<p>I can understand everyone feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the things that go into a senior year. It all hits at once.</p>
<p>Son '14 had an awesome day – won his district’s cross country title in a cold, steady rain. He knocked out an essay during an extra study block – it needs some work before he can ship it to another school. Got an invite to hear an admissions officer speak at his school. He’s not too keen on the college, but since the visit does not interfere with class time, we’re encouraging him to go just in case there is something that could interest him. Saturday, he has a benefit 5K to do – this is the third straight year he has done it, and mainly because the girls at a neighboring school who organize it were my husband’s former students. Son '14 has become good friends with them. Then, he gets a much needed break, and will be taking in a hockey game. Told him that on his off day for the Monday holiday he needs to polish his essay. He told me he plans to sleep.</p>
<p>re: sending ACT scores to his EA schools – if his Sept ACT still doesn’t have the writing component scored yet, do I send Sept ACT then the ACT people will update it when writing is available? Or it’s not in “send-ready” status yet?</p>
<p>I didn’t realize I could send scores before he hit submit. I thought they’d get lost or something.</p>
<p>I am in the same situation with the Sept. ACT. The scores will not get sent until the writing is available. I am now starting to stress over the writing score…I guess I need something to stress about…well besides the job offer…</p>
<p>I would just like to go to sleep and wake up when “it” is all over and done…</p>
<p>Well, I’m feeling a little out of place. D is actually having a “light” senior year so far. Apps are done and course loads are manageable. Activities and the job are pretty evenly distributed throughout the week. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop, I guess, because the band instructor has been after her to join jazz band again (they need a pianist), which would mean a 6:30 start to the day. She’ll add a 4th DE course second semester. While apps are done and acceptances received, it’ll be time for competitive scholarship interviews in Jan and Feb. So, is now just the calm before the real storm?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Teachers (and schools) don’t want to appear as if they’re not “teaching” and don’t want to appear to be “soft” on their students. More homework, to them, means more “learning.”</p></li>
<li><p>Teachers think “Others do it (assign lots of homework) therefore I have to do it.”</p></li>
<li><p>Competition. Teachers (and schools) can “boast” home much homework they assign. (I have actually heard a few teachers say this.)</p></li>
<li><p>Self importance. Teachers (and schools) do not take into consideration (though they say they do) the time commitments necessary by all the other self-important teachers. The teachers feel “this is my class and that is the most important thing going on in your child’s life.”</p></li>
<li><p>Momentum and snowball effect. This is the way it’s always been so it must be right. Plus it gradually increases and gets worse each year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>GolfFather—I think, at least for the AP courses, that if the teachers do not assign a great deal of work, the class will not be able to get through the material before the May exam date. I can’t recall if I read it or heard it from a Bio teacher, but the # of pages covered in the AP textbook had almost doubled in the thirty years the teacher had been teaching AP Bio.We had had long power outages in CT these past few years, plus winter three years ago was horrible with endless snow closings, delayed openings and early dismissal. The AP teachers just had to plow through with the material b/c unlike the final exam, the AP exam dates were not adjusted, even though the school lost six instruction days. </p>
<p>Now, I think taking all these AP courses in HS is crazy and wish they would all go away. There is a segment of the population who should be taking AP courses and the rest are just killing themselves to stay on the treadmill created by the college admissions race.</p>
<p>BlueIguana–thank you for the link to the UVa blog post. Reading that prompted me to finally call the CB to clarify the fees associated with rush reporting. I also confirmed what I suspected, which is that sending scores from one SAT I testing date results in all three sub scores being sent but that individual SAT II scores from same test date can be suppressed. I also hadn’t realized that the free score report allowed student to send older scores along with current scores. Fearing that the Oct 5th scores may not represent an improvement on last Dec’s scores, we will be waiting for Oct 24th and paying the rush fee!</p>
<p>On the homework question, the federal definition of one “credit hour” in college includes two hours of work outside of class per week for a semester. So if you spread a standard four credit hour college class over a year in high school, you’d expect four hours of homework a week per class. A student taking five or six AP or IB classes probably ought to be expecting twenty or more hours of homework a week, or about three hours a day.</p>
<p>CT1417, my D15’s AP Bio teacher said that to get through the book the kids would have to cover 5 pages every day from the beginning of school until the AP test, including weekends and holidays. </p>
<p>Contrast that with D14’s schedule which, despite looking quite challenging on paper, is requiring a lot less homework than she had previous years. Not a bad thing for a senior.</p>
<p>Barnardmom-- My daughter is on the same trajectory as your son. If there’s a spare hour in the day, she will find a way to fill it. I think she’s a little nuts, but she seems happy and her grades are good, just worried about burn out. </p>
<p>She currently has 5 AP classes, Constitution Team, a lead role in the school play (which means practice after school every day), is now on Homecoming court and still has to manage her EC’s. Her common app is not yet ready – still going over the essay with her English teacher and she’s applying ED to her dream school. November 1 rapidly approaches!</p>
<p>FAFSA becomes available January 1. Some colleges ask you to estimate information for EA/ED and then finalize info with FAFSA and tax returns. Also, some schools have additional FA forms such as the CSS Profile, etc. You should check with your student’s individual college to confirm FA requirements.</p>
<p>I agree with ProfDad on the homework question in relationship to a college workload. Remember AP classes are supposed to be the equivalent of a college course. </p>
<p>As an AP teacher, college board gives me guidelines that I should assign about 5 hrs. of homework per week for my class. For some classes, like APWH, you’d be hard pressed to cover the needed material with less homework. For my classes, the breadth isn’t as wide, but you’re trying to develop a level of facility with the material so the student doesn’t have to figure out every question, they just know how to do most of them and that only comes through (extensive) practice.<br>
On the other hand, students in my “general” chemistry class should be able to get by with about an hour and a half per week. Most of them have not previously been exposed to the concepts. So If I present the concept in class, they need to practice with them to “fix” them in their minds.</p>
<p>I think kids who purport to have academics as their primary focus may have to make some tough choices and not do that extra resume building activity if they are sincere. Most academically minded students are over scheduled. Full Stop.</p>
<p>Also its not actually self importance as GolfFather suggests, but it can be self preservation. Increasingly teachers are evaluated on the performance of their students on tests (both state standardized and AP). It can mean the difference of job security to ensure students do well; so teachers for whom this might be an issue are going to push.</p>
<p>Quagmiro, thanks for providing teacher’s perspective. I have wondered about this might be the case. </p>
<p>Your statement: “I think kids who purport to have academics as their primary focus may have to make some tough choices and not do that extra resume building activity if they are sincere. Most academically minded students are over scheduled. Full Stop.” </p>
<p>I don’t disagree and often wanted to reduce my DS’ extra curricular activities. However, we are all being told that the EC’s are what make the kids stand out to the top colleges. It’s tough!</p>
<p>Sorry for brain warp so early this morning. I realize now the discussion on sending scores was the ACTs not SATs. </p>
<p>S3 is in the home stretch of application hades. Eight down, three more to go. Only two have the 11/1 deadline, but I think the plan is to be done before then. One set of LORs has been sent, the second being picked up on Friday. I will rest easier when the application portals start to reflect something more then scores arriving, with LORs and GC/transcript still outstanding. All of that is out of S3’s hands, with the exception of a gentle reminder in a week if he doesn’t see any checkboxes moving. He’s been in close contact with his GC early on, so I know she’s aware of early deadlines.</p>
<p>S3 is experiencing hw volume described by many here, but managing much better then last year. I don’t know if it’s a boy maturing/being a Sr., better organization, or courses just better suited to his abilities. He is far better at staying after to see teachers immediately if he’s unsure about a concept. He knows each and every grade and why he missed points on something. Last year he seemed so overwhelmed, like a dear in the headlights. If he didn’t show the type of skills and maturity we are seeing, and hope continues to improve this year, we were really worried about how he was going to handle the demands of college. </p>
<p>He is working about 12-14hrs/week, but he asked for his hours to be shifted to one weeknight and the weekend so his weeknights weren’t interrupted. His main EC is very light for Srs traditionally in the fall which is a blessing, giving him the time to focus on finishing the apps and his coursework. Winter/spring will be a much different animal. Hopefully a couple of EA options will take the stress off. There is much camaraderie with teammates, many having been there all four years, as is the case for many of the kids on this board. The ‘last hurrah’ their Sr. year is always a great experience for them. His older brother was waiting on one acceptance (his first choice) until late march, actually getting the decision in the middle of a competition on his dad’s iPad. It added a underlying stress to the season. I hope S3 has made a decision prior to that, but there is absolutely know way to know how this will play out. His admissions and merit will be very unpredictable (thus the number of schools), and there is no way to know how this will shake out, none. I don’t even try to put together scenarios of which he would pick “if…”. There are just too many variables and my brain hurts. The goal is to have a few options he’s happy with that are financially doable. Hopefully this list will afford him that.</p>
<p>A chuckle for the day…
His CApp had gone to three schools. He had proofed it, I had proofed it, Dad had done the once over. A few days later I grabbed the hard copy of the CA. I then got to his job description which read in part “assists costumers”. I am still laughing days later (he is not). It’s been fixed so the rest of the CApp schools will see that he in fact “assists customers”. Hopefully the first three will either give him a break, laugh as I did, but not ding him. I’m certainly not loosing any sleep over it (and I’m a serious worry wart).</p>
<p>Any parents on this forum have 2014 grads that are planning to major in Music Performance? I am learning that this adds a whole lot of activity to the college app process. Apply to the school, then supplemental application to the music schools. On site audition dates fall between December and March. So I’d think we need to limit the schools he is applying to - but the Music Major forum folks say to apply to as many as you can physically manage. Have to get accepted to both, and apparently the audition is everything. ARRRGGGH!</p>
<p>blueiguana – that’s funny – but at least it was a word (costumers) that could make sense (if he was a stage hand, or worked at a Halloween store). I saw that S had emailed an adcom saying he “defiantly” wanted to go there. Sometimes, you just gotta pray…</p>