Parents of the HS Class of 2013

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
6601

<p>Ama308 - the scores between the 25% and 75% are the middle 50%. meaning 50% scored between those 2 scores. That’s what most people are referring to when they say “scored in the 50%”. I have seen schools state the average score and the median score but most don’t.</p>

<p>I’m meeting with my son’s counselor at school today for the first time. Naviance hasn’t been much help in finding schools for him since no one so far has a similar score/gpa profile. So I’m wondering what input, if any, she might have. I’m also going to ask about the best way to disclose my son’s disability. Should he write about it or is it best to have it discussed as part of the counslor LOR ?</p>

6602

<p>Thanks Ree…
Sometimes all this info is overwhelming and I get confused…</p>

<p>Good Luck at the GC office…I think he should write about it (disability) a Little and mention how he has overcome obstacles in his essay…and the GC can mention it too, but coming from him will mean more especially if he keeps it short and makes it positive :slight_smile: True character building points seem important to me :)</p>

6603

<p>Yesterday was my son’s last day as a junior. He is now officially a Senior and ended the year with a 4.0 gpa (unweighted) not sure what it is weighted…</p>

<p>Last night he played basketball with his best friend who is moving away today. My DS has has a rough 2 years. His previous school (where he went from 8-10th grades) shut down and fortunately his best friend went with him to the current school. He has made friends at his new school but nothing can replace his best friend…I anticipate a sad summer for him–but he’s a strong kid and I know he’ll bounce back…</p>

<p>As for me, summer break starts at 4:00 today :slight_smile: Last day of teaching for me till mid August!</p>

6604

<p>Mommaof5- my S14 was totally shocked when I said he was going to be joining D13 and me on a college visit over spring break. It was a safety school for her and a school he had casually mentioned in passing as interesting. He fell in love and bought out the book store in clothes. He’s been much more serious about school since we got back, which is good because he needs to buckle down. So even if your S isn’t interested I’d find a school you think he will really like and go. It may open his eyes to what awaits…
3greatboyz, my D didn’t want to do AP Spanish which is the fifth year here. I called her top school and asked if the four years she’s had were enough. They wanted it every year. I don’t know what schools your S is interested in but I’d say not taking math won’t be the best choice, regardless of how high he’s already gone in the discipline. Definitely call some schools he may choose and see what they say. A CC math class may be the answer.
The morning news is calling for hot, hot temps this weekend. As we do every year, we will spend Memorial Day on soccer fields in different states. Today my goal is to make S17 dig through his room and retrieve all shirts and jerseys. Wonder what a relaxing Memorial Day on the beach would be like? : )</p>

6605

<p>89Wahoo - I’ll let you know what a relaxing Memorial Day on the beach is like on Tuesday.</p>

<p>3greatboyz - when we visited Emory they wanted all major subjects taken all 4 years. I would check with the schools individually. </p>

<p>Today is our last day of school. S is working on his list. After this year of H*** which is what Junior Year of IB is called here S is thinking he doesn’t want to go to a school where he will have 4 years of major stress. He thought he had top choice and then friends told him he should go to a higher ranked school so he started looking at a few and getting excited. Now, he is back to thinking he doesn’t want to spend 4 years in a library with no outside life. Break out the booze I’m going to need it for this roller coaster ride.</p>

6606

<p>Reeinaz…I like the advice about encouraging our students to apply to rolling or EA very early in the Fall. Once they have a couple of acceptable acceptances they may well decide to pare down that reach list of RD and only apply to the ones they are really interested in attending. I am hopeful that having at least one solid IS acceptance and perhaps a moderately priced OOS private through EA will reduce the stress on all of us in November when the big guns come out. My son applied to art schools–few EA or EDs are available and as they are so expensive there was a lot of anxiety around merit aid. Nevertheless, having the one IS cheaper art school option by late November still helped my son reduce his final list.</p>

6607

<p>There are still a couple of weeks of school here (including finals week), but S’13 informed us this morning that Juniors are now allowed to leave classes at senior bells. I think that means he gets to leave early. He’s ready for the year to end.</p>

<p>We are going to the beach for an overnight on Sunday. Grouper sandwich and cold beer - Yum!</p>

6608

<p>Morning, iPeeps!</p>

<p>Got confirmation that ds is exempt from all his finals (except the two projects, which he already completed) so he is cooooooasting. Today, there was a wreck and a horrible backup so they were 15 minutes late getting to school. No biggie to ds, but the guy driving was not exempt and probably freaking out.</p>

<p>On those middle 50%s, make sure you discern whether they’re citing the admitted student numbers or the enrolled student numbers. The admitted numbers usually will be higher.</p>

<p>I think a rolling/EA admit is soooo important. Takes a lot of the pressure off.</p>

<p>terin, sorry about the friend moving. That happened to ds after eighth grade, but guess what? The kid moved back for junior and senior years, and they are great friends again. I hope your ds and his friend will stay in touch.</p>

<p>If ds is going to study for these last two Subject Tests I am going to have to press the issue. Wish I could find an old test online. Anyone have any ideas for USH or Latin?</p>

6609

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<p>That’s a great point. Is there anywhere that admitted student data is reported? college navigator uses enrolled students. I have that info from a few schools but only because we visited and the adcom reported it (and I don’t know if it’s even accurate)</p>

6610

<p>Youdon’t say- here are some sites DS used-</p>

<p><a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides;

<pre><code> SAT Subject Practice Section
</code></pre>

<p>The Sparknotes only have some of the Subject tests, but APUSH is included. The collegeboard doesn’t have full tests, but practice questions so you can see what the test will be like. </p>

<p>DS said the APUSH subject test was similar to Trivial Pursuit, they asked random detailed questions, whereas the AP test was more about general concepts, eras, etc. He read Crash Course for APUSH the night before the test, and he got a good score.</p>

<p>I am jealous of all the kids that are done, or just watching movies, etc. Congrats on having seniors. We still have 3 weeks to go and there is no rest for the weary. DS has a narrative essay due in AP Comp, a project in APUSH, another lab report in Honors Chem, and tons of work in that Christian Leadership class. He is reading A Prayer For Owen Meany for Comp, and keeps falling asleep, poor guy. No break on finals, either. I simply can’t wait for this school year to be over.</p>

6611

<p>Today is the last day of school for our two girls, D’13 and D’17 :slight_smile: It’s a good thing because they are pretty much done!</p>

<p>My3gr8boyz – I know of one girl in my D’13’s class who exhausted the match curriculum in their high school and took an online class through Stanford this (junior) year. Perhaps that is something your S could do?</p>

<p>D’13’s school does not rank…one reason is because colleges mentioned to the GCs that if the school did not rank their students they could offer more merit aid. The girls in D’13’s hs work very hard, and it’s totally possible for a student to have above a 3.5 gpa and be in the middle 50%. I’m glad they decided to stop ranking them since it can potentially provide more merit aid. They do have a val and sal, and the val this year had something like a 4.83 weighted gpa. </p>

<p>School start date in the fall: D’13 starts her senior year on 8/13, and graduation will probably be the third Saturday in May 2013. RARELY are they ever off for a snow day – no buses for them to worry about since the kids walk/drive/are driven to school…maybe two snow days in the last five years total, I think. Sometimes the schools will have a snow schedule, meaning a later start that still counts in the total number of school days required.</p>

<p>89wahoo – soccer! D’13 played 4th – 9th select, and stopped to spend more on school/music…actually says she misses it sometimes (social part, I think). Have you ever seen the “you know you’re a soccer family when…” list? Hilarious, but true :)</p>

<p>SO many posts I can’t keep up. This group has great parents – encouraging to their kids, but not tigers! Wanting them to be well-rounded as opposed to the val/sal and not having a social life! Trying to do what’s best for the kids, and warming up to the idea that sometimes what we want, or think what they need, isn’t always best for them.</p>

<p>Congrats for all the awards to the kids, and good health for asthma sufferers, concussions, and those trying to figure out what’s going on.</p>

<p>Hope everyone can relax a bit this Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to those who have served, and prayers to all!</p>

6612

<p>Terinzak- I feel for your S. IT is so hard when a friend moves away. </p>

<p>yes, yes, yes, to rolling admission. Take the pressure off early. Many of Ds schools are rolling admissions so we are hopeful to get this done early. </p>

<p>We have a weekend of entertaining, some school activities, and MUCH MUCH yard work and cleaning for the parties. Don’t post too much while I am out of touch.</p>

6613

<p>Thanks, wrld! He’s done the College Board stuff but not the SparkNotes.</p>

6614

<p>RobD: Thanks for the link! That is exactly what I was looking for.</p>

<p>89wahoo: I am so hoping you are right about the visits. We are planning them for July, after leadership camps are over (at least one of those is on a college campus) and before the football coach owns him!</p>

<p>3greatboyz: our state requires Math senior year.</p>

6615

<p>Speaking of rolling admissions, I just scheduled ds for an overnight that I pray he loves. It’s the one in-state uni that he’d consider, and he’s an auto admit. It was his brother’s safety, but we all fell in love with it, and it narrowly lost to the LAC that he now attends. We visited both that last week in April when a decision had to be made. Cross your fingers that ds2 likes it as much as ds1 did! </p>

<p>I think they do a great job with this overnight program. It’s two full days for the kids and a half-day for the parents.</p>

6616

<p>Another fan of rolling admissions. Even if you don’t really want to attend that school, there are plenty out there with free applications-but it’s better to have somewhere you WANT to attend. It’s interesting to watch the kids after they get that first acceptance and how much more calm things are senior year knowing they have at least ONE place to go.</p>

6617

<p>Good morning! Happy Friday! It has been a CRAZY week here! My work has been crazy busy, plus the tennis banquet Wednesday night, S3’s play tonight and tomorrow night (I am working the snack bar tonight and am donating cookies and actually going to the performance on Saturday night) and we are having a party for D1’s graduation Sunday afternoon. SO I am feeling STRESSED!</p>

<p>S3 on the other hand has had a relatively easy week. We had state testing all week so he was out at 1pm every day. With tennis over he didn’t have matches, although he did work out with the Cross Country a couple of days, and he only had drama practice one night this week (compared to every day the past two weeks). The SAT and ACT are looming but he does not seem to be stressed about that. Still a lot of school left, but since they only had real classes 2 days, they haven’t really done anything. </p>

<p>Rolling admissions. I am all for it! But I don’t think any of the schools on S3’s list have it. We will weigh ED/EA,SCEA although I don’t think he has a clear first choice school at this point.</p>

6618

<p>Tx, Congrats on your daughter’s upcoming graduation party. D1 graduated last week. My husband whispered to me that “we now have money again” at the graduation. D1 is independent financially so that is good all around. I will get to see her apartment this weekend.
D2 had to skip an banquet award last night due to some project at school. I hope work in these classes lighten up soon because the class is basically over. I wish she has sometime to review for the Physics test. Her teacher did not cover all the topics.
On the rolling admission/EA/ED front, D2 does not want to do ED anywhere. She likes one EA school that is OOS and accepts 50% of the students( so that has been a source of non-STRESS for me).</p>

6619

<p>DrGoogle: I am jealous that your D1 is financially independent! My D1 starts a 15 month program at the end of June at UCI where she will get her masters and her teaching credential. So after spending the last 4 years in San Diego, she is moving back in with us to attend UCI and student teach. Everyone keeps telling us that math teachers get jobs, so hopefully by fall '13 she will be financially independent!</p>

6620

<p>Too many pages to catch up on such little sleep.</p>

<p>TX5: Congrats to you and your H on D1’s College Graduation. And hope the party is fabulous!!</p>

<p>DrGoogle: I’m with you!! Both kids are so burnt out right now. Now that the Srs are gone, I feel like they are just going through the motions just to get by. </p>

<p>Movies: Jr is watching “Gattica” for the 2nd time. 1st time was AP Bio, now it’s in Religion/Ethics. “Saving Private Ryan” ended on Weds in APUSH, so they are opting for “Forest Gump” for the rest of the year. Again, my tuition money at work…</p>

<p>We are having yucky weather here in the OC :frowning: Would love to be going somewhere this weekend, but D14 has practice and Sunday and Jr is still in training for his meet next weekend at UCLA.</p>

<p>Anyone have fabulous plans for this weekend so I can live vicariously through you???</p>