be warned...

my blogging over the next year is going to mainly consist of the college visits, application process, letters of recommendation, her last first day of school, her first day of her last swim season, her last meet...getting the picture yet?

We started "the process" last week with spring break...venturing east and of course, starting with Notre Dame...no need to elaborate - she loves it/always has/was born to the fight song/knew the words when she was 1 1/2...blah blah blah.  Then we looked at American in DC...met with the swim coach.  After good family time in DC with the Greens, we headed south to visit William and Mary and UVA.

William and Mary....L O V E L Y.  S A F E.  B E A U T I F U L.  H I S T O R I C.  What was not to like about Wm & Mary??  N O T H I N G...except maybe the price!  Small campus.  Emma and I immediately noticed that girls "dressed up"...lots of skirts, sun dresses, etc.  She said she could see herself there.

Onto UVA...B E A U T I F U L.  H I S T O R I C.  T R A D I T I O N S.  We had a great tour, Corey (a boy from EHS that is now a sophomore at UVA) took us all over and answered all of her questions.  Similar to Madison in some ways, but better in many ways...once again, girls "dressed up," people were very friendly and polite.  It had a very exciting feel to it.  Awesome pool.  Secret societies.  Emma said she could see herself there too.  I could too.

When asked if she got in to all three (ND, UVA & Wm&Mary), which would she pick...ND of course. 

The hard part will be getting in...as long as she has a competitive GPA and ACT, she'll be applying, but when there are 12,000 with the same GPA/ACT, etc, for 1,500 spots, it's a crap shoot.

She is also talking about wanting to swim in college.  THAT is a whole other process...getting her eligibility number, filling out online forms so coaches can contact her this summer, etc...

Hopefully she'll have many choices...her top academic schools that she most likely won't be able to swim for and other good schools that she could swim for....it's going to be an interesting year!!!  I just can't believe we're here.  To top it all off, we met with an Army Capt at Wm & Mary in Military Sciences (for Peter) and EMMA walked out of the meeting saying SHE is very interested in ROTC!  No words for that...

I agree, being a Mom is the best.  I don't wish her away for a second, but I do wish her every option she can imagine!  Heidi