<p>I basically had to sit on the darn kid, but he got 3 applications out the door in August (GC was not happy having to deal with this in the summer) and by the end of September he was accepted to all three. My favorite was Susquehanna, but it was a travel nightmare for us. In the fall he applied to a few more schools and was only accepted into one. </p>
<p>He chose Carthage College because of its proximity to Chicago and because it sits right on the shores of Lake Michigan. Only 20% of the kids are Lutheran and the 2 required religion courses are more or less history of religions and how to be a global citizen.</p>
<p>Sorry to get so wordy. The moral of my story is to pick a couple of schools with rolling admissions and apply early - I just needed at least one acceptance so I could sleep at night!</p>
<p>Kajon, Thanks for the info on the Lutheran LACs. S currently attends a Jesuit school as a non practicing Catholic so I have no problem with religous schools. Hopefully any religous classes he has taken at his current HS contributes to making him a better person.</p>
<p>Just got an update from S’s Euro Hist teacher that after taking into account all graded assignments he currently has a C+ in her class. Far cry from the E she recorded on his progress report. I am not pleased with the C+ but it is much better than an E! Hopefully he did well on the AP exam and that C+ gets pulled up even further. </p>
<p>Still mad at this women for sending out the progress review with an E and no comment that the E is only based on some of the graded work. Whatever. </p>
<p>If nothing else this issue has caused us to rethink our college strategy for S, hopefully for the better.</p>
<p>Just so you know, LACs are not always the answer. My son has Asperger’s with executive function disorder - always the kid in HS who had to work to raise his grade because there would be some zero for a homework paper that he did but forgot to turn in. </p>
<p>We knew he would need personal attention in college and chose a small “Colleges That Change Lives” LAC. </p>
<p>First semester: He got a C- in a class where he should have received an A. They were supposed to take weekly on-line quizzes. He got a 100 on the three he remembered to do…but of course, a 0 on the 12 he didn’t remember to do. NO REMINDER FROM THE TEACHER (who happened to be his academic advisor) WHATSOEVER AT ANY POINT IN THE SEMESTER. </p>
<p>Second semester: He got a C in a class where he should have received an A. They were supposed to do weekly blog posts about the book the class was reading at the time. He forgot to do most of them. NO REMINDER FROM THE TEACHER WHATSOEVER AT ANY POINT IN THE SEMESTER. </p>
<p>We can debate whether a student in college should receive reminders. I’m just saying that if you are choosing an LAC in hopes of getting some personal attention, don’t count on that to happen.</p>
<p>mamom: you are not alone; our progress reports had comments, but no mention whatsoever that there were so few grades in the third quarter that the “grades” were basically useless…we had to contact every teacher to find this out…</p>
<p>Tell me if you’ve ever heard of anything like this: For each student at our school who passes (3 or higher) the AP art history exam, the teacher gets $100 and the student gets $100. The teacher keeps her money in an account at the school as a “scholarship” fund for kids who can’t pay for field trips, etc. I can’t imagine our state or county would establish such a program (AP Gun Rights, perhaps, but not AP Art History.) Do you think it was in someone’s will, or per a private foundation or something?</p>
<p>Sigh. D2 is in 8th grade, and I’d been thinking LAC for her for exactly that reason. So much for simple solutions. I’ve been keeping an eye out for schools that offer LD support, and have been pleasantly surprised to find that some larger schools might be a good fit (e.g. U of Arizona).</p>
<p>That’s assuming that we first manage to help her wrestle out of her current academic meltdown. :eyeroll:</p>
<p>I know I’m not the only one, and these posts certainly attest to that. My 9th grade S, who should be pulling close to all A’s, is currently getting mostly C’s. Why? Because he’s not doing his homework,not turning in assignments, and not studying for tests. If you ask if he has any homework, he’ll look right at you and say he did it, when he didn’t. He says the work is stupid and boring but as an earlier poster noted - that’s what he’s going to have to deal with in the working world. I keep reminding myself that kids mature at different rates, especially boys, and that there are worse things than having him in a community college instead of a 4 year. He’s excelling in his EC’s (speech, writing, drama) and even the teachers who are shaking their heads at his underperformance comment on what a delight he is to have in class. High potential/low performance/lovable guy. I wish we could get him on a solid academic track, but I have to accept that the ball is in his court. Very diffiicult, as many of you are experiencing.</p>
<p>cooker - My junior is now an excellent student, but in 9th grade he was similar to your S. When I look back, I can honestly say that joining the debate team was a turning point in his academic career. (I am embarrassed to say it, but we basically demanded he join) It forced him to be organized, concise and thorough. I think he was in awe of the preparedness of his competition and this was somehow inspiring to him. He was only on debate for one year (that was our deal), but I will forever be grateful that he had that experience.</p>
<p>Just know that to get any accomodations, you need a full psychological work up done within three years of college enrollment; most require that it be on the adult scale. Some colleges have VERY stringent requirements for the form the write up must take.</p>
<p>I think you can find concerned teachers at small LACs and at huge universities. Likewise, you can find teachers who don’t give a flip at both. When the time comes and you get down to your D’s final couple of choices, interview them about exactly what they are willing to do.</p>
<p>I will say that smaller schools tend to have fewer resources and the more selective the school, the fewer resources they will have for students who need academic help. </p>
<p>We visited a large, not-at-all selective state U. They had a HUGE tutoring center. Our student guide advised the students to sign up for a tutor in every single course- they could always drop it if not needed. He said that tutors would even attend classes with studnets right before a test, to make sure they knew what to study. This was not the Disablities Office - this was a service available to all students, because they had a fairly large population of at risk students. My son’s relatively selective LAC has no tuturing center, no formal tutoring program at all.</p>
<p>missypie- that scholarship thing for AP tests is great. I don’t understand giving the kids money but love the idea that the teachers have a pot of money to might need some financial help. Who better to know if a kid might need some help funding a school trip or activity.</p>
<p>As for the LAC, I am not so much looking for professors who will give him more attention as smaller classes where he may feel more connected and know the other students better. Plus, I have always thought of S as a thinker, IYKWIM, a kid who would benefit from a classical education type of thing. Of course, it wasn’t too long ago I was pushing for him to major in math or science while he was fighting me to major in business. We are also nervous about S getting swept up in the partying at larger schools. I was hoping to find a school with an honors program (assuming he could get in based on his SAT’s) with separate housing for those kids. hmmm, maybe we should consider homeschooling for college?? ;-)</p>
<p>As for tutoring, S’s school has retired Jesuits who sit in the library all day, every day waiting to help students requesting it. Unless we directed our S to do so he would never, ever ask for help on his own. Of course, he doesn’t need help preparing for tests, it is the deliverables he has issues with, and usually it is done, he just doesn’t turn them in or turns them in late. This kid has a lot of maturing to do in one year.</p>
<p>To give you all some positive vibes, my older S with practically all the probs identified above, did graduate (although not really knowing any prof or receiving a rec from any) and has been gainfully employed in a job that he likes for several years and has been promoted several times. It did take him a really long time to find a job however, another story. But, there is hope, just hang in there. I know its tough.
I’m torn between small LAC with current JR. S, but he has entirely other issues.</p>
<p>OK
so this census form—
we only HAVE to answer the # in the household…</p>
<p>SO…
what to do when the guy shows up at my door? I have 2 notices someone came by (evidently more than 48 million households did NOT respond)
And I understand I do NOT have to let him into my house–and shouldn’t.</p>
<p>SO–Whats the deal–all of the info about me and our household is already in the US gov system–through birth certificates, voter registration, drivers, license, passports, property taxes, federal income taxe reports, social security #s etc…</p>
<p>This is the such a freaking waste of money…
…and WHO do we think is being paid $17 a hr to “interview” people…?
…ACORN workers?</p>
<p>OK
rant over…</p>
<p>Back to our regularly scheduled programming…</p>
<p>missypie, thanks for the info about needing a recent workup. We’ll see what D2 is like in a couple of years. Right now, she says she wants warm weather, lots of school spirit, and her dream school is NYU. When we point out that NYU is cold and non-rah-rah, she says that it doesn’t matter for that one school. A few years ago, her top pick was U Wisc-Madison. I expect to hear next that she wants to go to Alaska.</p>
<p>This is a great site. I can’t believe I didn’t find it earlier. Anyway, S is very interested in East Asian Studies, and I would love to hear suggestions. First, let me tell you what my son said when he first met with his college counselor. “I don’t want to look at any schools east of the Mississippi.” Well, that made things a lot easier. A whole sheet of possible schools was thrown away. So far we have visited Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Occidental and Santa Clara. We are visiting Trinity University, Rice and Colorado College over the summer.</p>
<p>sorry if this is a double post. Crewguy1 - Welcome. I know you said nothing on east coast but I am pretty sure a co-workers S is majoring in East Asian Studies at Tufts.</p>
<p>My son said James Madison was too big (about 18,000) but didn’t bat an eyelash when we visited Penn State (40,000) ! </p>
<p>We’ve really found out that it’s all about the program with my son and the visits are critical. What appealed to him so much about PSU was their IST program. At James Madison, all he saw were buildings and a campus divided by a highway.</p>