<p>Congratulations on S’s A, momreads. In true od2 style, od2’s lowest grades this quarter are in English (her least favorite subject, and incidentally, what I do for a living), and home ec (culinary arts). That one always makes me laugh, especially when I hear somebody say kid X “home-eced his way to a high GPA”. Apparantly, home ec is challenging for od2. </p>
<p>Winter activites are beginning. Od2’s got cheer and jazz band. Oh, and she got a job teaching tumbling at a dance studio (she’s a former optional level gymnast). So, no time, really, for early bird track practices, which the district can’t make mandatory anyway as it would violate the state rules about length of seasons. Right now it’s not too bad, but we’ll see how things get when jazz band starts competing and she has games to cheer at.</p>
<p>First time posting on CC, so bear with me! I have a 14 year old daughter, great student (honors classes and 4.0), motivated, wants to go to school out of state. I’ve been sifting through previous threads and would love to know where to focus–since she’s focusing on school and extracurriculars.</p>
<p>As a freshman, she’s doing just what she should. Getting solid academics and becoming involved at school.</p>
<p>It helped us a great deal with two older students to make a ‘master schedule’ for possible courses through the 12th grade starting in their freshman year. There was a lot of either/or slots, etc., and it was a very fluid document. However what it did ensure was to make sure if they wanted to take a class as a Sr., they had all the pre-req’s. Make sure you don’t end up Sr. year thinking…crud, we’ve got to stick a fine arts credit in here somewhere, but where? Pre-planning makes setting up classes for the following year so much easier when they meet with the GC. The GC generally will have a few minutes and unless the student really speaks up there are a set number of paths that are recommended and the kids placed in. There ARE other options and you may or may not want to take classes this way, but it’s best to look ahead of time. Also, when looking at colleges we could easily identify schools that wanted more years of a foreign language, so one son made room for that.</p>
<p>She may also want to think about something to do for the summer. I’m not against big programs for the summer, but I don’t think they are necessary for every student, and certainly not every year. This might be a good summer to have a part-time job or volunteering. Not every minute needs to be productive, far from it. It’s easier to let them run ragged and be kids during the summer, when they have a set time allotted towards being productive in any number of ways.</p>
<p>Summer is also a great time to visit maybe a college campus or two, either locally or near where you vacation. It doesn’t have to be a specific school of interest, however an interesting campus is nice. Your student will get an idea of what a campus of 25k students vs. 5k students feels like, urban vs. rural. This will help them when they eventually start to visualize what type of learning environment they do want.</p>
<p>I’d have to agree with blueiguana about knowing the school’s course book. Know what’s available and what the prereqs are. But beyond that, my advice is don’t lose “now” as you strategize for the future. I’ve yet to know, firsthand, of a kid with reasonable stats (and i don’t mean reasonable by CC standards) who really wasn’t accepted anywhere.</p>
<p>First thing to focus on - which category are you in?</p>
<p>a) Can pay out of pocket for whatever school she chooses</p>
<p>b) Are financially needy so will qualify for significant need based aid wherever she chooses</p>
<p>c) Won’t qualify for need based aid, but can’t pay $40,000-$50,000 a year out of pocket, so will need to find merit aid</p>
<p>d) Will beg, borrow or steal if she gets into an Ivy</p>
<p>You don’t need to answer the question to us, but it is a very important first step. Do not ever let your child fall in love with a school that you or she can’t or won’t pay for. We are personally in category (c) so I looked for schools where my child’s stats would be above the 75th percentile, in order to qualify for merit aid.</p>
<p>Adding one more thing to missypie’s excellent post - even if your child’s stats will fall above the 75% range, you are not guaranteed merit aid. Some schools are not generous with merit and even students well above get little or nothing (personal experience here). There are threads on cc regarding merit aid and which schools are good or bad with merit.</p>
<p>Also, make sure your child has a financial safety that he/she really likes.</p>
<p>Certainly! After you determine what category you are in, then your research continues, but it narrows a bit. Some web sites are very helpful…some have calculators where you can put in stats and see what kind of aid would be offered. Others at least will tell you dollar amounts…there are some schools that cost $45,000 a year where the maximum merit aid they give to the tippy top students is $10,000…sorry, not enough for me. When a website talks about “generous awards of $2000 per year”, that says a lot (again, not enough for me.) Other web sites are terrible…they give you no idea of how much they give or what it takes to get it. Also, some out of state publics give in state tuition to students of neighboring states with certain test scores.</p>
<p>These are all very helpful tips. She has pretty much figured out her sophomore year – she’s taking as many required courses as possible so that once she figures out her “passion,” she’ll have room to take those classes. That said, the next two years will include a third year of a foreign language, chemistry and pre-calc. We definitely are not going to be able to afford a $40K-$50K/year school which is why merit money will be very important. I find that many of the other parents think I’m a bit crazy for thinking about this now but it seems like planning now is the path to least resistance. We joined a friend visiting from out of state of a local college tour which was a great eye-opener for my daughter. I just wonder how these kids clock so many volunteer hours with these full academic schedules!</p>
<p>pdx, there are thousands of colleges out there and you’ve got to eliminate most of them somehow. My own senior ruled out the entire south and that was fine with me. Does “out of state” have any further definition? By an ocean, in the mountains, urban, big football, where it’s warm, where it’s cold? If you can narrow it to less than 49 states and get some idea as to size, then you can just start reading threads and going on web sites to find the best schools that would give the most merit aid. (My own D’s ideal size was “more that 2000 and less than 20,000.” Yes, that’s a huge range, but it also ruled out lots of schools on both ends.)</p>
<p>pdxsuzanne, my son already has stated that he wants a big school with big-time sports. He’d be thrilled if the school had ice hockey, which is his favorite sport. But he knows that schools with big-time hockey programs often do not give much merit money. He does not want to graduate with a lot of debt. That little debt thing he got from his big brother, who has a NM scholarship with full tuition and honors housing (along with some other goodies) at his school. </p>
<p>There’s a lot of schools out there. Take your daughter to a college fair if you can and she’s willing. Sometimes a kid becomes a little more focused on what he or she wants when exposed to several schools. My oldest son went to a college fair while in eighth grade. He loved it. He learned about the schools, but he also found out what it would take for him to be successful and competitive in the admissions process. He set some of his academic goals because he got the chance to chat with some admissions reps. </p>
<p>With Son #2, it’s a little different. On the outside, he is not as academically driven as his brother was at the same age. That’s fine. He will find his path. Come to think of it, I think he already has taken a step in that direction. He came home last week and told me that he wanted to take physics and chemistry as a sophomore. After all, he told me, they are just more math classes – and that’s his favorite subject.</p>
<p>Good for your son momreads! If you can get your school to let him study physics as a sophomore more power to you!! In six years I’ve only seen one student do it at our school, and it was very under the radar. He was a great kid, very mature which I’m sure was part of the exception.</p>
<p>Our younger son hasn’t set out guidelines of what he wants/doesn’t want in a school and feels kind of lost by this. His older brother had very clear ideas that narrowed the choices down almost too much. I have assured him that the more normal student starts out NOT knowing they want to be a rocket scientist, with a great football team, medium sized, with merit money. I’ve promised great fun looking…I hope I can deliver :)</p>
<p>missypie, momreads and blueiguana (that felt very odd typing those names BTW), bless all of you! So much good information. I feel like we’re off to a good start. There was a college fair in Portland a couple of weeks ago that we attended and all of the college admissions directors were very positive about a freshmen checking things out without the stress of being a junior or senior. I don’t think she really knows whether she wants a large or small school at this point; her current school is only 650 students and is single-gender. Their science program is set up for physics, chemistry, biology and she’s currently doing physics. They test the kids in to make sure they have had enough math to be successful. I do think she is a “coastal” girl–the question is west or east. That said, she hasn’t traveled to the midwest so what does she really know?! Since she’s at an all-girl school, she knows that she does “want” boys for her college experience. I’m curious how aggressive all you were in getting scholarships outside of institutional-based merit offerings (with the exception of Nat’l Merit)…I’m a bit of a listmaker…</p>
<p>blueiguana: sometimes being in a tiny public HS (only 380 students grades 9-12) does have its advantages. In this case, there are several boys who have expressed an interest in bringing back physics (we do not offer it this year) for the coming year. The chem teacher is also certified in teaching physics. My older son wanted to take it as a sophomore but had a conflict with AP Euro and English. That’s the downside to a small school – only one unit of a particular class can be offered, and schedule problems do arise. My older son did take physics as a junior – during the same block he took Spanish IV (he literally ran between the two classes!)</p>
<p>pdxsuzanne: My older son pursued several scholarships while in HS. He does the same while in college – he’d like to have some money for grad school. He did not land any local scholarships. Rather, he got the national-type ones such as the Robert Byrd, Comcast and U.S. Youth Senate. He used those scholarships to pay for fees, books and board at college. Since I teach HS, I often help my students look for scholarships, and there are plenty out there.</p>
<p>pdxsuzanne - D got a very nice scholarship from the credit union. Also, check your/your husbands employer, some of them award scholarships. Your HS guidance office should have a list of local/regional scholarships, it is worth at least looking at them now so that you see what your child may qualify for when the time comes.</p>
<p>Momreads, is it realistic to get scholarship money as a freshman or sophomore in high school? FallGirl, I know my husband’s company does offer some scholarship money and thanks for the reminder!</p>
<p>A classmate of my D’s received a decent sized scholarship (several thousand dollars) from a pretty obscure source when she was in 8th grade. I’m not personally fond of the girl, but good for her or her parents for being up on things!</p>
<p>And just in case anyone has a son who is a scout and is wondering whether to stick it out for Eagle, there are schools that give scholarships to Eagle Scouts (ranging from $500 to $10,000+).</p>
<p>pdxsuzanne: It’s not unheard of a high school freshman or sophomore receiving scholarship money. There are some organizations that do offer scholarships to underclassmen. When she gets to her junior year, she will find more opportunities (for example, Discover Card has one for juniors). Among some of the groups you can look to for possible scholarships are banks or credit unions, electric coops (if you are a member), DAR, local hospitals and various retail places like Walmart, Target and Best Buy. Some of the Red Cross offices also offer scholarships for their region. Spend some time looking at the scholarship site at your daughter’s HS to see what is advertised. Also, do not be afraid to check out the same sites at other area schools. Sometimes, I’ll stumble on a scholarship that my guidance director has not heard about. He’ll post the information on his website.</p>
<p>Just checking again. Our one and only S who is a freshman at a small Christian HS seems to be doing great. Luckily academics comes easy to him, like sports does for some kids. He will likely finish this semester with all A+'s. His problem is that many of his friends don’t take school as seriously as we do and we often find ourselves involved in a conversation about why he is not allowed to “hang out after school at the mall like his friends” or why he is not allowed to spend countless hours on facebook or playing video games like many of his friends do. He thinks his parents are way too strict. We continue to encourage him that hard work now will pay off later as it did with the lives of his parents. Hope we are not alone in this battle…</p>
<p>Hello everyone. A friend recently told me about CC, and I found this forum today. Our oldest S14 is a high school freshman this year. He has always been interested in math and science. At this point he says he wants to study biomedical engineering and then go on to medical school. Do any of you have any older children that have studied biomedical engineering as an undergrad?</p>