Parents of the HS Class of 2015

<p>We just had an interesting weekend.
D15 tried out for all state band last November and she got in. Last Wed. she went to practice and stayed in a hotel with other all state kids. Saturday was the concert. The kids were so attached to each other after just those few days it was hard to believe. </p>

<p>Anyway, originally she had decided not to do band because there is no time she could fit it in. But after All State, she said that she’d do band, (because otherwise she wouldn’t be eligible to tryout for all state again,) and she was willing to sacrifice lunch period so she could do band as the 8th period. </p>

<p>She is doing so many things, I don’t want her to burn out.</p>

<p>@mayhew, thanks for the comments! Yes Chinese is extremely hard, esp. if they want to take the national exam. </p>

<p>@herandhis, Congratulations to your daughter. All State is hard to get in. she must be very talented. IMO, it’s worth to do it through HS, even if she may not want to be a professional musician.</p>

<p>Is anyone else with a kid in the class of '15 looking at academic summer programs? D has applied to Brown. There don’t seem to be very many available to rising sophs.</p>

<p>I’d love to hear bout it if your child has done one before.</p>

<p>Waving at OBM!</p>

<p>My '15 was at CTY last summer and had a great time. Learned a lot too. There are surprisingly few programs for our '15 this summer. Summer is such a precious resource. I’d hate to waste it just getting the basics out of the way. We’re mostly looking at local options this summer (or at least for most of the summer) since I’d like to have everyone at home one last time. We’ll see if that actually works out. (Or if they all kill each other by August.)</p>

<p>Hi IJL! CTY looks neat. D hasn’t taken ACT or PSAT yet though, so without scores I guess she can’t do that one. </p>

<p>She became interested in Columbia’s program - she loves NYC - but that one is pricey and without any FA help. She’s too young for Barnard’s…so she 's hoping to do Brown. We actually have one of the best HS writing programs at a college in our town, but for her this is about going away and checking out the NE too.</p>

<p>She’s not interested for college app purposes, just wants the experience and to hopefully study math in an interesting/new way. She usually does a lot of summer work with one or both of her sports, but wants to change it up this summer. She’s a science/math kid so I hope she gets a good experience with those in a way that is more creative and different from the HS way of teaching those subjects.</p>

<p>I am hoping we can make it work.</p>

<p>^OBM-Brown summer program sounds like a wonderful experience for your D! </p>

<p>Mandarin-My S1 took Chinese for three years in HS. In his junior year Chinese III was his lowest in grade of all the courses. I think most foreign languages at level 3 are getting harder and instructions are given in a way to prepare students for the AP course next year.</p>

<p>The Chinese classes in our HS are made up of students with varied Mandarin proficiencies. There are some native speaking students who are recent immigrants from Chinese speaking countries, as well as American born students who grow up in a home where Mandarin is used as a primary language. And there are students such as my S who have no prior Mandarin experience at all. There is only one Chinese class per level.</p>

<p>Does anyone else have the similar situation with the Chinese classes in your kids’ school?</p>

<p>obm, do you mind saying what writing program you are referring to? D is a good writer and we are in Ohio and I’ve been looking around for some summer programs for her. I’m not sure we can swing it this year because she’s taking PE this summer to get part of the requirement out of the way, but it’s probably worth looking into it.</p>

<p>Sure - Reynolds at Denison: [Reynolds</a> Writing Program](<a href=“http://reynolds.denison.edu/]Reynolds”>http://reynolds.denison.edu/)</p>

<p>Thank you! It looks like they don’t take freshman/sophs, but this is something I’m going to look into in a few years. It looks like a great program and it might be right up her alley.</p>

<p>Now a little rant: my kiddo took the PSAT in 7th grade and scored really high, such that she would have been eligible for CTY probably. WHY OH WHY DIDN’T THE SCHOOL TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT THAT??? While I’m not sure I could have afforded it anyway, I wish I had at least been told that programs like that were out there. D is a bit lazy when it comes to academics because it’s been easy for her. I think attending something like this when she was younger could have lit a fire in her.</p>

<p>ETA: I realize I have some culpability here and should have looked into it more. She’s my first and, unfortunately, my guinea pig.</p>

<p>I agree with sunnydayfun - we’ve found that year 3 of a language really ramps up in terms of difficulty. My daughter is feeling frustrated in French right now, but I think it will all come together for her as she figures out better ways to study.</p>

<p>She’s not doing much exciting this summer - taking health online so that she can take a full year of art next year. She’ll also be a CIT at a couple of camps, one sleepaway and one a local day camp. Add in a trip to visit the grandparents, and the summer is gone.</p>

<p>suzy - one more year. summer between soph and junior is OK there. Sorry I didn’t look closely because she rejected it out of hand :)</p>

<p>I wish my D had taken the PSAT this year, I just spaced it as I was dealing with S12’s college stuff at the time. I guess I could sign her up for the ACT. Hate to push her as she’s only a freshman but she seems to enjoy that kind of thing. I feel like she’s a guinea pig in a way because her older brother is SO different.</p>

<p>Oops - just saw this - really, thanks for letting me know about the program.</p>

<p>D skipped PSAT this year because she had taken it in 7th and 8th. She will take it again next year, and maybe the ACT as well for practice assuming no scores would be reported to anyone. What is the conventional wisdom about the right time for taking the ACT/SAT for “real”?</p>

<p>For SAT/ACT, later is generally better because it allows more time for general maturation. But you definitely want a go at it by spring of Junior year. That gives you a read for narrowing down your college search, but still gives you time to retake in early fall of Senior year, if necessary.</p>

<p>Sometimes it needs to get pushed forward into winter of Junior year, to avoid conflicting with APs and SAT subject testing and spring sports. </p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

<p>I don’t know for sure, but I think if you take the ACT anytime during high school it is “for real”. There is a practice exam (like PSAT) called the PLAN that some people take (none of my kids have). </p>

<p>Different strokes for different folks, but my two older kids have taken the SAT once in October junior year and once in Jan - March junior year. There is algebra and geometry on the math portion, so it’s good to have had those courses before taking the SAT. So if I had a junior taking geometry of algebra junior year, I would recommend taking it maybe in March and June to benefit from the math class. </p>

<p>It sure isn’t necessary to get them done that early. It works fine to take them in fall senior year too. We just liked having them completely done before AP tests & finals in May, and before turning attention to finalizing college lists and the application process.</p>

<p>Thanks for the information. I can see that junior year is going to be a rough one - heavy on AP and standardized testing.</p>

<p>D '15 will be compiling her schedule by month’s end. Her school does block scheduling as do many others. While we’ll be meeting her her advisor in about 10 days (the faculty has completed their recommendations for next year already), it appears the schedule will look something like this:
Algebra II (H)
Spanish II (H)
Chemistry
English II
History II - Revolutions
Gym/Health - required even as she is a 2 sport athlete
Fine Arts perhaps sculpture or photography</p>

<p>Update:
The three of us (WW, DD & I) met with the academic advisor this morning. DD was recommended for Algebra II & Chem 1 Honors but not Spanish II Honors. The DD really wants to take Honors Spanish and is scurrying around obtaining the required signatures from her teacher, advisor, grade dean & academic dean so she can take the course. The school wants to know the student has skin in the game and makes them jump through hoops to make an academic reach.</p>

<p>I do have a question for the group: DD transferred from her school district to her present school in September to begin high school. Science, math, reading comprehension & performing/graphic arts wise DD is academically on point with her peers in the new school. </p>

<p>Writing is a very different topic, however. DD works hard on improving her writing and it’s come a long way in 6 months, but it will take another year for her to be at/above her peer group. </p>

<p>Any other parents have this challange with writing?</p>

<p>Hello all. Pinot has a good strategy for junior year SAT provided your D/S has taken Math up to Trig the previous year. I think it is recommended that they take it the spring of Jr Year because that is typically when Trig (algebra 2) finishes for most students. I plan to have my S follow Pinot’s plan, of early Jr year SAT, followed by a later in the year SAT. My D is a junior now and is pprepping for her first SAT in March. The timing for her is terrible since her IB Independent Assessments are all due at the same time. </p>

<p>S did take the PSAT this year and did well for freshman. We will opt to have him take the PSAT next year as well to mark his progress. We will not touch the SAT/ACT until jr year. I had heard that anytime take in High School counts. IMO, there is so much learning that happens between now and junior year that it is better to wait. </p>

<p>Threesdad, my S struggles with writing in a school that is very writing focused. He is very math and science brained. We have worked with him and he has worked independently to come up with his own “formulas” for writing. It seems to have worked. His material is not the most creative and the writing is downright boring, but he is now pulling B+ on writing assignments instead of C’s. Does your school have a writing center? Our school has one that is very helpful to students who want some extra help.</p>

<p>I’m with PN on when to take standardized exams. At least with my '12, she was prepared as she was going to be by fall of Jr. year, and the earlier the exams are gotten out of the way, the less stress she found in exam taking. By Jan. of Jr. year, all of her classmates were freaking out about test scores, so it was really good that she was done. Similarly, she took SAT subject exams right after taking the relevant courses. As long as those are taken during high school, they “count” for college admissions. (For those of you with smarty-pants kids who took them during middle school, those DON’T “count” at many schools. They’ll need to take those subject exams again, though you may want to check with specific colleges about their policies.)</p>

<p>If you have a kid who is likely to do well enough on the PSAT to make NM for your state, make sure that s/he takes the SAT in the right time frame for score confirmation. I know that they’ve narrowed that window recently.</p>

<p>D’12 actually took the SAT the weekend BEFORE the PSAT and was able to capitalize on that testing synergy, not to mention spending the least amount of time fretting among all her peers. It was a good thing that she didn’t wait, because the AP exams at the end of Jr. year were an ugly slog (though with very good results – it was just very stressful). I’d like to take the same approach with D’15, who tests very well, generally.</p>

<p>Loved reading the discussion about the testing plans. I think we’ll do the same thing- have D. test SAT junior year, maybe in the spring, after the crazy band time is over. She did SAT in 8th grade, so she knows what it’s like. But next time it’ll be for real. </p>

<p>With all these testing - APs, SATIIs, etc. I can see it’s getting hectic in junior year. </p>

<p>When is the good time to take SAT subject tests? D. plans to take math II. The other one she doesn’t know. She actually wants to major humanity in college. Does she need to take SAT math II? Her math is very strong. does it easily, without much passion though. She loves government, law, media, language stuff. Her school doesn’t offer AP world history. Otherwise world history would definitely be a subject she’d go for. They have honors world. Will that be good enough to do SATII? Any comments will be appreciated.</p>

<p>My S actually did better on his ACT as a junior (spring) than he did as a senior (fall). I think the info was fresher in his mind, and he was not one to do prep.</p>

<p>When I’ve ordered SAT/ACT results for colleges, I’ve been offered 4 free and additional ones at about $10 each. For each test - meaning if i want a school to get his junior and senior ACT results, I have to specifically order both. How would a college see scores you don’t send, unless your HS puts them on transcripts?</p>