Sat 2360 for 9th grader, now what ?

Parent Cafe
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<p>amother - I don't have the same type of kid as you, so not as much experience with the options for him. Others will have great ideas which you can pursue for enrichment for him and to make sure that he is fully challenged in school. But just a couple of thoughts.</p>

<p>Your concern here is just as it should be. For your son's overall welfare (academic, social and health). And, of course, this is cc, so special attention to his being able to attend the college of his choice which is oh-so-likely to be oh-so-competitive.</p>

<p>I do think we have to wonder about why some kids with 800/800/800 still don't get into the school of their choice. When we can't see their application and know everything about them, we can only guess. One might think it's lacking a specific activity, like sports. I don't think so. More likely, it's that the kid seems to have "not much else to offer" beyond stellar SAT/GPA. Or also quite likely that kid offers great SAT/GPA and outstanding success in other arenas, but so do too many other kids.</p>

<p>So, what do you do to help assure that he thrives and ends up in the right place?</p>

<p>"Nerdy" is ok, in fact it's even "in" these days. At any rate, it doesn't matter. He is who is he is and is doing great. </p>

<p>I would encourage him to explore other areas outside academics and piano. Something he likes - could be school newspaper, debate... Running is great, as you say, for his health and endurance. But he doesn't have to do sports as an EC; your focus on doing the running for his health is just right, whether it leads to an EC activity or not.</p>

<p>I would NOT suggest he study to gain a few points on the 760 score. He doesn't need that and I will go out on a limb to say that his chances of admission to his "dream" school will not vary one whit with a 800/800/800 from an 800/800/760.</p>

<p>Imho, it is good that he "drops everything to hang out" with friends. To me, this is a good sign of a well-adjusted social being. </p>

<p>There's a long time between now and his college application process. Encourage him to be who he is, explore areas of possible interest, pursue those which grab him. When the college app process gets closer, we'll probably all still be here :eek: and can provide ideas and feedback on how he can present himself in the best way possible on his applications. But we don't him to Design Himself for the college app process. We want the college app to best showcase who he chose to be for his own sake.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
He went to mathpath this past summer

[/quote]
</p>

<p>He must know my son then. Let's send some private messages to each other about specific plans. Maybe they can do something together next summer too. </p>

<p>You seem to have the impression that the Davidson</a> Young Scholars program is only for financially needy students (as is the Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars Program). In fact, the Davidson Young Scholars program will generally admit young people who are qualified, period, whether or not they need the financial aid that the program offers as one of its services. I think most MathPath alumni could qualify for participation in the Davidson Young Scholars program and benefit from its services. </p>

<p>As to financial aid availability at Exeter, the only way to find out what you will be offered is to apply. Some families with what seem to me to be very high incomes nonetheless get financial aid. When list price is that expensive, lots of applicants get a discount on list price. </p>

<p>As for how to show quoted text, you type into your reply quote codes on both sides of a quotation. Quote codes are marked by square bracket characters, but I will first pretend to use them with curly brace characters so that you can see what an open-quote and close-quote code look like. </p>

<p>{quote}He went to mathpath this past summer{/quote} </p>

<p>With the curly braces turned into brackets, that looks like </p>

<p>
[quote]
He went to mathpath this past summer

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You can include the screenname of the person you are quoting by adding an equal sign and the screenname inside the opening quote code. </p>

<p>{quote=amother}He went to mathpath this past summer{/quote} </p>

<p>which looks like this </p>

<p>


</p>

<p>when square brackets are substituted. </p>

<p>Best wishes to your son. Now that I know he and my son have been summer classmates, I am even more eager to discuss with your plans for his future.</p>

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<p>amother - this is how you do the quote that curmudgeon did. You type this: [ quote] then you fill in the words you want to quote and then you type this [ /quote] -- but you leave out the extra spaces I put between "["and "q" and "[" and "/". Then it comes out like this
[quote]
then you fill in the words you want to quote and then you type this

[/quote]
.Try it, you'll like it!</p>

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<p>oh well, tokenadult beat me too it and gave you a few extras besides. :)</p>

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<p>I agree that there is absolutely no point in trying to raise the already excellent SAT score.
What may distinguish applicants with perfect SAT in terms of admission may be passion. My S, the non-artistic, unathletic couch potato, exuded love of math from every part of his application, even though he had not taken part in math competitions (by the way, an AMC score of 136 in 8th grade is fabulous; congrats to your son).
Your son is well-balanced and seems very level-headed. Try to follow his lead in looking for ways to support his talents. I do want to note that my S's friends were quite varied in their interests and abilities. The majority, however, were older than he in the first couple of years. The school friends tended to be in the same academic teams or to eat lunch at the same time, at the same spot. He also had a group of friends from summer math camp to whom he was very devoted.</p>

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<p>Moominmama: UWashington has several early entrance programs. Another identifies highly gifted kids during middle school and has them complete all of high school in one year. Links to both programs are on this page:
<a href="http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Links to gifted programs in many states are on this page:
<a href="http://ericec.org/fact/gt-univ.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ericec.org/fact/gt-univ.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Since your son is now in high school, he does not have to take courses with his "grade" - he can take math at whatever level he is - the SAT 1 is not terribly high level math, so he may well need precalc and calc, etc., courses he can take in his high school. Does your school have lots of AP courses? He can take them. Languages? Is he ahead in those, too? Try to put him in courses that will challenge him, but not so that he can't enjoy his youth. Are there some classes,like English or history, where he might be able to stay with his grade (at our high school the freshman honors English all read adult books, so any age kid would be fine - maybe your son would just write more sophisticated papers.)
A combination of more advnaced courses, with some at grade level if they are not too easy, would allow him to be challenged but still have a social life.
As others have suggested, he could go to any of the top boarding schools, like Andover and Exeter, where there is a large variety of higher level courses.
If he wants to stay where he is, I'd let him. See what he wants to do. Enrichment is all around you - local college courses, summer gifted programs, etc. But maybe he also wants time to hang out with his friends or play sports - two worthy activities! Your son is very bright and I don't think you have to worry about college right now. Just do what's best for him now, and think of all the money you won't have to spend on SAT prep courses in the future.</p>

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<p>Hi amother - you might want to look into Simon's Rock College of Bard in Mass. - a truly unique place for younger scholars. They offer finanical aid - and also offer an "Acceleration to Excellence Program" which awards full scholarships to 20 of their most motivated applicants (as well as numerous partial, I believe) each year.</p>

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<p>amother: I mentioned this peripherally when you originally posted about your son's experience in middle school/junior high, but here goes again: If he is a good pianist, but not of the inclination to spend the hours of solo practicing, he can find a way to socialize through his piano, by accompanying. He can accompany the choir, or he can link up with some of the area private music students/teachers, i.e. strings, singers, etc., and play for them, at their lessons, or at competitions. His ability to do it, and his willingness to do it will put him in close social contact with lots of other people, bright, dedicated people. He might make some money doing it....if he choses to charge, or he might develop it into a very desirable EC. Premiere universities have lots of kids who play their instruments very well, but not so many who have experience accompanying or are willing to do so. There is a lot which could be said in an essay about such experiences. Ensembles make great peer groups for kids....good luck!</p>

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<p>amother: I mentioned this peripherally when you originally posted about your son's experience in middle school/junior high, but here goes again: If he is a good pianist, but not of the inclination to spend the hours of solo practicing, he can find a way to socialize through his piano, by accompanying. He can accompany the choir, or he can link up with some of the area private music students/teachers, i.e. strings, singers, etc., and play for them, at their lessons, or at competitions. His ability to do it, and his willingness to do it will put him in close social contact with lots of other people, bright, dedicated people. He might make some money doing it....if he choses to charge, or he might develop it into a very desirable EC. Premiere universities have lots of kids who play their instruments very well, but not so many who have experience accompanying or are willing to do so. There is a lot which could be said in an essay about such experiences. Ensembles make great peer groups for kids....good luck! </p>

<p>BTW: they call this being a "collaborative pianist" now, whole degree programs in the field. It is not called accompanying, sorry.</p>

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<p>Quote from Marite: "I would not worry about ECs. My S had no sports, no arts. All his ECs, such as they were, were academic, whether they were school-based or not."</p>

<p>I couldn't agree more. Don't define "EC" as something non-academic: if math or any academic area is your son's passion, he should follow that, taking it as far as he can both in and outside of school. For example, in addition to taking advanced courses (check out Stanford's EPGY distance learning program) or working to achieve on competitive math exams/teams etc., he might also be interested in doing a math related research project. That's where some resourcefulness is in order: checking out local universities to get him connected to people in the field(s) he might be interested in who maybe could serve as mentor.
Also, maybe doing a summer internship at a college he's interested in attending (my d. did research at Brown where she later ended up attending). In sum, your job is to just stay with him in terms of finding opportunities he would love that keep him challenged and excited about what he's doing. And believe me, if he follows his passions, schools will not care a whit if he does a sport or anything else. They are looking to build well-rounded classes; they very much like "well-lopsided" kids.</p>

<p>As for those wonderful scores, clearly, he's done with SAT I's. The SAT II"s should be taken as soon as the relevant course work has been completed, eg. my son took the Math SAT II after 8th grade because that's when he finished BC calc. The only headache was that by the time he was applying to college, that score had been "archived", so I had to call and have a special separate "archived" score report sent (but schools will see the dates and that will really make your son stand out from others will similar scores).</p>

<p>Anyway, best of luck, and enjoy the ride!</p>

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<p>


</p>

<p>I had never heard of this school but I noticed that Ben Bernanke's son (you know, our next federal reserve chairman) went there after 10th grade, received an associate degree and went to Brown.</p>

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<p>amother - you've gotten a lot of good advice her from all the experts. A lot of us shared many of your same worries when our kids were that age but these kids are all now happy, well adjusted college students.</p>

<p>Exeter is a wonderful school for math prodigies, but officially they do not offer merit aid. That dosn't mean that you shouldn't explore this as a possiblity, though.</p>

<p>As many other have suggested, your S does not have to leave his grade to get enrichment. AP classes, college courses and distance learning are all options to provide him with a challenging curriculum. </p>

<p>Every kid is different, but keeping my S in high school for fours years was the best thing for him. He was able to take math classes at local colleges and ARML and USAMO practice kept him so busy he didn't even take any math classes his junior year in high school. He also started running track as a freshman. He started out as the worst one on the team and is now on a Division I team (in another sport) in college. Spending four years in high school gave him the opportunity to grow horizontally in areas that he was not naturally strong in, and he entered college a confident, mature young man.</p>

<p>As for college, your S will be very much sought after by the top schools. His ability is rare and admissions officers are on the lookout for kids with his level of academic talent. His EC's won't matter. So you and he can just relax and enjoy his high school years doing whatever seems to suit him. As long as he is not a jerk or behavior problem, HYPMS will be fighting over him.</p>

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<p>Simon's Rock is a fantastic place for the right students. I highly recommend that you invetigate it further, visit the campus on a Discovery Day, and see if it is a fit. My daughter had a terrific experience there and did extremely well. The academics are wonderful, teachers are mostly very committed, and the students are extremely bright. Socially, students do have a lot more freedom than they would in any high school (though less than most other colleges). Academically, if students take advantage of the opportunities offered, they are extremely well prepared to transfer to another university (two thirds do this after two years) or stay and get a BA and maybe spend a year abroad. Last year, transfer students were accepted at Stanford, University of Chicago, Swarthmore, Brown, Wesleyan, Cornell, Barnard, Bard, and many others. If you have specific questions, please feel free to send me a message.</p>

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<p>Amother:
I just saw your post, and had to respond. Don't panic. Your son is young, and he will have the chance to redeem himself. He can take the SAT's again, and make up those 40 points... :)</p>

<p>...but kidding aside, proud parent, congratulations to your amazing child and - in passing - to you as well. Stay on cloud nine for a while, it's nice up there.</p>

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<p>Congrats to S, and my support to you.
My s's math teacher also recommended Simon's Rock to us. I didn't pursue because of cost and not wanting him to go so far from home. What I would encourage you to think about is planning to finish HS in 3 years, not 4. Especially for the good math kids, MIT, Caltech & harvard have accepted some of our CC kids a year early. I'm sure other schools would do so also.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Especially for the good math kids, MIT, Caltech & harvard have accepted some of our CC kids a year early. I'm sure other schools would do so also.

[/quote]

I know Princeton, Chicago and Yale also accept early graduates. It takes some planning to graduate early with a high school diploma, so it is worth reviewing graduation requirements and discussing them with the GC.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine who had a kid who's academic needs could not be met in high school asked a Yale admissions officer how they would view a transfer from Simon's Rock. The admissions officer advised her to explore graduating a year early and applying directly to college instead. She followed his advice and her son is now at Yale. He also got into Stanford and a few other Ivys.</p>

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<p>I also think the early graduation is the better route than going to Simon's Rock then transferring.
I forgot to mention Stanford. How could I? S got admitted there, too.</p>

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<p>The original post was discussing the needs of a 9th grader. That is why I didn't address the possibility of simply graduating high school a year early. Simon's Rock accepts students after 10th grade, and sometimes after 9th grade. It gives 15 and 16 year old students the opportunity to attend an excellent LAC and still be among students their own age. After two years they get an AA degree and have the opportunity to transfer to other top colleges, have guaranteed admission to Bard, or to stay and get a BA at Simon's Rock.</p>

<p>Staying in high school for two or three extra years can be a horrendous, mind-numbing experience for students who are not being challenged and do not want to be there. Each child is different, so you certainly do need to weigh the options carefully. I know from personal experience how agonizing these decisions can be. But I can attest to the fact that Simon's Rock is a very good option for certain students. After maturing for two years among peers, moving on to other colleges is not a problem. And the transfer process does work exceptionally well. </p>

<p>Also, Simon's Rock does offer an AEP merit based scholarship which covers all costs. This can be a huge savings when students get two years of college for free.</p>

<p>I should also note that because the students are younger, Simon's Rock is far more accessible and parent friendly than most other colleges (and in fact than most high schools, I suspect). I actually got to meet my daughter's teachers, and they have frequent breaks built into the year -- every six weeks or so they have a week off to go home if they want to. This was greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>I don't claim to know what the best decision is for any child. But I have come to respect Simon's Rock College as a very viable option. It is certainly not for everyone, but I would recommend that anyone exploring early college at least look at it as a possibility.</p>