<p>The goal was to crank out a few of those RD supplements over the long weekend, but D's teachers had other ideas. The poor kid has been sick and dealing with a sports injury. It's been all she can do to get caught up. One of her teachers actually e-mailed the class an addtional assignment on Thanksgiving Day! This was on top of two massive projects they already had going, plus the work from her other classes. Looks like a stress-filled Christmas vacation in the chintzy household!</p>
<p>chintzy- On Thanksgiving Day!! I would email the teacher lots of questions on Christmas Day!!</p>
<p>4Giggles--I love it! Apparently a group of kids from this class (not D) actually went to see the principal yesterday to complain about the workload. They feel a lot of it is just busy work, but it takes hours to complete. The other AP English teacher doesn't assign anywhere near as much work.</p>
<p>In S's AP English Comp last year, he had very little homework, and this year in AP Lit, just reading and some essays from the books. Seems nuts to have a ton of work for no reason, particularly over a long weekend when seniors across the country are working on applications! Your poor D has enough stress, geez.</p>
<p>DD has completed 5 of her 6 apps but has a scholarship project for Tulane which is only partly done (12/15 deadline) and 1 other common supplement due in January. I really wanted her to finish everything over the break but couldn't push too much since she spent 2 of her 5 days off volunteering at the zoo. Classwork wise she has been drowning in AP Art history all year with massive reading assignments and art to memorize every week. That on top of 5 other APs and I just didn't have the heart to push too hard.</p>
<p>At least she has her concept down for the Tulane scholarship project now just needs to finish executing it. And since its the only school on the list we haven't visited chances are she won't end up there.</p>
<p>Sending some good luck to my neice, who is interviewing and testing this morning at Montclair State U. Poor thing, she didn't want to apply as "undecided" so she put down Communications as her major. Neither auntie (nor my sister) looked over her shoulder when she applied. She later received a letter stating that her admissions decision is based upon an interview and their own essay testing. She called them yesterday thinking she would get one later in the month and they said "can you come in tomorrow (today)?"</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck girl! Montclair is her #1 choice.</p>
<p>Our teachers, especially in AP courses, always give homework over breaks. DD came home with an essay to write for AP Lit, and pages of Chem and Calc problems. Since teachers must know that the students in these courses are mostly seniors, working on college apps, that families like to have some time together on holidays, and that kids need a break too, why do they assign so much homework over "break"?</p>
<p>DD did all her college apps first, and consequently was up very late on Sunday writing her AP essay and finishing chem. She commented Monday morning that it had been a "stressful week." Ya think?</p>
<p>I sometimes think we have fallen into a collective trance that convinced the culture that we should make adolescents experience adult levels of stress to see who will be good corporate managers or the like. Maybe the economic shift and the new attitude at the Presidential level will help. Stress levels on kids on the college track in affluent communities are defiinitely destructive and NOT conducive to developmentally appropriate growth and learning. There. That is my sermon for the day.....</p>
<p>Oh, my sister in law just sent this, which is worth watching even if you have seen "The Mom Song before" So, to follow my sermon, a hymn...how poignant and on the point too...we do love them and make them crazy. I told my daughter someone should write one like this about teachers and seniors...</p>
<p>The</a> Mom Song on Vimeo</p>
<p>Why is there AP coursework assigned over the fall holidays, when teachers know this is the time when seniors are busy with college applications? Here are a few reasons: </p>
<p>1) Most important (especially for schools that start after Labor Day), there's barely enough time as it is to get the coursework done before the May AP exams. Ask my DS how he feels about having a cart load of work to do each summer before school begins. </p>
<p>2) While it's true that some AP classes may be more populated with seniors, it isn't always the case. My DS took AP Calc BC as a sophomore last year, now AP Physics C as a junior. (He's decided he will pass on taking both AP English Lit and AP Spanish Lit as a senior, which seems like a reasonable choice.) </p>
<p>3) The situation is even worse for students with heavy EC's in the fall. This is why I'll be strongly encouraging my DS to get some of his applications work done in the summer (and also, for real, commence his on line class in multivariable calc in the summer, so he has a chance to breath in the fall and doesn't drown in the pool during a water polo game!)</p>
<p>Howdy, all, and belated Happy Thanksgiving! We're just back from visiting D at her UK study-abroad uni. S1 did calculus on the plane allll the way over and allll the way back. They not only had 80-some-odd problems to do, they had a take-home, too. Somehow or other he got it all done.
Cheers and congratulations for the good news that rolled in while I was away; coffee (and stronger stuff later) to get us all through the last few weeks of waiting on early news / finishing apps for regulars. Then we'll start in on the REALLY strong stuff for the big wait. :D</p>
<p>Hope you had a great time!</p>
<p>CC really is a rarified world. Here we are waiting for the last 2 EAs to come in but son has all kinds of friends who haven't completed a single app and aren't even worried about it!</p>
<p>WhoooooooooHooooooooooo! My question is were they showing Quantum of Solace in Scotland or was spending time in the heather and gorse (what is gorse anyway) sufficient to take your mind off the wait?</p>
<p>:D You know my weakness(es) too well, historymom. We couldn't take the wee pirate to see it, but there were posters EVERYWHERE, so that helped.</p>
<p>Visiting ancient castles hanging over the edge of the North Sea helped. </p>
<p>Single-malt whisky helped. </p>
<p>Seeing D helped the most.</p>
<p>And now we're inside the two-week fence. </p>
<p>And guess what: We really, truly did have haggis for Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>Welcome back, Harriet! Nice to know you all got back safely, and that S's calculus work is all done. </p>
<p>Hi, History :).</p>
<p>ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I guess though to be fair it isn't much different in concept than giblet gravy. Sheep stomach vis a vis Turkey heart. So glad you are home safe and sound and that you had a great time. :D</p>
<p>Hello Limom! Thanks for dropping round the 09 thread. Always a pleasure to see you here.</p>
<p>Haggis? Please tell me you're joking. If not, your family is definitely more adventurous than mine!</p>
<p>missypie, every one of D's friends haven't applied anywhere either. These kids aren't the least bit concerned that its December and they haven't applied to colleges. When I asked, they give me names of schools that they plan to apply to, I guess that's a step.</p>
<p>Honest. We took D to a lovely restaurant for Thursday/Thanksgiving. Main courses ordered by Welsches: beef (x2), venison (x2), lamb. Starters ordered by Welsches: HAGGIS, HAGGIS, HAGGIS, HAGGIS, HAGGIS! :D<br>
The maitre d' came out and explained to us that in the old days "any manner of sheep bits" could be part of haggis, but these days they were restricted by law. We stopped ourselves from asking, to what??!? and just ordered them. They weren't served in a casing (which would have been the stomach), but as ground sausage, very nicely spiced and paired with mashed potatoes ("tatties" - a term which is still making D snicker and she's been there three months!). Everybody, including the wee pirate, ate them up and enjoyed them. No kidding.</p>
<p>My sister and I were discussing this today. My neice had an interview an they told her that they hoped to get a response to her by December 12th, that if they dont' they'll get back to her sometime in mid-January.</p>
<p>Just a heads up, don't forget alot of colleges go on break. I'm assuming the admissions committee takes advantage of the long holiday break, too?</p>