<p>We live within commuting distance to our flagship school (UMD College Park) where both boys ended up - S1 who got full ride graduated this year and now in grad school in CA and S2 got full tuition/fee scholarship (but not full ride). So, we can’t complaint. What made us stop and think twice about going private OOS was the fact, most likely, our kids will continue their education after college. We want to make sure our kids don’t start their adult life deep in red. As of today, they have no debt. </p>
<p>As for tests, yeah, D has 3 AP this year and finding time to study is becoming problematic. This past weekend, we were counting all the exams she will be taking between now to end of May next year… There are a lot of exams… APs, IBs, PSAT, SAT, SAT II, ACT…</p>
<p>Wow, maxwell - that’s a bummer about your school losing its spring break to make up snow days! We have a week plus the Friday before. We usually have a couple “flex days” built into the schedule every year, so if we use a snow day, then we go on a flex day. if no snow days are used, then the flex days are a day off. once those are used, make up days are tagged onto the end of the year. It’s a real shame not to have a spring break - I think the spring semester is tough on kids.</p>
<p>We’re doing college visits over spring break. I’m looking at it more like a fun road trip for the two of us - who knows if he would get enough money to go to any of these. Testing doesn’t really kick in for him until next year, but he is taking Math II June 1st.</p>
<p>I know my daughter has nights where she has a ton of work and other nights not so much-some weekends are bad others not as much-I think it is influenced by what is assigned and how she decides to work on it-I think if she procrastinates that is when she gets these really busy late nights.</p>
<p>It is also so much easier when she isn’t playing a school sport-I am not saying other EC’s aren’t time consuming but this time she has had off this winter has really helped he catch her breath.</p>
<p>She told me yesterday she wants to go to California-I am hoping this is just something she will outgrow-no offense to California at all but the expense of her going across the country and the logistics of it don’t seem like such a great idea to me. She can go ahead and look though-she also told me she will consider Boston and Washington DC-that isn’t much to work with. I think when all is said and done she will end up somewhere on the east coast south of us as she despises the cold.</p>
<p>I have not seen the movie The Race to Nowhere but I would really like to. It isn’t available on Netflix streaming and I don’t have the DVD plan.</p>
<p>Pepper - my oldest was absolutely set on finding a college in a cool big city like NYC, DC, or Boston. We looked at several schools and he applied to several. In the end, his decision was a no brainer based on a scholarship he got, but even without that he was weighing the schools based on the schools themselves. My approach was let him apply by all means, make sure he also applied to schools that were good fits no matter where they were, and make sure he was clear that in the end, he had to go somewhere he could afford.</p>
<p>We have a spring break at the end of March too and we’re still deciding what to do with it. We visited our girls in DC and Philly last year and might do the same again this year…but d2 is graduating in May so it would mean long two trips in a very short time. The alternative is to do some shorter road trips and maybe incorporate a college visit into these. The idea is to provide D with some sort of realistic sense of what college means and what it takes to get in. She has the idea right now that anyone with less than perfect grades, SATs, and extraordinary activities has no chance of admission to anywhere but an open enrollment community college. I’d like to take her to a several very different schools so she can see the breadth of offerings out there. These may not be schools she’d even want to attend, it’s just to get a sense of what’s out there.</p>
<p>We have a course choice meeting at D’s school tonight where the college counselors, teachers, and academic dean will present the options for rising juniors. I sure hope they do a better job than they do on their website where junior options for English are completely absent. D did tell me that several teachers have come to her math class hawking their classes. I thought that was pretty funny. </p>
<p>Pepper, I know exactly what you mean about sports eating time. My D is not doing crew this spring and it’s a world of difference for her (and for us). In my opinion, a lot of that time was wasted time and there was absolutely no reason they had to practice 6 days a week for 3 hours each time and then add regattas to that. I’ve also had some experience in having a kid attend college on the other coast and while it’s manageable, it’s not optimal, at least not for this family where we don’t plan as well as others. You really have to think carefully well in advance about school breaks and storage and parents’ weekends and you have to hope that there aren’t sudden changes to the schedule. I will say though that in terms of seeing my daughters, distance didn’t matter. D1 was less than an hour away and she might as well have been 30 hours away for the amount of contact we had. She was busily engaged in her own life and we only saw her on breaks. We actually saw D2 more when she was 3000 miles away.</p>
<p>Ooh I love snowdays too! We are looking at maybe getting one tomorrow - my girls are hoping anyway.</p>
<p>D’s schedule for next year has been approved, and now we just have to wait and see whether she can get all of the classes she wants. We won’t know until some time in May. </p>
<p>College fair tonight and D wants to go - YAY! Worried that it might be cancelled because of snow, though.</p>
<p>New York suburbs here. I am hearing anything from rain/snow mix to 6 inches north and east. They hesitate to use snow days because we missed 6 days from Sandy. We have a lot of delays and early dismissals, but a snow day would make us attend school when lots of kids would be attending or working at camp/summer job. My daughter completed her schedule and will get her classes. Guidance told her that " sometimes kids have to come back if things don’t work out." I was a bit confused by that comment but was told that he was talking about an elective that may not fit- not a main class. The end of the school year is easier for us because we have Regents exams which are not difficult for kids who are in honors. Most do well without studying at all. She will take two SAT 2s- Chem and English. Not sure she will study which is odd given her personality, but the truth is that she has been studying all year and knows the material. Did not study for bio sat last year and did well because she studied so hard all year. In the end it works out because they will all get in somewhere. As long as my kids are happy I can’t complain!!! My older one is in a great school. Regular classes, no SAT 2s, and happy…</p>
<p>I really dislike that term time is busy enough that D is counting on spring break to prep for AP exams, but she likes to be busy, so this is what happens. It is her choice.</p>
<p>Looks like we’ll have another snow day… We’re missing so many days. D. is worried about her APUSH class. It’s really behind. Chemistry is good this year. The teacher uses a new curriculum. At the beginning of the year it made everyone feel crazy. But now we see the good side of it - there are about two months to the exam. There is only one topic left to do.</p>
<p>Max – The chem teacher’s strategy is a good one. D took AP Bio last year, and they finished the entire AP Bio curriculum by April 1, which gave them the entire month of April to review. This teacher has enormous success, though it does mean that they go hot and heavy for the beginning of the year and have substantial work over all vacations.</p>
<p>IJD, yes. I remember last October my whole family was going nuts about the class because the teacher went a very strange route. I felt they moved too fast and D. didn’t have a good foundation. Now we start to appreciate this new curriculum. I feel chem is different from physics and math - in physics and math you can’t learn B without learning A. In chem sometimes you can learn Z without knowing B. The teacher said this was the first time she used this curriculum and the first time ever she would be able to finish everything before the exam and they actually will have time to do review.</p>
<p>History is a whole different story. They’re so behind in APUSH, it’s seriously worrisome.</p>
<p>maxwell, I worry a bit about my D’s APUSH class as well. I don’t know whether they are behind or not (I think they are on WWI), but they don’t seem to have much homework. I have no idea about her teacher’s success rate either. Hmmm.</p>
<p>We have a snow day here today - even my office is closed! We probably got 6-8 inches. It’s really beautiful. This is one of those times I wish I could post a picture here!</p>
<p>@Maxwell, There might be a common new AP chem curriculum that the teachers use this year, because my D’s chem made us feel the same way - at first it felt like it was all over the place, badly organized. Now everything seems to be falling into the space and they will have time to review. </p>
<p>suzy, Our place is supposed to get 18 in of snow!</p>
<p>I hope those of you who have them are enjoying your snow days!</p>
<p>H and I attended a parent course choice meeting at D’s school last night. We were dazzled and confused. There are so many choices! They range from the more traditional slate of APs to elective courses like “Entrepreneurship Engineering” and Bio Tech to history electives like “Ideology.” I have no idea how to counsel D. She’s a very strong humanities student who would love to take humanities electives but who recognizes that writing is a challenge for her and that she’ll be easily overwhelmed by her perfectionist and anxious tendencies with too many papers. She’s a strong math student as well but not to the same degree as she is a humanities student. She is planning on taking APUSH (aka crazy hard history as it’s taught at this school, taught by someone who announces at the first class that he might give a single A) and AP English literature along with AP Comp Sci and Pre Calculus Honors (aka crazy hard math as it’s taught at this school), the required biology class, orchestra and Mandarin 4. I’m not sure this is the right schedule for her but I don’t know if I’m being overprotective and underestimating her. I hope her counselor can help her sort it out.</p>
<p>@suzy - D says her class is on WWII right now. Covered WWI about a week or two ago. Just FYI.</p>
<p>@3girls - AP English Lit or Language? I think kids usually take AP Language first (Junior) and then Lit (Senior)?? Other than that, your D’s schedule looks pretty good. How many years of Comp Sci do you need before taking AP Comp Sci?</p>
<p>FromMD, they have a choice of two different AP Lit classes or an AP Language class. The English department head said that all three classes prepare the kids equally for the AP and college essay writing but the reading focus is different for each one. I don’t think English is all that hard at D’s school but I’m not sure how involved or demanding the writing will be. </p>
<p>There is an intro to Comp Sci class but those in honors math can skip the beginning class and just take a crash intro 3 day class right before school starts. There’s also an Advanced Topics in Comp Sci for post AP study that’s becoming more and more popular.</p>
<p>When my eldest took APUSH they were only at WW II at this point in the year–I remember it because it was when they handed in their big research papers and I thought, well, good that’s done because now they need to blaze through the 20th century. It was fine.</p>
<p>That what worries my D. They’re not even at WWI. So she is reading ahead and doing some quizzes from books here and there. The teacher will over the last few chapters in a day or two - she is afraid. and those are important chapters.
I think they’re using the same textbook. Her class is only doing chapter 27.</p>