<p>Illness is so unpredictable. If s’16 got sick it would be awful because he is so horrible at making contact with teachers. My freshman had two all day golf matches scheduled for the first full day of schools. I was already worried about transition and the social stuff like lunch tables. I made him pick one day to play golf. I told the coaches he is lousy at make up work and needed to be in school. Every other freshman (and this is JV) missed school both days </p>
<p>My junior is taking the SAT oct. 6. We looked at the year calendar for both tests and planned Ahead. There is a Xc meet that day but it is jv only and he will get a warm up for the PSAT.
He will probably take act in feb and june… All these seniors are posting on fb and twitter that they are studying and I tell him- we are trying to avoid that in a year.</p>
<p>Got our college kid off and settled the day before school started for D14!</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about sickness already! I hope everyone mends quickly.</p>
<p>@29happymom26~ my 7th grade son is at golf tryouts this morning! I’m very nervous for him. He hasn’t played in a few months and outgrew his clubs. Got him a new set and he has had some practice with them, but I’m worried it wasn’t enough. Especially since this is for the HS team.</p>
<p>@blueiguana~I’m one of the parents that never fit in over at the 2015 thread. Probably because I found it late, but also because I didn’t click with the prestige atmosphere. Felt weird since D15 decided to go to our state flagship for free instead of paying 1/3 of WashU’s COA. Guess I was afraid to post anything regarding her for fear of being “judged”. Regarding packages, that same daughter has already gotten 2! Granted one was a birthday package but the other was just for fun although including her final paycheck from her internship justified the cost ;)</p>
<p>D14 is busy with classes and marching band. I think I mentioned before that she opted to go to our new high school rather than staying at the one she attended her sophomore year (was a 10-12 HS). One of the unfortunate consequences is that she was not able to get Spanish 3&4 due to conflicts with band and precalc. With so few upperclassman, there aren’t as many sections of the upper level courses.</p>
<p>I think she has a nice schedule for her junior year:
Fall:
Marching band
Precalc
Honors Chemistry
Creative writing</p>
<p>Spring:
concert band
AP World
AP Language
sociology</p>
<p>Regarding testing, she is preparing for the PSAT. Her sophomore score indicates it could go either way. She’ll then take the SAT in November and the ACT in December. Felt it would be best to wait for football season to be over and to take tests the semester she has a math class (her worst area). We’ll decide on any spring tests based on the scores. She’s hoping she does well enough that she can skip taking a math her senior year. I’m sure some won’t agree, but this child has absolutely no interest in the STEM area. She may take AP Stats, but I’ve heard conflicting reports about the value of the class.</p>
<p>I had a 2011 high school grad as well but my oldest was not motivated to go out of state so he took merit at the lesser of our two state flagships and has been happy. Dh sometimes wishes he had taken a full ride at an out-of-state tech school since he is not interested in exploring fields outside his major. He is more of a “self-taught” intellectual than a scholar. His sister was class of 2011 until she took a year off to go on exchange between 10th and 11th grade and changed to 2012. Then she won a spot at United World Colleges and ended up doing 12th and 13th grade there so she will finally graduate in the class of 2013. I guess the message is, that there is a different path for every kid even though it doesn’t seem that way on CC.</p>
<p>BamaMomof3 - Please stay with this thread. Even though there are a lot of us who are/were on the Class of 2011 HS/Class of 2015 college threads, I find the comments and input from everyone to be very informative and insightful. This class, just like the HS class of 2011, will have a wide cross section of students and college choices. As said by another poster, all of the kids are different in their wants, needs, abilities and desires. This is what makes our world so interesting and this journey unique for each of us. The key is to stay relaxed and enjoy this electronic socialization and interaction without getting judgmental or argumentative. Debating is fine but beyond that, its not worth it in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>2 cents worth of comments are over. Have a great weekend everyone. I am now off to look at the SAT and ACT test schedules and figure out what will work best for DD this year. :)</p>
<p>@Apollo- “I guess the message is, that there is a different path for every kid even though it doesn’t seem that way on CC.” Definitely agree! I also agree with Beadymom, love hearing about your kids’ travels. My D14 is the one that wants to see the world. Since we have limited means to help, she has decided to focus her college search to ones that will provide both opportunity and funds.</p>
<p>Avondad~as always, great words of wisdom! I plan to stick around! I think I found it hard to make the connection in the other group because I found it late. They were very welcoming, but I didn’t have much to offer (unless you had a child that wanted to stay in state and not spend $$). I still read the thread as there is still much to be learned!</p>
<p>So good to see you AvonDad/ aka Captain , as well as other familiar 2011 faces I’ve missed. It will be fun to get to know more about your younger kids. </p>
<p>I hope AvonMom is well, and you can give your 2 cents anytime.</p>
<p>One thing I loved hearing at the other thread was “loving the kid on the couch”
All of the kids are different–their interests etc and no school fits them all.
Many of my favorite faces, like me, have enjoyed the sharing of the different paths.
Problems come when someone/s gets offended because others disagree…
Variety is the spice of life.</p>
<p>BI I still have PMs from you re your advice and will likely ask you for more of your thoughts in the year ;)</p>
<p>My two kiddos are different - and yet they are both confident, independent and aren’t afraid to take on new things.
I recall reading about how raising resilient kids who have confidence they can tackle things–rather than feeling they need to always ask a parent for help-- would help them grow, make mistakes and learn when the stakes are much lower…than when they are older and the stakes are so much higher.
So while k1 and k2 will have different journeys…they will be their own journeys. I like that…it is wonderful to watch :D</p>
<p>I’ll say this and then drop it because the 2014 parents are really not interested…</p>
<p>People do not get offended when others disagree. There is a way to do that without offending. People get offended when others views are absolute, my way is right and yours is wrong, how could you possibly…, etc. When you step into the territory of insulting another parent as opposed to sharing how you do things and what is right for your family, you’ve crossed a line.</p>
<p>You are correct BI
Trial, error, learning, falling, getting up again…People learn in many different ways…as they say experience is the best teacher.</p>
<p>I think it’s very important to keep in mind that if you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, you should be careful what you post! One never completely knows what is going on in another person’s life or household. And the topic of college admissions is probably just one conversation going on between parent, child, school, etc. I’m already blown away as to the complex lives our teenagers are leading–academics, extracurriculars, sports, volunteering–fitting it all in amidst a torrent of hormones. And then us parents are faced with the reality that our kids are close to flying the next–we’ve hopefully done our jobs of guiding them into responsible, capable, confident young people.</p>
<p>We met with our college counselor who advised the November SAT. Also signed up for the Feb. ACT so we should have a good indicator of which test D14 is best suited for. We’ve emphasized the importance of being prepared for the PSAT; not to treat it as a “practice” but also have told her that if she is prepared and does her best, we will be extremely proud. Of course, it’s tough with school just starting and teachers scaring you about the amount of work required for Ap Chem and AP English! </p>
<p>Our school is now having visits from colleges that students can attend. And D14 is loving her Ethics class. I’ve suggested that she think about Bioethics since she also likes science. Does anyone know of any undergraduate programs in this discipline?</p>
<p>And lifted from the NMF thread, here are the cut-off scores by State for last year’s PSAT. Students with 200+ are commended; state scores vary but overall, it appears that the scores declined over last year’s PSAT. </p>
<p>State cutoffs ordered highest to lowest
DC 221
MA 221
NJ 221
CA 220
MD 219
CT 218
VA 217
TX 216
WA 216
DE 215
NY 215
GA 214
PA 214
VT 214
IL 213
MN 213
NC 213
OR 213
AZ 212
CO 212
KS 212
OH 212
FL 211
HI 211
IN 211
NH 211
RI 211
ME 210
MO 210
TN 210
AL 209
LA 209
KY 208
NV 208
NM 208
SC 208
ID 207
IA 207
MI 207
NE 207
WI 207
OK 206
UT 205
AK 204
MS 204
SD 204
MT 203
AR 202
ND 200
WV 200
WY 200</p>
<p>State cutoffs ordered by greatest change since 2011
AK -8
MT -6
HI -5
NH -5
GA -4
ID -4
KY -4
NY -4
NC -4
ND -4
TN -4
WA -4
WV -4
WY -4
AR -3
CO -3
FL -3
IL -3
IN -3
IA -3
MI -3
MO -3
OK -3
OR -3
SC -3
TX -3
UT -3
VT -3
VA -3
AL -2
CT -2
DE -2
DC -2
KS -2
ME -2
MD -2
MA -2
MN -2
NE -2
NJ -2
NM -2
OH -2
RI -2
SD -2
WI -2
AZ -1
CA -1
MS -1
NV -1
PA -1
LA 0</p>
<p>Woo hoo for living in a state with a low PSAT qualifying score! haha DS might have a chance! :)</p>
<p>It is interesting how siblings can be so different! There is 7 1/2 years between S’14 and his younger brother (S’21??? wow-that’s forever!)- they are like night and day!! I wondered in the beginning if our parenting style had really changed that much between the two, but finally have come to realize that they are just individuals with different personalities!!</p>
<p>Our state is one of the higher cut offs, but I won’t complain. We also have some excellent choices for state colleges ranging from very competitive down to our community colleges. Getting in is another thing, but there are good choices for students at all levels.</p>
<p>I could not agree more about two parents producing different children! We have three that are four years apart (the condensed version). They prove again and again to be as different as night, day, and total eclipse of the sun!! They could not be more unique.</p>
<p>Who posted the link to cheryls for care packages? Can you give a review? Some of these care packages on the internet are just junk but these look to be just fresh baked goods and I wondered how good they were.</p>
<p>I’m another on the college 15 thread and this one.</p>
<p>D (college '15) has started her sophomore year and is happily settling in to apartment life with her roomies from last year. She’s also got a job this year and is still in her sorority. She seems happier and more settled this year. Quite a bit more maturity is showing.</p>
<p>S (hs '14) has started his junior year and our only wrinkle so far is that his AP government conflicts with ap calculus so he is forced to take “regular” government. One of the drawbacks of a very small (600 students total!) high school but we love the school overall so I guess this is a concession he must make. He is also taking AP Lang, AP Calculus, and honors chemistry along with some technical computer programming classes so his plate is pretty full and the downgrade from AP to regular in government may end up being for the best.</p>
<p>We’re having S’14 take an SAT prep class that begins at the end of Sept and runs until the week before the Nov SAT. Figure this kills 2 birds with 1 stone…prepping for PSAT as well as SAT. Based on last year’s scores S has no chance whatsoever at national merit but we’re giving it a go anyway, just in case. And he’s signed up for the Nov SAT.</p>
<p>I probably won’t adjust to my son moving into the Class of 2015 until he returns from China in June and has to enter his junior year. Having already taken 7 APs and lived through sophomore year, he doesn’t have much in common with the 2015s yet. I still think of him being more like your kids and I enjoy reading about their experiences. I am not looking forward to him having to study for the PSAT next summer so I feel for everyone else who has a kid that tested high enough last year that s/he just might make NMF if s/he studies. </p>
<p>I did get to talk to my son this evening. He hasn’t quite had a full week of classes but he feels like he is rapidly recalling all the Chinese he learned in a three week immersion camp last summer. It is hard work, though. He has class from 7:15am to 4 or 5pm 5 days a week and then spends at least 3 hours a day studying characters. He learned 25 characters about banking and currency on Friday and then was pleased to recognize some of them at the bank on Saturday where he had the 9 other Americans waited in line for THREE hours to change their semester pocket money. He is definitely having some eye opening experiences.</p>
<p>I’m not sure who posted the link to Cheryls, but along with sending care packages with homemade things last year to S2 I sent Cheryls cookies twice. Once to S2 because I had a big discount code thanks to the ‘good buy of the day’ thread, plus free shipping. I think it was a six cookie sampler. Nothing fancy, just iced sugar cookies. The second time was again with a great percent off and free shipping. I sent a dozen cookies to a friend of S2’s who spent hours with him one night at the emergency room as a thank-you. In fact S2 probably wound’t have even gone if she hadn’t insisted he go. Anyway, both S2 & the friend reported that the cookies were ‘most awesome’. Now keep in mind that these are college students eating dining hall food, so they are probably easily pleased, but I think my son would have told me not to bother with the company again if he didn’t like them. He’s not shy when something’s not his favorite.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. Make sure you look online for coupon codes, etc. They are always running some kind of special. I do think their non-sale prices are rather high.</p>
<p>Apollo - By all means, please stay here with us! We love hearing about your son’s unique experiences. After hearing about the application process last year, the decisions you had to help him navigate, etc., I’d love to be able to hear updates about his experience this year! :)</p>
<p>I also agree that right now at least you/he isn’t going to have much in common with the class of 2015. It will all be ‘been there/done that’ for you. You could certainly offer lots of help and advise…but you might not get much out of it. (See how I kinda made the case there ).</p>
<p>Glad you got to talk to your son. I’m sure those are big highlights for your family. Sounds like he is adjusting quickly. I’m sure hearing details helps to ease your mind as you picture what he’s doing. Please keep us posted.</p>
<p>Last year we had D13 take SATs early in October to see how she would do in the hopes that the scores would be good enough that she wouldn’t need prep classes… She needed them. S14 will get to take SATs this fall too, while I chase D13 around waving applications she is avoiding at her. I’m so glad there will be a break between S14 and S17. I used to think having the first two back to back would be painful because of the tuition bills… Suddenly I realize I was off by a year- trying to get S14 to stay focused during this all important year while convincing his sister she cannot avoid applications forever will be joyous too…</p>
I think I found it hard to make the connection in the other group because I found it late. They were very welcoming, but I didn’t have much to offer (unless you had a child that wanted to stay in state and not spend $$). I still read the thread as there is still much to be learned!</p>