@Johnny523 You’re right…I’m a little less annoyed with him now. I know he’s going to do great no matter where he ends up. They do eventually figure it all out themselves I suppose.
@Momof3B I thought I’d chime in (from the same 3.0-3.4 thread for 2020). My S20 is one year ahead of yours but sounds fairly similar in many ways. He’s not so much lazy as just super laid back with an attitude of “it’ll get done eventually”. He is definitely a procrastinator. Like your son, mine is also smart and has a decent GPA of 3.66 but not great test scores because he doesn’t study properly for them. He is actually enrolled now in a Kaplan SAT Prep class through his school to try to improve his SAT score in August. But I have had to push all the way, until I finally decided to just back off some and let him take responsibility. His GPA was floundering last semester and I just told him that I knew he could do better and then let it go. He pulled out all the stops in the last few weeks and finished strong.
We have visited only a few colleges and have kept it low key, but he just fell in love with Sonoma State (one of our less competitive California State schools). He will likely go there next year and be in the top 25% of students and that’s fine with him. I have had to readjust my expectations quite a bit, but he is a good kid and I know he will continue to figure things out. I’m sure your son will too 
D21 grades finally posted while we were away for dance. She ended the quarter with a 94.29 unweighted and98.81 weighted. AP scores posted also, she got a 4 on World, she was very happy considering she said she hopes to get at least a 2. Now we are in full sweet 16 planning mode and SAT prep and college research mode.
@thedreamydaisy thank you!! You have just described my son to a T!!! Procrastination is his middle name lol! He also has test taking anxiety which is why I was hoping he’d take his EC’s and the things he excels at (when he puts his mind to it!) a little more seriously. I am learning to adjust my expectations as well…he’s a great kid overall and I’ll be proud of him regardless of where he ends up after high school…thanks again for the reassurance and pep talk.
I posted this on the regular class of 2021 thread but also posting it here because my daughter is looking at a completely different level of school than most of the conversation there.
Anyway, I took her to a college fair today. She still doesn’t have a whole lot of idea what she wants, but she’s narrowing it down geographically a bit (we live in Denver). She was interested in schools up north – some in Montana, Idaho and Oregon. She also stopped at a few in New England. She was interested enough in Montana State, Oregon State, Utah, Utah State and St. Olaf to go back to the tables because they were too crowded initially. She still likes Western Colorado and Northern Arizona.
I always feel bad for the reps from the schools nobody is interested in, like Bmidji State. They were right next to Michigan, which had a line a mile long, and the poor guy seemed so lonely.
Hi All,
My first time posting here. My daughter is also a junior and still doesn’t know what she wants to do in school. She is a good kid overall but gets carried away by her social life most of the time and wastes her time. She also doesn’t know what school she would like to apply to. She is just not interested at this point yet.
She is a smart kid and taking 3 AP classes this year, just took her first SAT last sat, plays soccer, a member of a City youth council. She also has a black belt in Martial arts and it teaching currently.
She initially wanted to go to Medical school but then after I explained her how long is the school for, she has kind of changed her mind. Then, she applied to girls who code program during the summer and had an immersion program internship at a BlackRock so now she likes the coding and may want to do CS but still not sure and haven’t made up her mind:((
How do you guys give guidance to your kids to on choosing a major that they may like ? How do you help them choose the universities/colleges that they may want to attend to?
Trust me, we have visited Stanford, Berkeley, UCI, UCR and UCDavis so far and nothing has wowed her yet:((
Welcome @Prep4Uni My daughter is interested in CS also, has been for a few years now, honestly I have no idea what made her interested in it. There are some online quizzes she can take that may help her find a path that’s interest her. Google career quiz, there are plenty to choose from. As for schools if she knows a path you can then look for schools that have that program. College Board has a good search for this.
@Prep4Uni My daughter has no idea what she wants to do, but IMO that’s fine. Most colleges have good undecided/exploratory programs. Our thinking is if she still doesn’t know next year for her to go someplace that has a broad range of majors. Then she can go in as undecided and see what she finds.
But you never know what will happen by next year. Our son (a senior this year) had no idea what he wanted to do at this point last year. He was taking AP environmental and fell in love with it and is going to major in environmental science.
Hi everyone!! Update on S21…
Marching Band season is winding down…our last marching contest is this Saturday (2 hrs away from home of course!!)…2 more football games left in the season and looks like we’re going to the playoffs. S21 is taking the Nov 2 SAT which is proving to be a big 'ol ball of anxiety for him. He just isn’t a strong test taker…they never go well. He took the PSAT last week, since he’s in a dual credit class and the rest AP, the school automatically enrolls them…he came away feeling nervous about the Math the most…we’re looking into adding some extra tutoring and trying some ACT practice tests to see if that suits him more. The first 9 week grading period ended last week, and now we’re waiting updated class rank info, which will be released on the 26th. Being Texas, with it’s Top 10% auto admit rule (which he’s not lol), we’re hoping he still has a firm 1Q standing. There are 1146 kids in his graduating class! I had a meeting with his guidance counselor today about his testing anxiety and we both agree that moving forward to Senior Year he probably should concentrate on dual credit courses vs AP. Taking DC Gov’t & Econ over the summer will leave with 2 free slot in 12th grade which can be off periods…or he can add some “fun” electives. He’s only going to be applying to instate schools (Texas A&M being his top choice) so we know the DC courses he takes will transfer. I spoke with one of our school board trustees who sits on a Board at A&M and she told me that they know about the rigor of our school district and as long as he stays in 1Q and continues on his current path he stands a good chance of making it through Holistic Review with admittance…hopefully at least Blinn Team if not full admit. Fingers crossed…we’ll see.
His EC’s are shaping up to be strong…He’ll be participating in our City’s Youth Action Council after all!!! (See previous posts!)…it turns out his application was submitted successfully but he used his school district email and his acceptance notification kept bouncing back. The City Secretary told me she was so sad about that lol, they wanted him on. Anyway, they are reserving a spot for him automatically next year…lesson learned…make sure your email is your personal one and not the school district one lol. Also, hopefully he will make it on to the Leadership Team for Marching Band next year (director told me that they’ve noticed how far he’s come and how well he works with others.) I’m starting to work with him on mock essays and he’s taking Debate in the Spring which he’s really excited about.
We’ll start planning the remainder of our college visits in December/January for the Spring. We have 3 more out of town schools to visit and two local options.
Can’t believe how FAST this year is going by. I’ve already had two spontaneous crying episodes just staring at him lol thinking “this time next year will be the last…”
I posted a separate post about needing opinions on my daughter and had meant for it to go here—if anyone can, please go read. Mine is UNDER the threshold here–I believe she’s just under a 2.9 and as we know, there’s little time to do anything to bring that up in Junior year, unless she starts pulling straight As, and she’s only had 1 or 2 of those in high school at all so far…She’s quite smart but really struggles with executive functioning and is just lazy about turning things in/getting work done. So frustrating. There will be no Honors or APs in her future to bring the GPA up. I had hoped that this would truly be a thread for lower-GPA kids’ parents but it seems like most of you are over while we’re under!
@g8rmomk8ans How are her test scores? There was a parent on the 2019 thread who had a daughter with a 2.9 and ACT superscore 26. She got in to some good colleges, with merit even. Roanoke, Ursinus, Iowa State, Evergreen, Columbia College of Chicago, and some PA schools. Choices!
@Acersaccharum on her pre-ACT last year, she had a 26 composite, so I expect her to take the real one a few times and possibly be in the 27-28 range. She tends to test well. So that student’s experience is good to hear! I was hoping a good test score would offset a low GPA but I know they also like to see a “positive trend” and so far, her grades haven’t really improved since freshman year. She knows this year is really important but is already not doing great.
@g8rmomk8ans Glad she tests well. With my D19, we looked at several CTCL schools and a higher test score would have been rewarded with more merit. Those schools are amazing for kids who might need a little more guidance in getting through college.
My son is considering Southwestern University in Georgetown, Tx which is a CTCL…we ran the NPC and from what it came back with for projected aid, it would put us at the same COA as our state public schools…we‘ll be touring it in the Spring.
@Momof3B my older son graduated from Southwestern in 2016 and we live just down the road from Georgetown. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I’d be happy for DS20 to go there, but they don’t have the major that he’s interested in.
@Acersaccharum I need to give CTCL schools another look but for the most part, the ones I’ve seen are just much too small. She really wants a mid-size school, ideally 5-15k students, so it limits us on a lot of great schools. We’ll still expose her to a few but she’s a little quirky/edgy and I agree that a larger school will giver her a bigger pool of kids like her.
@cgpm59 thank you!!! I will definitely reach out if it makes it as a serious contender!
I don’t know what state you are in, but look at your non-flagship public universities. At least in my state (PA) there are some that have that mid sized student body (often with a variety of types of people I imagine). Also they may not be overly selective, stats wise.
D21’s first quarter grades this year are her worst ever–just under a 2.0–so her cumulative GPA continues to drop. She’s going through some personal issues that are having an impact but otherwise, I think she’s just not motivated to do the work, despite being at a rigorous prep school. She has no honors or AP-level classes. Is in “accelerated” Pre-Calc but that’s it. So she’s not in classes above her head. Losing hope that a 4-year college is in her future right after HS, even though it’s what she says she really wants. Selfishly, I had wanted her to go “away” to school in two years but that may not be in the cards. 
She’s the polar opposite of my high-achieving, type-A older daughter. It’s very hard.
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@g8rmomk8ans I am sorry. Don’t lose hope, there are so many colleges out there, I’m sure you will find one that’s a good fit for her.