<p>You are all a great help.</p>
<p>I will definitely have her ask at the specific colleges, and then speak to the IB director before next year's schedules are set.</p>
<p>zoosermom - your D's best bet will be to ask at the specific colleges. </p>
<p>Jackief - oops, I probably misread your post.</p>
<p>Queens' Mom - if your D thinks she might be interested in science or engineering, then I think it would be a mistake to skip physics while in high school. The engineering curriculum is very intense and pretty much has to be started the first year.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, I agree with you completely on the physics class. It is upsetting to me that her school was no help at all in planning her class choices early on; that it was not until after I made a stink that she was put in the right classes.</p>
<p>Her school has "academies" which kids apply to before entering HS, and there is a math and science academy, but D was more interested in theater, so they dumped her into gut courses.</p>
<p>Queen's Mom - thats really a shame that happened to your daughter. At my kids' schools, parents are required to sign off on all class choices. I'm really surprised that she was able to choose the theater academy without your approval - that just doesn't seem right. 13 or 14 year olds are really not old enough to make that type of decision entirely on their own.</p>
<p>I'm glad you were able to get your D back on the more academic track if that's where she needs to be to get the right classes.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure what she should do about AP Chem vs. Physics. If she thinks she might want to study engineering, I would recommend she take the physics class - that way she'll have a better idea of whether that's the direction she wants to take.</p>
<p>I approved it. The child loves theater, and when else will you indulge your passions without worrying about having a career and making money. I just did not realize what it would mean. It never occurred to me that she couldn't do both (and in fact, she can do both-she's still in the theater academy) She is my first child and I am new to all of this so I trusted the guidance office on class choice in 9th grade. It has since become really apparent to me that unless a parent is pushing, nothing gets done. Believe me, by the end of 9th grade I had done enough research to know what she needed to take. It was only that one year-but it did put her somewhat behind.</p>
<p>The problem is that AP Chem is a two period class; she still needs a non-theater arts elective and a theater course (for the academy certificate) and she wants to take an honors composition class. It looks like she'll be dropping French (she loves that class, but she has to make choices) and History (not her favorite). Then she has 2 periods left. Unfortunately she needs to take AP English (she needs an English class so it may as well be AP), AP Calc BC, and physics.</p>
<p>I am pushing for her to drop the composition class or if I can somehow finagle that class to count towards her English graduation requirements, I will let her drop AP English.</p>
<p>I suppose we could all have worse problems than a child who wants to have more knowledge.</p>
<p>I understand Queen's Mom. That used to be more of a problem in our district. People didn't realize the impact that choices made when their kids were in 5th grade would have such a big impact on what classes their kids would be able to take in high school. Now they include flow charts even in the middle school directory showing which paths lead to which courses. I found it pretty helpful. I wish you luck getting the classes straightened out - but you have some time - you're talking about next year, right? And yes, there are definitely worse problems than a child who wants to gain more knowledge :).</p>
<p>wake up everyone, we were down to page three (gasp)</p>
<p>D is going to one college visiting school today. She got permission from teacher to miss class although they ask juniors not not miss only attend during free period, well she doesn't have any of them. She will limit visits as she really doesn't like missing the classes, but will do it if it is a school she is interested in and the class is skippable (in her and teacher's mind) She also dressed up today, I thought it was because she was auditioning for talent show, but I think it was for the college visit, as I saw a kid going into school wearing a tie.</p>
<p>I will post a review of the "8 of the best" show we went to. Bottom line is 8 colleges is too many for one show and the formal presentation was too long, about an hour and a half. She didn't want to stay after to ask individual questions as we wasn't feeling well and still had homework to finish. Plus there were several hundred people attending and we wouldn't have made it close to any adcoms anyway, a total zoo. I think she did get something out of it, there were 3? of the 8 that she is interested in and some that she learned she is not. I am hoping this kind of experience gives her ideas of attributes she would like/not and not necessarily specifics. </p>
<p>Homework is still a bear. Worked on it most of the weekend and was still behind in APUSH but did catch up last night.</p>
<p>Our problem is the opposite of jackief D's. It seems like S has too little homework. I'm particularly concerned about AP World. Its workload is a fraction of what he had to do last year in APUSH. Further, AP World is the one class in which the teacher hasn't gotten around to sending out email grade snapshots. Oh well, I'll assume no news is good news until I see otherwise.</p>
<p>All the other classes seem to be fine. (AP Stat, H Trig, H Am Lit, H Fr III, Percussion). </p>
<p>On another front, S has officially registered for the PSAT and the SATII for US History. (11th grade PSAT is optional at his school. 10th grade is mandatory and free.) He has also discovered the personality profiler on collegeboard.com. It seems to be a Myers-Briggs copy cat. But, that's OK. </p>
<p>After the PSAT and before the Dec 6 SAT II, both S and D (9th grade) will be working on entries for an essay contest. The topic is something about important American values. It looks rather challenging...requires citing historical quotes, historical documents, and a personal statement. Max 750 words. Reminds me of an AP dbq on steriods. I guess when there's a $5,000 prize it's supposed to be hardwork. </p>
<p>Oh! I almost forgot. We had a breakthrough last night. Son came right out and said "I'm going to study Psycology so I can become an FBI profiler." First concrete statement about a major or career he has ever uttered. Prior to that he'd only given us shrugs or grunts to affirm to dismiss ideas.</p>
<p>jackief - I haven't heard much about any colleges visiting D's school. I know some do, but I don't think it's a large number, and they haven't sent home notices to the parents about the visits, so I'm out of the loop in that regard. I hope your D finds the visit useful. I have a feeling my D would skip the visits in most cases because she hates missing class. </p>
<p>I'm curious about the 8 of the Best tour as we've gotten letters and postcards inviting us to attend the one in our area. I don't think my D is particularly interested in any of those schools, but I was interested in finding out whether it was worthwhile.</p>
<p>DougBetsy - wow - not enough homework? I haven't heard that yet from anyone! D has a fair amount, plus she's putting in a good amount of study time as the tests have begun. So far, she's only gotten one thing back - a diagnostice English paper which doesn't count. It's a shame because she did really, really well on it. Good luck to both of your kids on the essay contest. My D may be entering the same one though. Not sure if she'll get around to it as she's a bit overwhelmed this semester (with ECs, not academics).</p>
<p>I'm not sure we'll have any time for any visits this fall - maybe over the long weekend in Oct, depending on what else is going on here - but there is a big college fair on LI in early Oct., so I may drag D there.</p>
<p>college visits are pushed to our seniors only. At dinner last night, I asked D if any of her friends were going to any upcoming visits, she said no. Asked if any of them were aware of any upcoming visits, she said no. They are listed on our school website and D has looked through the whole set of visits for Sept (there are about 20 schools coming) to see what classes they conflict with. At a recent parent meeting, parents were complaining that they didn't know of the visits, including senior parent sitting next to me. I'll say it again, they are on the school website.</p>
<p>I hope she didn't get grief for attending, she didn't have time to prep but knows in general about the school, knows they like interest, and would consider it. I don't think it will be on the final list but it would be good to be in a much smaller setting with a college rep to get used to the situation.</p>
<p>and DougBetsy- D would KILL to swap places. Not every class is a killer and she has term syllabi for a few of the courses which helps planning. She has had a few smaller graded items but no tests/papers yet.</p>
<p>Just got a phone call from Dennison U.; they are doing a program in our area on Sunday. We had gotten a postcard a few weeks ago and I didn't RSVP. My H loves the school and took S (and I) to visit last summer. S didn't totally cross it off the list so I guess we will go to the program on Sunday.</p>
<p>lotsofquests, sounds good I hope you can attend the session. I am really thinking the "colleges come to us" type of contact is the least work and most appropriate at this exploratory stage.</p>
<p>So far, D's only gotten one phone call - from Sacred Heart (I think in CT). That was several months ago. The call was about visiting the school, but D wasn't interested.</p>
<p>Jackief - I agree that the colleges that come to the school are the least amount of work, they're just not always at the most convenient times. There are two big college fairs coming to our area soon, so maybe I'll be able to convince D to visit them, or at least one of them.</p>
<p>LIMOM, yes I meant all types of them coming to us, not just visits at school during classroom hours. Why can't they do something during lunch or before school? Maybe they'd get too many students that way and not just the few. </p>
<p>Anyway, visit went well, and was a good first learning experience. The rep, an '08 grad now on admissions staff, shared D's current major choice and sport. Good learning experience for D. She knew the rep was a recent grad but couldn't answer if she worked for admission or was just an alum until we looked at her business card. I told her this was important, along with the name if you don't get a card, to write down. One senior who attended asked most of the questions, I asked D if she noticed any good questions she could use later. She really didn't. I want her to use some of these prelim visits as practice for when schools where she might have a more strong interest come.</p>
<p>We also have a big college fair coming up in a few weeks which we will try to attend.</p>
<p>jackief - lunch time visits might be possible at your D's school which is probably quite a bit smaller most other high schools. I think most schools have several lunch periods, so it's just a matter of luck if a visit happens to fall during the student's lunch period. Depending on sports schedules/ECs, before and after school sessions would probably work best. I think the colleges would be happy to have a big turnout, so I don't think that they're worried about too many showing up - it probably has something to to with the reps having only a limited amount of time in each area and trying to fit in as many school visits as possible.</p>
<p>we do have multiple lunch periods, I know there is never a good time for everyone, but I think that some times might have more chance of getting more kids than others. I know that the reps all have busy days with multiple visits, our school just tweaked the calendar this year and so maybe that can be incorporated into visits going forward.</p>
<p>D's school is having a Junior parents night. I would really rather not go, but I guess I don't really have a choice. I don't want to miss something important, though chances are, it will be a waste of time.</p>
<p>Queen's Mom - I would go too. You never know, they might give out some useful bits of information. Good luck. I know my D's school has a Junior parents' night too - just not sure when it is.</p>
<p>Junior parents night for college topics or just general info? We have open house/meet the teacher type night, grade level meetings, and not until the winter a college night for Juniors. There are also monthly parent meetings run by the administration. My younger daughter always gets the short end on the first group because I have already heard about her classes/teachers previously so go to my older D's. I'm going to try to do a few for D2 this year. H goes wherever, though last year he was at the emergency room with D1 as someone had dropped a crew launch boat on her hand earlier that day..</p>
<p>jackief, I have no idea. This thing was not promoted, there was not a single leaflet sent home to advertise it. It is just a small notation on the Counseling Services calendar.</p>
<p>I will try to send my husband. So far he has left the whole college thing to me and I think it's about time he pitched in.</p>