<p>^ Is there an iPhone app for that? ;)</p>
<p>PRJ, I am so behind the times. I saw my friend’s Droid phone (we have Verizon) and I suddenly felt like my blackberry was a '67 Chevy. DH says it still works so why change it. It’s my eyesight! If I don’t have my glasses, I can barely read the screen!</p>
<p>SAT questions of the day come in handy when waiting at the car wash or in restaurants, etc. We make it a game to see who can the get the right answers first.</p>
<p>You can easily increase the font on either of those phones to make it easier for parents to read. That might increase your SAT speed and get you to win a few more of those contests vs DD or DS.</p>
<p>Moved 2012 daughter into her new residential school yesterday. After meeting her teachers and more of the other students she is very excited to be there. I am very happy for her. It’s just the kind of experience I would have wanted when I was her age, but I’m missing her already. I wish I didn’t have to send her an hour away just for her to get a good public education. One small glitch in her schedule - they didn’t schedule her for Chinese - the class she was most anticipating. It turned out that it conflicted with AP Spanish. We met the Spanish teacher and decided Chinese was much more important. D was disappointed that the Spanish teacher was not a native speaker. D will try to audit a college Spanish class since her school in on a college campus. I hope she can get this all straightened out on her own. It’s hard to let go and let her take responsibility for her education. Fortunately, she forgot to pack her running shoes so I have an excuse to see her sometime soon.</p>
<p>glido, thanks for the font tip! I just won’t tell the others I may have an advantage now! </p>
<p>apollo6 - Glad to hear your D is excited about school. Separation is always difficult - more so for the parents sometimes 
She’ll have the advantage of being independent at an early age when it comes time to go away to college, too!</p>
<p>I am another mom from the 2010 thread that also has a 2012 D.</p>
<p>D2 is very different from D1 in her personality and as a student. The good thing about D2 is she is very focused now on what she wants to do for college which I believe will help her get through her junior year which will be a tough one for her. She always does well in class, but does not do the best on standardized tests. She is nervous about both the PSAT and SAT, but I keep encouraging her to not worry so much and to just keep practicing.</p>
<p>apollo6 - so glad to hear your D is excited about school. My H went to boarding school from the time he was 12 years old (in the UK) and loved it.</p>
<p>showmom, hope your D did well in Del Mar. </p>
<p>Your D2 sounds much like my D. Academically, she’s doing well and gets good grades but hasn’t tested well in PSAT or ACT. I have to believe that her scores will rise after this year when she’s taken most of her APs. This summer, she is focused on her sport which she hopes to continue playing in college at some level. She seems happily balanced right now -of course, it’s summer.</p>
<p>glido - DH thanks you for the tip on increasing the font size on my phone. I lost my only “excuse” for getting a Droid and you saved us some $ :)</p>
<p>PRJ, My daughter gets the daily SAT question on her iphone. Through email. There may be an app as well.</p>
<p>Apollo6, I agree with others. Your daughter will be ahead of other freshmen who didn’t have the experience to be away.</p>
<p>lilmom and glido - any more tips for saving money? </p>
<p>Researching cost of college has me rethinking every purchase! :(</p>
<p>does it matter on the SAT II math if you are in honors or regular? D2 who is highly ranked has not scored stellar on the sat II’s although she scored very well in 7th gradeon SAT I and PSAT. I know Georgetown requires SAT II’s.
My daughter was very eclectic in HS well though of, a genuine authentic kid. However she let her class rank drop and this had a huge impact on some very highly rank schools, she tried to take AP Calc although a “regular” math kid, and it was disaterous, dominoe effect. It is important to be realistic about your classes, if you are trying for tippy top, then keep in the top 10 percent at least and maintain a steady GPA. Schools will look at you if you are authentic, but still look for these things. IMO they missed out, but they had no way of knowing this. She is BTW extremely happy where she ended up.
PRJ sounds awesome. I love those kinds of kids!!!</p>
<p>D had her second two the last SAT class yesterday. She has her last one next weekend. She told me she feels better about how to approach the questions on the test after taking the class, but still feels she is slow at the math sections. I encouraged her to work on the math some each day during her final four weeks of summer break. She also still needs to read the first four chapters for APUSH before school begins.</p>
<p>She did not do as well as she had hoped at the horseshow over the weekend, but is excited for next week when the horse and her go to San Juan Capistrano for a big horseshow final they are qualified for.</p>
<p>I hope everyone is having a good start to their week so far.</p>
<p>My son has met with an SAT tutor twice a week during the summer and will then meet with him once a week until the October exams but, he really seems unmotivated. He does his SAT HW just before his tutor session and has not memorized the vocab that was assigned to him. He doesn’t do anything “extra” to prep. I think that the October exam will be a big wake up call here. </p>
<p>I have set up for us/son to meet with a private college planning person/service. I did not do this with my first two children. They listened and heeded my SAT/college application advice and were actively involved in the the process. My son and I seem to butt heads these days (on most issues) so I really need to take myself out of the equation completely (to preserve our relationship and my sanity). I hope that the college advisor can motivate him or at least make sure that the process goes as smoothly as possible. Hopefully, she can help him figure out what he wants and needs in a college (fit) and how to get him there. Our high school has only ONE college guidance counselor for the entire school (3200 kids). He, as a Junior this year, is assigned a new school guidance counselor who also is GC to about 800 other students (and does not deal with college, only HS issues). They will be no help to us. </p>
<p>I am not ready for the school year to begin in two weeks and, judging by the bookmark on his ap language novel assignment, neither is he. It is what it is.</p>
<p>Seiclan: Just his meeting with the tutor and doing the homework (just before he meets with tutor or not) wil be enough to give him some familiarity and a plan of attack on the SAT. What you don’t want is for him to go in cold. He is going to be fine.</p>
<p>Tomorrow is D2’s orientation day at her new school. She is excited. She is more worried about what she is going to wear than what courses she will be taking. Great to be 16.</p>
<p>We are off to CA for 4 days to visit schools and also to meet her private counselor in person. They have been skyping last few months. D2 is very keen in going to a school in CA. Geographically, it would make sense, but just not sure what school she could be going to (we would be OS and UCs are very expensive for what it is). I spoke to her today about Rice. She said, “Rice? What kind of school is that?” I have to laugh because she only knows of NE schools.</p>
<p>oldfort, my D wants to go to school OOS, too. The farther east, the better, she says. We live in CA. Your D2 can look at the UCs but there are the good private schools to consider. </p>
<p>My D isn’t interested in visiting the private in-state schools but we will anyway. She shouldn’t count any out just because they’re close to home.</p>
<p>Have fun in CA! The sun’s finally out and it’s warming up!</p>
<p>Oldfort, Have fun visiting colleges in CA. Let us know how it went.</p>
<p>Thanks Glido- I needed that .</p>
<p>Only 13 days until Junior year starts here. Then I will start counting down until June!!!</p>
<p>Is the atmosphere/feel at the colleges in the west much different than in the northeast and south? I was just wondering, since we have never looked at any. I really don’t want my son to go further than one time zone and within an hour’s drive to a major airport. He just is such a homebody type that I cannot see him too far (time and distance) without severe homesickness (but, I could be wrong).</p>
<p>oldfort, are you going to Claremont? Pitzer is high on D’s list - it meets her two current criteria: “crunchy” (what we might call “hippie” ;)) and in a warm climate. That fact that D1 is in Boston and we are in Ohio means the thought of D2 in California is not too appealing. But it is so early in the process, I am not going to worry yet. <=Hey, all you 2010 parents - is this where I would insert the cool dudes? We need our own mascot!</p>
<p>I was also going to suggest the Claremont colleges for oldfort’s D. I don’t remember what she wants to study.</p>