Parents of the HS Class of 2013

Parents of Class of 20xx
1941

<p>Cyclone: Sounds good to me! We are not on a block schedule, we also don’t have a whole lot of options, S3 will take APUSH, AP Eng Lang, AP Bio, Spanish 3, Precalc/trig and journalism. AP Bio is the “killer” class at our school. Our only real “choice” was whether to take AP Bio or AP chem. Since this is the first time they have offered AP Chem we decided to go with AP BIo and to let them work the kinks out of AP Chem this year and take it next year. </p>

<p>Welcome Susan! S3 has watched D1 (08) and S2 (10) go thru the process so he knows a lot more than they did. He also seems a lot more interested in looking “outside of the box” .</p>

1942

<p>Youdon’tsay: sounds like your niece and goddaughter enjoyed UD. D1 is very eager for fall. One of the reasons she liked the school was the students she talked with - she thought all her communications with current students were genuine and friendly!</p>

<p>CycloneHome: sounds good for a math lover and excellent choices for applying to selective schools!</p>

<p>tx4athome: thanks. This should be old hat for you, but each child is different and if he will be looking “outside of the box” you will be seeing new and fresh colleges to make it even more interesting. D2 wants to re-visit some of the schools D1 looked at, since she said she wasn’t really paying attention (when I dragged her along) to details because then college seemed so far away. Oh well, live and learn.</p>

<p>We also don’t get many options for choosing Junior classes and do not have a block schedule. D had a choice of 3 APs and will be taking AP Chem and APUSH (did not choose AP Bio - struggled with regular bio in freshman year). To round out her courses: Honors Trig, Honors English, Religion, Spanish 3. Forget what elective she choose, could be psy. She is already thinking next year is going to be super hard. Tried to tell her she didn’t need two APs but she loves history and did suprisingly well in Chem. We’ll see!</p>

1943

<p>Hi All, Still don’t know where we are going next year :frowning: but my d’s classes were automatically assigned as they have no choices in their 5 core courses. Physics, pre-calc, english (they take the ap exam at the end of the year even though it is not an ap english class), honors or ap french (she’s taken french since 5th gr, and was thinking of adding either italian or arabic, but would have to give up an art which she refuses to do), us history (ap qualifiers are too hard and you need A’s in all 4 qtrs from freshman and sophomore year which is impossible to do at her school, and a written essay and teacher rec; after this year of incredibly hard regular euro,my d looked at the ap euro review books and tests and found them super easy which is very irritating since she would have breezed through the ap exam but she wasn’t allowed to take it since she didn’t take ap euro - although it was taught like an ap class). That is the problem in her school - the classes are always much more difficult than the ap exams from everyone’s experience, so we might fight to get in apush if she stays at the school (which we are 99% sure she won’t be). If she goes off to public school, she will be probably take all APs. </p>

<p>She also carries 2 extra arts classes - a cappella which meets at 7am daily, honors musical improv (which she might swap out for forensics, and micro/macro economics or geology and oceanography - those are half-semester courses) and model UN and model congress as part of her global scholars program. She’ll continue with her culture and education/Millennium development goals project and is going to be photography editor for the yearbook and work on the literary magazine. She’ll keep these things no matter where she winds up since that’s where her passion lies.</p>

<p>We heard from oberlin and about 64 other schools in fall and just got the nyu letter last friday as well. I’m a big NYU fan only because I love NYC. Had my d stayed on the performing arts path, that would have been her number one school, but she wants to “make a lot of money first” then do what she loves. I told her she’ll be lucky to get a job by time she graduates as the market is awful right now. Teens are funny. I said where do you plan on making a lot of money? Well, maybe be a hedge fund investor or do consulting (so I had to gently remind her she stinks at math!). I met a young man working in barnes and noble who had a degree in history with a minor in economics and literature. He went to Brandeis and works days while going for a master’s at night. He just can’t find work. And they say by time our kids graduate it might be even worse. What a shame, but as he said, he has to pay off all his loans somehow.</p>

<p>There’s a website (forget the name) where all recent grads of Harvard who are unemployed go to commiserate with each other. Many of my friends children are interning and hoping from there permanent positions will become available. Reminds me of when I graduated in the 70’s. We took what we could get. I did that and wound up staying with the same corporation for 18 years…</p>

<p>We, too, are going to the “exploring educational excellence” meeting thursday night (if the rains stop) with georgetown, duke, harvard, u of p, and stanford and then next week’s session is with brown, columbia, cornell, rice and univ of chicago. I would say my d has a slim to none chance of getting in any of the schools, but it’s a nice experience to listen and see what they have to say. Brown’s admin dir came to talk to her grade and the parents in 8th grade, and it was very enlightening and scary. Most of the schools come to our school during jr year. They are starting a new program where the college counselors take the class to visit some nearby colleges which is great. The first college visit off-site will be wesleyan when they get back in sept. They are trying to take students to the colleges to get in visits during the school year together so they don’t miss a lot of school doing visits on their own. </p>

<p>A lot of my d’s friends at the school are sick of the northeast and actually want to move as far away from this area as possible. They want to experience the real world so they are looking at places like univ of montana, idaho, etc. Don’t know how some of these kids will survive having grown up in the lap of luxury (not us, them) but they feel the people in the town they live in are artificial and they are trending away from the ivyies and top liberal arts schools towards small hidden schools out west. Good for them for realizing that where they live and go to school is NOT reality.</p>

<p>Off-topic here: Does anyone know how GPA’s are calculated? I’m hearing different things - some say leave out the arts, some say leave out all electives; CA state university said they drop all +'s and -'s so A- becomes A or B+ becomes B. Some calculate everything and the colleges just drop what they don’t feel is important. In our school they grade in 4 quarters, then 2 semester grades and a final grade. So do you just use the final grade to calculate your gpa for the year? Our school does not rank or calculate gpa so when my D tries to do a profile on college board it is very confusing. Do you just put in the current year? Then keep updating it yearly? </p>

<p>There’s also a college counseling website called great college advice; and if you think college confidential is bad, stay off this one! The kids that write in are panicked about great grades, gpa’s etc. (and some take college classes along with their regular classes), and the people that give the advice (college counselors) make you feel even more depressed. here’s a sample link: [Educational</a> Consultant and College Planner | Great College Advice | Calculate Grade Point Average (GPA) with Percentages](<a href=“How to Calculate Your GPA–Letter Grades and Percentages | Great College Advice”>How to Calculate Your GPA–Letter Grades and Percentages | Great College Advice)</p>

<p>My d is getting more and more turned off by this whole competitive process and doesn’t even want to hear the word college anymore. I second that, and I’m just plain drained from years of worry. Que sera, sera at this point.</p>

1944

<p>cyclonehome (actually sounds like what my house looks like at the present moment!) just curious about how your D will take pre-calc and AP calc AB simultaneously. Wouldn’t she need to do pre-calc, then calc in order to advance to AP calc AB? If she’s able to do AP calc AB, why bother with the pre-calc - sounds like she’s a math whiz. We have so many levels of math - regular, accelerated, honors and then after honors you can advance to ap math courses and then there is one very high level math course that is Stanford U math. The girls merge with the all boys school for all classes in high school, and generally in the stanford u class it is usually 3 boys and if lucky 1 girl. It is super hard.</p>

1945

<p>The roadshow last night was helpful! He added another reach to the list (oh, great), but he ruled out one school because the city is too big. So, no super-huge cities? Check. Also, he saw many sophomore classmates in the crowd, which I think was helpful in terms of knowing it’s really not too early to start thinking about these things …</p>

1946

<p>medavinci - with their block scheduling, she will take the precalc in the fall and then ap calc in the spring. The school has precalc as a prereq for the ap calc so she has to take it first. The bad thing is, she will then be out of math courses unless she wants to back track and do college algebra. I guess I’m going to have to convince them to let her go to the cc for math her senior year. I just wish she loved science as much as the math as her school offers a lot of science.</p>

1947

<p>cyclonehome: S2 took AP calculus AB as a junior, our school didn’t offer BC and because of his sports (which playedand or practised in the afternoons and evenings) CC math would not have worked so he ended up taking regular Statistics, which was really a waste of time.</p>

1948

<p>Thanks for the info on “Educational Excellence” or whatever. There were two meetings Sunday in Chicago area, and we took a pass. We kept calling it the Brown Rice meeting. Welcome to Susan. </p>

<p>D13 wants to revisit a school, even though she was “present” when we visited with S10. A lot changes in three years in their field of vision, like going from the back seat to the front seat of a car.</p>

1949

<p>DS just got his schedule. We’re doing 2nd year German at the local community college. At school he’s taking AP Environmental Studies, AP Computer science, Pre-Calc, Eng, History (we’re not doing AP for those this year), and computer design (fulfills the UC/CSU arts portion).</p>

<p>We are gearing up for college visits in the early fall, as DS will be staff for summer at the local Boy Scout camp for the summer</p>

1950

<p>S’13 took his placement test for community college this afternoon. Let’s just say he was a little underwhelmed! He scored a perfect score on every section but college algebra. I have told him not to get too cocky - the SAT is going to be a wee bit tougher. He’s taking Macroeconomics this summer so he won’t have to take it senior year. If he takes government at CC next summer - he’ll get out of school an hour early. To him, that’s a fair trade. (we’re making him pay the CC cost himself).</p>

1951

<p>Youdon’tsay: is it worth going to the roadshow? The weather here is bleak and foggy; it’s been pouring for 2 days but letting up a bit now. My D unfortunately can’t go as the meeting is 7-9:30 (did it get boring?) and she’s got 3 tests tomorrow. Can the parents attend without the student? I don’t know if the meeting is geared towards the student (do they do a meet and greet or show slides? what is the content?)</p>

<p>They are cramming everything in now that the end is near. They are finishing their last book this week “Clockwork Orange” (I remember walking out on that movie when it first came out - I was that scared). They read a book every 2 weeks and do an in-class essay and then have to write an out of class essay on a particular topic given. They are also speaking Russian gibberish in class to coincide with the book. </p>

<p>My D wanted to take some classes this summer but her school won’t allow any credits in any subjects -from summer classes. It has to be taken at the school only. She wanted to take a few classes like pre-calc, physics to get them over with but it just has to be done at the school period. However, our local public school allows it, so there might be a benefit to going public after all. It’s so much better getting the class done over the summer imo.</p>

1952

<p>I go to these events with low expectations, so I’m rarely disappointed. ;)</p>

<p>One of the reps leads the session and gives an overview of how the event will work. Then the five reps take turns at the podium running through their portion of the slideshow. After that, each returns to the podium with their “pearls of wisdom” for parents and kids about the process. Then they staff their tables and people stand in line to ask questions.</p>

<p>I saw parents there without their kids so I would think it wouldn’t be a problem at all. I learned some things because none of these schools, other than Rice, was on the radar for ds1, but if you’ve already researched the schools then you might not learn much. Now, Brown and Rice are on the radar for ds2! :)</p>

1953

<p>I did go and it was stanford, harvard, georgetown, duke and univ of pa. it was pretty packed. i missed stanford’s presentation because i got there late. However, we’re not interested in them. I was mainly going for duke and georgetown. the stanford rep, imo, was rude. afterwards, i didn’t want to wait on thelong lines, so i approached her since no one had questions, and i just asked if the ap req’ts are necessary and the school won’t allow you to get into them without straight As in all quarters, should you stay in the more rigorous school or transfer to a school where it’s less rigorous but you can take the ap classes. And she nastily said “well if the school doesn’t think your d can get in the class, then you shouldn’t take it elsewhere, it just means she isn’t ready.” i said but she would have passed the ap exam easily (at least based on the test booklets); it’s the just the teacher is very tough. she just said well, if she doesn’t take the class, we will perceive that she isn’t taking the most rigorous courses at her school and walked away! can you believe it? so i spoke with georgetown, and they said you should speak to the head of the dept and school and explain the situation and see if she can get in. But I think they talk out of both sides of their mouths, because you can’t have it both ways. They said you needed all A’s and B’s were not acceptable. And a B in an AP means the course is too difficult. On the other hand, they said, if we see they aren’t making the effort to push themselves to get into the ap classes, then they are perceived as lax or unable to do the work! Are you kidding me? They will look at the school profiles they all said, and they will judge your child in his/her environment and look at what classes are offered. They also said they do not weight classes…everyone is treated equally so it doesn’t matter whether you have an ap or regular class, they first look at whether you have A’s and what your gpa is - then when they have all the high gpa’s and A’s then they look at the classes. However, they also look at extracurriculars - they are not necessary unless you are spending 15-40 hrs a week on them (who has that time?) and it should only be 1 or 2 - so you are good at what you do. They don’t want 4-5 clubs that meet just a half hour a week. That’s not involvement. It can be a sport you spend a lot of time doing and if you don’t do much, they said you can explain why like a health issue or long commute. They also mentioned lates and absences - if you are out a lot they want to know why and if you are late while you are still living under your parents roof, then what will you be like in a pressured environment. I can see their points…but I found Duke to have the sweetest rep, followed by u of p and georgetown and harvard. Of course they are all great schools and encourage everyone to apply, but it’s a slim to none chance of getting in unless you are a super achiever in every area not just sat or grades they said…Also found the fin aid packages to be amazing - giving out $130 mil in aid in most of them and a parent who makes $60K or less only has to contribute 1% of their income…and they give packages to people who make up to $180K and even to some who make more. That was a shocker to me.</p>

1954

<p>Totally not college related, but I need to brag. My son was asked to play with a local band at a charity rock festival yesterday. He has never played in public before (except CTY talent show). There were 10 performers, with Steven Adler headlining. He went on just before Adler’s Appetite, so I think this means I can say my kid opened for the guy from Guns n Roses, right?</p>

<p>Funny thing is the “rocker” kid had to haul butt from the festival to his Civil Air Patrol search and rescuing training. Talk about split personality - from rocker to psedo military.</p>

<p>I have to bask in this as all his end of year projects are stressing me out. Exams end June 9th.</p>

1955

<p>Longhaul, really cool of your S to get to play at an event like that! Congratulations to him! My D is also suffering through the last month of school with the many tests, papers, projects etc. She is ready for summer to be here! On an exciting note, however, the HOBY Leadership Seminar is next weekend and she is very excited to represent her school as an ambassador at our state’s gathering:)</p>

1956

<p>1 more week for my S…today he needs to complete his 5th German II project and an English project and Reflection paper! That should be the end of school work I hope. Tuesday is Lagoon Day, Wednesday is Service Day, Thursday is a regular school day (what can they possible be doing) and Friday is Field Day. Next year it’s on to AP English Lang, and AP US History along with chemistry and precalc…I don’t know if I can handle the stress but I know he’ll do fine :)</p>

1957

<p>My S is finishing up school as well. I’m not sure any real learning has been accomplished since state testing finished up - except in Chemistry. S was outraged that the teacher actually expected them to learn something in the last 3 weeks of school. Fortunately, they are doing basic Organic Chemistry and S is loving it. </p>

<p>He had his last award ceremony last night - it was a surprise award for him. He showed up to sing at the Senior Award ceremony and he received a State Scholar-Musician award. I think it has something to do with him being in All-State Choir, but I’m not sure. He also received plenty of “popularity” awards at his other banquets - Class Favorite, Best Actor, Choir Favorite, etc. Not sure he’ll ever win an academic award, but he continues to coast through life with his charming personality.</p>

1958

<p>medavinci - the one thing those schools are right about is that they will judge applicants based on what the school offers and if the schools offer APs but your child didn’t take them they will assume that student didn’t make the cut - regardless of what the school’s internal reasons/basings for placing students is. I think that gives you a clear answer though if you are still on the fence - while your D may be at a more rigorous school she may be penalized in the admissions process by not having taken the APs available. I don’t know however if she self-studied for the AP exams and took them on her own how that would look though.</p>

<p>We have the same issue in my area as we have one of the highly selective magnet schools, TJHSST, however I know many great students who attended (and loved it) but come admissions time they were more middle of the road in comparison and while they got good acceptances they were not granted top choice admissions. On the other hand, students who opted not to go the TJHSST route or didn’t get in and who made the most of our county’s high schools received some great admission results.</p>

1959

<p>We have just under a month left here, 3 1/2 weeks, and I know my kids are DONE and can’t wait to be out for the summer.</p>

<p>D2 is officially employed at our pool for the summer and already has her first shift assigned so she’s excited about making money. </p>

<p>She has rehearsals for the next week and a half before her annual theater class performances and then we really should be coasting in to the end of the year.</p>

1960

<p>Last full day of school today; half day tomorrow. At this point D2 has an exam this afternoon & one tomorrow and then hello Rising Junior :)</p>

<p>I’ll be “off the grid” for 10 days starting Wednesday morning so I’ll hopefully be able to catch up when I get back in June.</p>