Class of 2024!!!

[Claire&TheBoys]

Congrats to everyone! It might be two late for us but how did you get merit scholarships? My daughter is top 10% of her class and in Texas it is automatically in at the state school. She just applied to one and got in because of her school rank. I asked the school that her acceptance letter did not include any kind of scholarship and was told that everyone that goes to the school is top 10% (basically nothing special). My husband and I make to much for any kind of FASA but we were always on planning on paying for her Bachelors. Just want to make sure I didn't miss out on everything. Some of her other friends that rank lower is going to a different school in the same state received some scholarship so I am thinking it is because of the school she is going to. I was told that usually, Engineer scholarships from the school come the second year of college when they really dive into their major. Just kind bummed she worked so hard and not to even get a little scholarship money.

We're in Florida, which is of course different from Texas. In Florida, all students who meet certain criteria qualify for Bright Futures scholarships, ranging from 50% to 75% to 100%. That's just the in-state tuition, of course, not room and board or fees. I think my son will qualify for the 75% tier, if he ever manages to fill out his forms for the service hours he's performed and turn in the application. I want him to apply even though he's going out of state, because if he gets there and hates it or changes his major I want him to be able to come back to Florida and have that waiting. There's only a certain window when you can apply as a senior and if you don't, you're out of luck.

He did choose a large university in a neighboring state. Based on his GPA and SAT score, he automatically qualified for a merit scholarship of about $12,000 per year, I think. However, the admissions team also reviews each application individually for their leadership opportunities, activities, and community service and awards other merit scholarships on a competitive basis. He was awarded a competitive scholarship worth almost $30,000 per year with that process (which supercedes the automatic one). Then, as the offers were finalized, he was also offered an engineering scholarship worth $2500 per year. That is within a couple thousand dollars of full out of state tuition. He is nowhere near Top Ten of his class - maybe top 15-20% of his class of 450 with a GPA over 4.0. His school has an advanced program with lots of DE and AP classes and all of those are weighted, so lots of his peers have GPAs well over 4.0. I was very happy that this university does not require out of state students to complete FAFSA. I know we wouldn't have qualified for any aid anyway, and I dislike sharing financial information.

There are definitely schools out there with deep pockets - I'm thankful that the one he chose specifically for a particular engineering discipline is one of them.

 

[mom2rtk]

Whew...we've made it to late January! DD17's graduation is exactly 4 months from today! While I'm probably going to have to bring the big camera lens, I'm thankful it's going to be at a huge venue where tickets are very unlikely to be an issue.

I actually rented a 70-200 2.8 zoom for my oldest son's high school graduation. It was great of course, but bigger and heavier than I preferred. For the 5 graduations we've had since then, I've just taken my 70-200 f/4. It's much lighter and smaller and worked great. I shoot RAW at the highest resolution and just crop from there. These have all been at some pretty big arenas, including the last which was at Mizzou Arena.

 

[VandVsmama]

Congrats to everyone! It might be two late for us but how did you get merit scholarships? My daughter is top 10% of her class and in Texas it is automatically in at the state school. She just applied to one and got in because of her school rank. I asked the school that her acceptance letter did not include any kind of scholarship and was told that everyone that goes to the school is top 10% (basically nothing special). My husband and I make to much for any kind of FASA but we were always on planning on paying for her Bachelors. Just want to make sure I didn't miss out on everything. Some of her other friends that rank lower is going to a different school in the same state received some scholarship so I am thinking it is because of the school she is going to. I was told that usually, Engineer scholarships from the school come the second year of college when they really dive into their major. Just kind bummed she worked so hard and not to even get a little scholarship money.

Whether or not your kid receives a merit scholarship from a college is entirely dependent on what that specific college's policies are about merit scholarships. For some colleges, it's automatic based on a combo of GPA and/or test scores. Many colleges actually post the info about it directly on their websites. Sometimes, colleges only give out need-based aid, so if they determine that your kid doesn't have a financial need, then no free $$ for you.

Ideally, this is something that one would have figured out prior to applying to the college (use Net Price Calculators, for example, which are available on every college's website).

In other words, just because your kid is in the top 10% of their graduating class doesn't mean that they'll automatically get free money for college.

For example, my ODD received $5k/yr in merit at the 2 in-state public universities she applied to. She also applied to 2 OOS public universities in a neighboring state which have special automatic scholarships for residents of our state, where it gets you in-state tuition rates at the OOS university. Plus, she received an auto-merit scholarship from each of those 2 schools on top of the special reciprocal scholarship. However, we expected this ahead of time based on info we'd looked up on those colleges' financial aid websites.

For the private college she ended up enrolling in for this fall, she received an auto-merit scholarship which was based on her GPA. But we knew about it and expected it ahead of time. The scholarship made the tuition, room & board comparable to attending an in-state public university. There were a lot of colleges that she never even applied to because it would not have been affordable based on the NPC and/or scholarship info on the colleges' websites.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I actually rented a 70-200 2.8 zoom for my oldest son's high school graduation. It was great of course, but bigger and heavier than I preferred. For the 5 graduations we've had since then, I've just taken my 70-200 f/4. It's much lighter and smaller and worked great. I shoot RAW at the highest resolution and just crop from there. These have all been at some pretty big arenas, including the last which was at Mizzou Arena.

I’ve thought about renting something faster, but I know I won’t want to return it! I have an L series Canon 300mm f/4. It’s not going to be as fast or sharp as the higher end f/2.8 L series model, but it still produces some great images. While heavy, it’s still light enough to go without a tripod. I have a 1.4x extender, which turns the reach and speed to 420mm - f/5.6. If it gets heavy, I have a 55-250 f/4-5.6 that usually does a decent job and is much easier on my arms and back. I usually shoot in RAW unless it’s sports photography, but I’ll have to test before the ceremony starts to see if image quality is impacted by the movement, distance, and lighting. Her graduation is at NRG Stadium, where the Texans play football, so it’s going to have some challenges. Last year’s livestream didn’t pan to the crowd, but I’d imagine we’ll be a considerable distance from the stage. I have this crazy scope-like lens that converts to 1000mm, but it’s manual focus and not really ideal for an event like this.

 

[sam_gordon]

One thing I will be EXTREMELY happy about is no more freakin' One Calls! When they (school system) instituted One Calls, it was marketed as a "we can update you for emergencies." Sounds great! If there does happen to be a school shooting (or other life/death incident), we can know. So, my cell, DW cell, home phone, plus both our emails. Who knew we'd get bombarded with "tryouts for the cross country team are <insert date/time>", "a meeting for those interested int he wrestling team will be <insert date/time>", "school is out next week for <insert holiday>", "hope you had a good break, school starts again Monday", "bus number <1234> will be running late tomorrow", and my favorite, "an email has been sent out about <insert topic>".

It did come in handy when school was called off (snow), but when we had one in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school, that meant we got three calls telling us that.

Regarding the photos, in the past, I rented a 70-200 f2.8. I knew right where to sit to get shots like these...


The college basketball arena they've been using for years is under construction so not available. They're doing graduation at the HS football field. I think I'm going to rent a 200-500 f/5.6, and hope I can find the right location. They did Covid graduation on the FB field, so I can see that on YT, and DD has a soccer game there Sunday, and I'm going to try to scout out where to sit.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

One thing I will be EXTREMELY happy about is no more freakin' One Calls! When they (school system) instituted One Calls, it was marketed as a "we can update you for emergencies." Sounds great! If there does happen to be a school shooting (or other life/death incident), we can know. So, my cell, DW cell, home phone, plus both our emails. Who knew we'd get bombarded with "tryouts for the cross country team are <insert date/time>", "a meeting for those interested int he wrestling team will be <insert date/time>", "school is out next week for <insert holiday>", "hope you had a good break, school starts again Monday", "bus number <1234> will be running late tomorrow", and my favorite, "an email has been sent out about <insert topic>".

It did come in handy when school was called off (snow), but when we had one in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school, that meant we got three calls telling us that.

Yessss! No more robo-calls and texts! With the system our district uses, if I can reply "YES" to the text fast enough, we don't get phone calls too, so that helps. Our district keeps them fairly minimal but I sure won't miss them!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I've found several handfuls of grad pics from inside the stadium from last year. It looks like most people have opted for spots in the lower level endzone area, but some have positioned 10-50 yard line. I will say that the lighting looks decent on the floor. The have a black curtain on the stage, but everyone walking looks pretty well lit. Obviously, some is camera settings, but this looks manageable.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

One thing I will be EXTREMELY happy about is no more freakin' One Calls! When they (school system) instituted One Calls, it was marketed as a "we can update you for emergencies." Sounds great! If there does happen to be a school shooting (or other life/death incident), we can know. So, my cell, DW cell, home phone, plus both our emails. Who knew we'd get bombarded with "tryouts for the cross country team are <insert date/time>", "a meeting for those interested int he wrestling team will be <insert date/time>", "school is out next week for <insert holiday>", "hope you had a good break, school starts again Monday", "bus number <1234> will be running late tomorrow", and my favorite, "an email has been sent out about <insert topic>".

Yessss! No more robo-calls and texts! With the system our district uses, if I can reply "YES" to the text fast enough, we don't get phone calls too, so that helps. Our district keeps them fairly minimal but I sure won't miss them!

I guess we're lucky. We don't get robocalls from our district. We get a lot of texts and emails, but no calls. I am not looking for the emergency alert texts we may start receiving from DD17s university. I am already a very weather aware person and I am bracing myself for my first tornado warning panic attack.

 

[sam_gordon]

I've found several handfuls of grad pics from inside the stadium from last year. It looks like most people have opted for spots in the lower level endzone area, but some have positioned 10-50 yard line. I will say that the lighting looks decent on the floor. The have a black curtain on the stage, but everyone walking looks pretty well lit. Obviously, some is camera settings, but this looks manageable.

View attachment 854704View attachment 854706View attachment 854707View attachment 854708

Are those "professional" pics or from family/friends? You can try and look at the EXIF data to see what zoom they were using and what shutter/iso settings.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

Are those "professional" pics or from family/friends? You can try and look at the EXIF data to see what zoom they were using and what shutter/iso settings.

They were from the 2022 school "newspaper" grad edition. They were taken by one of the student editors and embedded into an online article. Right clicking is disabled on the site, so I don't think I'll be able to see the EXIF data. I've seen several of the student photographers at choir and sporting events. They are usually given a school issue Nikon and I believe max zoom range on the standard lens is 400. I do know that there's at least one Sigma 150-600 floating around, but that tends to be used more by faculty.

 

[mom2rtk]

I’ve thought about renting something faster, but I know I won’t want to return it! I have an L series Canon 300mm f/4. It’s not going to be as fast or sharp as the higher end f/2.8 L series model, but it still produces some great images. While heavy, it’s still light enough to go without a tripod. I have a 1.4x extender, which turns the reach and speed to 420mm - f/5.6. If it gets heavy, I have a 55-250 f/4-5.6 that usually does a decent job and is much easier on my arms and back. I usually shoot in RAW unless it’s sports photography, but I’ll have to test before the ceremony starts to see if image quality is impacted by the movement, distance, and lighting. Her graduation is at NRG Stadium, where the Texans play football, so it’s going to have some challenges. Last year’s livestream didn’t pan to the crowd, but I’d imagine we’ll be a considerable distance from the stage. I have this crazy scope-like lens that converts to 1000mm, but it’s manual focus and not really ideal for an event like this.

As much as I loved renting the 2.8L zoom, I was OK with it going back. I just wasn't up to carrying it around enough to justify it. I was happy with the f/4, especially since my camera does pretty well in low light. I'm not sure if I'd want to go much slower than that though. I bet the 300mm f/4 would be great, although I have no idea how heavy or bulky that is.

The hard part for me was deciding how early you have to arrive to get a decent spot too shoot from. And knowing how even which side you need to sit on.

Don't forget to get some atmospheric shots with a wider angle as well though. Once mine walked (late in the ceremony) I left my seat and went to the upper level to get some different shots.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

As much as I loved renting the 2.8L zoom, I was OK with it going back. I just wasn't up to carrying it around enough to justify it. I was happy with the f/4, especially since my camera does pretty well in low light. I'm not sure if I'd want to go much slower than that though. I bet the 300mm f/4 would be great, although I have no idea how heavy or bulky that is.

The hard part for me was deciding how early you have to arrive to get a decent spot too shoot from. And knowing how even which side you need to sit on.

Don't forget to get some atmospheric shots with a wider angle as well though. Once mine walked (late in the ceremony) I left my seat and went to the upper level to get some different shots.

View attachment 854710

If it's the L series lens I'm thinking of, one of the moms on our team has that 70-200. We've done some comparisons because we both use the same camera body (80D). Her lens is definitely superior to my 55-250. No doubt about that. The 300 though, is a different story with photo quality. Her lens is 1.5lbs lighter, so there's more ease of handling, but some of my results are noticeably sharper. Yes, my lens has more reach, but hers is technically faster. Some could just be user, but someone suggested it's became it's a prime lens vs. a zoom.

You'll have to pardon my DIY solar filter crafting, but this pic I took of my eclipse setup should give you an idea of lens size. It's a lot to lug around. The attached hood extends out to the end of the blue painter's tape covered solar filter. That thing off to the left is the cheap manual focus 1000mm I got to play with astrophotography. It was too much of a pain to play with manual focusing for the short window I had for the eclipse but it's fun for other projects.



Seeing this and your note about atmospheric shots flipped a "must remember" box in my head. As you can see from my little setup, I never bothered to take out my other lenses. I have a 50mm f/1.8 that would have been great for panned out shots and a 24mm f/2.8 that would have been good for wide angle work with the crowd. I need to remember to swap those out periodically during graduation so I can get the setting of the ceremony.

I've been digging around and I think I found how we'll be set up for our graduation. The one thing I didn't think about with the light is time of day. We're the last ceremony of the "day" this year and it's at 8pm. The one from the pics above was either a 1pm or 4pm ceremony. So, we're back to light potentially being an issue. Although, I think I have a hack on par with what @sam_gordon was suggesting. I have a coach friend whose older daughter graduated last year and goes to one of the other district high schools. I think they had the 8pm in 2023 (same venue) so he may have his photos stored with details on the settings.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

Monday night marked another big night in the path leading up to graduation. It was honors night. This is the night when they get all of their cords and sashes. It was the first time in this whole process where her name was called and she walked across the stage, being greeted by all of the school admins and senior faculty. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up.

Prior to that ceremony, I met with the rest of the choir executive committee...helping plan a similar, but smaller, presentation for our banquet in a couple of weeks.

She got her cap and gown last week and her graduation dress arrived yesterday. I had no idea it was a thing for the girls to wear white. I've seen other people's kids in florals and thought we could use something we had, but she insisted it must be white. I guess it will at least serve double duty with some final choir concert needs. She also insists that it must be worn for her cap and gown pics I'm hoping to take this weekend...weather permitting.

We also have had our first couple of big webinars from her college. The one about orientation was pretty exciting, but yesterday's about housing added a lot of stress and worry to the mix. She's one of three girls trying to get into a quad together. The system is supposed to assign your housing registration slot based on when you paid your fees. It will allow you to sign up for housing in pairs, but not quads. So, they've got to orchestrate this based on which two girls have the earliest housing sign up dates/times and try and get everyone linked to the same room in their top dorm preference. If the second pair of girls logs in and finds out that someone already took the other two rooms in the quad chosen by the first two...they've either got to try and shift everyone over into a different quad or reach out to the ones that claimed the spots they wanted and try and negotiate a swap. I know a lot of people did not attend the housing webinar, so I anticipate some chaos. The only thing really going for them, aside from some tips I've picked up, is that their dorm of choice isn't the most popular one for this room style.

Whew...3.5 weeks until grad day!!!