<p>CBG, ds is, via Questbridge.</p>
<p>Wow! The schedules that your children have are just wow!! </p>
<p>State testing is finally done here but S wasn’t at all concerned about it. He has some projects that are going to be due in the next couple of weeks but he isn’t at all concerned about them. Nor is he concerned about the SAT on Saturday. His track championship meet is next week. He is concerned about that :)</p>
<p>His advisor is going to work a study hall into his schedule next year since he isn’t taking a language. She agreed that his schedule seemed a bit tough and surprising for a kid who hasn’t really shown much interest in science up to this point. Out of 7 classes, 5 are STEM. Next year is going to be pretty interesting I think.</p>
<p>ACT scores all look great!</p>
<p>I’m a HUGE 5C fan, but as GPA is down this year it is looking like Pomona & Pitzer are pipe dreams. </p>
<p>Son here is losing confidence as AP and SAT subject time is getting closer. Not just test taking confidence, but overall on his strength as an applicant. </p>
<p>I don’t see him studying. Wish he’d just pour some of that energy worrying into actually studying.</p>
<p>I may be doing a 180 this summer in a scramble to visit schools in a lower class tier. Wish the airfares would drop. Although, with his changes maybe he’ll change the geography and stay closer to home :). Roanoke has gained a lot of traction in the last two weeks. Not sure what spurred it initially, but I offered to pick up the ball and research it more for him. It seems like a good social fit, but I’m concerned he’ll grow out of it (both academically and socially) before 4 years is done. </p>
<p>My son’s biggest LD relates to writing. He simply cannot easily crank out essays and papers. Guess what his AP Lang teacher assigned? Yup, a 7 page paper due BEFORE the AP Test. Are you kidding me?!</p>
<p>RobD – Spreadsheet - You may want to add when FA forms are due and what type (Profile, FAFSA, school specific). Also a column if they accept Common App.</p>
<p>Longhaul, not sure whether this will help with confidence, but it was an unexpected boost to ds. Before we met with the GC, I updated his resume. Does your ds have a resume pulled together yet? Ds’s has been a work in progress since freshman year. Every time something new happens, he or I update it (sometimes sloppily) and then we clean it up before he needs it. When he got home from school Monday, I showed him the cleaned-up version that we’d use in his mtg with the GC and he said, “Wow, I look like a baller!” Lol, and so modest, too. 
I think sometimes kids don’t realize all that they’ve accomplished until it’s put right in front of them. And he had some suggestions for changes/tweaking. Would this help your ds?</p>
<p>And if you haven’t started a resume/activities list, that’s something you can do now while waiting for all the piece to come together this spring/summer.</p>
<p>Vandy, My D and yours should get together and meltdown together. We are in NOVA and here the AP tests are required if you want the weighted credit- which of course the kids want. I’ve told both mine (D13 and S14) to take them and do their best, but not to stress too much over them. D can not handle any more stress (although she is ignoring me and freaking anyway) and S has never stressed over anything in his life. What’s driving me mad is that these teachers are not backing off the “regular” work. Now, granted both kids are in season in sports and obviously that’s their choice, but they are home by 5 unless its game night, and D is never, ever in bed before midnight. She has not cracked an AP study guide. She is in an SAT prep class and were it not for that I guarantee she would not be preparing for that either. It just seems like during the weeks leading up to these tests, homework would consist of review guides/ old tests/ essay prompts that they open just before writing them, etc. While I’m on my tangent, does anyone else mourn the loss of vocabulary in the schools? I’m constantly struck by words the kids do not know- words we use!!- and I keep thinking what a difference it would make for them if they had vocab in English every week. They go from spelling tests in elementary school to nothing in middle and high school. Just think what would happen if every English class gave a list of ten words a week for them to know and spell. Six years of that would give them much better language skills. Anyway, I hope all of our kids, and we parents as well, manage to get through the next six weeks or so!!</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay - wish we would have taken the time to return the QB info. Son is at a title IX school that has about 90% of the students on free lunch. I honestly didn’t think we would qualify since we are at the high end of the salary range. </p>
<p>When S was a freshman I printed out the Common App and every time something happens I add it on to the activites / awards/ etc. Funny thing is S doesn’t thing a lot of the things are anything special. The state had a leadership conference for high schoolers when all the bullying in schools first started getting lots of media attention. He was one of 3 chosen to go. Or the special invite from a med school to spend a day with med students where only a couple of students were invited. I think these are big things but he thinks being invited into 5 honor societies + NHS is more important. I have no idea what admission counselors would like to see.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking over the threads of some of the schools son will apply and the truth is S is just a good student, good all around kid but has nothing special to note. No sports to speak of. Lots of computer stuff including building websites but nothing that he plans to study in college.</p>
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<p>30 page paper from Euro ! Found out about it by visiting his fb page, where he stated he will probably start it after the test 
Back from DECA tonight…</p>
<p>89Wahoo - S has vocab every week. I believe it is 20 words and she switches up the type of tests so they have to really know the word. Don’t know if this is just an IB thing or is school wide but I know that there has been a time or two where S studied the wrong list.</p>
<p>CBG- Seriously? I’m sure he hates it but it has got to help.
Longhaul- a 30 page Euro paper before the AP exam? Why don’t they save these things for AFTER? What are they going to do once the tests are over- watch movies and have parties for a few weeks?</p>
<p>That 30 page Euro paper is here
Teacher considers this review…my kid also goes to bed at 2-3 in the morning sometimes. This is sick, but what do you do…</p>
<p>CBG, you are so right. It’s the things that not everyone is doing that will stand out. If a kid has good grades, then, yeah, he/she will be in NHS. That’s a no-brainer. But the leadership conference is something only three kids, not 300 kids, in his HS are doing.</p>
<p>Those of you whose schools make you take the test of get the weighted GPA: Does it matter how well the kids do? In other words, could you get a 1 on the test and still get the bump?</p>
<p>I’m also surprised sometimes by the words my kids don’t know. In sophomore English, there was vocab, but I don’t think there has been in junior year.</p>
<p>89wahoo, my son’s English teachers all give vocabulary lists and quizzes on words from whatever book they’re currently reading. </p>
<p>YDS, that’s a great idea about the resume. I haven’t updated my son’s since his summer program applications last year. I remember how proud he was seeing everything in one place like that. I had a report card conference today and his advisor mentioned that when the teachers write LORs, they look at the student’s resume in Naviance. So make sure you keep that one up to date also. </p>
<p>CBGMass, I don’t think it matter that much if a student’s activities relate to what they <em>think</em> they will study in college.</p>
<p>After reading the last few pages, I’ve come to the conclusion that all of our kids are overworked. I mean, I don’t know when most of you graduated HS, but seriously, I got into an absolutely top-tier school and all I did (basically) was 1. Service club 2. 2 AP classes (total) 3. Varsity Volleyball (in the Fall) - we lost nearly every game all 4 years I played. Had a decent GPA and decent test scores. Got in everywhere I applied and really didn’t stress about anything whatsoever. </p>
<p>What is going on with kids today is nonsense! </p>
<p>CBG - About Early Decision. That’s a bone of contention in our house these days. H and Step-D think that it might be a good idea to go this route, but since Step-D changes her mind frequently about which school is in her top position (and also her “must-have” criteria) I am more timid about suggesting that she go this route. We’ll see where she is after our ‘summer college tour,’ etc, etc.</p>
<p>I didn’t know there was a way to put the resume on Naviance! Better check that out …</p>
<p>And I agree that something that isn’t just right in line with their area of study is great. What’s more memorable – the CS major who had a CS internship, or the CS major who was Kenickie in the musical? I think it’s always good to have something on there that’s “against type.” JMHO.</p>
<p>ETA: Cross-posted with Lauren … The only time ds is up until 10:30 is because I’ve let him stay up to watch a rerun of The Office. 
I think a full night’s sleep and regular exercise is what keeps him healthy and able to do all that he wants to do.</p>
<p>Laurendog: AMEN!!! It’s sad when you have to negotiate with your teenagers to go to bed on a week night BEFORE 1am 
Then they are back up at 6am to start the whole cycle over again.</p>
<p>Early Decision: Are any of your kids thinking about applying SCEA??</p>
<p>YDS- here, at least, it does not matter what you get on the test. You just have to show up and take it to get the “weighted” grade. Frankly, its silly not to take it if you’ve been in the class all year anyway, but I wish since the expectation that the kids will sit for the exam, they could be given time to study!</p>
<p>MommyDearest13–That was a great list of automatic merit scholarships! It was very helpful. Would you consider posting your list under the Financial Aid forum? You might get updates from more people, some of which have children older than 2013 high school grads so would never read this forum.</p>
<p>For a while, I continued a post someone else had started on Merit Aid Percentages from the Common Data Sets and got lots of good feedback.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree that something is wrong with the way some teenagers have to work .
I know that mine is overworked by his own choice - nobody is making him do the things he is doing. Going to sleep at 10:30 every night is not going to happen here - sometimes he gets back home at 8-9 P.M. (commute takes an hour).</p>
<p>Lots of topics today!</p>
<p>COMMON APP - Ohio State has also moved to the common app for next year. S is still not sure if hell be applying since they arent known for giving much $$$ to instate kids. He has a least one other on his list that uses it, so hell be doing it either way. </p>
<p>SCHOLARSHIP money running out . . . we were at a U-Michigan program where they explained their process. They said apply as early as possible because your application will go through scholarship committee more times. If you get passed up in October, you still have a shot in Nov, Dec, Jan, but if you dont apply until Dec, you only get one shot. Not sure if most schools do it this way, but S will be applying early to all schools just in case!</p>
<p>AP STUDYING - S has little confidence in his AP Physics teacher, so hes been working on his own on that one; on the other hand, I think he has too much confidence in his AP Euro teacher, so hes doing nothing outside of class for that. AP Art study sessions are happening daily, so he feels good about that. He only has the three the most a junior can take and hes the only one in his class doing three. Only 9 APs offered in all. Test are required, and WE have to pay for each.</p>
<p>ED no can do! Financials are too important here. If S had a clear cut frontrunner and we could pay full freight , Id urge him to do it. I suppose we still could win megamillions in the next year - better start buying tickets!</p>
<p>VOCABULARY - Sometimes Im so surprised by the words my S13 does know, then I cant believe the words he doesnt know. My son said they did a lot of weighty words in middle school GT English, but nothing in 9th or 10th. This year, his English teacher is also doing the vocab quizzes based on the reading. I only wish they would have done it earlier to prep for the PSAT. My guess is that they were too busy cramming in all the basic stuff for state graduation test - what a waste. :(</p>
<p>Schokolade most of those schools came from the guaranteed merit thread - its kinds of lost its way though as many people dont seem to understand the different between financial aid and merit aid, and or guaranteed merit scholarships and competitive merit scholarships - I kind of figured more of the same would happen. Feel free to copy/paste and post it there though!</p>