College application process almost complete

So, we visited a couple of the schools Spencer is considering for college next year.  His major is only offered in a handful of schools, and only a couple in New England, so his options were seriously limited.  He wants to go into computer/digital forensics – a fairly new and up-and-coming field.

We checked out Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.  Nice little school with some fascinating features.  It’s the oldest private military school in the country and the founder founded the ROTC.  It opened to civilians a long time ago and has been functioning ever since with an interesting mix of the two.  Civilians and Cadets are in the same classes and play on the same sports teams, etc., but they live separately and the Cadets follow a rigid and restricted schedule.  The down side was that the town of Northfield, Vermont, has absolutely NOTHING in it.  Nowhere for students to work, no bus station, nothing.

Then we went up to Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.  What an amazing school in a beautiful little city with so much to offer that it’s almost hard to believe.  It’s the perfect school atmosphere for Spencer and there was absolutely nothing about it that we didn’t love.  So, Spencer decided to apply for early decision.  That means that if he gets in, it is binding – provided we are able to make the financial commitment.

And so, the process began.  I think when I went to college, I filled out an application that was a few pages long and gave them a copy of my high school transcripts (or did they get my SAT/ACT scores and transcripts themselves?  I don’t remember doing anything to get them to the college) and that was it.

Not so today.  Two of the schools where he is applying take the Common Application, the other two have their own online applications.  The applications are completed, his essay has been written, checked, edited, double-checked and re-edited.  He has to finish his resume and he has to write an essay for the Champlain supplement to the application.  We have to wait for his second set of SAT scores so that both sets can be submitted.  The requests for transcripts have been submitted to the guidance office and his letters of recommendation have been provided.  I’ve filled out the financial aid application for his early decision school and I am awaiting the go ahead to hit the submit button on it.  Each application requires different documentation and I think we’ve got it all lined up.  There are application fees which must be paid to the schools (some waive the fee) and SAT scores must be transmitted from a separate website in conjunction with submitting the online applications.  Since the deadline for early decision at Champlain is November 15th, we’re just going to get them all done at the same time.  My goal is by November 1.

Fortunately, Spencer’s guidance counselor is absolutely amazing.  She is available every minute to every senior and their lunatic parents to offer advice, support, guidance, answers, therapy, encouragement, documentation, suggestions . . . hell, she has been the greatest event coordinator I’ve ever known.  If she ever wants to get out of her current career – she could be a party planner or wedding coordinator for the stars or the elite!

The timing of all of this and the coordination of everything is akin to NASA planning the launch of a shuttle.  I’m not sure I did as much planning and coordinating to bring Spencer into my home as it is taking for him to leave it!

Chapter Four: What I would tell me about socks, shoes and underwear

You have to trust me on this one.  Before you go to college, buy more socks and underwear than you think you will ever need in a lifetime.  Buy the underwear in whatever size you wear before you go to college, but also buy plenty in the next size up because you will finally fill out a [tiny] bit more your freshman year and you will be looking definitely girl-y and not at all boy-ly (in fact, you’ll be looking boiling – hot that is.  Oh God, that was really queer).  If you can buy 30 pairs or more, and 50 pairs of socks – laundry will be a dorm myth to you.  You’ll make it home just often enough to do your laundry without having to go down to the scary dorm laundry room where spiders roam and dust bunnies rule.  The rest of your clothes are good to go because you and I both know that you do not get dirty and you do not spill – ever, so barring any unforeseen early morning bar collisions involving your Bartles and James wine cooler and some dumb girl’s Slippery Nipple, you’ll be good to go for laundry.

Also, if you find red socks (the kind that are sort of thin and that fold down on the top – traditional “bobby socks”), buy many pairs because you will wish you had them often and for some reason, they will stop making plain red bobby socks.  You will only be able to find red footy socks or red ankle socks and they will all have white hearts or navy blue stripes or stars or some such.  It’s a wonderment for sure but trust me on this.  I’ll appreciate you so much later if you’d do me this solid.

Now, on to the most important topic.  Shoes.  There will be many.  They will vary a great deal in color, style, comfort level and cost.  But you will love them all.  You will always have room in your heart for more shoe children.  You will love them all unconditionally.  Well, nearly all.  There will be a pair of red shoes you will buy during one of your bouts with plantar fasciitis because they are Merrells and you will have high hopes and they are cute and they promise to comfort and console [pun intended] your aching tootsies, but they will disappoint you.

There are a few very important things you need to know, dear me, about your beloved shoes.  This is very important, so heed my words carefully.

(1)  There will be a pair of purple cowboy boots and after the Urban Cowboy phase in the early 80s wears off, they will sit in the back of your closet (well, various closets because you will move 13 times in some 9 years throughout your twenties – but that’s another blog post) and one day you will pull them out and find that a touch of mildew has developed on the outside of them.  You will say to yourself, “I’ll never wear these things again.  I loved them but they are a touch too small and they are mildewing.  I’ll be pragmatic and I’ll throw them away.”  PUT THE BOOTS DOWN AND WALK AWAY.  STEP AWAY FROM THE BOOTS.  They are special boots.  They are purple boots.  You will never find another pair of purple cowboy boots and you will wish you could.  A touch of bleach and water will kill the mildew.

There is no room for pragmatism in shoe ownership.  NONE.

(2)  There will be a pair of sandals that you will buy for $25 (not bad at all considering you will buy them at Burdines (probably with that charge card that you had, that you forgot you had, and after you moved one time and their bills didn’t get forwarded and they finally collected on you, but you didn’t know it, until a Lee County Sheriff showed up at your door at 6am one morning when you lived in Ft. Myers asking for a check or the keys to your car, but you sweet-talked him into giving you one more day . . .)) and they will be your favorite sandals that you ever own.  But tragedy will befall your beloved sandals.  In one of your moves, you will somehow lose one sandal!  And the other sandal will eventually die of a broken heart, having lost its mate.

Lesson: when you move, carry these sandals in your hands from one closet to the new closet and they will live happily ever after on your feet, together forever.

(3)  There will be a pair of pink wingtips that you will get from a Bass Shoe Outlet.  When you find them, and they will be cheap, buy them and buy another pair one-half size up.  They will be your favorite shoes that you will ever own in your entire life (well, up until you are nearly 48 anyway – as I am always scouting replacement favorites, but have as yet not fully satisfied the void).  These shoes will be so much your favorites that they will be the only shoes you actually ever wear out.  You will – you’re not going to believe this – actually go back to Bass Shoe Outlet and you will find one more pair, but they will be one-half size too small and you will buy them anyway.  But when you get pregnant, your feet will grow just enough that you will no longer be able to wear size 7½ shoes anymore, so you will have to part company with these magnificent little shoe children.

(4)  There is one type of shoe of which you may always feel comfortable disposing and that is white pointy-toe tennis shoes.  They are cheap and they will always be available (well, up until this writing anyway) and although you can wash them, they won’t look good after you wash them more than once or twice, so you may throw them away with confidence.  These shoes will never really find a place in your heart as shoe children.  They are more like the neighbor’s kids who you readily invite in to play with your kid and you care about them and you don’t want anything bad to happen to them – especially on your watch – but you feel nothing when they go home.  What you need to know, because you will wonder every time you’re about to throw a pair away if you can still find them at K-Mart (and eventually there will be Target Stores – a joyful topic for another blog post!) or Wal-Mart, is that this is the one shoe style that is forever available.  You will often wonder if you should spend the extra money for Keds, but there is no reason to do so.

These are only a few of the things I could share with you about shoes, but I think that I have covered the important things that will help you avoid great regret and concern.

And by the way, my advice to you about socks and underwear is still excellent advice to follow well beyond college years.  An insanely large abundance of socks and underwear will never be a burden.

And shoes, well shoes are what makes life worth living.