Thanks @MuggleMom Our independent study charter has been very very SpEd supportive. The councilor is very green and I think this may be her first job, but has been pretty outstanding so far. I will just have faith in her that she can pull this off. In the mean time I plan to write an email expressing my frustration that it is so easy to just say no rather than try to help. It just makes me sad. Then again, this is why I had to pull him out of traditional school in the first place.
On the other hand someone on my homeschooling with an IEP FB page that I run just informed me that SATs are not necessary because most colleges donât actually use themâŠummmmmm
@LKnomad there are some schools that are test optional so especially if merit scholarships are not a concern one can apply to college without SAT/ACT scores. I donât have a link handy but there is probably a list of schools that are test optional.
AP are a different issue. There is debate about the value of AP exams and college theses days. S17 took 5 AP exams (Calculus, 3 science, 1 language) but S20 might take 1 or none - his school does not encourage APs. It is a different school too - located on a college campus and they take college classes.
PSAT - we are considering having S20 take it at our local public school for convenience. Is that an option for your S? They probably have kids with accommodations.
Merit is an issue we have some financial need. Also many of those schools are not test optional for homeschool students. We are technically not homeschoolers, we are public independent study students, but our transcripts have no indicator of rigor. They are basic so you donât get any indication at all at the level of work the student is doing and I have been advised that I will need to create a narrative transcript like a traditional homeschool student. We are not only online either. My son takes face to face classes, classes with me, classes from an online provider. Things are totally eclectic. So anything that can help indicate ability matters. The APs help. He will do SAT 2s but they are not an in school test and the national testing centers are used to accommodations.
We will have the same problem with PSAT. The issue is that he has one on one testing. This needs an individual location with a proctor. No school is going to offer that unless they are forced because he is their student.
I am very well versed in AP, LOL. My S16 who is now at Reed took 12 AP classes. I think the College Board owns me.
D20 is swimming varsity today for the first time. (Swam the first 3 meets on JV) If it sticks she will double letter as a freshman, which is fairly rare at our school (Already got xc in the fall)
Just thought Iâd drop in here and say Hi to fellow 2020 parents! Hard to believe their freshman year is coming quickly to an endâŠseems like it just started! DS scheduled his classes for next year with his academic advisor in Jan and finished off his 4 year HS class plan. So blessed to have an amazing academic advisor!!!
Look forward to reading what everyoneâs kids are up to as they progress through their highschool years!
In non-academic news, Sâ20 got called up to varsity lax as a FOGO specialist. Took 14 face-offs at the varsity level after going 8-0 in the JV game. Heâs thrilled. He played more middie at JV, but can work to stay on the field over the next years.
Registered DD20 for the SAT Bio subject test in June today. She may not apply to a single college that wants subject tests but she wants to take it, so of course she may. DS16 was not the least bit interested in such thingsâespecially not as a Freshmanâbut 2nd children tend to grow up so much faster from watching the first. She wanted a prep book so I ordered the one they offered but does anyone have certain a one they would recommend? She does use Khan Academy already so if there is anything there she will find it.
I also ordered the barronâs test prep book for bio and am looking at June. Going to have her take the practice test over spring break to see which she should take. She is also a second child and tends to test better than she does gradewise.
Not sure if this might be helpful to anyone - but thought Iâd share just in case. DD is choosing community classes for summer enrollment and I found a very interesting fact - not all cc courses are created equal, that is, accepted for credit at all colleges.
Ok, a bit more background - DD is currently aiming at USC - she loves a particular program there that includes spending two years abroad in Europe and Asia, but would probably be happy with another humanities major as well. A big plus for her is that she could be a bit more in control of her financial aid at that particular college if she studies and makes NMF - from what we know, finalists automatically get half tuition. Lotâs of other criteria as well - it is in CA where she wants to stay, but far away enough from home (SF Bay Area), she knows someone whose sibling goes there and raves about the school, etc. etc. I am aware of dangers of making any school a âdream schoolâ, but also believe it might be good to set a goal so that D would have something to aim for.
Anyway, back to the subject. D wants to take astronomy in the summer at our community college, and since she is a humanities girl, she wanted to satisfy any GE science requirements by getting credit for this summer course. We have multiple community colleges around us, and I believe at least 3 offer high school concurrent enrollment programs. From what little I know, these ccâs are of comparable quality and offer comparable curriculum, with the same course numbers, etc. So I was thinking D would go to the nearest cc that is easiest to reach by bus.
And then I found USCâs transfer credit website - https://camel2.usc.edu/articagrmt/artic.aspx: turns out significantly fewer courses from this one cc college (as compared to the remaining 2) are accepted to meet GE requirements; astronomy is one of them. Needless to say Iâll be driving her to one of the further ccâs so that she could get her credit in case she ends up at USC. Just wanted to share how glad I am to discover this info now vs. three and a half years from now, and also in case someone might find it useful
June Bio subject test as well here. We have had accommodations issues since my son is with an independent study homeschool program. Got that worked out for human geo AP and bio subject test in June.
@typiCAmom the situation with CC classes may be more severe than you think. Some colleges wont accept any class that is used for high school credit. For example, if your child takes world history as a DE student the CC credit wonât transfer to more selective schools. Yet, an AP credit will for the same class. USC is one of the schools that wont take a DE class in place of a high school class. Astronomy would probably not be an issue since it is not usually taken in place of a high school course. But if used as a science credit, it might. It could be better to keep it off of her high school transcript completely. These things are decided by the registrar once a student in enrolled at the college so it is unpredictable. My son took statistics at the CC and his adviser at Reed actually did a facepalm when he described the course. He has to take stats again and he was not given full credit for the course by the school.
As for next years schedule. Decided to have some fun and submitted a film studies course outline to our independent study school. Hopefully that will be on his schedule for next year. I will have him take chemistry, English (we are creating a writing workshop and literature club for other local high school homeschoolers), art of some sort, econ for the AP test (but not AP econ) taught online by my son to a group of other homeschoolers, US gov followed by AP test (going to do a lot of teaching through political cartoons, film, and discussion and try to avoid too much textbook stuff), and algebra 2 through gifted and talented online. PE will be figure skating as usual. Yea, we do it weirdâŠ
DD made that transition last fall. It is a little wierd at times but there is also good. Just one example: We have added several restaurants to our regular places list and several menus to our at home cooking as well. The three of us are more adventureous eaters than DS16.
@VickiSoCal The Michael Phelps Diet is real! My two swimmers went to Noodles & Co one day after practice and ordered five large entrees. âTo go?â asked the cashier. âNo, for here.â The cashier kept walking by their table, staring in disbelief as they ate it all. ;))
The first time I planned a Girl scout campout I brought way too much food. I watched in disbelief as these ordinary children ate one pancake, one egg, one slice of bacon.
