<p>Classof2015, you cracked me up so much! I will pack DS a bag each of pencils and pretzels then. Speaking of which, DS and I should go through the entire list to take to SAT tonight.</p>
<p>I think what your kid does depends on your kid. Your kid should not sit on their rear end all summer. A summer job is perfect. If your church has a mission trip planned and your student is led to go, perfect. Spending $5k to attend a program at a prestigious university sans college credit is not going to get you much mileage. It will be good for your student if theyâve never been away from home and can get acclimated to dorm life, etc., but as far as an admissions hook, my opinion is not so much. There are programs that will give you some mileage but for the most part taking a course from your local cc is going to give you credits and cost a LOT less. Paying a large sum of money to spend two weeks helping in a foreign country just tells the admissions office your family can afford to do so. Personally, your time is better spent helping in your own community, but honestly volunteer spots fill up very, very early, so now is the time to be considering what they want to do.</p>
<p>My S3 is looking for a job through some contacts in his EC. If those donât work out heâll look for something locally. S2 was very lucky and had a great internship with an architecture firm that summer. Theyâve asked him back every summer and break since.</p>
<p>Since your daughter loves to read, how about something through the local library. Do they offer summer reading programs for younger children that she could volunteer for? I know my kids LOVED those. Is there a bookstore nearby where she might propose a childrenâs story hour a few afternoons a week where she would come and read (so many brick & mortar stores are closing 
)? Either of those would go along with what she loves to do, and give her something to do.</p>
<p>My dd is planning on doing her girl scout gold award (like the boy scout eagle) and I am hoping it happens. Also, church mission trip and girl scout daycamp (as an aid). Band camp come soon (end of July) so that is all she has time for. I doubt we will even get in a vacation. :-(</p>
<p>Liz</p>
<p>Hi everyone! This is my first post. I have a D14 and a S16. H and I graduated from college more than 30 years ago. This is a whole new world for us. </p>
<p>D14 goes to a very competitive HS. She loves Math and Science but thinks that she is too âslowâ for STEM majors despite having excellent grades and test scores. At this time, she only has a few, small and selective LACs on her list. </p>
<p>We visited a few colleges last summer. All the UCs are out :(! H will take her to Reed in Oregon this spring break.</p>
<p>Hopefully with all the wonderful parents on this thread, I will be able to relearn a few things.</p>
<p>The options for summer are as varied as the people here on CC. The conventional wisdom is that colleges want to see kids engaged in a high pursuit in the summer months. </p>
<p>DDâs summers are usually packed solid with one of her sports and her very time consuming EC. This year will be different as she will be studying abroad for a month to polish her foreign language. Iâm sure this isnât GC ârecommendedâ but she needs a break and I think this will be a wonderful overall learning experience for her. And sometimes you just need to do whatâs right for your child.</p>
<p>DSâs main event this summer will be taking an intro physics class at the local state U where DH is a prof, the better to beef up his engineering cred. This is because due to a quirk in the way his HS schedules the IB diploma programme he wonât have had an opportunity to take any physics beyond honors level, which he did as a sophomore. School doesnât currently offer IB physics, thereâs no room in his junior or senior sched for AP physics, and no time during the school year for the virtual option. Other than that heâll have XC conditioning and CAS activities, and possibly some kind of unpaid internship/âshadowingâ arrangement at the local U. Also driving lessons (but NOT given by mom or dad!:)).</p>
<p>Sâ14 will be going to Seabase for a high adventure Boy Scout camp sailing a ship in the Bahamas. Thatâs in mid-July. Before that, heâll be finishing his Eagle project. Tennis starts in early August so he doesnât have much time. In fact, thereâs a surgery he needs that the doctor says isnât urgent but will require 6-8 weeks of restricted physical activity and we canât find that length of time between activities. He doesnât want to miss a week of school so weâre stumped on when that surgery can happen. Heâs hoping to get a part time job among all that.</p>
<p>2016BarnardMom - How fun!!! My DS has been to Philmont twice, but has not had a chance to go to Seabase. And he also needs to get that Eagle Scout knocked out. When the summer plans subject came up, I was thinking maybe I could send him off to be a counselor/instructor at the councilâs summer camp for 6-7 weeks. That would be something he would enjoy!</p>
<p>Sâ14 looked into working at one of the camps but they have to do one summer as a CIT (counselor in training- unpaid) before they could be an actual counselor at the camp he likes best. He wants/needs to make some money this summer! </p>
<p>Our troop rotates Philmont, Northern Tier and Seabase, doing one every other year, so in 6 years, the boys have a chance to do at least 2 of them. S wasnât interested in Philmont or Northern Tier, but heâs all excited about Seabase. </p>
<p>There are 4 kids left from his Cub Scout den who are all working on their Eagle rank. I was the assistant den leader when they were cubs and Iâm going to be a weepy mess at each Eagle Court of Honor as they finish. I think 12 years of commitment to something like Scouts says more about these young men than anything else they could do. </p>
<p>Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>2016barnardmomâŠDS went to Seabase last summer and had a blast! He just passed his Eagle Board of Review in December. I know exactly what you mean about each court of honorâŠall of DSâs cohort have just made eagle or are in the final stages. Good luck to your son and to yours beadymom!</p>
<p>Sailing to the Bahamas is my idea of summer fun!</p>
<p>barnardmom - how very, very exciting!! What a wonderful journey! :)</p>
<p>Would a December surgery work for your son? Would that give him enough recovery before spring tennis? S2 had a series of surgeries and after a long search we serendipitously fell into seeing the head of pediatric cardio-thorasic surgery just in time to schedule a December date. He missed one week of school prior to winter break, they had a two week break that year due to the way the holidays fell (never happens), so he got three weeks before he had to return to school. (massive restrictions, yada-yada-yada).</p>
<p>We probably need an Eagle project thread! Thatâs on my DSâs agenda also. </p>
<p>2016Barnardmom, seabase sounds so wonderful! Some of our troop have done the Florida seabase.</p>
<p>Congrats, dowagercountess, on your sonâs Eagle! It is definitely a family achievement.</p>
<p>So many Scout families⊠DS14 got his Eagle last year and currently working on his Palms (rankings after Eagle). Two summers ago, he went to the World Jamboree in Sweden and loved it.</p>
<p>dowagercountess, congratulations on your sonâs Eagle.</p>
<p>Thanks calla1 and 4beardolls. Another Eagle Board last eveningâŠDS noted with satisfaction that ânow we just need X to do his [should happen in the next few weeks] for the entire patrol to be Eagles.â Some of the group go back to their original Cub denâŠa couple including DS came from different packsâŠbut they have all been together since bridging over as 5th graders.</p>
<p>S14 âŠan Eagle Scout here as well!</p>
<p>Wow, lots of dedicated Eagle Scouts & parents! :)</p>
<p>Iâm not sure how many of you use twitter, or if Iâve mentioned it before, but Iâve found it very insightful to follow schools, admissions reps, student newspapers, etc, of schools my kids considered/are considering. I am a twitter lurker, meaning Iâve never tweeted, I only follow. I find it very informative and it gives you a different look, and often information you wouldnât get elsewhere. S3 follows the admissions reps and finds some really funny. For my S2 I follow all kinds of things for his university, but one of the most important is the emergency system, which would work much better in an emergency or disaster then email or other types of online delivery of information.</p>
<p>blueiguana, if you are finding following admissions repsâ tweets informative, then I wouldnât mind trying it. I just have to overcome some technical difficulties such asâŠI donât even have a tweet accountâŠdo you get similar information as from the college facebook? I do have a fb account. Anyhow, I would like to give it a try if it doesnât take a lot of time. As you know, even CC can be addictive and a big time commitment. :)</p>
<p>It takes very little time as I donât interact. I have a twitter app on my smartphone so I donât even look on the computer. Once a day, maybe once every few days, depending on whatâs going on, Iâll check in. Twitter by nature are short blurbs of information. Sometimes they have links, say if itâs the student newspaper and thereâs a story I want to read. However usually itâs just a good way to get a vibe on the place. Some admissions reps will lightheartedly poke fun at an app, but you get the message, and make a mental note to pass on to your kid (if they donât follow) of the types of things they find irksome. Itâs never mean spirited, but in pointing out over the top examples they can also give you an idea of what they find important, and what they donât. Personally, I like getting the headlines of the student newspaper. Itâs unfiltered and you get more of the down and dirty of whatâs going on. You have to balance what youâre reading, and whatâs not worth tossing a school off the list for, but if there are consistent issues in an area that might concern your student it can alert you and your student to investigate further.</p>
<p>The same privacy issues are at play as on fb, but very simple to set up, especially if you never tweet. Just make your account private, and make it unsearchable via your email. That pretty much locks you down as much as possible. Youâll still get people asking to follow you as soon as you follow them, or someone they follow. Itâs just spam. Click ânoâ or ignore it. Itâs no big deal.</p>
<p>I had âfollowedâ one school several months ago but never remember to go back to look at it. Obviously, I donât have it set to automatically tweet my phone! 
Iâve not gotten in to Twitter as much as FB. Iâve just done a few searches by âschool nameâ âadmissionsâ and havenât come up with interesting looking profiles. Are there some you would suggest? Especially the ones that are more humorous!</p>