Just show this to the wife. She is now trying to talk S24 focus on Pre Med route 
.
She is like “Forget International Affairs because people don’t make money doing politic!”
I reminded her Pre Med is not a major… was told to zip it. lol
Well, looks like the replacement Calculus teacher that our school hired in January to replace the one who left before Thanksgiving has quit for a job elsewhere. She just sent out an announcement through the school’s email announcements portal.
Good thing D24 isn’t taking a Calculus class this next school year, I suppose.
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Report cards went out today w/grades pre-AP exam. D24’s grades were sobering. Lots of C’s. Frustrating. She had a good long cry about it, lots of talk from her about “I’m not going to get in ANYWHERE!” and “I WORKED SO HARD ALL YEAR LONG!” along with a little bit of “I’m so TIRED of doing book notes for history classes!”
So I used the magic of the Internet and spreadsheets and figured some things out. Disclaimer: our HS’s policy is that if you take the AP exam, then if you score at least a 3 on the test, it brings your grade up by about 1 letter grade (there’s a whole table that lays it out). However, if you score a 1 or a 2, it can also bring your grade for the course for the year down a little bit.
So I used a HS GPA calculator tool online to figure out what her weighted and unweighted GPA would be based on different combinations of AP scores (5 of her 6 classes this year were APs, so she took 5 AP exams).
Then I did some comparisons to Common Data Set (CDS) data along with some Naviance data for the various schools that she’s likely going to apply to.
And it doesn’t look like the end result will be quite so bad as D24 thought. With the exception of UNM & NMSU, she’s going to apply test optional everywhere else. So she’ll need to explain things a bit in 1 of the Common App essay question prompts, I think, to explain the C’s if she does end up with some C’s on her transcript for 11th grade.
She did tell me today that she doesn’t think she got 2’s on any of the AP exams, but we will see.
So her frown turned upside down after I showed her the spreadsheet and the list of schools I think she’d probably get into. She won’t be getting into any honors colleges, with probably the exception of NMSU, but that’s ok.
Then I told her that about 5 of the colleges she’s applying to DO give you specific course credit for passing CLEP exams, so if she doesn’t want to have to take US or World History again, then she should pursue CLEP exams through the Modern States online courses in order to get out of those general ed classes. She was interested in that and the current plan is for her to take the US History 2, French, and Calculus CLEP exams by the end of June.
She starts her 1st day at McDonald’s tomorrow morning. Now off to buy her some all-black shoes for that.
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I think that is a really tough schedule, so I’m impressed with her hard work! Hopefully she’ll get great AP scores to pull the grades up. 
And good job to you helping her see the possibilities!
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14 1/2 more school days here, not including today 
He has SAT tomorrow morning. He is beyond done with this year. He came home all bent out of shape yesterday because he got a 0 for English for the day. He was supposed to hand in a picture of him and the person he interviewed for a project. The person canceled on him the night before when he was supposed to go get the picture taken. English teacher says “not my problem” and gives him a 0. I feel kind of bad but also I am sure he had ample opportunity to get this photo opportunity prior to the night before it was due. He ended up meeting with the subject last night and got the photo so we shall see what happens. Most frustrating is this is his honors English class where he has done very well all year and she is writing his recommendations which she is very selective about, and now I feel like this incident has tarnished her perception a bit. I am really trying to tell him to keep plodding along for the last two weeks but also really nervous that his grades this quarter are going to be not so great and it will pull his GPA down, not to mention just not look great to school. Not much I can do but stressful nevertheless.
I’m right with people on concerns about grades, letters of rec, etc.
S24 had his second and last Sociology test of the quarter right after D19’s college graduation. He studied, but not as hard as he would have if not traveling to the graduation. He just found out that he failed. How does an A student fail a test in his elective? It probably has something to do with the format, which S24 said was mostly matching definitions. If you get a few wrong, then you might get all the rest wrong because you’ve eliminated the right answer. S24 would do better if asked to write out his own definitions!
He did go talk to his teacher right away. Thankfully, the teacher said that S24 can write a paper on the subject to add some points to his grade. (This teacher is not aware that S24 has dyslexia/ADHD because he’s never needed accommodations in the class.)
Another worry is that S24 has asked his math teacher for one of his letters of rec. Math is his weakest subject, and his performance varies greatly from unit to unit. He does have a great rapport with the teacher and goes in often for extra help. Since it’s a regular math class (not Regents, honors or AP), the teacher doesn’t have a line of kids to write letters for and was apparently very pleased to be asked. But it will definitely be more of a character witness letter than praise for S24’s math skills! In fact, is entirely possible that S24 will randomly tank on the final due to a weird format or more questions from a unit he hasn’t mastered.
Anyway, I do not want to rush toward graduation because I love having S24 home, but I will be glad when junior year is over and we can stop obsessing quite so much about how everything will look on The Application.
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That’s so frustrating!
I guess on the positive side of it all, maybe this could be a lesson learned for how things might go in college…the professors set the deadline and the test/paper/whatever is due when it’s due. And just because you ask for an extension, doesn’t mean that you’re owed an extension to the deadline.
It’s a really hard lesson to learn though!
I feel sort of like this today…
…when it comes to college applications, that is.
Our school counselor told 11th graders that they need to select 1 humanities teacher and 1 STEM teacher for letters of rec. D24 has already picked her favorite English teacher, who she’ll have for English next year. She’s had this teacher for 9th & 10th grade English and, soon, 12th grade English class as well.
The STEM LOR, though, is harder. D24 is going to be a bio major. Except she took AP Bio in 10th grade and her science class in 11th grade was honors physics, which she got a C in. That was a hard slog all year long and she even went to tutoring during her lunch period every week.
So prior to the end of the school year, her thought was to ask the AP Calculus AB teacher, who only had started at this school in early January. We thought that would be a decent gamble since she’d gone in to student hours weekly with that teacher for extra help, so the teacher could see how much she was working at it.
Well, now that plan is out the window since the teacher has now quit to go work elsewhere.
D24 isn’t taking calculus in 12th grade. Will have a different math capstone class instead, which will be taught by the Honors Physics teacher. Hm…ok, so it looks like he’s going to be the STEM LOR guy for D24. Rule of thumb from the counselor was to pick a teacher who’s taught you within the last year, so that’s why asking the AP Bio teacher is out.
D24’s 1st shift at McD’s is today. Curious to hear what she thinks when she’s done.
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Ok, D24 is back from 1st shift at McDonald’s. Things she’s learned from 4 hr of work:
- even if you’ve never worked a day in your life for $$ before, they’ll put you on the drive-thru.
- some people are really grumpy and cranky.
- working at McDonald’s is hard and not fun.
- there really are real live Karens out there. Like the Karen who was in the drive-thru line. She had her grandkids in the backseat of her car. D24 said she had a Karen hair cut and her name literally was “Karyn.” And Karyn held up her phone in stop watch mode and complained that she’d been in the line for 6 minutes and “this is unacceptable, I am not coming back here ever again.”
- and sometimes, it takes working a shift at McDonald’s to get you motivated enough to find a better job somewhere else. Like when she said, “Mama, if I get a job offer somewhere else, can I quit at McDonald’s?” Yes, kiddo, you can. But you’ve got to put in the effort to find another job. So get goin’.
Meanwhile, listening to my kid complain this afternoon, in my head, I’m thinking this:
And THAT, kids, is why you have to STAY IN SCHOOL AND GET A GOOD EDUCATION SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK AT A LOUSY JOB LIKE THAT YOUR WHOLE ADULT LIFE!
It’s like today, D24 realized:
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S24’s report card is out and everything looked fine to great, except one class. A hard won “C” to end the year (S24 was sick as a dog for the final, took it and bombed it - the very low B became a very low C). Once again I was so glad he is my youngest, so we had a conversation about not always getting the result you want from the hard work you put in, and also being ok letting a less than desired grade go and keeping perspective*.
I also reminded him that he is applying to schools that are pretty open about not expecting perfection from their applicants, and he is excited about all his choices currently on final list.
Trying to enjoy the summer together before we send D23 off to college in August and S24’s college application season gets well underway.
*This was not the response his older sister received when she was in danger of getting a low B, I wish I could go back and change that response to a more measured one. I made so many mistakes in parenting with the oldest. At least I make new ones with each kid? 
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Ignore the counselor and get the LOR from the AP Bio teacher, especially since your daughter plans on majoring in Bio. There is no admissions rule requiring the LOR from an 11th grade teacher.
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Good luck to all those taking the SAT today! S24 finished up a 6 week course this week. Fingers crossed it helps raise his score. All of the schools he is applying to are TO but I think a decent score can help in admittances.
Last night we had some bad storms. Several high schools in surrounding towns had graduation. Some pushed through with a delay and some rescheduled to later in the weekend.
@coastal2024 that’s a tough lesson for you S24.
As for the last few weeks of school left, I’ve been saying this is the last time you HAVE to go to school in June. i know down the road he may choose to take summer courses, but this works for motivation this month.
@3SailAway that stinks he had a hard time with the test. I’m glad his teacher is giving him an opportunity for extra credit to offset the bad grad a little.
@sbinaz that is beyond “Karen” that is psycho for someone to hold up a stopwatch in a drive thru. I hope your DD can push through long enough, and finds another more pleasant job quickly. S24 is still looking for a job. I have suggested McDonalds. Sigh….
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Yesterday afternoon, D24 applied for a job at a Starbucks competitor. 
There’s also a NY-style bagel shop that’s hiring, too. She’s going to apply there as well. When she’s motivated, she moves! 
She gets to work an 8 hr shift today. Meanwhile, DH and I are quietly smiling at each other.
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Bagel shop! I remember when I was in HS during Junior and Senior summers I worked at a shop named “Holey Bagel” in Noe Valley (thats a neighborhood in San Francisco).
Woke up and get there before 5am to help prep the shop. (had to drive 1 hour to get there since I lived in the Peninsula back then).
Hard and brutal job but really enjoyed it because of the people and customers. (Ok, some customers were real azz but the nicer ones out weight them.)
Afterward I would drive back home and change, then off to work at a restaurant as prep cook. The restaurant gig i did all year during school too. At least I got free dinner every evening!
I can totally attest that I have learned the most on life lessons while working those two jobs, especially on how to work with people.
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The bagel shop that’s hiring makes amazing bagels. They have this water filtration system that filters the water so it’s like NYC water and the bagels end up with this crunchy outside that’s SO good.
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D24 finished her 8 yr shift today at McD’s. 
Here’s a top 10 list of her observations from today:
- “Now I understand why you talk so loud into the speaker when we go in a drive-thru.”
- “Oh my gosh, so many people don’t talk loud enough in the drive-thru.”
- “Making soft serve ice cream cones is hard.”
- “The back room smells like really bad.”
- “The teenage boys working today were loud and annoying because, well, they’re teenage boys.”
- “My feet are sore.”
- “At one point, the manager yelled at the teenage boys because they weren’t paying attention.”
- “It was not as busy today as yesterday.”
- “I didn’t have any Karens today. Everybody was pretty nice and when I said, ‘Have a nice day,’ some people even said, ‘You, too!’ I liked that.”
- “I really want to find a different job.”
So then she sent her resume in an email to the bagel shop. And my husband and I are grinning from ear to ear. 
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So when D24 got the McD’s job, it went like this:
Then there was more of this…
Then I did the equivalent of this:
Then there was some of this…
And us parents are all watching it unfold like this:
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All this talk about kids finding jobs…
I shake my head at my DD2024.
-
She does not have a job.
-
She’s probably not getting a job, because she’s going to spend almost 1month in Dominican Republic w/ family/Spanish immersion
(she’ll probably be at the all-inclusive beaches lounging all month) -
But here’s the thing that got me boiling:
==> when your teenagers get together with their friends, WHERE/WHAT type of restaurants do they choose?
- perhaps McDonalds (we actually don’t have one in our town)
- or Chipotle
- or Friendlys Ice cream?
- maybe a nice Mexican restaurant?
So this getogether was after school Thursday, so DD texted asking me to bring her a change of clothes and some money.
We gave her $27.
In the car ride, I learned that they made RESERVATIONS!
Where are they going that they need reservations?
The restaurant is expensive and very nice. My husband and I haven’t been in AGES, and last time was for our anniversary!
Yup, going to an expensive restaurant (when there’s a great pizza joint and other great options around) when you don’t have a job is troubling.
And my husband is creating this monster!
He gives her everything she wants!
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I wonder if it is this area of the country or this generation or what? I’ve experienced similar with my kids (and we live in the much less affluent town adjacent to you).
My kids have only been to the movie theater a handful of times, ever. Tickets are just so expensive! But they really wanted to see the D&D movie on the big screen, and they both have well paying jobs, so they made a plan to go with their friends. Their friends refused to go to the closest (and moderately cheaper) theater nearby, and instead insisted on going to fancy theater (“it has reclining seats!”) several towns over. And when they got there the other kids spent close to $50 each on food. At the movie theater!
When your kid insists they only want to go to schools in the south, because they are sick of New England winters and don’t want to go anywhere where it snows in the winter, yet they put CU Boulder on their list:roll_eyes:
He would honestly have so many more options if he was willing to apply to places where it snowed in the winter. I explain to him that CU Boulder is in Colorado where it snows significantly all winter long yet he still wants to add it to the list. But when I suggest some great options, closer to home, he says no it’s too cold. I seriously can’t with this kid.
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