Parents of the HS Class of 2014 - Page 22

pdxsuzanne · 12-01-2010, 05:24 PM

Momreads, is it realistic to get scholarship money as a freshman or sophomore in high school? FallGirl, I know my husband's company does offer some scholarship money and thanks for the reminder!

missypie · 12-01-2010, 05:30 PM

A classmate of my D's received a decent sized scholarship (several thousand dollars) from a pretty obscure source when she was in 8th grade. I'm not personally fond of the girl, but good for her or her parents for being up on things!

And just in case anyone has a son who is a scout and is wondering whether to stick it out for Eagle, there are schools that give scholarships to Eagle Scouts (ranging from $500 to $10,000+).

momreads · 12-01-2010, 06:21 PM

pdxsuzanne: It's not unheard of a high school freshman or sophomore receiving scholarship money. There are some organizations that do offer scholarships to underclassmen. When she gets to her junior year, she will find more opportunities (for example, Discover Card has one for juniors). Among some of the groups you can look to for possible scholarships are banks or credit unions, electric coops (if you are a member), DAR, local hospitals and various retail places like Walmart, Target and Best Buy. Some of the Red Cross offices also offer scholarships for their region. Spend some time looking at the scholarship site at your daughter's HS to see what is advertised. Also, do not be afraid to check out the same sites at other area schools. Sometimes, I'll stumble on a scholarship that my guidance director has not heard about. He'll post the information on his website.

ucsdmd · 12-02-2010, 12:26 AM

Hi folks,

Just checking again. Our one and only S who is a freshman at a small Christian HS seems to be doing great. Luckily academics comes easy to him, like sports does for some kids. He will likely finish this semester with all A+'s. His problem is that many of his friends don't take school as seriously as we do and we often find ourselves involved in a conversation about why he is not allowed to "hang out after school at the mall like his friends" or why he is not allowed to spend countless hours on facebook or playing video games like many of his friends do. He thinks his parents are way too strict. We continue to encourage him that hard work now will pay off later as it did with the lives of his parents. Hope we are not alone in this battle...

snowbeltmom · 12-08-2010, 01:15 PM

Hello everyone. A friend recently told me about CC, and I found this forum today. Our oldest S14 is a high school freshman this year. He has always been interested in math and science. At this point he says he wants to study biomedical engineering and then go on to medical school. Do any of you have any older children that have studied biomedical engineering as an undergrad?

missypie · 12-08-2010, 01:17 PM

I have a friend with a brilliant son at Duke. He went in freshman yaer thinking biomedical, but by the end of the year was thinking more civil-y. Don't know why he changed.

blueiguana · 12-08-2010, 01:49 PM

Duke has a way of morphing kids. My neighbor sent down a hard core engineer who returned a poly sci major. I can totally see it though.

missypie · 12-08-2010, 04:01 PM

Remember my D who transferred out of pre-AP math to regular (the pre-AP teacher who told me she'd give her a passing grade if I promised she would leave her class)? Anyway, D is doing great in the "regular" class. So glad we had her drop down!

FallGirl · 12-08-2010, 06:23 PM

^ Glad to hear that worked out.

But, just curious, what is "Pre AP" math? Is it Pre calc? Do sophomores at your HS take AP calc?

missypie · 12-09-2010, 10:01 AM

Quote:

But, just curious, what is "Pre AP" math? Is it Pre calc? Do sophomores at your HS take AP calc?

No. The normal progression that leads to Calc is pre-Ap Algebra in 8th grade, pre-AP geometry in 9th, pre-AP algebra II in 10th, pre-AP pre-calc in 11th and Calc in 12th. If you don't keep up the pre-AP sequence, you can't take Calc in 12th. My older D stuck to the pre-AP route until pre-calc, then dropped down. She is taking AP Stats as a senior instead and doing very well.

The district is very good about accelerating kids in math where appropriate, but none of my kids had that issue!

FallGirl · 12-09-2010, 04:24 PM

^ OK, now I get it. It's the same sequence here, but no math classes are referred to as pre AP. The freshman can take pre AP World History which leads to AP World sophomore year.

29happymom26 · 12-11-2010, 10:05 AM

I'm pretty sure Pre-AP is called "honors" here. Same idea. A lot of freshman opted out of the honors English and World studies which must be taken together- Humanities. Some of them are good students but didn't want to hurt their GPA. I wonder if those kids will still be eligible for AP the next couple years.

susan4 · 12-12-2010, 04:28 PM

I did not see this thread until yesterday. D2 is in HS class 2014, in an IB program and on block schedule. (D1 is a junior in college). D2 has been complaining about homework since mid Aug. when school started. She excels academically but just habitually complaining, which I had never experienced with D1. D2 is taking Alg II and is a tutor for Alg II for other students. She takes piano and violin lessons.
I am going to try to catch up on the posts in this thread.

missypie · 12-13-2010, 07:38 AM

Welcome susan4.

Hear yesterday that the district is seriusly considering moving from a block schedule (AB) to 7 periods a day. They are having a big budget crunch and a block schedule is more expensive (they can fire teachers if they go t0 7 periods a day.) I guess the school board is trying to slip this in without the parents knowning about it. I hate the idea becaue 100% of the students LOVE the block schedule.

momreads · 12-13-2010, 09:03 AM

missypie: I hope that your school district realizes the additional cost for block scheduling. While it may save on teachers, the number of textbooks needed is huge. Like, double what you currently need. That short-term hit could runs in the hundreds of thousands.