<p>nunya, sorry to have the AP pass rate is so poor at your school. Does the school have an explanation? I would have thought that that was the type of school the collegeboard would come down on in their recent audit. </p>
<p>welcome to you too SLUMOM, I think I saw from another thread that is St Lawrence?</p>
<p>My D has used the college board matcher thing and she thought it was ok. We have a few of the guidebooks on the coffee table also. I can’t relate to the GPAs publicized by all these places so I tend to stick to our school’s naviance data. Unfortunately, they don’t have as much data for ACT so I am taking an equivalent 2400 and 1600 scores and using them to compare. At least I know the GPAs match up but are unweighted in our school and most kids take one or two fewer courses than D.</p>
<p>D made an appointment for us (she wanted me to come, I feel so loved) to meet with the college counseling guy on Tuesday. She wanted me to make it, I told her to do it. I will have her write up a short page before hand of the colleges she “likes” and something about most of them that she likes. What I want her to get out of the mtg is just an initial connection and then maybe some things for her to think about. The official start of the college planning for juniors is Feb 12.</p>
<p>Hi Jackief - coincidentally, I set up an appointment with my D’s guidance counselor for next week as well. D’s school wants both the student and parent to attend these college planning meetings, I guess to make sure everyone is on the same page. The school handed out a form for the students to complete before the break, and the meetings have already started!</p>
<p>LIMOM, what kind of stuff did they ask for on the form? I have seen the forms they want our kids to complete before Sept of Sr year but I assume it is much more high level at this stage.</p>
<p>S met his college counselor for the first time last week when he got his PSAT score ( he has 220).
H and I will meet the CC in Feb. I frankly can’t think of any school that S could apply to , and neither can he.
I think the CC expect us to have some ideas.</p>
<p>jackief - the form reminded me of a mini college app, minus the essays…lol. D had to provide information on her test scores (in case they weren’t sent to the school, I guess), her ECs, sports, community service, work experience - including how long and leadership positions. She also had to list a few - maybe 4 or 6 - colleges she’s considering. For the parents, they wanted to know highest level of education completed for each parent, college(s) attended/graduated from, careers. I can’t remember what else - we filled it out about a month ago, and I didn’t keep a copy - probably a mistake on my part. So far, it sounds like people have been pretty happy with the results. From what I’ve heard, the kids are provided with a good list of schools to start researching. I’m hoping this will help D get a little more focused on the search - make it more real to her.</p>
<p>ontheedge - congrats on that great PSAT score. And I’m sure the CC will expect your S to have at least a few ideas about colleges he might be interested in attending. Does he know whether he wants to go away or not? That will probably make a huge difference in where he goes. Good luck!</p>
<p>Is there a true audit of percent of students who passed/failed under a specific teacher or high school? All I could find under the collegeboard’s audit was new teachers had to submit a syllabus for the board’s approval. I didn’t find anywhere that specifically stated the teacher must follow the syllabus or have x students pass the test.</p>
<p>D and her friends kept telling us parents last year that no one had ever passed it and, sure enough, no one that we could find had passed it last year with them. Parents and kids are upset with why the school is turning a blind eye.</p>
<p>Thanks for the college search ideas. Today I got an email from D’s school that they are starting voluntary “lunch and learn” sessions next week with an intern from a college counseling program. This was great news. They will discuss topics such as how to search, what to look for, SAT/ACT/SAT11, the app process, etc. I am hoping that D will get more excited about the college search process if she is in a group discussion. I know the woman that is leading the group, and I know it will be very worthwhile. She will also meet with them personally, by appt. This is such great news, because D is at a large public magnet IB program, and she is not involved with the GC at all, and is not impressed with the dept. at all. I have not had a chance to check with any of the seniors I know to find out if they used the GC or if they did it all on their own.</p>
<p>linfort, that sounds like a good program. The casual, group set-up might attract more kids who don’t like a formal sit-down with the GC. I wish we had something similar… or anything, for that matter.</p>
<p>linfort - I agree with BengalMom - that sounds like a good program. Hopefully the kids will make use of it, and hopefully, the intern won’t be trying to sell the college counseling program. Good luck - I hope it helps to get your D more interested in the college search.</p>
<p>Thanks LIMOM.
S wants to go away. He just does not know where.
The CC expects him to have a profile of his " ideal" school.
It was so much easier with his older siblings. They knew where they wanted to go. This one is not even interested to do a CB search.</p>
<p>ontheedge, don’t worry/stress too much about it, even some kids who have a school or attribute in mind at this stage may change by the end of Jr year and more commonly by application time Sr year. If he doesn’t know, then he doesn’t know. It would be good for him to start thinking about it. Has he done any visits? What does he think of the schools your older kids attend?</p>
<p>nunya- I’m sorry I don’t know a lot about the audits, just enough to get myself in trouble I know they did review curricula, are you saying that your school covers the material but the students still don’t pass? Has anyone raised this with the head of the department, the principal, the school board? It is surprising that people accept this outcome. Do you pay for the tests or does the school? Why would someone pay $80 for something that will give no benefit?</p>
<p>jackief he does not want to go to the schools his siblings are attending.
Over the years, he attended many events on campuses all over NY. NYU, Columbia and Cooper Union are very familiar to him.<br>
He is going to visit a few schools during spring break and hopefully next fall. He is not happy with that because he usually goes to lacrosse camp during the break.</p>
<p>ontheedge - my D hasn’t shown much interest in selecting her colleges either. She just says she’s considering a few - but they’re all big reach schools, so I would like her to do a little more searching on her own. I dragged her on a college visit this summer, almost 100% against her will - but it turned out pretty well as she decided to be cooperative and actually paid attention during the info sessions and tours and came away liking all 4 schools (different degrees of liking, of course). If you’ve read through this thread, then you know she’s planning another visit to 2 schools on her list. One is a safety (yay, safety!), and one is another reachy school. This visit she planned herself with a friend - only I intervened and made a few strategic changes. </p>
<p>I’m guessing that if your S wants to go away to school, then he won’t be interested in any of the schools he visited? So far, my D has been saying no to NYC schools, but I’m hoping she’ll reconsider as I think she would just love living in Manhattan.</p>
<p>^^ We also visited four schools last summer, my D liked only one of them, and now she isn’t so sure about that one either! Unfortunately she only wants to think about the top schools (as in HYP) right now. I have got her interested in places like UPenn, Georgetown and Northwestern- but those aren’t exactly safe schools! I hope we can come up with a more balanced list before the fall.</p>
<p>On another note- funny how there are different levels of NYC ‘urban’ snobbery. LIMOM and zmom, aren’t you both technically the B&T (bridge and tunnel) crowd? When we used to live in a close-by NJ suburb of NYC, my D’s Manhattan-dwelling friend thought we lived in “the countryside”!</p>
<p>vicariousparent - sounds like we’re in the same situation with our Ds liking only those reachy schools.</p>
<p>And yes, I live on LI now, so technically that’s true - part of the B&T crowd - but I still think of myself as being from the city. I didn’t move to LI until a few years after I was married.</p>
<p>Yes, jackief, D#2 went back for her LAST SEMESTER on Sunday. How quickly that has gone by. She will be graduating from SLU in May. D#3 (Class of '09) has applied to SLU. </p>
<p>I don’t know if my son (Class of '10) will apply to SLU or not. He does like it up there in the frozen tundra of Northern New York. At least SLU does give a Legacy Grant of $2500.00/year, for siblings, children & grandchildren of alumni. It is not based on merit or need.</p>
<p>RE: Kids who don’t know what they are looking for in a college. The most helpful bit of info that someone gave my son (when he had no idea of what college or even what criteria to use): </p>
<p>It can be non-academic criteria to start with. Such as, do you want to live in the snow? On the west coast? Near an international airport (that should have been on his list, we lucked out on that one.) For some reason, these kind of questions helped him get started in putting areas/schools on the list.</p>
<p>Just popping back into this thread to concur about Poughkeepsie. We used to refer to it as the armpit of Dutchess County. The surrounding countryside is, however, beautiful, and the opportunities nearby (visiting the CIA for dinner, Roosevelt’s mansion, etc) are fun activities, if someone has a car.</p>
<p>Booklady,
I’ve always loved that New Yorker cover!! There have been several take-offs of it, but none parallel the original.</p>
<p>SLUMOM-</p>
<p>I thought Schenectady got respect. Its Buffalo that gets no respect!</p>
<p>Forgot to ask, SLUmom, can you clarify (I n\must have missed it) which SLU your kids attend? I am guessing St. Lawrence? But it could be St. Louis U or Southeastern Louisiana U. Thanks.</p>
I know they did review curricula, are you saying that your school covers the material but the students still don’t pass? Has anyone raised this with the head of the department, the principal, the school board? It is surprising that people accept this outcome. Do you pay for the tests or does the school? Why would someone pay $80 for something that will give no benefit?</p>
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