@JanieWalker Having done about 15 tours of different school over the last year and a half with DD18 I can tell you the tour guides are all over the place from really good to really bad. Also when there were really good tour guides they impacted my DD’s interest in the school. The funniest story is she had one at Clemson who was great, very outgoing young woman, honors student etc. During the fall we were watching a Clemson game on TV and my daughter says OMG there is MJ my tour guide. The girl had made that kind of impression on my daughter.
@momtogkc thank you for posting–so inspiring. D19 and D21 are following avidly and learning so much about the political process.
@InfiniteWaves that’s great that your son wants to play sports again, and you are so lucky to have recreational soccer and basketball for high school age!! I run rec soccer in our town (as a volunteer) but the league we play in only goes through 9th grade and there’s nothing else within a 1 hour drive. D21 is so bummed that this will be her last season.
She also loves basketball, but rec basketball stops after 7th grade 
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My kids thrive in rec level sports–wish there were more options here! Best to your son.
@3SailAway - a family friend of ours started a co-ed, HS-age rec league that has been well received in our community. Might this be an option for your D21?
@carlson2 that’s a great idea! We don’t have enough girls in town to form a league, but with boys too . . . And if we just played in town against each other, I wouldn’t have the time commitment of coordinating with other towns. Thanks, and I’ll pm you if you don’t mind a couple questions.
Feel free. My kid doesn’t play in it (he gave up soccer), but I do know the person coordinating very well and can get answers for you.
Well since this will be the last summer before things REALLY kick off, D21 will be relaxing and perhaps volunteering as part of her requirement. Get it out of the way early this year. We have quite a few colleges in our area as well. Her AVID counselor in 7th grade was a graduate of Cal so she took them there on a tour as well as had a chance to speak with an Admin. So that was nice. She will spend 3 weeks there next summer so she will really get to know that campus should she choose to apply there.
Regarding AP science courses. Our school is the same. Must take the prior Honors/Regular class and have certain grades prior to being allowed to “apply” for an AP class. So by graduation D21 will be lucky to have 3 AP level classes. It’s just too hard to take more due to the requirements. If it was our local public she could probably end up with 8+.
Update on D’s crush…She has now had 2 dates with said crush. They went and saw Black Panther last evening and then dinner. She asked him to date #2. Neither one text much. So their main contact is at school. They now walk to class together on the 2 classes they share.
He is as precious as can be. Their conversations are mostly school stuff, but also politics (he loves politics). D says they are “talking”. She explains they know they like each other and no one but are not in a “relationship”. Seriously, who uses the word “relationship” anymore…We called it “going together”…anyway…they are too sweet together.
Update to all of you…in the final stage of helping S18 decide on his best match…and I’m exhausted. Glad I’ll have a year or so to regroup before heading back down the path with D21! She has almost settled her schedule for next year. One small glitch is that she only has a B+ in the writing component of her English class and needs an A- to get into AP Seminar which is her top choice for English next year
@VikkiG5 Good luck to your daughter in pulling at least an A- !! It sounds like she is doing quite well if AP Seminar is on the horizon. I do not think it is offered at DS high school.
AP Seminar is being offered for the first time at DS HS. I’m not familiar with the class although I think that DS would qualify to take it.
@flmom26 at our school for sophomores it replaces honors English 2. It’s a two year commitment with AP Seminar as a junior. Passing the exams and some # of other AP exams gets you an AP Capstone diplomas/certificate.
Interesting developments over here. Over the past few weeks, S21 has done some career interest testing through school. And this week was the career fair at school. He came home all energized after the testing. Looks like he is naturally drawn to the helping professions. Special education, psychology, and social work just “feel right.”
For a variety of reasons, this is not surprising to me at all. It is quite a switch from art/graphic design though. I told him he could be an art therapist. 
Looks like we will need look for schools that have a lot of majors available. He’s been tagging along on all of the college visits for S19. He already has a few schools that he likes. We’ll see if that changes.
DS21 will apply to our state’s residential boarding school for 11th/12th graders next fall. As part of this application he will need to submit an SAT score so he plans to prep a bit over the summer and take it when school begins.
I know that many of the parents on this thread have older kids and have already been through the college admissions process and was wondering if anyone could recall how old of an SAT is acceptable? He hopes to do well on the SAT and if lucky not take it again but I was wondering if all colleges would accept an SAT that is slightly more than 2 years old when he applies for college?
@yearstogo I don’t know if this varies by school but my daughter took the SAT at the end of sophomore year and used that score when she applied to college. It wasn’t an issue for the schools she applied to.
@yearstogo I think any SAT taken during high school is fine for submitting to colleges. The one exception I know of is that the qualifying SAT for National Merit needs to fall within a couple years or so.
Well we have just over a month left of school. Last weekend of spring break. I can’t believe how FAST freshman year flew by. Makes me sad how fast the next 3 yrs are going to be.
It’s good to catch up with everybody here. I have been spending less time here as I recover from getting my D17 launched last year. Her college fits her like a glove and she’s doing really well academically and socially.
D21 has had a fantastic year in her new school, I can’t believe it’s reaching its end. She will be taking Calc BC and AP world next year along with Bio, English, foreign language, etc. Our D17’s school did not offer APs so this is new terrain for us. She applied for a job as a teaching assistant/counselor for summer enrichment classes for younger children. She is also about to have her first driving lesson!
Hello all, this year as flown by so fast. D is at a AP Human Geo AP review at her school right now. Getting ready for her first AP exam. She has really enjoyed her high school as well.
DD18 officially to Clemson so now I can focus on DD 21
@burghdad congrats! I’ve been following the 2018 kids since we have a junior. Exciting to see all of those kids making decisions!