<p>The trouble is that it’s a serious safety school for most of the kids who get the award. My son would have been happy to go to RPI if he hadn’t gotten in to other schools. I wish there were a way to wait to award these awards once kids know where they got in.</p>
<p>D took her first AP test yesterday, psych which she had self studied for after taking a summer course last summer. It is a subject she is considering majoring in, so wanted to continue to show work in it after the summer course by taking the exam. It went well, I was happy she got her first experience on a subject with an “easy” reputation. It was an abnormality at her school but not the first case of self-study (native Chinese test taker last year) so we knew there was a precident, but they didn’t give her a hard time, just a bunch of wierd looks from her friends. The school has a policy that you don’t need to go to classes before an afternoon test, so she got to focus and concentrate on task at hand. She did go to homeroom where they voted for class officers (ran for president, lost to popular kid) and chem to do a lab.</p>
<p>so I’m glad it worked out well for her after reading the stories of zoosermom’s D, whom I’m glad overcame the bump at the end, and I’m glad in general at least the teachers at our school are pretty supportive. </p>
<p>With that behind her, the rest of the year should be better. She has 6 finals but most of the classes are done with big projects. One paper to write for history. Signed up for one SAT II in June still undecided on which or if she will take that. Didn’t do as well on the Latin practice test as she expected. Depends on if she wants to go back into weekend test study mode after the AP is over. I wouldn’t mind eating the $18 if she thinks it will be best to delay it. She will also look over a chem prep to see about possibly taking that, it would also require studying as her class doesn’t cover the whole curriculum.</p>
<p>ps-- and the talk of the Bausch and Lomb and Rensselear medals brings back memories, I recieved both of these in HS, I think in my case B&L was a senior award. I did do the free app to Rochester, and also applied to RPI which I think had been my second choice school. Still have the medals in my drawer.</p>
<p>jackief - Congrats to your D on completing her first AP. I’m glad it went well for her. My D took hers last Friday, and she was so happy and relieved for it to be over! This week, she is worried about her All-State audition (Friday), and after that, she’ll start worrying about the Chem SAT II which I think she’s been studying for, but I’m not sure (I know the book is on her bedroom floor, and it looks like it’s been used - but I’m just guessing). I do know that she’ll be very happy when this school year is over!</p>
<p>Hi, I’m the father of a 10th grade son. (My older son is finishing his freshman college year now, so I’ve been around the forums for a while.)</p>
<p>Just curious if any other parents of sophomores have had the college mailings deluge start yet. I can’t remember when things started showing up for my older son. Younger son took the ACT in April and I thought that might start it, but except for one very nice brochure from one of the colleges he listed on the registration form, nothing has shown up yet, which surprises me a little. (He just received his scores in the mail yesterday, however, so perhaps the scores haven’t been released to colleges yet.) </p>
<p>This son is not terribly eager to begin the process, but for a couple reasons I want him to start thinking about it at least, and those mailings might be a good way to pique his interest a bit.</p>
<p>Welcome MilwDad. I can’t say exactly when the deluge of college mail started for us, but it was shortly after we received D’s PSAT scores - a matter of a week or two, I think. Don’t worry - your deluge is about to begin!</p>
<p>By the way, D hasn’t even looked at any of the mail she’s received, so don’t get your hopes up.</p>
<p>My sopho. son received a small deluge last fall and we still don’t know why. Perhaps a math competition that he didn’t necessarily do great in but that asked for his address in the registration process? We got mail from about 8 schools, all math/science oriented, and I don’t think he looked at any of it. </p>
<p>I think he was actually puzzled that they would think he was interested in college at this point.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m familiar with the “not looking at the mail” phenomenon. I’m hoping that through sheer quantity he’ll look at some of it if only because it’s sitting on the kitchen table while he eats dinner.</p>
<p>I don’t want it to seem like I’m pushing him. I’m all for letting him enjoy high school; I just want him thinking a little about college. We learned with my older son that forewarned is forearmed.</p>
<p>He did at least agree that it would be okay if we took a drive up to Big State U. some day this summer so he could see the campus. That’s something.</p>
<p>Deluge started for us after PSATs, there was a trickle before that because of a few college fairs she attended. I created an email to be used only for college stuff and that is where the much larger amount of mail comes. She is interested in some of the mail and does like to look at college websites. At first I gave her all the paper mail that came, now I prescreen it for colleges I think may interest her. She is def. interested in some casual tours this summer (mostly because it will fullfill a prereq for the career section of the girl scout gold award)</p>
<p>Forgive my naivete, but do sophomores commonly take the PSAT in some areas? As far as I know it is only offered to juniors here. I understand that one must sit for it as a junior for the National Merit folks to use the score. We had our son take the SAT as a freshman and the ACT this year just for practice/acclimation purposes, although his results may have obviated the need to take either again.</p>
<p>The e-mail only for college information is a great idea but the horse may have left the barn for us on that. I don’t know whether we provided an e-mail on his registration for the ACT or SAT or not, but if we did I’m sure it was his regular e-mail account. How did you put your e-mail into play for getting college info?</p>
<p>Sophomores may take the PSAT, but results don’t count and I can’t imagine that they would be reported to colleges. 
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<p>This son (our 4th and last child) is so blase about everything. He has seen other college campuses, either from visiting siblings or through competitions & conventions held on campuses, so he is not excited by anything. That’s just him. He’ll probably choose the college closest to home that gives him the best deal. :D</p>
<p>I remember the first event I ever went to on a college campus–8th grade field trip for something or other. We ate in the cafeteria and there were SO MANY choices! It was really cool. ;)</p>
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<p>S’s school now makes the PSAT available to any 10th graders who want to take it, as a practice for the ‘real thing’ the following year. I think this is becoming more and more common at many high schools.</p>
<p>MilwDad - In some schools they encourage sophs (and I’ve even heard of freshmen) to take the PSAT for practice for the one that counts junior year. When D registered for the PSAT, she must have put my email on her form because all her college email came addressed to her, but to my email address - and many of them specifically mentioned the PSAT. They also knew she was a sophomore because they often mentioned that as well. She got a deluge of emails initially - they were truly relentless. Some schools would email everyday, or even more than once a day. I responded to a few of them for her, but forwarded most of them to her email address. I still get a few each week at my email address, but she said she still gets a lot (she deletes them). The mail has slowed down to a few pieces a week as well. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, D is very interested in colleges - she just doesn’t have much time to read the mail. Truthfully, most of the mail is just junk anyway - something to maybe whet your appetite to find out more about the school. Also, a lot of invitations to come visit the schools or attend their open houses. We don’t have the time to take advantage of these things this year, unfortunately. We have already done our first visit - last summer while we were on our vacation, and she loved the school. This summer, we will visit a few more and hopefully she will like some of them as well.</p>
<p>mommusic - It’s so funny that you remember visiting the college in 8th grade. Was that specially to visit the college, or were you attending a show or something? I have heard of trips to visit colleges for young kids, but I thought that was a relatively new phenomenon.</p>
<p>My twins had a practice PSAT…one checked the box for no mail, the other “dear” daughter put my main email address down. I forward some to her just to make a point, but most of them she isn’t interested in. I warned her next year to make a yahoo address just for that and leave mine out of it! ; )
I don’t remember so many sophomore events at colleges with my son, but Fordham and some others have been pestering about going to their summer events. I guess they feel if they can grab them early…</p>
<p>Now here’s a problem I hadn’t foreseen - D’s school is sponsoring a small college night with several schools D might be interested in - but she doesn’t have the time to go! She’s got some important prior commitments that she just can’t get out of. I realize this is only one night, but I can tell this is going to be an ongoing problem. How did/do your kids fit things like this into their already overly-full schedules?</p>
<p>not the best solution- but it’s something. Can you or hubby go instead??
Honestly- if schools do “track” interest, they are really not going to know who attended the college nite. Just fill out the interest card with d’s name on it. That should be enough to show she demonstrated interest in the school.
if I remember correctly- d did not go to the interest session of U of R as she had concert tickets that night. She wasn’t going to miss a Dave Mathews concert for a college admission session. I registered for her. I’m sure I’m not the first parent to go without the student.</p>
<p>Thanks, marny. Unfortunately, I got your advice too late tonight to take advantage of it. I did think of going myself, but I wasn’t sure if that was ok (I should have called the school to ask earlier in the day). Anyway, I was picking her up at 6:55 to take her to her 7:00 music lesson (nothing like cutting things really close), and I noticed parents arriving with and without kids, so I guess it would have been ok. We’ll know for next time.</p>
<p>Limom, it was probably fine that you missed the fair. But now that you know about it, maybe you can have it on your radar earlier in the spring for next year. That would be the real year to go and get some good connections to the colleges. Also, if you want to see if there are any other schools in your area which are having fairs now also, sometimes the reps do many schools in the same week in the same area. Many of these would be open to outsiders.</p>
<p>My D and I wanted to go to a fair with 4-6 LACs last week? but one night she had a conflict and the next night when they were in an ajoining state was just too far to travel. I considered going to one myself, but also didn’t want to do the hour-plus drive. I looked about to see if these schools were going to be elsewhere in the vacinity and I found a couple other fairs this month. Nothing specific worth fitting in right now, but good to know they exist.</p>
<p>I have also looked on our school calendar for the list of colleges which visited last Sep/Oct. These same ones will come again next fall and will be good to see what can fit in.</p>
<p>Jackie</p>
<p>Hummm. Interesting thread. My sons did not seem to pick up much in terms of what their classmates considered “known” colleges. In fact, I wish they had picked up some more. It may be a personality type. His school tends to have a lot of kids going to “name” schools.</p>
<p>Jackie - those were great suggestions, thank you. Lots of colleges come to D’s school, but there were at least 2 or 3 in particular at that fair that D probably should have gone to see. You’re right though, next year at this time will be the better time to attend. How do you find out about college fairs at other schools? I know they advertise one big one, but I’ve never seen notices about the smaller ones like this - maybe 10 schools. I guess I can look online and see if they post the info. Our school doesn’t post it until after it’s happened, I think…lol. Not very useful for planning purposes. </p>
<p>cptofthhouse - that’s probably true at most schools, and true of most hs sophs. My D was probably more aware than the average soph just because her BF is a senior and she watched him and their friends going through the whole admissions process. I’m sure next year, the interest will kick in.</p>
<p>well, there is the bulletin board at D’s school, but I never hear of anything posted there 
I did find out about a couple fairs at other schools by looking at the college websites. We couldn’t make one fair which had some schools of interest, so I went on the college sites to see where else they may be, found a couple school based fairs. I have also looked for fairs from the consortia posted in tokenadult’s thread and have found instances of those roadshows in our areas.</p>