<p>^^^^ Boo on those teachers, RobD. Weren’t they ever a sibling? Ds2 has had teachers call him by his brother’s name all year long. Argh.</p>
<p>emily, if you want to know whether your ds has enough grounding to take the Bio test (or any test), know that the College Board website has lots of info to help you make a decision. Here’s a link to what’s covered: [SAT</a> Subject Test in Biology](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools)</p>
<p>and one to sample questions: [SAT</a> Subject Test in Biology](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools)</p>
<p>My D said to me, in 9th grade: “Mom, just don’t make it so real right now, I’m 14!” I think she was right-- she does well and follows her own fascinations out and I’m glad I didn’t push much, last year or this-- I think she needed time to develop on her own, find her own path. We do visit colleges, totally informally, when we go on a trip-- it’s just a fun way to make it more tangible, and she is paying more and more attention now, in 10th grade.</p>
<p>S1 was always interested in the military so he looked at a lot of websites of military schools and sent off for some info. in ninth grade, nothing really intensive, just looking around. He continued the info. gathering but not getting all worked up about anything through jr. year. By the end of junior year, he had a plan a set it in motion by applying for NROTC scholarship.</p>
<p>In ninth grade S2 was probably just hoping to get through h.s.! He showed zero interest in college until the beginning of his senior year. He’s a college soph. now. It all worked out with minimum stress.</p>
<p>I agree with the poster who said to run your #'s through a financial calculator to get over the shock!</p>
<p>At least we know what we were dealing with. We were clearly not getting financial aid based on our EFC, and had to narrow our list of private schools from the get-go to those that offered true merit aid. </p>
<p>There was no reason to have our older D visit and fall in love with other schools, if we could not afford to pay full fare for 4 years.</p>
<p>It narrowed the options considerably and allowed D to focus on her interests that could bring in merit $.</p>
<p>(Older D had always sung and done schools shows, but she continued with her training on a more serious level as it became clear that her best path to merit aid was through her singing. And in the end it did pay off! Plus with her additional training her passion for music grew and it became clearer that she really did have talent on a more national level and wanted to pursue it as a major.)</p>
<p>My 9th grader wants to go to Stanford to study engineering. Luckily he’s smart, tests well and has great extra curriculars. He knows he has to have near perfect grades…totally do-able for him. We’ll see how it all plays out!</p>
<p>My 9th grader is my third (and last!) child, so she has seen the process. We don’t talk a lot about college unless she has a question. She has been to sports clinics on college campuses, so she has seen several. When we work on her high school schedule we discuss what she might want to do - take an acting elective, or an extra science? She is a better standardized test taker than her older siblings, and has a goal to be val. There’s a lot of time yet - I’m more focused on the 11th grader for now.</p>