<p>DS had a practice test on Sat. for the May APUSH exam. I am very impressed with the dedicated teacher that planned that. This will be the first AP exam for all these kids. DS studied like crazy. It isn’t JUST a practice but it counts a lot toward their 3rd and 4th quarter grades. He said it wasn’t that hard but just really long. I said it will probably take him until 4th quarter to grade all those essays.<br>
Good practice for him since he isn’t that great of a test taker.</p>
<p>I expect for most kids, the junior year is the most stressful but for my son I expect that this year will have been worse than junior year because he applied for three competitive year long exchange programs and two 2 year boarding school programs. All required multiple essays, interviews etc. He’s got two interviews left at the end of the month. He also took the September ACT and the October PSAT and has taken five AP courses plus an online Chinese course. In addition, he ran cross country, competed on speech and percussion teams and worked as a volunteer tutor 5 hours a week. Next year he will either be at an elite IB boarding school that is all about a balance between academics, service, arts and physical activities, or he will be an exchange student learning a new language but his grades won’t count towards his transcript. It’s been a crazy year but he’s done remarkably well and I’m very proud of him. I didn’t realize he’d moved up to number 8 in his class of 660 until I saw his transcript last week. I know that he’s taken more challenging courses than any other sophomore at his school so this is really something. I guess only the student and his family know what is reasonable for a particular child. We were pushing the envelope a little this year and if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have had him apply to so many programs, but overall I think it has been a very positive and productive school year.</p>
<p>As a parent who is new to the college admissions frontier, I thought I would share our experience last week meeting a private college counselor. D goes to a private high school which has both guidance and college counselors. Unfortunately the college counselors don’t meet with students until their junior year. Since D is forecasting for junior year, we thought it would be worthwhile to get a “second” opinion on her course load. D’s high school expects everyone to go to college and has rich offerings that make it difficult for D to “choose.” While she sees herself as a “science” kid, she likes everything and was having a tough time finalizing her schedule. The independent counselor met with us for an hour and a half, and after looking over her transcript and PSAT/PLAN scores helped forecast both junior and senior year, devise a SAT/ACT/Subject test schedule, hone in on EC’s and suggest the “hook,” as well as gave us her candid appraisal of school D has shown interest in plus suggest some that she felt would be a “great fit” for D. For $75, we got great information and D is fully invested in the process and has “a plan.” There was little pressure from the counselor and she just advised us to come back in a year after D had taken the PSAT/SAT or ACT. She was so encouraging! D felt like all of her hard work was paying off and that her dreams were realistic. For parents butting heads with their kids (and those who aren’t), I felt it was time and money well spent.</p>
<p>Thanks to PDXSuzanne: our D will be meeting with the same counselor. We’ve heard good reports about her from current college students as well.
D has her schedule set for next year, and it’s looking to be challenging especially since all juniors must write a thesis paper. But it’s senior year that I’m a tad concerned with as she’ll have 6 AP classes. Is this normal?</p>
<p>We read somewhere that a good excercise was to go to the Internet and download a college application for a schoole in which your child has some interest. Fill it out now - as a freshman or sophomore. If there is anything that you would like to put on that application that you can’t, you have two years to do it. In the fall of senior year, you will fill them out for keeps.</p>
<p>glido - that is great advice. As we were dealing with my older child this year and the process we were taking note of how it would affect my younger.</p>
<p>I am meeting my sister and her daughter for spring break in Hilton Head. We’re going to extend it a few days and go see College of Charleston, Clemson and Furman while we’re there. She’s never stepped foot on a college campus so this will be interesting! I definitely see her wanting warm weather - she just perks up in the sunshine like a sunflower.</p>
<p>Popping in from 2012 HS parents forum to share this FREE summer program with any Texas high school girls who are currently in 10th or 11th grade: </p>
<p>HURRY, the deadline is in two days! Good luck!</p>
<p>This is FREE for TEXAS GIRLS ONLY! They’ve been holding it annually for awhile. Save the info if you know any Texas girls not old enough this year. If the direct link doesn’t work next year, just search for ‘first bytes’ on the college web site. Registration opens every year in January.</p>
<p>Computer Science Summer Camp for Girls
[Computer</a> Science Department | The University of Texas at Austin | First Bytes](<a href=“Summer Academies | Department of Computer Science”>Summer Academies | Department of Computer Science) </p>
<p>First Bytes Summer Camp is a one-week residential camp program for high school girls. It is designed to dispel myths about computer science and intrigue young women with the potential of computing and the excitement of problem solving.</p>
<p>Registration opens on January 27th, 2012 and closes on March 23, 2012. </p>
<p>No advanced math or prior programming experience is required. What is required is curiosity about the most powerful artifact the human race has ever built.</p>
<p>Through First Bytes You Can:
- See how computers solve real-world problems in medicine, the arts, and more.
- Use your problem-solving and reasoning skills to explore real computer science.
- Get hands-on programming experience and feel the thrill of getting a computer to do what you tell it to do.
- Visiting research labs and learning abut the newest technology.
- Work in a team.
- Find out about the wide variety of jobs you can have as a computer scientist.
- Enjoy a taste of university life and,
- Have a week of computer science fun!</p>
<p>You are encouraged to apply if:
You are a girl,
You are finishing your sophomore or junior year in high school,
You have done well in math and science classes,
You have a GPA of 3.0 or above (or 80 out of 100)</p>
<p>Sixty (60) applicants will be accepted. Accepted applicants will be housed on campus in the Jester Hall. Counselor to camper ratios will be maintained at 1:10.</p>
<p>Our sponsors will provide for ALL COSTS of the camp except travel to and from the UT Austin campus. Keep in mind parking on campus can be challenging and expensive. Parking expenses will not be covered.</p>
<p>Accepted participants will be required to make a $100 camp deposit to hold their spot. Please note that the deposit is for those who are accepted into the program, not for the initial application. This deposit is FULLY REFUNDABLE upon registration at the camp. (Waivers of the deposit fee requirement will be available if necessary.) A wait list will be developed for no-shows and cancellations.</p>
<p>Eligibility Requirements:
You must be a high school student entering your junior or senior year in fall 2012.
You must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 (80 out of 100) or higher.
You must be a Texas resident.</p>
<p>There are four main steps in the online application process:
- Complete the online entry for your personal and academic information, your personal essay and any additional comments.
- Have your High School Computer Science, Science, or Math Teacher or your Counselor fill out the Teacher/Counselor Recommendation Form. They can mail or scan and email the form.
- Submit your High School Transcript
- Check over your online application and Submit it!</p>
<p>Okay, I’m going to lose my mind. My son is at his UWC interview today. He is flying to Denver for his Yes Abroad interview tonight and he is a semi-finalist for NSLI-Y year programs. We don’t know whether UWC would let him defer a year and UWC won’t send final notification until April 23! I’m sure he can’t wait that long to make up his mind about NSLI-Y or Yes Abroad. What if he gets an offer and turns it down hoping for UWC and then doesn’t get UWC?! The dust won’t settle for 30 days.</p>
<p>Your son sounds awesome, Apollo6. Sending good thoughts your way.</p>
<p>He’s a good kid but being male is probably a big reason he is a semi-finalist for all these programs. There just aren’t as many males who apply. There were 3 boys and 5 girls at his interview today. If you have a son, encourage him to step out of the box. There are plenty of opportunities out there!</p>
<p>Apollo, don’t under-credit your son for his success! My S1 applied for NSLI-Y and did not get past the phone interview.</p>
<p>Found us on page 6! Hope all is well with everyone.</p>
<p>This weekend we will be heading to the early college orientation for D2 and will visit with D1. D2 is excited about taking college classes, especially the languages and social sciences. I think she is planning to take Intro to Cultural Anthropology for the summer session.</p>
<p>She will also spend the summer prepping for the PSAT and ACT. This D is very bright, but doesn’t have confidence in her abilities…especially math! That is what I hope to change this summer since I know that if she would just believe in herself she would soar!! </p>
<p>Apollo~hope the interviews went well!</p>
<p>eyemamom~ how did the campus visits go? My D would also prefer warm, actually, it is probably a necessity since she is actually allergic to the cold!</p>
<p>Glido~love the idea of filling out applications to see what is “missing”.</p>
<p>**Bama Mom of 3 - Thanks for the page 6 rescue!</p>
<p>Well, yesterday was decision day for Ivys and other top tier schools. Lots of excitement and dissapointment over on the HS Class of 2012 thread.</p>
<p>And that means just 730 days until our kids have their March 2012 decision day (unless you apply EA). And then the month of indecision. What a fun ride that will be. 
</p>
<p>Only two years to go! :eek: :)</p>
<p>I’m thinking about starting a countdown but two years is too far out. I think I will wait a while. **</p>
<p>Avon, there’s so much that needs to happen in between now and decision day 2014. Like figuring out what they are interested in studying, and where 
Standardized tests, AP classes, initial college visits, on and on…</p>
<p>My DS’14 is taking the PLAN tomorrow morning – it was rescheduled from many months ago, I think due to a weather incident or something.</p>
<p>DS14’s interviews went well. I am cautiously optimistic that he may get an offer from UWC. 24 days until decisions. </p>
<p>I enjoyed my cultural anthropology class in college. I had never even heard of anthropology when I was in high school! </p>
<p>I hope the PLAN goes well tomorrow. Happy Spring break!</p>
<p>D2’s list is unlikely to contain any schools with April 1-ish decision days, so it’ll be over sooner for her. I hope!</p>
<p>D1 (the college freshman) now tells people that it doesn’t matter where you go, it’s all good. She’s seen friends attending their dream schools, and friends going reluctantly (initially) to their safeties. Happy students in most cases by the end of the year. D2 might not believe hearing that from her parents, but she will sure as shooting believe it from her big sister. :)</p>
<p>taking a minute to say “hi” over here at the 14’s thread. dd is a 2014. ds is a 2012 so we’ve been up to our eyeballs in all of that senior stuff. the waiting on regular decisions is finally over and now we wait on a couple more financial aid packages. slitheytove, not the same tune from my ds’s big sis. she is telling him to go to the top ranked school ! </p>
<p>dd’14 is keeping quite busy with her new found love of ballet. rather than studying art, she’s now thinking of studying ballet after high school. </p>
<p>next fall she’ll take the PSAT. her likely only prep will be her continued reading of many books over the busy summer. </p>
<p>happy spring to everyone ! the tulips are blooming !</p>
<p>Well. Here we go!! After the flurry of decisions from Ivys yesterday I feel like the new season has begun. I am under more challenges with D than D12 because her gpa right now is about 3.4 ish uw. Hoping jr year she can push that above a 3.5 and score decent on the act. We are going to Visit a couple colleges this summer and she is interested in</p>
<p>Miami ( ohio)
Xavier
Ohio university</p>
<p>For now.</p>
<p>I am so pumped today. D12 made decision she will most likely be attending Kenyon College this fall. We are all ecstatic. I hope D sees the results of her sisters hard work and really pushes herself Jr year. Looking forward to getting to know you guys.</p>
<p>BamaMom - Thanks for the bump!</p>
<p>Cptn - Thanks for the countdown reminder (ugh!) Waving at you and AvonMom :)</p>
<p>Mathmomvt - Good luck to your DD on the PLAN tomorrow!!</p>
<p>Apollo - Fingers crossed for a good outcome on the UWC for your son. It sounds like an amazing opportunity!</p>
<p>SlitheyTove - I wish we could ‘like’ posts on CC, I would like yours! Very true words. My S2 would say the same. S3 probably will have a couple of reach schools (one that has a 4/1 decision), but right now I don’t foresee any lottery schools in the future.</p>
<p>mspearl - Enjoy the college visits with your D! We are going to try to sneak in a couple over the break. A very special congratulations to your D12!! I have been following the 2012 results and was so pleased for her outcome at Kenyon! :)</p>
<p>Right now we are just in wait mode to find out about summer programs. We should know in two weeks. In the meantime it’s competition season for S3’s EC so he’s always on the run and traveling. Good but busy. So far it’s been a very successful season!</p>
<p>Enjoy your Spring Break!! :)</p>
<p>Also popping in to check out what’s up with the 14’s. DD14 just got accepted to Sewanee’s Young Writer’s Conference for this summer. She’s very excited and we’re really happy for her as well. Over the last several months we’ve spent a lot of time and energy focused on DS 12’s college process and she’s been patient and supportive, so I’m really happy that she’s got this. She’s still waiting on two other programs, but at least she’s got this one.</p>
<p>We stopped in to visit one of DS’s possible schools while they were on spring break. Big mistake! We’ve visited several schools during the summer, and while it’s best when they are in full session, there were still enough students around so that you could get the feel of the place. Spring break means the school is like a ghost town! I expected to see tumbleweeds rolling across the quad. I don’t recommend it unless you don’t want your kid to go to that school!</p>
<p>Is it spring yet? Not here in the northwest!</p>