<p>Parents of the HS class of 2015/College class of 2019 </p>
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<p>Ok, The thread has been started.
I have a class 15 D, very smart, loves languages.
Speaks two besides English, the big question now is weather to take Mandarin or French in HS (she is thinking about 2 foreign languages, is this wrong?).
Tomorrow is ACT test for the Talent Search. Off to bed now… </p>
<p>Hallo All,
don’t know where we are in this thread anymore, but it started off for parents of HS class of 2015/College class of 2019. So, I have a question or questions, but please bear with me while I give some background info. My D15 is currently a 9th grader in a German gymnaisum (we are expats living in Germany since 2009), and she will be attending an International School for 10th-12th because she wants an IB Diploma instead of the Abitur. How would any college in the US look at her high school records? Naturally, her grades are mediocre in the Gymnasium because of the language barrier, but she is a smart kid and I think she will pull in all As at the International school. She was an A+ student back in the states before we moved to Germany. So, did we do her a dis-service by putting her in a German Gymnasium? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>My D. told me yesterday that one of her facebook friends just posted this -
“Mother still thinks “lol” means “lots of love” and signs all of her emails with it.” </p>
<p>The IB diploma is very well respected by US colleges. Her first-year underperformance at the German school in her first year is unlikely to hurt her in US college admissions. First, they place greater weight on grades achieved later in high school, and will forgive poor performance in the first year provided they see improvement. Second, the applications always offer a place to write about extenuating circumstances – and moving to Germany and having to study in German definitely counts as extenuating! Indeed, her international experience may help her in admissions by making her an unusual and interesting candidate.</p>
<p>Will you still be returning to the USA before she finishes in HS, or will she be applying from Germany? There may be special hoops to jump through when applying from abroad, and different colleges may have different requirements. Once you get to the point of considering particular colleges, check their websites and also encourage your D to contact admissions if she doesn’t see the info she needs online. Also, search the College Confidential forums for advice from others who have been in your D’s situation.</p>
<p>@herandhis, I hope the mother didn’t sign “lol” when she needed to express condolences. gee! </p>
<p>3rd marking period will end this week for D. Off to the last period. 2nd year will be another challenge.
My D. is going to take APUSH. She is excited and at the same time nervous about it.</p>
<p>Father of a D15 here. I have just starting reading this thread as I have been concentrated on D12 lately and her various options. </p>
<p>I noticed a few posts about kids being grade obsessed already. That’s my D15. She told me the other day that since she didn’t take an AP this year in 9th grade that she won’t be able to make val, so she is intent on being sal. She is a very competitive gal and I can tell she wants to best her big sister (D12) who has been extremely successful. D15 started taking HS credits in 6th grade as an 11 yo and is the only one of my 3 who went to all magnet schools starting in elem school. </p>
<p>Her HS choice has been interesting. S10 and D12 went to one of our strongest HSs which happens to be our home zoned school. D15 wanted to blaze her own path so she goes to a medical sciences academy which is a school within a school. They take about 100 high achievers each year, while the other 300 in each grade are regular students who tend to struggle academically as a group compared to most of our city’s other HSs. </p>
<p>She already takes a specialized health science course (she is now certified in CPR for example), and next year she gets anatomy which is a college level course and counts like an AP. After that she gets courses like microbiology, physiology, pathophysiology I and II (including clinical rotations, research, and preceptorships). They also get guaranteed admission to med school under certain circumstances (although I haven’t seen those spelled out). </p>
<p>One of my worries has been that the overall ranking of this school might hurt her chances at a tippy top college, but I am told that schools supposedly love the best that come out of this program. I guess we shall see.</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s a brief synopsis of my class of '15 kid.</p>
<p>Welcome, TV4caster! Your kids are the same ages as mine!</p>
<p>The medical sciences academy sounds like a great program. </p>
<p>We’re still focused on S’12’s college choices here as well - S’15 is happily going about his business as a freshman. We’re a couple weeks into final quarter and the weather is great so summer feels just around the corner!</p>
<p>Just popping in to say hello. Welcome TV4caster - yet more parents of the class of '12 here - good news for us! Your daughter’s school sounds fascinating. No way my kiddo would do it though, she still has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up. :)</p>
<p>D15 just finished her 3rd quarter last week, and we’re on spring break next week. Hoping this beautiful weather in the midwest holds. I can’t believe she is already in her final quarter of freshman year. The time really has flown!</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you with '12 kiddos. I lurk in the 2012 thread because I have a stepson who is a senior, and I’ve learned so much there. I’ve also become invested in the outcomes for those kids. Hoping for fat envelopes for all!</p>
<p>Hey there TV4caster! We have exchanged a few PMs regarding our respective 12s, I was too late to that discussion but love coming here! D15’s high school sounds fascinating, is she determined to go into the medical field?<br>
S12 has some great choices and is narrowing options, so we are able to focus a little more on D15. She is doing a little better with turning homework in, the book “That Crumpled Paper was Due Last Week” has given some good tips if anyone else here has a S/D 15 with similar issues.<br>
“Hoping for fat envelopes for all!” What a great sentiment, Suzy! Made me think of “May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor” from the Hunger Games.
On a different note, our house went on the market today in the Bay Area, we have decided to move back to Texas this summer! Oh please, let us get an offer.</p>
<p>WW- Hi too! Glad things worked out for S15. D15 isn’t set on being in the medical field but that is usually one of her top choices, and I think she will at least go into something science related- Dr, astrophysicist, and astronaut are her top 3 right now :)</p>
<p>The HS program is great, but I do see one drawback. If a kid does not go into the medical field in college they would enter with fewer APs that if they did a normal hard curriculum. I think the most APs my D can get will be 4 or 5 versus the 9 that D12 has, because of all the high level physiology etc courses.</p>
<p>Good luck to those waiting on the last of the college results. A year ago D Day was the worst academic day of my son’s life-1 WL and 2 denials. It overshadowed his 8 out of 8 acceptances prior to that day. Whatever happens I can tell you from experience it can work out-he licked his wounds over that night, the brutal next day having to face everyone at school feeling like a failure, and the weekend, but by Monday the following week he was able to move past the disappointment and look at all the terrific options he already had-and is a very happy freshman at Northeastern with the world as his oyster. The school he ended up picking was one he was forced to apply to by his father in hope of receiving the NMS Scholarship there-he hated it and during the visit vowed to “never go there”! Wow was last year quite a rollercoaster! Good luck to all.</p>
<p>My HS freshman is doing very well in many ways. She listened to her big brother and hasn’t wasted the first year of HS being afraid to do everything like he was. While she is shy she has really shown signs of coming out of her shell. It’s been quite a year watching my son continue his transition into becoming a young man-he handles all his business up there and has really embraced living in a city and will be taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities they offer for studying and working all over the world. Meanwhile, he stays in touch with his little sister, encouraging her to read more, to take the hardest classes she can, to not let fear make her decisions but to try things she may not be comfortable with-great guidance and since it isn’t coming from me she actually listens! :)</p>
<p>I have so much more peace about all of this than I did last year at this time. I know there are others here who went through that experience with me and I hope they are as happy with the outcome so far as I am.</p>
<p>Pepper- for us too! 3 denials from Ivies on the one evening. D had already pretty much decided to accept the Fellowship to our state flagship, but it still stung a little. We were talking on the phone at the weekend and remembering the stress this time last year. My d is also very happy and thriving on the opportunities that are coming her way. Hang in their 12’s!</p>
<p>D2 so looking forward to spring break. I always feel this is a long stretch for them with not much down time from winter break till now. She has a heavy workload this week and is willing the week to be over. </p>
<p>We are heading to the beach ( Florida panhandle) with a few of her friends and their families. We have all rented our own places, but it will be fun for the girls to get together! Friday can’t come soon enough.</p>
<p>^^^Hello to fellow College’15 parents! This week , I have kept thinking about last year at this time, and am so grateful to have that roller coaster of emotions over with!! My D’15 is very happily settled into college life, and I feel so fortunate to have a break before D’15’19 starts the process I think (hope?pray?) that we will be less stressed when D’15’19 goes through that experience, knowing that everything works out ultimately just as it is meant to, but in reality, I doubt that I’ll be too relaxed…!
My freshman D is loving high school so far, and I think that seeing her sister go through the college process has made her more aware of the need to apply herself now. That being said though, she is still living in the moment, not stressing about where she will be by her junior year, etc., which I am happy for.</p>
<p>And I forgot to say: GOOD LUCK to all the parents here who are waiting for news from college admissions offices this week for older siblings!!! My fingers are crossed for you all!!</p>
<p>Pepper-That is so sweet of your S to encourage and guild his sister. My S1 is thriving in college too and I cant believe the freshman year will be over in 6 weeks! We did not really have emotional rollercoasters this time last year. He wants to go to our state flagship and the acceptance came before Thanksgiving. He had two rejections from top 20s but we knew they were reach schools.</p>
<p>S2 wants to go out of state. We discussed about how much we can contribute to his college education and the travel expenses if he goes far. So now we all agree that we will look into schools in Missouri and Colorado. Since we did not do many college visits with S1, I am actually looking forward to college visits with S2.</p>
<p>My D2012 is waiting on some last-day decisions. She has many good options already, but the last-day notifications tend to be the “dream” schools and there will be many broken hearts tonight.</p>
<p>It really <em>isn’t</em> the last day. Admission is only the first step. Many kids that already have acceptances in-hand are waiting on financial aid packets. FA “gaps” can leave a much-loved acceptance out of reach, or threaten to leave saddled the kid with a huge debt burden. Others face decisions between looting all the family funds to pay for a reach/match school versus “settling” for a more affordable second tier/safety. </p>
<p>The posts are heart-rending to read, and have been a real eye-opener for me. Folks, if you haven’t already done so, go to some of your favorite college websites and run the EFC calculators. Dig into the CC financial aid forum. Educate yourself. There’s still time to plan for our 2015’ers, and still time to get that family communication going. Kids whose parents have been up-front about the finances seem less likely to get blindsided at the end of the process. Don’t end up being one of those heart-rending posters!</p>
<p>Just wanted to pop in, since I think the last time I posted was way back on p. 10 or something. Plus, the talk of D-Day reminded me of our S who graduated from Carleton last summer. He’d gotten into or WL at the previous 8 schools he’d applied to and then got 2 denials and a WL from the Ivies. It overshadowed everything for a while, so I understand the stress!</p>
<p>We just had to make the decision with HS D15 on whether or not to do the IB diploma at her HS. The reason to not do it is that she’s passionate about singing and theater, and the IB diploma program just doesn’t allow for those classes–visual arts, yes, but not performing arts. This concerned us because of the usual “must take the most rigorous course work available” mantra from selective schools. But her GC said that this situation is what rec letters are for. So D15 is going to take all the AP and IB classes she can (I think that ToK and the essay class are the only ones she can’t take) and keep our fingers crossed. </p>
<p>Anyone else face a similar situation? </p>
<p>Oh, and I’ll be graduating with my MSSW in May–I can’t wait to be done! Glad to see y’all are still going strong! ;)</p>
<p>limner, I think that you made the right choice for your D. From what I’ve gathered, colleges value IB and AP courses the same, so I’m sure she’ll be fine in that regard. Plus, I think it’s so important to let her do what she loves.</p>
<p>Now, I’m going to admit I have a little bias against IB. My SS’12 chose the IB path, (his school also offers AP) and I think it has totally burned him out. It’s so time-consuming, and he won’t even know if he gets the diploma until this summer I believe - far too late for any school to care, and it would be nice if he could coast a little bit and enjoy his last months of high school. Anyway, my 2 cents on that.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your MSSW! </p>
<p>mihcal1, very good advice on the financials. I’ve already begun to plant the seeds with D’15 that finances will definitely be an issue, and a limitation. It’s sort of hard to do, because you want them to dream big, but I agree - seeing some of the posts here, with kids getting into their “dream” schools but not being able to attend because of finances has been rough to watch.</p>
<p>Suzy, thanks so much for that perspective. It feels like we’re doing the right thing, but it’s a relief to get some more data. We’re thrilled that our D15 is so passionate about music and theater–about <em>something</em>! We didn’t want to quash that.</p>
I think (hope?pray?) that we will be less stressed when D’15’19 goes through that experience, knowing that everything works out ultimately just as it is meant to, but in reality, I doubt that I’ll be too relaxed…!
Plus, the talk of D-Day reminded me of our S who graduated from Carleton last summer. He’d gotten into or WL at the previous 8 schools he’d applied to and then got 2 denials and a WL from the Ivies. It overshadowed everything for a while, so I understand the stress!</p>