<p>Kathiep - DS is doing the Oct SAT1 and Nov subject test. Shoot me now. I’m tired and we’re not even out of the gate yet. These are each to bring up a score that is good but could be more competitive for his first choice. It is a wasted effort if child unit doesn’t study. :@
Another school was added, which is not unreasonable as he now totals 4. It is a school he visited and liked, however didn’t think the $$ was there for oos kids. He found a scholarship that may make it a financial viability. Long shot, but he wants to try. Academically it is not a reach, nor his first choice, but an excellent school for his major.
I’m in a time out today aka off duty.</p>
<p>ShawD started school today. Well, yesterday was registration for classes and then she went out to dinner with her best friend and her mother and father and her mother’s college boyfriend and wife. She was out late and we had an abrupt/grumpy morning. Ah well. Turns out that the wife went to one of ShawD’s two top schools and lives 3 hours away and volunteered to drive to the airport and pick ShawD up and take her to school if she comes to visit again. The alums really love the school.</p>
<p>We’ve learned that Canadian schools only use percentage grades (e.g., 75% or 85%) and not letter grades. A number are somewhat mechanical. Everyone above a 75% gets in or above a 95% gets a scholarship. The problem with this is that kids from an American high school gets a letter grade and the question is how they do the conversion from the letter grade to the numerical grade. I suggested to ShawD’s guidance counselor that they prepare a conversion table showing a range of percentage grades corresponding with each letter grade. I got back an email saying that the school has a few kids each year applying to Canadian universities, that some get in, that no university has asked for an altered transcript (which of course is not what I suggested), and that they would ask if they had any questions. This is a “trust us, we know what we are doing” blow-off response. The problem from my standpoint is that when we visited, we asked specifically admissions officers how their universities did the translation and as well what ShawD’s GPA would translate into. We actually didn’t get a clear answer to either question and at least one of the universities said they would look to the school for guidance. Last night I sent back an explanation of why the existing approach which is to treat Canadian schools as if they were the same as US schools might be the best (e.g., the translation table they use might not be appropriate for ShawD’s school). But, I’m expecting to get another response trying to blow me off – ShawD attends a fancy private HS where they believe that they do everything right and that parents should be quiet and dump money in when called upon. I’m not sure how far to push this.</p>
<p>The other good news: ShawD is preparing for September and maybe October ACTs. She had worked in July but taken a full scale practice and her scores dropped 2 to 6 points per section. blueigauna told me that this was not uncommon. Anyway, I got her to take another full scale dress rehearsal this weekend in a space without distractions. It’s long and tiring as she gets 50% extra time. She did better than she has ever done (28 English, 35 reading, 34 math, 33 or 34 science, and according to the person who scored it an estimated 10 on the writing out of 12 total – only the 28 was lower than her best in practice but she says it is because she hasn’t thought about grammar in a month). I think a 31 would be a big success for her relative to prior standardized test performances, so I hope this gives her a lot of confidence going into the 11th. With luck she can be one-and-done like her brother did.</p>
<p>kathiep-good luck to your S on his driving test. Here in MA the kids under 18 must take 40 hours of classroom instruction, 12 hours driving instruction, 6 hours observation and 40 hours of recorded driving time with parent. I was recording the parent driving time for S but stopped about a month ago becuase I felt he needed to be responsible for it. Needless to say he has not recorded one minute. </p>
<p>S is done with testing. SAT and ACT scores are good. It would probably benefit S to redo at least one subject test, but only one reach school wants them and to be honest I don’t think I want to add to the stress right now. </p>
<p>Shawbridge- we talked to S’s GC last spring about the process of applying to schools in England and Ireland. She kinds dismissed us and told us there are always kids who apply there and she would look up the details as needed. Didn’t give me a warm feeling, but ends up S isn’t applying there so matter is moot.</p>
<p>mamom - Our Driver’s ed requirements are similar - one semester of driver’s ed in the classroom for all sophomores and 50 hours recorded driving time with parents. The bonus 6 on-the-road driving with the instructors is optional, but it does get us a discount on our insurance with the added bonus of having someone familiar give the test.</p>
<p>Our schools don’t touch drivers ed anymore. When I heard that at first I wondered, “Then what will all the coaches teach?” (The answer is freshman Biology.)</p>
<p>Back when I was in school drivers ed and driving instruction was free. Now I don’t know any public schools who offer it in my area. And it is required for all drivers under the age of 18yo in MA so it is a shame the schools don’t offer it. There is a private school in our area who my S says offers it free of charge to it’s students and for a fee to outsiders. </p>
<p>At the rate he is going S will be 18 before he takes the test, but hopefully having taken drivers ed our insurance will not increase quite as much as it could.</p>
<p>Texas has a “parent taught” option for drivers ed, but in our view, it is certainly worth the money to have someone else do the teachng. My 14 year old took the classroom part of drivers ed this summer. I assume she’ll get her permit on her 15th birthday and her license on her 16th, just like her older sister.</p>
<p>My daughter is going for her drivers license this week. She had 36 hours of classroom instruction, 12 hours of in-car instruction (6 of driving, 6 of observation) and 50 hours of driving time with a parent. In Oregon, drivers ed is not required, but if the student does not take it, then the driving time with parent increases to 100 hours. However, the DMV doesn’t require proof of driving time, so I’m guessing a lot of students get by with much less. The student has to take a computerized rules-of-the-road test, and then on a different day, a behind-the-wheel test. She will take both this week.</p>
<p>It turns out, mamom, that, in Massachusetts, if you have nice cars, your insurance can sometimes be meaningfully less expensive if you buy a beater car for your son and have that designated as the car on which he will be the primary driver than if you have him insured only on your nice cars. He isn’t prevented from driving the nice cars. I’ve never quite understood this, but I am pretty sure it was true in our case.</p>
<p>Shawbridge- thanks for the tip. We did plan on getting him a cheap/safe car unless he takes so long to get his license that he would be leaving for college soon after. I will check with our insurance company.</p>
<p>When you are considering even ‘clunkers’, call your insurance co to check rates. They vary widely depending on year, make, & model. We were amazed at the range of rates in cars that seemed to be in the same class, and certainly in the same price range… all over 100k+ miles. It was a difference of $600/year.</p>
<p>^thanks. As we bump up against college, every dollar counts.</p>
<p>I hear you! When we considered we HOPE the ‘clunker’ will last at least 5 years, that added $3k to the price. We couldn’t justify that! We found a great used Volvo…basic, but safe. It took patience, but was worth the search.</p>
<p>Hello parents! Just found this site and as you know it is a wealth of info.
We are in a little different situation than most as we are American citizens currently living in Germany.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter originally went to a public magnet school and now is at an International Baccalaureate program. Of course the first school did a % based grading and the current one does the IB grading (1-7 with 7 being the highest) so we have no idea what her GPA is on a 4 point scale.</p>
<p>We previously lived in NJ and we did some college visits over spring break:
U Penn, Cornell, SUNY Binghamton (my suggestion, good value!), U Mass Amherst, U Conn, NYU, Princeton and Rutgers.</p>
<p>Her SAT is 2150 and ACT is 33 and she wants to major in Math.</p>
<p>I did encourage her to work on her essay over the summer but she was at a Math Program and worked on her Extended Essay for the IB program. She has a good essay topic: Suddenly moving to Germany in the middle of sophmore year. :-)</p>
<p>Welcome bopper! I’ve always wanted to visit Germany… <em>hands a cookie to bopper</em></p>
<p>Good Luck to your son kathiep!</p>
<p>My S will not be driving until he is 17.5 years old. That is when he can get a permit without all the classes. CA schools are supposed to teach driver’s training and driver’s ed (it’s in the education code for the state) but many don’t. My S falls into that. Since we don’t need another driver, we don’t want the expense. It means he will not have a license when he heads off to college, but if our situation changes, he can take a license test his first break home. Otherwise he’ll have a permit for however long they allow. We had wanted to get him in classes and a license before he went to college, but things are not working the way we thought they would.</p>
<p>As an aside, my hubby started grad school yesterday - he’s working on a master’s in math. So next year we will have two in college full time…</p>
<p>Woo! One more college’s supplement has become available! One more to go!</p>
<p>Oh, it’s the little things I get excited about. ;)</p>
<p>Welcome, bopper! Now I’m curious why the sudden move to Germany. :)</p>
<p>AtomicGirl, congrats on the new piano! I’ll take a cookie while I listen to your son practice. Congrats to your husband on starting grad school.</p>
<p>momom, I know what you mean about the time that opens up when an activity gets dropped. D1 won’t be doing supplementary language class this year, which opens up two long evenings a week. It’s like when a meeting gets cancelled at work, and there’s an hour or two of free time that you weren’t expecting.</p>
<p>Early congrats to all those who are about to hatch new drivers. I love the convenience, even while I worry over the risk. We still need to work on freeway driving with her, but it always seems that the only times available are when it’s rush hour or nighttime. </p>
<p>Senior portrait proofs arrived. D1 is out of town with the spouse, but told me beforehand that I could open them. D2 and I independently agree on which two shots are contenders. School doesn’t start for two more weeks, which means that my kids will still be suffering while the rest of yours are rejoicing in being out on summer vacation and/or high school graduates. :)</p>
<p>AtomicGirl- if I could go back to school I would be doing what your husband is, getting a masters in math. And I may just do that once the kids are through college. I hope your H enjoys being a student again.</p>
<p>Welcome bopper!</p>
<p>Hi Bopper–
Welcome.</p>