<p>Hi All! I have not been on since beginning of summer…came back to “look” and there are 500# posts…I am going to take my time “reviewing”! My S has yet to take the written test…so he’s not even close to worrying about a car or parking…or I should say “I” am not worrying yet! So far so good with school starting. He seems to have had a little light bulb go on over the summer…he’s doing his homework, likes his teachers…I’m going to enjoy this for the moment…</p>
<p>@drmom123 nice to see you back! School has been in session for over 3 weeks we get midterms soon…At meet the teacher night, no negatives were mention so finger cross on this end [-O< </p>
<p>Wow, we have only been back in school 3.5 days…</p>
<p>We are just starting our third week, meet the teacher night is Monday…</p>
<p>Glad to hear school parking isn’t crazy expensive elsewhere and seems to be unique to our school. D has no choice but to drive, that was one thing she had to agree to when she applied to this high school. It’s out of district and 45 minutes to an hour each way from our house. I spent over a year and a half spending most of my day driving her to and from schools and EC’s (while homeschooling her brothers). She got her license shortly after she turned 16 and now she is responsible for driving both her and her younger brother, S18 to school and EC’s. S18 will get his license before D16 graduates and then be responsible for driving himself and S20 to school (if S20 decides to go to the same school). The insurance increase wasn’t too bad for D16 but I know we are in for a blow when S18 starts to drive because they charge so much for teenage boys and we’ll have <em>two</em> teen drivers. There is no public transportation in our area, so that was never an option.</p>
<p>We are 6 weeks from the PSAT test date here. Between illness, homework and EC’s D is finding herself stretched thinner than anticipated and has not had as much time to put into PSAT/SAT prep. She did get up early to take her second full length practice test this morning and although she did well, it was not as well as her first practice test. I think there is much more luck involved in these tests than people think. She has completed almost two thirds the skills sections of PrepScholar. I’m not sure she’ll get all the way through it by mid Oct but she’s still going to stick with it, even if she doesn’t complete it I hope what she does cover will help. @Mysonsdad did you ever hear back them on the essay scores?</p>
<p>After this crazy week she has finally given up on her idea of fostering kittens for a local no kill shelter. I had agreed to help during the day but she finally realized that there was no way she could do all her homework, practice, keep up with her EC’s, test prep and bottle feed kittens every two hours! I’m glad she came to realization on her own and before she made any commitment to the shelter. So now she’s asked if she could have a hamster! I really thought we were past this stage!</p>
<p>I think she is finally being able to set limits on herself, overextending herself has been a huge problem in the past because she wants to do it ALL . This year she has dropped the area wide orchestra and declined to participate in regionals which also excludes her from All State. It was really hard for to watch her make that decision as this has always been such a big part of her life but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything she wants to do and she does not want to be a music major… On the plus side she had been able to pick up a few paying gigs and some volunteer gigs at a nursing home for her required volunteer hours so it’s more of a ‘when one door closes, another one opens’ type of thing but with much less time commitment :)</p>
<p>@bajamm: that’s more or less our plan-- let S take driver’s ed his senior year spring, when he doesn’t need the quality points any more, and get his license after. He has enough friends with cars (his best bud has a shiny new muscle car, testosterone on wheels) so he’s in no hurry.</p>
<p>@3scoutsmom – As there are so few questions on the PSAT, luck definitely comes into play. Just as a good score on the practice test doesn’t guarantee anything, neither does a less good score. . . If you don’t think that she’ll be able to complete all the units she might want to first work on the sections where she’s relatively weaker, even if that means doing things out of order. Every study/practice session will help. In terms of her psyche I’d have her focus more on what she’s done that what she hasn’t done. She should approach the PSAT with confidence.</p>
<p>My kids definitely do NOT overextend themselves. It’s a problem we’d like to have. On the other hand, they wouldn’t even consider asking for a hamster. So we’ve got one up on you there!!</p>
<p>As I’ve written on this thread before, I’m saddened when I see all the stress that many of these kids put on themselves. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Anything that she gets done (in all of her different spheres/activities) is great, but barring unforeseen circumstances there’s nothing that’s going to happen in the next six weeks that will turn out to be a major problem.</p>
<p>My S’16 just got his full license and I added him to our insurance. S’16 is costing us right about what D’13 cost to add her back 3 years ago, about $50 per month, on a 3rd car (liability only). D’13/17 is listed as away at school so our insurance doesn’t charge for her. You might be surprised if you call around for quotes. </p>
<p>Who’s kid is getting ready for the PSAT and how? Ours is taking it on the Wednesday and it’s in 5 1/2 weeks I believe. $14 and the school registers them and such. Another question, as I have been lurking on the Class of 15 and the NMS score board: has the school told you or your kid how important this could be in terms of scholarship? Ours hasn’t, but D16’s dream school (UK-OOS) is only going to be doable with NMS or a crazy competitive scholarship win. </p>
<p>D16 is lining up her needed disability accommodations with College Board through her school for her first PSAT. So, we don’t yet know test date/s for her. She might be denied accommodations and then we’d have to appeal. This is all new territory for us. She no longer has time to do test prep, but perhaps when things settle down for the semester she’ll be able to fold some ACT (Dec2014) and SAT (Jan2015) prep into her life. She announced today she had started working on scholarships, so one more to-do list item. </p>
<p>Our school gives the message PSAT doesn’t matter–it is “practice”. Ugh. Swim coach requires am practice that day too. D feels that morning swim will be fine since that is her usual routine. I am torn. She knows that scholarships can ride on PSAT, but only because her parents have told her so. </p>
<p>^^ This. A lot of it I think is down to a relatively new bunch in the guidance office, and more of it is down to a school culture of junior college or (for the ambitious) local state uni attendance. Throw in state lottery scholarship and people just don’t look past that.</p>
<p>@Kandcsmom That would be me, the queen of PSAT obsession! D takes it on 10/18 but registration at isn’t even open yet. She’s prepping but not so much this week. Her school makes a big deal out of National Merit winners, they are mentioned at senior awards (which only seniors attend) and there’s big plaque with all the winners names on wall but I don’t think they ever tell the kids that it hinges on the 11th grade PSAT!! I except to see a group photo of those that make NMSF on the newsletter in the next week or two too. </p>
<p>I haven’t been lurking on the class of 2015 NM score thread - I’ve actually made a few post on it! - fun group of people there! My daughter has her heart set on OU (also OOS) so I know exactly how you feel Kandcsmom. D is waiting for the 10/18 so I can stop obsessing on her PSAT prep and start in on her brother S18 ;0</p>
<p>@kandcsmom , @3scoutsmom – I hadn’t looked at the 2015 NMF thread since the qualifying cutoff scores started coming in. I absolutely can’t believe that the many of the this year’s cutoffs are LOWER than last year’s. After our experience with S14 I assumed that the cutoff scores went inexorably higher year after year. . . Prior to S14’s taking the PSAT we were unaware of the importance of the test vis-a-vis NMF status. We’re taking it very seriously this go around for S16.
S16 went through three practice books over the summer (one for each section), and as of this past week he’s now spending about 40 minutes three times a week doing two sections of practice tests out of the blue book. At least he’s telling me that’s what he’s doing. As his homework load increases over the next 6 weeks who knows if he can maintain that schedule.</p>
<p>Our son will take the PSAT at his high school on October 18. The kids don’t need to register. They simply show up, take the test, and the school bills us. The scores are sent to us by the high school, not the College Board, whenever the school decides to send them out. Sometime around mid-December the school will send out the scores via snail mail. @3scoutsmom – you’ve got nothing on me in terms of obsession around this stuff, and it makes me crazy to not know in advance exactly when the scores will be released. Yeah, I know, I’ve got some issues to address . . .</p>
<p>I just looked at our school calendar and think our high school will have lower than usual PSAT scores this year. We test on Saturday the 18th and HOMECOMING is the 17th! Yikes! So glad my D could care less about football and the hoopla surrounding it! Monday the 13th is a student holiday, Thursday 16th is an official “no homework night” and half the day Friday will be spent at pep rallies. My guess is that very little academics will be going on during a four day week with a Thursday no homework night and homecoming on Friday! This is actually good for my anti-football child but I feel badly about the timing for others. We are in TX and high school football <em>is</em> the state religion, mums and all, many parents and students, even if they understand the importance of the PSAT will put homecoming as a top priority. I expect few students from our school to even bother to take the PSAT and over all lower scores for those that do. Too bad those National Merit cut offs aren’t from school to school instead of state to state;-)</p>
<p>We register through the school and the scores are sent to the schools. When my kids took the PSAT as homeschoolers we still registered through the school but the scores were sent directly home. I wish the scores were sent home for the public school students too. Last year we had to wait until the mid/late January for the official scores from the school but was I able to find them on Naviance sooner. </p>
<p>Hi all - Just wanted to chime in and introduce myself, as this is my first post to CC. I’ve been poking around to see how best to use it as my son begins narrowing down his college options. I look forward to learning from you all! As for PSAT, just paid the school a fee today that includes his PSAT in October. He is a kid who tests well but doesn’t like to put time into prepping to test <em>really</em> well… so, I’m trying to convey to him that this matters a lot. Anyway, nice to meet you all! :)</p>
<p>Welcome @blochhead I has an S18 as well as a D16 too. What part of the country are you in?</p>
<p>Thanks 3scoutsmom. I’m in the northeast.</p>
<p>We went through the PSAT testing/scores with D for the first time a few years ago. From my research then, it all depended on what school you were looking to apply to. There are several schools out there that do offer full ride scholarships for National Merit scholars, but your kid should be interested in applying/attending one of these schools. Some other schools (Northeastern used to do this) do offer significant scholarships to NMS students. Of course, it definitely is a nice thing to add to your resume :)</p>
<p>Having said that, D was not interested in most of the schools that I could find that offered these scholarships. So, while she did take the PSAT, we didn’t fret too much about her becoming a NMS. The PSAT was more of a practice run for the SAT which did count! We are taking a similar stance with S - he knows the PSAT is important and hopefully, he will prep for it. But he does go to a boarding school and they have different cutoffs for the boarding schools - and it is a very high cutoff, almost similar to the one in our state (MA). So, unless he really kills the PSAT, he’s not going to make the NMS cutoffs :(</p>
<p>@blochhead – Welcome. I discovered CC a little over a year ago when S14 couldn’t upload his common app essay without losing the paragraph breaks. That was one of many glitches with last year’s ‘new and improved’ common app, and the ONLY place where I could find the solutions was here on CC. In addition, the threads for the individual colleges were very helpful for us as he went through the application/admission/choice process. Notably, over the last couple of years the college counselors at my kids’ private high school have repeatedly told the parents NOT to read CC, saying “How can you trust the information you get from people you don’t know, who may be idiots or may have some agenda that’s not in your best interest?” Obviously some discretion is necessary when reading CC, but I have received an incredible amount of helpful information from kids and parents on this site, as well as lots of support. Enjoy.</p>
<p>@arisamp – Between living in MA and being at a boarding school (where?) your son is facing the two highest NMF cutoffs out there. . . There are some surprises among the schools that offer scholarships for NMF status. Fr’instance, USC offers a 50% tuition scholarship for NMF’s who get admitted. That’s substantial.</p>
<p>Learned something new about Naviance today. Students and parents usually are set up with different logins. Only students can see PrepMe under Resources on the left side of their main page. So, do not assume PrepMe is unavailable to your student if you (the parent) cannot see it, unless you are logged in as the student. </p>