Parents of the HS Class of 2013

Parents of Class of 20xx
2761

<p>Must. Resist. PSAT. Thread. All this PSAT talk is stressing me out. Last night, after hearing a friend’s mom texted me that her ds thought it was hard, my ds said that he didn’t mean to imply earlier that it was easy but that he, personally, felt confident. He omitted one in the math section but feels certain that he got the rest correct. Writing and CR should be his strong suits, but he has a habit of overthinking those questions. Example: On one practice test, he got a question wrong about how to rewrite a sentence because he didn’t want it to end with “children” because the next sentence began with Children." I kept trying to impress upon him that they didn’t ask to rewrite the paragraph so how the next sentence started didn’t matter, but he is so stubborn he keeps insisting that he is correct about this. Oy vey. This will be along three months (school doesn’t tell us until after winter break).</p>

<p>Ds2 is three years younger than ds1. I wish we hadn’t had so much college talk in front of him because he internalizes things that ds1 doesn’t. Ds2 puts more pressure on himself than we do about this, and he’s more status conscious so finding safeties has been a struggle. Academic safeties are easy, but it’s affording them that’s the rub. We took him to a few college visits with ds1, and he enjoyed them for the most part. He has now visited only three of the 10 schools on his list. This winter, he’s doing a MUN competition in DC so we’re hoping that he’ll get to visit several schools there. We’re planning a West Coast trip sometime to check those out.</p>

2762

<p>SO happy the PSAT is over :slight_smile: But S still has another SAT “practice test” on Sunday.
He is feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, but knows it will pay off.
And he is thankful he chose not to play Football this year and just concentrate on Track and studies.</p>

<p>I told my husband that I have “landed my helicopter” and will no longer internalize every little thing S does or doesn’t do. Although, he does 99% of the things he needs to…just wish he would learn laundry.</p>

2763

<p>I too am trying to land the helicopter but I am experiencing updrafts that prevent landing. DD took PSAT yesterday & thought it was easy. She is so easily stressed these days that I just made sure that she had sleep, a good breakfast & #2 pencils. I’m trying to support her without nagging. So often as parents we look at things from our perspective & think how wonderful it would be for our kids to get perfect grades or perfect scores but they are kids, not robots. Maybe the perfect score is not worth the stress.</p>

2764

<p>YDS, my two kids are also the same ages as yours, and I also sometimes wish my D hadn’t heard/remembered some of the things discussed when S was looking. D isn’t as strong of a standardized test taker as her brother, and has a slightly less rigorous schedule, so will looking at schools a tier lower. But I would kind of prefer that she didn’t realize that some of the schools she is looking at as reaches were safeties for him. </p>

<p>I was ready to murder H when D recently mentioned a possible interest in a school where S had applied, and H blurted out “That was his safety school.” I gave him a look that could kill, and jumped in mentioning all the things S had liked about the school, and what D might also like. </p>

<p>She doesn’t take the PSAT until Saturday, and plans to take the SAT in Dec. We’ll know more about where to aim once we have those scores.</p>

2765

<p>This being the second child, the helicopter is just too low on fuel to make too many trips. :slight_smile: Besides this kid has a very strong sense of self. It’s just not worth it to beat your head against the wall when he is going to go what he’s going to do. It’s one reason I didn’t push the PSAT prep too much. If he didn’t think it was helping and was, in fact, hurting his confidence, then I had to respect that.</p>

2766

<p>Just realized I didn’t send #2 pencils with S3! I would have never forgot with D1 or S2. He didn’t say anything so it must not have been a problem. Maybe my helicopter is out of fuel? S3 is so much more self-sufficient than the other two!! I think the fact that he has watched his siblings go through it is quite helpful.</p>

2767

<p>D had the PLAN test as well yesterday. As both kids were leaving, my last words were, “don’t forget your calculators!”.
D FORGOT her’s in S’s car. Thankfully, the reading section was first. Then during the 5 min bathroom break, she sprinted out to the parking lot to get her calculator.
She said all she could think was, “Mom is going to KILL ME!”</p>

2768

<p>Yup…I also reminded D about the calculator and she was happy for that. When I took S to his first SAT I saw a number of miserable students waiting outside for their parents to run home and back to bring t hem their calculators/pencils or ids/entrance tickets. The next time I took sent extra calculators/pencils and S said I saved several “lives” as friends would stumble sleepily into the test room, groggily look around and then look struck by lightening as they saw calculators/pencils on desks. He was able to distribute the extras to much relief. Ditto for Math II test. A lot of kids just aren’t on their game on Saturday mornings (sorry, any morning). I taught S to pack a baggie the night before with ID/entrance ticket/etc and put at his place at the breakfast table. I hope he takes this technique forward into his new life without the helicopter but I suspect he will only remember this when he shows up to a college math final without the calculator or when he has kids of his own…</p>

2769

<p>Ds took his TI-84 and 89 to the PSAT. You just can’t be too prepared, lol.</p>

2770

<p>S2 didn’t know that you could use a calculator on the PSAT last year - so I made sure to remind him several times this year. He did not thank me.</p>

2771

<p>I sent #2 pencils. My 10 yr old even sharpened most AND packed them for her brother…He borrowed one from the school --It was easier than unpacking his backpack !!!</p>

<p>reeinaz – If you are on the NE side of the city, just name the place and drinks are on me. My boy is going to drive me mad.</p>

2772

<p>Thanks for the feedback on younger sibs. I am planning to bring S to see any schools that require an overnight, and any that may be of interest (kids are polar opposites so unlikely to find many). S who is a freshman has ADHD and including him in too many of these sessions could end up sending D to the moon. </p>

<p>D right now is rehearsing for Open Mike night instead of studying. :0). She lives in a shiny happy world.</p>

2773

<p>Hi all, D2013 and I did our first leg of college visits this past weekend. Since she’s our first and neither of us have a clue yet, it was more exploratory and trying to figure out what she likes/doesn’t like. Going in to it, she was sure she did not want to be part of a large school (ie- over about 6k students.)</p>

<p>Our first stop was University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. I will admit that I knew next to nothing about the school because I thought of it as a little commuter school in the same town my ILs live in, so it wasn’t really on ‘my’ list. What a surprise! The campus was quite beautiful and very legitimately campus-y looking. There are also over 4k undergrads there, which I also did not know. The SAT scores that they gave as their middle 50 percent seemed a little inflated to me but the link on their site to their CDS was broken, so I wasn’t able to check it out. Also, they do not have an Education major per se yet, but they do have a concentration and you can be certified at the end of four years or go on to a five year masters. Our feeling about it was positive. My D pointed out that not many people were in sweatpants but were wearing jeans. (she does not want a pearls campus!) Our tour guide was interesting and engaged. I did hear from a friend upon my return that her D was considering the school but couldn’t get past the food, so that will be something we need to check into. This school went on the list of schools worth looking at more closely.</p>

<p>Next we went to Lynchburg College. My D had been interested in this school b/c she had liked the admissions rep at a couple of college fairs she had been to. However, this school was not for her. She didn’t love the vibe of the campus, she was put off by our two tour guides (two girls who walked along talking to each other and popping their chewing gum) and it just didn’t work for her. I was fine with this, although she could have gotten merit money out the yingyang there. Off the list.</p>

<p>The next stop was UVa. Can I just tell you how much I would love to be a student at UVa. I wanted to lay on the quad and refuse to leave. I love it there. So, wouldn’t you know, D hated it. I have no idea why. It just did nothing for her whatsoever. I was kicking myself a bit because it was “Reading Days” when we went there and so the life of the college was very quiet. Even so, BAM! Off the list. Oh well. The likelihood of her getting in would have been exceedingly low and the cost high so I should be happy. I still wanna go there!</p>

<p>Last stop: James Madison U in Harrisonburg, VA. This was not a school that she particularly wanted to see b/c of the size of the school (appx. 16k UG) but she promised to go in open-minded. To our great surprise, she loved it and I really liked it too. It had a great vibe, the students seemed engaged and happy, the food was PHENOMENAL!, it has both education and social work, which are currently her two main interests. Even the tour guide, who at first irritated her by seeming too blonde and Valley Girl-ish, won her over. </p>

<p>So our final tally, as of now, is:</p>

<p>On the list, in this order: JMU, UMW, Towson.
Off the list: Lynchburg, UVa.</p>

<p>We still have many schools to go, though, including a PA leg, OH leg and MD schools.
<crossposted></crossposted></p>

2774

<p>vandygrad, my S goes to JMU and he loves it there! The food is fabulous! He lives off campus now, but we still purchase him a commuter meal plan because he can’t live without all the comfort food he has grown accustomed to.</p>

2775

<p>PSAT tomorrow. He took the practice one tonight and absolutely bombed it :frowning:
I told him to relax, he is smart, good tester, and tonight he was just tired (after pulling is PR in erging - freaking Boston is only one week away!).</p>

2776

<p>:) PSAT Today here too… My S was not preparing for it- but kind of was confident until he took the practice test yesterday which he didnt do well except for the math part- I hope he will pull it off in the real test and praying very hard he will stay confident through out…</p>

2777

<p>Just saw my DS off for the PSAT today. Although I encouraged him to do some prep, it mostly fell on deaf ears. Since the cutoff in NY is so high, NMSF is not a realistic possibility so I’m not concerned about that, but it would be nice to have a realistic baseline for SAT prep.</p>

2778

<p>My D took the PSAT on Wednesday. I was surprised that her AP teacher assigned homework that was due on Wednesday as well, even though all the kids were taking the PSAT and then were going home right afterward. My D had a volleyball game the night before, then homework to do. Ugh! She is not in the running for NMSF but I’m eager to see how she does as compared to her sophomore year- she did fine in the other areas but there was a huge difference in her math score. A nearly 100 point spread! She had not taken Geometry at that point (she was taking it her sophomore year) so I’m hoping to see some improvement for her there.</p>

<p>@blueshoe- I’ve heard next to nothing but positive things about JMU from both parents and students alike. I do know of one family whose kid transferred out after her Freshman year and went to Towson. I think I will ask them what she didn’t like. </p>

<p>When do you all plan to do visits? My D’s school doesn’t really take teacher workdays and such off, and that makes it hard to get in visits when school is in session. I really prefer to go on days when students are there, doing their thing. For this last set of visits I pulled her out of school mid-day Thursday (she took two tests early) and then she missed Friday.</p>

2779

<p>Vandygrad, thank you very much for the visit description. We are in NoVa so I know kids who go to all these schools. UVA is pretty much the holy grail around here because of cost and prestige but I have several friends who are disappointed in their kid’s education there. They say that their kids kill themselves during HS to get there and then are so burned out they kind of go through the next four years making the motions and, because they are all smart, they manage to learn and get ok grades but they are not excited or motivated in their classes. I have only heard great things about JMU and Mary Washington and we will visit them soon. I have my eye on VTech because I have heard such good things despite it being a very large school. This may be “mommy’s choice” but to sweeten the deal I plan to take her on a football saturday so she can see/feel the excitement and energy. S would have HATED the whole rah rah thing, but D is likely to enjoy that side of college.</p>

2780

<p>We are planning to take D out of school on a couple coming Friday’s to do the driving visits. I have a Saturday scheduled for one university since that is when they have open house.</p>