<p>My oldest dd is in the class of 2013. She had her first college planning meeting with her guidance counselor last week. She left that meeting feeling pumped about college. She’s a solid B student but will probably struggle to get above a 3.5 because she’s really weak in math and science.</p>
<p>Anyway, she did a bunch of research on colleges and she wants to go to a private Christian university like Taylor. When I looked at the prices there is no way we are going to be able to do that- I already know our EFC and have a pretty good idea that we won’t be able to swing the costs. Her grades aren’t going to be good enough to get the good merit money so I think the private costs will be out of our reach.</p>
<p>She is going on one High School preview day in January and people keep telling me it’s too early for her to look at colleges. I say if it makes her take studying seriously than I’m all for it.</p>
<p>Whenever we talk about state colleges she gets really upset. She does NOT want to go to big a state school and I know that she’s going to need one of these as a safety school. Every time I mention that she might want to think about one of these schools she gets upset and says that she isn’t going to them.</p>
<p>I know we have several years- any ideas on how I can sit down and have a talk with her about what reality is likely to be in a few years to get her used to the idea?</p>
<p>OctoberDana: I have a Freshman and a Senior and I’m going to agree with those who say it might be too early. My Senior’s career ideas and thoughts on what the “ideal” college would look like have changed dramatically, even over the past year. If you had told me that she would end up at a huge SEC school, I would have laughed and she would have recoiled in horror :)</p>
<p>My oldest went to her first college fair at the end of sophomore year, just to get some ideas. She didn’t go to the “big” college fair until she was a junior and we started putting our feet on campuses during the beginning of her junior year. I’ll probably do the same with our freshman. </p>
<p>I’ve been surprised this year by how many of the seniors arrived at school in August without a list of schools put together, without testing completed, without thoughts on essays and resumes. Even by starting just in Junior year, your DD will still be way ahead of the pack.</p>
<p>My dd wants to visit a private college about 30 minutes away from our town on MLK Day. They are having a High School preview day. She really wants to visit and we don’t want to put too much pressure on her. I do want her to at least start giving a little thought to the types of school size and town sizes she might like. I may let her do this one visit this year. Take a break and then plan some for the spring of her sophomore year.</p>
<p>Or we may do another close college on MLK next year- just to get a feel for the different types.</p>
<p>OctoberDana: if she wants to visit and it’s close then go for it. The first school my older DD visited was a local school (that I was pretty sure wouldn’t make her list anyway) and it was a great way for her to see what a smaller campus looked like. </p>
<p>Younger DD has been on a few campuses already because of her involvement with DI, and on the 1 occasion I had to take her with us on a tour for older DD. Right now she’s trending towards smaller schools but… It’s a long time till 2013; I have to make it through 2010 first!</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s ever too early to look, to start getting a feel for it. Of course she will change a lot over the next 4 years but what she learns now will inform those changes.</p>
<p>My freshman daughter mentioned college for the first time today. She said she would prefer going to some where that she can experience four seasons eventhough she does not mind going to the local university. I said it’s too early to think about college, however, I stressed that as long as she keeps the 4.0 uw GPA with a 2400 SAT score she should have plenty of options. :D</p>
<p>I have a freshman and a senior. The freshman is sick of college talk. So I will have to post on here and zip my mouth around her. She has gone about 1/2 of the college tours with big brother and could not be less excited. Or maybe it is just the nature of a 14-year-old. I know things will change over time, but until then…</p>
<p>So LongSon is having issues with his English teacher. </p>
<p>The English teacher is new & very tough. Keeps telling the kids they are plagiarizing. Son was very upset & frustrated to be told he is plagiarizing. Son can’t understand why his “great research skills” in other classes are considered plagiarism in English. After much arguing last night I discovered the issue is really what constitutes well known facts that do not require endnotes/cites and what does require cites.</p>
<p>The teacher just doesn’t seem to be explaining it well. 90% of the class had to re-write essays, so it just isn’t my son. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of web resources that can explain when cites are/aren’t necessary?</p>
<p>Long haul, any fact your son did not know prior to beginning the research needs to be cited. That’s it.</p>
<p>If he knows a lot about a given subject he should probably take the opportunity to explain to the teacher ahead of time what he knows. However, if it is a research paper, it may be in his best interest to write about a topic he needs to research rather than one he knows well already. That way it will be clear to him and thus to her what is new information.</p>
<p>For example if a student were writing a paper on Henry Ford’s innovation, applying mass production to the auto industry, the teacher might expect that the student already knows that Ford used the assembly line and made inexpensive cars. However it is a red flag is a student begins to cite specifics ie: the numbers of cars the factories produced in a day, the cost, how Ford came up with his ideas etc, and doesn’t cite them.</p>
<p>My advice is for your boy to sit down with the teacher prior to his next research paper and explain to her what he already knows about that topic. Then anytime he uses new info he cites it. PM me if you have further questions.</p>
<p>Oh and if it is MLA there should be no end notes or footnotes just parenthetical citations. If it isn’t MLA format it really should be.</p>
<p>A freshman level HS English paper is not really about learning and reporting on a particular topic. It’s about learning HOW to research (information literacy) and the mechanics of what a research paper should consist of, including citation mechanics. It’s cumbersome, it’s not fun and everyone leaves the bibliography till the end and then they spend hours trying to recreate what they forgot to write down, and then format it correctly :)</p>
<p>While it is a pain, and she’s being tough, you have to realize that plagiarism (both intentional and unintentional) is rampant nowadays thanks to the interwebz Back in the stone ages when we were in school, you couldn’t cut and paste handwriting or typewriting. Software such as turnitin.com picks up most stuff, but this is really an exercise for them to be intentional about what they’re writing.</p>
<p>I am an academic librarian and let me tell you that most freshmen come into their undergraduate institution with very little research experience under their belts. I always tell them “when in doubt, cite.” You can’t get in trouble for citing too much, but if you don’t cite enough you could face disciplinary procedures due to honor code violations. Your DS will be in good shape in 4 years because he’s had to do this now.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your responses. The teacher is a HE fresh out of college and strict as can be. Great to me as a parent, frustrating to my son who wishes he got the other English teacher.</p>
<p>I don’t know what format the teacher is requiring.</p>
<p>My son knows a lot of facts. He can be a walking encyclopedia. This particle essay he just completed was a “persuasive essay” and Son did not do any research. He just wrote based upon his knowledge & opinions. He is going back now and finding back-up for his knowledge. If it were a strict research paper things would be simplier. A research paper would provide the hard & fast rules Son is looking to define. </p>
<p>RobD – I should have explained clearly, the problem is not the cut & paste type plag. – Son (and classmates) get that. The issues seem to be more to do with paraphasing and defining “well-known facts.” I do agree RobD that he will be good to go in the long run! Right now though he has gone from little citing to citing every sentence – hoping we’ll find a happy medium before the term is over.</p>
<p>historymom – I’ll see how this next draft goes and if I can’t understand what the teacher is refering to I’ll pm you.</p>
<p>My struggle is just getting enough info out of son to comprehend the situation.</p>
<p>1 more day left of winter break, and DD#2 starts her 2nd semester of Freshman year. By next week, the GC’s at her school will begin working with them to register for their sophomore classes. Yikes! The state of TN is changing graduation requirements beginning with the graduating class of 2013 so although my oldest is graduating this year, I feel like I have to learn the ropes again for #2. </p>
<p>Not expecting any surprises in the scheduling; not a lot of wiggle room during 10th grade here, especially since they’ve added a few more requirements for graduation.</p>
<p>Happy news to report on DS2’s national chess tournament. Both his team and himself individually finished in the top three places nationally! This “Christmas present” certainly more than made up for his losing the senate race.</p>
<p>I am also jumping in here for 2nd D, (oldest is class of 10), who is a completely different kid from her older sister so I’m not sure everything I’ve learned with oldest D will help with this one but we’ll see :)</p>
<p>She’s an arts/theater/photography lover and I see her ultimately choosing a career with that bent. She’s an avid reader, great tester but tends to view school like I did (a rather time-consuming nuisance ) Doesn’t help that I said screw it and figured out how to graduate early at 16 so she knows there are options over and above what GCs mention. We’ll see what happens!</p>
<p>I’m not really bugging her except that her grades do matter but I don’t demand As with this kid. Her older sister is just a natural student and a hard working one at that whereas younger D is much more self-centric and laid back student.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to getting to know everything - and see many familair faces from the class of 10 board!</p>
<p>LOl - nope it’s their class years which hopefully won’t change In fact, youngest ('15) turns 13 in just 5 days when I officially become the mom of 3 teenagers :)</p>
<p>Need to rant. Why oh why does my child do this thing where she has perfect grades up until weeks before it really counts? First Q straight A’s, coming up on end of second Q or semester grades which are reflected in GPA, they start dropping.</p>
<p>Arggggh!</p>
<p>Welcome Momof10of13of15 and grats, PaperChaserPop!</p>
<p>p.s. Longhaul - your son’s English teacher sounds much like my daughter’s.</p>
<p>My dd went on a college discovery day today. I kept telling her that she didn’t have to do this, and we could wait until next year. She said she really wanted to- so we went.</p>
<p>She did feel a little awkard as she was one of, if not the only freshman. There were some sophmores and juniors but it was mostly seniors. I couldn’t believe how many seniors still hadn’t decided where they might like to go…</p>
<p>Anyway, overall she said she felt a little uncomfortable because she was younger than most, but she took away some thoughts of what she liked and didn’t. It will be a good frame of reference for her for next year when we start the serious visits towards the end of her sophmore year.</p>
<p>Also, one parent made the comment to me that she wished she had started earlier with her daughter and that it was smart to start younger- I thought that was an interesting observation.</p>
It’s a long time till 2013; I have to make it through 2010 first!</p>