Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

<p>This is how my daughter feels. She has a very low chance of scoring an NMSQT Scholarship. She took the PSAT last year "for the heck of it". And, she just took it again this morning as a junior. But, she doesn't have any hopes of getting a National Merit Scholarship. Will be anxious to see how she did. She's in a public school and they charge $25 before the end of September. After that it's $30. This is for both sophomores and juniors. Would be nice if it were free or as low as some of the schools reported here.</p>

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<p>Quote from Lafalum:</p>

<p>OK, I'm clearly in the minority here, but to me the PSAT is just exactly that - the PRACTICE SAT. The odds of a kid scoring an NMSQT Scholarship are astronomically low. If you're up for that, great, but for the overwhelming majority of kids the PSAT is nothing more than practice for the SAT. When you apply to college, they see your SAT scores, not your PSAT score. State school scholarships in our state are awarded based on the mandatory state-wide achievement test scores, not PSATs. </p>

<p>Why take it as a sophomore - so you can practice for the practice test? </p>

<p>And wow - a school district that can afford to pay for everyone to take the PSAT??? Are you guys talking about private schools - or how high are your property/school taxes? Our public high school sends 90+% of our kids on to college, but we laid off teachers last year - there's no money to pay for every kid to take the PSAT or the SAT or anything else that isn't mandated by the state</p>

<p>I need some scheduling advice for next year. My D is currently taking AP Language for English. Next year the obvious sequence will be to take AP Lit. However, she really hates her current class and is not happy about taking lit next year. She would rather take an English Comp class that would satisfy the requirements. However, she is concerned about how it will look if she drops down from AP to Honors. I think she should take the class she'll enjoy, but all her friends are telling her it will look bad on her application to college. Any advice?</p>

<p>Queen's Mom, I agree with you. Let her take what she enjoys. </p>

<p>We've got a similar dilemma. Son is currently taking 2 maths: H Trig and AP Prob/Stats. He's my high-verbal kid and really just takes math cuz he knows he has to. Hasn't had pre-calc yet (wouldn't fit this year's schedule). </p>

<p>For 12th grade his choices are H pre-calc or "regular" calc. He's talking about going for calc. The teacher would be one the ones he has now and both think he could handle it. But, GASP!, it's a regular class. You know what, that's OK. I'm not trying to raise the perfect child, just a happy, healthy child.</p>

<p>S1 decided not to take AP Lit senior year because he'd already taken AP Lang/Comp and head heard the Lit teacher was not that great. Signed up for Honors instead. Big mistake. He always does better in classes where he's challenged. He had <em>ART</em> projects in Honors English. He was appalled, turned off and fed up, and so was I. </p>

<p>Thoughts: If your kid does better in a challenging environment, go for the AP vs. Honors. If the teacher is what makes the experience valuable for your student, go for the teacher, regardless of "level". </p>

<p>In either event, colleges are looking for AP Lang/Comp, and not so much at AP Lit. Haven't seen that many schools that offered credit for AP Lit, anyway -- but your mileage may vary.</p>

<p>S2's school recommended that IB students who want an AP scores for college apps present an AP Lit score from junior year and make AP Lang/Comp optional senior year -- advice which we are ignoring. We think presenting a strong writing score is more important for S2, esp. given the difficulty of the IB English course he is taking.</p>

<p>2Leashes - interesting that the fees vary so much from school district to school district for the PSAT. Not sure what the reason for that might be. D's school charges $13 for sophs and juniors, and there are 2 regular registration days and one late registration day (same charge, either way). Maybe it has to do with paying teachers to proctor the exams? Teachers contracts vary from district to district, so that's the only explanation I came up with, unless the school's trying to make money this way.</p>

<p>QM/DougBetsy - I think your kids should take the classes they prefer to take, and not just what will look good to colleges.</p>

<p>Hi CountingDown - we cross-posted, and I just wanted to say that you make some good points, and it also depends on the teacher, or the teacher's reputation - if you know the teacher ahead of time that might make a difference when making the final decision about which class to take. My D is taking AP Lang now and will most likely take AP Lit, but she doesn't have strong feelings about it either way at the moment.</p>

<p>Yes, countingdown, she does do better if she is challenged. Her best grades are in the more difficult courses. I am conflicted. We are going to schedule an appointment with her GC and this is one of the things I plan to discuss. The main thing will be to get her into a different pre-calc section next semester (she wants the same teacher she has now, but is scheduled to change to a different teacher). I do not anticipate too much trouble since the teacher she loves is considered very difficult and a hard grader (all true, but she knows how to tach and loves her subject) and most kids would rather get an easier grader.</p>

<p>LIMOM- re. the RC colleges, I know she just has a bad idea about them, as she is kind of anti-church right now. I think if she saw one she might like it, but I don't know if I will get her to seriously look at any.</p>

<p>on the schedules- we don't have these situations, so I really don't feel that I can give the best answers, but I would also lean towards the enjoyable class. We only have one AP English class, Lit in 12th grade, and not all the top kids take it. For the rest and for all the 11th graders, they pick different English electives. None are H or AP but all are just as rigorous, they just arent geared to the tests but to other interesting subjects. Juniors need to take one comp elective (one trimester) D is currently taking Mythology.</p>

<p>yeah, jackief, in our school the kids seem to OD on AP classes. Some graduate with as much as 13 APs. My D is not going that route. At most she will have 6 by graduation.</p>

<p>jackief - I was just curious about why your D was against RC schools - sorry if I was being nosy. My D really loved Georgetown when we visited a few years ago. We didn't take a tour - we just happened to go to Georgetown (the neighborhood) for dinner one night while we were visiting DC, and we quickly checked out the campus. I think she loved the area outside the campus even more than the campus itself.........lol.</p>

<p>I think it's great that your Ds are able to take those English electives in 11th grade rather than feeling like they have to take AP Lang. like they do in my D's school. </p>

<p>Queen's Mom - I know what you mean about ODing on AP classes. My D will have 5 by the end of this year, and probably another 5 -7 next year - so not quite 13, but at least 10, and probably more. It's pretty crazy, but she feels like she has to take the classes anyway, so she may as well take the AP version if it's offered.</p>

<p>I had mentioned the fee differences earlier to my husband who teaches at D's h.s. He was surprised, thinking it was an across-the-board fee from the actual company who administers the test (or whatever:) I should mention the proctor payment. He's proctored tests there in the past.</p>

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<p>From LIMOMOF2:</p>

<p>2Leashes - interesting that the fees vary so much from school district to school district for the PSAT. Not sure what the reason for that might be. D's school charges $13 for sophs and juniors, and there are 2 regular registration days and one late registration day (same charge, either way). Maybe it has to do with paying teachers to proctor the exams? Teachers contracts vary from district to district, so that's the only explanation I came up with, unless the school's trying to make money this way.</p>

<p>no problem at all LIMOM, my D is very closed minded, but at least now I have gotten her to accept visiting a couple schools in Maine where before she was anti-Maine for other subjective reasons. I will see about the Catholic schools at some point, I think Georgetown might be an interesting school for her since she likes languages and the foreign service school could be interesting, but I'm not sure. Holy Cross also with its classics strengths. There are lots of good schools around though, and so even if she disqualifies a group there are still lots of options. Oh yes, she is anti-women's colleges also :)</p>

<p>2Leashes, that's in interesting point on the proctor fees. My dad was a GC and when I was in college I think when I was home on breaks I did a few gigs as a proctor for some college board tests. Nice chunk of change for a Sat morning. Our school does PSAT on Wed so the teachers proctor. I would think this would be a standard fee though like to other CB tests.</p>

<p>Just to clear things up, when I suggested that the higher charge for the PSAT at 2Leashes' school might be to cover proctors' fees, I was just throwing out an idea because unless they have a good reason like that, I don't think the school should use the test as a fundraising opportunity. I was just hoping they had a good reason for charging almost twice as much as most other schools. I have no idea if that's the case.</p>

<p>jackief, my D is close-minded about women's colleges as well. She is interested in Georgetown, but hasn't decided yet whether she'll apply. And you're right, even if our kids disqualify a whole group of schools, there are a huge number of options.</p>

<p>What's interesting sometimes are the student's stated reasons for rejecting/accepting a college for possible admission. What I hope to do with my S before too long is to have him select, from a list of about 50 items, ten of the qualities that are his highest priority for a college and then go from there. You know, things like urban/rural, numbers of students enrolled, must have major/programs/options (e.g. interdisciplinary degrees) etc.</p>

<p>Perhaps I should have checked in here first!</p>

<p>My name is Kate and my son is a junior in high school. He is our only child, so we are brand new to approaching college from the parental perspective. We're a military family and have moved a lot. My S isn't really attached to any area of the country as "home" but we're planning on moving to New England following my husband's retirement from active duty in about 18 months. And, yes, we have been singing the praises of colleges in New England for a long time!</p>

<p>Ironically, he is currently applying to a school in California that has a program for hs juniors to go directly into their freshman year. Then again, he tells us he may apply as a senior to colleges and take a gap year. He's always been a quirky kid but a good kid so we've learned to just roll with it. </p>

<p>I cannot believe the wealth of information here at CC. Thank you to everyone for sharing their experience and journey. I'll be around!</p>

<p>Kate, welcome to C.C and to this thread!</p>

<p>Pugmadkate:</p>

<p>Could it be the RHP at USC? We asked our S if he was interested (his father is on faculty there) but he wasn't interested in giving up his HS ECs like water polo, etc. This was completely understandable so the conversation ended there.</p>

<p>Thank you for the welcome!</p>

<p>Yes, it is USC RHP. My son was born in California and lived there until age five. We then moved back for his middle school years. Now here we are in Texas. While we have instilled a love of New England in our son thanks to frequent visits to family there, we all miss Southern California. So when the RHP letter arrived, it really caught his attention.</p>

<p>S would like to stay for his senior year as he likes his high school but he looked into the RHP program and concluded that it would be worth it. We homeschooled during his seventh and eighth grade years and so he has first hand knowledge that while you give up some things by not staying on the traditional schooling path, you gain others. </p>

<p>So, we'll see how this all plays out. If nothing else, he feels good about being invited and it is a great chance to go through the application process. </p>

<p>Is your son looking at USC for college?</p>

<p>Just writing to get out my angst. For some reason, I'm all of a sudden having a bad feeling about college. A friend's dd went to a preview day at a college my son also is interested in. It's very popular with kids at my son's school, but it's tiny. They can't take everyone who applies from his school. What if he doesn't get in? Argh.</p>

<p>I guess it's knowing that in the morning S1 will get his first SAT Subject Test score. The first one that really counts for something. Wow, this could be a long 18 months! :D LOL!</p>

<p>Good luck for the SAT subject test score! I know how you feel. I was vicariously nervous about D's first SAT score. I agree, it is a long process and it will take a lot of patience. And stressful as it is for parents, it is much harder for the kids.</p>

<p>Youdon'tsay - good luck to your S, and you, on his first SAT II score. I'm sure it'll be fine. Which test was it for? </p>

<p>I think that we're all going to have to get used to our kids competing with their friends and others from their schools for the spots at the most favored colleges - sad.</p>

<p>vicariousparent - your D already took her first SAT? Yikes! We haven't gotten to that stage yet.</p>