Class of 2011 Official Thread

Parent Cafe
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<p>Screen name: RunRinCT (student)</p>

<p>Is your Junior male or female: Female</p>

<p>Home state: Connecticut</p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: Northeast/New England</p>

<p>Any specific things looking for in a college: approx., 5000-15,000 people, preferably a suburban campus, must be within 7-8 hours of home, good reputation</p>

<p>Possible academic interests: Economics, Sociology, Cognitive science, marketing, classics...(very broad, I know)</p>

<p>Schools currently on the list of possibilities: Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Tufts, Boston College, UVA, UCONN (safety), </p>

<p>Schools we've visited: Cornell, Colgate, Harvard, Boston College, Tufts</p>

<p>Senior Year Courseload (tentative): AP Stats (Or Calc..havent decided), AP Bio (ugh), AP Spanish, Post World War II Honors, AP Literature, Marketing, and uh something else that I haven't decided on yet</p>

<p>Study Plans for SAT/ACT: PSAT was good (220 CT...so either commended or semifinalist), SAT in June, considering a tutor or a course along with individual prep</p>

<p>EC's of Note: Key Club President and founder, Volleyball Captain, Track (Indoor and Outdoor), Spanish Club Historian, Latin Club Vice President, Leo's Club, Student Leadership Team etc.</p>

<p>Summer Plans: getting a job? haha...also doing a group workcamp in Niagra and enjoying my license : )</p>

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<p>I'll make an addition, too, although it's a tentative one. I think I might've landed a research internship in psychology/neuroscience (!!!!!!!). Nothing definite yet, but the response so far seems positive. I'm really excited. :)</p>

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<p>Congrats to TYG and Peggy's son! Hoping the "tentative" part goes away soon. A singing computer nerd jock? Not bad!</p>

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<p>Screen name: SpringfieldMom</p>

<p>Is your Junior male or female: female</p>

<p>Home state: PA</p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: MidAtlantic, New England, Ohio, maybe Virginia</p>

<p>Specific preferences: Definately prefers being near a city. Mid-sized is ideal, is looking at large and extra large. (My preference, however, is a small college for her. Having been to a smaller college myself, I'm going to have to be sold on a college larger that 5,000. I'm having her read "Beyond the Ivy League" by Loren Pope and I may be getting somewhere on that issue!)</p>

<p>Academic interests: Journalism, Communications, Creative Writing</p>

<p>Schools on child's list of possibilities: (her choices) Lehigh, Syracuse (has a good friend there who's a freshman), Penn State, Pitt, Miami of Ohio, U of Dayton Boston U. (my choices) Susquehanna and Ohio Weslyan, both smaller schools</p>

<p>Schools visited: just those in our area: Penn, St. Joseph's U, Villanova, Swarthmore. Scheduling one or more for President's weekend, maybe one over Easter Break. Most will be seen in June and July.</p>

<p>Senior year courseload (tentative): AP English Literature, AP Psychology, Pre-Calculus, Spanish 4, Theology 4 (catholic school), Physics, Vocal Music</p>

<p>Study plans for SAT: Did very well on PSAT-way above average but not NMS calibur. Studied on her own for SAT for about a month (taking them right now--she considers this time to her be "practice" and is taking them again in April.) Has taken PSAT three times and always does better on the Math Section than Verbal, but her grades don't reflect this. Math is always a struggle-grades are B to B+ and the other subjects are always a solid A or A+.</p>

<p>ECs: NHS, Choir, Theatre, Swim Team, Student Newspaper (Managing Editor-unheard of for a Junior!), Track Team, Community Service. Also works at our Church Rectory part time 5-12 hrs per week.</p>

<p>Summer plans: 2nd year as a full time lifeguard at local swim club. She needs to make money for car insurance, which we will not pay for. (The rectory gives her the summer off then rehires her for the school year.)</p>

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<p>Just a quick note to say welcome to SpringfieldMom. (Is that Springfield as in west of Erie -- which is my hometown?) Your D sounds similar to mine, except for swim team. My D is afraid to put her head under water.... </p>

<p>My D also took her SAT this morning. Wiped her out for the rest of the day (It's almost 8:30 p.m. here as I write). She has no feel at all for how she did.</p>

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<p>"Is that Springfield as in west of Erie -- which is my hometown?" Actually, it's Springfield, west of Philly (There's actually another one north of Philly--very confusing!) So I guess there's at least 3 Springfields in PA!</p>

<p>As for the SAT, she knows she's got work to do. She has no feel for the Math section, because she always thought she bombed that on the PSAT and she ended up doing well. She thinks she did well on the essay and has no feel for the Verbal. I'll sign her up for the April test and wait for the results!</p>

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<p>Any thoughts from parents whose child took the SAT yesterday? About what they expected?</p>

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<p>Mine complained that it took too long to 'get' the essay prompt, so the essay was unfinished :(</p>

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<p>Mine said she had plenty of time on math and reading, but was rushed on the writing, and didn't feel she wrote as well as she can. </p>

<p>She took it at a DOD school about a half-hour away. She said they had all the kids in the gym, with folding tables and hard chairs, and to time it, they used the gym sports timer (I don't know what they're really called.) She said it made a constant clicking sound, a louder click every time the minute changed, and a loud buzzer at the end, which startled everyone. She found it very distracting. Is this common?</p>

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<p>That is the strangest testing arrangement I've heard of. A scoreboard clock? I guess on the up side, you're not subject to the vagaries of an individual's watch and you can easily see how much "official" time is left. But the clicking would have driven me crazy.</p>

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<p>Mine said it wasn't overly difficult. However, he said there was one math problem he never figured out. He talked to a few friends after the test and they were all confused and got different answers. </p>

<p>He said there were several CR questions he wasn't sure about and a writing question that didn't seem to have a correct answer - the original question was better than the changes in the answers. He feels his essay went better than he was expecting. He finished every section and had time to review some of the sections, but not others. Thinks he did well, maybe very well, but not great.</p>

<p>He's hoping for a generous curve.</p>

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<p>My D felt good about the essay, it was her biggest worry and she was glad to get it over first. She thought the math was OK, but had some time problems with one of the CR or writing parts (I can't remember which) and is keeping her fingers crossed that it is the experimental part that will not be counted. This was her first shot, so it's likely she'll take it again in June.</p>

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<p>Screen name: usalover
New to this site – A parents whose kids attend prep school on financial aid told us about this site. </p>

<p>Current high school: a very famous prep school on full financial aid</p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: Top Tier College with full financial aid on need basis or merit basis</p>

<p>Specific preferences: No idea</p>

<p>Academic interests: Economics/Business (tentative)</p>

<p>Schools on child's list of possibilities: (her choices): school that offer need based aid or full merit scholarships</p>

<p>Schools visited: None</p>

<p>10th grade course load: AP BC calc and two other APs – 5 in all of them
Junior year courseload: 3 additional APs excluding multivariable calculus and linear algebra.
Senior year courseload (tentative): No idea </p>

<p>Study plans for SAT: Self study 800/800/700, SAT II - 800/800, PSAT 235.</p>

<p>Awards – Some very high level awards in humanities, and math/science. </p>

<p>ECs: School Newspaper, Debate, Model UN, math club, Junior varsity sports, Community Service and choir, theater.</p>

<p>Summer plans: summer research from last two years, still evaluating plans for this summer.</p>

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<p>usalover welcome! You might want to browse the thread entitled "schools known for good merit aid" if you haven't already.</p>

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<p>lderochi-- a word or two of praise-- you are a wonderful host for this thread, welcoming the new folks and truly listening....your example of hospitality is one of the reasons why I like this board so much...thanks!...PC</p>

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<p>Wow. My sincere thanks. I guess I just have more of an "ownership" interest in threads that I start. I think this one will have a lot of good information over the next year, so I hope it doesn't die out. </p>

<p>While we're swapping nice words, I have very much enjoyed your numbers crunching -- keep it up. Do you plan on doing another PSAT to SAT analysis once this year's round of SAT tests are completed?</p>

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<p>Lderochi - Thanks for your warm welcome</p>

<p>Wow! It is too much information here on the site to even read. </p>

<p>We will meet the school college counselor for the first time? Should we ask any questions you think might be a good idea?</p>

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<p>usalover, jumping into the CC board can be overwhelming -- we've all gone through it. I wouldn't try to read everything at once -- browse those topics of interest to you and lean to know and love the Search function -- chances are that your questions have been discussed on this board, sometimes in excruciating detail! I know that we've had discussions on what to ask GC before. If I can find 'em I'll send the links to you in a private message.</p>

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<p>thanks lderochi....yes, I think another round of PSAT score to SAT score might be worth doing for the current juniors, perhaps without most of the detailed stats....that illustrated to me, as I hope it did for the kids, that improvement is indeed possible, but like most other things in life, its more a matter of hard work than luck....my biggest backlog item in my "data analysis" queue is for the "top 20 matriculation list from HS web sites" thread...I have numerous other schools to post as I have pack-ratted additional info over the last 2 months, just haven't had the energy yet to post....that was an interesting thread, too.....learned much.</p>

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<p>Also, I will post, now that I see that the Class of 2011 Thread isn't only exclusively for the parents to post.</p>

<p>Name: thesiren72102 (student)</p>

<p>Female</p>

<p>Home state: TX</p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: Doesn't really matter, I'm a survivor; I can tough it out in just about any type of weather</p>

<p>Any specific things looking for in a college (large, small, urban, etc.): Preferably urban, not too small that everyone knows one another, and not too big that it exceeds the population of some towns, but it will probably come down to the "feel" of the school when determining where to apply.</p>

<p>Possible academic interests: Theatre, Coginitive Science, Film Studies, forensic science, psychology, Spanish, or Linguistics (yeah..I might as well put Undecided on the application)</p>

<p>Schools currently on list of possibilities: In no particular order, Rice, USC, Univ. of Houston, Northwestern, WUSTL, and Brown (I also have a "maybe" list and some of those schools could very well end up on this list)</p>

<p>Schools visited (whether or not still interested in going there): Rice,Yale, Univ. of Houston, Duke, UT-Austin, Texas A&M, UVA, College of William and Mary, and UNC-Chapel Hill</p>

<p>This year: Self-studying for AP English Lang, AP Psychology, and AP World History (school doesn't offer these subjects), and AP Art History (currently taking the class)</p>

<p>Senior Year Courseload:
Photgraphy IV Honors/AP (don't know how this works, since there is no official course named "AP Photography", but my teacher is designating the class as AP)
AP U.S. History
AP English
AP Spanish V
Pre-Calculus Honors
Chemistry Honors
Internship (counts as Honors, accepted through a competitive application process..will be interning in a Theatre-related field)</p>

<p>Study Plans for SAT/ACT: I am currently taking practice tests, absorbing Algebra II, and applying what I learn right now to what is on the SAT. I will be taking the SAT in May, and taking SAT II Literature and SAT II World History in June. I'm prepping for these subjects by prepping for the World History and English Lang. AP Tests and trying to read more poetry.</p>

<p>EC's of Note: Dance/Musical Theatre Troupe (Senior Team 9th, 10th, and 12th), Acting Troupe (9th, 10th,12th), Community service organization/high school sorority (Head of Fundraising 9th, 10th, and 12th), Photography (won some contests), Culture Club/African-American Club (Member (9th), Secretary (10th), and President (12th)), Dance Classes 15 hrs/wk, specialize in Bellydancing, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Horton style Modern (even though I do take classes in Ballet, but no where near good enough to really do anything with that), Volunteering separately from the Community service organization (but will not be putting on application, due to a promise I made..)</p>

<p><em>I did drill team in ninth grade; I won't add it, because that was a time of my life that I would like to forget.</em></p>

<p><em>The reason that I don't have any ECs for 11th grade is because I will be "skipping" that grade and graduating early, classified with all the seniors. Also, elections have been held for next year's leadership positions, so the leadership positions for 12th grade aren't projected predictions.</em></p>

<p>Summer Plans: I want to go to Spain (hopefully on a scholarship! <em>crosses fingers</em>), and study theatre and dance over there. I have to go to one week of dance camp in the end of July for my dance troupe, and will be picking up my dance and threatre classes after I get back from Spain (if I get the scholarship) and dance camp.</p>