<p>Where are your kids on the whole college/career search spectrum? Undecided, uninterested, somewhere in between?</p>
<p>I seem to be totally obsessed with this whole process but my son is more of a "i get good grades, I take challenging classes, no need to worry about much else right now" guy. He does participate in a few clubs but is not interested in sports at all. He started doing community service because apparently it really matters. He doesn't quite know yet which major to pick but it's pretty clear he is not a math/science material. He loves languages, social studies, writing, reading, politics etc.. but also enjoys web design class.. </p>
<p>Just curious how the other children his age are in this respect..</p>
<p>I sympathize with you. My son is now in 12th grade. In 9th grade I was very interested in colleges and tried to get him interested as well. He wasn’t interested, period. What I have learned since then is that there was no reason for him to worry about it. The best thing you can do, in my opinion, is to gently bring the subject up now and then, but don’t push, and don’t get frustrated if your son doesn’t seem to respond. Just pass information along to him once in a while, maybe ask him if he has thought about what he may want to study in college once every few months, and beyond that try not to worry. Your occasional comments and questions will incubate in his mind for two years, and then, when the time is right, he will make the right decisions. It will be fine, I promise!</p>
<p>It has been a long time since I was the parent of a 9th grader, but I remember that both of mine were focused on their new experiences in high school, rather than the distant prospect of college. I think this is true of most 9th graders. They have enough to deal with in terms of starting and getting used to high school, without being burdened by something that seems to be in the distant future.</p>
<p>This means that parents need to take the lead in terms of the college-related issues that come up during the 9th grade year – including making appropriate course selections for 10th grade, encouraging participation in at least one or two extracurricular activities, finding something worthwhile for the student to do for at least part of the summer, and making decisions about whether or not the student should take any SAT Subject Tests at the end of the 9th grade year. The student may be the one who makes the final decisions on these topics, but I think it’s the parent’s responsibility to be informed about them and raise the issues if the student doesn’t.</p>
<p>Edited to add: My son chose his future college major in 9th grade, never deviated from that choice, and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in that subject. But he’s a little weird. This is atypical.</p>
<p>My freshman son is quite interested, but it’s because I also have a senior son so ds2 is witnessing up close and personal his brother’s college search.</p>
<p>My freshman D is not really that interested yet, but is learning a lot about the process this year because her sister is a senior I’ve tried to take younger DD on as few college visits as was possible because I wanted this go round to be focused on D#1 plus I didn’t want #2 to make snap decisions based on a 14 year old viewpoint.</p>
<p>Having said that she has already made a few observations about what she thinks she might like. Career and major wise I’m not worried, since her sister has changed her mind a number of times during HS; the career area everyone was certain she’d end up in from her being a little kid, changed just this summer. </p>
<p>EC wise I’ve started to kick #2 in the butt a little. She hasn’t found a good fit for that yet, since she left her main MS EC behind, and she’s decided to only play her sport at the rec level. I’ve told her that she has to pick a substantial EC for next year (everything school focused is already in progress for this year.)</p>
<p>I am making her go to an academic residential program this summer for 2 weeks, as we did for her sister when she finished her freshman year. I think it helps with a lot of intangible concepts that come up during the college search.</p>
<p>She gets great grades, and she tests well so we don’t have to worry about that piece. What we did with my oldest was go to the local spring college fair during her sophomore year, so she could identify some colleges. We started visiting a few at the end of the summer before her junior year, and asked her to make a list of colleges she was interested in by Christmas of her junior year. That seemed to work well for her; the HS wants juniors to leave school for the summer with a list of 5-8 colleges that they’re interested in applying to.</p>
<p>Emily, my freshman took the PSAT this year; she’ll take it next year too and then “for real” in 11th grade. We are considering having her take the Biology SAT II at the end of this year; older DD didn’t take any SAT IIs and when she was considering applying to HYP level schools it became a potential issue. Since I suspect that my younger DD may ultimately apply to more competitive schools than my older DD, I’d like to see her take the SAT IIs when she finishes the appropriate class.</p>
<p>Rob, so she is taking Biology this year I take it? Is she thinking of a medical profession or science related then I guess? </p>
<p>My son is not interested in any of this at all and we purposely selected accelerated science this year instead of the Honors Biology he was recommended for. Didn’t want him to be completely miserable especially if it’s not his area of interest. He says many kids he talks to fail or nearly fail this course and their grades look really bad so I am glad we made this decision.</p>
<p>No, we do not discuss college with the 9th grader. He is the youngest of three with an older brother in college and one that will go in the fall, so has been hearing “college talk” for years now. In in the context of PSAT, PLAN, ACT etc. we don’t discuss specific college stuff until end of 10th beginning of 11th grade. That said, his school requires the students to plan all four years coursework, it is reviewed/modified, etc. each year (he will go through that in 3 weeks for the 2010/2011 year. At that point, yes, we review his class choices in the context of what is desireable for college and how hard he wants to push himself, but it’s very general conversations. He’s an all A freshman, but as we all know it gets harder every year and in my experience I get a much better picture of my boys’ academic horsepower after sophomore year.</p>
<p>The best I would want out of a 9th grader is their understanding that grades count and that they should be trying their hardest to do their best in the most challenging curriculum that they can handle.</p>
<p>Additionally, they should be getting involved in extracurriculars that they enjoy and that offer leadership positions down the road.</p>
<p>I would not yet expect them to take an interest in researching colleges or knowing what their major will be…plenty of time for that.</p>
<p>The summer before junior year would be the earliest I would begin casually looking at colleges. We went on family vacations that summer to DC and Boston with my older daughter, which included some drive throughs or info sessions at colleges. It was just mainly to see locations and to get a general feel of what campuses could offer.</p>
<p>You can also research summer programs that may align with extracurriculars or special interests.</p>
<p>D started freshman year in hs with an interest and talent in musical theatre and art. We sent her to a college program in choir and musical theatre last summer (before sophomore year) and though she had a great summer, she decided that she would now rather focus on art for next summer and is thinking of that as her field of interest, even though she is still doing shows and taking voice lesson. (By next summer she may change her mind totally.)</p>
<p>Remember, that at this age, the thought of actually going to college is petrifying to most kids. They want to enjoy high school, live in the moment, and think of college as something that is vaguely in their future.</p>
<p>Emily, yes she is taking Biology I Honors this year. The state of TN has changed graduation requirements for the class of 2013; if she had followed the path of my older D, she would have taken Physical Science Honors as an 8th grader then Bio 1 Honors in 9th grade. However, they took the Physical Science option away from 8th graders last year, so the whole group of honors kids ended up skipping that class and going right to Biology I. Doesn’t seem to have made a difference.</p>
<p>She is absolutely not interested in medicine; she gets super grossed out and twitchy about anything medical Not thinking sciences either, although she does well in those classes. She is a writer and is considering teaching. Psychology is intriguing to her (and I know that’s a medical field.)</p>
<p>Now my older DD was dancing around various health professions from pre-K until this summer. Now she’s thinking a history major and then teaching. Whatever!</p>
<p>An early SAT subject test could be in order if your child is likely to perform well, and if he isn’t going to be re-visiting that subject any time soon. </p>
<p>If you have clear indication from previous standardized testing (90-th percentile and up) that your child is likely to perform well on the PSAT, you might want to do a dry run on it either at home or in 10th grade. The only score that matters is the 11th grade score, and then it is only really important if it is high (200 and up) enough to put your kid in the running for the National Merit family of scholarships. If your kid is a bad tester (like mine) he never has to sit through the PSAT. Colleges do buy marketing lists of students with PSAT scores in certain ranges from the College Board, so if you want that kind of e- and regular mail, the PSAT may be useful. All of the college information is online nowadays so it may not be critical for your family.</p>
<p>The single most important thing for you to do, is to sit down with the financial aid calculators, and the loan repayment calculators (there are good ones at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>How Much Will College Cost – BigFuture | College Board) ). Run the numbers now, so that you can get over the shock. Then, sit your spouse and/or whoever it is who is going to help pay for your son’s education down, and go through those numbers. Are student loans OK with you? Are parent loans OK? How much money do you expect your kid to earn in the summer and during the school year? The sooner you can get real about how this education will be paid for, the better. It will help you develop a truly realistic list of colleges/universities when your son wakes up about the process.</p>
<p>Happykid didn’t want to hear about college until the end of 10th grade when she actually knew people who were graduating. Her career goal has been set since that time as well. I understand that boys are often slower. If that is your case, don’t worry about it just yet. Chances are that your kid will be fine.</p>
<p>In case minority newbie parents are reading, I just want to clarify that lower scores on the PSAT can be valuable as well. There are two distinctions if you’re a minority – National Achievement and National Hispanic Scholar – that require lower scores, in the 180s and 190s, in order to receive benefits.</p>
<p>BTW, the freshmen at our HS begin their sophomore class counseling & registration this coming Monday. There really isn’t a lot of wiggle room in their potential schedules the first two years, especially with the new HS grad requirements. They also have to do a 4 year plan back in 8th grade, and that gets revised each year. There are 3 main paths, with some specialty programs based on career interests as well as the IB program.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids were interested in thinking about college in 9th grade. My older son knew what he wanted to do when he grew up from the time he was seven - which was to program computers. By 9th grade he was taking AP Computer Science. He’s a very unusual kid though. My younger son didn’t have a clue then, though he was fond of history and still is. He’s thinking about majoring in history or international relations, but he might find something he doesn’t even know about yet once he gets to college. </p>
<p>My job as a parent, I think, is to make sure they were taking courses at an appropriate level for their abilities. (Younger son was not taking APs as a freshman!) And making sure that they didn’t close any doors. We are lucky in NY that the requirements for graduating with a Regent’s Diploma are pretty much the same as what any good college looks for.</p>
<p>As for taking the PSAT in 10th grade for practice. Our school encourages it and I think it’s a good idea. I think it served my older son particularly well as his high scores meant that his GC took notice of him. (Since our GC have 200+ kids to take care of this is a huge advantage.) He got a bunch of opportunities for learning outside school because they were aware of him. (IBM lecture series, Saturday science program at Columbia University among others)</p>
<p>Many private schools require 2 SAT 2’s (some 3). Generally even for undecided majors, they would want to see one math/science and one in literature/language/social sciences.</p>
<p>D did take the SAT 2 after honors bio in 9th grade. I’m not sure your son will be prepared for it without taking an honors level course. The 9th graders are competing with kids who are taking the test after taking AP bio, often as a 2nd bio class.</p>
<p>If private school applications could be in his future, I would have him consider it after any honors or AP science class or even in 10th or 11th grade for math.</p>
<p>Lots of kids take the social science/ lit sat 2’s after APUSH or AP literature in 11th grade.</p>
<p>As for the PSAT in 10th grade, it is generally only taken by students who have already completed algebra and geometry. In NYS, that means those who are on an accelerated track in math.</p>
<p>BTW, I do think it is important for YOU to do as much research/ prep into the whole college process even if your son is disinterested. I can’t begin to tell you how much more I knew about things than most parents and even the guidance dep’t. Of course, time on CC was well spent. Also time really exploring college websites and reading books on the process.</p>
<p>Just don’t scare your son away and share with him everything you learn just yet.</p>
<p>HappyMom: yeah, we’re pretty sure that our freshman won’t be revisiting Biology, hence the possible SAT II this may or june. </p>
<p>Older DD is a NMSF this year and (unfortunately) a lot of teachers made comments to younger DD about “whether she planned on doing that” when they announced the names in the fall. Sigh.</p>
I’ve tried to take younger DD on as few college visits as was possible because I wanted this go round to be focused on D#1 plus I didn’t want