Parents of the HS Class of 2014

Parents of Class of 20xx
3401

<p>Portlandia: We toured Whitman last August and it’s her top choice, although Oxy may now edge out Whitman. Reed is out as it’s too close. She has a friend who goes to Willamette so maybe I can talk her into looking in Salem. We are definitely going to check out U of Puget Sound as we’ve heard great things.</p>

<p>Kees: Sounds as if the private counseling is working for you. We’ve only had the initial consultation and that was fine but I’m not sure if we’ll go back. At this point I’ve done the initial research driven by DD’s parameters. </p>

<p>I wish DD would cast a wider net, but she wants to stay on the west coast. She’s traveled quite a bit for her EC and she has formed opinions about some areas of the country that may not be valid as we always seemed to be there during the worst weather.</p>

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I love this term, Seattle!</p>

3402

<p>Agentninetynine: Good friend of mine went to Bucknell for one semester–hated it. Felt very isolated in the middle of rural Pennsylvania–especially since she was a rare west coast attendee. Transferred to U. of Puget Sound and LOVED it. She liked the fact that is was close to home, yet still small. She could take a bus almost anywhere. UPS has a good reputation here in the NW.</p>

3403

<p>I’m hoping she likes Puget Sound. Does it have good STEM classes? She really doesn’t want to stay in Oregon as most of the schools are in the valley and she is highly allergic to grass.</p>

<p>What DD needs now are a couple financial and academic safeties. She is TAG and a high achiever but her test scores may not be so stellar. Her PSAT was just okay. It’s mainly the CR that’s bogging her down.</p>

3404

<p>Spent over an hour with DD’s GC tonight. She laughed when I walked in and said she had been waiting for me because I always come by to visit on Parent Teacher night. Not one other parent came by to talk to her. It seems to work out better this way for obtaining information because she has to be there until 8 p.m. and has plenty of time to talk. She was very helpful and forthcoming. DD even joined us for a while as she was at school for the Ambassadors Program. GC gave me a lot of helpful information and said she has enjoyed her meetings with DD, however brief they are. She says she has seen how much DD is growing and maturing and is recommending her for some summer girls program. She never did tell me the name but told DD at their meeting the other day she’ll get her the paperwork. </p>

<p>I always make sure to go with a list of questions/concerns so I don’t forget anything.</p>

3405

<p>That’s wonderful, MomFullofQs! Good luck to your D on the summer program!!</p>

<p>DS received a postcard from Puget Sound today! Funny that y’all are talking about it - can’t say that I had heard of it before! I briefly looked at it - do they have engineering or is it a 3+2 program with another school? I believe it said Engineering - Dual Degree.</p>

3406

<p>Our high school GCs are useless. They didn’t know what SAT IIs were when I asked about them for my daughter. They each have 400 kids (3 for a school of 1200+) and they don’t who the kids are. They know the names of the top kids and they know the kids who get in trouble really well. They have kids fill out in an information sheet so they can do the college recs on Common App. </p>

<p>The prom is a junior/senior prom. Last year, as a sophomore, my son asked senior girls until one said yes (it took five tries!). He was friends with all of them through his sister. He really wanted to go. He loves to dance. For Homecoming last year, he went with three girls. One was his real date, the other two were her friends. He got a corsage for his date and a single rose for each of the other girls so they wouldn’t feel left out. He is quite a gentleman and is very thoughtful. He gets friend zoned a lot and gets frustrated with that. I told him to be patient and girls will appreciate him more as they mature.</p>

3407

<p>What really concerns me about guidance counselors at most schools, is that even though the guidance counselors rarely know anything about a student, they are called up on to write a summary, or rec letter, especially when the child is applying to more selective colleges. At my daughter’s current school I’m lucky. We have top notch counselors, with 50 students max. But previously, she was in a public high school and as part of the application process to our current private school, the guidance counselor was required to write a letter of recommendation accompanying the school transcript. I wasn’t really confident he would do such a good job, so here’s what I did, and I think some of you may find this helpful.</p>

<p>First of all, you have to proceed on the basis that the counselor is overworked, underpaid, has little originality, and even less brain power. So basically, I drafted an essay which described my daughter. And I didn’t just jot down bullet points about her life. I wrote a real essay. I put myself in the role of a counselor and looked over my daughters life at that point and wrote the essay in the best possible light, with the best possible spin. It wasn’t an “appeal” to the counselor to write something good. Instead, it started something like this…</p>

<p>Dear Mr. Counselor,</p>

<p>I know you are very busy, but I wanted to take a moment and write to you about my daughter, Clarise, so that you may more fully know her and be in the best position to write her upcoming letter of recommendation letter. </p>

<p>I really worked on the essay, edited it, used great language and form, etc. And I made sure to include all the positives, even if the honor or award was right there in the school record. DO NOT ASSUME the counselor knows what is in your child’s file. Also, you need to frame the language of the essay in the best possible way that a counselor could frame it. </p>

<p>Anyway, I did that and then made copies of the materials to suport the essay, such as award letters, report cards, teacher comments, and created a package. And what was the end result?</p>

<p>The letter sent out by the guidance office was one of the best letters I’ve seen, AND IT WAS MOSTLY MY LANGUAGE!!! Often times, that’s what you will see. The counselor will basically cut and paste from your essay.</p>

<p>And finally, a further note about the tone of the essay. You want to keep that in mind when you are drafting your essay that you want to make it as easy as possible for GC to simply copy your language onto his rec form. To accomplish that, you want to essentially remove the parental point of view from the body of the letter. For example, you wouldn’t write, “My little Johnny always…” and instead would write “John always…” </p>

<p>I hope that helps. Look, these GC’s are overworked. So think of it as doing them a service, making their life a little easier, by providing a pre-written letter, that they only need to cut and paste! :-)</p>

3408

<p>Beadymom, we visited Puget Sound for D11 and really liked it. It is very small and welcoming. They gave her good merit aid. </p>

<p>The engineering program is 3 2 only. Very few small liberal arts schools offer Engineering: maybe Bucknell and Harvey Mudd.</p>

3409

<p>I don’t know if Lehigh is really considered a liberal arts school or not, but it does offer 4-year accredited engineering programs, and may be on the “liberal artsy” end of the range of engineering schools.</p>

3410

<p>The lady who handles our college counseling is excellent. The kids who choose to tap into her knowledge gain so much. She meets with parents (and kids) before, during and after school. She posts college admission rep visits. She has a wealth of scholarship information available at all times. She even met with my son and me just after he transferred to the school (following his freshman year) to talk about things he liked in a college. She truly took an interest in my son. Because he transferred to the school but we did not move into the district, he was ineligible to compete for the academic team as well as the cross country/track and field teams. She did not want him to sit around a year and do nothing. She got him involved in various organizations as a volunteer. It made the year bearable. </p>

<p>As for the prom, my son said he is not going. It’s a junior/senior thing, but he has no interest in attending. But it’s months away, so he could change his mind.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, today’s the regionals for indoor track and field. Son is in two events. Here’s hoping that he qualifies for states.</p>

3411

<p>anjin – that is really good advice about helping the GC. I too believe that they don’t know everything about our kids and if you give them a well written essay that describes your child without being too subjective, they will use your words to make their life easier.</p>

<p>momreads – you are very lucky to have such a knowledgeable person at your school. My GC knew nothing about financial aid and scholarships. I think the web has made their job easier because they assume people do all the research they used to do. Good luck at regionals!</p>

3412

<p>Anjintrader–agree with your explanation above of writing what you would later want the GC to write on the GC LOR. Our HS requires each Jr and parent of Jr to complete a separate packet with short answer responses to a dozen questions. My son and I found it challenging to complete our packets, so I can only imagine what the college app short essay responses will be like!</p>

<p>We are fortunate that our GCs each handle fewer than 200 students/year but only 50 of those students are Jrs. A GC is assigned freshman year and remains with the student all four years. The students are required to meet with the GC each year to review course selection and must also meet with her to arrange any course changes, so they do get to know each other fairly well. </p>

<p>The GC promptly responds to email inquiries and I look forward to meeting her soon for the parent-student college planning meeting. I do not know how much guidance will be provided in selecting colleges and I agree with others that this site is a huge source of helpful info.</p>

3413

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<p>@Class… like my 10th grade teacher used to say," When one assumes, you make and ass out of you and me!" LOL </p>

<p>Thats the problem, they assume too much. I think they should have a meeting with all frosh parents in the fall… tell them about all of the resources that are available to them. Type of some sort of handbook, pass it out and let parents do with it what they choose. But to assume is such a travesty(ok, I’m being a bit melodramatic here, but you get the point), especially to the kids with a low ses, first generation… etc. Those parents/children arrive at highschool with a totally different point of view about college/lack of information/and fears about higher education. But if they start in frosh year, begin to peel the layers back, it becomes a manageable/doable/acceptable process. Maybe hold biannual meetings with emails blasts throughout the year about pertinent/interesting information to parents/students. Then in late soph year, early junior year… rachet up the offerings…</p>

<p>In the case of the passing out the free SAT/College Board online prep… whose F ing idea was it to pass out the information 20 days before the test? PATHETIC if you ask me! How ironic, I am the one without the education… most of them have their masters… :frowning: </p>

<p>After reading the letter that was disseminated, and without any previous discussion with me, DD said… “Mom, these people are idiots, you could do a much better job than they do”</p>

<p>I hate to say this, but I think that folks in the district want want these kids to remain where they are.</p>

3414

<p>We have been exceptionally fortunate to have an amazing GC that has had all three of our kids which has allowed us to form a great relationship with her. I respect and appreciate her a lot. I know her level isn’t the norm at a public with so many kids. When it is time for college apps the parents are asked to fill out paperwork, as well as the students, to help the process. I have no problem with that. It gives them insight to things outside of school they may not know. The final question is similar to what was suggested/mentioned above (without documents). If you could tell admissions something about your student what would it be? This is where you write that message, essay, bullet points, whatever, that you feel make your student stand out and are not found in a transcript or list of ECs. They are up front and say sometimes these are incorporated into the GC letters so please don’t share information your student wouldn’t want you to. I honestly don’t see this as a weakness but a collaboration. Perhaps because my kids went out of their way to meet with her, we formed a relationship with her over many years. One had gifted/LD concerns, another had major cardiothorasic surgery, missed some school and needed accommodations when he returned. So she’s been there to assist us for a number of different reasons. </p>

<p>Certainly as far as guidance offices go, we don’t have nearly the resources of some selective privates who allocate resources into college counselors for their students, as well as great informational programs for the parents. There are a few rare publics that do this as well. I know our hs falls short on many things and I’m glad I have the time, resources (such as cc, great books, and the plain old Internet filled with common data sets and school websites), and desire to research this and be informed. I do feel that we hit the lottery as far as GCs. </p>

<p>We had an excellent meeting yesterday with GC, S3, DH, & I to discuss S3s Sr schedule. He was requesting way too many APs and we really were all looking at the best way to keep reasonable rigor, reduce work load (time really), keep S3 happy, and be competitive. After discussing a couple of options we thought of a plan that I saw S3 immediately light up. I think everyone is really comfortable with this option and feels much better. Up until yesterday anything I added, dropped, substituted, whathaveyou, on the schedule S3 was not happy, did not want to budge. DH was arguing about a course that was not AP, was academic, but I do know schools like (plus the APs are the problem dear, focus!!). Ugghh!! S3 would not offer a suggested alternative of his own. I’m so relieved to have a solution. Now we just pray, cross fingers, dance in the rain, etc, that there are no schedule conflicts!!!</p>

3415

<p>Good morning! We’re fortunate to have wonderful college counselors at D’s school–definitely a more challenging road if you don’t…someone upthread asked (?) about engineering programs at liberal arts schools I believe. I have a D at Bucknell in engineering who is really thriving there–awesome school. D3 is just starting to look at schools and wants engineering but doesn’t want a 3-2 (doesn’t want to have to switch schools or commit to 5 years at this point) so we’ve found Lafayette ¶, Union (NY), Clarkson and Rose-Hulman all have engineering and I believe all are LA.</p>

3416

<p>Trinity (CT) is another LA with an engineering offering.</p>

3417

<p>Lehigh and Swarthmore are two other LACs with engineering</p>

3418

<p>DD’s school has guidance counselors available for all four years. In spring of junior year, one of the two college counselors start to work with them one-on-one. DD met last week and the counselor made some interesting additions to “Colleges I’m Thinking About” on Naviance. A year ago we met with a private CC and she helped DD formulate her testing strategy (including dates) and finalize her academic course schedule. She’s been fantastic in both calming DD down and motivating her to do the work, praising her accomplishments and really coming up with some stellar ideas. DD is on the board of a city-run commission and was “promoted” to chair a sub-committe. The private CC had all sorts of good ideas, including encouraging her to take a stab at righting a grant. By the way, this CC also works with out-of-state students and at $75/hour – it’s been money well spent. So if anyone is interested, just PM me and I will send you her info. We plan to meet with her again at the end of the school year to start working on the Common App essay. One thing she mentioned the other night, which I think is really helpful, is that juniors can get A LOT of their college apps done in the summer–so that they won’t be burdened in September when school starts. </p>

<p>I have a friend whose daughter attends Univ. of Puget Sound–it’s a really dynamic campus and as mentioned before, lots of merit aid. It’s in a lovel neighborhood in Tacoma, so close enough to vibrant Seattle. Downtown Tacoma has been experiencing a rewakening and the glass museum there is well worth a side trip!</p>

3419

<p>Good morning everyone! </p>

<p>Fabulous idea, Anjin. DD & I will be working on something similar through her school, or so I’m told. Apparently the college GC works with students during a class period and walks them through putting together their “resume.” Parents then fill out the rest. DD and I sketched out a list of her EC’s and awards a few months ago after a suggestion here on CC. So glad we did as it’s easy to forget everything she’s done since freshman year.</p>

<p>Beadymom – Gonzaga is supposed to have a good engineering department. DD’s BF is seriously considering Gonzaga after recently touring. He’s a top student and one of the most naturally gifted people I’ve ever met and Gonzaga impressed him. Gonzaga is a Catholic college but is open to everyone. A good friend who is Jewish attended and she loved it.</p>

<p>BlueI-- What an amazing GC you have. Sounds as if she/he has gone above and beyond for your family. We have a good relationship with DD’s regular counselor and she’s been good about guiding DD in class selection. Haven’t met the college counselor, but she’s made a few appearances in jr. classes. But she’s one person for approximately 200 seniors and 200 juniors. That’s a big job.</p>

3420

<p>Our D attends a public school, but has a college counselor that’s just phenomenal. Not sure how she remembers all the kids (she has an army of volunteers pitching into help her but one person for the whole school for college counseling), also she can be really hard on them to do well or praise them. She can do both with ease, funny how she does. D met with her and figured out what classes she wants to take. Hoping there will be no scheduling conflicts as Blue said. That’s the major concern. </p>

<p>Thank you Anjin for the suggestion. I realized that the schools (public) that do well are the ones with very high parent participation/involvement. What ever we can do to help the overworked/underpaid school is the right thing to do.</p>