<p>YDS:</p>
<p>I know… that is why I polluted the 2009 thread rather than this one :)</p>
<p>Hi everyone.</p>
<p>D also received the Pitzer and the two CMC mailings. I assume that we received them because we live in the area of one of their upcoming roadshow stops. </p>
<p>I’ve been skimming last several pages of posts: There was a question(from LIMOM…?) about northeastern colleges that offer merit aid. Hopefully, this wasn’t already mentioned, but another school to check out might be Hobart and William Smith, in upstate New York. They have the following merit aid programs: [HWS:</a> Merit-Based Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.hws.edu/admissions/merit_based.aspx]HWS:”>http://www.hws.edu/admissions/merit_based.aspx) Also: [HWS:</a> Trustee Scholars](<a href=“http://www.hws.edu/admissions/trustee_scholars.aspx]HWS:”>http://www.hws.edu/admissions/trustee_scholars.aspx)</p>
<p>I had been hearing about Brandeis scaling back on merit aid, which is disappointing, since D’s really likes that school and will probably apply there. </p>
<p>D took the SAT IIs (U.S. History & English Lit.). When they were done she was cautiously hopeful. She also mentioned, when I picked her up, after the test, about the number of U.S. History questions about Native Americans, in greater proportion than what they particularly covered in APUSH this year.</p>
<p>Now it’s on to NHS induction this week, APUSH exam, prom , the Eng. Lang. & Psych AP’s next week, and then begin prepping for the June SAT I retake.</p>
<p>Keilexandra–I don’t know much of anything about Rhodes or Hendrix, although Knox is (tentatively) still on D’s list. We also don’t have plans to visit it before she would(<em>if</em> she does) apply. I understand that they travel around the country doing admissions interviews. Using online sources, I agree that it’s kind of difficult to get a good sense of Knox’s campus culture. The Knox CC forum isn’t very active; u<em>n</em>i<em>g</em>o.com (sorry for the asterisks) or perhaps Knox’s Facebook groups might be additionally helpful. They have sent D a number of email blurbs, as well as a rather nice snail-mail letter and packet.</p>
<p>Thanks, momonthehill. I was really just curious about whether any northeastern schools offered guaranteed merit aid based on stats like some southern schools do. </p>
<p>Sounds like your D has a busy two weeks ahead, just like the rest of our kids.</p>
<p>Has anyone tried the video tours? I saw something about them here on CC and it seemed like a nice way to filter schools that are far away (e.g. on the East coast for us West coasters).</p>
<p>Wow, I’m hungover from the '09 party. I just got up. Wished I had given ds a big sendoff before the BC exam. 
I sent both boys off with treats for Teacher Appreciation Week, however, and will pick ds1 up from school because he’s staying late to get NHS hours. Then he’ll get himself to the APUSH study exam. Phew. I can’t wait for summer.</p>
<p>Oh scualum, I’ve looked at a couple of video tours. One think I liked better were schools that put up videos interviewing kids. I got a sense of what the school thinks is important based on what footage they chose of the kids. Examples are:</p>
<p>[Carleton</a> College: Admissions](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/admissions/]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/admissions/)</p>
<p>[Hendrix</a> College | Video FAQs](<a href=“http://www.hendrix.edu/admission/admission.aspx?id=18716]Hendrix”>Video FAQs | Hendrix College)</p>
<p>These are a strange two weeks at the HS such that I’m never sure what’s going on without looking at the calendar. State standardized tests are interspersed with the AP tests. School doesn’t start until 8:35. Thankfully my S reminded me he won’t be home until late due to league swim prelims over in Beverly Hills (whose HS has an interesting arrangement, as the pool is covered by a gym floor when not in use as a pool.)</p>
<p>I volunteered to be the Booster Club member on the group that reviews applications for our community scholarships. I’m not sure who was more presumptious, me for thinking it would be a later afternoon (5 pm) or early evening meeting since there are working parents involved and that’s when the Booster Club usually meets OR the meeting coordinator who knows there are parents involved with this. A 10 am meeting next week necessitates some schedule shuffling. I’ve been trying to get the start time for a few weeks now …</p>
<p>I’ve looked at the video tours from some web sites. Last week, I took a “virtual tour” of Rice, from their web site. They have a good number of still photos from various venues, and when you click and drag on the picture, it shows the view from different angles. Forgetting I have a mild tendency to motion sickness, I dragged too fast and after a few minutes, I had to stop and get some air. (Worse than the hangover from yesterday’s '09 party 
)</p>
<p>FAP:</p>
<p>These two weeks are really strange aren’t they? AP Tests disrupt the schedule enough - and then you throw CA State tests on top? DD School actually publishes a special schedule for these two weeks because it is so confusing…</p>
<p>Don’t know if this has been mentioned, but isn’t it ironic that the AP Spanish Language exam was given yesterday, on Cinco de Mayo? 
DS#2 took it and said it didn’t finish until 1:45 p.m. Started at 8:30 but only so many kids can be in the language lab at once. Ugh! He went straight from there to a practice AP Physics B test. Then he was up until 1:15 a.m. studying. Double ugh! He has AP Bio and AP Physics tests on the same day, Monday. Took the Physics SAT 2 exam on Saturday morning, and decided to hold off on the Bio SAT 2 until June. I wish he could get some sleep. :(</p>
<p>He also received the Wash U mailing yesterday. He is pretty annoyed about the waste of paper he sees coming from many schools. And it is interesting that his twin receives no mailings. They must have checked off the opposite boxes!</p>
<p>These two weeks are weird here, too, because school actually goes till June 24, so after the testing gap, it’s back to regular classes for a month.</p>
<p>momof3sons:</p>
<p>Hmm, wonder if the exam scheduler at CB noticed the AP exam/Cinqo de Mayo connection. Since these are the two weeks set aside for AP, I wonder if it’s happened before.</p>
<p>My S took AP Spanish Language last year. Because of some equipment malfunction, my S was in the group that had to be sequestered for a time. But hey, they got a free lunch out of the deal because there weren’t any other options the school had available and the kids needed to eat. He predicted he would get a 5 and he was right.</p>
<p>Wow, he got a five after all that? That’s very impressive.</p>
<p>FAP, my kid was in the second group unfortunately, and they had to be sequestered. No food, no nothing. Luckily, I had sent him with two Nature Valley bars, but that’s not enough. He got home at 4 p.m. and had lunch, and then had dinner at 6:15 p.m.! :)</p>
<p>I’ve looked at a few video tours on college websites, plus the ones on youniversity dot com. I’m not sure how helpful they are compared to a visit, but they’re better than nothing.</p>
<p>momof3sons - nice that your S was able to eat two meals so close together yesterday.</p>
<p>My S attended a language immersion elementary school in the district (3/4 Spanish, 1/4 Japanese enrollment.) I’m sure it helped at AP test time.</p>
<p>This elementary school is awesome for a public school, always has the highest standardized test scores. Back when my S first started in K, they were beginning to think of having a lottery due to the demand. Now it’s all lottery. The parental demographic was pretty impressive in '97-98, the highest in the district with most parents with college degrees, often mutliple degrees.</p>
<p>A graduating class at the HS has about 500 students. Five elementary schools feed into the MS and HS. Typically, the kids who came from the language immersion school make up at least half of the top ten grads. Right now for the junior class, the top three all attended this school (more interesting, they are all boys.)</p>
<p>I just got a cryptic text from D at school and I THINK it says she got the lead part in a school play. I hope so. I will post a retraction if I am wrong.</p>
<p>S2 also had technical difficulties w/Spanish orals yesterday and didn’t get out til way, way late. </p>
<p>Queen’s Mom – hope it’s good news!</p>
<p>Historymom-- sending vibes to Scripps…</p>
<p>so what happens when a kid is taking the Spanish test with the SNAFU and then is scheduled to take Stats afterwards? Or would that not ever happen, and one would have been already slated for the makeup day? Sorry but we don’t do many APs here and that situation would never occur.</p>
<p>Are the kids thinking the exams so far went well, or just glad they are over and looking to the next one?</p>
<p>Hoping for good news also QM!</p>
<p>QM - Got my fingers crossed (so hard to type)</p>
<p>I have had company for 4.5 straight weeks, so I am not even going to bother trying to catch up or catch on. If anything great has happened to you: congratulations. Not so great: Sorry.</p>
<p>Ok. Still planning our summer road trip. I want to finalize my preparations, but D can’t make a decisive list. She is in the middle of testing and studying, so I will give her another couple of weeks. Otherwise, I am back to taking over.</p>
<p>Hope all is well with all of you.</p>