Can you believe our kids are going to be Juniors? Where is the time going!?
Hope you’re all staying healthy… and sane 
Anyone sign their kids up for SAT’s yet? Just thinking forward esp with Covid.
Ok @Happytimes2001 - yes we signed up for every SAT from now until Feb 2022… just kidding. Here is our concern. If we sign up for the Dec 2020 SAT now, we have NO IDEA where our student will actually be on December 5th 2020 - will school be not on site after Thanksgiving? Will students be home between Thanksgiving and New Year’s weekend? Does the school sign up for PSAT in OCT, then we sign up for SAT but have no idea of the location?
@Golfgr8 I actually believed you for a second. Lol. Yes, we were just thinking who knows if there will be other waves of Covid. And how many missed will miss A test due to this craziness. Worst thing Normal thing is take an SAT as a junior in the Fall and Spring. So we signed up as though it was a normal year. PSAT is handled by the school ( fortunately).
So glad someone revived this thread ! I have been eyeballing it wistfully.
Juniors! Say it ain’t so!
Kiddo didn’t sign up for the SAT, but he did for the June SAT Math II subject test at the school’s suggestion. Yeah, that didn’t happen.
I haven’t heard when he is supposed to take the SAT. Makes sense it would be in the fall, I guess? Does that mean kids are studying for it this summer? Yikes. Kiddo is doing nothing academic right now. With so many test optional schools this year and juniors who still need to take it, it is going to be nuts trying to navigate this stuff.
We were going to gently tour some schools this summer, but now that‘s off the table. I am not sure how kiddo is going to be able to visit anywhere outside of California at this rate.
What are your kids doing this summer? Kiddo is my personal office slave (aka scanning documents and filing) because his swim coach job fell through. He definitely thinks it is a downgrade. ?
@Golfgr8 We were advised to register for the SAT at a site nearest to home. From DK’s school’s latest communications, an extended winter break from Thanksgiving to the new year is likely.
I’m considering registering my kid for the October date. We’ve arranged for tutoring which starts this summer.
@CateCAParent my kid will be getting a job, probably at a local eatery, while fitting in time to train for their winter sport. But now that you mentioned it, there is some copying and filing that could be done at my office… :lol:
@CateCAParent DS was also signed up for the June Math II but will take it in August instead. He signed up for the September SAT with the hope that he can get it out of the way before the crux of junior year sets in, but with so much uncertainty, I have no idea if that will actually happen. I know lots of attention is being paid to the '21 students re: testing upheaval, but I do worry that the trickle down effect will be felt by our '22s as well.
@Hopeful0304 - if our June experience is a guide to the trickle down effects:
Kiddo’s advisor pushed emphatically to get him signed up for June because, since May was cancelled, Those students had priority for the June date, so few spots were available for new registrants. We couldn’t get a seat anywhere within 3 hours of us. So I signed kiddo up for him to take it back at Cate, figuring worst case we could pack up his room up at the same time. This had to have been back at the beginning of April? Who knew?
Now that June was cancelled, the snowball is going to grow. If the students are on campus in the fall, Cate is a test site and iirc they will prioritize Cate students for the test registration. If kiddo is home, I have no idea what we do. We will just how to figure it out as we go. Getting used to that now!
I figure though all 22’s are in the same back seat, and the colleges will know and accommodate when It is their turn. It will be ok.
Worse thing is, kids and parents will sign up For tests and then might need to switch location. Who even knows what the normal sign ups should look like.
First day of work for ‘22 starts tomorrow.
Anyone get more definitive info in what Sept looks like at your ‘22 BS? We have info coming in a week.
@Happytimes2001 - I estimate that our school will share more definitive plans in early July, which also is when the tuition bill is sent to parents.
I can’t believe our kids are rising juniors!
Plans for next year are evolving, but we’ve heard that there will be a return to campus in the fall. Arrival will be staggered. There will be new protocols for social distancing, but we don’t know exactly what those will be yet. We’ve already heard that our students will stay home between Thanksgiving and the new year with a few weeks of remote learning.
But of course everything can change at any time.
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Hoping that when our kids are Seniors things will be close to notmal???
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We haven’t heard anything about our return yet!
I am assuming, however, that our student will not go back in-between thanksgiving and Christmas.
Things are going to be different for sure! We are losing a lot of faculty so classes are being cut, on top of needing smaller sized class… Our school is SO small (170 kids) and there is no separate dorm building- it’s all on the main, where day students stay too.
Sickness spreads like crazy at school, so we’ll have to wait and see
I can’t wrap my head around the possibility this could still be an issue senior year. I can’t go there.
Kiddo said his summer swim team coach bluntly said there won’t be a team next summer either. Wait, what? That thought couldn’t penetrate my skull. Around here, summer IS swim team for literally thousands of kids from 5 to 18. It is like football in Texas. If there is no swim team next year, what else won’t there be?
No college visits? No standardized tests? No competitive sports? No choir? No theater? No volunteering in senior centers? I just figured the creative folks would find work arounds for all of it by next year.
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WHAAT??!! That’s insane!! What about recruits or all the millions of reasons people swim and do sports, volunteer, and sing?
It’s spiking in too many states so I’m afraid it really might affect senior year, but oh Lord, I hope not!
With so many activities, opportunities, jobs, sports, standardized tests, etc. impacted for who knows how long, it will make the selection process for colleges very interesting over the next several years.
Literally minutes ago from Choate…
"Dear Parents and Guardians,
After several months of focused planning, I’m writing to share some important updates with you about the upcoming academic year. I’m pleased to announce that we plan to resume teaching and learning on campus this fall, and we look forward to having both new and returning students here in Wallingford. While the realities of COVID-19 certainly mean that life at school will look different in September than it did in February, we have spent a lot of time over the last several months making plans to reopen campus for our school community, and we will continue to develop those plans and share additional details in the weeks ahead. Below is a high-level overview. I’d encourage you to visit our updated FAQ page for more information, and further details will be shared later this summer. "
I don’t want to overstate - this is rec league swim, not the high end stuff. The issue is meets - it is impossible to socially distance. Meets are very close quarters with swarms of adults required to make them work. More than any other sport I have experienced (3 timers per lane, a team of data managers, people keeping the little ones in the right place, lined up and ready to go, people monitoring strokes and overseeing the whole thing, the food shack, and then all of the parents hovering around the edge of the pool). People collect under tents when their kids aren’t swimming. Easily there are two hundred people crammed into a small space - and that is a small meet. It is claustrophobic party with swim races in the middle of it. even though in Cal they are outside, it is too many people.
They can adapt some, but not with a huge investment in infrastructure and limiting participation. These are just neighborhood pools, and they are struggling with membership bc of covid already.
@CateCAParent @hopefulswimmer58 I agree that senior year will still feel the cascade effect of everything happening now, but I am clinging to the hope that once we have a widely available vaccine (praying for something within the next 12-14 months) some of the upheaval might be softened by the time our kiddos actually matriculate in the fall of '22, and that their college life might look a little less fractured. That said, between now and then, just about everything our kids are doing to prepare for that college arrival will be band-aided together. In some ways, I feel like the '22s will experience an even bigger brunt, as they will have 2 years of upended plans, sports, learning, etc… Ugh.
It is just starting to dawn on me that the world our kids are preparing for is going to be very very different than what it is now. ‘22’s are the transition year between how things were and how things will be.
Hopefully colleges will adapt in time to prepare them for what they will need. Who even knows what that is right now.
@CateCAParent My kids have swum since K during the Summer. Same thing, local pools, lots of cold water in the morning, hot afternoons at meets with kids all having a blast. One more thing to bite the dust. All the teams and clubs are closed this year.
In terms of next couple of years, I think the kids ( and everyone) will come out with a very different perspective on life. Many of the programs people spend thousands on for pre-college training are now online for a fraction of the cost ( that’s a silver lining, I guess). My kids signed up for something that I think would have cost us $1,500 last year. This year’s cost $0. People are getting creative about things. Yoga in the park, learning different things outdoors, etc.
Some kids are also starting to get outdoors more and do simple inexpensive things. We’ve heard it’s impossible to rent an RV. The beaches are full. And the simple restaurants with outdoor seating are packed. The high-end places often can’t open because of space constraints. We’re biking, walking and running more. And we finally got a garden going with some extra veggies we can donate to the local food pantry. It could be worse ( 30 degrees stuck inside and watching endless updates on Corona virus on every channel comes to mind).
The kids are also happy to have more unstructured time. More time to work on volunteer and creative projects that were sidelined by all the have to’s during a normal school year. Makes me realize that going back to some basics isn’t all bad.
Sports also seems to have changed a lot. Kids must be self-motivated to keep it going.
I keep coming back to resilence. I think it’s a great life skill and I think my kids are getting more of it right now whether they like it or not. This year is going to be a rollercoaster, IMO. We just keep talking about what we have to be thankful for and it’s a lot.
I do think Coronavirus is going to change the nature of how we approach learning and college in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a big move to online learning at top colleges.