<p>Well, we've kinda hit a wall at our house. Son says he can't talk about colleges anymore because he can't tell them apart. They all look alike to him. </p>
<p>The good news is now he wants to make visits so he can start to tell them apart. </p>
<p>The bad news is finding time. He'd rather not miss school for both academic and athletic reasons. With XC winding down, the weekends will start to open up soon. (At least until indoor track starts.) Sounds great, but, H says he wants to come along. And as the employee of an NFL team, his weekends are scarce right now. </p>
<p>ARGH! I think our first chance will be election day. No school. H and I will have to miss work. But we've got to get this college process out of neutral. </p>
<p>On a different topic, the 3rd and final PSAT practice test was yesterday. Originally our goal was NM Commended. But, based on his trend, dare we wish for NMSF? A long shot in Maryland (222 this year), but one can dream.</p>
<p>Soph 178 (or was it 181? i forget)
Practice #1 = 206
Practice #2 = 212
Practice #3 = 218</p>
<p>Out here in central CA, Columbus day and the Jewish holidays are not vacation days. Occasionally they overlap with an existing break but no scheduling is done to make this happen. </p>
<p>We do get a week long break in October, Feb and April, the latter lined up with Easter unless Easter falls really early in the year. We have traditionally used these times for family vacations - but the last few years have substituted college visits for the vacation. I really like having the mid year breaks - and am fine with the longer school year that results (we start in mid August and end on Father's day weekend.)</p>
<p>Those are great scores DougBetsy. Never know what the real test will bring, but he should be more comfortable with it with all the practice. D is working on some practice tests right now, not as good as your S so far but I hope she can get to the commended level, standard tests are not her strong point. </p>
<p>We are also going to visit two schools on election day.</p>
<p>Be careful in selecting the schools you go to visit on this first trip - many college look and sound alike when you visit them as well. Typical visit:</p>
<p>"Here is our library - we have nearly everything I have ever needed - and when I needed something we didn't have we belong to the neat thing that allows us to get it in 3 days from another library" </p>
<p>"Here is our cafeteria - we are becoming much more green - and using local products. Food is really pretty good"</p>
<p>"Here is a classroom - we have small classes - see how the chairs are arranged in a discussion setup - lots of interaction with each other and the professors"</p>
<p>etc...</p>
<p>If I had just two visits, I would pick a large traditional university and a small LAC. Arrange for as much contrast as possible within visits so that he can begin to see what it is he likes and dislikes in a college.</p>
<p>We only get Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving - and traveling away is always a challenge as a result... I guess building a school calendar is a real challenge in pleasing everyone!!!!</p>
<p>The origin of our February break was that too many kids were missing school in Feb to go skiing. The week was originally called ski week - and when it was added to the schedule, parents were told - ski this week - missing school for skiing will now be regarded as being truant. </p>
<p>October was added later after they saw how well Feb was working. It was originally called college week. </p>
<p>Pretty progressive for a public high school I must say.</p>
<p>a week off in Oct would be cool, I guess since you start school in mid-Aug it doesn't seem too close to the beginning of the year. Our spring break is two weeks in March but the second week is eaten up by spring sports preseason. We have a few long weekend here and there but there are often sports conflicts (such as this past weekend)</p>
<p>scualum, is your schedule shared by surrounding communities? Problem our school has is that younger siblings and teachers families have the traditional (for our area) Feb & Apr vacation weeks so our March break is a hassle for families on two calendars.</p>
<p>Our school district is the same calendar from K - 12. Other districts in the area do not align with us - which does sometimes cause problems for people who work for other districts while living in ours. </p>
<p>Our district does not accept students who do not live in our district due to our rather unique funding situation (we do not get funding on a per pupil basis for historical reasons) so you will not find situations where the same family would have kids in multiple districts except for the most unusual of circumstances (e.g. family moved late in one child's education and he or she preferred to finish up in original district).</p>
<p>scualum: Love your characterization of the college tours! </p>
<p>You left out the part where they tell you 'fun facts' about a certain building or landmark....."that building is named after xx, and here's a funny story about how he came to give that money"...."when they first put up that statue it was in another location, and then it was later....blah blah blah....". </p>
<p>I think the most helpful part of the college tour is not what they are pointing out but what you can observe along the way- What is the 'feel' of the campus? What state of repair are all the buildings in? What are the grounds like? Open spaces? Trees? Too far apart? Too crowded? How urban or rural does it all seem? How easy will it be to get around? Are there convenient stores, restaurants, etc nearby? And most important, if school is in session, then what do the students look like? What are they wearing? Are they interacting with each other in a friendly, happy manner? Would you (or your child) fit in?</p>
<p>In SW Ohio, Columbus Day is a bank holiday only (not schools). AFAIK.</p>
<p>For a few years our district got Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur off, until certain elements complained about unequal treatment. But we still get Good Friday off...they just call it a "spring holiday." :D</p>
<p>Taking the SAT in the fall is a good idea. You're already in the mode for that type of test. My only reservation would be writing, which tends to improve with maturity. I guess that's what retakes are for.</p>
<p>I guess the writing does improve with time, but the Math tends to be forgotten in more advanced classes. With superscoring, I figure you can take a fall SAT for the Math and then try for higher CR and Writing scores on retakes. D has not yet decided if that's what she is going to do, but I am pushing the next possible SAT just to see. I figure you have to count on 3 retakes nowadays anyway. Oh the good old days when I only took it once.</p>
<p>We are now running into scheduling issues, but for a happy reason. D fell into a "ta-da" internship that will run from now until June and then again next year, every Saturday. So we're planning to do college visits during the breaks in January and early June for Regents exams. She'll take the SAT/ACT exams in the Spring as her only days off from her internship, so that should work out well.</p>
<p>That script was hilarious Scualum. Between two daughters, I don't think any of the visits has ever deviated!</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone's kids on the PSAT!!!!!!</p>
<p>Of my 3 kids so far who have taken the SAT, I don't think any of them took it twice! They were happy enough with their first scores, which showed their strengths/weaknesses in a reasonable light (800 on either Math or English, depending on what they were better at; 700s on the other.) </p>
<p>Of course, nobody was trying desperately to get into an Ivy.</p>
<p>My 4th child is the first to have the mandatory SAT writing; we'll see if his score on that is happy or worth repeating.</p>
<p>I mean 3 total. My D is not headed for an Ivy either, but she is a terrible test taker. She's been getting 800s on the practice Math, but I do not look for anything that high on the actual test. Her test anxiety is just awful. I hope just knowing that she has the opportunity to take it 3 times if she needs to will calm her down enough to do as well as she can.</p>
<p>Findaplace - sorry about the robbery, that must have been so scary for your S. Hopefully you'll be able to work something out for the PSAT conflict.</p>
<p>2Leashes - I also have a D who wants to do everything herself. She keeps up her grades without parental pushing, but she isn't doing much else. </p>
<p>Now she wants to not take the PSAT on Wednesday. Says it doesn't count for anything, and she doesn't want to take the SAT anyway because "it has too much math" (soph ACT was 29 composite, PSAT 66 CR and W, 53 math). So far she won't do any test prep, but promises to study for an ACT retake. </p>
<p>Queen's Mom - I don't want to look either (my D's are mostly in index funds too). Last time I checked we lost a year of college. Hopefully D will pass all her APs.</p>
<p>Not much going on here. I don't think D's done any more practice PSATs, and I'm ok with that. </p>
<p>Queen's Mom - how great that your D's gotten 800s on the math practices! </p>
<p>scualum - loved your "college tour." Too funny.</p>
<p>zoosermom - congrats to your D on her internship. Sounds like you've got everything planned now.</p>
<p>Vacation weeks in our district vary by when holidays fall. Some years we end up with some nice extras - like this year with the 5-day weekend in October. Other years, we don't. </p>
<p>We have Spring break, but not a week in October or February. Does your child go to a private school over there or is this just the way your public school district schedules vacations? We don't start until the end of August and get out around mid June.</p>
<hr>
<p>scalum posted:
We do get a week long break in October, Feb and April, the latter lined up with Easter unless Easter falls really early in the year. We have traditionally used these times for family vacations - but the last few years have substituted college visits for the vacation. I really like having the mid year breaks - and am fine with the longer school year that results (we start in mid August and end on Father's day weekend.)</p>
<p>Just received an email from Son's school full of instructions for tomorrow's PSATs. I was a little sad to see that only 80 juniors registered. ~25% of the class. That's too bad.</p>
<p>(It's free & mandatory for all sophomores. $15 and optional for juniors.)</p>