<p>Finally got S’s PSAT scores last night. M up, W down, CR the same. As I said before, he’s in no danger of qualifying for NMS; I was just glad to get them before Feb. like last year. School held a “PSAT Night”–basically a presentation by Revolution Prep. Mercifully not a hard sell, but also not particularly informative. He was doing the ACT online prep, but I think EC’s are getting more interesting.</p>
<p>Half day tomorrow before break. S wanted to skip the day because “they won’t be doing anything.” Good–go and have an easy day. This is the kid who took the Armed Services Vocational Assessment because it got him out of class.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that the scores are trickling in.</p>
<p>Day 2 of vacation. D2 is off to camp for a week, D1 is stuck at home for now with her parents. I’m insisting that she do some chem every day so that she’ll be ready for finals after vacation. We went to see “The Blind Side” last night (the book was better), and the spouse and I went to see “Precious” last weekend. I love films that make us look like the best parents in the world. :)</p>
<p>SlithyTove - I took my D to see Precious with me, and felt the exact same way: See, I’m not so bad!! My D is very happy just sleeping and relaxing over break - fortunately, she got her exams over with before break. Now I am looking forward to the first semester report card which we will see in mid-January - she is sending her transcript to colleges she is having conversations with regarding recruitment, and obviously this past semester will be the most relevant to them…It will be very interesting to get their feedback, and to see if some of them “drop” her based on academics…interesting but stressful too!</p>
<p>So envious of everyone. D will not get her PSAT until Jan, when all the students do a one on one with their counselor. Oh well.</p>
<p>Chilling out on vacation. Las Vegas is the place for bargains now. A couple of weeks after our reservations were made, the hotel upgraded us at no extra cost from our hotel room, to a two-room suite in their classier property (people who know me know how funny that is ) When we got here figured out why, business way down, and the people who are here aren’t gambling as much. Great Deal on the buffet too. 38$ gets you breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet. But will only try that deal once</p>
<p>Happy Holidays everyone! D is at school - last day today. Full day, although I suspect they won’t do anything much. She was busy baking cookies and making goody bags for all her friends yesterday.</p>
<p>I have hinted at doing some prep over the holidays - but I suspect that nothing will happen.</p>
<p>So, with the encouragement of some helpful posters here, I raised the subject of SAT testing schedule with S again and uncovered an issue that I should have thought about before, but didn’t. The June testing date, when he was planning to take the SAT subject tests, is smack in the middle of his final exams. Ugh. Prepping for finals is intense. Trying to prep for SAT subject tests in the middle of that would clearly be suboptimal. </p>
<p>After talking it through (and using it as a teachable moment - for me as well as for him - about planning/thinking ahead), he’s decided to take two SAT subject tests in January. And the SAT I, as originally planned, in March. Then we’ll see where he stands after that. With luck, he may not need the June testing date - if he does well enough that he doesn’t need a retake, or maybe decides that a fall retake is enough. I really wish they had monthly testing dates throughout the year, as they have in October-January. Not quite sure what we do if he wants/needs a retake this year, but I guess we’ll deal with that when/if we have to.</p>
<p>Accelerating the timing on the subject tests is going to impinge on the holidays a little. He’s ordered some prep books and is planning to do a little studying each day starting this weekend. But I still think it’s the best alternative. Anyone else having these problems?</p>
<p>NYNYParent,
How about taking subject tests that correspond to subjects he is taking this year? Then any prep he does for finals helps with the subject tests. Of course, he will have to also review an SAT subject test book to make sure he covers everything on the SAT test, but it won’t be an entirely differnt subject.</p>
<p>nyny,
Yes, scheduling is a pain. We live in a town that doesn’t offer all SAT sittings, so one factor is having to drive an hour for some of the test dates. D2 took her first SAT in Oct since she had time to prep this summer, but came up a little short of what she was aiming for in the CR section. The problem is, ski season takes up every Sat in Jan and Feb, March isn’t offered in town, and June she’s doing the SAT II. That left May, but I figured she’d be out of the testing mindset completely by then, so she retook it in Dec with Nov to prep (it was in between sport seasons and there were several days off from school with the holidays and inservice days).</p>
<p>It did work out OK, she got her Dec SAT scores back on Tuesday, she brought her CR score up 70 pts compared to her Oct sitting! Much relief in our house, testing is finished except for the USH SAT II in June, but she’s taking APUSH, so no extra prepping is necessary.</p>
<p>When D1 was a jr, she studied over winter break too and took the SAT in Jan, so your son isn’t alone in cracking the books instead of being out playing in the snow :(.</p>
<p>Mamom, what I’ve heard about the SAT subject tests and the curriculum at S’s school is that they don’t really match up well. So the kids at his school end up having to study separately for the subject tests (I assume there’s some useful subject matter familiarity, but apparently there’s quite a bit of separate studying needed). That said, S is now actually feeling pretty good about his ability to prep the two subject tests he’s taking in January and the possibility that he might not need the June sitting.</p>
<p>Entomom, congrats to you and your D for the good December results and basically being done with testing. Have to admit, I’m a little jealous, but there’s no way S would have gotten his act together that early. So I’m just glad we have a schedule that (hopefully) works and that he’s comfortable with.</p>
<p>Wow, you guys really are into your kids’ college prep/search. My mom is completely oblivious about it all, I do everything myself without telling her, haha.</p>
<p>Amerindian- you are probably better off for it in the long run! I wish my D took a little more responsibility and interest in the college search. She was happy to delegate the search to me.Trusts me to locate schools for her to look at etc. On the one hand I am happy that she trusts me and I enjoy doing it, on the other hand I feel a ton of pressure to find the right school for her and wish she was doing it herself. Also, I certainly don’t want to be helping her with her grad school search. Hopefully she will have the interest and skill set to do that search on her own four years from now.</p>
<p>I think I can accurately speak for my S when I say that we are both enjoying the time we are spending on the college decision journey. Our weekly get togethers to research colleges, plan college visits, and discuss the pros and cons of different schools have been wonderful. We started at the beginning of the school year researching a list of schools I had already identified as possible matches. We checked one out a week and have narrowed our list to eight great, two maybes. Over Winter Break we planned out our Spring Break trip to see five of the eight greats. We have laughed a lot and learned a lot about each other. I will look back on this time with great joy.</p>
<p>FIMathMom.
I do have to say that I have also really enjoyed the college visits with my D. It has given me alot of insight into how she thinks and it has been great bonding for us.</p>
<p>2011er here and I’ve done basically all of my college searching without a parent. Even college visits I schedule/confirm then let my parents know and they just drive me haha.</p>
<p>We are planning on scheduling college visits for Feb and Apr breaks this weekend. My thinking is to prioritize visits to reaches and matches and only visit safeties if it is convenient or I think he would be in line for lots of merit aid and a visit might help him “show some love.” I have done a lot of searching for safeties that may throw merit money at S. We will not qualify for FA but I would like to get some help paying for college. S can find those pie in the sky schools and matches. He has attended several information sessions and found that they have helped him with his choices. I think the information sessions benefit those schools who do a good job presenting so I am skeptical about his reasons for making those choices. Therefore the visits are important.</p>
<p>FlMathMom & HollieSue: I completely agree with you about the precious time spent with one’s student while doing the college tour. My D and I visited 22 colleges (completely excessive, I know, and we are surely finished!), but we really did enjoy ourselves, and have fun memories/conversations about the campuses and people seen - all in all, it was time well spent with the time together being the most valuable. I can’t believe she is already half way through her junior year…</p>
<p>wow Mayhew, she’s a junior and you’ve already seen 22 schools. People around here think I’m crazy for having seen 8 schools already with my junior D. I am impressed!!!
Because of my D’s extra curriculars and the fact that she works at a summer sleep away camp from the day school gets out until the third week in August, we will be visiting 5-6 schools the week before school starts. There are still 2 or 3 additional schools we want to look at too, but have no idea when we will be able to squeeze them in.</p>
<p>Amerindian, Jersy13, feel free to use us virtual parents if you want. Though I’ve noticed on the 2010 thread that some of the student posters have lots of great advice for the parents.</p>
<p>D1 is back from a (non-college-touring) trip to Chicago. She says she liked the cold, and wants to go to a school where it’s cold. My parents, who grew up in the midwest, think she doesn’t really know what cold truly is yet.</p>
<p>Jersey13 (and Amerindian)- Good for you. The only thing I will warn you about is to understand what your parent(s) plan on contributing, if anything to pay for college. I know so many kids who apply to schools not understanding the financial side of things (and parents hoping for big FA that doesn’t materialize). My kids are in private schools and we got introduced to “EFC” a few years ago. I was in for a rude awakening when I saw the number. My S can apply anywhere he wants, so long as he understands what we are prepared to pay. My hope is to find some great schools that he will love that will give him some merit aid. Not every great school has to have a brand name. </p>
<p>Although we have visited maybe 5-6 schools, I am impressed by those who have visited many more. I am hoping to get in 7-8 school visits in Feb and April. Maybe a couple of others if he has an odd day off and we can fly/drive somewhere in quick order.</p>
<p>HollieSue et al: Yes, we have seen so many schools, from small LACs to a big state university, and so much in between…but we have seen far more than necessary, we know!
I agree that it is difficult to find the time to see many colleges, and cover far distances. My D goes to boarding school in Connecticut (we live in FL), and we spend our summer based on an island in Massachusetts, so I feel that we don’t really have much time for exploring. As a result, we just started the whole process really early - we saw the first few colleges over her sophomore spring break, and then based our driving route to and from FL/MA on colleges of potential interest. Then, this past autumn, I went to CT twice to cover the rest of the northeastern schools she had yet to see. Phew!! I do have a joking fear though that she will end up at some random school she falls in love with that we never considered visiting…oh, the irony of my trying to be so organized - it would be funny!! I would love to hear about everyone else’s college visits/impressions, etc. There are so many great schools out there of every size in every location.</p>
My D is very happy just sleeping and relaxing over break - fortunately, she got her exams over with before break. Now I am looking forward to the first semester report card which we will see in mid-January - she is sending her transcript to colleges she is having conversations with regarding recruitment, and obviously this past semester will be the most relevant to them…It will be very interesting to get their feedback, and to see if some of them “drop” her based on academics…interesting but stressful too!</p>