Just dropped of S21 at a college dorm for a 1-week summer program. Felt like a little preview of 2 years from now. Weird and made me feel a little teary to help him make is bed and then leave. Just like my parents did long ago. I really hope he likes it. DH and I will be empty nesters for the week since D23 is still away working at a state park as part of the state Youth Conservation Corps. We get both of them back home next weekend.
@JESmom i know the feeling. D21 was just at Georgetown for a week and she wouldnāt even let us stay and help her unpack. She loved the school (itās on her list to apply to) and she really loved dorm life and being on her own. This solidified that she wants to go away to school, she was on the fence. Good luck to your son
@AndreaLynn S21 is at Georgetown too! Iām glad to hear your daughter enjoyed it. I donāt expect the college to be on my sonās list since itās about 10 minutes from home LOL. But I hope heāll get a sense of what it will be like to live in a dorm and hope the data science program piques his interest in different ways to use math (his favorite subject).
Wow, the summer is flying by. Both D21 and D23 are at an academic camp now, then their dad has them for two weeks for vacation, then they start their schooling. I am worried D21 has not had enough focused time to study for the SATs. Too many things going on this summer - all of which were productive and good, but she didnāt have much set time to study. She takes the test in August. At least sheāll have a couple more test date options after that if she needs them. Her practice tests have been in the 1400s but she needs to crack that 1500 minimum for many of the schools to which she wants to apply (she does have safeties in mind though).
She looks forward to starting her classes this year since three of them will be at community colleges (two different ones). I am excited for her but worried for her too. I need to work on not worrying so much, because I often find that if I worry then she gets stressed.
S21 & S23 Twins all started marching band camp yesterday! The twins are slightly overwhelmed lol.
S21 was supposed to take the SAT Aug 24 but decided to change his registration to Nov 2, he wasnāt feeling ready. Itās his ship to sail so Iām sitting back and only offering opinions and comments when asked (and itās killing me lol!!!). He got his summer AP Psych final grade backā¦ended with an 89ā¦had high 90ās in all the class work but got a 75 on the final examā¦donāt know what it is about this kid and his test anxiety!!!
Welcome newcomers, D has decided she finally wants to practice driving. so we have been doing this every evening. She sweats bullets, seat moved up too close and she is hunched up close to the steering wheel, canāt get her to sit back at all. But she is improving every day. Hoping she can start driving us to school in 2 weeks when school starts,
@BingeWatcher - enjoy the driving process. My D waited 6 months after her 16th birthday to get her license for some odd reason. For the first week or so I was so nervous when she took the car alone (and I felt a weird trapped feeling when my car was gone, but I was at home); now Iām thrilled. Itās so helpful for her to be able to drive herself to and from work, practice and to be able to run her own errands. Yesterday, she remembered she forgot to ask me to pick up gallon sized ziplock bags to pack things in for band camp (which she was leaving for at 7:30am the next day). I got to stay on the couch and SHE ran to the store at 9:30pm. So nice!!!
D21 takes road test late August, same day S18 heads back to college. Guess they wonāt have to fight over the car, but we were hoping for more independent driving time before school starts, which is Sept 5. Hopefully she passes and sheāll be bringing her brother to school with her. We just have to navigate the parking pass process which is what currently has us stressed!
D21 is not loving driving! Iām finding it much more stressful than when S17 started! Hopefully more practiceā¦she doesnāt test for her license until January.
Her summer class has been a lot more work than anticipated!! That and self SAT prep was July. Summer class final next week, then a week of an SAT class, August 24 SAT then finishing summer homework!! Not the funnest of summers! Hoping maybe she tests great and we can be done!!
Visit set for Clark in November over our 4 day break, if anyone has any other suggestions of where to look between NJ and Worcester! Sheās thinking Clark might be too small (her high school is about the same size), but sheās leaning towards a psych major so weāre going to look!
@NJWrestlingmom Maybe Marist or Fairfield? Both are very popular in our neck of NJ.
oh yes @eb23282 thanks for the reminder - I really want to see Marist! Iām afraid it wonāt come in on budget so it makes me a little nervous! D21 wants to stop in to see the town where I grew up (not terribly far from Marist), so that would probably fit it. Thanks!
@NJWrestlingmom I thought I heard that Marist had good merit packages. I could be wrong as I havenāt looked personally.
We had Junior year orientation this week!!! Our high school is 11/12th campus only so this is the last transitionā¦ Itās all starting to become so serial! S21 is happy with his schedule, Semester 1: Debate 1, Dual Credit History, AP Envio Science and Band Semester 2: Pre Calc, AP Lang, Dual Credjt History & Band.
School starts on Tuesday!!
D21 has not done any test prep as we had planned, but she still has almost 4 weeks to go, so we will see. She does have a lot of AP summer class work so not too hopeful. She dropped down from AP Physics to Honors, but that still leaves her with 4 AP. She also switched from cross country to swim, which should be a positive change as the distance coach is not great with the girls. Road test next wknd so hopefully sheāll have her license before school starts!
@VikkiG5, I wish my daughter could drop down to honors physics. At our high school, the ONLY physics offered is AP physicsā¦I guess so few students take physics at all that there just arenāt enough to fill an honors and an AP class. Daughter is sort of dreading itā¦sheās not a STEM kid, though a straight-A student in everything through sheer diligenceā¦honors chem last year was a struggle. Sheās only taking the physics because Iāve learned here on CC how essential that is for college admissions. Sheāll also be taking AP US History and AP Lang along with her honors classes. Four APs along with honors physics is a lot to juggle!
Jumping in here for the first time with S21 (S19 heads off to college in a short week). Spent the summer with a bit of volunteering, junior counselor (his assessment: Mentally and physically exhausting), AP summer work, and a bit of SAT prep. Has 5 APs next year, 4 that the school offers juniors (AP Calc, AP Chem, AP Gov, and AP Lit) plus AP Stats independent study. The SAT prep is important to him - his PSAT score as a 10th grader was quite a bit above our stateās NM cutoff, so he has high hopes for this year when it counts. Unlike S21 (who was Finance since 9th grade), S19 is unsure what he wants to do - great at STEM but not interested in engineering or science, good debater, keeps up with politics and current events but not interested in Pol Sci per se. I feel like I have barely started recovering from one round of Letās Go to College, now another is starting:)
@inthegarden why canāt she just take regular physics? Our school also only offers the AP options. No honors. Plenty of kids get into top schools who donāt take AP physics and stick with the regular level class. Junior year seems to always be AP heavy like you said with APUSH and AP Lang being important junior year courses. Both at our school are a ton of reading and lot of homework. Adding AP physics here is really only for the kids who can handle the science easily. Another option is to have her take it senior year instead. Our S19 had all honors and APs junior year but opted for an honors level earth science class junior year. It worked out really well. He still had a ton of work - maybe five hours of homework a night on average - but he really thought taking AP physics would have affected his other grades since it would have taken a lot of time away from them. He took AP physics senior year and it was way better than it would have been junior year since he finished BC Calc as a junior and knowing Calc, even for AP Physics 1, made a big difference
D21 will take that earth science class junior year and physics senior year. Colleges still see you are taking physics. They see your senior year schedule. We have not decided if she will take the AP level yet.
Today was the first day of school for D21. I know she is going to come home annoyed because they had her schedule all messed up and we have been fighting with them all week. The dean said to meet him at a certain spot this morning a 1/2 hour before school to try to figure it out but when D got there he was nowhere to be found. That means she will have to go to all of these classes today that will not be her actual classes once the schedule gets fixed, such a waste of a day.
If she ever gets the schedule fixed she is planning on taking APUSH, AP Lang, Pre Calc Honors, Chemistry Honors, Spanish 3, Journalism Honors (newspaper) and hopefully AICE Sociology. We are fighting about a few things - school wants her to take AICE Math and the chemistry block which is two periods that combine AP and AICE Chemistry and they say there is no room in Sociology (which is a requirement for her to finish her AICE diploma.) Hopefully we will have some luck soon!
@momtogkc ugh. Thatās a bummer. D21 also not happy with part of her schedule- not the actual class but the teacher assigned. We heard her AP Lang teacher is awful. S19 knows kids who had her and they all said she teaches nothing. Then, D21 got a text from an older friend saying she had the teacher and loved her - all you have to do is be friendly and participate and youāll get a good grade. THEN she agreed that the class is a waste and she didnāt learn anything. It stinks because S19 had a rock start AP Lang teacher and I tried to request him for D21 but our GC dropped the ball and wonāt admit it. She now says thereās a new rule and GCās canāt request teachers. I get it. It always seemed a bit unfair to honor requests but Iām not happy that this is the year they decided to not do that for kids!
@homerdog, thanks! The problem is, there is NO other physics classā¦only AP physics is offered!! This is an average public high school where most students go on to the local directional, nearby community colleges or (non-elite) flagships/directionals of surrounding states, where physics is not required of non-stem students. I guess the bright side is that no one else in the class will have taken a regular physics class prior to AP (students in AP biology and AP chem all have to take the honors version first). Maybe this AP class will be somewhat less challenging than those offered in more competetive schools. The teacher is known locally as being hard-but-good. D already took honors earth science as a freshman (concurrently with honors bioā¦this was pushed by school admin to all students in the upper tier). Since AP physics 1 is algebra-based, not calc-based she decided to take it now instead of waiting a year. Sheās trying to decide whether to take AP chem, bio, or the easier AP enviro so sheās putting off that decision for a year. Sheād probably do well with AP bio except that sheās very squeamish about dissecting!
Yes, it will be a challenging year for her but the built-in wiggle-room in her schedule is an easy elective (Journalism). which is really just yearbook. I think itās fluff, with no homework and basically a social hour/study hall much of the time. Am a little uneasy about letting her take it, but I do think she needs somewhere to take the pressure off. I wanted her to take a graduation requirement instead (personal finance/health) thatās also easy but not so much fun, but sheās pushing that off to senior year. Sheās also taking honors pre-calc/trig, honors Spanish 4 and honors band (marching, concert, and extra jazz band that meets during lunch and sometimes after school).
It feels in some ways that the school year has already started, as sheās been in marching band camp full-time for two weeks nowā¦last weekās schedule was from 9 to 9! Exhausting, but itās the one intense activity that she really loves!
Iām trying to decide whether or not to try to fit in a college visit in the next two Saturdays. Donāt know if itās worth it, as sheās targeting small schools that are probably dead in the summer with no student vibe, but Iām thinking about taking her to a larger school or two just to make sure she really wants to rule that out. She hates missing school during the year and the makeup work that entailsā¦most fall Saturdays are taken up with away band competitions, so I donāt know how the college-visit thing is going to workā¦ Comments/advice about that are welcome!