<p>Hey, DS’s 2&3 were born a month early. Had they been born even 12 hours before they actually arrived, I would be posting on the '09 thread, adding to their overinflated post total. ;)</p>
<p>ahh, the age cutoffs. D1 is end of October (cutoff at the time was 12/31) and D2 is beginning of November (cutoff at the time was 11/30). It seems to be the fashion around here to hold children back if they are anywhere within 6 months of the cutoff (particularly boys) and some parents go even further.</p>
<p>This results in a crazy situation where in D1’s school she has a friend who is now a senior and will graduate when he is 20. D will graduate at 17. Is this normal?</p>
<p>Similarly, D2 has a friend (thanks momof3sons) in her class who has a birthday the same week she does but is a year older.</p>
<p>QM, a “fiend” in her class? Tell D2 to be VERY careful. ;)</p>
<p>OK, ladies, I’m from the 2009 thread and I see from our view count that you’ve been coming over to our thread, poaching our topics of discussion, and then running back here to boost your post count!! </p>
<p>And, I might add, doing it admirably well. Isn’t it fun?</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you as you enter the crazy season for applications! Remember, “think long-term”!!</p>
<p>jackief - I missed the 09 reports of inflated AP costs. Ours are $86/test, and D is taking 4 of them, so I wrote that check for $344 yesterday. Seems to be the same at most schools.</p>
<p>Oh, baby sizes - D was 7 lbs, 12 0zs. and S was 8 lbs, 2 ozs… They were both a few days early.</p>
<p>About prom - D’s school has no junior prom. She went to the senior prom last year with her then-BF. Don’t think she’ll be going this year though.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - scary about having a new baby at that time, and having to worry about your DH working so close to the action. Glad things worked out ok.</p>
<p>Hi TiredofSnow. Thanks for the great advice, and for visiting us here. Good luck to your DS too.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom - I think that trend of holding kids back is common everywhere. My son will be like your D, graduating at 17 (4 years later, of course). He has quite a few kids in his grade who are a full year older than he is.</p>
<p>A 20yo graduate? Was he held back at some point? I’ve never heard of anyone being older than 18 upon graduation. </p>
<p>We do joke about some of the kids ds2 plays against in middle school sports. Some of them have facial hair and appear much more manly than the other kids; we assume they’re driving themselves to games. :D</p>
<p>Hey, tiredofsnow! Invite your fellow '09ers to come on over and boost our count, too. :)</p>
<p>S2 has a school activity (national competition) that conflicts with the AP tests, and has to take the test a later date. Of course there is a $$ penalty for doing so on top of the tests themselves. Quite a business.</p>
<p>Many kids in our area are held back a year and then test for the “highly capable” program prior to entering first grade. Not sure how much this helps, but some use it to provide a year of prep. Starts early for some…</p>
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<p>I’m not sure about him in particular, but quite a few of D’s friends will be 19.</p>
<p>I just found this over in the Carleton thread. Pretty bizarre rankings if you ask me. H is down at #24 !? :)</p>
<p>Updated “objective” rankings… </p>
<hr>
<p>StarTribune: College ranking do-over: Minnesota school slipped in at No. 15
College ranking do-over: Minnesota school slipped in at No. 15
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune </p>
<p>Last update: February 11, 2009 - 12:28 PM</p>
<p>And just when you thought there was only one recount that Minnesotans have a stake in.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, a new ranking of the nation’s colleges came out and placed Macalester in St. Paul as tops in the state, coming in at No. 79 out of the 2,000 on the list. Well, now StateUniversity.com has quietly slipped in Carleton College in Northfield at No. 15. The website’s spokesman, Bill Richards, explained today that Carleton was initially left out “due to insufficient data.” “Carleton College has since been in touch with us and has provided up-to-date statistics that enabled us to rank them – very highly, in fact,” Richards said.</p>
<p>He added that while there are no other adjustments in the works, “the list is dynamically updated as new data is obtained.”</p>
<p>StateUniversity.com calls Carleton “one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges,” which “attracts a talented, diverse, and intelligent group of students, many of whom were initially considering matriculation at the Ivies.”</p>
<p>The website added that Carleton’s students are “expected and required to complete a wide range of courses in varied subjects.” These requirements “are designed with the intention that all students’ four-year academic experience will have breadth as well as depth.”</p>
<p>Carleton’s addition has pushed Macalester down a notch to No. 80. The same can be said for St. Olaf, another Northfield school, which is now ranked 98th. The state’s largest university, Minnesota, Twin Cities, is now ranked 194th.</p>
<p>Ranked at the top is Stanford. Rounding out the top 10 are MIT, West Point, Princeton, Cornell, Cal Tech, Amherst, Rice, Williams and Brown.</p>
<p>StateUniversity.com calls its rankings “100 percent objective.” It says it has built its results based on a “comprehensive survey of verified data, including student/faculty ratio, student retention and test scores.”</p>
<p>To see the complete list, visit Top 2000 Ranked Universities for Highest Overall School Score.</p>
<p>[Top</a> 2000 Ranked Universities for Highest Overall School Score](<a href=“USA University College Directory - U.S. University Directory - State Universities and College Rankings”>http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/score_rank.html)</p>
<p>Sorry the link to the story didn’t transfer as a link. Not quite sure how to do that, so here is the website.</p>
<p>Our PTO picks up the cost of AP testing for all students. </p>
<p>On the other hand, all students in an AP class were required to take the test or they lose the extra GPS weighting point for their class. </p>
<p>The latter rule was successfully challenged by DS and one of his classmates last year when the class in question was a one semester class which ended in January with the AP test in May under the premise that changing a grade after the fact was a violation of state law (which it is). Ah to raise a rebel.</p>
<p>^ What people will do for rankings: my school forces everyone to take (and pay for) the AP test for every AP class taken. If you don’t take the test or pay for it on time, you automatically FAIL the class. I found that out today in a passing remark by my AP Calc teacher.</p>
<p>To elaborate - DS was given a final in the class that was supposed to be an AP test. He got a 5 on that - and assumed he was in good shape for the AP test. In taking a practice test 1 week before the exam, he was horrified to find out that the teacher had edited the test down to just the material that he had covered and in fact there was a great deal of material that had not been covered - and there wasn’t enough time to master that material. </p>
<p>He investigated and found that the teacher had done the same thing for years - and only one kid had ever gotten a 3 on the test. Rather than get the expected 1 or 2, he refused to take the test. The result of the chaos that ensued was that the class is now an honors class and no longer an AP.</p>
<p>SCUALUM:</p>
<p>What AP class was THAT one? You’d think after this happening for years, the principal would have investigated what was happening in the classroom. Of course, if it was a public school, the teacher may have had “seniority rights” to that class. Ugh.</p>
<p>SCUALUM, your son is not a rebel, he just knows how to stand up for himself. If there were more kids like that, in the previous years, your S would not have to deal with that mess.
It’s hard to believe, that no parents complained about this teacher to the principal.</p>
<p>It was AP Econ - and as an MBA, I knew he wasn’t learning all of econ - just micro - but had not taken the time to investigate what was on the test. </p>
<p>There was at least one parent who was very vocal about this subject that year :)</p>
<p>In retrospect I should have known better. I now do not think that a teacher can cover all of the material of a college semester in a HS semester - and should have known that going into the class.</p>
<p>SCUALUM:</p>
<p>You S is not a rebel, just one who learned early (maybe from watching a role model parent 
) to stand up for himself.</p>
<p>My S is sometimes the same way. When in 8th grade and assigned to the wrong Algebra II class at the HS (he quickly determined it should be the honors class and not the regular one, which was populated by some slow seniors), he and the three other eighth graders just went to the principal’s office (middle school or high school I’m still not sure) and announced that they needed to be moved into the honors section. I knew nothing about it until he advised me he had another math teacher and told me the story. I still see the honors Algebra II teacher from time to time and she’s always interested in finding out how S is progressing, since she’s aware he’s taking linear algebra presently.</p>
<p>So yeah, the teachers and administrators keep track of such student rebels (and likely the parent rebels as well.)</p>
<p>S1 has a Nov. birthday, S2 has a Feb. one. Cutoff was 12/31. Fifteen months apart in age, but two grades apart.</p>
<p>Both my kids were induced three weeks early: S1 was 7lb. 10 oz., S2 was 8 lb. 12 oz. My sisters both had 9-10 pounders. Yikes!</p>
<p>Hey CountingDown - I have brothers who are 13 months apart, but were two grades apart. Even worse, my brother and I are 21 months apart, but only one grade apart. It’s just how those cut-offs work - there always has to be an oldest in the grade and a youngest in the grade.</p>