We got that VCU thing today too.
@payn4ward - Glad your husband is doing well.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - congrats on the scholarship invitation and condolences over all of those essays!
I have enjoyed the board game suggestions - we could use some new options.
Senioritis - a lot of recharging happened over the break. Iāll be curious if a good midyear grade report will add or decrease motivation. Dās comes out next week.
Gmail seems to have better algorithm for spam than Yahoo. DS have a separate gmail ID for college apps.
@STEM2017 re: sending 2018 calendar - that is so funny. =))
@STEM2017 maybe before becoming a college counselor you could try your hand this winter as a stand up comedian, using the college search as material. Golden!! I see a Late night TV comedy routine in your future.
Re Games. The only one thing I sort of collect is board games. I get them for gifts primarily. I have every game that has won the Spiel Des Jahres awards, so if you all are looking for decent games, just search the award winners/nominees and you will find some entertaining games. If you all have any questions regarding games, feel free to pm any time.
Son17 received a call yesterday from one of his schools regarding submitting info for their Honors Program. Talked a bit about the whole process with son. He was in the process of finishing the app up, so today he finally just finished 1 last small essay, updated his resume and sent it in. I donāt know if heāll get selected in the end, but he felt good for just being invited personally, so thatās good. Iām kind of in the love the schools that love you back state of mind right now. Weāll see what happens.
OCNYmom DC is RPI medal winner as well. We went to the special open house for medal winners back in the fall to check it out. DC likes the school but wishes for a more urban location but best MAC so far for us
Also applied to WPI, RIT, Uof R, NEU, BU and couple of reach schools incl GA Tech
We will not get FA so did not do Cornell or Columbia - too much $$$
Both DC are at First kick off today. Build season will be really busy plus no senioritis here as the semester has not ended yet.
informal poll:
Do your kidsā transcripts include high school credits earned prior to high school?
If they do, are the grades included in their gpa calculation?
As homeschoolers, we obviously create our own transcripts. I include all high school credits even if earned prior to high school (math, science, and foreign language credits). Others donāt b/c they do not believe colleges want to see anything other than high school yrs.
I know one state we lived in definitely included math and foreign language credits from middle school. Just wondering what is happening in other states.
D took 3 high school courses in middle school and all three show up on her high school transcript, since she gets the credit. But the grades for those classes arenāt included in GPA calculation.
Our school includes all high school credits when calculating GPA even if taken before high school.
QOTD: Our school does not include any classes taken before high school.
PA public school hereā¦we include high school classes taken before high school in freshman year. That is why Dās weighted GPA is higher in her freshman year than her sophomore year, which is very odd.
QOTD: One HS level math class taken in MS. NOT on HS transcript.
[Raises hand in air and waves it frantically at the mention of āboard game recommendationsā]
Wow, Iāve gone and made a long post dedicated solely to board games. So Iāll start by recommending the site boardgamegeek.com to check out reviews and find new games. With an account you can keep track of games you have and ones you might be interested in getting. (Yes, Iām adding the suggestions here that Iām not familiar with).
My all-time favorite game is Dominion. Itās a deck-building game with different (random) action cards available in each game. The strategy changes a lot depending on the cards and numerous expansions are available for those who become addicted.
A few more words about Illuminati: You donāt have to be at all familiar with the books, but a little knowledge about the socio-political culture of the 1970ās makes it more amusing. Itās pretty complex to learn, so Iād recommend that at least one person go through the rules carefully and do some practice rounds first. Otherwise you get sick of constantly going back to the rule book. Also three players is fine, but I wouldnāt want to do two.
Here are a few good family games:
7 Wonders: There are three stages and players have to combine commercial, military, government build-up, etc. to have the winning civilization.
Small World: (Not based on the Disney ride!) Itās kind of like Risk, but with more variety, easier to learn, less tedious (not tedious at all in fact). The characters are D&D types, live elves, ā ā ā ā ā ā , etc. D17 hates it for some reason, so we donāt play as often as Iād like.
Curses: A bit like Fluxx but with more craziness. You might have to keep your hand on your head or speak with a crazy accent or jump up and down every time someone mentions a fruit or all of the above plus more. Iāve about had my share of it, but the kids love it.
Pandemic: A good cooperative game for when you get tired of beating each other up. Each player has their own role on a crack team working to end outbreaks of a pandemic before we end up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Age of Steam: For those who like TTR, here is a game where you can be a railroad baron in the pioneering days of expansion. Itās more complex than TTR and has distinct stages. Thereās a learning curve, but itās not too bad once youāve played a few times.
For birthday parties, graduation parties (!) etc., Werewolf is great fun. Only the narrator knows who the good guys and the were-wolves are and the villagers donāt have long to save themselves. You can play with a recording rather than a narrator, but a great narrator adds so much fun. Mafia has similar game play mechanics for those who prefer mobsters to werewolves. A similar game on a smaller scale is The Resistance. Rebels need to sabotage key targets to overcome the evil, autocratic government, but there are spies in their midst.
More āadultā games that I play with my kids because Iām a bad mom:
Cards Against Humanity: Billed as āa party game for horrible peopleā which it is. It is pretty much an offensive and dirty version of Apples to Apples (which is a great game for kids btw). It is unspeakably vulgar.
Joking Hold: Itās kind of like CAH, but instead of answering a question, you are completing a comic panel. Itās cleverly done and Iām surprised it works as well as it does. Definitely adult and based on the Cyanide and Happiness webcomic which you should check out if youāre thinking about it. (Similar to Exploding Kittens connection to theoatmeal.)
Kind of its own category:
Arkham Horror: I admit I donāt own it, but one of my favorite games to play at my board game meet-up, and I know we have some Lovecraft fans here. Itās really complex and intense. Good for a long weekend night when the power has gone out and you have several hours to burn. (Note that āseveral hoursā may be an under-estimate and does not include set-up).
For super geniuses who love spaceships and intergalactic war:
Eclipse: WAY too in-depth for me, but my meet-up group occasionally devotes an entire session to it. The physicists, mathematicians and other brilliant types tend to love this game.
@MotherOfDragons TableTop sounds amazing and Iām ashamed Iāve never heard of it! Going to install right now.
[We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.]
QOTD:4 HS classes taken in MS and all were included for GPA. However didnāt get honors credit for couple of classes as new school didnāt offer them!!
Our HS includes classes taken in MS but not the grades, they show as an āSā. I believe you can ask the grade to count either in Junior or Senior year if desired but weāve not done that as it didnāt make a gpa difference. I do need to look at see if it might help S19 but in his case I think it would look odd as it might be helpful to include the math grades but not so much the foreign-language ones LOL.
Wow, all of these different transcript/GPA calculations are interesting! HS courses taken in MS are listed on transcript, but NOT reflected in HS GPA here (large, suburban public HS). Even more quirky, all honors courses taken in 9th grade are NOT weighted with extra .5 quality point as they are 10th-12th grades. Freshman are also limited to one AP in 9th grade (Human Geography) which is weighted with 1 quality point, as all others are. Itās no wonder that many colleges recalculate GPAās when students apply!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - Around here it varies. I believe that public schools do include HS classes taken in middle school on the HS transcript and do factor in the grades (this is the case in at least one district I know of). At one private school in the area, they include the classes on the transcript but donāt factor the grades into the GPA. The classes taken in both instances do count towards fulfilling graduation requirements.
Unfortunately for my D17, the ground shifted and the rules changed between when she was finishing middle school (taking 2 HS classes) and when she entered the high school, as the entire HS administration changed. The HS used to put HS classes taken by middle schoolers onto the transcript and factor the grades into the overall GPA; they no longer do. Thus, for better or worse, D17 took a year more math that she would have perhaps otherwise taken, and has one fewer weighted grade factored into her GPA. (At the end of the day, she probably would have taken that 5th year of math in either case, since many schools want to see that you have taken math every year during the four years of HS. With respect to language, she would have continued with her foreign language through the highest level offered regardless, so it didnāt matter).
High school courses as per how NY counts them taken in middle school are on transcript and in GPA. But courses taken online or at local college - just pass/fail credit - get credit but not factored into GPA - grades are ālistedā though on his transcript.
Confession re games - donāt know many of the ones being mentioned - old school - Stratego, Clue, Life, still love Trouble though very silly & no skills needed.
@snoozn I love Dominion as well. Prosperity is my favorite expansion. We got Alchemy for Christmas. My 11 yr old dd is too vicious with it though. 
She will buy nothing buy Familiar and Possession. Blech! Older siblings started to rebel against letting her choose out the cards for the games. 
I agree about boardgamegeek. I always read their reviews before buying a game.
Pre-high-school credits: One can petition to have one year of foreign language taken in middle school placed on the high school transcript (which do count for GPA calculations, no weighting) as long as a C or better was earned, but thatās itāI was told that they used to allow more to be put on the high school transcript, but then they had issues with kids like my D19, who took five semesters of high-school English courses in middle school, which resulted in students who could essentially fail everything after tenth grade and still graduate.