<p>D1 - I would be more involved. I would have chaperoned everything. I think she felt a little neglected. I had no idea she wanted me that involved until her high school career was almost over. I never wanted my parents involved. TALK to your kid specifically about your level of involvement.</p>
<p>D2 - The only thing I might have done was encourage more volunteer work, but no biggie really. She’s currently a music education major, which is her passion. She took a ton of AP and Dual classes and therefore saved a ton of money up front and has reduced her workload each college semester to a minimum. By the time her senior year comes, she won’t have to take many hours at all. She could have finished in 3 years if the classes didn’t have to run consecutively in her plan. She is able to enjoy her college time much more because of the groundwork she covered in high school.</p>
<p>D3 - Nothing. However, if we had known sooner that she wanted to be a Mechanical Engineering Major, I would have looked specifically at which Dual classes would have benefited her most. It’s fine though. When she graduates from high school, she’ll have the equivalent of 59 college hours, but she’ll probably only actually apply 27 to her degree plan. Still, much like D2, this will lighten her load a lot. Also, she will decline credit on AP Calculus and retake Calculus I - so it won’t be too bad. She should do well in the class. We could have tailored her work better if we knew her major sooner.</p>
<p>It would be nice if at HS freshman parents’ night, the public school GCs said, “Do the math, people. There are 5 of us and 2400 kids. We do our level best every day but please don’t rely on us to give your student individualized guidance for college.”</p>
<p>I’m not even talking about individualized guidance, I am talking about pure lameness.</p>
<p>How about having a presentation on what to look for in colleges when you do visits 2 weeks after spring break when most students start their first set of visits.</p>
<p>How about having the first session to talk about college application prep in Oct of Sr. year?</p>
<p>Or posting the list of colleges that are supposed to visit on the website in the middle of Oct when schools had already been visiting since middle Sept.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to start planning as early as possible and educate yourself on deadlines and stuff. It’s easier after you’ve had a couple of kids go through it. Actually, I think the counselors ought to have a JUNIOR meeting. This is when kids should really start visiting campuses, picking a major and a college, and charting their course.</p>
<p>If they start their junior year, it makes their senior year MUCH easier.</p>
<p>I would have paid more attention when my kids complained about a bad teacher. And done more to switch them out.
And like someone else mentioned, freshman year counts!</p>
<p>I can very happily say, NOTHING. I did try to talk her out of the intense academic rigor she felt she must pursue - she did it her way and was right. Athletics were also perfectly intermixed. Got lucky!!! :)</p>
<p>I would have encouraged my D to take a more popular foreign language, in order to avoid schedule conflicts. She took Italian, which offered very few sections, and had schedule conflicts both sophomore and junior year. Sophomore year she ended up taking regular chemistry instead of honors chemistry because of Italian, which was a big mistake. Junior year she didn’t take Italian at all. Amazingly, no conflicts with Italian senior year.</p>
<p>My younger son said I should have taken him to a Yale reunion instead of a Harvard reunion since they have much better food and architecture. He claims he might have worked harder. I am not convinced. :)</p>
<p>The only thing I can think of is trying harder to get my younger son to study a different language than Latin. I think starting from scratch in college has been harder on him than it needed to be and really has constrained his choices. (We also had many Latin caused scheduling conflicts for both my kids.)</p>
<p>I’m very happy that neither kid was bullied into taking AP English as seniors - they both really enjoyed English, got easy A’s that meant from a GPA point of view it was a wash. For the first time they had English teachers that loved them. And at least for the youngest because he was studying “mysteries” there was much more emphasis on the structure of the story and the types of sub-genres instead of endless essays about symbolism.</p>
<p>The only thing I wish I would have done be would be sending my DS to his private school in 6th grade instead of 9th grade. </p>
<p>Very few AP’s at his private and he took none - only honors classes and a physics class as our local CC when he was a senior. Did not self study for any AP test, either.</p>
<p>I grumbled about their private high school, its limits and costs, and still wish they had had a good public option, but I look back very satisfied. I wish I could have gotten them to prep more smartly for the SATs (they wouldn’t push themselves and some tutoring didn’t help,) but each rose, in her own ways, to the level that’s right for her. They took on challenges, were active in the community, learned, honed their thinking skills, had friends. When D2 needed to make tough choices (she wanted a class in which she was doomed,) we were able to talk about it- and the life lessons learned (the positives) are priceless. </p>
<p>Many in that hs think the GC is useless, we had very good luck and support. But, that didn’t spare us the acres of research we did on our own.</p>
<p>AP (which stands for advanced placement) results used for placement, even without credit, are useful, in that the student can skip boringly repeating introductory level courses and gain free electives in their places.</p>
<p>Of course, students looking mainly for the credential (probably a substantial percentage, even at highly selective colleges) seem to prefer to repeat what they already know for what they believe to be an easy A, especially if they are aiming for professional schools that encourage that practice.</p>
<p>Why? Seems like this decision should be made after seeing the AP test score and reviewing the old final exams of the calculus courses at the college she matriculates to, not set in stone before then.</p>
<p>For an engineering major, the first semester calculus course is the one where skipping gives the greatest advantage in relieving schedule pressure and freeing up elective space later on. Of course, skipping should only be done if the student knows the material well, but many do come in knowing the material well.</p>
<p>Some have reported entire foreign language programs getting cut from high schools due to budget cuts, or due to the one and only teacher of the language retiring or otherwise leaving. Sometimes, this leaves students who have completed level 2 of the language as sophomores unable to take level 3 of the same language, and unable to start a new language in time to complete level 3.</p>
<p>If that is a concern, choosing a popular foreign language (e.g. Spanish in most US high schools) is the lowest risk option.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have done anything differently regarding academics or extracurriculars. My one regret is that I didn’t do enough research to help them find interesting and worthwhile things to do in the summers. They were bored, and time that could have been used in profitable or fun ways was wasted.</p>
<p>I never knew that there was an ADHD - inattentive type until a friend told me about it. I was trying everything to work on S zoning out: schedules, diet changes, exercise, sleep, study location changes, HW supervision, behavior therapy - pos reinf, neg reinf. Considered and fretted about changing schools.</p>
<p>Since S has been diagnosed and treated, he is happier, less frustrated, retains and thinks about things, sleeps better, is more organized, is interested in things. I wished I knew about ADHD - inattentive type and that he had started treatment earlier.</p>
I had no idea she wanted me that involved until her high school career was almost over. I never wanted my parents involved. TALK to your kid specifically about your level of involvement.</p>