My little runner has been promoted to Varsity for League finals. She’s the only freshman of the 7 running varsity.
She’s a little disappointed because she would have placed first in the freshman race but she’s SO excited to get a letter jacket.
Me- I need a nerd’s guide to parenting an athlete. Because this was…unexpected.
Congrats to your runner @VickiSoCal ! Athlete’s just need food, water, sleep and someone to keep the uniform and practice clothes clean. I am sure you will do great!!
Hello all,
I’m the mom of a freshman boy, if I’m understanding the abbreviations correctly, he would be a DS’ 20. He just returned from a school trip to visit UC Berkeley, Stanford and Santa Clara. He came home excited and inspired. He’s told me it’s very important to him to go to an elite school. He attends a very competitive, upper-middle class public high school, gets great grades, participates in after school clubs and activities and is a happy go lucky kid. My husband and I feel a little out of league. My husband and both graduated from state colleges. Our son is very intelligent and his knowledge of math and science far exceeds ours. His friends’ parents are doctors, engineers and computer scientists and in general seem better prepared to support their sons’ education.
What opportunities should I be giving him to support and prepare him outside of high school? I would appreciate any advice, insight or suggestions. Thank you.
Hi @Redslp
I have an S20 but just went though the process with S16. It might sound cornet but start here.
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways
Freshman year is a time of exploration. Let him figure out things he loves. Find some good summer enrichment, if you want to do more outside of school, but most of all it is about grades and classes at this point. There will be plenty of time for stress soon enough.
Thank you for the reassurance and the link to information. He is taking Engineering Design A, Biology, Honor’s English, World Geography, Spanish, Honor’s Math 2 (used to be Geometry now they call it Math 1,2,3). He likes golf, chess, memes, Hamilton, math and science.
I’m gonna post something here that someone else posted somewhere on c.c. deep thought to ponder!
Kids spend just as much time in high school as they do in college. The high school experience should be a valuable one in and of itself, not just something to get them into a college.
Just keep posting that over and over. It needs to be said and said often.
This may be an odd suggestion @Redslp but give him opportunities to learn how to handle failure, disappointment, losing, etc. I also have a DS16 that is off at college. The students from his HS class that are having a hard time adjusting to college seem to lack this. The overused word is resiliency. Very accomplished students that always do things well need to have an identity separate from being the best–especially if they want to go to an elite school. They need to know how to struggle, fall down, get back up again and move on. My DS was a HS goalkeeper so he had lots of practice with this. “Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child” is the quote that comes to mind.
hi @Redslp – welcome – & i like this forum too. stick around! so so so many interesting/wise folks.
Can’t help with the elite aspect here. But i will say that paying for college is interesting. I’ll suggest researching this website and forum about college costs before his focus is set, just so you know whats in store!
my DS20 is very chill and will only join what he wants to join (nothing right now!) SO - from that perspective, we are just going to have him focus on his grades & eventually test scores for merit possibilities for college. But i’m looking forward to hearing what others do and how it impacts them and prepares them for college. I do know that my D16 received some scholarships for ECs that had nothing to do with her HS. . . but a passion of hers. I guess supporting passions is a top priority if possible.
@bgbg4us I’m right there with you! I had no idea how much college costs until I found CC or that the ‘elite’ schools give very little in merit aid. I’m glad I’ve been able to set my kids expectations early on. There are stories every year of kids who fall in love with their ‘dream school’ and then are crushed to find out they are unaffordable. A lot of time and money is also wasted on college visits and applications that could have been saved if the parents research the college costs up front.
I know for some families cost is not a factor but with three kids and being full pay, my kids know for us merit is a big deal. I spent a lot of time researching schools that give great merit, have solid programs that my kids are interested in and would be a good ‘fit’ for each one.
As for my DS20’s EC’s, he enjoys Boy Scouts, Fencing, Model UN and Chinese Culture Club.
@3scoutsmom, is Model UN a class and after school EC? I know our school does not have any Model UN class. It looks like something D21 would really enjoy.
@VANURSEPRAC it’s an after school and occasional weekend thing. It’s very popular at our high school they are planning on going to a big conference in DC this year.
My S16 had no ECs (except the basic high school orchestra) until 11th grade. Then it was only one year of math team and because the teacher retired, there was no second year. The summer before 12 grade he joined a service club and had a lot of fun do a variety of volunteer activities. He did one year of a summer enrichment activity in 9th grade. He had nothing at all in ECs. He applied to 12 schools. Two were the top two colleges in the nation by admission rates. He didn’t get into either but he didn’t care. He just wanted to see what would happen if he added a letter from the SpEd department explaining his lack of ECs as a result of a social disability, autism.
The next two schools he really truly wanted to get into. He did not, and I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that his lack of ECs killed it. But in the end, the schools that chose him cared more about his GPA didn’t care about ECs. Several offered significant financial aid (both need based and Merit), the one that he chose was completely need based, and since we have a lower income than most on CC the cost was extremely reasonable.
The most interesting thing for us, was the college that he is at now, Reed, actually could care less about ECs. His basic participation in the high school orchestra and a supplemental music performance that he emailed them might have helped, because their orchestra for non majors has only 11 students, and three play oboe. He is the only cello (they started with 3 cellos and two quit). They don’t care about sports, and anyone can join a sports team, even if they have never played that sport. The kids here are weird, they are totally inclusive, and they live for academics. His supplemental essay was about a class he would teach during their winter break fun week of student led classes. He wrote about the importance of counting cards and how everyone should learn it because…math! He was a total fit, and is very very very very happy. He would not have been as happy at any other school. There is no doubt. His extra time is spent… playing cards.That is a thing there for kids who don’t party. Who knew???
Don’t try to fit your kid to a school, elite or otherwise. Let the school fit the kid. If you have a student who is not interested in ECs, then that student is not interested in ECs.
Happy Halloween!!!
“Don’t try to fit your kid to a school, elite or otherwise. Let the school fit the kid. If you have a student who is not interested in ECs, then that student is not interested in ECs.” @LKnomad, I couldn’t agree more.
However, I do subscribe to the “lead the horse to water…” idea. I have made suggestions and its up to my kid to take it or leave it.
As I mentioned before - struggling a little with freshman year grades. She met with her teacher in the class she’s having the most trouble with and laid out a plan to get her grade up to a B. When I told a friend about it she sounds like a plan for success. My reply was it’s a path to success whether she chooses to take it or not is up to her.
Hello all: fairly new here with a D20. She was homeschooled through 8th but is now at a small public school. She’s interested in ballet, math, science and Hamilton, too, apparently. Does anyone have a D or S who just took the PSAT? We are anxiously awaiting D20’s baseline results. She also took the SAT II Math 1 last month and we were very happy with her score. She’s gearing up for a major in one of the sciences, and we are in the hunt for merit aid. Glad to be here. Looking forward to chatting and sharing info in the future!
No standardized testing yet. May take SAT Math 2 after this year (she’s in pre-calc and that’s the year you should take so they don’t forget everything a mistake my older daughter made in a bigly way) but my older D17 ended up not actually needing SAT2’s anywhere, so may be a waste of time and money. As far as Math1, I can’t think of any school that requires Subject testing and doesn’t want to see Math 2.
Both my girls are obsessed with Hamilton.
D20 will also take Math 2 next year. She knows of at least 2 schools she will definitely apply for that require 2 SATII tests (Math and Science), so we decided to get started. She took Math 1 for a number of reasons – practice, to lend some credibility to her prior homeschooling education (lest anyone question it), and she is also a math tutor, so the prep was likely good review and reinforcement for her tutoring gig.
Hamilton seems like a great school! D20 is currently enamored with Duke, but I’m cautioning her Duke is a reach for everyone…
I thought you meant the musical.