<p>Cyclonehome, your daughter is only a sophomore, right? We didn’t start talking about college until Feb. of junior year, and that was just for a preliminary visit to one or two schools. I think you can relax, and maybe not even come on here much for another year.</p>
<p>We didn’t want to make high school all about getting into college. So many kids are stressed these days, and pile on activities and academics to “get in,” and some actually crash once there. I think it can be better not to talk a lot about schools, prematurely.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is a good idea for kids to keep track of what they do for admissions purposes. It just feels better for them to do things because they want to, not to get them on a resume, and keeping track just makes it unavoidable to have that resume-building attitude.</p>
<p>That said, when the time came, in late fall of senior year, they did have to make a list, for the applications, of course, from memory, and we parents nudged memories a bit when that time came. </p>
<p>Interesting comments from Onecot59. Read them again if you can. The idea of doing something with adults that high school students usually don’t do, and the other idea about underscheduling so that your kids can explore interests outside of school, both worked really well for our family in terms of ultimate admissions. In fact, we felt that going to a less then rigorous high school actually helped our kids, because they had so much free time to read what they want, volunteer, or do performing arts that they loved. And, hang out with friends too.</p>