, love the five-day weekend!

Twinkle: good luck finding time to breathe with your workload.

Posting a link for general perusal: http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/01/27/college.seniors.jobs.ap/index.html

regarding the difficulty in finding jobs, especially in the tech field. Something for the college-bound to consider.

By Volley17 (Volley17) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 08:01 pm: Edit

Hehe hello everybody!

Congrats to D on the B in BC!

I'm seriously afraid to take AP Calculus at my school; our teacher is great and very dedicated but somehow he got upset with his classes and made the three-section final worth something like 10,000 points which is roughly 60% of the grade. He put stuff of the finals that they had never covered and his exact words were, "There's going to be stuff on the final that you've never seen before. There is nothing you can do about it, just suck it up. That's life." GRRR! So many people lost their valedictorian place just because of that class. Our school is REALLY difficult if you take the APs, so they just take everyone who had gotten all As throughout the 4 years so we have about 10 valedictorians out of about 700 people.

Yay for Twinkle, a snowday! I live in that part of CA where we don't get snow so I'm not lucky enough to get days off. Oh well.

Anyway. Mock trial last night was amazing. For those of you that are in the same thing, you'll know what I mean. ;) It was great; I just had the greatest feeling last night, I mean, we are sure that we won!

Regarding sleep: Thank goodness for Starbucks. ;)

By Audreyhepburn (Audreyhepburn) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 12:06 am: Edit

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

ba da da dum dum dum!!!!!

I AM DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!
I am *so* relieved.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 01:42 am: Edit

I will probably never finish my homework...eek!

It's funny, as a 2nd semester senior, I never would have imagined that our workload would expand this much.

I'm just trying to enjoy the rest of it, so the homework doesn't upset me too much- if I forget about that, then everything else is pretty good.

Except, of course, the fact that I'm having boy drama and I need to get some stuff in the mail by FRIDAY and I don't know how it will humanly possible.

Volley, I want to hear about mock trial! I always thought it'd be cool to do that or debate (we don't have either at my school, and by the time I learned you can start your own organizations, I was already far too involved in too many things)

Yay for no more finals Audrey!

Tomorrow= full day of classes, meetings, work, back to school for more stuff later and then loads of homework.

The best thing to do is SMILE at this point.

I find out within the next 10 days whether or not I made sal... :-/ I have this rotten feeling my gym grade will screw me over. Grrrrr. Anyone into creating a new title? Thraludictorian? For the kids who come in 3rd? They have gold/silver/bronze at the Olympics, so it's kind of the same idea.

LOL Aries! Kids in Calc BC must be among the sexiest out there...

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 11:48 am: Edit

Twinkle:

Let me know what's up with the boy drama. Methinks the "hair" comments are continuing... "Elle, you were brilliant today. You really are the woman for me. I love you." ~or however Warner's little speech went.

Good luck getting sal! How about tertiartorian or something? The Twinkle graduation speech would be quite... exciting, I'm sure.

Yeah for Audrey! Done with finals = very good!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 03:30 pm: Edit

I'd be up for a special name for #3...since that's me...!!!! i have a chance to move up to sal, but not banking on it (my 1st semester grades were err...not great)

ugh back to school today but since its a two day week, it has been pointless. i almost have *no* homework today because i actually took advantage of my many free periods and did some homework. i also worked ahead last night and wrote my AP Eng paper due tomorrow...so yay!!

ahhh Twinkle, you must tell me about the boy drama at a later time. pop an email or send me a few IM's

good luck to all. congrats for finishing your finals Audrey!!!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 07:57 pm: Edit

D is walking okay but is still getting an air cast on Monday to give the ankle a little extra support.
She feels good about the "B" in Calc BC...only 3 of 17 in her section got an "A."

And now, for today's treat: an Easter Egg.

For those of you have the extended version DVD of the first two Lord of the Rings movies, do the following:

1. Go to "Scene Selection."

2. Navigate to the very last listed scene in the movie.

3. Press the "Down Arrow" one more time...a "Gold Ring" icon will appear below the last scene number.

4. Press "Enter" (not "Play") when the ring is highlighted.

5. Enjoy.

I suspect several people who visit here will try this...my bet is that AT gets to it first.

I like the Easter Egg for the first LOTR movie better than the second but they're both funny.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:02 pm: Edit

Volley17, missed it earlier re Irish music...do you ever listen to Tommy Makem or the Clancy Brothers?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:15 pm: Edit

Boy Drama in the Sunshine department too. *sigh*

I HATE BOYS I HATE BOYS. THEY HAVE COOTIES. THEY NEED TO DIE.

*sigh*

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:17 pm: Edit

Well.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:41 pm: Edit

I need cootie repellent too... I Q-U-I-T!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:42 pm: Edit

Forever and a day an eternity plus a galaxy plus the entire solar system=the duration of my resignation

I.AM.DONE.

I don't need this, I'd rather keep my sanity.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 09:02 pm: Edit

Sunshine & Twinkle's plans for college

-Dress in sparkly pink
-go to Harvard
-wear "comfortable heels"
-adopt a dog named Bruiser
-write songs about how mean and stupid boys are and how they need to die and never come back because they ruin girls' lives with stupid pointless high school drama!

*blows raspberry*

By Voigtrob (Voigtrob) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 10:57 pm: Edit

Just wanted to join TheDad's daughter's celebration of a B in BC Calc... woooooooo was I lucky to pull that bad boy. I went B, then C for quarter grades... then got a 78/100 on the midterm. All appeared to be lost, until... AHH! A 2 point curve for the midterm! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Hahahaha. I gave my teacher a hug after that. So out of my four academics (four darn toughest classes in the school) that's one solid B, followed by three 'iffys' between As and Bs because of flaky teachers, haha. But at least I can be much less anxious now... the worst I can get is four Bs, which sucks but it wouldn't be the end of the world... on the other hand the best I can get is three As and a B, which would totally rock. So we'll see. ;)

Note to Twinkle and Sunshine: Pshaw! You've only experienced annoying high school boys so far. Upon reaching college you will encounter sexy, interesting, intelligent, charming young men such as myself to woo you (which may in fact occur directly if Sunshine and I both get our deferrals reversed, hahaha). There is light at the end of the cootie tunnel, and it is good.
<3

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 01:42 am: Edit

"Good luck getting sal! How about tertiartorian or something? The Twinkle graduation speech would be quite... exciting, I'm sure. "

I'll let everyone know. I know it's a long shot, and I'm not trying to play number games, but I can't help but to try to figure out where everyone will end up. In fact, I'm not even going to bother...just let the chips fall where they may. It's been a good ride.

Ohhh, thats half of why I want sal (the other half consists on leaving my ONE mark on the school forever and eternally on the wall and the other so I can say HA! to everyone who doubted the power of a Twinkle)...my speech would be definitely different, creative, a bit out there but highly memorable.

Boy drama- email for tomorrow... I am much too tired at the moment and I have to squeeze out some English reading before I crash. It's quite complicated/involved and involves many different characters...sigh. Yes, more of the hair comments and more other stuff not to mention there are other people involved now (separately and indirectly), so it's one big tangle.

Voigtrob, I'm sincerely hoping you're right ;)
If there's no light at the end of the cootie tunnel, I'll just become a monk. Not a big deal.

(BTW- for anyone who is reading this who does not know me- I'M KIDDING ABOUT THE MONK THING! SO, PLEASE, MONASTERIES- DON'T TRY TO RECRUIT ME!)

Sunshine- We also must: *Have really great hair at all times
*Never, ever mix Prada and Gucci! Unforgivable sin...
*Take notes in college with pink feathered pens and cute little pads that come in adorable shapes... hey, there's something fascinating about seeing derivatives and integrals in pink sparkly pen scrawled on Hello Kitty stationery.
*take our fashion majors to the next level...to law school!
*Go to Congress to petition the House of Representatives for the passage of a bill that would eliminate immature/confusing/conflicted high school boys from the vicinity of any high schools and ship them out on a bus to a special high school: Inept Academy of The Boys Who Want To Get Less Dumberer

~*~Night~*~

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 11:23 am: Edit

Public service announcement of the day: Fat envelopes DO NOT always mean acceptances.

In other news, I'm slowly regaining sanity after the hope of getting in somewhere... but no, Tulane sends out financial aid info in fat envelopes to all who apply.

What else... rejected from Columbia, no surprise there.

Sunshine and Twinkle:

I'm sorry that boys are "icky stinky gross rotten pieces of cow manure" as my older sis once said. I suggest the Island of Speciall People, in which all of those who are unable to relate to normal people and proceed without emotionally devestating those around them are secluded. Think modern-day personality-based leper colony.

TheDad:
I don't have either LotR on DVD (sigh), but I'll try to get to that soon. Been looking for an excuse to get them, so I guess this is it!

If you can stand one more Legally Blonde quote, "What's the one thing that always makes us feel better, no matter what?"
~May I suggest manicures, massages, or LotR for Twinkle, Sunshine, etc.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 02:18 pm: Edit

Surely *someone* in this thread has the LOTR DVD? Make sure it's the extended version.

I know that if anyone had seen it they would have commented by now.


AT, this was Columbia Law School? So their admissions cycle is earlier/faster than undergrad?
Just curious.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 02:59 pm: Edit

TheDad:

Yes, it is Columbia Law School. Almost all law schools do rolling admissions, and, as I submitted the bulk of my applications in October, I've been hearing back sooner than undergrad. It's actually a lot more stressful than undergrad, as you can hear anytime (Tulane apparently mails out decisions up through the beginning of the summer). Also, about 35% of students nationally do not get in anywhere they apply. Five years ago, I would not have guessed that I would one day wish for the stress I was feeling then!

By Volley17 (Volley17) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 06:49 pm: Edit

Twinkle- Ahh mock trial is awesome. I love competitions; you would think that a trial would be boring from all that is said, but nothing entertains me more. I've learned so much since being in there, it's such a great opportunity. Hehe, I sound like such a nerd!

Thedad- I do like their music, but I prefer just instumental stuff. I just go out to Borders or wherever and buy a compilation of songs so I really don't have a favorite artist or anything like that.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 09:11 pm: Edit

Well, I like instrumental stuff, too.

The Scots got the [bag]pipes from the Irish and they haven't caught on to the joke yet.

I'm not kidding about that LOTR Easter egg...you're going to be hysterical when you see it. I mean, this is worth putting down your homework, going out and renting the sucker, and watching it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 03:13 am: Edit

Seeing as how I haven't seen the LOTR (either!) I didn't see the egg but if I do, thedad I will be sure to watch it... I feel like I'm missing something!

Aries- Columbia is missing out on a very valuable addition to their school...it's too bad that they passed on a chance to bring on more blonde ambition to their law school. I'm definitely sorry at the unfairness we discussed before, though... but you are going to kick ass wherever you decide to attend next year.

Yawn..yawn...so sleepy!

I gave my bitten off fingernails a manicure the other day...ice pink...good times, good times! I splurge a little when it comes to nail polish...the good stuff lasts longer and it makes me happy when I put it on. Same with good hand lotion... the extra money is well worth it! I have crappy nails but I do them anyway because it's one of those little things I can do without having to worry about other problems. I just sit in my room and crank the music, break out the nail files and remover, polish, all that other good stuff and engage in nail pampering for the next 25 minutes or so.

"I suggest the Island of Speciall People, in which all of those who are unable to relate to normal people and proceed without emotionally devestating those around them are secluded. Think modern-day personality-based leper colony."

Yeah, I could easily rattle off a list of people I'd love to ship there right now, and then others that I observe in public who really belong in a similar type of environment. I support this kind of island, and when I become President (now that's an entertaining/scary thought...on one hand I am warming up to the idea and then again it could be scary if I had power over the entire nation...hmmm) I will enforce this kind of deportation. If you can't act like a normal person who knows better than to mess with other people's minds, you can just hop on the boat and go to the Island for Special People, where you can be surrounded by idiots such as yourself. This could be bad though...you never want a mass amount of idiots/meanies/jerks congregated in one place, too risky/dangerous so I guess my plan for global harmony is bunk.

Volley- Actually, I always thought participating in mock trial would be fun. We did them in history one year and I had a blast as the prosecutor in one trial and the defense attorney in the other!

By Mauretania (Mauretania) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 10:24 am: Edit

TheDad
My daughter has the LOTR extended versions which she got for Christmas. She's still asleep, right now, but when she gets up I'll give her the directions for the Easter Eggs?? I printed out your instructions. I haven't a clue what you're talking about as I haven't seen the films, myself. She loves them.

Also, I Irish danced as a kid, at shopping malls etc dressed as an elf My Mum used to practice with me in the living room, both of us doing the reel and the jig - good times.

By Mauretania (Mauretania) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 10:48 am: Edit

TheDad
Sorry, to highjack your thread, Twinkle! I don't know his e-mail to ask directly. Anyways, my daughter just tried it and we didn't see any gold ring. She popped in the fellowship, which is part 2 and went to the last scene which was #47 then pressed the down arrow which took her to #48 and said "Official Fan Club Credits". The background music was playing and the credits were scrolling, above, but we didn't see any gold ring.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Mauretania, you can't do it from *within* the movie. You have to start with "Scene Selection" on the DVD menu, navigate through the "Scene Selection" and then proceed from there. If you hit "Play" at any point, it doesn't work and you have to start over.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 06:12 pm: Edit

Mauretania- The title is misleading; it's not my thread, I just started it all... you can post whenever/whatever you want, it is a completely open/anything goes/digression ridden conversation so don't leave!

I feel like I missed out on something by not seeing any of the Lotr, but the good thing about DVDs are that you can pause them unlike in the movie theatre, where sometimes during a long movie I'd like nothing more to get up and move around for a bit (regardless of how much I love the movie, after a certain point I need some kind of intermission!) If I get enough money eventually I'll have to get it because I'm LOTR deprived, which is probably not a good thing.

Getting ready to party hop... bye y'all!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 08:25 pm: Edit

Voigtrob-haha high school boys ARE dumb, but the ones im relating to drama to are actually guys that you'll probably wind up meeting at the selective schools (i.e. one got into Caltech, the other Georgetown-more than i can say)...its over a stupid high school valentines dance thats next weekend and some bad timing with certain things. i think everything will work itself out eventually...i do hope you're right though. good guys are one in a million in high school. i figure at least guys i meet in college will at least be already weeded out to the point where they are at least all decent. i only have to make sure they match my personality, and it will all work out. guys at my high school are really dumb/stupid/airheaded. by the way, did you send anything to PTON after your deferral? my parents are nagging at me to send them a letter or an extra rec or a new essay or SOMETHING but i feel like giving up and not caring, because if i didnt get in ED, i dont feel as if i have a chance at all RD, and i really wouldnt feel cheated if i went to Cornell or JHU or whatever, even if not Pton. im just wondering if i should bother.

TheDad-as big of a LOTR fan as i am, i have not gotten around to getting the extended version of LOTR yet...eeeeek sorry. but that easter egg sounds great. i'll go bug my friend later!

AT-sorry about Columbia. ugh i agree with Twinkle. they missed an opportunity for a great person. Law schools are so competitive, so dont worry about it. im sure you will get in somewhere great.

ahhhhhhhhhhh well its 8:30, i was at a party all last night, out all today, and i have to finish all of my hw tonight, because i am going DRESS SHOPPPPPING tomorrow...haha dance is next saturday. im such a procrastinator Twinkle, maybe i'll find something PINK AND SPARKLY!!!! haha the Sunshine & Twinkle pink and sparkly fashion club. anyone else wanna join?

okay im out. bye!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 09:58 pm: Edit

Sunshine:

Yipee for dress shopping!! Pink and sparkly sounds awesome.

If it makes you feel better, I think that the y-chromosome undergoes a few radical changes after 18-20 years. Suddenly, boys are a lot more mature/less insecure in college, which is quite nice. Some of them are still, um, unevolved. I hope everything works out for you.

---

I'm not too disappointed about Columbia - it's one of the five best law schools in the country, and the fact that they did not reject me immediately (they've had my app for three months) is a really good thing. It was my top choice... but there is 2005 (if the other 11 fall through) and transfer options... eh. For some reason, I'ld be a lot more upset if a second-tier school rejected me.

---

Twinkle - have fun party-hopping!!

How about a new thread sometime?

By Esmereldasy (Esmereldasy) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 12:31 am: Edit

ugh, i hate school so much. I especially hate that it started up again. I did finally get my midterm grades, and I was both disapointed and relieved. Since I got all As for the first two quarters, I had to get a D or below to be lowered to a B. I had no reason to worry, I ended up with two As and two Bs on my exams, but....even though those two Bs were just Bs and didn't affect my grade at all, i was still upset with myself over them. I know I didn't study as much as I should have (not at ALL) so I guess I should have expected the grades I got. But it was still disapointing. I got a B on the midterms of both of my math classes....and math is my good subject. At least, it has been. . . . The BC Calc one i guess I can understand. It was a high B and I didn't have some of the trig derivitive and integral formulas memorized well enough. Plus, I didn't remember some of the things we learned at the begining of the year.
I have no excuses for the Stat grade though. I came out of the test thinking it was really easy. It WAS easy... I don't know what went wrong.... Oh well. The teacher was going over the test (being general because we can't get our tests back) and said that a lot of people didn't show their work in the right format and she had to take off for that, so maybe that is what i did.

Oh well, what's done is done. I guess I'm just glad that I didn't need those grades to be As.

My physics and lit grades somewhat made up for it though. Lit is my least favorite class, but somehow I pulled an A on the exam! whoo!!!!! An A in AP physics wouldn't have surprized me as much a few weeks ago, but after taking the exam (which was just about the hardest test of my life) I thought I had gotten at most a C! hehe. I was so anxious about my grade, that I was going to go and check it on Monday. I was going to drive through pouring sleet just to check my score, because I had been agonizing over it. heh. Stupid me. My dad didn't let me.

Ok, sorry, i'm going to stop complaining about my grades now. I'm not terribly upset by them anyways. heh.

Oh, I should add this for the people who got the national merit semifinalist thing::
They're sending the package saying who made finalist to your schools on Monday. (so your school will probably get it sometime next week). I realized that i forgot to send them my good SAT score yesterday, so I called, and they told me that they already made the decision. erp! I really hope i got it. If I didn't and the other 4 people from my school did, i'll be so embarassed. heh. oh well. good luck everyone!

I watched The Perfect Score yesterday. I had to see it, of course, it was almost my duty as a grade-grubbing geek to go see it. I'm pathetic, i admit it. Anyways, it was horrible. HORRIBLE. Just a warning. don't see it!

heh, guys ARE awful. I'd swear off boys in a flash, but I'll have gone out with my boyfriend for 3 months tomorrow and do not now intend to break it off. After we DO break up, though, I'm right there with you two....:-P

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 08:09 pm: Edit

oh yay i got the perfect dress!

my friend and i went to the mall at 10 AM this morning and came back at 4. she got that "perfect" black dress with neon pink heels and bright pink & black jewelry to match (dont ask, if you knew her, it'd make a lot more sense).

i spent forever trying to find mine, but i wound up with a little 50's sort of dress. black, spaghetti straps, but this pinkish purple (more like lilac with a pink tint) mesh-y material on top all crumpled together (ergh cant describe it) which goes into an empire waist with a ribbon around it that ties into a bow in the front. then, it has a lilac netting under it that makes it poof out and it hits right below the knees, but the lilac stiff netting stuff sticks out just a bit so you can see it. its so cute. i love it. i got a satin lilac purse and a glittery purple flower on a choker to match. eeeek, not sparkly & pink, but sparkly & pinkish-purple. the best part is that it actually FITS, and nothing fits me. i'm a tiny little midget at 5'3"-5'4". im really quite a girly girl and totally into pink, but ehhh i guess i'll get a pink dress for prom. i love the 50's look though, and there are quite a few 50's dresses out this season-most of them are strapless...but i hate strapless. im paranoid

Esmerelda, i wanted to go see Perfct Score, but my friend talked me out of it. i guess it was good i didnt waste $10 because i heard it was awful. my math teacher wanted to know what happened in it though, so i was going ot watch it and report back to him. apparently, now i cant oh well. it looks like a completely dumb & unrealistic movie. you have to be STUPID to try to steal the SAT's.

Boy Drama continues, but is lessening. im trying to ignore it. hopefully you're right AT. high school boys are really obnoxious and just plain annoying.

By Nyu2010 (Nyu2010) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 08:43 pm: Edit

I was downloading The Perfect Score, watched about a quarter of it, and then cancelled the download. It was really bad. Don't waste your money or your computer memory.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 09:53 pm: Edit

Aries- Party hopping ended up being really fun except we did not hop as much as we had initially planned. There is more boy drama though...it gets more and more complicated! Ahhhh!

Sunshine- your dress sounds absolutely gorgeous! I'm with you on the strapless thing- I can't wear them either, but I think some of them are really pretty. Congratulations to finding a dress that actually fits, I know how the midget thing goes! I'm also getting a pink dress for prom because I'm into the whole princess look for this year...yay! I'm excited!

My mother officially despises financial aid forms. Not that I blame her!

Esmerelda- thanks for the heads up on the Perfect Score... it wasn't something I was going to see anyway, but at least I won't bother watching it when it comes on TV/rental. It gave me a flashback of that horrid flick Swimfan when I saw the preview and I immediately decided I was noooot going to watch it!

Back to ESPANOL stuff...byyyyyeeeeeee

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 02:47 am: Edit

You know, with an accumulation of 55 minutes of sleep over the past God knows how many hours, I really should become a doctor. I've certainly picked up the skill of not sleeping and being able to crash in small 15 min intervals. Of course, I won't wake up from those naps by myself; that requires someone to intervene tell me that I must get up **now**.

Ergh. I am kind of serious about becoming a doctor. You know, if I didn't hate math and chem so much, I could see myself going into the field. I love people, I like knowing how people work, and I like human/animal biology/anatomy. I would probably be a pediatrician, if anything, because of the little kid factor. This is what wayyyy back in the day I wanted to do, around age 10 or so, before I discovered what you needed to have in order to become trained for the profession. It was always either that or an actress, but now things are more or less up in the air because I have no cement career plans... I'll just see whatever smacks me in the face and goes from there.

By the way: total outrage. I witnessed a Vivian Kensington type girl in one of my classes making rude comments on my project because it was "too colorful". Okay, whatever! It's called creativity. So I simply stared at her as she made this comment to someone who apparently didn't agree with her and she CAUGHT my glance and tried to cover it up by smiling at me. Um, no. I'm not *dumb*. (Creativity is definitely one of my strong points, so much that I've also considered going into advertising, fashion design or some form of creative writing. The funny thing is that this did NOT spark until mid-junior year. I honestly have no idea if it had been there all along, or if it was latent until something caused it to emerge) So I thought about it for a moment and contemplated over whether I should really let out what I wanted to say and tell her off, or if I should take the higher road and suck it up. (This girl doesn't like me because I'm apparently too wild/crazy/excited for an AP class or four... hmmm... I think she's been discussed before though so no need for more details. It's not the first time she's made snide comments) So I walked over to the other side of the room and told her how GREAT her project looked, and how much WORK she must have put into it- god, it must have taken her weeks and weeks! It was great, she was caught totally off guard.

Brilliant. Much more satisfying than being a brat about it.

On another note, my midyear reports get sent out next week so keep your fingers and hearts crossed, I'm definitely going to need it.

But...the one thing I'm most excited about right now is that my hair is getting long and I am SOOO psyched about that for no reason, I just dig the way it looks. Totally random.

English stuff now. Don't let the bedbugs bite.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 03:23 am: Edit

ahh yes,i, like Twinkle am up at 3 AM. the Winter Weather Advisory for this huge "ice storm" tonight has completely BEEN CANCELLED, so now there is no hope of a snow day, and i have a few more hundred pages to read, 2 papers to write, a research proposal to write, and oh...a math chapter to decode for the Test from Hell Part II. AHHHHHHHH, all the kids were all banking on a snow day today teachers have gone nuts this week, yet again.

Twinkle, i hate it when people make fun of you for having a GOOD project. its like GEEZ SORRY if you werent willing to put time/effort/thought into yours so now its boring/stupid/pointless. ughhhhh, Vivian Kensington. lol lol. yesterday at Academic Challenge, there was something in there about Steven Hawking and a book he wrote, and i shouted out "Brief History of Time!" because that was mentioned in LB1 when Elle is going around meeting the circle of people for the first time-"Hi my name is _____(i forget), i graduated 1st in my class from Princeton, have an IQ of 198, and it has been suggested that Steven Hawking stole his Brief History of Time...from my 4th grade paper."

okay thats my story for the night.

i am so dead today AHHHHHHH

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 11:22 am: Edit

Twinkle:

Sorry to hear about Ms. Kensington - I think you've mentioned her before. Too colourful?? What??? Clearly a girl who has not heard of blonde ambition nor the power of pink. Congrats on taking the high road... hee hee hee, she must have been quite confused! There really is only so long that you can be mean to someone who insists on being nice to you.

LouAnn Johnson, The Girls in the Back of the Class... "I'm not going to let people influence the way I treat them." Just a thought.

Sunshine: LOL, I loved that scene! There's also the part where he says "I have an IQ of 187" or something, and then they cut to David Kidney (I think) and Enid Wexler, who both roll their eyes like "Only 187?"

Your dress sounds lovely. Most women are around the 5'3" or 5'4" range, so you're really not short (if it makes you feel better). Dress sounds adorable though! Good job not getting only black, because 90% of the girls and most of the boys will wear black - those dances sometimes look more like funerals than parties.

Twinkle: I understand about despising finanical aid forms... finished the FAFSA (yeah!) without parental help... but ugh, it was rough. Good thing is that I'm a bit ahead on filling out federal taxes - I just have to file them now. I know that some schools only use the FAFSA, but Tufts requires the CSS (which you probably know) and uses that to calculate aid. Hum... oh, they do financial aid officers by last name, so you could always call up, tell them your last name, and they'll direct you to the person who will manage your package when you get in.

No more news from law schools yet... 3 rejections, 0 acceptances, 11 apps out there. Lots and lots of boy drama... Twinkle, I'll send you an email.

By Over30 (Over30) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 01:34 pm: Edit

Ariesathena, I sent you an email to the address in your profile.

By Homehill (Homehill) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 09:36 pm: Edit

Twinkle, have you ever looked at Hampshire College in Massachusetts? A school for creative people like you.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 09:59 pm: Edit

Hmm. Good catch, Homehill. I hadn't thought about that. Hampshire is part of the Five College Consortium along with Amherst, UMass Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and (yay!) Smith.
Damn...their application deadline was...Sunday.

Average SAT I around 1250 with a tilt towards "thinkers, dreamers, and the generally intellectually curious (PR's THE BEST 351...).

Twinkle, if you're interested, read fast and submit a late app, pleading. The acceptance rate is 51 percent and I'd think you'd be in the upper half of applicants.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 02:09 am: Edit

Stuff:

*Right now is the most homework I've ever had in my entire 17.5 years of living. I'm dead serious. I.AM.DEAD. Plus, tomorrow is nonstop committee planning, work, meeting(s!!!) until probably 9:30ish or so.

Hopefully, I can make it that far. Today I woke up and was so disconnected/out of it that I felt as if I was heavily drugged. I remember showering but I know I slept through most of it.

And they say that second semester senior year is easier. Yeah, right. Whoever said that __lied__ I'll be so happy if we have a delay tomorrow morning, that will buy me some time to blow out some more hw.

E-mails: I have a bunch that I owe people and some that are unread so if everyone will hold up for a couple of days I would appreciate it a lot because I will get around to them at some point.

My eye is twitching from the sleep deprivation though, kind of amusing/annoying.

Homehill and thedad- good thought...hmmm... My only thought is if it would be too liberal- that's not the word for it. Maybe unstructured? I like the open curriculum but for some reason I vaguely recall thinking "this is pretty cool, but I can't picture myself getting enough done because of all the freedom". Like, I want to do my own thing, think, explore, discover, expand on my idealism (someone told me that the idealistic thing is a thing of youth, but I think if I lose that then I'll stop dreaming and thinking... I'm realistic, but I still like to think that the world is generally a good place and everyone can make a difference, as corny as that might sound). I need structure though, as I've found this year because I have a tendency to either hyperfocus or completely go off into the other end if I'm not careful. I've gotten better about balancing both, but it's really easy not to.

Hmmm...now I'm thinking...

Aries- the incarnate of Ms. Kensington does NOT like pink or sparkly things and isn't really into the whole smiling thing, either. She put a lot of effort into her project too, except I noticed that, like with a lot of her other work, there isn't any...I don't know. I sense stifled creativity, like she's afraid to be wrong or experiment with a new idea so she sticks to the VERY tried and true, which works sometimes but others it doesn't. I mean, although she plays the game "Yes, Twinkle, I'd loooove your help with this" then will snap around and try to say little rude things about me that basically center on me being not smart enough or whatnot to be in the classes I take and whatnot, or that I'm too ditzy, too hyper, don't take things seriously enough. At first I used to care, and now it just amuses me because seriously, who does that? If I want to make the class laugh, perpetuate my fashion obsession, throw out some crazy idea, etc. then I'm going to. (There are a couple of non believers at school, but slowly, although sometimes that little sentiment of animosity will crop up among a few members of an AP class or two, people begin to see the whole picture and it returns to the non issue that it *should* be) Plus, over time, there have been enough people who obviously don't have a problem with it that it seems silly and insignificant to those who do.

Plus, I decided to be really nice to the select few (one in particular) because...just because I like to get the reaction, and maybe they'll give up and grow up.

For some reason this gets me psyched for a possible thwalseptaductatorian speech. Non #1/2 can give them too, so yay!

Eep...hw calls. I'll check in if I'm still alive by tomorrow night.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 02:21 am: Edit

By the way, random thought, but since I'm going to be up all night anyway I was thinking...what would you DO with yourself if you (*only*! hahaha) had an IQ of like 170 or something? I can't imagine being THAT intelligent. You could literally do anything with that kind of near-unlimited capacity for learning. I *do* subscribe to the multiple intelligences theory; IQ tests do not measure all of a person's strengths. Someone with a 100 IQ who is "average" may be really talented in areas that someone with a 170 who is a profound genius isn't. Who is to say that you're "smarter" if you score really high because you're great logically, as opposed to someone who scores lower who is fantastic in, I don't know, music, or art, for an example.

Just a thought.

It makes me laugh, though, because I can never finish an IQ test. When I hit those math puzzles on the test, I literally get so bored that I get up and don't finish because I want to avoid the tediousness.

But, back to my point, I wonder if having a significantly higher IQ makes you think vastly differently. For example, the shift between having a 120 IQ to a 170. How much differently would you think? Consider different ideas? Make connections? That's so fascinating, I wonder how much of an impact it makes.

-*another rant spawned out of complete tired thinking-* bye for real

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 11:49 am: Edit

Twinkle:

Stifled creativity seems like a good way to put all you've been saying about Ms. Kensington. Maybe she'll go to college or something and calm down... but probably not. I had a lot of teachers in high school who encouraged different thinking... like in English class, we usually were assigned essays just on the book - like write an essay about Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. Content was almost entirely up to us... I wrote something about different dimensions (fifth, third, first)... my teacher absolutely loved it - he said that he was going to incorporate it into his curriculum... but thinking "outside the box" was really encouraged... it forced us to do it in some ways... and it seems as if Ms. K would do well to have that type of environment.

Re: Hampshire. Send in the late app. Honestly, you have a couple of stellar essays... download the form, print, and send it in. I'm sure they are still pulling applications out of envelopes and sorting them. Worst case scenario: you get in, realize you don't want to go, and go somewhere else.

Re: IQ thing. I took an IQ test and came out in the high 150s... the only thing it really seems to be good for is standardized testing... I don't think I'm any smarter than people with lower IQs, but I can take standardized tests cold and score in the upper 98th or 99th percentile. Oddly, when I took the Mensa practice test, the thing that messed me up was the letter scrambles - the math takes me like a 1/2 second to do, but I can sit there for ten minutes trying to work through unscrambling letters or figuring out which word goes in front of card, bag, box, etc to make another word. Ugh.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 11:50 am: Edit

New thread!!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Over30 - check your inbox. Thank you!!

By Eadad (Eadad) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Aries

Been on jury duty and haven't been able to read/post for a few days.

Take heart and don't let Columbia Law rejection totally bum you out.

Good friend's daughter graduated from Columbia Law about 2 yrs ago,in fact got a combined JD/MBA there. She told me that their acceptance rate for undergrad applicants was significantly lower than for those coming out of the workforce and that in fact, they preferred life/work experience over same year college grads. Those admitted right from undergrad, were, like her, (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude Stanford grad) in their undergrad resumes.

I think the number then was less than 1/3 of accepted applicants (approx 100) came from undergrad with the rest (approx 200) from life/work experience. As you can see, the odds are significantly stacked against MOST undergrad applicants there.

Sunshine:

Where do you live in Ohio? What school? Grew up in NE Ohio and lived in SE Ohio for several years, all of family is still in NE Ohio.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 04:41 pm: Edit

Eadad-

i live in Medina, Ohio. about an hour south of cleveland, maybe 45 minutes away from Akron/Canton. suburban. rich. white. conservative. republican. it's actually growing fairly rapidly. and i go to Medina Senior High-the local public school which has expanded to twice its original size after two years of crazy construction. its such a nice school building with great technology. i walk into other schools like Wadsworth or Black River and i realize how lucky we really are. we really needed the new building though. we crammed 2300 kids into a school with 1600 capacity . i was excited though-yesterday during the Medina County Academic Challenge meet, we beat the #1 team in the area (brunswick)-undefeated until last night when we beat them. medina & brunswick are huge rivals. wow, you probably have no clue what im talking about.

just out of curiosity, where are you and your family from? i should probably be cautious about giving away my location, but ehhh, nobody reads this thread besides for the same 10 people anyways

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 05:01 pm: Edit

Eadad:

Thank you for your encouragement. I'm in my first year of "full-time" work experience, though I've interned for several years. My boss did write a recommendation for me, and my resume highlights work experience... but perhaps if I were 25, not 22, it would mean more!

As I've mentioned to Over30, it is possible that I'll be going through the application cycle again. In your opinion, would it be better to stick with the current engineering job or to do something like paralegal or judicial clerkships?

By Eadad (Eadad) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 05:19 pm: Edit

Sunshine:

Know Medina well. Used to be on the road in Ohio covering Akron/Canton area down through Massilon, and all the way to Parkersburg W. Va...that was a treat! Have to admit though that I know I wouldn't recognize it now. There is amazing growth in suburbs of my hometown that I can't believe when we visit there and conversely the urban decay, decline and blight of the city itself is painful to observe.

The Medina/Brunswick thing is an old and long standing rivalry as I recall.

Grew up in Youngstown (great place to be FROM if you know what I mean...LOL) went out of state to college, back for about two years after college (knew I could never live there long term after college)got recruited to work for a company in Dayton, lived there for about two years and moved/ was transferred to Dallas in 1980. Both kids are native Texans but don't hold that against them.

Have seen your posts elsewhere (Princeton forum most notably) and your comments about weather had me guessing you were in northen Ohio since the south rarely gets weather like you described, although i guess this year IS the exception.

Son was accepted EA at Yale and is a finalist for the Morehead Scholarship at UNC so you may have seen my posts about that potential dilemma.

One thing I don't think I ever read was your school's history of placement at HYP and also don't recall any comments about the strength of the guidance counselors/college counselors there.

Reason for asking is wondering about potential relationships w/ admissions reps at P and ability of college counselor to tirelessly and relentlessly advocate on your behalf because it can work. I have seen it happen many times here.

Am sorry if this has been asked before, I honestly haven't read all the "twinkle threads" out there.

Son is reaching point of physical exhaustion as well. Told him to skip his guitar lesson last nite and catch a 2hr power nap instead. When he didn't object, I knew he was near the edge. The whole second semester thing is easier is a myth. he's near the end of 2nd trimester (end of this month)and once those grades are sent to schools he can relax a little. He is going through a period of not wanting to miss out on anything during his senior year and is burning the candle from three ends..LOL....we can only do so much as parents to say slow down...hope your stress begins to subside as well.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Aries

Have you ever spoken to anyone at Columbia on that very issue? My impression was that work experience is work experience and not everyone is going to practice law in the private sector so a businees/engineering experience could also be very helpful.

I would talk to them about exactly where their accepted applicants come from or even what backgrounds fare better in the process. The time to do this is not during admission crunch time.

Not knowing where you live, is it possible for an in-person, face-to-face visit where you can show your determination and desire? This type of visit could prove to be most beneficial. It helped a young man I know get into SMU Law school last year.

Good luck!

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 05:41 pm: Edit

I haven't posted here in awhile, but thought I would give an update...
Well, as many of you know, the UNC EA decisions came out a little less than a week ago. I only know 2 people who applied. Both have similar class ranks, similar test scores, and strong ec's. I couldn't comment on their essays and recs. However, one of them has been dying to go to chapel hill since he was in 8th grade. The other person had UNC as probably there 4th choice(they even already had gotten into the 2nd choice EA). The one who wanted to go to UNC so badly, rejected. The one who won't be going to UNC, admitted. How unfair.

Sunshine: Medina, Ohio? My cousins moved there about a year ago. I've been there once, its a nice town. Although I wouldn't characterize it like you did. Its a bargain to live out there. I think the cousins bought their house for like 500k, and its 4500 square feet!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Eadad-

ahhh yes, Medina & Brunswick go far far back. I used to post a lot in the Princeton board until i got deferred ED (errrgh). then i have managed to force myself to completely stop thinking/caring about the school and move on with my life.

as for my schools history with Ivies and such...it's only mediocre. the past few valedictorians have gone to yale, cornell, yale, brown, OSU (although she was admitted to Duke & Vanderbilt!). i think the last time someone got into Princeton was 1992 and nobody has gotten into Harvard since 1993. not that many kids apply to Ivies. generally, the top 10 have great college choices if they choose to apply to top tier schools-lots of kids are accepted to Chicago, Northwestern, Cornell, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill (the last two are so popular at my school for some reason!), etc. a bunch choose to go to Case Western on 22k/yr merit scholarships. generally, we have 1 kid per 2 years get into HYPSM type schools. nobody did last year, so i was hoping this would be the year buuut the valedictorian (who is perfect in every sense) was deferred Yale EA and i was deferred Pton ED. all is not lost however. the val only applied to Davidson (where she wants to go) and William & Mary but the next two kids class rank wise (my friend and i) both applied to Pton, MIT, Yale. i applied to Harvard for kicks. however, the other girl has an SAT in the upper 1200's so her chances are iffy. who knows what will happen?

our guidance department is awful. my counselor personally knows/loves me because she was once my math teacher in middle school (and im one of those "math girls"). however, with only 6 counselors for a school of 2400, they dont have much time to do things. i know she has gone out of her way a LOT to do things for me for college admissions-i know i had a special stack of papers on her desk when it was time for her to fill out Sec School Reports. she spent a loooong time talking to my Harvard interviewer about me, and had the rec she wrote for me edited by 3 english teachers. however, i dont know if i even have the heart the ask her to call P's admissions. does it REALLY WORK? ahhh, i would feel so bad. i still havent given her my Midyear Reports. she is so swamped in work (its now scheduling season for the underclassmen).

dont know what to think or do. im so sick of thinking about college admissions. im so late on sending extra stuff to P. i got an extra rec and plan on sending an extra essay and a letter restating that i would go to P if admitted, etc etc.

congrats to your S on getting into Yale EA. especially this year-Yale Massacre 2003. i was shocked our val didnt get in. she is a 1580 SAT, straight A+, 3 sport varsity athlete, musician, and state level runner as well as nationally recognized writer. ouch. many of my friends are waiting restlessly for their UNC-Chapel Hill decisions. I am just hoping to get into Cornell/JHU/Williams...basically not getting my hopes up for HYPM.

i know the feeling of burning out. 2nd semester has turned out to be infinitely worse than 1st because teachers have gone AP prep crazy. every day brings about 4 more sets of AP Free Response problems to do...more AP review, testing, cramming in homework, etc. i've been missing an insane amount of club meetings and such to just to get caught up on sleep. starting to get senioritis...which isnt good...but even with in "slacker mode," im still super stressed and busy.

good luck to your S and the UNC/Yale decision. i hear Yale is stingy with finaid.

Asknot-haha what a coincidence! yes medina's living costs are not high. $500,000 for a 4500 squ ft house sounds about right. i still stick to my description of medina. rich, white, suburban, republican, football lovers who all send their kids to OSU. i think there is a good amount of "disadvantaged" kids in the area, but the streets and streets full of new construction-mostly huge mansions-overshadows it. one of my friends lives in a $1 million castle... out of curiosity, do you know what part of Medina (Medina County is rather large).

hmmmmmmmmm. back to homework. the work never ends.

only about 8 weeks until April 1st. may the mail bring good news

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 07:18 pm: Edit

Not sure where in Medina sorry. All I can tell you though is that my cousins house(which is 500k) would honestly be worth well over 2 million dollars if it were built in my neighborhood.
Ahh...you mention there being 1 million dollar "castles". Here, 1 million will by you a 4 bedroom, 2 bath 3000 square foot home. Here, if the house isn't over 4 million your "average." Such is life in the north shore suburbs of chicago...

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 08:05 pm: Edit

ahhh yes, well that is life in and around huge cities like Chicago/NYC where there is MUCH more money floating around. it all sort of evens out. i know housing in Cleveland is a LOT more expensive than it is here. Beachwood/Shaker/Solon are three very very rich suburbs of cleveland-"old rich" as they would put it in Great Gatsby (East vs West Egg). Medina is more "new rich."

suburban life is no fun. i often dream of going to large cities. Cleveland, though a large city, is "icky," and i have no desire to go near the place. i happen to love Boston and Chicago but not NYC (TOO big).

nobody in Medina is excessively rich, but everyone has a good bit of money. at school, it seems like 1/2 the kids surrounding me have parents who are doctors/lawyers/businessmen who work in Akron/Cleveland, but reside in Medina. all the new construction seems to be mansions surrounding country clubs, and golf is the sport of choice. new construction prices are soaring because we have expanded SO much in the past 10 years and are all "built out." i'm not rich at all. both of my parents are engineers, and i live in your average 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath colonial in a typical suburban neighborhood.

i think Medina is one big bubble. the vast majority of people who live here never bother to look beyond this place. whether we are "rich" or not, we are very self-smug and almost arrogant. people born and raised in medina always tend to go to nearby schools (OSU, BGSU, YSU) and come back after school to get married, settle, have kids, and die here. it's sort of disturbing. it's as if no other place is "good enough" for them. you should see the faces i get when i tell people i've leaving the state for college.

never particularly liked the place much, although it's a nice safe little town to grow up.

we are still very white, very conservative/republican, and very much in love with football...nobody is out on the street during OSU vs. Michigan games...

i am not white (asian), not republican, and can't stand football. how obvious is it that i want to get out?

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 08:34 pm: Edit

Well, suburban Chicago is probably no much better than your area.
Sample convo:
kid: I'm thinking about going downtown tonight.
parent: No way in hell you are going there. You might get mugged, shot or kidnapped.

Sample convo 2:
kid: I plan on going to johnny's house where there will be tons of alcohol, crack, and pot. I will probably end up passed out in the basement with about 20 other kids.
parent: that's fine, just make sure you don't leave the area.

Ah the sheltered life of the north shore suburbs.

By Christinew87 (Christinew87) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 10:03 pm: Edit

shucks, i want a thread named after me
Christine

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 11:05 am: Edit

EaDad:

Thank you for the advice. I may be able to do just that - NYC is about 4 hours away from me (I'm in Boston). Delta shuttle - Acela Express - Amtrack - Greyhound - Chinatown bus - there are many ways to get to NYC!

In all seriousness, thank you. If I do end up applying again for 2005, I will do just that - and I'm guessing that over the summer would be a better time than now. Probably will end up taking the LSATs again - I didn't do poorly, but I was testing about five points higher than I got. Such is life.

I went to a law school forum and asked many of the admissions officers how they evaluate engineering grades vs. liberal arts. Some (like Georgetown) said that you need a high GPA no matter what. Emory said something similar, but said that a high LSAT would compenstate. In other news, I heard yesterday that engineers tend to do the best in law school - so you would think that admissions officers would pick up on this and, well, admit engineers more, but it doesn't happen.

Question: would it be beneficial to me to find out quantitatively how much the GPAs for EN and liberal arts differ? If I sent that to the schools which still have my apps, does that seem like whining or a legitimate way to help them make a decision?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 12:57 pm: Edit

Christine, this thread wasn't originally named for Twinkle. It's one of the more unusual threads on CC and one of my favorites. Think of being in a very large place where people are mostly passing through, like Grand Central Station or an airport. Someone asks a question. Someone answers. Then someone else answers. Then someone comments on the first two answers. Then, instead of moving on...the people stay in place and keep talking, with new people occasionally joining the conversation as the masses keep flowing by in all directions.

This thread has become the equivalent of [changing metaphors] a discussion in the corner of a largish party. As far as I know, everyone is welcome here.
It's not inconceivable that a similar thread could pop up elsewhere but it would depend on the chemistry of the participants. It helps when you have a irrepressible[delete] vivacious[delete] ditzy blonde[delete] socially gifted person like Twinkle to serve as the core of the conversation.

Some threads in the Parents Forum have taken on a similar quality but the most of the student-prompted threads seeem to be far more transient...as in going to the train station, getting your ticket, and going wherever you're going. This thread seems to have a higher social and support content than most.

I've been part of on-line communities since the early 1980's and it's been interesting to watch the social dimensions evolve.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 12:58 pm: Edit

Speaking of Twinkle, she must be on the verge of collapse. Her frantic posts aside, she hasn't answered an e-mail from three days ago.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 01:38 pm: Edit

TheDad:

This conversation seems more like a game of darts at a party - you can wander over, watch, and leave; you can play a game or two; or you can keep playing, keep score, and generally make a nuisance of yourself. Yes, having a socially gifted Twinkle does help to keep it going. Her away message claims that she is in bed, and has claimed so since I checked this morning. Complete collapse is not out of the question.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 02:58 pm: Edit

Aries,

The young man I mentioned in the other post essentially wore down the admissions office at SMU. He was in their face, sending things via email and the post office, calling leaving messages for the asst.dean etc. His persistence paid off and he was finally admitted. I honestly think they let him in so that he would leave them alone! Incidentally he is doing fine...not the top of his class but no where near the bottom.

In short, For grad and professional schools I don't think you can possibly do too much in your efforts to get in. The data you mentioned, if readily available, would certainly go a long way in supporting your case and that coupled with dogged persistence could make a difference.

Remember, grad and professional schools aren't bound by the same "gentlemen's agreements" that the ivies use for undergrad admission policies/procedures and some ingenuity/creativity in approaching them certainly can't hurt.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Eadad:

Thank you!! I was told that I could email one of the deans at my alma mater to get the data. Last I saw (from about 1998, not helpful!) was that there is about a 0.4 difference in GPA from cheme to things like history or poli sci.

In that case, I will try to obtain and use that data. Thanks again for advice and encouragement. While I realize that persistence is an excellent quality in a lawyer, being annoying/whiny is not - and I am wary of crossing that line.

By Eadad (Eadad) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Aries

Yes, but try to figure out a way to be persistent without being whiny....and remember the old adage about the squeaky wheel?

Sometimes being a minor annoyance can speak volumes about intestinal fortitude as well.

Besides, what do you have to lose? If they have already said NO, how much worse can it get? Your refusal to give up and creativity in approach might make them reconsider or do a late admit. It does happen because I have seen it firsthand as I said earlier.

By Xiggi (Xiggi) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 07:18 pm: Edit

double post

By Christinew87 (Christinew87) on Thursday, February 05, 2004 - 07:42 pm: Edit

Well thank you for that background check thedad. I post occasionally here, but I dont have enough time to come 5 times a week.
Christine