Agree about the new look @BingeWatcher !! Definitely taking some time to adjust!
Well, looks like D21 landed a job! Edible Arrangements! We’ll see how that goes! LOL
@saga9497, my son is on a similar trajectory in a similar program with similar goals and we have chosen to have him take a gap year, so he will return after a year away as a member of the class of 2022 instead of 2021. Happy to PM with you about our thoughts, but I do think it is a lot to return to after a year away. But obviously other kids do it, so it is possible, just potentially stressful.
I actually like the new look! I can’t believe they didn’t incorporate a “quote a post” button. Oh well.
@BingeWatcher That sounds like a great program! My D is working at a summer camp and is becoming an expert in managing the behavior of unruly small children. 
I’m not a big fan of the new look. I prefer more content on a page and darker typeface but I imagine I’ll get used to it.
@3kids2dogs The lack of a quote button is intentional - they don’t want it to be easy to quote posts. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/9578718/#Comment_9578718
It’s fun reading through all the posts and learning about the wonderful variety of ways in which kids get good quality educations.
The schools are so different from each other - and even the homeschooling methods (gleaned mainly from other threads) are so different from each other. Yet we all have one thing in common - we are all dedicated parents making sure our own kids get what they individually need. There are so many paths to a great education; I love reading about all the methods and possibilities out there.
Can’t believe it’s the end of June already. School starts again for D21 in six weeks. Not that I’ll remind her of that.
She’s having a good summer so far. We took a trip out west to do some exploring and visit a couple of colleges; she has now visited all the colleges to which she intends to apply (as of now, anyway) at least once. Almost all of these colleges are within an hour drive from our home, her dad’s home, or one of her extracurricular events (traveling sports competitions), so it’s been easy to see a bunch over the past year and a half. Living in the northeast is helpful that way; can’t throw a rock without hitting a college. She’s got a list of 21 and her job this year is to narrow that way down. Many are reaches but she has a healthy amount of safeties/matches. She’s homeschooled with both common and unique extracurriculars and regional/national recognition in those ecs, but her application will likely be different than most and that could work very much for her or against her…so she’ll likely apply to at least twelve or thirteen colleges since she feels her situation is not standard.
She’s finishing up a Wilderness First Responder course tomorrow and will then be a certified “Woofer.” Has been offered a job for next spring as a professional guide in a certain outdoor sport as a result of her networking, her reputation and experience in a certain EC, and the WFR course. She’s happy about the offer and hoping to fit that job into her schedule.
@BingeWatcher , D21 is also exploring engineering this summer at a camp. I don’t think engineering is going to be her thing though . She’s very STEM focused but at this point just kind of curious about engineering. I don’t see her loving engineering but I have not told her that - figured she should explore it if she wants and find out for herself. And maybe I’m wrong and she’ll fall in love with it. She has been focused on environmental science for a while now and I don’t see that changing…but perhaps she’d like environmental engineering? Anyway, I hope your teen has a great time. I think mine will even if she decides engineering isn’t her thing.
Before the camp she is off on a solo trip that concerns one of her ECs. Also has to fit finishing her Girl Scout Gold Award project in there somewhere. Also has to continue studying for the SAT, which she’ll take in late August. Plus there’s a bunch of volunteer work in the calendar. It’s a busy summer…but D21 is very type A and likes to keep moving (her sister is the opposite and needs real breaks throughout the year).
I’m really happy that her fall dual credit courses have finally been secured at local colleges. Advanced Spanish at our local four-year university and Intro to Economics and Intro to Literature at a local community college. She’s been in contact with the professors (who all seem really nice) and is excited about the courses. These will be her first ever in-person for-grades academic core courses she has ever taken. She has taken plenty of challenging (and quite interactive) online accredited courses and lots of in-person academic non-core courses for enrichment, but none that were core and both in-person and for-grades. She is really looking forward to them. I feel she is more than ready and is going to have a blast.
So her 2019-2020 schedule has finally taken fuller form.
Those three college courses for fall, three others (yet to be determined) for spring,
plus three year-long online AP courses through PA Homeschoolers (AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1, and AP Calc BC). Many of her homeschooled friends are taking AP Calc BC next year through various accredited online providers, and I think they are scheduling a weekly study group with each other, so that should be fun. Her friends are all fairly nerdy but in a good way. 
Boy that was long so thanks to anyone who read through this novella.
Looking forward to reading about everyone’s junior year journey, and I
hope everyone has a great summer. This is such an exciting time!
I’m new to this thread but have lurked the boards for a couple months. My D21 is an A student at this point with challenging classes and some nice extracurriculars. She hasn’t started her own non-profit or done anything super amazing so we won’t be aiming for Ivy or the super competitive schools. Cost will also be a concern for us as I’m thinking we make too much for aid but certainly not enough to pay full price. So we are hoping to find a place that she will be happy to go and they will be happy to have her (and will give her some merit aid! 
) So far her main interests are schools in Washington DC. We will visit but I am not optimistic about the affordability. She is not really sure about what she would like to study. She leans toward political science but we are trying to dissuade her.
@frostymom we just visited umd college park. Nice campus with 10 minute metro ride to DC. It is a state school and they do give a decent amount of merit aid so it is eminently more affordable than GTown, GW and American. However much larger school as well with about 30k undergraduates
Haven’t posted here for a bit. So D finished up first week in June. She ended up with a perfect year but worked hard for it. She was so ready to be done and I was proud of her for holding on until the end.
She’s been doing SAT prep using Khan and I’m wanting to buy a couple prep books. Wondering what book/s your kids are finding helpful. Next week there will be no time for prep bc she’ll be at Purdue doing a 1 credit, 1 week course: Empowering Women in Business. Should be a fun week where she’ll get a taste of dorm room living and campus life.
@frostymom, welcome! We will most likely be full pay as well so D will either go in state to IU or Purdue or, if she can get merit and wants to try going OOS, maybe Miami Ohio or Alabama. She’s thinking of majoring in Business - Accounting, Finance or Actuarial Science.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer so far!
@frostymom, Hello,
@rjm, congrats on your D’s strong finish. My D completed “Explore Engineering” at Texas Tech and it solidified she wants electrical or computer engineering. On SAT prep. D is starting to read: Erica Meltzer’s Critical Reading and Grammar. The best math book is PWN the SAT. D is shooting for NMF. She will read the reading book this week. (started today) for a week then go to her dad’s for 2 weeks then resume when she gets back. Will do a practice SAT every SAT for the 6 weeks leading up the the Oct 14th PSAT.
@BingeWatcher, good luck to your D with her goal of NMF. Sounds like she’ll be a strong contender with already an awesome 1590 SAT score! So nice that your D also has an idea of what she wants to study in college. Glad her experience at Texas Tech validated that for her.
Thank you also for the recommendations on the SAT prep books. She’s going to Sylvan tomorrow to do a complimentary SAT practice test. I’m sure they’ll try to pressure us to sign her up for their prep, but not sure I want to go that route yet. We’ll see. I wish I knew a private tutor in our area that could help her stay focused and on track without committing to an official program. Is anyone here familiar with Sylvan’s test prep?
My S21 is scheduled to take the SAT Aug 24th. He started with the Khan Academy prep but didn’t like the format so now he’s going the Magoosh prep program and likes it much better. I like that their is online support and it sends me updates on his progress as well. I’ve ordered the PWN the SAT & Erica Meltzer Critical Reading for him as well.
@BingeWatcher that’s pretty intense and a lot of SATs. What will happen if she’s not NMF? Do you know the cut off from last year from your state? It’s pretty scary to put all of your eggs in one basket. That’s so much pressure for one test. What if she’s not feeling well or is particularly nervous because she thinks she has to rock it? If the cut off is on the lower side and she’s already scored a 1590 on a real SAT sitting then why does she need to take six more SAT practice tests? I really hope this works out for you guys. I’ve never heard of someone taking six practice tests in six weeks.
We’re trying to figure out the test prep thing too. S21 did a practice SAT online this weekend and did pretty well, great in math, OK on verbal. I’m having him take an online ACT practice next weekend and then he can decide which to focus on. While I’d love for him to just use a book and Khan, knowing my kid, he needs the accountability of a class or tutor to really focus so I’m willing to spend some money on it. He doesn’t have particular schools in mind yet but we’d just like him to maximize his score so he has as many options as possible, esp. with merit aid since we’ll be full pay. I think the main options I’m looking at in terms of timing and cost are a Princeton Review in-person class, that starts in August or a private tutor. I saw a couple tutors on Wyzant in my area that seem promising. Need to investigate further. He really needs to focus most on the verbal piece and general tips/tricks for managing the test so a tutor who can focus more on those specific needs seems better if we can find a good fit. If the SAT, he wants to take it in October, feels like Aug is too soon, but at the same time, I’d like him to focus most of his prep time in the summer before school starts. So hard to balance all this. He’s also working every day as a camp counselor and fitting in in-car driver’s ed about once a week.
@homerdog, we really have no choice about the eggs in a basket. CSS is off the table, EFC more than our Texas state schools and un affordable. Texas SI score has been 221 for the past couple of years. . Her PSAT in 10th (unprepped was 220). Yes, I agree it is alot of pressure for one test. But I really don’t know a way to get close to a full ride without national merit…edit…She is not the competitive scholarship type. Funny that the 1590 was taken just as a regular yearly to biannually no nothing test…We are thinking that score was when all the stars were aligned and no chance to replicate without serious prep. Right now she is finding she needs the official SAT reading material to use to work untimed with Erica’s CR book. Our plan is really fluid depending on how she feel she is doing. She is findErica’s reading book more dense and thought provoking than she expected. edit…even at our local school, a 1600 gets 8500.00 but NMF gets 26,000. yearly. And yes, if her practice are missing one or 2 questions then she will not need to do all 6 practice test. Maybe just 3…
@BingeWatcher but what’s the point of all of this studying if she’s already maxed out the SAT? What will she learn from the metzler book if she’s already had a (practically) perfect score?
@homerdog , the SAT she took before she got the 1590 in March of this year was the Nov 2018 was a 1510 Nothing changed at all between that one and the March (her math is always perfect with every one) but somehow she did not make any mistakes but one in grammar on the March. Not because she truly has a grasp that reflects the 800 in reading… She is certain she could not replicate it. What if she does not study because she has this 1590 and then does not make the 221 or 222 on the PsAT when the only reason she was taking the SATs unprepped since 8th grade was to help prepare for the PSAT…The PSAT has been the one lone goal all along. It carries far more weight for us that a 1590 SAT. If she was consistently scoring 1580 to 1590 SATS that would be different. She was not. She was making upper 1400s and low 1500s. She and I would never forgive ourselves if she did not study and did not make NMF And Erica’s CR Grammar will also help her with AP Lang that she is taking in the fall. She is not bucking me at all. She wants to make NMF more than anything. she knows the financial importance of it.
@BingeWatcher I think it’s great that your D is willing to work so hard for her goal! I know what you mean that if she didn’t study and did not get NMF she would be so upset, at least if she studies and doesn’t make it she will know she tried her best. Of course I am guessing that she will with the scores she has - amazing!!
I haven’t even brought up testing with my D yet, she does well on the state standardized tests but did not do as well on the PSAT. We did talk for about two minutes about college in general yesterday. I told her if she wants we could try that plan where we only pick one day a week to talk about college and testing then we won’t talk about it the rest of the week. She kind of laughed and made it seem like that won’t be necessary so hopefully this week we can start some type of plan. The last two weeks she was volunteering from 8-2 then working from 3-10 - she was wiped out. This week she is working but only form 6-10 so she will be much less stressed and tired!
S still not interested in college/testing stuff. The closest we came to a college conversation recently was my half-hearted attempt to start one by saying “maybe you should pick a school based on the color” to which he replied “no yellow, and I don’t like red either”. But apparently purple is ok…
Just enjoying summer here. We leave on vacation in two weeks and meanwhile, my daughter is spending time with friends and working. She’ll be marching in the 4th of July parade with band and has her uniform fitting tomorrow (she’s mad, because they are usually allowed to wear shorts and band polos in the parade; this year it’s full uniform - ugh; it’s supposed to be 90+ degrees on the 4th).
No talk about college academically, but with marching band heating up, we’ve been talking about whether she wants to continue in college. We watched some SEC pregames and they are awesome- I think the answer is an absolute yes if she goes to an SEC school!