We’re devoting our summer to visiting colleges for our son who’s going to be a Senior this year. Eight colleges are on our agenda, all in surrounding states to where we live. Although he won’t be going until August, 2012 he could be applying to the schools that make the first cut as early as August, 2011 (only a few days away!). This is to take advantage of the early application period and maximize chances for being awarded merit or other scholarships. While the early application period is different for each school, the rough timeline is between August 1st and end of October of the year prior to entrance. That means before he actually starts his Senior year he could apply for college.

Many of the schools have what is called a rolling application process. This simply means first applications in are the first letters to go out with admittance information and scholarship information, although this information isn’t sent at the same time. Basically, if you wait too long, funds will be gone or as one college stated “The longer you delay, the more you pay”.

Our son has taken the ACT three times (although the first one didn’t count, he was in 8th grade taking it for a special summer camp). He did really well on each test, having never studied, but we all wanted him to take it one more time after he studied to see if he could raise his score a couple more points.  We had planned for him to take it over the summer so he would be ready to apply in August. Unfortunately we didn’t check the ACT schedule. My bad! It appears they don’t offer testing over the summer, and the next testing period isn’t until early September. While we will still have time for him to take the test one more time (with the writing portion that some of the colleges require) and submit the application once the results have been received still within the early application period, it will be close. Doesn’t leave much wiggle room.

One thing that stands out as we are going through this process is it really is never too early to start.  Juniors, start now!

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Several years ago I decided for Mothers Day I wanted to do a photo shoot for our family.  I would take the photos and since it was Mothers Day they ‘had’ to do what I asked.  This was such a huge success that I’ve been trying to do it each year since.  Unfortunately, the weather doesn’t always cooperate and it’s real easy for other things to get in the way so the family doesn’t have to trek all over town to appease the mom in the weekends that follow.  But this year, I was successful in getting all the planets to align.  While we did have a few hiccups, such as the dog almost dying, it all ended good; no fatalities and lots of good shots.  Here are some of my favorites!

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