<p>It sounds as if I should push my S into staying with the three honors next year instead of two.</p>
<p>seiclan: that’s why it’s so difficult to compare GPA’s…in a school like my daughter’s a B- is 2.67 without any weighting at all…for anything…</p>
<p>compare that to Fla schools: a B- in honors would be a 3.5 and in AP a 4.0…</p>
<p>incredible difference…makes you realize that kids posting stats on CC is a joke…</p>
<p>CCC - I don’t think any of this is telling you any answers. I think it’s most important that your S feel comfortable and confident with his schedule. Unless he has a first choice school already that he is shooting for, you can’t anticipate what he’s going to “need” in the future. </p>
<p>It’s also a question of parents’ values. If you’d feel uncomfortable if your S is proud of an A in a class you knew was too easy for him, then urge him to take the harder class. If you worry that you’re trying to make him into someone he isn’t and pushing too hard, then let him make the choice.</p>
<p>My D has choices she’s proud of and choices she regrets. But she is not blaming us for the latter. That was my personal goal; I wanted her to own this process.</p>
<p>You misunderstood me. The weighting that I gave you was for the Public universities only. A B- at my son’s school is about a 2.67 as well. It is only if they apply to Florida colleges that the GPA is recalculated into a SU (state U) GPA…your daughter would have the same advantage there. The colleges all get a high school report detailing how each school’s grading system works and they UNweight everything and reweight according to the scale that I gave. They also only use ACADEMIC classes to do this.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to judge how difficult a schedule a kid should take. Choc, if you think your son can handle 3 honors classes and still get good grades, then he should do it. Our school allows students to change levels during the first 6 weeks of school. If that is an option, I would have him start with the harder schedule and see how he handles it. As we’ve discussed before, sometimes classes vary based on the teacher, and you won’t know about that until he tries the class.</p>
<p>In terms of admission, I think that it’s helpful to research results for students from YOUR
high school. Admissions committees are familiar with schools that have lot of applicants each year. If your school has naviance, you can see how weighted and unweignted GPAs compare for difference schools to get an idea of how much course rigor matters. I asked my daughter’s GC about whether her schedule was rigorous enough for some schools we were considering. I have noticed trends where some colleges seem to accept a lot of kids from our HS and others accept very few. It’s probably a good idea to include a few schools that seem to favor kids from your HS.</p>
<p>In terms of setting the schedules for the next year, don’t your D/S’ current teachers recommend a particular academic level for them? </p>
<p>With DD, my B student (and my oldest), I really relied on that. Only the 10th grade Eng teacher could tell me if she was ready for AP Lang in 11th grade. And, while she took Earth Science (honors/300 level) in 8th grade, the teacher did NOT recommend her to continue at the honors level for 9th grade (no surprise to me - I had her tutored privately all year to get through that class); instead she took Living Environment (the on-level, 200 level, bio course) in 9th. So she was a year ahead - taking the class with the on-level 10th graders - but at a pace she could handle. She continued this way in science through HS. After 200 level chem, then 200 level physics, she chose to take AP Environmental Science senior year. Did ok in the class, terrible on the AP test, but at least she chose to challenge herself at that point (and by the time the AP test came around, she was accepted to college and deposit was in!).</p>
<p>And, to the topic we were discussing earlier today re: recs, she actually had the physics teacher write one of her college recs. She loved the class, participated, worked hard and did ok (not great). I thought it was really telling that she chose that teacher (chose the honors US history teacher for the other rec).</p>
<p>DS’ teachers made recommendations yesterday for next year’s classes. The global history teacher was going to recommed the AP or IB US history next year, but DS wants to take it on the honors level (step down from AP, but still comes in weighted). DS explained that he was going to take 3 other AP classes and college level language, and didn’t want to kill himself with the workload. The teacher was good with that. I told DS that if he finds it too easy in September, he can move up if it fits in his schedule (what a switch from DD! - a lot of you had this the other way around, but I was not spoiled with my older child!)</p>
<p>BTW- not doing it the other way around, starting in APUSH and moving down if necessary, primarily because of all the summer work that APUSH requires and DS will be away in Israel most of the summer. </p>
<p>As for right now, DS is doing a practice section on the ACT (thanks, RVM, I picked up the red real ACT prep book). Let’s see how the first crack at that goes…</p>
<p>I’ll let my S2 dictate what he feels comfortable with as far as honors classes for next year. Sounds like staying with the three is the way to go. :)</p>
<p>Not only did my S1 plan everything out (all 4 years), he never consulted me ahead of time, but ran it by me when it was all finalized with the gc, worked directly with the gc and even worked with the head of the Spanish Dept. to come up with an Independent study in Spanish Literature & Language in addition to his AP Spanish class this year. </p>
<p>However, I do know that our h.s. is “known” to be quite rigourous and many colleges recruit here. So that’s another reason I’ll keep S2 with the three honors. Really wish we had that “middle” choice that some of you have!</p>
<p>Thanks Emmybet & Momjr for your perspective. I will definitely work closely with my S’s gc and let her know what schools we may be looking at in the future. She actually recommended Tufts for my older S way before it was ever on our radar! :)</p>
<p>I think it was solcaldad who made the remark that his D would do a “Groucho Marx” about schools that would take her …</p>
<p>When D and I talked about her URI acceptance and potential scholarship, she said, “Well, they must not get very good applicants, if they’re going to give money to me!”</p>
<p>But there was a twinkle in her eye. I told her the Groucho Marx line and I know she’s tucking it away for just the right opportunity.</p>
<p>That made me laugh, Emmybet. I’m sure that URI would be lucky to get her.</p>
1 Like
<p>EmmyBet, congratulations! BTW, they get some very good applicants. I know of someone that has a huge scholarship if not a full ride and he is in their pharmacy program. He is extremely smart and talented.</p>
<p>Oh, absolutely, thank you, I know this. My kid has only recently tasted being a “top” kind of student, and I think she just doesn’t quite believe it yet. Also, she’s just a natural pessimist and it wouldn’t be natural if she didn’t make jokes like that.</p>
<p>We’re not used to merit aid in this family, either. D1 goes to a school that never gives a penny of it, and she got in ED without ever even seeing a scholarship offer. So D2 is a little weirded out (and proud, too, I think) that schools might offer her money, when her hotshot sister never got any.</p>
<p>D2 actually should get some aid from about half of her schools. I think that will make her squirm quite a bit, and come up with a lot more wisecracks.</p>
<p>[Yiddish</a> Dies at Maryland - Campus - New Voices](<a href=“http://www.newvoices.org/campus?id=0104]Yiddish”>http://www.newvoices.org/campus?id=0104)</p>
<p>"The University of Maryland, apparently, thinks that Yiddish is a dying language.</p>
<p>Home to 6,500 Jewish students, starting next year the university will no longer offer full-time courses in the language that was once the lingua franca of Jewish households across Europe."</p>
<p>This makes me sad. Some of my earliest memories are of my paternal grandparents speaking Yiddish to me. I have forgotten all but a few words - my children know virtually nothing of this language.</p>
<p>Adding to my to-do list - reading “The Joy of Yiddish”</p>
<p>what a shame…let’s get Elon to hire her for the new Hebrew program!!! yiddish would be great too!!!</p>
<p>nm: there’s an update at the bottom of the article that they privately raised the $$ to keep the program to at least 2013</p>
<p>and an update:</p>
<p>“UPDATE, Jan. 28: Hayim Lapin has just informed us privately that the center has just raised $120,000 to support the Yiddish program through the spring of 2013. The center plans to publicize this information within one week.”</p>
<p>I also learned that “The Joy of Yiddish” is quite out of date and I should be looking for “The New Joys of Yiddish” instead. Maybe this will go on my reading list for the drive down to Charleston in April.</p>
<p>Rockville Mom: I suggest you ask your son if he wants to start a new club at school. He has to find a sponsor from one of the staff. If he starts a club, you will know which teacher wants to sponsor him and might be able to get a great recomendation from that teacher. Plus, the colleges are looking for leadership. You can brainstorm an idea for a new club which uses his interests in business, sports, etc. I think being founder and president of a school club is very helpful.</p>
<p>FYI:</p>
<p>I live in New England so I am aware of a Yiddish Book Center, apparently the only one of it’s kind in the USA (or world? don’t know)</p>
<p>[Yiddish</a> Book Center](<a href=“http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org%5DYiddish”>http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org)</p>
<p>Founded by Aaron Lansky. Beautiful large book center near UMASS in Massachusetts (natch!) Don’t know a lot about it, but have heard about it over the years…I think he founded it by collecting books and putting them in the trunk of his car…decided to collect the books from everyone and is trying to preserve the language and the history in one book center/museum type of place.</p>
<p>I haven’t been there, but anyone can go there…if you happen to be looking at colleges in the area, you can stop in I guess…don’t know if you need an appointment or not…maybe their website can give you more info. if anyone is interested!</p>
<p>CCC - Yup, and there’s a summer program for college students with the center that earns them credits through UMASS Amherst ([The</a> Steiner Summer Program | Yiddish Book Center](<a href=“http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/steiner-summer-program]The”>Steiner Summer Yiddish Program | Yiddish Book Center)). The deadline to apply was Tuesday but they still may be taking applications. Best thing: it’s FREE and some housing subsidies are provided. May be of interest if any of you have college kids interested in Jewish culture or Yiddish who don’t yet have summer plans.</p>
<p>For a wonderful and well-written autobiography, full of great anecdotes and witty observations, I recommend Aaron Lansky’s own story of how he and his team collected their books and went on to establish the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. Our Sisterhood bookgroup just read it and liked it very much. </p>
<p>**Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued A Million Yiddish Books, by Aaron Lansky (2004). **</p>
<p>Mr. Lansky is now in his late 50’s and spoke at my son’s college in California last year. S-2 called home quite excited about it, too. He identified with someone who started a passionate, heartfelt project while in his mid-20’s, based on a personal realization that a moment in history was passing, and made it his life’s work. What a do-er; definitely hands-on.</p>
<p>I loved the many anecdotes of how the Yiddish books were collected, mostly during the l970’s and l980’s. They’d rent trucks and slog through eating countless kugels or boxes of Entemann’s baked goods, listening to elders download their stories while others on the crew boxed and hauled out books that would otherwise have been lost forever. It’s moving and funny at the same time. </p>
<p>Of course many households owned the same books, so there were duplicates. Mr. Lansky and crew donated a core basic set of classic Yiddish books to universities all over the country for future scholarship. He makes the point that this genre of literature is priceless for historians, since that era of writing halted abruptly with the Holocaust but is our best link to understand daily Jewish life in European communities from around l850-1940. Nostalgia aside, which I share, I’m convinced Yiddish will have academic staying power, particularly among historians and ethnographers. A handful of people will always study languages no longer spoken, such as Latin or Aramaic, to gain access to a body of writing. The Yiddish language is key to reading those books that represent an entire era of European life, early Zionism and American immigrant history, as written in Yiddish. </p>
<p>If anyone’s visiting schools in Western Massahcusetts, or the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, go just 3 miles out of town, alongside the campus of Hampshire College and you can easily find the National Yiddish Book Center to visit. They have cultural events there all year, such as klezmer concerts, storytelling and more. In the same stop you can enjoy visiting the Eric Carle Museum of Children’s Books (the guy who wrote/illustrated The Hungry Caterpillar) with the focus on children’s literature illustrations. The 2 museums make a great sidetrip in Amherst, MA.</p>
<p>@justmy2cents, I didn’t know they have Summer Programs now! That sounds wonderful…</p>
<p>RVM: I can still picture “The Joys of Yiddish” sitting on my parent’s bookshelf while I was growing up. It is sad that the language is dying out. There are some yiddish words that have no good english equivalent, like “schlep.”</p>
<p>Good Morning, I had to share, although I know it is not all that exciting to most of you but here in south central Texas the sun is rising over a light blanket of snow. Roads are closed everywhere, not because of the snow but because a layer of ice fell before the snow. So there’s no school and no work, nothing but to enjoy the peace of this unique scene.</p>
<p>It is wonderful to see the efforts to preserve the Yiddish language and culture. My mother’s family grew up speaking Ladino. The elders have died and never spoke the language to us kids. Mom barely remembers it even though it was her first language. I only know a few words. I feel I am wittnessing the dying of the language in my lifetime.</p>