<p>Rodney, although your daughter may be somewhat less academically focused than Emmybet’s that still does not prevent your daughters from being soulmates. From what I experienced with HS girls, if they both can forgive a friend for not wearing the right label; or will stand by a friend if an Alpha Girl decrees the friend uncool; and make independent, similar judgments about drugs, alcohol and sex; they can be soulmates indeed.</p>
<p>With Holliesue’s daughter as a suitemate when the strain of competitive auditioning with Emmybet’s daughter passes.</p>
<p>And the 3 of you should be the cyber equivalent of The Joy Luck Club, or The Sisterhood of the (College) Traveling Pa(re)nts.</p>
<p>And then a happy Debrockman daughter will transfer over as the RA to the girls and I will retire from CC in happiness and peace, except for wishing my son would meet someone like one of the 4 of them!</p>
<p>yabeyabe…my daughter certainly has the “experience” to be a great RA…she’s walked the path covered with all the vines. I think she is writing a book in her head.</p>
<p>yabeyabe2-my D wouldn’t know a designer label if she saw one! and believe me she could care less what the alpha girls say!! She is the definition of independent when it comes to judgments about sex, drugs, alcohol, you name it. I have never been able to convince her to do something that she wasn’t 100 percent sold on and neither can her friends.
Oh, and my D is happy with whatever part she gets in a play, even if it is in the chorus! she just likes being part of the cast and the whole experience, Not that she complains if she happens to get a major role…just doesn’t complain if she doesn’t!
I do know the feeling though…I have “met” many people on CC who I feel somehow connected to…and others whose S or D I just know my D would relate to. You never know, maybe they will end up at the same school!</p>
<p>Merlin, I posted another thread about my DD (“dad hits the home stretch with class of 2014”) about the letter of reference from DD’s counselor that brought me to tears. It basically follows what you were saying about balance and well-roundedness.</p>
<p>These are the people I end up hiring at my office. I don’t think I’ve had a 4.0 who worked out yet. Gimme the 3.2 who played football and sang in chorus.</p>
<p>yabeyabe…my daughter ultimately decided she does better with a commuter campus and an apartment and a job as a way to keep on track. Not the right path for everyone, but it’s been good for her. I hope my son can make it through a traditional 4-year campus experience…it’s kind of something a parent looks forward to - parent weekends and such But after all that my daughter has been through, I’m just grateful to see her finding her own way.</p>
<p>Not sure how to answer that. I think she feels llike her battles are all she really wants to deal with right now. I think for now, she just wants to keep herself moving forward. When her own feet feel steady under her, I think she might have more ability to reach out to help others.</p>
<p>deb: Your D seems very caring and helpful; your descriptions of her advice to your regarding her brother show she is very compassionate.</p>
<p>Good luck with 1st semester finals, everyone. I’m very glad that today is the last day for us. My D put in some solid effort this week, and we’re all glad one more semester is done! Soon she’ll take her baseline ACT, and we can make some real lists. We’ve seen a lot of progress in her as a person over the past year, both with positive help from teachers and counselors and in spite of some real hits by a few really destructive individuals. She’s learning to say This is who I am, This is what I do, This is what I want. Those are very important lessons. </p>
<p>She also has a lot of lessons that need to carry into college, of course. I will say that I’m hoping she ends up in one of those “nurturing environments” people so often remark on here. While she knows she’s kind of a rebel, she also knows she doesn’t want to be where that is a defining characteristic of the program (the ultra-independent nature of the Hampshire education did not, after all, appeal to her). She’s not as happy and easygoing as holliesue describes her D (I wish - although audition times around here are getting a little more bearable). But she’s learning to turn her passion into action, to take risks and to take responsibility for the level of effort she puts in.</p>
<p>Yes, we’ll be on the audition road in a few months. But she’s reluctant to go to a stand-alone conservatory, would want a BFA in a college or university. And she’ll also have a solid list of “regular” applications, places she can get a wonderful BA in Theatre or in whatever she evolves toward. So we’re still part of the gang - I only have one toe in the Theatre Forum!</p>
<p>Yes, just when I thought I had a handle on her reach-match-safety list, she threw this wrench in. No audition program has higher than 10% acceptances! But she’s still very interested in non-auditioned programs. So we have 2 lists: one for auditioned programs, with totally different standards for choosing where to go and where she wants to be, as many as she can stand auditioning for, and the other of regular schools, with good arts programs and respectable BAs in Theatre. I would have supported a full BFA route, but luckily she isn’t determined to go solely that way. But remember the “accepting” thing - so many kids I know (and respect) have chosen, or had put upon them, alternatives to the “regular” college experience, including not going at all, that I’m having to give up that image you referred to a few posts back. I definitely have my own idea of what college “should” be like, and I’m having to be more open about it, either through fate or an individual’s choices. The audition thing makes me literally ill, but at least she’s doing what she needs to do to travel that route. As they say on the theatre forums, my job is travel agent/cheerleader, and I’ll try and do it well. In a lot of ways, it’s not that different from the regular college parent role; it’s just that in the fine arts, most of us parents can’t quite relate (actually, my personal history is that I adamantly chose not to go that route, so in some ways it’s a nightmare for me to watch, but also I respect her all the more for enduring it).</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I have a D in 10th grade who lives on the B+/A- axis and is obsessed with theater, so this thread looks kind of perfect! A question, as we plan her Jr/Sr years: She has a visual/spacial learning deficit that make science and visual math (geometry for instance) very difficult. She’s finishing Algebra II this year and really doesn’t want to do calculus. She can take ‘college prep math’ next year and be done, but it means she’ll only have 3 years of HS math to show for herself. She’ll have 4 yrs of science, English, History, French…do you think she endangers her college chances by taking only 3 of math?</p>
<p>Gwen - She really should take a total of 4 years of math at the high school level but it dosen’t matter if it was taken in high school. Algebra 1 (taken at the middle school level counts), Geometry, Algebra 2 and college prep math is good enough for a non math/science major.</p>
<p>I guess if you want to do performance work, your whole life is ultimately an audition…and you might as well get used to it. My hats off to your daughter. My stepdaughter graduated from UK first in her class in communications…won every pageant she entered…we took her to dinner and asked her about her plans, thinking she would take some “job”…and she informed us, that she didn’t think like us…dad, the doctor, thought about medical careers, stepmom, the HR manager thought about business careers…she…well, she wanted to be famous.
So…she usually doesn’t hold a steady job. Instead, she goes audition to audition…sometimes hitting it big and sometimes hitting the wall. You just have to let them do it their way. We had our chance to do it our way. One of the hardest things for me to get my arms around when I had a child who was “so far off the beaten path” in the way she thought about things, was that my job as a parent was NOT to raise someone to be a better me. My job is to help her be her best her. And frankly, she’s pretty flippin amazing.</p>
<p>Good luck in the auditions!!! She’s gonna be great!</p>
<p>By the way…keep your fingers crossed for my stepdaughter. She’s in a pilot for a game show. It’s a Merv Griffin production. It would be a really good thing. So far, her biggest claim to fame was being “case 25” on Deal or no deal. :)</p>
<p>seiclan-- thank you! You answered the question I hadn’t realized I should ask-- (re middle school Alg I)-- I’m thrilled to hear this, since she has lots of other things that interest her and I’d much rather she got to study those instead of grinding through another math class.</p>
<p>And debrockman, my fingers are certainly crossed for your stepdaughter!</p>
<p>deb - I love the way you put things. And best wishes to your stepdaughter!</p>
<p>As for math/science for a non-math/science kid: I can’t speak for any schools, but I refuse to believe that a college will really hold it against a student who clearly won’t be pursuing these areas to take the ultra-advanced courses. My D has decided she won’t take 4 years of science - she just doesn’t enjoy it and feels that if a college doesn’t want her because of it, then she doesn’t want them! But she’s practical enough to have understood that it was good to take high-level science classes, so she doesn’t look like she just wanted the easiest load, and she is going to take Calculus as a senior because she figures she can stomach it (likes math more than science) and knows colleges will notice. We were told at a visit to Lawrence U last year that going through pre-calc, even if you complete it as a junior, is usually considered 4 years of HS math. Same thing if you start a language in middle school and stop at the 3rd yr in HS as a sophomore. </p>
<p>One thing my D is making sure of is that she has 4 academic classes as a senior. She tends to load in the arts, choosing 2 choir classes and painting instead of Spanish, for example, but she’ll have AP Lit, Calc, AP Gov/Econ and is choosing one more, probably AP Psych. She might end up taking a science elective like Anatomy, but doesn’t feel she has to load every subject with APs and mega-classes. One thing she eats up at college visits is that you can have so many more choices, especially in areas you’re not as interested in. I can relate - even though I went to a school that had one of the highest number of required courses, a Common Core, and very little freedom within majors, I jumped for joy when as a Humanities major I didn’t have to take Calculus nor any hard sciences. I didn’t take math my senior year of HS nor one math class in college, so I can relate to Gwen’s D!</p>
<p>It looks like I said stopping at Spanish 3 in 10th grade will be taken the same as 4 years of math. Oops! I meant if they want 3 years of FL, finishing Spanish 3 in 10th grade will satisfy them.</p>
But after all that my daughter has been through, I’m just grateful to see her finding her own way.</p>