<p>Apollo6 - I didn’t know the back story on this! I didn’t know that you were his boss. Yuk.</p>
<p>I will definitely keep you updated PN… This school is amazing… If your 8th grader is interested you should pursue it. I have heard from SO many people who have had kids go here that it is a life changing experience. If one kid goes… they come home and rave about it and then it just goes on and on. Also, the colleges know all about it and most kids go on to Ivy league schools. I have seen the matriculation list from this school and it would astound you. Last year… 9 kids in Yale, 6 Brown, 5 Harvard, 5 Williams, etc… amazing</p>
<p>I also have started getting a ton of college spam (OSU, Marshall, U of Dayton to name a few). I was wondering how they got my email? Is this from the SAT or did DS put my email somewhere on the PSAT form? </p>
<p>DS had his xray yesterday and the finger is, in fact, broken. Will be splinted for the next 3 weeks but could stay swollen for quite a few months. Boys will be boys. </p>
<p>5Boys - that semester in Vermont sounds amazing. </p>
<p>DS informed me yesterday that he is not listening to me and is going to take 5 OR 6 AP’s next year (I advised dropping down to 4 to make for a more enjoyable senior year).</p>
<p>seiclan – I think the only response to that is, “On your head, so be it!” ;)</p>
<p>seiclan–at least he told you he wasn’t listening…I hope his finger heals quickly!</p>
<p>Seiclan you have to admit it’s admirable to want to take on such a schedule!! Now, may the force be with him. </p>
<p>It’s, well, snowing here. D is at school, and I’m supposed to take her to the dentist afterward…it’s a good distance and I’m not sure I dare. But when every other day is like this–oh dear. I should just be grateful they’re avoiding another snow day.</p>
<p>Seiclan - I’ll bet your son will do just fine! We’ve talked before about our sons being similar, and to be honest, with my S, it’s not the difficulty of the class that affects his grades as much as his interest level. Maybe your son just wants to go with what seems interesting. </p>
<p>My son signed up for next year’s classes yesterday. He’s doing 4 hard top level courses (mix of AP’s & non-Ap’s like Multivariable Calc), regular English (smart move I think), and then an independent study in math and also math assistant. All math all the time I guess. I’m not sure it will look very good to colleges, but I think he should really like his year next year, and I’m really happy about that. 4 out of 6 of his credits will be weighted.</p>
<p>" at least he TOLD you he wasn’t listening" LOL!! great laugh to start the day. </p>
<p>PN… My DS did the same thing… put MY email address down on the PSAT paperwork because he didn’t want all that “college” stuff on his email… GREAT!! Last I heard I already graduated a “few” years ago…</p>
<p>College email started here today too, college meeting with GC on Thursday, and–gulp-- we’re off. I’m excited about D’s courses for next year as they are all her top choices-- AP Art history and Psych, Music theory, Honors chorus, Shakespeare…and whatever science will fit among the choices. I’m thrilled she’s getting these electives that broaden out according to her interests, which otherwise are pretty narrowly focused on theater and music.</p>
<p>5boys, the Mountain School sounds amazing. In hindsight I wonder if it might not have been a good option for D2. We have a family friend who attended, loved it and ended up at UChicago. Sounds like your road trip was fabulous. I think UVM might be ideal for D, but it doesn’t fit her #1 criteria of warm weather. I may just drag her to visit it anyway - she does love Vermont.</p>
<p>seiclan - I know your S frustrates the heck out of you, but I love his self-confidence! </p>
<p>I had D2 set up a separate email account for all things college-related. And after months of wondering why she hadn’t received any college email (or snail mail for that matter), even though her PSAT score is in NMSF territory, the emails just started arriving yesterday. (oops, just went back and caught the comment that colleges just got the PSAT scores. now it all makes sense :))</p>
<p>Apollo - you have my sympathy. it drives me crazy to receive any kind of correspondence from school that has grammatical or spelling errors, and it happens all too frequently.</p>
<p>PN - the right colleges will love that your son is taking classes in which he is interested, those that do not appreciate that are not the right schools for him!</p>
<p>We started with a 3 hour school day, dismissal at 11AM, but within 10 minutes of the day we received a call that they were making it a 10AM dismissal for the middle and high school and no school for the elementary school. (They just turned the elementary school buses around and sent them back home.) They are desperately trying to keep snow days to 6, which we will reach tomorrow since this is a 2 day event, so we don’t need to lose any vacation days. Two hours count, we just don’t get paid for the 650 kids in the elementary school, oh well! Daughter is watching “The Man in the Iron Mask” on tv, not a bad choice.</p>
<p>We’ll see if DS even tells me he’s getting emails - I tried w/o success to get him to sign up for a separate email account for college stuff…</p>
<p>But he is reading his email - if you’ll indulge a mom brag. He emailed me today to share a note from his principal that he’s been selected for a summer fellowship for service projects. I encouraged him to go for it although the odds were tough - but he’s going! He proposed a trip to an aboriginal community in Canada to work with a literacy council (he’s really into linguistics). Now to figure out how he can come up with the rest of the $ (they didn’t fully fund it)…</p>
<p>PghMomof2, how fantastic! What a great experience applying for funding too (and the usual outcome of not being fully funded . . ) Congrats to him!</p>
<p>AFAICT, D is not getting any college email. Of course, she checked the “I don’t want any” box. Her choice!</p>
<p>The blizzard is causing some chaos here. Tomorrow is the first round of NACLO (Computational Linguistics competition) and it’s unclear that anything around here will be open, given that the weather predictions are for 2 <em>feet</em> of snow. Almost everything has been canceled, and D has figured out how to make tomorrow work for her. Now we just have the rest of the family to figure out. I need to hit the grocery store before it starts snowing again.</p>
<p>IJustDrive, DS is doing NACLO too - this will be his 4th year, and he really enjoys it, although he has yet to crack the next round (he came close last year). There’s a math whiz in his class who doesn’t really like languages that much who DID make it last year, much to DS’s dismay! (I’m hoping that is motivational this year…). Hope the weather doesn’t stop your D from being involved.</p>
<p>Hi to all 2012 parents. I have been lurking but not posting recently. I had my DD’s junior meeting last week. Her GC is so sweet, but I sat there realizing I know WAY more than she does about the scholarship/college application process. She even asked me where I found out about all these summer programs/scholarships and I had to point her to College Confidential. She had never heard of it. If it’s not on Fastweb.com she doesn’t know about it. Of course, I smiled and thanked her for all her help.</p>
<p>DD has 4 AP courses and one DC course next year. Counselor acknowledged that DD will certainly be NMSF next fall. Last year our school had 1 NM and this year they have none! My DD’s class has at least 4 that we know of, so our small district will go crazy with joy!!</p>
<p>DD is getting invited to one day “events” at several out of state colleges. It is nice to get the invite, but do they really think we can jet across the country to pop in for a one day visit, especially during the school year?</p>
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<p>thanks, amtc - that is our mantra pretty much about everything. Do it because it has intrinsic value to you, not because you think it may look good to colleges. But I can’t help but have a little bit of that concern rolling around in the back of my head. I just try to keep it subdued.</p>
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<p>We had two different kids hit and killed by school buses in dark inclement weather last year, so I don’t think our community would tolerate getting the kids to school for 2 hours if it seemed unwise - even if it does mean make up days at the end of the year. Both instances were just heartbreaking - one elementary school student hit by a bus in the school parking lot, and one high school kid hit by a bus on a dark winter morning and not noticed - he was still alive when someone found him half an hour later, but he didn’t make it. I think our superintendent will be calling late starts and closings off when questionable for a few years yet.</p>
<p>IJustDrive - my 1st son didn’t check the box for college info, so we didn’t get much with him (it seemed like a lot still found him though), but then I heard about colleges sending out free applications so I told S2 to go ahead and check the box - we can deal with the marketing stuff. </p>
<p>The AMC is next week, so I hope all of this bad weather settles down by then!</p>
<p>PghMom - congrats to your son! That sounds like it will be a really neat opportunity. Good luck with the funding!</p>
<p>Gwen - I wish S’s school had a Shakespeare class, I think he might really enjoy it.</p>
<p>Welcome, Debbie! What is a “DC” class? </p>
<p>Congrats to your D on her PSAT score! My son’s school has about 35+ NMF every year. It’s a really big school - about 4,400 kids. Too big if you ask me!</p>
<p>I also was wondering what a DC course was, maybe the second part of a AC class?<br>
Welcome Debbie!</p>
<p>Wow PN, 35+ NMF each year??? That is a competitive group to graduate with. I thought that our school (3200 kids, about 20 NMF each year) was tough.</p>
<p>Our state math competition was rescheduled from last week - now cancelled again due to snow. Same with the Certamen competition at Boston Latin. I wonder how many times they can reschedule these things before they give up.</p>
<p>seiclan - it is a competitive group. Thank goodness they don’t rank. </p>
<p>Gourmetmom - bummer on the cancellations!</p>