How did he have his phone with him. Phones are not allowed.
This was at the very beginning of the test. Nobody stopped the test (nobody in authority had any idea), but the kid was in the deanās office the next day and disciplinary proceedings have begun. College Board is evaluating what to do. Yup, phones are not allowed. He shouldnāt have had it. (Obviously, though, all the kids have their phones with them all day at school - they just arenāt supposed to turn them on during class.)
He got turned in by a classmate who saw him do it or saw it posted on Instagram; not sure which one.
Having been in the thick of a disciplinary thing with my kid before, I also feel awful for the parents. Itās the worst, trying to be there for your kid, trying to be stern and make sure thereās some punishment, but hoping nothing horrible happens.
@Gatormama I agree, Iāve been there as well and itās awful.
Obviously, that kidsās scores should be thrown out (he had an illegal phone with him during the test. Doesnāt matter if he used it during the test or not). But itās just a PSAT and wonāt affect him in any way unless he was a top 1% student.
Unless heās suspended @gusmahler
Yup. Suspensions get reported to colleges at our school. (Ask me how I knowā¦ahemā¦)
@Gatormama whoa! thatās a cautionary tale for the ages!
Oh dear. I really have no experience with heavy duty parenting. I would go Moses crashing the tablets probably if faced with that sort of thingā¦ Except I like F bombs. Iād be a foul-mouthed Moses.
I found out Mizzou has an Engineering Day via his high school email announcements. I looked at their programming and it is really a nicely laid out day. So I decided as an in-state option less than 2 hours away, we should do this event. H agreed. Missouriās āengineeringā school in Rolla is not for everyone. Mizzou might be a nice comparison. Sophomore son, informed me when I told him about the Mizzou event that, āIād rather sleep.ā Instead of pulling rank, I let it lie a day and started preparing my lecture/litany on why we were going to drive him to Columbia and drop him off. But just when I was about to wind up and deliver my lecture with forced attendance the next night, he cut my opening remark off with, āIāve changed my mind and I want to go.ā
So this is the sort of thing that disallows me from getting very parental. The kid pretty much self-corrects. I operate like a cruise director of opportunity more than a parent it seems.
Suspensions are generally reported on the counselor form, sometimes on transcripts and the expectation is that a child will be honest about a disciplinary action on college applications. We dealt with it in MS and the VP terrified the child in question that it would go on his college info (not the case) but I am all for scare tactics! I keep reading horror stories of seniors doing stupid things and torpedoing their future. That frontal cortex is not fully developed and the short term thinking causes some really stupid actions. I also think some of it (beyond normal teenage hormones, stupidity, immaturity) can be due to a lack of parental oversight. While some are helicoptering away, others are far too busy being their childās friend. I am watching a nephew fall through the cracks and while he knows he has plenty of safe placesā¦he definitely likes the lack of accountability and responsibility being afforded to him at the moment without thinking long term. Itās heartbreaking.
@MoHeron my S17 self correct most of the time if I let it lie. S19 is a bit of a different animal and requires a different approach but knowing your kid goes a long way.
Cruise director of opportunity. I like that!
On Common App (college application) most schools do ask about disciplinary actions - suspension and what not.
I was filling out housing (dorm) application for S17. It asks āHave you been convicted as a sex offender/felony?ā 
Hmm, nope, he will be a minor starting college!
@MoHeron, my S13ās close friend attends Mizzou and loves it. Glad your son decided to check it out. And I like the image of an F-bomb-wielding Moses. Do you happen to have a long beard?
Our K-12 school newsfeed shows that the 8th graders had a āChoose your own college adventureā fair with local college reps presenting in different classrooms. oh my. :-B
Still obsessing over stuff itās too early to obsess about ā¦ I discovered this thing called myintuition ā kind of a quick and dirty calculator used by schools like Wellesley to determine a ballpark EFC. So it asks very few questions - just really a ballpark number ā but one is whether any other kids will be in four-year-college during the year your kid is applying for financial aid. In our situation, the answer would be no, BUT we will be paying a hefty private high school tuition bill for those years (all of D19ās college years). Does that get factored in once the real financial aid stuff is filled out? (Not this ballpark calculator?)
@Gatormama for FAFSA only schools, no. For PROFILE schools, it will be considered. For a FAFSA only school that uses institutional (versus federal) methodology you can contact their financial aid office directly after application/admission to explain circumstances and ask that they be considered. That is really only worthwhile though if it is a private school.
The problem with MyIntuition is that it might give weird results. For my family, with no oddball things like business ownership or notorious curveballs like divorce and remarriage going on, MyIntuition and Wellesleyās NPC gave results of, respectively, ~$30k and ~$61k.
The one we could afford, the other, well, not so much.
But given the disparity on a simple case, I donāt know that I trust MyIntuition enough to rely on it.
My intuition tells me not to trust MyIntuition. :))
We are oddball - hubby is self-employed and we have a share ownership in a royalty-producing LLC - with the $$ varying wildly from year to year (almost none this year, e.g. but it can be tens of thousands in a different year.) Income often looks good on paper, but when it is so irregular as to seem miraculous when it finally does arrive, itās really hard to plan or save. The myintuition thing said we could afford ~$21k, which is about what we pay for private school now (and itās killing us). So somewhat in the ballpark, I guess? I didnāt do Wellesleyās own NPC. My thinking is that if itās anywhere close to affordable, and itās a school that DD is completely in love with, we apply, try to supplement the financial aid stuff with added paperwork, and cross our fingers.
@payn4ward, D21ās school is taking the 8th and 9th graders on a college tour 6 1/2 hours away from here.
@Gatormama I would trust the schools own NPC far more than any other source. They are generally relatively accurate. That said, self employed and LLCās complicate things quite a bit from what I understand but I would hate for anyone to think something was affordable based on a tool and be really far off.
FAFSA will use prior years so youāll be basing it off of your 2017 income.
@payn4ward a career fair is one thing but a college fair for 8th graders? UGH. Our MS does take the 9th graders to our flagship butā¦itās a 15 min drive. @payn4ward I would not be happy about 13 hours of driving for a college tour for 8th and 9th graders.