<p>Our HS drill team director schedules mandatory rehearsals for SAT and ACT days. When D was in 10th grade, in anticipation of this year, I sent the director pdfs of the 09-10 dates…she still scheduled mandatory rehearsals on all but two of the ACT dates and all but three of the SAT dates.</p>
<p>We had a conflict the night before the psat and our student had to miss–</p>
<p>I sent the coordinator the info / link so she can plan so maybe they won’t do that to next yrs Jrs…</p>
<p>We have had conflicts with sports and SATs and ACTs…and the coaches are like
“take it another date”…</p>
<p>? excuse me but my kid will not be a pro in this sport…!</p>
<p>PS Ths Sr are “feeling their Oats” joking around about things like…
"Hey–did you get your teacher recs yet…? “Ooh yeah, thats right, we are Srs and don’t need teacher recs! ha ha”</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I would have a problem with a coach who scheduled a mandatory practice during the SATs or ACTs. The kids are scholar-athletes, not the other way around!</p>
<p>How many colleges you plan to visit before the ED date?<br>
How do you know which college is worth to visit or not?</p>
<p>We already visited 12 and D’s list is growing everyday! Seems we will have another trip this summer around New England area. Why can’t we just spend some time read thru their admission website (they all have very detailed info) or e-mail them for questions. I’m kind of tired about driving and endless tour and info session …</p>
<p>Not sure D is going to apply ED but we’d like to visit at least four more schools if possible. She’s been to 11 (three, maybe four, have been eliminated), which has meant two flights to the NE and one to the S from the NW. If she’s interested and has a realistic shot at getting in, it’s worth a visit to us. </p>
<p>Did pretty close to the same thing with D who is now a sophomore in college - flights to IL and TX - and then she chose the state U which she absolutely loves. Don’t regret any of the time we spent together looking at colleges.</p>
<p>flyinglandbird, tough to know how many schools to visit before ED. If your kid doesn’t have a clear favorite, or a handful of clear favorites, after doing a bunch of visits and looking at websites, maybe your kid will be better off applying to some Early Action schools along with RD. A growing list sounds like a student who is still considering a lot of options, not a student who wants to commit to one school above all others. </p>
<p>The students I know who’ve done ED ended up visiting their ED school 2-3 times before submitting the ED app. The parents wanted their kids to be very, very sure. Especially when the parents were full-pay! :)</p>
<p>D1 probably won’t be doing ED. Her college visits so far concentrated on looking at safeties and schools that care if students visit. She has looked at some schools that don’t care if you visit, and schools that are reaches, but they just happened to be in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>My son will not submit any applications ED, but I hope to be done with our visits before November 15th, which seems to be one of the ED dates I’ve heard.</p>
<p>We have 6 more colleges on the list and they can be bunched into three trips. We’re on the hunt for safety-match-merit aid! </p>
<p>No re-visits after that until acceptances.</p>
<p>Anyone else have tired and emotionally overwhelmed/spent kids at home?</p>
<p>I realize its the end of the yr, exams coming, end of season for sports things, and some kids have band, drama etc things getting ready for performances…</p>
<p>Our student made a comment about how certain sports PRs would affect their life,
I guess its just like these darn SATs, ACTS and gpa
…its hard on these kids when AdComs say they are looking at things holistically and we know that without great scores they may not even make the “read” pile of apps…</p>
<p>sigh</p>
<p>The GOOD NEWS though–our student won’t have a regular school final in AP Cal, AP Chem nor AP Latin Vergil…
so only 3 finals to take, AP Eng 3, Hon Physics and History…instead of 6…</p>
<p>So its a bit better for May
4 AP tests
3 SAT2s
3 regular finals instead of 6… it just means you had better be happy with semester avg since there is no final to bring it up/be weighed in…</p>
<p>Missypie</p>
<p>Next time send CCs of those pdfs (the ones you sent to the drill team director) to the principal & the head of guidance.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That would be dangerous business that could prompt retaliation against a dancer. Anyway, a girl can technically miss one of the mandatory practices if it’s for SAT or ACT, but she is placed in the back of the dance…we often use large props and in the past, girls have been placed in locations such as behind large stairways, literally dancing where they couldn’t be seen!</p>
<p>^^ I just hate when coaches penalize kids for being good students…</p>
<p>I guess if the student doesn’t know the routine that would be a reason to stick them in the back–Hoever–if they know the routine and perform it with excellence–why penalize the kid for missing a practice for SAT?</p>
<p>If the kid takes BOTH ACT and SAT–then they will miss at least 2 practices…
and I guess if they retake each test throughout the same performing/season–then perhaps there is an issue…but to stick a kid in the back for missing—:rolleyes: don’t ask me to say what I am thinking</p>
<p>Last yr a coach consistenly punished our middle schooler-- the head coach had excused our student to meet with a tutor and it was not supposed to affect anything…
an “assistant” would then punish our studnet by removing the student from the meet–because she “kept attendance”. She didn’t ask about it–she just took it upon herself…
I was sooo glad when her contract was not renewed…</p>
<p>fogfog, LuckyBoy is beyond stressed! He pulled his first-ever (and hopefully last-ever!) almost-all-nighter Monday night, finishing up a huge AP Calc problem set (all past AP exam questions, btw) that was assigned BEFORE Easter/spring break :rolleyes: Then Tuesday night while doing an AP Physics C take-home test (also past AP exam questions) he hit a major mental block, probably due to exhaustion from the night before :rolleyes: :rolleyes:</p>
<p>What has he learned? “Procrastination sucks, Mom.” :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I have no idea what finals he’ll have this year. Freshman and sophomore year he only had to take two (because the other teachers granted exemptions for those with A averages). I don’t know if AP classes have traditional finals or even if exemptions are granted by some teachers. His school doesn’t have a school-wide finals policy, unlike his '13 sister’s school.</p>
<p>No ED school for S. State flagship has rolling admission notification for instate students (no ED or EA). No other schools on list so far. He’s supposed to come up with a list by the time we meet with his guidance counselor on Monday… If he wants to go to State Flagship, that’s great but he just needs to freakin’ say that!!!</p>
<p>I cannot wait for this school year to be over. We’re having major problems with LuckyYoungest (our sweet 10yo girl)'s school. She has gotten to the “I’m so bored, school is awful, why do I even have to go?” stage, with crying at bedtime and in the mornings 
I am so excited to homeschool her for the middleschool years, let me tell you.</p>
<p>Time to get outside and play in my fruit garden :)</p>
<p>these sports v academic issues mentioned in the last few threads make my blood boil…my older daughter was thrown off of lax in junior year (not just benched) because she attended at national academic competition during a game…</p>
<p>When I approached the athletic supervisor, he supported the coach’s decision…I never pursued this further because my daughter decided that she had made her choice and would live with it…</p>
<p>But…with standardized tests, it’s in the districts best interest for students to perform; real estate values, etc…in fact, our local newpaper just published the relationship between real estate values and SAT scores across the county.</p>
<p>In this case, your school board should be notified…just my opinion…too much is riding on this…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s the perfect retaliation, and pretty much administration/oversight-proof. Girls are given their positions in a dance based on their skill level on audition day…they may vastly improve between audition and the performance, so it’s not unusual to see good dancers in the back. How in the world would the principal or school board member be able to look at 60 dancers and say that one in the very back should have been two rows up and that she is only there because she missed a class to take the SAT?</p>
<p>Missypie (& others whose kids’ coaches penalize for having taken SATs)–</p>
<p>Coaches who think they are God and their sport is the only thing in the world drive me nuts. Rodney is right abt the real estate values of the town, too. That affects the prop. taxes and they affect the school budget!</p>
<p>I know what you are saying about the perfect retaliation, etc – I have seen it in other areas, but still I think the principal, school board etc shd know it is going on. The school really needs to have policies against coaches et al penalizing kids for taking SATs/ACTs.</p>
<p>One way to clean it up wd be to have a policy: “no Jrs/Srs allowed to attend practices during the hours of SATs, etc” Period. Then they wd get a morning to study if they weren’t actually taking the test that date! : – ) </p>
<p>My d’s choir allows 3 excused absences from rehearsal/year, for sickness, etc. But an exception is made for the older kids when they are taking these tests.</p>
<p>I think the administrators of some ECs forget these are kids and these are ECs. </p>
<p>Our student missed an evening EC (we sent email ahead of time) because the next am was the PSAT.
The absence was “unexcused” and if a student got 3–they were kicked out!
The Administrator’s comment was -
-“oh , thats why there were so many JRs misssing”
! huh?
Hello!!! </p>
<p>Tuesday night our student ended up missing (my car broke down and we were waiting for a tow truck). Our student did call to let the Administrator of that EC know - leaving a msge on the cell phone as it was a late/emergency thing. No response back - however I am positive it is now an “unexcused” absence.</p>
<p>When I said something to my student --the comment back was ,
“Mom, Mrs. so-so does NOT like us. I don’t think she likes the program, nor doing it. I think she is doing it because she feels she has to…She is mean and has no sympathy for anyone…”
Says alot about a organ. that is supposed to be a big deal and an honor…Makes me feel badly for the kids who are giving up tons to time to participate…</p>
<p>Fortunately, D didn’t have to miss any practices/games due to SAT or ACT. She did take the SAT back in Nov and I believe she missed a meet then - but the coach was fine with it.</p>
<p>We are taking a few days off next week to go see colleges during the school vacation week. There are several games/practices scheduled next week. D was nervous about telling her coach she wasn’t going to be there for a couple of them. Finally worked up the courage to talk to him about it - and said he was totally cool with it. Even asked her what colleges she was visiting, what her current rank was etc. She came back home thrilled! Hopefully, all of this was genuine and there isn’t any retaliation (lesser playing time) when she gets back. We’ve had that happen with another team she was on (not a school team).</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the troubles others are having with their ECs/sports and the tests. Really, the coaches/admins should learn to give these kids a break.</p>
<p>OK, you all have hit on a BIG pet peeve of mine…coaches/music teachers/dance instructors, etc who think they can schedule everything in your S or D life and your family’s. I have seen this time and time again. Our high school is known for its sports and it’s epidemic here. I have to give kudos to the dive coaches we’ve had, and any other coaches we haven’t had, that have NOT been that way and I have loved them for it. But the most coaches seem to bully the kids into it. I see some parents put their foot down, but I wish more would. It’s true, very few of them will play pro or even in college. I don’t see why coaches and instructors for any ECs can’t get a schedule of SAT/ACT/PSAT tests and schedule accordingly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice entomom, I’ll have to see what we can work out. </p>
<p>And mamom, I hear you on the paid jobs thing. The professional studio would probably be volunteer, but I’m hoping that the county fair might be paid in some capacity, they make a big deal about employing youth and getting them involved, so we’ll see.</p>
<p>Interesting news from UC Berkeley : </p>
<p><a href=“UC Berkeley acceptances from outside California hit record high – The Mercury News”>UC Berkeley acceptances from outside California hit record high – The Mercury News;
<p>I think they will continue to increase OOS numbers next year given the budget crisis in California. My predictions are more top flight kids from CA are going to cast a wider net even if they have the stats to make it to Berkeley.</p>
<p>ok questions about these mailers our kids get—
one just arrived from a school we visited a few weeks back–(we were pre-registered to be there and then our student had to sign in when we arrived)</p>
<p>So on this piece of direct mail there is a “priority code” Does anyone know much about these codes… the first part is alpha numeric, the second part is the # for the kid’s “password”, followed by a little more alpha numeric code…</p>
<p>PS Other mail has arrived at times from schools and we have found the links didn’t work/couldn’t sign in at al…so it got pitch in the recycling bin…and figured, ok–that ones out.</p>