<p>2blue, thanks for the offer, but I think she should be able to figure it out herself if she wants to break the official rules. 
No labs in chem, just not possible with that many.</p>
<p>My S didnât even apply for that one, entomom. It sounded like you had to have a lot more math than he has had in order to have made it in as a rising junior. I hope she isnât discouraged from applying for it for next summer.</p>
<p>Thatâs a real shame about the labs, Slithey. I know so many areas are suffering with budget cuts. The impacts on education are certainly real. I feel sorry for both the kids and teachers.</p>
<p>At our HS if the kids get on to FB or personal e-mail they get a Saturday detention. Do it more then once and I think you get an in-school suspension. Theyâre pretty strict about that stuff.</p>
<p>Oh, almost forgot. Bones season premiere is on tonight. My D and W love this show (especially my D). Shows girls that nerdy can be cool. So nice to have a tv show where a young womanâs brains/intelligence is shown to be so valuable.</p>
<p>kathiep, ouch, thatâs a tough policy. No such penalties in our district. </p>
<p>2blue, agree that not having the lab is a bummer. Back in the day, my AP Chem class had lab 2x a week at 7 AM. The teacher would tell us stories about why it wasnât a good idea to throw lit matches into the drain (it ignites the chemicals dumped in there, and you blow up the plumbing). Fun times!</p>
<p>Iâm a huge fan of this site and have learned a lot reading different posts over the past few years. Now that my S is a junior I figured it was time to officially join. S is in an IB program in South Florida. He is currently taking 6 AP/IB classes (English Lit, US History, Chemistry, Physics, Calc BC, Microeconomics) plus IB Spanish III. He is very active on his Math Team, and also is involved with the Robotics Club, Science Club, Spanish and National Honor Societies. This past summer he went to MathZoom to improve his math competition skills. He is taking an online AoPS class to improve his chances in the AMC 12. We welcome any thoughts, comments and input from anyone willing to share. Thank you.</p>
<p>FlMathMom,</p>
<p>Wow that is a full boat he has there. Where is he intending to apply to? Have you started the college tour routine yet?</p>
<p>Welcome F1MathMom,
I agree that is some schedule your S has. My S is only taking 2 APâs (european hist and eng comp) and 1 honors class (calculus) along with latin, religion and physics and that is a heavy load for him. He has 3+ hours homework a night after getting home at 6:30 from football. Although I think my S could probably spend less time on his eng comp assignments, he loves writing and turns the assignments into bigger projects than necessary, imo. In addition to football he is into boy scouts, basketball and Model UN. </p>
<p>We have started the college search in earnest, S has already gone to two local information sessions and visited some schools over the summer. He hasnât found a school he hasnât liked yet. </p>
<p>Welcome and good luck to your S!</p>
<p>Wow FlMathMom - thatâs some load. D has been pushed a bit for the first time in her high school career. She has 3 APs and 3 honors classes. Sports and other ECs do take up a huge chunk of time, not to mention that sheâs tired when she gets back. So far, she is managing okâŠbut does look tiredâŠshe isnât getting the sleep she needs every night. Hopefully, sheâll manage to sneak in some extra rest over the weekendâŠlast thing you need is to fall sick when your system is vulnerableâŠ</p>
<p>2blue,
I think she was actually pretty relieved ;). I donât think she will apply to that one next year as the odds are so incredibly low. And though she has taken fairly high math/science coursework, she isnât into anything sciency for ECs, and I think that really matters for that program. We have a local 8 week, full time apprenticeship program which sheâll try for, some of the positions even get a small stipend.</p>
<p>Last night my D actually sounded interested in college visits during in-service days in OctoberâŠif it means âgetting them over withâ. Oh well, itâs a start. The tough part is that she doesnât have any schools that are closer than 200 miles apart. She saw several in the NE with her big sister and wonât redo those. The mid-west is big!</p>
<p>Sheâs sitting the SAT in Oct, a week before the PSAT. So weâre keeping our fingers crossed that this is the first and only time sheâll have to take it and testing will be over with until APs and SAT IIs in May/June.</p>
<p>I appreciate the warm welcome and your comments. My S is very lucky b/c when it comes to his math and science classes he is able to understand, absorb and remember the info as he is taught. Since they are on block scheduling, he gets most of his math hw done in class while the teacher is re-explaining things to the other students. He eats up history and economics so other than writing the AP essays for those classes, the rest of the learning isnât too hard for him. English & Spanish are another story. He told us tonite he has to read a 400 page book for English. You would think I was asking him to mow the lawn naked. He hates to read assigned English books or write English papers. He is a big procrastinator on that. Spanish is OK as long as it is just memorizing. He definitely will not go to a school with a language requirement. </p>
<p>I have been gearing up for this college search for 2-3 years reading books, searching Internet sites and talking to people. He and I just started working on this together. We get together every Sunday and talk, read articles and look at web sites. He is meeting with some admissions people as they come to his school. We also have two college fairs coming up. Spring Break we will start looking at schools probably in the Atlanta area such as Georgia Tech, Emory and Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>Thanks again for your comments. Weâll all be together on this journey. First stop PSATs.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thanks for my laugh for the night! My junior does like to read, but my 8th grader hates it, and has the same reaction when its time to do his 20 minutes of nightly reading.</p>
<p>Just finished a great 2 1/2 discussion with S on his college thoughts. Amazing. We started by doing the âTemperment Profileâ on this website. It got us talking about his likes/dislikes. Then filled out âMy Game Planâ on Naviance which identified some other good talking points. In my spare time I made a list of things he needed to think about when choosing a school (How important is the schoolâs prestige? Size? Distance from home? Outside temperature? Student Diversity? etc) He really had very few answers but finally realized how many things go into making his decision.</p>
<p>My baby is HS class of 2011.</p>
<p>We are planning our first college visit for HIM to Olin on October 25. He has visited a number of schools having three older bio siblings (and 3 older step siblings); but now it is HIS turn :)</p>
<p>The PSATs are in a couple weeks.</p>
<p>Iâm new here, so this may have already been covered on other threads. But Iâve seen a number of postings where parents mention their junior year high school kids are going to be taking their ACTâs and/or SATâs this fall. Our high school sent out a note accompanying PSAT registration information citing a College Board pronouncement that taking these tests (the ACT and SAT, not PSAT) earlier than spring of junior year was not a good idea, as test scores would likely be higher if students waited until then. But there must be good reasons so many folks here are taking them in fall/winter. Thoughts?</p>
<p>If you take the ACT or SAT in the spring of junior year, depending on other conflicts, there may not be a good date to re-take, esp if you want to apply EA or ED the next fall. Also, with one score under your belt, it tells you if youâre in the âballparkâ for schools. In my opinion, unless youâve got a great hook, no need to spend time or money visiting schools if the scores are below what the school ordinarily admits.</p>
<p>I do think that in general, the more classes under a studentâs belt, the better he or she will do on the tests, particularly if those classes involve lots of reading and writing. I think that is why traditionally, most juniors donât take it for the first time until the spring. The problem, as missypie pointed out, is it can get hectic if the student wants to retake, and has AP and SAT II subject tests to take in May and June, and might want to apply places EA or ED the next fall.<br>
You and your student need to decide what makes the most sense in your particular situation. My junior is taking it in October because he just finished working with a tutor this summer, and she pronounced that he was âready.â He will do any retake in the winter or spring, and then hopefully be done.</p>
<p>^Same route and rational as SDMom for both D1 whoâs now a jr in college and for D2 whoâs a jr this year. Both prepped and did/will take the SAT in Jan/Oct with a retest in the spring if necessary. The end of jr yr and beginning of sr year are extremely busy. And I like the idea of kids having a solid score at the end of jr year so that they can develop a reasonable list that summer and be ready to apply in the fall. The knowledge gained by taking it later is more than offset by the logistics IMO.</p>
<p>p.s. This year for the first time, our HS has actually moved up their SAT prep class to fall with the first sitting offered in Dec. Theyâre finally getting it!</p>
<p>Your high school has an SAT prep class? Is this pretty common?</p>
<p>Cooker,</p>
<p>I believe a lot of people are taking earlier than suggested to get more chances in case the student does poorly on one of tries . Right now my D is starting online courses for the tests so we can judge where she is. Our plan right now is take the Jan/Feb set for SAT and ACT.</p>