@Sweetgum – so glad it is going well for you and your kid! I think this can vary so much depending on the environment at home and school and the personality of the kid and how well the teachers execute. Mine seem to do well with it, too, but I know some kids who are struggling tremendously (not to mention those who can’t get online at all).
My friend who is a school social worker says in her schools about a third of the kids are thriving, 10 percent are gone entirely and the rest are somewhere in the middle.
Since S22’s PSAT was postponed to January, and his SAT in November was canceled, no way for him to hit the marketing radar of colleges. I know, I know…they’re not commitment to accept him. I don’t expect that. But receiving some glossy marketing materials might be good to get him more interested in the college process. For now, he did receive marketing materials from one school that he has signed up for information (WPI). That was cool.
Our D22 has had every testing day cancelled including psat. We’ll keep looking. We’re encouraging her to attend “virtual” college days to keep her engaged. Online learning is going well.
@sfSTEM, you can just go on the college websites and sign up for marketing materials. I did that for my oldest. The colleges will gladly send it out. Did he do the PSAT10 or the PreACT? Mine did both and has been inundated with both paper mail and email. She has not done the PSAT or SAT or ACT. She is hoping to do the PSAT at school in Jan, which reminds me I should email the counselor and see if we need to pay or sign up. In NC all public school juniors are required to do the ACT through school. It’s one of the state’s benchmarks, so I think that should be happening in Feb, unless all heck breaks loose.
@Sweetgum Yes! He did the 10th grade PSAT. However, his school doesn’t allow colleges to access that. So still off their radar. But sign-ups to show interest are good!
D signed up on all the college web sites that she is remotely interested in. This is just 9 schools at the moment, but she is enjoying seeing how each approaches the marketing aspect of recruiting. She found Wm and Mary really amusing and I think it is moving up on her rankings because it was a bit eclectic (That is how she would describe herself too). She has also started receiving glossy mail from other colleges, I suppose as a result of the PSAT in October. Hoping from the caliber of school reaching out that she has done well, but we will not find out until Dec. No plans for SAT yet - not sure how realistic it will be to even try to register in our area as quarantines are beginning anew. Our county mandated all public and private schools to go virtual starting Monday, and an additional announcement of targeted closures is expected today from the PA governor (gyms, libraries, etc, I suspect). Heading to the state store to stock up in case we are locked down like we were in March. Might be a long winter!
I think I’ll have my kid sign up at a couple colleges too. He’s gotten very little mail at this point and mostly places not close and pretty small and unknown to us. Maybe it’ll get him a little bit interested.
I will admit with my unmotivated oldest (2019), I just did the sign up myself. I was hoping getting some mail from colleges might help them visualize themselves as a college student. Hasn’t happened yet, but maybe one day. It’s weird times right now, though. My younger (2022) kid is pretty ready for college right this minute and usually gets mail at least a couple of times a week from colleges, many that she is completely not interested in, but I think it’s good encouragement to keep her eyes on the prize.
@christinelin I would say for D22 it’s “somewhere in the middle”. We are longtime homeschoolers, so homeschooling is not new for our family. My older two homeschooled through high school. This youngest daughter definitely wanted to leave homeschool in 5th grade, and did not look back, lol! Ultimately, homeschooling made sense for her this year though given the options. She is a social butterfly that misses the school atmosphere for sure. But she’s not suffering as some are, and I’d say the homeschool academics are better. I hope she can go back for senior year. I know that would be her preference.
It’s not all isolation here, to be fair. Her sports are still happening, though in an altered form. She has a few friends that she sees. And she works a parttime job at a coffee house.
Are your sons sad about the change in school this year?
@GoodGrief16 : one kid is doing beautifully (DS22) and one kid (DS24) hates online school, but was also disliking in person school (new high school this year). I am actually looking for options for homeschooling him as a possibility. I may pm you for advice.
Does your daughter have the option to return to in-person school later in the year if things improve? Will she likely go back in person next year?
Concerning college mail, S22 quite quickly adopted our opinion that it’s all marketing and no reflection on his chances of admission. So most of it sits unread or is tossed, including the letter from Stanford he just got, lol. Occasionally, I put college mailings on his desk in case there is something substantive in them. There never is.
He’s done about 8-10 virtual tours and info sessions so far. I figured most high profile schools would have slick virtual tours and inspiring info sessions, but that’s not been the case. Some are definitely better than others. Wake Forest, for example, blew him away; while Duke’s left him cold.
We are waiting for him to get PSAT scores back in December. If he does well on it, he’ll take a look at a few of the schools with significant NMF awards.
@vistajay - I toss the college mail before DS even sees it (at his request). The only thing that we kept was a frisbee – the very first piece of college mail – from Carleton.
In our house we are about to be officially done with in-person/virtual visits for our preliminary college list!!! We will be driving to Purdue this week for in person visit (after virtual department visit today) then only Northeastern virtual visit left. I will not say it sparked any motivation in my kid (or it was very short lived) but seems like she got better sense of direction of where she should put her efforts. Since I am a planner it is helping me to stay focused and not panic about her going to college pretty soon.
We started to receive lots of college mail once she took PSAT in 9th grade (mandatory for our school every year). Usually it gets meh response from D20 and goes straight to trash…
Despite me not liking virtual schooling I cannot not notice she still has very good amount of sleep every day for junior and we don’t have to jump from one activity to another. Her school doing a great job (all things considering) in keeping her clubs going virtualy. Debate, math competition, Science Olympiad is still up and running. We will see what results it will yield starting beginning of next year, but she stays busy.
@DreamerMom – I am so impressed by people who are so far ahead! I was in great shape with kid #1 at this point, but kid #2 will be lucky if we ever manage to do virtual visits!
His Dec. 5 SAT has just been cancelled. Sigh…I am thinking we will look at rescheduling in March. What do other folks think? Feeling grateful that he got in a PSAT and a subject test that is helpful for him.
We are right there with you @christinelin at least so far as college visits of any kind. My son’s Dec. 5 SAT has not yet been cancelled, but our state is on a COVID “pause” with many closures, so I am bracing myself for a cancellation. I guess the next best option is March, but I feel bad since he has been prepping for the Dec. date. March seems like a long wait. He did get a first try at the SAT in October, but didn’t pace right for math, so he wants/needs to take it again.
You might check the website. We haven’t received any notification yet, but the high school is listed as cancelled on the SAT website. DS actually prepped a little initially for October and now for December. He’ll either be the best prepped kid ever or it will all have been for nothing!
@christinelin We only started it because I was hoping D20 would be more excited about her virtual schooling (did not work), but now it is nice to be done with this part so that she can hit the ground running in August. Actually, let me rephrase that - so that I can start nagging her in August with specific applications
We are not signing up for any SAT anymore, since they get canceled anyway. School has ACT for juniors in spring, so we will stick with that and see how this will go.
Our Dec SAT tests is cancelled. We’re now signed up for March and May. Not ideal so close together, but still hoping to take it twice and be done before end of junior year. We’ll see…
