<p>Hi fellow frosh parents! Update on D - she got into Summer@Brown a month ago but didn’t get the Dean’s Scholarship we needed for her to attend. The letter suggested that she not decline right away in case funds became available. Well…they did! Letter today, she got it! So she’ll be doing some of her summer in Providence after all. S12 is considering his options and will probably make a college decision an hour before the May 1 deadline :)</p>
<p>IB/AP…D13 is in the middle of IB right now. It really works for her as a student and her learning style, but it does tend to burn them out. i LOVE IB for D, but we are considering keeping S as an AP student with IB light. I am not sure it is the best thing for his math/engineering brain…</p>
<p>Go with your gut.</p>
<p>Glad to hear it, ohiobassmom! I hope she has a wonderful time!</p>
<p>I agree-that IB program from what I can tell would be way too much for my kids.</p>
<p>My son goes to school with a lot of kids who have the IB diploma and and went to a HS that offered no AP classes. </p>
<p>He feels in some ways he is behind them but in others he is ahead because he feels some of them are burnt out from years of intense workload and not enough time to be a kid-that is a direct quote so I am just passing that along. I think if the kid is really driven it’s fine-but if not I wouldn’t push it.</p>
<p>Congrats on the program ohio-Brown is a half hour from my house if you ever need anything! :)</p>
<p>ohiobassmom: Congratulations on the Summer@Brown acceptance and scholarship!! Looks like it was 'meant to be" 
My oldest D is a very happy student at Brown, and really loving College Hill. Although we have no experience with Summer@Brown, let me know if you have any Brown related questions :)</p>
<p>Thank you pinot, pepper and mayhew. She’s very excited. She needs to choose her class and length of program now. Funny i’ve made peace with myS12 going off to college next year but when this scholarship came for D15 my heart flipped a little. 3 whole weeks… :)</p>
<p>Well my heart would flip a bit too-three weeks is a long time. :)</p>
<p>I’ll keep an eye out for her don’t worry.</p>
<p>So glad the Summer@Brown worked out for your D, ohiobassmom! It sounds like a wonderful program, and that it was meant to be! I understand being nervous about 3 weeks gone, but I’m sure she will be fine. :)</p>
<p>When you take your children 15 to a college visit, is it just to get a look of the campus, etc. or do you make an appointment? My daughter wants to look at some colleges in the summer. I feel it’s still too early to make it formal. am I right?</p>
<p>Last summer, we happened to be vacationing near a university that my eldest in interested in. She wanted to visit, so we did a very informal visit. We stopped by the admissions office to pick up some materials, but we didn’t make an appointment for a tour or any kind of information session. We just walked around campus and had lunch in the student union.</p>
<p>I agree with you that it’s still early for a formal visit, but it was fun for my daughter to spend a little time on a college campus.</p>
<p>15yo rising sophomore is not too early to do a tour and info session if your kid is interested. But I wouldn’t push it if they’re not. </p>
<p>Some colleges want you to make an appointment for a tour and info session, others are OK with walk-ins. Check on the particular college’s admissions info webpage to see what they want. It’s also a good idea to check the school’s calendar. Many schools are dead quiet when the students are away on break, and there’s not much point to going to look at a bunch of empty locked buildings.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments.
We went to Boston area during the spring break and “visited” some schools. Well it’s not real visits, we didn’t even go to the admissions, just walked in the campus to let her see what it’s like. Next year if we go again, we’ll probably do some homework. Any suggestions are welcome.</p>
<p>wow I had a hard time digging out our thread. :p</p>
<p>@Maxwell, hi there again. </p>
<p>D is going to the state with her history project. It’s a documentary. She got the first place in the county. She sent her movie with the supporting material (process paper, annotated bibliography) to a person in the State humanity council for comments. She got very detailed suggestions. We found out her bibliography needs to be worked on. the format is not right, and they also suggested that she look into details to see if she can change some of the secondary sources to primary. One comment says that History Day contest is less about the final project, more about research process. </p>
<p>It’s very helpful to know. </p>
<p>Anybody else going to the state with history day project? Any historians here to offer some comments?</p>
<p>I am a historian. I’m happy to help, but I’ve never really been involved in History Day, so I don’t know how helpful I will be.</p>
<p>Can you clarify this statement:
“they also suggested that she look into details to see if she can change some of the secondary sources to primary.”</p>
<p>Did the reviewers mean replacing some of the secondary sources with primary sources? If so, I would agree that it’s important to do as much of the research as possible with primary sources.</p>
<p>Wow - hi ohiobassmom, mihcal1, IJustDrive, Pino, OKC and others! You mean we get to do this all over again together? I just noticed this thread and thought I’d check in. Now I’ve got more back pages to read. It will be a completely different process with DS15 as he is a completely different temperament than big sis. </p>
<p>Agree, nellieh, on IB vs AP for kid 2. S is taking AP World and Bio next year, but would likely wilt under the pressure of IB.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yup! :)</p>
<p>Congrats to your D on her history project, his&hers!</p>
<p>LOL on doing this all over again in a few years - well I get to do it all over again next year for my D13 but survived it once with D10.</p>
<p>It reminds me though of back to school nights and teacher conferences when S15 was younger - I’d often tell the teachers “this is my 3rd time through this rodeo, no he’s not the same kid but the basics are the same and I need to focus on the grades and experiences new to my older ones. Just let me know if he’s hitting the edges of the track and we’ll refocus!” Most teachers were happy with my honesty and understood it, and were thankful I wasn’t yet another on the kindergarten “will the coloring homework properly prepare my child for college?” train (we are in a very uber involved parent school district with great schools but the climate can get a bit cut throat along the way).</p>
<p>Now that isn’t to say I’ve ignored S15 along the way, and he is a different sort than his 2 older sisters but he’s done just fine and took ownership along the way in a way his peers haven’t always done. Now the caveat is he is a 15 year old boy, so he’s only so engaged, lol, but he’s doing fine and once D13 clears the nest fleeing hurdle, he’ll be under full attention and scrutiny as we switch gears for his college focus. Then though I’ll be kicking and screaming because the baby isn’t supposed to ever get big enough to leave home He’s already a head taller than I am, isn’t that enough? :)</p>
<p>Hello! I am thrilled to find this thread! (Is there a way to ‘favorite’ it or something so I can find it again?)</p>
<p>We are in Florida and have a D15.
She is the IB program (pre-IB/AP for 9th grade) and is gearing up for her 1st AP test (European History).
She dreams of MIT which is a great motivator, even if it is a reach (and she knows it).
I have learned so much on CC about the whole college application process and an very glad to be starting that education now and not jumping into it later! I was introduced to the complications of the process when a friend recommended I read “Crazy U”…a great read, I recommend it!</p>
<p>PS: I saw the discussion of ‘to IB or not to IB’ and I agree with the advice given. If your child really wants to do it, then go for it, but if they don’t do NOT push for it. Our daughter really wanted to go IB, and is, so far, happy with that choice, but it is a lot of homework, very time consuming, and seems unforgiving as far as illness and absences. If an assignment is due, it is due…no excuses, sort of thing. Seems harsh sometimes, and I reserve the right to complain about that issue on future posts. 
lol She is definitely getting a lot out of it though…learning lots!</p>
<p>We went a ‘visited’ a couple campuses during a recent school break, but the colleges were on break too, so we didn’t really get to see it ‘in action’. It was still fun to see them though and they were all (3 of them) so different. D had definite preferences, but I do wonder if the vibe would be a lot different with all the students there! I think I have been a little afraid to do an official tour, but might this summer if we are going to be near a college of possible interest. I guess, as long as we tell them up front that she is only a rising sophomore they can just say no of they want and I won’t worry so much that we don’t ‘belong’ there yet. lol</p>