<p>I think kids should do what they love in the summer. If they love competitive summer programs, great. If they love hanging around a working a summer job, also great. How many more years will they get the option?</p>
<p>Good question Igloo. Last summer DS was a “leader in training” at the camp he had gone to for 2 weeks every summer. We paid for him to be a junior councilor for a month. After LIT at camp, he worked many hours for the re-election campaign of our Congressman. He is still doing that now. </p>
<p>I think this summer will be family vacation, college visits and an internship or a job. He is applying to work in a lab at a local university through his AP Bio teacher. If he gets the internship, great! If not, he can work anywhere he finds a job. He was talking about getting his lifeguard certification so he might be able to work at the beach this summer. Well, those are our ideas anyway!</p>
<p>Iglooo-- D did a college summer program last summer-- 5 weeks. Most of the others there were rising seniors, and they did college visits, family vacations etc. the rest of the summer. This summer D wants to stay here, work and do local theater and I expect that will be fine-- I do think she’d like to get a lot of her college essay writing done by the time she goes back to school.</p>
<p>D10 did her normal 3 week summer program before senior year. We did give her dispensation from getting a summer job (other than intermittent babysitting) in exchange for serious SAT prep and application essay writing. We also did a few visits and interviews. The school year is so busy it is hard to find time for essays in senior fall so she was very glad to have gotten the ball rolling. Same plan for D12 this summer. Some fun, but some serious essay writing as well.</p>
<p>D1, when she wasn’t working her summer job, interviewed at a couple of colleges and worked on her Personal Statement. She took all of the standardized tests she needed – and could stand – before the end of her junior year so she didn’t have that hanging over her head senior year. And we went on a couple week-long vacations as a family for the last time.</p>
<p>This summer, D is again working as a camp counselor, but we are also going on our first trip to Europe! Older D will be doing her summer abroad in England (Shakespeare!) for college, so we are going to pick her up and then tour England, France and Italy. I am so excited!</p>
<p>D will be finishing a training program at a resident camp and then working there for the last session. Last summer she starting this training and then worked at a day camp other weeks. She has talked about looking for a job with higher pay (camp jobs are below minimum) but I think finishing the training and taking the bird-in-the-hand job is the best option.</p>
<p>We will get in remaining visits either before or after camp starts.</p>
<p>Glad that they can still have some fun next summer. I don’t know what my D’s plans are yet. I have my ideas but I am keeping them to myself. We are hoping to finish visiting schools before summer.</p>
<p>D will be working as a counselor at a writing camp for three weeks again in the summer. Her other plans will be showing her horse as much as possible to qualify for finals in the late summer and fall of next year.</p>
<p>Our family plans to visit London for 3 weeks. D may take an online course and will be playing in tournaments before that.</p>
<p>We are hoping that S will work, attend Boys State and take gov and econ in summer to free up time for other requirements. I am concerned that he won’t be able to find a job that will alow him the time off for Boys State, and he will need the money for gas. We are also planning to visit a few more schools in order to interview.</p>
<p>DS is taking the ACT tomorrow am. He is not into it. He is looking at the red book tonight but that is the extent of the prep. He says that the SAT is his preferred test. I wish he wouldn’t write off the ACT without having even tried it (5th grade really dosen’t count). </p>
<p>Summer plans are up in the air. Private college counselor suggested academic summer programs. DS would rather play xbox and swim. </p>
<p>Loving the kid on the couch (not the one we wish we had)!</p>
<p>Good luck to your son tomorrow, seiclan!</p>
<p>Next summer, DD is returning to her medical/research internship from this past summer for a few weeks, and is applying to pre-college programs at some art schools. I think they have to have rough drafts of their essays done by the start of school as well, but I haven’t been to that meeting yet.</p>
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<p>That’s funny. Mine said something similar when asked to do some practice with the red book. Now the SAT test is near, but the blue book is waiting to be opened.</p>
<p>What can we do with boys?! Good thing is, if fully rested and no worry about the outcome, the outcome will reflect what the kid’s learned. Good luck to your son.</p>
<p>Mine feels the same way about the SAT. He scored about the same on both, but would rather “eat glass” than memorize vocabulary words. If his PSAT scores end up in NMSF territory, I guess we will need to do a real prep class to get that verbal score up.</p>
<p>Nothing exciting here but joining this board. I have two we’ve sent on to college but have angst with this one. She has a dream of musical theater and its such a long shot. She knows she needs a list of academic schools and MT ones. She’s got the grades, shaky on the standardized tests and great EC’s. I will be glad when her applications are in.
I’m hoping she’ll take the tests first time in the spring, repeat early summer and add the SAT II’s. My other kids did better, much better on the ACT’s so I’m hoping its a trend.</p>
<p>Welcome fourkidsmom. As you have been through this twice, your insights will be greatly appreciated. As long as your D has non MT back-ups, she should be fine. Sometimes the hardest part is to get a child to focus on the details of a plan B without giving her the impression that you have no confidence in her (fill in the blank)(dancing, singing, acting, sport, etc.). It is a tough economy out there. Some degrees afford more realistic employment prospects than others. That is not to say that a college degree is all about earning potential, but . . .</p>
<p>seiclan - best wishes and positive vibes for that ACT!</p>
<p>Good thing I planned to drive him to the test this am (and not have him drive himself) because he ran late and we had trouble figuring out where to pull into the high school (we had never been to this one). I got him there just as the line was starting to move. I hope that he can do his best despite the lack of prep. I did make him eggs (brain food) this am (and he usually just eats cereal or a pop tart).</p>
<p>It did bug me that when I called the school yesterday, they told me that I just drop him off in front of the school…the front of the school was coned off (I couldn’t get there) and it took me a good 5 minutes to figure out how to get close enough to the school to drop him. Afterwards, I went looking and found the entrance to the “student parking lot” was not blocked off and that was how the other kids were getting in…SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT YESTERDAY ON THE PHONE.</p>
<p>I am planning to show up at the school with a book in hand at 1 pm but I believe that it will take him longer (since he was at the back of the line at 8 AM). He has his volunteering duties today at 3. The kid is going to be exhausted tonite.</p>
<p>I got D2’s SAT test location sorted out for Nov. She will be able to take the test locally instead of 6 hours away. Our other choice was to fly her back to the US or wait until Dec.</p>
<p>D2 just got her first quarter grades and they are her best ever. We are pleasantly surprised because she is taking the full IB program and we thought they would be harder than AP courses at her old school. There is something to be said about less competition. We were told that she doesn’t need to take AP tests because she is in IB. Anyone with a kid in IB, with any experience? But she won’t take her IB tests until end of her senior year, way after college result.</p>
<p>D2 has settled down with her clubs in school and her dancing. She is a photographer for the year book and newspaper, which helps her make friends as a new kid (who doesn’t want to have a picture in the year book).</p>
<p>D2 just announced to us that she would like to visit 4 schools(Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Williams) before end of junior year. As it is hard for us to visit those schools, I asked her what is the hurry (why not visit after acceptance). She said she wants know which of those schools she wants to ED at. Now, that was a surprise to us because I thought it was decided already (her older sister’s school). But I guess she has changed her mind. Now I need to get the map out to plan on how to visit those schools in a week. We probably will do it during her spring break. Not buying any plane tickets yet because she could change her mind again. I had no idea she was interested in those schools, other than maybe Brown.</p>