<p>Letters of recommendation are going to be a tough one for us. S is a very quiet, fly under the radar type kid. He had to ask for 2 letters for a summer program; I didn’t see one, but the one I did see was awful in that it was very generic and not at all personalized. This from a teacher who we thought liked him and knew him best. It didn’t hinder his acceptance to the summer program, which is not that competitive, but won’t do much for college. I think he will have to ask the college counselor if she can offer any suggestions.</p>
<p>I looked at the Compass list of schools that require SAT II’s. It does say at the top that you need to check the individual school’s website for more in depth info. I was surprised to see RPI on there, but they only want SAT II’s for ‘accelerated programs’ and will take the ACT with writing instead. Small moment of panic averted; he’s not taking any SAT II’s!</p>
<p>D is debating whom to ask for recommendation letters. Her Math teachers love her and would write good ones. But, both from the same department wouldn’t be good, right? She is in AP Bio right now - but doesn’t like the teacher (she doesn’t teach apparently). Her Bio teacher from sophomore year would willingly write her a recommendation and it would be good - she’s leaning towards asking her or asking her AP Pysch teacher to write one.</p>
<p>When do kids approach the teachers? Before the end of junior year? Do you ask them, give them a resume and then touch base with them again in the beginning of senior year for the letters?</p>
<p>My kids have either asked during spring of junior year or at the very beginning of senior year. Our area is really laid back when it comes to college admissions so they have been far ahead of their classmates in making requests. I think it is a big help to ask early so the teachers have more time to write the letter plus aren’t burned out. Also, my kids have always written thank you notes and brought a homemade goodie. While not the motive, I think they’ve built up a reputation among the school staff for being appreciative of the extra effort. </p>
<p>Our RGLW (really great letter writer) has a form she has the kids fill out. (I love your abbreviations, Slithy!) One of the things she specifically asks for is for the kids to describe something they think they have done really well in her class. For a quiet kid I think including some details like that in a written resume is helpful. Mine have sat down and discussed the form, including specific things they’ve done in the class, with the teacher. It works really well.</p>
<p>LuckyBoy’s school has a LOR system------in May the kids fill out a request form for the teachers, the teachers are given all the requests and choose which to accept, the kids are notified, the kids fill out their “resume,” the teachers can use the resume info in addition to what they already know, etc. </p>
<p>The school makes extensive use of all the various Naviance features, so that almost everything is done online :)</p>
<p>Naviance does have a resume feature for the kids to fill out, and they can ask their teachers online to do the recommendations, but our GC have told the kids they should ask the teachers in person for the recommendation, and print out the resume and hand it to them. </p>
<p>My S is dealing with this right now. He just asked this year’s AP Physics teacher and last year’s AP Euro Hist teacher for recommendations for a summer program he hopes to participate in. Hopefully asking for the recommendations now will pave the way for them to do college recommendations later. I think in general junior year teachers are preferred for college recommendations, but we think last year’s teacher will give such an exceptional recommendation that S is going with him instead.</p>
<pre><code>I think one Humanities and one Science/Math teacher is nice, but my guess is its more important to have teachers who will write strong recommendations (if possible).
</code></pre>
<p>KLucky, wow, your HS is extremely well organized!</p>
<p>Ours is the usual, everybody is on their own for LORs. Every year I hear about kids who failed to apply to rolling or EA/ED schools because they didn’t get it together in time for teachers to write LORs. </p>
<p>D2 will have her AP Bio teacher write one LOR even though it was a soph year class. She had him for both regular and AP Bio, has written LORs for summer program applications, and she is planning on being his AP Bio aide during sr year. The other will be her AP USH teacher who is highly sought after since she writes great recs, kids have to ask her by April because she gets so many requests that she has to limit them.</p>
<p>About the number of SAT IIs, GT is the lone school that still requires 3. Luckily it’s not on D2s list ;).</p>
<p>I thought Gtown was down to being the only one still requiring three subject tests. It’s not on the list here either, but it will be interesting to see if they drop to two tests for the upcoming class.</p>
<p>Well, in his soph. year my S was choosen to work, with his Fresman History Teacher and one other student on a big school project . This teacher also leads Model UN which my S participates in. So this teacher is an obvious choice. We told S at the beginning of this year that he would need one other rec and to do what he could to make sure at least one of this years teachers got to know him well. Ends up his physics and eng teacher both like him a lot so he will pick one of them.</p>
<p>S has looked for a job in the past, without much success. Last summer we traveled for the month of June and he had football from mid August on so that limited the possiblity of summer work. During the school year he is involved in enough EC’s and has enough homework that we don’t really want him working. Currently I give him $20 just for breathing. The $20 just about covers snacks after school with friends, etc. I give him extra money if he is going out with to the movies, a sports event, etc. He never asks for more money so I assume he has enough. </p>
<p>I am really hoping that he lands a summer job this year. I would like him to start saving for college (not that I expect him to contribute much, but he should have some skin in the game so to speak) and want him to learn more about how to budget “his” money. </p>
<p>So what are others doing? I don’t get the feeling that many have kids who are working, where do they get spending money and how much? As reference S, we live in the burbs but S takes public transportation to school in the city. So he is not a few minutes from the house after school. He can swipe his ID to get a snack from the vending machines but likes to walk to a nearby supermarket with his friends.</p>
<p>Mamom, my S (and D) are also in MUN and I did think of the MUN teacher my son has had 2 years now, currently and freshman year, but for the other teacher, I’m not sure. His math teacher is moving out of the country after this year. His AP Chem teacher likes him a lot, but he has not performed as well in AP Chem as he did in regular chem. He loved the regular chem teacher. Well, we’ll have to see. Maybe his Physics teacher nest year will be a good fit, even if they do not know him for the whole year, my son is very outgoing and his teachers tend to get to know him early on. (So unlike him when he was in elementary school.)</p>
<p>My S is getting a resume together to see if he can line up sound engineering jobs. He is looking at becoming a recording/audio engineer and has some good experience from church on a very good sound board. He is hoping to get some sort of gopher job at the local professional recording studio or maybe a back-up/internship for the local summer fair that does concerts every night of the fair. The fair would be only 3.5 weeks but it would make his day to get a job doing sound there in any capacity.</p>
<p>LuckyBoy will be only working for two weeks this summer, at the science/engineering camp for gr 5-8 at the local flagship. He attended the camp when younger then spent two summers “assisting” without pay (too young). He should (please God) finish his Eagle project this summer. Marching band camp is the last two weeks of summer vacation. I have a dream that essays and the Common App will be worked on…</p>
<p>entomom, yes, the school IS incredibly well-organized! We are so blessed that he was accepted and with a large-enough merit scholarship that we can afford the tuition. My '13 daughter’s school (hers is coed, his is male) doesn’t seem as organized, at least yet, and it has double the number of students.</p>
<p>It’s nice that schools are dropping down to two required/recommended SAT II tests.</p>
<p>AG,
A sr year teacher might not be the best idea, particularly if your S is applying to any schools early or rolling. I guess it also depends on when school starts for you too, ours is early Sept and that doesn’t give much time for Nov 1 deadlines.</p>
<p>Mamom, We do not give our son allowance. He earns money by watching the neighbors dog fairly often. This summer he plans to work on a couple of computer related things that should earn him a few hundred dollars and plans to teach himself a new computer language and he’s got to get his hours in so he can get his license. We live outside of a small town (no public transportation) so he takes the school bus, next fall he’ll drive himself in and will need to use his own money for gas. Son is a spendthrift (just like his older siblings) so he pretty much saves whatever he gets.</p>
<p>AtomicGirl, I wish your S luck getting a paid job as a sound engineer. My H graduated from Berklee and I am little familar with how difficult paid work is in that field. (H is now an IT Manager) As for teacher recs I agree with entomom that your S should get a teacher who knows him now. I wouldn’t worry about getting a teacher from a class he is doing well in as much as a teacher who will write a good rec. The AP Chem teacher may fit the bill, if s/he believes your S is motivated, works hard, etc. The Math teacher could also work even if they are no longer employed by the school. The teacher should be willing to provide your S a mailing and email address, but I would have a backup just in case that falls through.</p>
<p>Planning for the summer is "stalled’ right now until we know if our student will be on the jr national team…
if that happens, then our student will have only about 2-3 weeks before that–and will probably do more community service work–Last summer our student did more than 200 hrs for a charity.
So if the Jr Nationals works out–its 2-3 weeks of work at the charity, most of the summer with the team, then home for a couple of days before we are away with the MiL for a 10 day trip (and I hope summer reading will get done at night).
Then we are back about a week (to get summer reading finished) and school starts again…with tests on summer reading the first 2 days…There will be extensive reading for English, History etc…</p>
<p>So I guess in those 2-3 weeks there will be also work on the essays?
Where on earth will the time come from?</p>
<p>mamom, my S worked at a fast food place last summer (hated it!), but this summer has a 6 week college program, so he is off the hook for working. He rarely needs money for anything, except an occasional video game, and he saved most of what he made last summer.</p>
<p>D is going on one last college tour this summer so she will probably miss out on summer employment. Though she will still do some volunteer work to keep busy. Two more colleges to scope out, and then her first real college interview at Scripps. That will be the beginning of the final lap</p>
<p>I just registered D (late) for a the SAT subject test for US History. Looking at the school calendar - it’s the same day as the high school spring musical, for which she is crewing. Fotunately, the first show is at 2:00, so she should be ok. But then I started to sign her up for the June SAT - and it’s the same day as the mandatory Spring Choir Concert In The Park (mandatory for everyone in the advanced choir) which starts at 12:30. You would think they would take these things into consideration. I’ll have D check with the Choir Director; hopefully her group won’t be up first and she can dash over as soon as the test is over. As if there’s not already enough stress.</p>