<p>Can’t really join the party here, as my son’s high school offers very few AP courses, and none that sophomores can take. </p>
<p>@drmom – Early in the process we toured some schools that my older son had no interest in, simply because they were geographically convenient. Although he wasn’t all that engaged in the process it was still worthwhile. He at least saw the parameters by which the schools were trying to differentiate themselves from each other. In retrospect, it might have been beneficial to tour some schools in which he was truly interested earlier in the process. We didn’t see an “I can see myself here” school until November of his junior year. It was a pretty selective school, and at one point during the tour he turned to me and said, “Maybe I should have turned in that Bio lab report last semester”. I responded, “The one that you got a zero on”. He said, “Yeah, that one.” . . He might have performed better that sophomore year if he’d understood the stakes better. Probably not an issue for most of the (high-performing) kids here on CC, but S14 can be a bit of a knucklehead.</p>
<p>Hi asleepatthewheel! That’s another component of my strategy as well…taking kids to college in summer of sophomore year…in hopes that they will find a few that they like and it will motivate them to do well in junior year. So far they do get good grades but it has helped them to be on board when I suggest doing extra things to balance out their resume. They tease me that I am such am early bird but I think they feel special that I take an interest in them and their future and D14 thanks me all the time now that we did not cram everything in during junior and senior yr.</p>
<p>asleepatthewheel: my kid is similar to your “knucklehead”…he’s loveable, naive, and believes that if he just THINKS something will happen…it WILL…so, he too has had those missing homeworks etc… I think the my d’s school actually is a good fit (on paper) for him…and I’m hoping he sees enough kids to be a little more interested. It will be a reach for him…given those grades…but, I would hope it will be an inspiration. He has discovered on LAC on the east coast, which is SOOOOO impossible to get into…but he BELIEVES he’ll get in…that, I want to help him see there are “others” that he can believe in…even if it’s a reach…it is not as big of a reach as any of the NE LAC’s…for whatever reason…</p>
<p>D and I had the difficult talk yesterday. It’s not that she has any desire to go to the really selective, HYP schools-- but she didn’t like hearing they (and the “name” LACs) were off the table altogether for her. She has no extracurriculars to show for her first year and a half of high school, and only Spanish Honor Society for this spring. Her grades…top ten percent, but honestly, it’s not an uber-competitive school. So anyway, at least she now has a realistic picture of what her options are, and we talked about applying for several schools within a range so that she doesn’t end up shut out.</p>
<p>We had the come to Jesus moment at Christmas and at his college fair he attended where his mind was on UofChicago.
The list is very fluid right now depending how the year ends and what test score look like next year.
We have had the Financial talk with both D15 and S16. So they know the budget and will not be shocked at the end of the college search and acceptance.</p>
<p>yeah…my S looks at naviance…and then sees one of those “green” (or whatever) dots that shows someone was accepted with an extremely low GPA or SAT/ACT score and says “SEE MOM…if that person can get in…I CAN TOO!”</p>
<p>@drmom123 – I tried showing Naviance scattergrams to my older son when he was in 10th grade. He wasn’t terribly invested in the data analysis of college admissions, but the then 7th grader glanced at the first chart, and immediately pointed to a data point far inside the average intersection and guessed: recruited athlete? We have quite a few of those at our HS so he was most likely correct. Naviance can be misleading b/c the presence of of the recruited athletes drives down the average acceptance stats. Our data points are not identified as ED vs RD, so you can be lulled into thinking a school could be a match when in reality, it is probably a reach for the unhooked applicant. </p>
<p>The honesty on this thread is wonderful and refreshing.</p>
<p>My S16 has all of his extra-curricular eggs in one basket. He swims year-round with a USA swim club. If you include commute time, his swimming takes up 20+ hours/week (including two practices a week starting at 5:30 am and an early Sat morning practice – all year round). He’s a good swimmer, but not extraordinary. His swim times will probably be good enough to help him at some selective LAC’s (in terms of admission, not scholarships), but we don’t really know. I’d like to think that the schools might look at him and appreciate the focus and self-discipline that it takes to do this, but they also might simply think, “What? All you’ve done over these four years is go to school and go to swim practice? No community service? No clubs? No academic programs?” Well, he’s a kid with a lot of depth and texture who understands the value of hard work – something his brother (S14) has yet to figure out. We’ll just have to see. </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel I suddenly understand your user name I’m sure your son’s dedication will pay off. </p>
<p>We didn’t have Naviance with S14. In S16’s case, he sticks out of the county-wide scatterplots in an otherwise empty area – nobody else with scores like his has grades like his. No wonder he’s a fan of the book “Outliers.” </p>
<p>@crowlady – I don’t know anything about Naviance. Whatever it is, we don’t have access to it. It sounds like a database for ?local area or ?local schools that gathers historical data regarding college admissions. How can intangibles be factored in (like LOR’s, EC;s, etc.)? Does it have (practical) predictive value? And you’ve really piqued my curiosity. How does your S16 end up in his own personal zip code on the scatterplots? Is it some discordance between GPA and test scores? If so, which is high and which is low? Whichever is whatever, there must be schools who are interested in those sorts of kids.</p>
<p>@drmom123 – There is something to be said for your son’s unbridled optimism!! At least he’ll sleep better at night.</p>
<p>We also have access to Naviance. The information on how many students from S16s HS that were accepted and attended a particular school is great but it makes me worry. It appears that the schools he is most interested in do not give good merit aid since top students get in but do not go there. The recent economy seems to have supported that trend. Anyone else see that in the data for their HS?</p>
<p>Naviance is only as good has the information entered. The only problem I see is that the admission cycle has changed in the last few years which makes the numbers seem skewered.</p>
<p>Our school sends 100% post graduation on to 4 year colleges and within that number 98% get into one of their top 3 picks. 2 years ago was the first time that 50% stayed in state and this year class looks the complete opposite. So who knows what '16 class will look like?!</p>
<p>I believe some are starting to realize that spending up to $200,000 for UG is just not great Finicial planning. Even sadder is that the State U’s are closing in on $100,000. Yes, I know, that this seems high but unless you are living at home and commuting this is a more realistic picture for state universities.</p>
<p>My goal at this point is to get him out of Sophomore year alive (with out me wringing his neck) and it’s looking grimmer and grimmer each day for this kid #:-S </p>
<p>Hoosier96, I said this before…our kids may be clones! DS has this big paper due this marking period…LOTS OF POINTS…“oh, don’t worry…it’s something I can do the night before…it’s easy”…-----I really hope that two years from now…I’m re-reading some of these comments and laughing and saying “wow…I wish I knew it was going to be alright…”…but, I’m not laughing right now!! >:P </p>
<p>Up to 200k? One of the schools my S14 got into will be $65K cost of attendance next year. That’s $260K not counting the chance of a fifth year. Private schools were typically 60K/year. </p>
<p>I don’t think we can see where students choose to attend on our Naviance. My S16 is hopeful his essays and novel-writing ECs will make up for his poor grades (his scores will be fine). He has a passion for writing. Gonna be interesting.</p>
<p>We had just gotten Naviance at our public high school the year before D was supposed to graduate. Since the data was minimal, it was only marginally useful. Also, D applied to schools way outside the “normal” range for kids from her high school - so there was very little data about those schools.</p>
<p>With S, the guidance counselor told H that they don’t give parents’ access to Naviance. I am not quite sure what their reasoning is, but apparently, they have the data and will counsel the kids based on this. Not too happy about this, but I guess I’ll have to live with it. There used to be some “public” naviance sites - where you didn’t need to login to see the data - anyone have links to these sites?</p>
<p>We don’t have access to Naviance. I’m not sure if that’s across the whole district or not (ours is a huge, urban, county-sized district), because it sounds like the sort of program parents at a couple of local high schools would gladly give their life’s blood for. Is it a program that would be in use district-wide or would each school have to buy in separately?</p>
<p>Asleepatthewheel, my son’s extracurriculars are all hooked together as well. He’ll have volunteer hours by the time he graduates, but only because the state scholarship program requires it. Otherwise it’s band, band, band, and arranging music for chorus. And more band. </p>
<p>Just to be clear , I cannot see who got in or went by name but I can see enough data to tell they are top students at our high school. Only schools where 5 or more of our students applied are shown, so there is some privacy maintained by year. Now that we have multiple years of data it is becoming quite useful. </p>
I’m sure your son’s dedication will pay off. </p>