<p>Thanks All!</p>
<p>He will certainly stick with Latin as he enjoys it and it has sparked an interest in Linguistics. Upon reflection, I just think he should pick up a modern language too. </p>
<p>I look into Concordia and prices of tutors in our area. </p>
<p>I won’t approach him on this for a while – summer reading is weighing too heavily without me adding something onto his mind.</p>
<p>I just found this awesome site! I am the proud mom of a 15 yr old son. He will be starting 10th grade next month 
He’s very smart (3.78 gpa) but could be better if he applied himself. His entire life he’s had 2 interests: Zoology (wants to be a big cat worker in a zoo) and video game design. We’re just starting to think about college—University of Colorado-Colorado Springs is his current favorite. Why does he want/need to go out of state when it’s so much more expensive?! I’ll be hanging around here reading about all the driving issues, etc. My DS has his permit and gets his license when he turns 16. YEAH!!!</p>
<p>Welcome terinzak!</p>
<p>I love this site & have become quite addicted.</p>
<p>Perhaps someone can tell me how my son’s ECs are looking so far. I’ve sttressed to him that he should be well rounded…</p>
<p>varsity Soccer 2009-2010, 2010-2011
Varsity Basketball 2010-2011
Varsity Baseball-(Team Manager) 2010-2011
Academic Decathalon 2009-2010 (Won 2 Regional Awards)
2010-2011
Stage Manager for Chapel 2010-2011
Volunteer work at Boys/Girls Club, etc…</p>
<p>He needs leadership still…any ideas?</p>
<p>Team Manager can be consider leadership and you may find plenty of opportunities as he gets older and mor einvested in the ECs - leadership roles typically go more to the older students so he should focus on the things he loves and do them well.</p>
<p>His ECs look fine - and as long as he is enjoying everything that will come through in applications. Well-rounded only needs to be true if that’s what he enjoys. My older D who will be heading to college next month had ECs that more defined her but were not necessarilly well-rounded and they didn’t hurt her in admissions as far as I could tell. :)</p>
<p>I suppose this whole space is really about college admissions and I am so glad that you guys are mainly worrying about tests and ECs…but what about a really different issue for the parents of rising sophomores? are any of you mothers of girls who have had the almost instantaneous transformation from gawky geeky tween with braces to “god-dess” at least in the eyes of teen boys and young men? My biggest worries right now are what to do with a woman-child that, it seems, in the space of a couple of months went from little girl who annoyed big brother by hanging around him and his friends to to having those same friends follow her with their eyes, strange young men come up to her at the mall and offer to buy her movie tickets, men drive behind her as she tries to walk home from school, boys who can’t get her cell phone resort to the land line and call and hang up, repeatedly…leave suggestive messages on facebook (We had strong controls but friends have not been good friends sometimes)… friends of friends call in favors to be introduced to her at the neighborhood pool…Even on our holiday in Europe, young men came up to us and offered to take her to see the sights of Madrid …at night! …alone!..she still has the braces, but it as if she went from gawky to gorgeous in the blink of an eye…I realize that getting her into college is not going to be our biggest problem…it is keeping her safe but also grounded and focused on her future when suddenly the whole world is telling her she is sexy, beautiful and desirable…As a very ugly,small and geeky duckling until college when I became conventionally pleasant to look at young woman …I just don’t know how to handle having a really, really good looking young daughter (think Penelope Cruz if Penelope had better legs and played field hockey and earned straight As–she takes after my husband’s side of the family). We almost are praying for a 3 year acne attack. So far we only see hints of the problems we may yet see (some arrogance and attitude has poked out recently) Any other sufferers? Any survivors?..Any advice?</p>
<p>No advice from me, sorry. Am not looking forward to this with my DD’15.
Do not wish for a 3 year acne though, my DS’13 is having problems with his complexion right now, nothing major but for him it is a DISASTER ; He also wishes he had a girlfriend.
Am finding out that nowdays having a boyfriend/girlfriend is different from when I was at that stage. DS worries (in words mostly, but at least he is talking to me) about being socially akward, having issues as far as relationships with people go, etc. To me this is a varbalization of normal teenage worries, trying to fit in within the group etc. Being very smart does not help at this stage. But from my perspective, he is doing very well, different friends for different interests etc. He is a clown, which helps him fit in.
And he would kill me for writing this…;)</p>
<p>To fineartsmajormom: Hmmm… D’10 had a similar transformation but in her case, I think it just scared boys away. She has always been a little aloof and once she became “gorgeous” I think it was just too much for HS boys. And she is REALLY picky when it comes to boys, because she can be. Because older men were always attracted to her, we had a “one up, one down” policy - she could only go out with boys one year older or one year younger. She ended up dating the same boy for 3 years, only to break up at the end of senior year. She turns 18 today and, as she has said, she is on the “free market.” Hey, we got her this far!</p>
<p>kelowna - a good dermatologist can be a lifesend at this age - my D13 has often struggled but our dermatologist has helped make a remarkable difference. She too is truly blossoming but is also very headstrong and takes no prisoners so often intimidates boys. She gets bummed when al the boys seem to like the “girly” girls whereas she will never be the giggly flirty type but will always have her own style and strengths. It’s hard on either end of the spectrum - too popular or not popular, both can bring angst. Well just about everything of the teen years can bring angst and I don’t think navigating it once already will necessarily help with my second one either - each one has their own obstacles to navigate!</p>
<p>My second is a girl and I can already see that it will be tough ;)</p>
<p>Funny morning.
DS is at the camp, living in dorms. We get the call at 07:05 this morning. His dad answered. Questions about doing laundry. They both talk quietly, I pretend that I am still sleeping. But I was dying of laughter listening to my DH explaining how to do laundry to DS. First call ended when they both decided he needs to run to 7 Eleven to get some laundry soap. Another call 10 minutes later. Laundry detergent has been purchased, now how to set up the machine 
Two calls later they gave up and "woke me up ".
Well, at lest DS is trying to stay clean, right :)</p>
<p>Just wanted to bump this up for us 2013’s. My DD too has transformed to “gorgeous”, but is frustrated by her inability to “flirt”. I’m secretly thinking “good, let’s keep it that way”. Of course, I tell her to just be herself, listen to what the boy says and respond appropriately, and if in doubt ask them something about themselves as everyone likes to talk about themselves. Oh to be 15…</p>
<p>On the more positive side, she’s thinking about engineering and we are looking at engineering “camps” for next summer. Any ideas?</p>
<p>I don’t know about engineering camps, but the S of a friend did an engineering program at RPI one summer (week?) and one at Brown (week?) another summer. He’s going to VA Tech for mech engineering in the fall (actually later this month!)</p>
<p>I had a long conversation this weekend with a friend of my D’s who just graduated from HS and is going into nuclear engineering (RPI). Gave me some good insights for my S, who I think will go the engineering route (he’s class of '13). Talked to him about classes, APs, clubs (we have a top robotics club, which is a must!), scholarship opps, opps to shadow at an engineering firm, etc.</p>
<p>This is not my area, so I’m interesting in learning about prepping for engineering too.</p>
<p>My S will likely be traveling in Israel next summer, then playing tennis the rest, so no engineering camp for him!</p>
<p>My D off to UVA in just 3 weeks is an engineering major - planning on mechanical. She didn’t do any camps because she was fortunate to have engineering options through her HS but we looked into quite a few - there are some at Cornell, Va Tech, one in Cincinatti, OH (cannot recall name of program). For girls there are also many women in engineering programs but I had many links at one time and will see which ones are still active for possibilities. Usually though google helps a lot with this one and now is the time to start checking for camps for next year because I found many had deadlines or applications much earlier than when I started looking! I’ve also heard good things about the one at Rose-Hulman.</p>
<p>Now if anyone knows anything about good photography camps/programs that don’t costs an arm and a leg, I’d love to know about those for my 13er :)</p>
<p>My daughter went to Rose-Hulman’s Project Catapult last summer as a rising senior. She absolutely loved it. She met lots of new friends, had adventured, worked on a terrific project, and did a bit of growing up.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt University has an Engineering 101 summer program that is new this year [2010</a> Session 3 | Vanderbilt Program for Talented Youth | Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://pty.vanderbilt.edu/vsa/courses/2010-session-3/#engineering]2010”>http://pty.vanderbilt.edu/vsa/courses/2010-session-3/#engineering)
The Med School 101 & Law School 101 courses are pretty well regarded so I’d expect the engineering one to be in the same vein.</p>
<p>D’10 moves into her dorm on Sunday; D’13 can’t wait to have the bathroom to herself so she can strip it down to the minimalist look that she prefers (i.e. no curling irons out & only 3 bottles in the shower.) D’13 gets her schedule this Wednesday and she’s looking forward to seeing which teachers she has. She’s trying to knock out her math summer packet today & then needs to read Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Only 9 days left of summer for her.</p>
<p>Thank you for the great engineering ideas! I knew about the Cornell program, but not about the others. We will definitely look into them for next summer. Thanks!!</p>
<p>
Welcome to the thread. My DD is looking at working with Big Cats too, she is looking at vet school. She’s also a sophomore this coming year, but not quite 15 yet. Currently she is volunteering with a cat adoption society and loving it! One of the schools she’s looking at is Colorado State in Fort Collins, they also have a vet school. She is determined to do her undergrad at a school with a vet school. She’s also looking at UC Davis, our flagship school. Settle in and grab a cup of your favorite beverage and join in.</p>
<p>As far as the advice to mom of beautiful daughter…the only advice I gave my DD is that she should act and dress is a way that conveys she expects to be respected by those around her. So far so good, I see guys that eye her but they are always polite - of course in those instances I am there and 6’4" dad… Of course I also had to explain that there are 3 types of guys - the guys that are always gentleman, those that are always jerks, and those that take their cue from the girl. Unfortunately she will end up dealing with a few jerks in her lifetime.</p>
<p>We were in Guatemala the first week of July on a mission trip and she was told she needed to stay with a guy from our group for “protection” at all times. Her brother and a few more teenage guys on the trip were nice enough to always let her hangout, and they took care of her like she was everyone’s little sister. It was nice of them to let her do that, otherwise she would have had to hang out with mom and dad the whole time, and she preferred being with the guys (I know - shocking she doesn’t want to be with mom and dad always…). The oldest guy in the teenage group felt especially responsible for her, we called him her new big brother - it was nice that he was so much older that we didn’t worry about other things…</p>
<p>D’13 got her schedule, locker & textbooks today. Thankful that she didn’t get the math teacher we were dreading, very happy that she got the APEuro teacher that D’10 had :)</p>
<p>I don’t expect schedules here for 2 more weeks, but D is anxiously awaiting hers to see what teachers she will have. I think senior S’s schedule will not contain any surprises, there is only one teacher for each of his classes.</p>