<p>mathmom, when I hear Elmira I think of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The guy who was at the S&L to check the books said he wants to hurry up with the audit so he can get home to see his family in Elmira for the holidays. Random thought, there!</p>
<p>I am so not in college mode, sitting here on Spring Break. I check in and see everyone posting about visits and scores, and I’m just on another planet right now. In good news, ds called and left a voicemail (our phone reception is spotty out here ) saying he’s having fun and is safe (that’s for worrywart Dad) and will try to call again. I hope he does, and I hope we get to talk to him. Oh, someone asked earlier whether he was with dh, but he’s not. This is a school trip – 14 kids and two teachers. Several kids called home today (no doubt at the teachers’ urging) so parents are trading info. Reports are they’re having a great time and getting along well.</p>
<p>Last year my son’s hs had two Commended students for National Merit and my S was one of them (that’s back when he was on the three year plan. the plan that required endless meetings and planning. then a month into it he changed his mind. Yes, that one.) No scores higher than that. They have had years with no commended. My S’s high school is in the top 5% according to Newsweek and they have roughly 400 students per class (lots of moving in and out of the district.) So I don’t hink those numbers sound low at all.</p>
<p>If Texas cut off goes up 6 points from this year, he will be Commended again but hopefully he’ll make the semifinals and then, if I finally understand this correctly, most semifinalists become finalists if they fill their packets out well.</p>
<p>3 out of 650 sounds pretty good to me. Our classes are smaller - typically 150-200 - and we usually have either 1 or none. This is a top 100 high school.</p>
<p>Keilex, we just missed you today. My D visited Swarthmore and, contrary to my expectations, she loved it. She attended on class and really liked it. She is definitely going to apply.</p>
<p>pugmadkate–I hope Texas’ National Merit cutoff this year allows your S to make Semi! </p>
<p>Our HS isn’t on Newsweek’s silly list but we always have a lot of NMFs for an average class of 425. Only 14 this year, but the past couple of years have produced 20 to 30. I expect the class of 2010 to be a high year.</p>
<p>D’s school had 5 or 6 NMFs last year, more commended, though I don’t remember exactly how many. I believe there will be fewer this year. Classes are between 275 and 300.</p>
<p>YDS - I envy you being on spring break this week! I know when D is on spring break, we’ll still be in college mode. :/</p>
<p>BengalMom - Welcome Back. And I know exactly what you mean about the “chance me” threads!</p>
<p>Neighborhood HS (600 seniors) hasn’t had a NMSF in the past three years. On the other hand, the selective entry specialized programs in our public school system get around 30 (out of 100) at one program and 40-ish (out of 100) at the other. Makes the NMSF cutoff insanely high.</p>
<p>Hi all - I’m new to CC and love the forum. I have a S (2010) and D (2012) so I’ll probably be around for awhile.</p>
<p>About this thread:</p>
<p>“Just got back from my Junior College Night. It was presented by Peter Van Budick (sp?) of The Admission Game - College Planning - College Admissions Resource, who is a very engaging speaker and the former Dean of Admissions at F&M. I didn’t think I would learn much, given the amount of time I spend here on CC, but I did! If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, I would recommend it–we did a case study “game” that was just fascinating”</p>
<p>I heard this speaker, Peter Van Buskirk, twice in the last few months giving his “The Admission Game” seminar. I can’t say enough about the value of this seminar. Peter is a gifted speaker and makes this interactive seminar a can’t miss. If you haven’t seen him, I would recommend visiting his website and checking out the Events tab for his schedule now posted through the end of 2009. I actually saw him at two nearby HS since our school did not hire him this year. Cost to attend is free with permission of the hosting HS. </p>
<p>My only criticism of this talk is that the target audience is HS juniors and seniors and their parents. Should invite any and all parents of HS students. I now know for my freshman D that increasing the rigor of her program year to year is key - didn’t realize that and other useful info for my junior S.</p>
<p>I was just thinking…about the advice not to take the SAT more than 3 times. It seems that with score choice, this no longer matters to many schools, if it ever mattered at all. After all with superscoring colleges can just make themselves look better.</p>
<p>Enjoy that April visit to Swat, LIMOMOF2! The campus will be in spectacular bloom! Perhaps you can arrange for your D to sit in on a class. You can find the course schedule online, and there is a list of all the courses for the day posted outside the Admissions Office. Your D would just need to be at the class a few minutes before it started so that she could introduce herself to the professor and ask permission to sit in. That’s what my son did this week.</p>
<p>We usually have about 3 or 4 NMSF’s and about the same number of commended students. The typical class size runs about in the mid 300s.</p>
<p>D2 just got the official word today that she’s going to be inducted into the National Honor Society. The initial number of inductees for class of '10 was smaller than usual because this year, for the first time, students have to have completed a certain number of hours of community service in order to be inducted into NHS. Fortunately, D began tutoring after school as her community service(even better still, since she enjoys it) for almost a year now, so she’s well above the required minimum hours. This summer she’s also to hoping to work in a paying job on the side.</p>
<p>Congrats on your D and NHS. Our school doesn’t have NHS, no idea why. They have something here called the California Scholarship Federation which is primarily an honorary deal for graduation. Qualify all semesters of HS and the student gets a special mark on the diploma and things like a gold stole/mortar board tassle, etc to wear at graduation. I think CSF has some competitive scholarships as well.</p>
<p>What does she tutor? My son does tutoring in math, from pre-algebra on up to calculus. He gets the most call for algebra. He could do more of it than he does except that he can only really do it on weekends, since he has either water polo or swim after school every day and then need time in the evening for his homework. I’ll have to remind him to leave his name and number behind for the summer so he can assist then, when he’s around.</p>
<p>Our school tells you that you need to have 10 hours of community service about two weeks before the forms are due. It’s so dumb. Then it turned out that my son wanted to get out of taking a gov course next year. He has to pass a test and do community service. Again, not too much warning. We spent the last few days finding something. Actually, I think it will be quite interesting for a budding historian. He’s going to catalog the neighborhood associations box of records into a searchable database. We have an interesting history since the neighborhood fought redlining in the early 1960s and was heavily involved in keeping the local elementary school from closing. Hard to imagine that now as it’s bursting at the scened despite a sizable addition when my oldest was in K. At anyrate if S2 wants to be in NHS it will be next fall.</p>
<p>I heartily endorse the recommendation to sit in on a class (or classes). My D was just telling me today that for her, observing the class(es) provides at least 50% of her assessment of the school. She looks at how well the class is taught by the professor, the respect with which he/she treats the students, and how the students participate in class, and how they interact with each other before and after class. </p>
<p>Queen’sMom: A few highly selective schools (eg Yale and Penn) have decided that they will ask applicants to send in all their SAT scores despite the availability of score choice. But they will still superscore. The person at the Penn info session just this week told us that they will ‘cherry pick’ the best reading, math and writing scores and that scores can only help you, not hurt you.</p>
<p>Service is a huge component in qualifying for NHS in our school, as is evidence of leadership in school activities. Plenty of high GPA kids apply but don’t get accepted because of these requirements. Then the service and leadership requirements are on-going; but the chapter does plenty of service projects as a group. Today they sponsored and volunteered at a Red Cross Blood Drive. My son was just saying today that it’s easier to get kicked out for not participating in service than to get kicked for falling grades. Hopefully he won’t have to worry about either .</p>
<p>NHS service requirement here is 50 hours in the past year, IIRC. I have a long-term position (with very flexible scheduling) at a local museum and its attached library, as an interpreter and a cataloger respectively. Both are interesting though very different.</p>
<p>FAP: Thank you. She helps tutor young elementary school age children with their homework, mainly working with them to practice their reading. Many of the children are from Spanish speaking homes so their English and Reading skills are still developing. She has enjoyed this so much that she periodically has talked about working toward her teaching certification (although at the secondary/high school level)in college.</p>
<p>Mathmom: Our school did the exact same thing regarding the lack of notification in the NHS requirement change! D was friends with some of last year’s NHS seniors who happened to mention to her on a couple of different occasions that the community service requirement was in the works effective beginning the '09-'10 school year. She, in turn, mentioned this to her friends, but she says that there was no official announcement of this rule change through the school–I don’t understand why. As a result, several kids in her grade are now scrambling like crazy to get in their community service hours before the deadline in a week or so.</p>
<p>Archiemom: Your son’s NHS chapter sounds like it’s quite active. Up to now, our HS’s NHS hasn’t had nearly that level of activity, but perhaps with this new emphasis on community service, perhaps they will develop some more service projects for next year.</p>
<p>Wait, S told me he was invited to join NHS. He didn’t say “apply” nor did he mention community service. And the applications are due next week? Is that standard or can it vary by school.</p>
<p>I swear, if I ever get the whole story the first time around from S, I’m going put on a parade. Grrrrr…</p>
<p>At our school, you are invited to join, but you still have to jump through hoops to get accepted. They are pretty minimal. You are invited based on GPA alone, but they look at ECs and community service for acceptance.</p>
) saying he’s having fun and is safe (that’s for worrywart Dad) and will try to call again. I hope he does, and I hope we get to talk to him. Oh, someone asked earlier whether he was with dh, but he’s not. This is a school trip – 14 kids and two teachers. Several kids called home today (no doubt at the teachers’ urging) so parents are trading info. Reports are they’re having a great time and getting along well.</p>
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