<p>At my Ds’ school, they used to have school until mid June. So for my D1 (HS '11) there was ~3 weeks afterwards. They did final projects, but no additional tests. Her finals were BEFORE the AP exams. </p>
<p>However, this year the schedule changed, with the school year starting much earlier in August and ending on the last Thursday of May. I do not really know what they are going to do… D2 says they will do a shorter project, though she could be mistaken. (As part of her psychological testing, she was shown to have communication deficits.)</p>
<p>I’m worried about D2’s testing because she was diagnosed with a learning disability so late in high school. In fact, in order to try to get accomadations in place, we had to register late (the evaluation was not finished during the regular registration). The total fee was astronomical, in my opinion. We had to spend $700 for five AP tests. Too bad schools don’t pay for it. Where we live, most of our tax money’s go to the schools, but is used on unnecessary things, such as random “free” T-shirts, free iPads for special needs students, etc. I wish they would spend money better.</p>
<p>Our kids start after Labor Day and get out between the second and third week in June depending on how early Labor Day falls (Sept 1 or 6 for example can alter things almost a week). They must take the AP exam in any AP class, however it is paid for. Because of the late start most AP courses require summer work that is due either the first day/first week of class. Review before the AP exam largely depends on the teacher, however they are very generous about letting students from other classes sit in on their review if their teacher isn’t doing one, the kids had a conflict, or the student wants to do more. Usually there is decent review in class. S3 will have four this year. Immediately following they have state testing in various subjects depending on what you’re taking that year, appropriately called the SOL’s. Students continue to have assignments and tests in AP classes all the way through finals in June. The AP test is just a pit-stop. Finals are worth 20% of the semester grade, with mid-terms having been 20% of the first semester grade.</p>
<p>IMHO, I’d much rather they start at the end of August (the kids are terribly bored and ready to see their friends) and be out by Memorial Day (they mentally loose so many kids after that long weekend anyway).</p>
<p>We used to start the week before Labor Day and get out the first week in June. Next year we are starting the third week in August to provide our kids more educational time before state testing in Jan and May. I haven’t looked to see if we will get out sooner or not.</p>
<p>No APs to worry about (school offers DE instead). It’s up to each teacher to decide if they are giving a final or not - and if so - how much it counts toward a grade.</p>
<p>Actually, I forgot, we do offer AP Euro, but I don’t know if any students are actually taking the test. I don’t think they usually do.</p>
<p>So – of all of the places you can get a schools stats,
the gov web sites
the big books
the common data sets
the schools adverts…</p>
<p>why is it that the stats can vary as much as 10% on SAT scores per section of the mid 50%?</p>
<p>I just spent time looking at the National Center for Ed Stats…and even compared to College Board’s stats (online when comparing a kids SATs), and the colleges themselves…it can vary widely.</p>
<p>idk…i looked at the profiles of the schools in the common data sets that are “current” and compare to CB some varied too much for comfort.</p>
<p>Of the Nat’;l Center…all of the scores reported were lower than the CB and common data sets on the schools pages–</p>
<p>I am thinking if this is all self reported why isn’t there more consistency…
10% can be a deal breaker imh</p>
<p>On the local “admits” front, a local kid has been admitted to H,D,Penn,Michigan and is waiting to hear front Stanford. Talk about a abundance of riches to choose from</p>
<p>Or could it be those accepted versus those that actually matriculate?</p>
<p>Congrats, 2014ProfDad on the perfect score first try! Amazing!!</p>
<p>And, My3gr8boyz, you must be so proud of your son’s ethics! Shame on the others talking about the test during bathroom breaks!! Too tempting to go back and change the answer. :(</p>
<p>Our school starts mid-August and finishes just before Memorial Day. So, there’s only a couple of weeks from AP testing to the end of the year. It’s also nice because end of first semester/second quarter is right before Christmas break, so fresh start after break instead of having to remember all that was learned prior to the two week break. </p>
<p>DS finally loaded his picture for the ACT in April … and signed up for 3 SAT II tests in May. I believe this will be the end of testing. His last ACT that he took (last June) was good enough … except no writing on it. I wanted him to take again with writing for those few selective colleges, but now not sure he’ll need the writing or the SAT II’s. He was pretty happy with the schools we looked at over spring break and they don’t require either.</p>
<p>fogfog—agree with beadymom that it may be a matter of semantics. I believe (and someone please correct me if I am wrong) that the CDS is supposed to include the figures for the class who enrolled as of Fall 2012 (or whatever period is being reported). The CDS also indicates what percentage of enrollees reported SAT vs ACT and that total often exceeds 100% as some students report both. In the same way that the Naviance stats can be misleading in that we do not know if the ACT/GPA data point reported was for a student who actually submitted SAT scores to his colleges. (In other words, a student may have performed well on one standardized test but poorly on another, but Naviance captured and reports both scores. In the same way that our school’s Naviance does not identify ED vs RD data points, we also cannot determine which test score was reported to colleges. For argument’s sake, let’s assume that every student who applied to colleges from our HS scored better on SAT. The data points for that college would reflect ACT scores that are lower than are actually needed for admission to that college.)</p>
<p>I have attended college info sessions where the Ad Com states that the middle 50% stats of ‘our applicant pool’ are … The applicant pool stats should be slightly different from the enrolled stats and still different from the accepted stats. In general, I assume the enrolled stats are lower than the accepted stats, at least where a specific school may be used as a safety. This wouldn’t hold true at schools with very high yields.</p>
<p>I may have just managed to confuse the issue further. I find that the figures in Fiske seem to match CDS. I haven’t looked at gov’t websites or CB’s stats. Since I am only tracking CDS figures, I want to ensure that my son’s stats are at the 75% (or higher) for any school to which he applies. As an unhooked applicant, he doesn’t need to give the schools a reason to dismiss his application w/o further review.</p>
<p>We are back from our mini trip. We planned to see 3 - we drove through one that d hated on sight so we skipped it. </p>
<p>I was really impressed with Va Tech. Beautiful campus, very positive vibe. I thought they handled the campus security section very tastefully and went into great detail with all the protocols and police presence. The one part that put a lump in my throat was the metal detectors in the doorways. </p>
<p>D found a safety she really was over the moon about. But of course now I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that, but that is what it’s for isn’t it - a school that wouldn’t feel like a consolation prize.</p>
<p>I’m a wee bit biased since hubby and I both went there, but I still hold it up as the gold standard when we do visits and no other school has compared. We had hoped our offspring would go there, but none of them inherited the engineering gene.</p>
<p>VT is a school where the alumni stay members forever - at least those in our crowd do/did + we have oodles come up to us when they see memorabilia of any sort - or we see it with them.</p>
<p>Penn State is similar, but I’m just a transplant here and already have my allegiance, so won’t defect. I was OOS for VT, but they quickly replaced Syracuse as my “rooting for” team. Since none of my offspring are going to big sports schools, they can still root for the Hokies. UVA was always off limits for them. It had to be.</p>
<p>Ok, back to your regularly scheduled programming…</p>
<p>Creek - VT is definitely not just for engineering, it’s just what they’re really well known for - in fact my d is really more interested in business or economics (so far) </p>
<p>Do you all think being the “minority” gender makes admissions a bit easier? Va Tech is essentially 60/40 male/female. </p>
<p>What makes me a tad nervous is some of these big schools - Va Tech & Clemson - you have to apply for your major and it sounds like at some of them it isn’t all that easy to switch. Given how my S changed his mind in about a month of starting school I’m hesitant on the rigid major structure.</p>
<p>I also think being a minority gender helps. My D1’s year, a lot (~15, including D1) of girls got into MIT from my Ds’ school. Some of them did more than just robotics, but for many of those girls, all they did was robotics and school. On the other hand, boys on the robotics team didn’t get in, even with close to perfect scores. All of these kids put mechanical engineering as their major.</p>
<p>Hey y’all! 2014 kid here. I need some parental advice…
The other day, my mom read my diary. Of course, I had a lot of ugly personal stuff in there, stuff I definitely don’t want aired out (not even to her). She tried to bring up some of the topics with me, and although I told her that it made me extremely uncomfortable to discuss the contents of my diary and that she didn’t really have the right to read it in the first place, she refused to listen to me. I mean, I’m not a bad kid. The stuff in there wasn’t THAT incriminating. But it was mine and mine to share (or not share). I feel-- and my mom disagrees with me on this-- that I should be allowed a certain degree of privacy, no matter how “young” I am (she argued that, since I am a minor, she has a right to all of my personal property). So I guess my question is: have you guys ever read your child’s diary? What are your opinions on “diary snooping”? Do I deserve a space of my own, or should I consider everything of mine-- both physical and intellectual property-- just a subset of my mother’s?</p>