DS19 has a homework project that requires him to choose 4 colleges to research that he may be interested in attending. Ugh!!! I just went through this with DS16. I need a reprieve . I don’t even want to think about him choosing a college yet. 
@carolinamom2boys UGH! Did your older S have that same project at this age?
I wonder if my S will have a project like this, this winter. S17 had a project last year that was related to the financing of college. It was a WONDERFUL exercise. Really not sure how it related at all to Pre-Calc but I’m eternally grateful for it, my kid gets financial safety and I know he’s got skin in the game, win win. S19 has Pre-Calc this year as he’s on a different math track than his brother. But he has a different teacher. I plan to make him do the project regardless but honestly I think winter of Junior year is a much more appropriate time to do it than this winter break will be. I expect our winter break to be crunching numbers on what acceptances have come in so far and stressing about what hasn’t and what those $$'s look like. I don’t need it x2!
TL;DR I hope he isn’t assigned it.
So sorry!
S19 has decided he wants to go to school in California and at the moment has zeroed in on Chapman. Of course he used to be zeroed in on Cal Tech. I’ve reiterated (a lot actually) that CA is just fine…if it’s affordable. Which is on him. Either through merit or picking schools we know will work (which mind you, in CA, is not a lot!). He likes to talk about it a lot at the moment, probably because big brother would rather not and he HAS to.
LOL.
No he didn’t @eandesmom . I have had lots of experience researching colleges , and he went with us on several visits so he has some choices in mind. He’s zeroing in on schools that have architecture or graphic arts majors . I think that he’s going to research Clemson, Auburn, SCAD and CofC. He’s not sure yet.
D19 received her schedule yesterday and she was assigned the good Latin teacher and the excellent (probably best in the school) history teacher. 
She is thrilled she decided to not take AP World History and instead only take World History Honors (after last year’s nightmare with the history teacher). She was able to walk her schedule yesterday and she has already spoken (briefly) with each of her teachers about her 504 plan accommodations. She is very much looking forward to starting school on Tuesday!
S19 got his schedule yesterday and got basically the worst/hardest/most unpleasant teacher in every subject and no classes with any of his friends. This is an ADHD kid who already doesn’t really like the school aspect of school, so this might be a long year. He did email his counselor to ask to switch from regular English to honors (his 9th grade teacher recommended the he take regular but he admits that he didn’t put any effort into the class). He might even switch to honors Chem if it makes his schedule less miserable (D16 struggled for a C in that class). The problem with this “highly ranked” high school is that a lot of the teachers stink and there are some subjects (like Chem) that don’t have a single decent teacher. Oh, and all of the male PE teachers are sexist pigs - good thing that PE is the one class that S has every single day!
The counselor was MIA at the open house yesterday. I hope she gets back to him today.
@eh1234 Oh no! I hear you about the bad Chem teachers. All of our Chem and Physics teachers have bad reputations. I actually talked to the Science Chair because I’ve heard so many nightmare stories about students basically teaching themselves the class with the teachers being so hands off. It kills the kids love of science.
Her response was that the school met with UIUC science teachers and they all said that kids come to college unprepared for college level science. They need kids who can think on their own and problem solve. So…five years ago, our school changed their curriculum and (at least in the honors classes) there is no hand holding but it is extreme. The tests are all open book, open note because they say it won’t even help on the tests. All tests are problems to be solved with the concepts learned in the unit but they will not look like any problems the kids have seen. Our son and his friends went in for extra help (and hoping to get a little hint of what the first test will be like) and the teacher just told them to know everything they’ve reviewed in class. Ugh.
First test today and the kids probably spent ten hours studying. Send them all some good vibes this morning if you get a chance. Fingers crossed for good scores!
Good luck to your son and his friends, @homerdog. Sounds grim. Hope you can retread some of S16’s top choices, @carolinamom2boys. S19 got his driver’s license after school and drove me home yesterday but did not drive to school today. (Kids’ car is in for repairs.)
@homerdog - That test sounds brutal, but not unlike the honors Chem class that my D16 took in 10th grade. Except there were no open book exams. The teacher (who had taught AP Chem before and just re-used that curriculum when teaching honors), covered one unit per week and finished the material in May (in time for the AP exams that the sophomore honors kids don’t take!) Oh and the tests normally took more than one 1.5 hour class period to complete because he would put 80 questions and problems on them. I understand the need to get them ready for college, but the science focused kids will probably take AP science classes junior and senior year anyway, while non-science kids will take easier science requirements in college (I did meteorology). I feel that D missed out on getting any sort of foundation in chemistry because of the pace. We’ll see what happens when she takes it in college spring semester.
@EastGrad - That’s exciting! My S19 is still 14 for another 3 weeks. I’ll be happy if he gets his license by the beginning of senior year!
@eh1234 - yours and mine - Oct. 3 for mine. (It was brutal being about ready to pop right after 9/11, amirite?)
Everyone with brutal teacher assignments, I feel your pain. I think S17 has 3 that may be an issue. Honors English is a teacher at least 3 kids we know already tried to switch out of (no go). Honors Chem is known for the poor teacher (nice guy but allegedly horrible teacher) and then Pre-Calc is more of the same but simply on the hard/inflexible side. Hard to really say for sure. S19 isn’t a kid that “needs” to bond with a teacher, or even like them, to do well whereas it makes a bit difference for his brother. He can be influenced by his friends feelings about the teachers though and he needs to put that aside. At the moment we are still trying to finish summer homework!
@carolinamom2boys yes, he’s got a leg up having seen several schools and with your depth of knowledge! S19 really wasn’t included on S17’s tours. For a few reasons. S17 wanted it to be just about him and their interests are very different. The last thing any of us needed was S19 derailing S17’s questions with those of his own. And he well might have lol! Instead, S19 did get to wander 3 campus with H while S17 and I toured. None were enough to give him that much of a feel for those schools, though I do think one of them is likely a solid option for him. He will have a very different school list to be sure.
Thanks @eandesmom . I also have 2 different kids. DS19 is way more artistic , easy going . I’d be surprised if they ended up at the same place, but you never know . He knows what it will take to go OOS, but we’re really not focusing on that yet. IMO it’s too early. DS16 started early Fall his junior year and he did fine. I want him to focus on his academics to learn not to worry about how it’s going to affect college choice, but he’s not interested in selective schools.
@carolinamom2boys it’s always fascinating how different kids are. SS11, I swear only ended up at his private U (and the only school he applied to) because of spam mail after his SAT. Zero interest in colleges until fall of senior year and only looked at 2. SD14 saw many schools sophomore year on but that was a byproduct of college soccer ID camps and tournaments. She did zero in on her school early though because of those camps. S17 started spring of Junior year and that was pushing it in his mind. For S19 it will likely start in fall of Junior versus spring but that’s only b/c he will drive it and want it.
The only focus with S19, and I wouldn’t even call it that, is reiterating the budget aspect. He’s welcome to look at anything he wants on his own but my focus will be on his grades and balancing EC’s, as that is what will set the stage to even look at colleges “for real”. The PSAT will give us some indicators though and I know he’s excited for that. Strange kid that way.
@gatormama You are right about having a baby right after 9/11. For me it was 10 days after. On 9/11 I had just gone back to work (in DC) after being in the hospital for a few days with a mysterious fever. I was afraid he would come early because of the stress of it all (plus so many evacuations and bomb threats here that day) and I wouldn’t be able to get to a hospital.
Asking S19 where he wants to college (or what he wants to major in, or what type of college he wants to go to, etc.) gets about the same response I would probably get if I asked him what he plans to name his firstborn daughter. He was dragged to a couple of D16s tours as an 8th grader, but didn’t have any interest at that point. He’s likely to apply to in-state schools that his friends apply to and I probably won’t be helping him search far and wide like I did with D16. At most, he’s sort of vaguely aware of what GPA he needs to have a chance at admission to Virginia Tech. I’m trying to not even think about his college prospects until PSAT scores come in January.
Just checking in to tell everyone to trust your children’s gut feelings about a class. I was ready to request a class change from AP World History to Honors after the second day of school , but he assured me that he wanted to stay in the class . I wasn’t worried about his understanding of the material , but more about his writing skills. I was wrong. He loves the class. He has shown a great improvement in his writing and his study skills. He is sitting on a 98 in the class which gives a nice cushion for his other classes should he need it. Sometimes kids know better.
@carolinamom2boys Totally agree. As we ourselves are not sitting in the class, we can’t really get the vibe.
On a completely different note, grading scales really perplex me sometimes. NO ONE would ever have a 98 in any class at our high school…in any class. (Just as a reminder, we are at a highly competitive large public high school.) Even the brightest of the bright tap out in the low 90s in their classes. We are on a typical 90-100 A, 80-90 B, etc., scale.
Even if a student has above a 90 going into the semester final, they need an A on the final to get an A in the class and the finals are brutal. We have a high school in the next two over that lets kids with As in the class before finals week skip the final and just get the A! Our kids cannot believe that. They have to fight until the very end of the semester for that A.
@homerdog Grading scales do vary. This is the first year that our school system has used a 10 point scale, previously a student needed a 93 in order to earn an A. No one at our school is exempted from exams, everyone takes them. While our school is not a “highly competitive public high school”, it is a large public high school and there are a few outliers of intelligent children who perform well academically and on standardized nationwide tests.
Grading scales vary quite a bit. You have scale and then you have weighting. I am always a bit bemused as it’s impossible for me to really gauge how colleges level it all out between the basic gpa scale, various weighting scales (or not), rank (or not), and determining rigor. They have to recalculate, there is no way to compare if they do not. All 4.0’s are not equal and nor are all 3.3’s!
As we too have a large public HS with varying levels of course work, I would not presume to speak for all classes or teachers as I don’t have that global exposure, I can only speak to the classes my kids have had as well as their friends. Different teachers have different policies. How they weight homework versus tests versus in class participation etc. Whether retaking tests or demonstrating masterly later is allowed/offered or not. That said, I’ve never ever heard of anyone letting kids simply skip a final by choice if their grade was at a certain point prior to the final. I have experienced a teacher allowing a final test grade to override the classroom grade to that point if they did better on the final than where the grade was at prior (but no penalty per-se if worse).
As far as how competitive our school is, well that’s a subjective thing if you ask me. It was funny, there is a poster (student) who keeps mentioning that she is at the #1 HS in our state. I know many people who think “their” school is #1 in the state and official ranking lists will vary quite a bit but I’d bet money the school she is referring to is not the one US News lists as #1 (which is very much a specialty school) . Just like the college rankings, YMMV. Our school? It’s a nice solid upper tier performer with plenty of competitive kids and plenty of normal average kids and plenty that may struggle a bit. Kind of like life, balanced and I like my kids seeing that to be honest.
A (4.0) 93+
A- (3.7) 90-92
B+ (3.3) 87-89
B (3.0) 83-86
B- (2.7) 80-82
C+ (2.3) 76-79
C (2.0) 73-75
C- (1.7) 70-72
D+ (1.3)
D (1.0)
F (0.0)
@carolinamom2boys one thing I will say about AP world, at least at our school. There is a LOT of writing, and note taking and while it could be hard at first, or as they get into it, it does make them better note takers! Lots of reading too.
Which, S19 needs to finish! His summer HW book for AP world is SO overdue I got a super nasty letter from the library today. T-3 and counting!
We don’t use a plus or minus system @eandesmom . Before they changed the system this year, a 90 was a B. I will say that he has quite a bit of writing and reading , but he plugs away. What amazed me when my son graduated last year was the Val and Sal were overall solid students who were quiet about their accomplishments . No one would’ve ever known what their grades were . They felt no need to share their grades . They weren’t caught up in the competitive rat race to the top. In fact , only thousandths of a point separated the top 5 students in the class. Any one of those students could’ve easily applied to competitive programs , including the superselective ones, but chose what they felt was right for them . I truly appreciate when kids are that self aware.
Back home after moving D16 into her college dorm. S19 is already in the process of taking over her room (she knew this would happen). It will definitely be a new dynamic at home.
3 weeks into school and S19 is realizing that his schedule is much more challenging than last year!
I don’t mean to be weird when I say “highly competitive public high school”. We are in the Chicago suburbs and our school was ranked number five this year in the state. I was just trying to put perspective on the grading scale. No do-overs on tests. Finals count for 20% of total grade. Those are the rules and teachers stick by them. (The 20% stinks. LY our son got a high B third quarter in Bio H, an A for the fourth quarter, and an A on the final but the grade averaged out to a B+. Missed an A- by 0.5 and got a B+ for that semester. Doesn’t make much sense to me! If you get an A on the final then you’ve obviously mastered the material for the whole semester. Oh well.)
In our case, I think we’re lucky that most colleges probably know our school and the rigor involved even in regular level classes. I imagine that helps a bit when they look at our kids’ transcripts. I would guess that coming from a school with an un-known reputation, colleges have a harder time figuring out the readiness of the applicant.