Actually, I’d say there seems to be a very anti Ivy feeling on this thread:
Just sayin’. Also sayin’ that our D16, who will attend Harvard next fall, had a total of three poorly taught years of Spanish in high school. And eight years of spectacular science.
Hugs–and no offense meant, no offense taken–to all.
@DeltaMom2019 this is a 2017 thread that you might find helpful, there have also been some along the lines of "where did your 3.5-3.7 kid get’ in or “I got into xx without a 3.7” or the like
@EastGrad and that’s exactly how it should be! Although I am sorry for the poorly taught Spanish part! One of our favorite kids will be a junior at H next year, it’s been amazing for him. It is fabulous for the right kid. Absolutely no offense meant!
I suspect the bad boss would have been bad regardless, it is just a little ironic in that particular case. He did not leverage those connections as he should. But…the man could sing! P was very very good for him in that respect.
@DeltaMom2019 I have 2 boys son19 and son17. They will not be going to Ivy’s. Son17 does not have the stats/scores/ec’s nor the desire to study in that environment. Son19 is more studious, but he is also more of the work hard/play hard kind of kid so I am sure he will want to go to school where he can live that motto without the stress of keeping up with ivy caliber kids.
Don’t stress out about it! Lots of good colleges to go to, and they can always go somewhere else for their MBA or other studies.
I love this forum. It keeps me grounded when I am lurking on the other forums on this site. Everyone brings so many different perspectives and helps me embrace this journey, even with its stress inducing ups and downs. I am enjoying S19 grow into a young man and forming his thoughts and opinions. The other day he pointed out that an article in the Economist got something wrong regarding the cause and effect of a middle east event. I was not up to speed on the context of his comment and thus was not able to engage in proper conversation with him, so he took the article to his world history teacher and yes, she agreed that the author of the article misrepresented an event. Gosh, is this twit smarter than I am?
@eastgrad - both my daughters did 5 years of spanish but Harvard didn’t care. 
Their recommendations are for what is considered a well rounded education that everyone should consider and not a template for an admission. On the other hand, it is s believed that those who do well in a foreign language do well on their SAT.
Ah, but they landed just fine, @texaspg. And they never wear winter coats.
@DeltaMom2019, just wanted to chime in that there are test optional schools and schools with very supportive environments, LACs such as many of the “colleges that change lives” schools CTCL might be a good fit.
My opinion is to find the best fit program, at the best price, for different kids those will be quite different.
The state of Virginia requires 3 years of foreign language for an “advanced diploma” so DD’19 will do that at a minimum. She had 2 years in middle school but that was a mess with her 2nd year Spanish teacher being fired before the end of the year so we had her repeat Spanish 2 in 9th grade. I do hope she goes on to Spanish 4 because it looks better to some colleges but we will reevaluate after Spanish 3. She will have 4-6 years of every core subject (because middle school carries over on the transcript here). Most of her electives will be Art classes.
We don’t have a college list for DD’19 yet but if her GPA and Test scores are in the ballpark, her final list probably will include an Ivy or two. They are a great financial deal for our family.
It’s so interesting to see how there are so many differences throughout the states as to what carries over for credit on a transcript , also what is offered and when. In our school system, the earliest HS credit class that is offered is Algebra 1 H in the 7th grade, and then English 1, H Geometry H and French 1H or Spanish 1H in the eighth grade. My son went we into 9th grade with 6 HS credits from Alg1 H and Spanish 1H. Although he had been recommended for Alg 1 H in 7th and English 1 H in 8th , we decided against it because of his maturity level and difficulty with English comprehension . Hindsight is 20/20, but I wish I would have allowed him to take his English 1 in middle school because he would’ve avoided his less than adequate teacher he has now.
I’m impressed that HS english was offered in middle school! S17 only has 1 course that carries over but S19 will have 4.
It is nice to see what that actually looks like on a transcript finally, I just received our first copy for S17 for a summer course so was able to see what the thing actually looks like. Courses show as satisfied, the grades do not carry over. You can request that they do but most do not.
We only have one kind of diploma, either you get one or you don’t lol!
Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the insight…and great point about grad school @RightCoaster.
@mommdc, totally agree with your approach.
@eandesmom - great thread suggestions…I’ve seen a few, but not the recent one.
Okay, I’m calmer…everything will work out and she will be great wherever she lands. She has a good sense of self and advocates well for herself, so I am going to try to go with the flow a bit more while remaining vigilant on the key issues, including paying for it!
Thanks again!
All, I think it’s a great idea to request an unofficial transcript from your child’s school now to see what information is contained therein. For us, it contains classes and grades attained for each year (there is no semester, trimester, etc break down, just one grade for the year), SAT Subject test scores, AP scores, and PSAT scores. All standardized test scores on an individual basis can be suppressed upon a written request to the counselor.
Something maybe kind of fun for incentivizing some kids and getting them to see results earlier might be www.raise.me
My d19 and I signed her up this morning to see what microscholarship money she already qualifies for at a few different colleges. I have no idea if they are colleges she will want to go to, but it’s kind of a neat thing for now. I checked it out after seeing mentions of it in a couple of college’s financial aid pages (specifically WPI and University of Rochester). I think there are 150+ colleges participating.
All standardized test scores on an individual basis can be suppressed upon a written request to the counselor.
[/QUOTE]
I was under the impression that the standardized tests scores go directly to the concerned people. What are the advantages of holding the scores back?
Also, can we choose to send these held back scores later in place of the lower test scores in the subsequent attempts?
@collegeandi you need to see what your schools transit includes. Ours does not include any test scores. Some do, some do not.
Ours shows classes from MS that count for graduation as an S, but will not carry over the grades unless requested.
It then shows classes by semester, the grade received, the type of class (honors, AP, DE, etc) and the overall GPA. It also shows the schools grading system and any other graduation requirements met or not met. Those can include tests but it shows met/not met only. It also shows other graduation requirements like senior project and community service.
Some schools add test scores in the transcript. There was a time some colleges accepted those scores as valid scores without needing someone to pay for reports from collegeboard. Collegeboard has tried to suppress such processes since it is detrimental to their income.
It is also detrimental to the student if schools are reporting scores that the students don’t want reported and want control of reporting score choice scores to various colleges. So if your school puts scores on the transcript, it is upto you to decide whether you want it done for your kid.
Summer is right here; just after the finals! DD was a little under pressure with her Math grades. She got too involved in her ECs earlier and came down to A-/B+ border. She doesn’t get upset easily. Likes all her 5 ECs and dislikes getting lower grades :-?
It made me wonder how she is going to handle her 2 AP and 2 Honors courses next year. Academically; she can handle more than this but it becomes a race against time. Did we sign up for a little too much?And if yes, how to go ahead? She wants to go for engineering in a good University though not a super selective one.
I got home from work yesterday to be greated by S saying, “Mom, I need a display board right now for my major Biology project due tomorrow.” Of course he had just started working on it.
I agree with @texaspg I had actually emailed our GC to see if test scores were on the transcript as they are for some schools and some colleges will accept those as official scores (which means you don’t have to pay to send them). While not paying is lovely, you may not want schools to see all scores so it’s important to know what is there and what is not.
@collegeandi it’s hard to find balance. We are trying a new app right now, S19 can handle the load and the academics. He cannot prioritize well and organize well to be timely and will default to what interests him more and it is having a disastrous effect in his 2 non honor core classes. We will see if it works, we have 3.5 weeks left for him to turn those around. He is signed up for a similar workload as yours next year and it is concerning.
@mom23travelers that is so classic. Nothing like the “mom I need a trifold” the night before it’s due! Or “mom where is extra ink” As they need to print everything for their culminating project for said trifold that is due the next day and oh, you are out of town and the printer is out of ink!
LOL
In a bit of horrid news, [there’s an active shooter reported at UCLA](http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/us/ucla-shooting-report/), with two confirmed dead.
My university provides training videos for its employees about what to do if there’s an active shooter event, and they’re surprisingly better than you’d expect videos like that to be—if nothing else, they teach you what gunshots actually sound like, which isn’t what they sound like in movies.
I’m going to make sure my daughters each watch the whole series before they leave for college.