<p>
That might be. </p>
<p>School is going well for D. She is already getting excited about CTY summer camp. They just put the catalog on the internet. Marching band is over. Now it turned into the concert band. She loves her high school.</p>
<p>Whoo- hoo we are at 500 posts!</p>
<p>3 days left of first semester. After a rough few weeks at the start D2 has settled down well and I think reasonably happy. Pleased to report all high Aās. This semester she has been taking a specialized science program off campus. She has really enjoyed it, except the early start.We have to leave the house at 6:45 AM to drive to the shuttle. Only 2 more early mornings! I am hoping next semester she will feel a bit more connected to the high school. Hard to really get to know peeps when you are only there in the afternoons. She misses all the club meetings before school starts.</p>
<p>Welcome to everyone and waving to the lurkers!</p>
<p>My college girl comes home today : )</p>
<p>Morning all. Finals started yesterday for S2. The grades from finals count 25% toward the semester grades. I keep my fingers crossed for him!
His science fair project was advanced to district competition which will be held in Feb.</p>
<p>Nice to āseeā new posters. Welcome! :)</p>
<p>Exam week here too, though our first semester doesnāt end until mid-January. Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>So glad to find everyone! D is a high school freshman, S is a college freshman. Interesting times in our house!</p>
<p>Welcome to all the new posters!</p>
<p>I also have a college freshman and HS freshman. It is interesting but one thing that has really pleased me is how much closer my HS daughter has become with her brother now that he is off to college. He is only an hour away so he has come home a couple of times and the girl who was counting the days to when he would leave to go to college because he was so āannoyingā started counting the days to when he would be coming home.</p>
<p>The best yet was Saturday. My daughter and her cousin-both HS freshman and very close-more like brother sister really-went up on the train to spend the day in the city with my son. They had quite the day and when the train was coming into the stop to pick them up she started crying and told him she didnāt want to go home because he wouldnāt be there!</p>
<p>He told me this and said I guess she really does love me like you told me all these years? Yes buddy, she really does love you!</p>
<p>I am one happy mother today. :)</p>
<p>Cute story, Pepper03!</p>
<p>D has last exam tomorrow. Seems to be handling exams ok. She thinks she is doing well. I posted the following Prayer Before Study by St. Thomas Aquinas on her FB this week. Sorry for injecting religious content but it struck me as a nice calming exercise for her.</p>
<p>āCreator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and tā¦ake from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.ā</p>
<p>Love that story, Pepper!! When my daughters are affectionate and open with their love each other, it brings me such joy 
</p>
<p>Vistajay, that is a beautiful prayer - I particularly like āability to express myself with thoroughness and charmā - think Iāll be passing it on :)</p>
<p>Vistajayā¦beautiful prayer. I plan to post it on ddās facebook page.</p>
<p>DS has finals next week. I imagine it could be uglyā¦heās never had to review and be tested on a whole semester of work and is not a highly motivated student. Smart kid, but unmotivated. </p>
<p>Julia</p>
<p>So letās get this thread moving as we wait for freshman fall semester grades!</p>
<p>D seemed to weather exams well. Only one grade posted so far but was an A. I think she will get all Aās but one or two are going to be close. She got a 186 on PSAT. School lets freshmen take it for practice, if they desire. Decent score for a freshman I guess but will have to improve in two years for National Merit.</p>
<p>But gosh has she been moody this holiday break! Teenage sulkiness and attitude are rearing their ugly head. She did enjoy her first driving lessons with me. Driving the car is quickly becoming the ācarrotā to entice more pleasant behavior.</p>
<p>Here we goā¦ 2nd semester freshman year!
Chilly start this morning in Ga! Already on my second cup of tea.</p>
<p>D2 on block schedule so 4 new classes for her. She finished the specialized science program, so will be at the HS all day. it was so nice not to leave the house in the dark! </p>
<p>Happy New year to all and wishing everyone a successful 2nd semester!</p>
<p>Back to school yesterday for the girl-while her big brother is still home on his college break.</p>
<p>They donāt start second semester at her HS until the end of January-but they go to school until mid-June.</p>
<p>Anyone here who is interested in applying or thinking of applying to Ivy-type schools should check out a thread in the parents forum here for some very valuable information about what those types of schools are looking at.</p>
<p><a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1263813-indepth-report-academic-index-used-ivy-league-recruiting.html[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1263813-indepth-report-academic-index-used-ivy-league-recruiting.html</a></p>
<p>I did post there although I usually refrain from posting anywhere near those kinds of threads because they get very heated! I mentioned a while back I think one of the biggest issues with my son applying to these schools was the subject tests-this seems to confirm it is an issue-whether or not it sunk his apps who knows?</p>
<p>Pepper- the subject tests may have been an issue with my D1 too! ( though they were in the 700ās) She was Valedictorian, 4+ GPA, great leadership roles, passion for debate, 13 APās ( 12 @5) ā¦you get the picture. She was admitted to 7/10 schools with 3 offers of free rides. BUT, HYP didnāt want her. She was OK with it, but everyone at school was shocked. She loves the program she choose and is very happy. She has a trip to NY/DC at spring break and then a Maymester at Oxford ( all paid for ). To say she is excited would be an underestimate.</p>
<p>D2, at this point has expressed no interest in the Ivies. She wants to play softball in college, so our college search could be very different second time around. She is a smart girl,( though I am not sure if she believes that, hard to be the sis of D1) and could have the potential to attend. It would be ironic if her softball skills were the hook that the Ivies were looking for.</p>
<p>Good morning and Happy New Year everyone! I recognize some āfacesā from the 2012 thread. I have a college sophomore, HS senior, and HS freshman. All boys. </p>
<p>Speaking of subject testsā¦we had never heard of them when my oldest was applying in his senior year. He took two and scored high enough to fit in with the rest of his grades & scores. So I was much smarter with my S2 - I had him get a jump by taking the bio test right after freshman biology (not even honors bio - just regular). He got a 670 - in the 50-something percentile I think. He never sent it to any schools - he took Math II and Physics later and sent those. Hereās the funny part - I was looking at our state university the other day (next year, heās either going there or one other school heās waiting to hear from). Apparently, bio is the ONLY subject test they give a course credit for, and he missed the cut off by 10 points - what is that, one question? LOL. If he would have just studied maybe 30 minutes he may have picked up that one more question and have 3 more credits under his belt going in to college. You never know!</p>
<p>My kids arenāt ivy bound - we have three boys with smarts and test scores out the wazoo and gradesā¦not so out the wazoo. Theyāre fine but not ivy. I chalk it up to poor parenting. Well, on a bad day I do. On a good day I chalk it up to having cool kids that do a million other unusual and cool things, but just donāt like to expend all of their energy jumping through hoops for straight Aās. Like I said - bad parenting. 
</p>
<p>Freshman son got disappointing grades his first high school semester - a couple Aās and mostly Bās. He never received grades until 8th grade, and I think he hasnāt quite figured out how much they matter. I just claim that like any good CC family, weāre strategically setting the stage for a beautiful upward trend. He got a great score on the PSAT, so it looks like Iām 3 for 3 on kids with the high scores/OK grades. </p>
<p>All in all though, S3 has had a great start to high school - heās making friends and involved in a couple things.</p>
<p>Happy New Year to all!</p>
<p>S2 finished up fall semester with most Bs in the core subjects because he slacked off his finals. A wake up call I am sure. </p>
<p>Interesting, PinotNoir. I wonder if S2 should take biology subject test in May. He is in honors bio and I donāt think he will be taking AP bio in the future. What is everyoneĀs thought on HS freshman taking bio subject test?</p>
<p>Hi all!</p>
<p>Iām glad to see a bit more activity here because Iām still pretty new to this site and do have questions. I see some of you have older children who have been through the process so I may need to pick some of your brains!</p>
<p>Quick rundown, D1 is a freshman, doing very well in school and tests well (took PSAT in 7th and 8th grade, decided to skip it this year). Iām also interested in responses as to whether she should take Bio subject test after this year. She doesnāt love the math/science areas, but does well.</p>
<p>Question about ECās. I know that āpassionā is the buzzword these days, but honestly, she doesnāt have a passion that translates well into ECās. She loves music (is in orchestra and choir, loves piano) but other than tutoring, thereās not much she can do with that as an EC, is there? Also loves to be around kiddos, but same issue. Last summer and this coming summer, she will be taking summer school classes to knock out some core classes, so time over summers is also limited. FINALLY - I really donāt want her to have to make something up - or have her feign āpassionā - if itās really not there just to help with college admissions. Am I crazy?</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post!</p>
<p>Ah, attention turns from the child in the HS class of 2012, and toward the younger sibling! Iām with you all there. Done with the elder (except for figuring out the money, and perhaps the details). Time to start in on the younger.</p>
<p>Dā15 is still on vacation until Monday (as is big sister, Dā12, who is at a different high school, though her semester is over). Dā15 has one week of classes, and then her first HS finals. The new semester starts the third week in Jan.</p>
<p>I did just sign Dā15 up for the Bio SAT Subject test. I have a feeling that there will be date collisions (math team related events) but since there isnāt an actual conflict now, it seemed wise to register now. Our experience with Dā12 was to take the Subject exams as soon as the student is ready for them and get it out of the way. But thatās kind of how I roll in any event. Prepare and worry far ahead, jump on things early, and have it all under control and not fret at the pressured time. My natural tendency for me is to procrastinate, but for the kids, Iām overly-prepared, which keeps me calm in times of crisis.</p>
<p>I have academically-oriented kids, not athletes, so we wonāt be looking at athletic recruiting at all. Music, perhaps, but not sports. We are, and have been seeing some conflict between the music commitments and the academically-oriented EC commitments, even at our local HS. Dā15 is going to need to make some tough decisions very, very soon.</p>
<p>Dā15 has certainly settled into HS well, and seems busy but happy. She still has to make some decisions about what she wants out of HS, and if she wants to stay at our local, very large, academically mixed HS or beginning next year go to our state magnet math and science HS, where her big sister has attended. For Dā15, there are real trade-offs, and I can honestly say that the opportunities, though different, may be greater at our local HS, even in math and science. Well, science, in any event. Itās just hard to tell. The bigger issue is social, and even there I canāt tell which is the better choice for this particular child. It was crystal clear for her sister. So Dā15 is doing all of the paperwork to give herself options, and postponing decisions.</p>
<p>Are people planning for summer yet? I have ideas fomenting in my and Dā15ās head, but nothing more than thoughts at this point.</p>
<p>Glad to see you all here!</p>
<p>suzy ā thereās a TON your D can do in terms of music EC. She can join outside orchestras or choruses, enter competitions, take summer intensives, form her own band or chamber group and of course, teach small children. It sort of depends on her level of proficiency and dedication. And itās not going to go through the school, most likely.</p>
<p>Dās violin teacher offers a āmatchmakingā service that will combine babysitting and help with violin practice where an advanced violin student of appropriate age will babysit a younger, and part of the babysitting time will include practicing with the younger. In addition to providing a source of babysitters, it also means that the brand new 5 y.o. violinist gets to make a connection to an older violinist or violist in the studio, and get help on position and technique that the parent may not feel so comfortable with. Itās a great arrangement.</p>
<p>Hi all! Iāve popped in here a time or two. I have two sons. DS1 is a college freshman and DS2 is a HS freshman. Even though DS1 is at an Ivy I would be hard pressed to give you solid suggestions on how he got there. We were all very surprised and very elated when he was accepted. I think that pursuing what you are interested in and doing your best is what counts. He didnāt game the system in any way (and we were actually very clueless about everything). I found out a lot of things here on CC but mostly after it was too late for him to do anything about it! He didnāt even consider applying to his school until fall of Jr year and it was the only ivy he applied to. He picked it for fit and I really think that is important for everyone looking at schools!</p>
<p>Good luck to all in the quest for higher learning. DS2 will be in an entirely different situation than DS1 and we will be deciding whether to start him at a community college or let him go to a 4 year college since he has a number of LD issues. He amazes us every day, so who knows how much he will grow over these 4 years. He hasnāt received grades yet as his school is like Pepperās and the semester ends at the end of the month. So far heās doing well.</p>
<p>Edit: Had to add thisāIJustDrive: what a great opportunity with the mentoring/babysitting idea. That is really unique and such an amazing opportunity for both the older and the younger violinist!!!</p>
<p>Thanks IJD. That babysitting matchmaking service would be perfect! I may have her ask her orchestra teacher about it, although this teacher does not seem to have a lot of time for the kids, and intimidates them. The only other rub is that I think D is going to have to drop orchestra. The school (which is huge) has a fantastic and very competitive music program, but itās all āin schoolā time, not after-school. So, she has to drop that or chorus, and she absolutely loves chorus so I will support her in that decision even though this is not something she will pursue in college, other than for fun.</p>
<p>I am going to look into having her sign up for the Bio test as well - good advice.</p>
<p>One note about the magnet school dilemma - I feel your pain. D was offered a full ride to a very small and very expensive private school in our area. We agonized over what to do, but in the end the D asked to be allowed to attend the large public high school which does have great academics and lots and lots of diverse class options. For her, I think it was a good choice, but it was very difficult.</p>