I must admit, part of me would prefer that my DD pursue medicine. It’s a little bit easier to get into school and it’s seen as needed by all. But I am concerned about the latest round of legislation that was passed. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned that med students seeking federal aid will have to agree to certain specialties and locations for practice in the future. I haven’t had a chance to check it out, but it is worrisome. I don’t want to have to see a doctor forced into a specialty they are not excited about, nor good at. It’s wrong for the doctor and patient.</p>
<p>I am so excited to have found this thread! My son is a student at a Catholic H.S. in Long Island, N.Y. We have already started thinking about college and I am sure that we will learn a lot from all of you.</p>
<p>I think your description here is a little misleading. Currently there is very little federal financial aid available to medical students. Most med students finance their medical education through a combination of family support and borrowing; the average educational debt of a newly minted M.D. is somewhere around $158,000, a heavy debt burden to be sure, but then most of them make a pretty handsome living once they become doctors, so neither the medical schools nor the federal government have seen much need to offer much in the way of grant aid. As I understand it, the health care reform bill created some new streams of previously-unavailable financial assistance in the form of either grants or loan forgiveness for medical students/doctors who sign on to a service commitment, placing them in geographic areas of high need and in some cases channeling them into general practice for the period of the service commitment. No one is “forced” to participate in these new programs, any more an undergraduates are “forced” into military service by applying for and accepting ROTC scholarships. If your med student doesn’t want to apply for the financial aid and accompanying service commitment, they don’t need to do so. No one is “forcing” them to do anything.</p>
<p>Hi! I’m new to the site. I have a son in HS Class of '12 and a daughter in the HS class of '13. I joined the '12 thread a few days agoa, but I guess I should introduce myself and my HS '13 daughter. My daughter is bright and dedicated, although, I think she works too hard. It’d be ok with me if she had a bit more fun! </p>
<p>This year she is taking:</p>
<p>Honors Geometry
Honors English
Honors Living Bio
Honors World History
Spanish 2
Art
Web Page Design</p>
<p>Her EC’s so far include cross country, track, drama, Best Buddies and Peer Mediation. </p>
<p>She’s a smart math and science girl. It will be interesting to see where she ends up. Looking forward to meeting more members on CC and this thread!</p>
<p>Very funny nelieh! My DD mentioned engineering…which I then proceeded to send her a site on women in engineering and then talked about all the different kinds of engineering and then brought it up about 10 times too many till she finally said, “Mom! I only said I might like to look into it, not that I wanted to be an engineer!” Ok, I’m being quite now…</p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion about a child that’s invited into an honor society being required to attend the induction? I’m just curious what you all think about that - I guess for me, if the child was deemed worthy of the invitation, why would attendance be mandatory?</p>
<p>Required by whom? The parents of said child or the honor society?</p>
<p>I can tell you that the NHS at our HS doesn’t invite people to join until the end of junior year; it’s a senior member only society. They place a heavy emphasis on community service, as do the foreign language honor societies. Maybe the Honor Society has a CS focus & are trying to weed out those who want to join just for a resume builder vs. those who will actually participate? </p>
<p>If it’s just a conflict and your child wants to be in the honor society, perhaps an email to the sponsor explaining that there is already another commitment will help get past that requirement.</p>
<p>mnmom, I can tell you that my two olders did not participate in our school’s NHS. They did not like all the mandatory this and mandatory that encomapssed lunches, days, nights, weekends…it was more the langugage and attitude about the organization that “got to them.” My youngest is planning on applying and is not bothered by all the rhetoric. I’m not sure what has changed and if this is a national thing or a local thing. When I was in honor society we rarely did much of anything other than have a meeting now and then. I don’t eve recall hearing the word “mandatory.” I read the high school announcments once a week just to keep up with things and I’m even slightly bothered by how the NHS words their announcement items.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say that my freshman D is just about toast right now. Her teachers have been piling on a lot of end of year work, a lot of which seems ridiculous in context of the class. For example, the geometry class had a project involving tessellations which ended up taking over 6 hours this weekend for my art challenged girl. Her comment was “if I wanted to take art, I wouldn’t have signed up for geometry.” </p>
<p>Coupled with all the senior year events for D1. I think d2 has a bigger case of “end of year itis” than D1. Counting the days…</p>
<p>My DD’s school does not have a NHS. I barely remember NHS except for the secrecy of who was/wasnt admitted until the day of the ceremony. </p>
<p>Rob D. My dd completed an “artistic” tessalations project last month. I thought it was neat but fortunately she was allowed to use photo shop to complete hers. </p>
<p>Honestly, my 7th grader has more HW than my 9th. I am not sure if my 9th is just more efficient than my 7th (adhd), or if they are just not giving them much work.</p>
<p>mnmom, my D’s high school also does not induct members into NHS until the end of junior year. But if I remember correctly, when my S was inducted, there was both required attendance and attire. However, I think there was a couple of kids involved in other school sponsored activities that were excused from the ceremony. (soccer players) It is difficult to make it into NHS at her school and it is not unusual for vals and sals and other highly ranked kids to be left out. It is thought of as the highlight of your high school career and there is not any objection to the requirements for the ceremony or the responsibilities of membership. The school inducts students into language honor societies after you have achieved 5 semester A grades. Mandatory attendance is not required here.</p>
<p>RobD, my D had to draw and color a poster size family crest for world history a couple of weeks ago. She is an excellent artist, but our crest is quite detailed and it took her the better part of a Sunday to complete it. It was the end of the quarter push so there were several other tests and projects going on at the time. We are still trying to figure out what the point of that was.</p>
<p>My freshmen D is also about "toast"right now…work piled high after a fairly low-key semester. At the same time, my college freshmen D is smack in the middle of finals stress so I get to hear about that from afar. Even with all the great fun they are both having at this stage in their lives, I don’t envy that part!</p>
<p>I know its been tossed about here a time or two but are you parents having your freshmen kids take any SAT tests this year or next. Mine has finished Honors Bio and may not be taking anymore bio classes. Is Honors Bio enough to take the test? Or does the test require AP level coursework be completed? My oldest didn’t take SAT II tests so this is new to me.</p>
<p>My D will be taking AP Bio in a couple of years so she will take SAT 2 test for that later. No Sat testing at all this year.</p>
<p>My D is going to UCDavis to a MUN conference next month and she couldn’t be happier. It’s been her dream school for years now. We took her on a quick tour of the vet buildings a couple of years ago, but she will now walk the regular campus - just try to wipe the smile off her face. And she loves her volunteer job. She is learning what to look for in the cats and generally likes to be there.</p>
<p>Her load hasn’t been too bad. Since this semester started she has handled the balance of work and EC’s better, but I think a big part of that was dropping band. I am much happier now, she isn’t up until 1am doing homework. And her ballet recital is coming up and she is looking forward to it more than she looked forward to band concerts.</p>
<p>I just love coming here and getting updates from you all! Sometimes it’s the needed motivation/encouragement to get some stuff done…</p>
<p>LuckyGirl was home sick for two days and spent last evening trying to study for her world history makeup test. Tears all over the kitchen table I sent her to bed, figuring sleep would help more.</p>
<p>I can’t wait for this school year to be over! This history teacher does NOT teach.</p>
<p>lottagirlz, we have decided our D will not take the bio SAT II this year after honors biology. It has been a very busy freshman year for her and we just want to wind down the year quietly. She may take AP bio her junior year, but she already has 3 AP classes lined up for that year and is unsure if she will take AP bio, AP chem, or a second math class in addition to those. She will take the world history and math 2 SAT II’s after AP world history and trig next year.</p>
I sent her to bed, figuring sleep would help more.</p>