Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
1281

<p>Youdon’tsay – We’d never let you leave; you’re a part of our communal support here!
NWMom – we live in the planet Utah (not from here though) :slight_smile:
Thanks for the congrats, all. I think one reason S was disappointed with his scores was because he thought he had done better. But when he took practice tests, and with soph. year’s test, his scores were all over the place. </p>

<p>He will be taking the ACT this Saturday also, (joining the club here) and took two online practice tests (I purchased the Online Test Prep). He did really well on those – blew me away actually. I never would have thought he could score that high. Let’s hope that the practices aren’t unusually easy just to give a false sense of confidence!</p>

<p>Good luck to everyone taking it on Saturday!</p>

1282

<p>thanks for the info that the psat are posted on the college board site. we have an account so I’ll start checking is a week or so.</p>

<p>bengalmom - planet utah is pretty funny. I am sure it is very different than where you are originally from but you can’t beat the skiing. the best</p>

1283

<p>NWMom – So true about the skiing. We are very spoiled here. S gets an annual pass to Snowbird – takes about 15 minutes to get there. :slight_smile:
By the way, I am an Oregonian (born and raised), and have lived several places in Washington. The Pacific NW is the best!! – we will retire there. Now if we could just figure out how to get a bit more sunshine… Bend looks good! :D</p>

1284

<p>Youdontsay, if D gets commended even I’d have heart attack! Congrats to all the parents of semi-finalists, but I will not be among you. I guarantee. I’ll keep posting though. We B+ parents need support too.</p>

1285

<p>QM, I’d have a heart attack, too. S did really badly (even by non-CC standards) on his 10th grade PSATs, partly because he just didn’t care, and partly because he’s not a very good standardized test taker. But he’s matured a lot in the last year, and I’m really curious to see if there’s been an improvement. On the plus side, his first quarter grades were outstanding, and if he keeps it up for the rest of the year I won’t be able to post in the B+ thread any more. :)</p>

1286

<p>Yes, booklady, my D is a horrible test taker too. She gets extremely anxious.</p>

1287

<p>Bengalmom
I’m a transplanted ny’er so i sometimes miss the pace of the city. it is beautiful here but i wish the weather were better. Snowbird skiing can really spoil you.<br>
good luck to you s for great skiing this winter. has it started yet. its been really mild here</p>

1288

<p>DougBetsy - I’m glad you got the car situation worked out. We’re not sure what we’re going to do when D gets her license. I want to get her a car, but I just don’t know if it’s practical to do that when she’ll be going away to school. Maybe a used car, if we start looking for a good buy now. </p>

<p>nwmom - if you go to the collegeboard web site, to the psat section, you can sign up to get an email letting you know when they post the scores. I’m not sure if you actually requested to have the email sent.</p>

<p>Glad to hear my D won’t be alone taking the ACT this Saturday. She hasn’t prepped at all, though she took one practice test out of the “Real ACT” book before we registered - just to make sure it made sense to take the test. We knew she wouldn’t have time to prep, so we wanted to make sure there was a reasonable chance she’d get a good score.</p>

1289

<p>Just got an email from the high school. It announced the schedule for AP info sessions for every day next week. Buried in the announcement I read, “If a student is scheduled to attend the PSAT information session, he or she will not be permitted to attend an AP session on that day. Students can always see the individual AP teacher at another time.”</p>

<p>Now I’m wondering if that means the scores are coming out tomorrow, 12/10. The school only holds home room on Wednesdays so the 10th is the last chance to distribute scores before info sessions next week. Here’s hopin’.</p>

1290

<p>wow quite a crowd for the ACT this weekend. A few people have mentioned the online prep materials, my D has the real ACT book as LIMOM’s D and she has done part of one test plus read the intro chapters. Assuming she stays with her preference for ACT over SAT and if she wishes to retake and wants more materials, do people think the online materials are useful and worth the money? </p>

<p>And good luck to all imminent PSAT score recipients :)</p>

1291

<p>It’s kind of fun to start looking college lists with my D now that PSAT scores are in and she did well. We were short on information until now with not very many grades (homeschooled 9th and 10th, but in school now) and SAT scores dating from 8th grade. I don’t remember which thread the following was from, but we’ve been using it as a guide until we can meet with her GC in January. What do you think?</p>

<p>"I would say that any school with an acceptance rate of under 20% is a reach for everyone. </p>

<p>A school with an acceptance rate of 20-40% is a match for anyone who scores in the top 25% of all applicants. </p>

<p>A school with an acceptance rate of 40% and greater is a safety for the top 25% of applicants."</p>

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<p>Astromom – interesting stats. I hadn’t seen those before. I wonder about the match though. I would have thought those schools might be a match for the top 10% instead of 25%, but maybe I’m being too cautious.
We have a fluctuating early list with 2 reaches, and the rest low match/ safeties. A bit lopsided, I suppose. But the list changes monthly, so no worries. This is a very exciting time, though!</p>

<p>NW Mom – I absolutely love NYC. Some of my very best trips are ones I have taken there by myself, to just go and absorb the wonderful energy. Of course, people here think I’m out of my mind for going to New York <em>Alone</em>! :eek: The Pacific NW must have given you quite a culture shock. I hope you get back for a big city “fix” occasionally. :)</p>

<p>DougBetsy – What is an AP info session? Here they just tell us when we have to pay for the tests.</p>

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<p>

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<p>Well, I’m not sure. I don’t recall hearing about them in years past. But, from the looks of it, I’d say an AP info session is a chance for a kid to come hear about any AP classes he or she is considering for the next school year. </p>

<p>The email message I got listed the sessions as follows:
Monday - Foreign Language (French, German, Spanish, Latin)
Tuesday - Eng & Fine Arts (Lit, Lang, Studio Art, Music Theory)
Wednesday - Math (Calc, Prob & Stat)
Thursday - Social Studies (US History, World, European, Psych, Econ)
Friday - Science (Bio, Chem, Environmental, Physics)
(Hmm. 18. I never counted them before.)</p>

<p>Our school pretty much has an open door policy on APs. That is, take as many or as few as YOU think you can handle. They tell everyone right off the bat, “you either sink or swim based on your own abilities.” The kids who bite off more than they can chew will get Cs, Ds, and Fs. The ones who properly place themselves will do fine. </p>

<p>In our case, DS took APUSH as a soph. This year he’s in AP World and AP Prob & Stat.<br>
French and Psych are definites for 12th grade. Other possibilities are Lang, Econ, and Music. Total of 3 APs is likely, 4 would be the max. (ETA: for him)</p>

<p>APs are graded on a 5.0 scale. A = 5, B = 4, C = 3,
Honors are graded on a 4.5 scale. A - 4.5, B = 3.5, C = 2.5
Academic courses follow the traditional “UW” 4-point scale. In all cases, a D = 1 and F = 0.</p>

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<p>Thanks, DougBetsy.
Our HS does not weight APs and Honors differently than regular academic classes and non-academic classes. So an A in AP Chemistry is the same as an A in woodshop.
Needless to say, we have many students ranked at the same level even though their schedules may have very different levels of difficulty.
The AP-level kids usually start out with APEuroHistory as sophomores (we are a 3-year HS).
S is now taking AP Chem, AP Calc BC and APUSH. We are on a weird trimester schedule, and only have 5 periods in the day. AP classes run all 3 trimesters, so aong with other requirements, it’s difficult to squeeze in more than 3 APs a year. Next year he will take AP English, AP Bio, and probably AP Stats (if they still offer it). D ran out of math classes at our HS with AP Calc BC jr. year, so didn’t have math sr. year. That certainly did not help her when she applied to Stanford.
When D was a Sr. she took 4 APs, including AP French independent study (that was awful!!) and she did not have any fun that year; worked herself ragged. We won’t be doing that with S!</p>

1295

<p>O.K., I am officially joining the ranks of parents of the Class of 2010. My Junior D got her PSAT scores today, so it’s finally sunk in that my baby girl is growing up and will soon be out in the great big world without her mommy. ;)</p>

<p>I’ve been lurking a lot and corresponding with a very patient mom on this thread via private message, but I’m now ready to join the group. Thanks for all the great info so far!</p>

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<p>CuriousMother:</p>

<p>Welcome!!! We don’t bite (much)</p>

<p>SCUALUM</p>

1297

<p>welcome curiousmother!</p>

<p>BengalMom, our school is very similar to yours. trimesters and kids can officially take 6 courses, no weighting done. Is your school public or private? large or small? We are a small independent (ie private) day school in the northeast. Only difference is we do not rank and we don’t have classes like shop because we are a “college prep” school. We also have fewer AP courses than most, as the teachers design their curricula which do not follow AP for the most part, or even SAT II. Languages are where we have the most APs (2 French, 2 Latin, 2 Spanish, with the two discontinued after this year) down to sciences were we don’t have any. History we just have US, our modern euro class taken by most sophomores follows a book by one of our faculty. Most of our classes are year long classes in the core subjects, except most upper classmen take trimester English electives (one section of AP Lit) and there are some senior science and history electives which are one term. Most of our arts classes are trimesters, one year’s worth required for graduation.</p>

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<p>Our HS has AP info sessions, but it’s during the day (perhaps to reinforce that it’s more for the students.) Anyway, the students are supposed to attend the ones for classes they are interested in for the next year. I think my S missed the one last year for AP Calc due to a conflict but his trig teacher was able to guide him into deciding on AP Calc BC, which was the right choice. This year, he’s been a tutor for students taking calc. I had to laugh when he told me he was helping tutor some of his friends in calc, during the down time in photography (only some many can be in the dark room at one time.)</p>

1299

<p>Im a high school senior in the state on Kentucky. I am very nervous about colleges and admissions. Im almost sure I want to go to Sullivan University. Anybody have any opinions on it or if you are enrolled or previously how it was?
It would mean alot.</p>

1300

<p>DougBetsy, at first I thought you were on a block schedule that they were doing info sessions this early! Our school does course selections in April I think, and last year the history teacher talked to the sophomores about the difference between AP US and reg. For all AP and honors classes, the student needs to do an application. It might be just an essay on why they want to take the class, or for H Physics they had to do a set of problems where they needed to research background in order to answer. For some classes they need to deny some kids due to the number of sections they will have, plus they try to limit kids to 3 H/AP classes.</p>