Hello! Wondering how school is going so far for all of our Juniors. We just started school this week, so only 3 days so far, but things are going well. In addition to my D23 I have a son in Middle School. Both are dancers, and our studio is planning to do Nutcracker this year, so there has been lots of talk about that, as well as this year’s theatre productions. Nothing new on the college front. Still sitting on our big list of schools, and collecting lots of mail (no stickers though). How is everyone else doing?
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S23 dropped foreign language for a study hall (he had 2 years already, his GPA doesn’t make him a competitive candidate for top colleges anyways). Most of his courses should be easy he said so hoping to raise the 3.3.
Football season is in full swing. It’s a rough transition year with him going from starter on jv to second or third string behind seniors on varsity. Hes been getting some playing time though and doing well so at least his attitude is staying positive.
Pre ACT coming up next week, entire school takes it.
No clue on the musical this year yet except auditions are in November. He hasn’t started his extra 2 choirs yet. Still taking voice and piano lesson.
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Waiting patiently for my kids to go finally back… next Thursday. My D23 is actually working very hard to finish up some difficult about merit badges, a Java class, and driver’s ed before school starts, but I totally let my D27 just play a lot of Minecraft and Roblox. They went to school two days per week this past April-June, but otherwise have been home since March 13, 2020…
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Dropped DD23 at boarding school for the first time last week. Miss her so much and she has been too busy to FaceTime. The school arranges all PSAT SAT and ACT so glad I don’t have to worry about that. Dying to hear about her classes- Advanced Calculus with intro to multivariable, Physics with trig, History of Religions, photography, English and Advanced dance ensemble. Nutcracker auditions were today and parent weekend auditions are tomorrow. They are on the trimester system and really have no official AP’s or grade weighting, she had 3 AP’s last year. (I seriously hope that doesn’t affect college applications negatively). She is coming from public school with a 4.2 weighted gpa and is a repeat Junior (which is totally normal for BS but last year we had never heard of such a thing). Fingers crossed for a safe and healthy and somewhat “normal” year for all of our kiddos!
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My D23 goes back Wednesday (it always amazes me the variety of school systems and calendars) and they will be full in-person, with masks and distancing and hopefully get to stay that way for the whole year. 
Vaccination rates are pretty decent in our area, but I keep hearing horror stories about schools other places, so I can’t say I’m worry-free. -
She finally got her schedule straightened out, so: AP Chem, AP Lit, AP US History, AP Music Theory, AP Research, DE Precalculus, band, and gym (alternate days with Chem lab).
She did have to drop Spanish at this point (she did Spanish 3 last year) but there was just no way to keep it and make the rest of the pieces fit. This will also be her first year of HS with no computer science class as AP CSA had to get pushed to next year, but her club, weekly volunteer gig, and job are all tech related, so she’ll be keeping her toes in. Mostly she’s excited for Music Theory and getting to see her friends again.
It’s gonna be a busy school year on this forum, guys - here we go! 
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D23 has been in school full time for almost a month now. Classes going well, dance is excellent. She is loving AP Psych, which is nice as it was a replacement class in her schedule.
Last week was the first week she felt truly rested as opposed to exhausted (that beginning of the year exhaustion my kids feel every year until they get use to school/activity schedule again).
She and her girlfriends decided to combat the exhaustion this year by exercising more. They get up and meet at the gym at 5am before school starts (as they are not all on the same school teams this is their chance to exercise and hang out together). Ahh, youth.
We have been having discussions on college possibilities - currently she is interested in ether a SLAC or applying to a direct entry 3+3 DPT program. So it looks like she may pursue two parallel lists until she makes her decision, or she may well end up applying to both kinds of schools and making the decision next Spring…don’t know, but I know she is super thoughtful so will make a good choice.
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@AnonMomof2 - good luck to your daughter at her new place! So I’m curious on this - what did her school say about potentially repeating some classes as a transfer/repeat. Or will there be a repeat of any? our D23 transferred too and just the way things are working out, might take a class over, all due to her first school stopping teaching covid spring 2020. ~~ anyways - wishing her well!
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OK. here is just a little tidbit to that i like to share with people; it helped our older two out incredibly. The December ACT (and april) offer TIR - test info release. You can order the test your kid takes; it comes with all bubbled in answers, the ones missed with the correct answer identified, and all the questions. It’s helpful if you think your kid needs to pinpoint a certain subject or area within that subject. anyway - just thought I’d share as I was looking today at that Dec. test for our junior. 
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Bgbg-
There won’t be any repeating of classes. They have sooooo many to choose from. She has already fulfilled math and science and history requirements but they have electives in all of those areas. She is dropping her calc class (she took AP last year) and switching to AP Stats. so next year will probably not have a math class. This year she is taking physics, already took bio, chem, AP chem and Anatomy, so will probably take AP Enviro or some other elective sciences next year. She doubled up on math Freshman year and doubled up on science Sophomore year. So should be able to take some fun electives her senior year.
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It won’t. Colleges are well aware of the curriculum and grading standards at boarding schools.
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D23 started back to school a month ago - we start crazy early here! So far she’s doing okay although she’s had a weekend or two when she seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by the combination of the workload plus her extracurriculars. (We weren’t sure about the courseload when she was choosing but talked it through extensively and decided to let her go for it as she was quite determined). She was fully remote from March 2020 through May of 2021, and I think that transition is part of it, too. Not to mention the early start each day - if I drive her, we leave at 6:25, but if she takes the bus, she has to be out the door at 5:55 AM! I’m driving her most days, but she had to take the bus while we were away dropping her older brother off for his first year of college.
While we were gone, she also took her first SAT. She’d hoped to study for it this summer but ended up busier than expected and didn’t do much prep.
We just planned some visits for October (Bates and Bowdoin and probably Smith and Mt. Holyoke). I don’t think we’ll get to see schools again after that until next April when she has another school break…we live far from everything of interest to her, so we’re probably going to see what we can see in just 2 or 3 trips and make use of a lot of the virtual content (as we had to do with S21 whose search was even more affected by Covid). But other schools she’s thinking about include Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Brown, Dartmouth, Dickinson, Denison, Skidmore…maybe Kenyon, Macalester, Carleton? She’s still interested in studying creative writing and East Asian Studies/Japanese/Korean but has added Sociology and Women/Gender Studies to the potential list of majors.
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S23 started on 8/18 and isn’t doing well. He has confessed that he’s depressed and struggling to find value in his life. We are in the process of getting therapy (upon recommendation by his pediatrician) so we are working on that. To help ease the load of school, he dropped AP Chemistry (really doesn’t need for engineering) and has early dismissal so he will be home an hour earlier to work on homework/study.
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Oh dear. virtual hugs to you and him. find that therapist for sure.
~~ thinking of your son this morning.
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It is good that he talked to you! As though being this age wasn’t hard enough, the last couple of years have been so rough on our kids. I went through it with my D23 in a big way last year and it’s still an ongoing management project.
Wishing you the best as you sort through this and get/give him the help he needs.
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Dropping in to say Hi!! This month has been so crazy busy…Thing 1 had a Covid scare…someone in one of his classes tested positive, we got the notice, 3 days later he started to feel bad…went for a pcr test…Negative. He had a run of the mill viral…which then got passed to all of us in return lol.
We’re in full swing of marching band season. Someone please hit me upside
the head, don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to be band booster president this year 
.
3 week progress reports came out and both Thing 1 & Thing 2 are doing fabulous! I was a little worried about their rigorous loads this semester and all AP core subjects but they’re handling it like champs.
ACT is this Saturday!!!
I was able to get away for a trip to Nashville with my sister last week, it was my first time there and what a great city!
My husband and I are taking a trip somewhere next week…don’t know where, we’re going to play Non Rev roulette and just decide/grab a flight based on what’s available at the time lol…that ought to be fun 
Sept 23-26 I’m going to Boston with my girlfriends for my birthday…and then I stay put for the rest of 2021 lol.
S21 came home for the long weekend, it was good having all 3 of my boys under our roof again 
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Its so good that he opened up about how he’s feeling and that he can start therapy now. One of my kids has dealt with similar issues for years and now that he’s away at college, he has tools and coping skills that he learned in therapy to (try to) use when things get rough again. Hugs to you - it is so hard watching our kids struggle.
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Many virtual hugs to you and your son, @JaceyK. I do feel your pain: My youngest (HS class of 2025) is similarly struggling, and we’re also working on trying to line up therapy—and having some difficulty, what with therapists being in high demand given the past year and a half. Here’s hoping the schedule change helps for yours in the meantime!
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Thank you all for your messages. I think we got lucky with a line in to a great therapy group. I’ve already btdt with my oldest son who suffered a lot last year and is now on meds to help (already seeing tremendous strides in the right direction for him). Hoping we have good results sooner than later!!
I forgot to add that PSAT (official) is October 13th with his SAT scheduled for 11/6.
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My middle child has had some similar struggles. I’m sorry your son and your family are going through this.
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First week in and just visited with DS at his boarding school (we are only 90 minutes away). He has friends, and is happy and healthy and worried about Pre-Calc Honors already. Which is a good thing; keep 'em scared
His roomie has “a head cold,” and he insisted that we not go anywhere to eat b/c he didn’t want to take his mask off around us. He’s a good kid. But sigh, it’s so worrying. (The whole campus is masked at all times outside their dorm room or in the wide open spaces, and if not vaccinated, the students must be tested weekly.)