<p>Welcome Threesdad! Thank you mihcal1.It will be useful.D15 is doing level 6.2 more to go.</p>
<pre><code> The first semester was good for D15. Hope she finishes the second one too wihtout any problems.
There is a lot going on in our school district.There are talks about firing the counselors due to budget cut.We don't what a school of 3000 kids would do without counselors.To top that we found out that her schools chinese program is approved by UC only for the first two years.
We are in a dilemma whether to take spanish over summer and change to spanish or do the AP in the CC.Not sure if school would approve that.Its reaaly sad that the education system is the first to be affected in the states budget cut in ca.
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<p>Already the district has cut down all the summer programs and kids cannot take extra classes for the purpose of improving their scores.It feels like we are stuck here.</p>
<pre><code> Sometimes i think if i had made a mistake of not sending D15 to neighbouring district where they are more flexible.
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<p>TrippleA, agreed on the crazy budget cuts in Cal. We have ONE counselor for 2000 students, she spends all her time on the kids who are in trouble/not set to graduate. Then, we have one very unqualified woman who handles the college search and applications. She had never heard of the National Merit Hispanic Recognition Program! She also erroneously calculated ELC for this year (got the wrong GPA for top 15% , which admittedly was challenging because they changed the criteria, but still… If I had not followed up, my S12 would not have been ELC, which is huge since he wants to go to one of the UCs.</p>
<p>Thank you AAA! D’s school offers Mandarin, though D selected Spanish as she had 3 years of Italian in middle school. Additionally I don’t think D wanted her mother to help with her Mandarin homework as WW was born in Taiwan and still speaks Mandarin well, though her reading is quite rusty. She’s taught me about 10 words in total, so I would be of no help (plus I am very American, as my wife’s family likes to say).</p>
<p>I enjoyed reading the schedules chosen for 10th grade, as my D does IGCSE’s she has a 2 year course in the following subjects
Maths
Eng Language
Eng literature
German
French
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
History
Geography
Visual Art
All with exams at the end in summer 2013.
Her school make them take music/ICT/ART/PE rotating on a block of 6weeks (1 lesson per week) to comply with German state regulations.
At least when she gets to IB it is only 6 subjects.</p>
<pre><code> Has anyone tried claremont mckeena summer debate program?We are thinking of enrolling D15 for this summer.Suggestions please.
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<p>tripleamom. D1 was a big high school policy debater and still debates in college. Is your D a policy debater? DI attended Emory and the Michigan debate camps. Kids in the national circuit usually attend camps for 6 - 7 weeks. Her partner went to Dartmouth and North Western also has a great reputation.</p>
<p>Gibson1514,D15 does parlimentary debate.But she did not have a good partner and now her partner did not want to continue with debate.She is thinking of changing .
the school debate team is also not very encouraging.</p>
<pre><code> I also heard about the camps you mentioned.But she is not experienced.I heard stanford is good here.Need some big bucks i think.thank you for the information.
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<p>TripleAMom, Eligible in the Local Context (ELC) is given to students in the top 9% GPAs of each California high school, based on 10th and 11th grade core classes and weighted by up to eight semesters of honors/AP. It guarantees admission to one of the UCs (maybe not the ones our kids want, but SOMEWHERE),<br>
Here is a link for anyone who wants the official explanation:
[Eligibility</a> in the Local Context (ELC)](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/]Eligibility”>http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/)
Another path is Eligible in the Statewide Context (imho much easier to do, my S12 made it by a mile). For some reason, though, no one ever talks about it.<br>
It is so interesting to see how academic everyone’s freshman are! I can barely persuade mine to take one honors class, she would rather be more laid back (very unlike H, me, and her big brother, all firstborn over-achiever types). But, the world needs more pretty butterflies, we can’t all overdose on APs!</p>
<p>tripleA. Debate is hard without a committed partner. Freshman year, her best friend debated with her. She was not as committed as D and dropped out. D went on to win novice state with an upperclassman who was debating for her first year. Sophmore year she debated with many upperclassmen. One of the freshman was really good, but didn’t debate policy. She worked on him and persuaded him to try policy. Thankfully, he loved it and they debated together for 2 years. They were a great team and qualified for the TOC- the first in our county.</p>
<p>Debate is expensive! Travel and summer camps. However, D1 had 3 full free ride offers to college. I think the return was well worth the investment… and she had fun doing it!</p>
<p>wordworld,thank you for the ELC,i will look it up.I agree with you about the first borns being over achievers.Don’t worry your D will come around.</p>
<p>Gibson1514,the same happened with D15,partnered with her best friend and later found out her friend wasn’t interested.They don’t have enough practice at school.I think we will look into stanford as it is close to us.Maybe she will find a good partner next year.She is trying to persuade another friend of hers.</p>
<p>Is anyone else’s child taking the national French test? It’s administered in early March, and this will be D’s first year taking it. I really don’t know much about it, but my D loves French and her teacher is encouraging her to pursue it in college so the results of this may be interesting.</p>
<p>On another note, my house is under contract. Inspections are tomorrow so I’m not celebrating until that is over and we see where we are at that point. However, I see some light at the end of the tunnel - and the chance to start putting more $ into D’s college fund - so I am grateful for progress! Fingers are crossed.</p>
<p>Hey Suzy! No information on the national French test, but CONGRATS on the house being under contract! I am currently getting our house ready for remodeling prior to putting it on the market, so I know what you have gone through! Fingers crossed that the inspections go well…</p>
<p>tripleAmom: No, my D did not take the Mandarin AP exam. She did not start studying the language until her sophomore year, so just rose to the level of Mandarin III, 1 level below the AP exam, by her HS graduation. I think the AP level might have pushed her over the edge…! This was not a class that was helping her GPA…
My D’15 is sticking with French.</p>
<p>*I am currently getting our house ready for remodeling prior to putting it on the market, so I know what you have gone through! Fingers crossed that the inspections go well… *</p>
<p>Thank you WW! I should hear back tomorrow, but the waiting is killing me.</p>
<p>Making improvements for sale is bittersweet, isn’t it? I don’t know where you live, but I do get a sense that the market is starting to improve. (I’m in Ohio.) Good luck to you as well.</p>
<p>tripleamom - Glad to hear your D is more of a natural with Chinese than my D11 was </p>
<p>Maxwellequations: She had years of French language before she started Chinese. I can’t really say whether or not the Chinese benefitted her. She would have had a better grade if she stayed with French I think, but perhaps the challenge of Chinese reflected well on her transcript, making up for the less than perfect marks in that subject. Hard to say.</p>
