Parents of the HS Class of 2013

[mamabear1234]

nellieh, we are not getting a tutor for PSAT (or SAT), D is just going through some old tests and reviewing, since based on her PSAT score last year she has a good shot at national merit finalist. There are about 15,000 finalists each year, New York will have more than 300. I'm not sure what the 300 represent, that may be the number of specific scholarships given from the National Merit Corp, but many colleges give their own scholarships to national merit finalists.

[nellieh]

Thanks all. I looked up NY PSAT again to see why I had 300 in my mind. Looks like there were 903 semi finalist in 2010. So I obviously have no idea what I am talking about here. This is my first child through this process. Our school's guidance dept is overworked and has no time for anyone but seniors. Waiting to figure it all out until then seems like it would greatly limit some of our options.

[Youdon'tsay]

nellie, we aren't doing a tutor, but ds started SAT prep this summer from the Blue Book so that he could get the bigger bang for our buck -- prep for SAT that would help for PSAT, too, rather than waiting and just studying prior to the SAT. Ds in practice tests has been tantalizingly close to the NMSF cutoff for our state, so, yeah, we'll have our fingers crossed all fall.

There are benefits other than NMSF; certain minorities have other opportunities as well. The cutoffs for Natl Achievement winners (for African-Americans) and National Hispanic recognitions are lower than that of the NMSF, but many schools award a lot of scholarship money for those honors. You can Google and find those cutoffs to see if your student is in the running. If close, then some studying can definitely have benefits. Also, if there are any other URMs on this thread, know that there are subforums with info specific to minorities that are really helpful. They're under the College Admissions forum.

[momofboston]

For us the tutor is really getting her ready for the SATs over a period of time instead of a compressed time frame. I also will send her to him if she is stuck in math on a particular concept or if she is struggling with a chapter in physics or chem. It usually takes one session for to get back on track.

D2 has a heavy academic workload and we didn't want to add hours of test prep to the mix. I don't expect D2 will be a NMSF but you never know...we tried the Blue book on your own route with D1 but school projects, AP, sports, etc kept getting in the way. So now D2 has a scheduled time each week that she meets with her tutor and work that she needs to do in between sessions. The guy we use is very effective and not expensive so it works for all of us.

[reeinaz]

Yay...my son got his first piece of "recruitment" material from a college based on his SAT sores. Yes I know it's meaningless but seriously, his scores were very average so he wasn't getting any love from anyone. I only know it was because of his SAT scores because the email address they had listed is the one only he uses. And it was one of the schools he sent a free score report to.

[fineartsmajormom]

The cutoffs for the hispanic scholar recognition award from the PSAT is much, much lower than for Semi finalist--even below commended. It is a bit shocking since this score is the cutoff to identify the top 5000 hispanic kids in US and Puerto Rico. So only 5000 out of 150,000 or so hispanic students score above 185 or so? Depressing...After D finishes this I may start doing my own free tutoring program for black and hispanic kids...the disparity is really shocking!

There is no money directly from getting designated a hispanic scholar and I had never heard of it until S was notified after his junior PSAT. However, he did get some award offers from colleges based on this but generally they were from schools that are having a hard time getting qualified hispanics to apply (Alabama, Ohio State, RIT). It is not relevant for top schools since they have plenty of top hispanic (and other) students applying. Still, it was an attention grabber on the cv and resulted in some nice merit offers so it seemed foolhardy not to try to help D get it also. This is why we are paying for a short, simple prep class (5 kids in class, run by mom and pop tutoring local firm--extremely low key and not pricey). Unfortunately, D is not a natural test taker and spoke spanish at home until kindergarten and, while she sounds like a native English speaker, there are some gaps and she reads slowly. S was lucky to go to bilingual school so he learned to read in english very young. The tutoring has definitely helped with the math--how to read the question and not be misled and should help for the SAT. Going through the blue book on her own would not have been as helpful since she wouldn't have focused on the structure of the question as the source of the problem,not the math itself. I could have helped but she is in the stage of preferring little help from parents. I do think that cramming is not super helpful for the mediocre tester but a sustained low key approach to improve test strategies, familiarity with question types and just practice is the key to maximizing your score on the SAT and other tests. The goal, I tell her, is not a high score, just the best score that she can get.

Now I am wondering, should she need help with all this IB coursework, how do you find an individual tutor for math/physics?

PS to any other hispanic parents or students...the forum for hispanic students is top notch and there are two dedicated parents who explain some of the complexities (two-edged sword) of applying to college as an " underrepresented minority"

[medavinci]

National Merit Finalists from what I understand are only awarded $2500. Each state has a limit as to them. Also the cutoff is higher for private than public in our state. I think it is 220 for private and 200 for public from what one of my d's friends told her (she went to public when my d was in private; she also got into all 18 schools except for Brown and was waitlisted at Harvard - she is going to Yale). After being in private all these years, we have sadly come to find out that they don't give a fig about you when you are down and out, as it is strictly a "business" for them. If you are not a minority in this private school, you will not get aid. And the high contributors kids can do no wrong even when they do. It's extremely sad for my d as she is conscientious and a great kid. Her friends are outraged, and the parents I'm sure are too, but mum's the word in these schools.

She is having a difficult time adjusting to the way things operate in public, but her outlook is that she is just there to do her work and not make friends since she wants to keep her old friends. She's had her own spreadsheet since last winter, and she's made all her school contacts directly, and booked the info sessions. Schools here have been postponed for this week and possibly all next week due to downed trees and power outages. Irene did a lot of destruction!

Here no one preps for the psat's but there are tons of prep classes for SATs....the northeast corridor of this country is totally insane and competitive - the kids are NOT. the parents are the pushers...it's so sad for all the kids because they just want to breathe, live and have fun. They can't with the helicopter parents driving them insane. Cheating is rampant, and I can't stand knowing that - it makes me want to vomit, but at least I know my d is doing the best she can "honestly." I'd rather have a B student who doesn't cheat, than an A student whose pricey live-in tutor did all the work. How these kids will survive in the real world, I just don't know.

I just heard tonight on Dr Drew that suicide is the 3rd killer of teens and college kids. That is terribly disheartening and so very tragic.

[RobD]

medavinci: the only private schools that have a higher PSAT score than public are the boarding schools. They are placed in a separate category (it's usually >=the highest state cutoff; in the past few years 221, but based on what I'm hearing it will probably jump this year.) For private day schools, the cutoff is the same as the regular state cutoff.

As far as the $2500 scholarship, that is true for the "official" NMF scholarship from NMSC. There are only about 8,000 of them offered out of the 15,000 total NMF students. However, schools are able to offer whatever they want on top of that. D1's "official" NMF scholarship is only $1000/year through her school, but the NMF package also includes full tuition, housing, a laptop & a 1 time $2000 study abroad/research stipend. I think the total package for 4 years is about $104,000.

Other schools have different packages to attract NMF's. Most of the top 10 schools don't do anything, because they don't have to. Vanderbilt has an automatic $5000 NMF yearly award. While most of the schools that offer the BIG NMF packages are large state schools (i.e. Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma) quite a few smaller LACs offer them as well (Birmingham Southern is one that I'm familiar with.) Of course, to make NMF, you need to have fairly high SAT scores as well so a student might not necessarily get a scholarship based on NMF, but rather on high SAT scores.

[nellieh]

Thanks all for the PSAT education.

Meda....I love the advice and approach. Focusing on the best you can do. D and I have reviewed what we think the scholarship levels are for her first choice schools. I do think she is capable with some work. I have also told her, in the end, everyone gets into college, everyone finds a place.

I too have been wondering about IB tutors. In the past we have had to get a tutor for D in math. She is slow to catch on but once she does, she is good. In her honors program the lessons move quickly. If she ends up with one of the math teachers she has had in the past, she will certainly need a tutor to pass the course. He is great for kids who speak math like my son, but not for the kids who need to hear it a couple of different ways We are one of two IB schools in the area, so finding an "IB" tutor can be a challenge. D is only taking IB Math Studies which I believe is the easier IB Math. She is also taking Bio, a subject she loves.

I was thinking of approaching the school for suggestions of students that stayed local for college that I can possibly have on call to tutor when needed.

D has some friends that are very strong in math but she feels embarassed to ask them for help.

[DONIVRIAN]

Just logged in after the summer break....Was catching up on all your posts for the past couple of weeks.

My S started his junior year yesterday. He has his summer assginments still to complete(reading), but luckily all tests based on summer assignments are going to take place after labor day which will give them some more time.

AP USH looks like a demanding course, teacher has given them reading assignments yesterday itself. It was a half day and the class only met for 15 minutes...OUCH!!

He is happy that he has got his schedule as requested in last spring. No surprises..

have a wonderful academic year ahead...all moms and dads...This is an exciting journey

[blueshoe]

Hi all! We've been off the grid since Saturday when Hurricane Irene came roaring through. We have all our creature comforts back now, but still quite a lot of depris to clean up. We lost a huge oak tree that thankfully fell in the opposite direction of our house, but feel very blessed as a man in an adjacent neighborhood to ours lost his life when a tree fell on his house. Summer homework and field hockey practice came to an abrupt stop with the recent events, but my D is getting back in the swing of things today. With our electricity back, she has returned to her summer assignments, and I think she will be able to finish up by the weekend! Field hockey practice also resumes today with a scrimmage tomorrow that was postponed from yesterday. She has her schedule in hand and junior year starts next Tuesday! Good luck to all the new juniors and please stay safe out there!

[megpmom]

Blueshoe: Glad that your family is safe and power is back up. My prayers go out to all of those who have been affected. Natural disasters can be devastating.

I just spent 3 hours in our Dept of Public Safety office trying to schedule S2's driving test. What an inefficient organization! (No surprise, right?) He finally got scheduled for 2 weeks from today - so at least another 1/2 day of school missed. Why the state of Texas can't do online scheduling is beyond me. What a way to spend S2's birthday! Although he did get fast food for lunch on the way back to school, which is a special treat for him - and his favorite Japanese restaurant for dinner tonite.

[shillyshally]

When my D1 lost her confidence for a bit in math I asked her BC teacher for tutor advice since we were past the point for most local tutors - he actually had a list of teachers available and we selected one who was fabulous and ended up being her MV teacher the following year. D1 needed the tutoring more to up her confidence, she knew it but has test anxiety and that was hindering her. I know many parents also used her Alg II teacher as a tutor. So check with the teachers directly as they may have resources on tutors that know what your child is being taught and can help!

[medavinci]

Thanks for the great info RobD as always. I did double check, and my d's old school cutoff is 220 (I was wondering why the public schools had 11 NMSF and her school had 4 but many commendables). Do commended scholars get any benefits? My d was doing the practice tests and got up to a 215 from a 200 on last year's psats. Gosh, we sure could use the money for college and those great benefits you spoke about. Public doesn't use laptops, and that is the only thing my d needs right now as she has had laptops at her old private school since 6th grade (they had to take all their notes in class and do hw with it). We had to pay of course $750/semester to lease it! It was the biggest ripoff going because you could just buy a new one for cheaper than that! They can't use them in public in class (we were already told that you need titanium locks on the lockers because kids steal like crazy; welcome to the real world). The books are what depressed me most. They are ragged and falling apart, and the poor book lady (as the school calls her) is old, and can barely walk, and she sews the books together in her free time. It is nice to get the books for free, because in all honesty, the $150 a book we paid for science, math, etc. over the years, was a complete and utter waste. The books were brand spanking new even to the end because the kids never used them. To sell them back, you only got $5. I saw the same books in public and they were in the same condition - new! I guess the kids around these parts are not much into the math and sciences (more boys are). It is such an advantage to be a girl who likes science because the ivies LOVE them. I have seen more girls who did summer internships up at yale get into yale (supposedly colleges don't often take you if you do a summer prg at their school or hospital; so the books can BE very wrong).

Our town is still without power (we are one of the fortunate streets that was ok), so they can't send kids back to school until after labor day (like the privates) so my d got a nice reprieve. She got her schedule done, but the counselor did NOT know the homework. So I went to get it the other day and she would have had to do all the AP Eng Lang and APUSH hw in 2 days. She completed all the APUSH summer work by last night and she said it was not a big deal, because her Euro hw last year was like that per night and it wasn't even an AP class. Still fuming because she could have easily taken the ap test but the school wouldn't allow kids in non-ap classes to do it. The teacher taught it like an ap class because all her other history classes are ap. I guess she couldn't differentiate.

My only concern now being in public is that we won't have time for college visits. They only give a week off in Feb hooked on to President's day and a week off at Easter. We were so used to 6 days at Thanksgiving; 2.5 wks Christmas; 6 days for Pres day weekend, 3 weeks in March....that ship has now sailed. We couldn't do any visits except Fordham this summer, because of lack of funds and my daughter's illnesses. We have 2 more dr appts today and tomorrow for a total of 18 dr visits this summer. I am glad they closed the dr's center down at the hospital who overmedicated my d for lyme. And they did it without my input. His office staff reported it. I'm just glad she is alive.

I reiterated to her again, no pressure for any classes, and she said "mom, I'd rather have my morals than cheat." To me, it makes me feel like I did at least 1 thing right raising her.

I hope this next hurricane lining up in the Atlantic doesn't hit us. Blueshoe, I'm so sorry to hear about your neighbor. Someone in our town died when a tree fell on her car during last winter's bad storm knocking down all the power lines and trees. I ran out like the intrepid reporter and got some fabulous shots. I have to say the huge oak outside my bedroom is the one I worry about most as it is in direct line with it. I'm thinking of getting a price to see how much it would cost to cut down. I hate doing that because I love trees, but the hurricanes, bad winters, and tornadoes (3 so far since last year and they were mild but took down all the old trees), give me pause for concern. It would probably cost a bundle.

[Longhaul]

Back from our CA/TX college tour! Loved the trip. Loved all but 1 school. SoCa has jumped so high on his list that we are ADDING schools to the list. I'll write more details on the college visits and visit reports tonight. We toured: Pomona, Pitzer, Oxy, USC and Trinity U in San Antonio. We were scheduled to visit CMK, but canceled it to do some sightseeing. Adding to the list Whittier, Loyola Marymont. Researching Santa Clara and Pepperdine (maybe too conservative for his taste).

Decided the no humidity thing is WONDERFUL. So deleting southern east coast schools (unless there is a lot of $ to be had) and adding the CA schools, maybe Rice, and U of Denver.

All in All -- the # of schools has not changed. Next summer he'll be making some hard decisions. The good - I finally saw him really seem excited about the entire college process.

PSAT/SAT
We had son's math teacher meet with him on 3 different dates in the beginning of August to go over 10th grade PSAT and SAT practice tests. Son goes to school in Jersey where the NM cut-offs are highest in the country - 221 has been the number for the last several years.

He is signed up for the Nov SAT as it dovetailed with the PSAT. Hoping to only take it once. He is also signed up for the Oct ACT, but he is thinking of changing to a later date so that he can focus solely on SAT type questions while preping. I think he should just keep the Oct Date because in all honesty he will only do one or 2 practice tests and really won't prep much.

SAT II is planned for May to correspond with AP tests.

His major EC is every other weekend March - June which makes any spring testing difficult.