<p>My son is about to start 9th grade in September. We…rather I…began looking at colleges to help with the decision making process when it was time to apply to high school. Based on what his planned major will be, I wanted to be sure his high school offered the classes he would need to meet the minimum requirements. So now I have this list of colleges, some of which I would love for him to attend. Right now I’m curious if any parent has been completely off with how they thought their child would perform in high school both in grades or on the SAT/ACT? How close were the plans you had when just starting high school to what actually happened at the end of junior year when it’s time to apply? I’m not so much concerned with kids choosing colleges or majors that seemed to come from left field but more with the differences in the options that were available. Did your middle school valedictorian struggle with maintaining a 3.0 in high school? That type of thing. Or did the one who does well on all the state standardized tests totally tank the college admissions tests?</p>
<p>Middle school A-B student turned into a B-B- student in HS…did extremely well on state standardized tests; in the process of figuring out which test to study for (SAT/ACT) but preliminary diagnostic does not look good…</p>
<p>D got mostly A’s in middle school, and sometimes B+'s. In high school she never got below an A and many earned A+'s. What happened? In 9th grade she decided on a “dream school”, realized that admission to that school were very competitive and worked towards that goal (she succeeded). She also got past the lower expectations of her elementary school years where she was not considered one of the “smart kids” and decided not to let other people’s opinions define her abilities. In addition, her organizational skills kicked in, possibly due to being a competitive dancer.</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh, oh, oh, how my kid changed!! And then changed AGAIN!! And he’s just completed his SOPHOMORE year!!</p>
<p>S won entry into a competitive science and tech program, which was supposed to be challenging and good – the school and this program get high praise. Kid has always always wanted to go into computers in some way. Always.</p>
<p>Because of the requirements of the program he was in, I could map out most of his high school career. Entered with test scores that allowed him to take this math, which would lead to this one and then this other, so that by the time he was a senior, he was taking differential equations at a local university. AP Latin in his junior year. AP Comp Sci his sophomore year. PSAT in 9th grade, and then the school required all 10th and 11th graders to take it, so he took it again as a sophomore.</p>
<p>Mapped out the standardized tests, too – SAT subject tests for Latin and Math II after 10th grade; AP Psych exam in 9th grade, and AP Comp Sci and AP Govt exams in 10th; AP Calc, Latin, Physics, World History in 11th, and so on.</p>
<p>Built an Excel worksheet with eight – count 'em, eight! – spreadsheets in it, to track grades, ECs, and standardized tests for each high school year (and pre-HS), college contacts, college financial stuff (value of 529s and savings bonds, estimated FAFSA, possible scholarship opportunities…), summer programs, etc. and so on.</p>
<p>SO… </p>
<p>Kid is dropping out of high school and will attend college in the fall to major in Linguistics!</p>
<p>ALL THAT PLANNING FOR NOTHING!!!</p>
<p>(lol!!!)</p>
<p>Actually, the planning served him, and me, pretty well, though it turned out that there was lots of it I needn’t have bothered with! </p>
<p>High school was not the best experience for him; the school, a large public, is way overcrowded. His math class this year (pre-calc) had only 50% new material over last year’s math class, and that’s the way it’s designed! This is on purpose!! His “engineering” classes – half a year last year, a full year this year, and required for science and tech students-- was a combination of what we called “wood shop” when I was in high school, but without actual creation of wood products, and “this is how you use a computer” info, but dumbed down. AND… everything that was taught LAST year was repeated this year! Even the same projects and assignments!</p>
<p>Between the overcrowding and the problems that brings to a school – not enough desks for students in his honors chem class, for example – bad administrators and slow “honors” and AP classes, he is very glad he is not returning to the school next year. </p>
<p>Grades went down as a freshman and for part of his sophomore year, but he turned on the juice at the end and ended the year, and his shortened high school career, with a respectable but not stellar GPA. The kid had 800s in CR and W on the SAT and got a B in Honors English; got a 770 on the SAT Math II exam (and a 750 on the SAT I M), and got a B in math (on purpose! He knew he could skip doing homework and still get a B in the course, so that’s what he chose to do!). Not a science kid, except for computer science, and wouldn’t take the SAT II in Chem, yet easily managed an A in honors Chem. </p>
<p>No proms for this kid; no high school graduation, either. AND he does not want to major in computer science any longer. </p>
<p>Not at ALL the high school career I expected for him and planned out so carefully on all those spreadsheets!!</p>
<p>For both of my kids, their academic performance in high school was consistent with what I would have predicted based on their middle school performance. Although there were some unexpected events in their lives during high school (most notably, some medical problems for my son), both ended up going to college at pretty much the sorts of schools that would have been predicted for them – if anyone had bothered to make such predictions – four years earlier.</p>
<p>My son picked his college major in 9th grade and never changed his mind. He is now in a Ph.D. program in that subject. My daughter decided on a likely major in 11th grade, firmed up that decision when she took the AP course in that subject in 12th grade, and is very satisfied with her choice now, as a rising junior in college. </p>
<p>As for SATs, both of my kids performed better than I had anticipated. I think this means that I’m not very good at predicting such things!</p>
<p>Both of my kids had significant chronic health issues that hit heavily in middle school & continued thru HS & now to a lesser extent in college. Did cause some substantial adjustments by us & D. </p>
<p>Both were high achievers from pre-school on & continue to this day. There were some adjustment issues that D had in switching from grade to middle school, which were reflected in lower grades but the transition from public middle school to private HS in terms of grades was fairly OK.</p>
<p>When S & D saw snow poles when we were in Rochester NY, they discovered they did not really want to be around all that much ice & snow & really didn’t want such rural campuses. Both were in HS at the time. That cut a lot of schools off the list.</p>
<p>S has always scored exceptionally high on testing & to no one’s surprise became a NMF (even with his significant absences & fluctuating grades). D isn’t quite as good a tester but scored well enough to have good options for colleges as well.</p>
<p>Hard for the KID to know what s/he wants in a college until closer to when the child is ready to apply & then useful to apply to range of schools to have options. Kids can have significant changes of heart even thru senior year of HS.</p>