<p>I really hate the service hour requirements. I understand the concept, but I think the value of unwilling volunteers is very, very low. I love that the school supports service learning and sets up peer tutoring opportunities, and encourages service, but I think they’d be better off with incentives rather than requirements. Every year you see seniors gardening in order to graduate, and that’s really NOT what the service hours requirement is supposed to be about.</p>
<p>I appreciate the intent of encouraging service hours. But on top of EC’s, PT jobs and the oppressive homework assigned nowadays… I’m dubious of piling more on. I like kids to be kids. I’m glad its a concept that hasn’t reached us yet.</p>
<p>DS was just notified today that he’s qualified for AP US History next year. It was one of DD '12’s favorite classes and seems to be one of the more widely accepted for college credit. Yay!</p>
<p>My daughter just reminded me that next month she will be " on the road" meaning she will get her permit. I am not happy!! She too has so much work and so many tests. These past few days she has been up until midnight every night. I guess this is a preview to junior year…</p>
<p>Just came back from all county concert. It was beautiful! some parents told me the music moved them to tears. It did that to us too. D. played beautiful solo clarinet parts. After all the trouble, it’s all worth it. Thank you all for your support! @IJD yes they are either really awesome or really rotten. In our place, if they want to try out for state band, they have to do both marching band and concert band. What add to the complication this year for D. is that band time conflict with AP chemistry. We found out the teacher really doesn’t appreciate them and he can be so rude. So she is done with school band. She will continue play in the community orchestra. </p>
<p>@twogirls, “On the road” status really makes me jealous. 
</p>
<p>@giterdone, APUSH is my D’s favorite class this year as well. Hope your son will enjoy it next year. D. has an excellent history teacher. He has been teaching for a long time, apparently really enjoys teaching. Many of D’s friends’ parents were taught by this teacher. One of D’s friends’ GRANDMOTHER was taught by this teacher!!</p>
<p>^That’s APUSH with a 1st person perspective! :D</p>
<p>Re. community service: My oldest was a tutor, was involved in church youth group leadership, worship, and some service projects, and played music for various service oriented occasions; so, his service was almost completely music and tutoring related. It was fine with colleges. My 2015er is the same way-his service at this point has been limited to cello for church worship and fund raising for various organizations. His chemistry tutoring, if he doesn’t get paid, will go under service, but that’s it so far. He’s considering working at a diabetes camp this summer as a counselor since he’s diabetic. </p>
<p>For my kids, the service really is an extension of who they are.</p>
<p>Maxwell, congratulation to your D for her beautiful solos; wish I could have heard them!</p>
<p>The (free) community orchestra served both my older sons very well for the past seven years. It’s associated with a local university and it’s given them great experiences including recordings and travel. As homeschoolers, we needed to go out in the community anyways.</p>
<p>Congratulations Maxwell on such a beautiful performance!</p>
<p>Ah, Maxwell, congratulations on the performance! What a lovely ending to the music struggles!</p>
<p>Twogirls, that on the road status scares me! I’m not ready…</p>
<p>Sbjdorlo, community service works that way for our kids too. The hours represent activities that build on their interests. My eldest spent time after high school working intensively in her high school volunteer activity and it informed her later work. My youngest is really the only one who had formal expectations for community service hours and there are days at school and on weekends that are dedicated to areas of service. Those have been fantastic in exposing her to things she might not have explored on her own. The rest of her hours are hours she would have fulfilled without a school-imposed requirement. I do have family-imposed requirements for all of us though :). </p>
<p>Personally, I think that willing or unwilling, the kids benefit from reasonable community service requirements.</p>
<p>3girls it scares me too! Thankfully she will only be getting her permit so she will not be " on the road" by herself.</p>
<p>My own HS was a Friends school and required a certain number of service hours, that’s part of being a good Quaker I guess.</p>
<p>D’s public school only requires service hours for an honors diploma (along with some other things).</p>
<p>Hello, all!</p>
<p>My DD is a 2015er as well. I have gone through this process with her older sister who is now majoring in Math at SUNY Binghamton.
My DD is interested in attending med school and I am wondering if she will go a traditional Biology route or major in something else and take the pre-reqs for Medschool as well.
She sings in the church praise band (most excellent for service hours!) and is in the Color Guard in Marching Band. She also is in the school choir.</p>
<p>Re: tired kids driving. I will pass on what our pediatrician says- No driving, even supervised, unless you have had 7 hours of sleep. I figure that should be pretty good incentive for my D to use her time wisely and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I know sometimes it’s impossible (she’s a three-sport varsity athlete so homework doesn’t start until late) but I like that I can point to the expert and say that it is a safety issue so less heat on me.</p>
<p>Hi bopper I also have an older daughter at a SUNY! My current sophomore is thinking either pre-med or engineering. Not sure yet. She also loves to write and does not want to give up Spanish. I guess time will tell. I have a question: all of a sudden my daughter is getting tons of emails and postcards from colleges. Where are they getting her home and email addresses? Are they getting the info from schools that we have visited, or from College Board? The only info that College Board has is her SAT 2 bio test from last June.</p>
<p>I am very strict when it comes to driving ( as most are); I actually made my older one nervous because I guess my strictness can also be viewed as nervousness. I want to avoid that mistake this time. It amazes me how many people don’t follow common sense and the law ie they let their kids drive after 9:00 even though it is illegal with a junior license, etc. I am sooo not ready for this, and will postpone the road test as long as I can.</p>
<p>Re driving.</p>
<p>All I think depends on the child. My eldest d is even now not a driver- even though she has been driving for 4 years. My youngest d is a " natural". She will sit her test in July and is more than ready. In Ga the restriction is midnight till they are 18. i love this rule- curfew is set and they need o be home- no questions, no discussion.</p>
<p>We are all so ready for d2 to drive. Most of her friends have their license, but not the 6months. So, they can’t have teenage passengers. I feel like d2 is 5 again as we have to drive her everywhere, no car pooling with other parents!</p>
<p>@ bopper, welcome! </p>
<p>@ Maxwell, I’m very happy to hear about your DD’s wonderful performance! It’s a real shame her Band Director behaves badly enough that she can’t continue the class. To my mind, teaching is such a sacred trust and, when a teacher actively seeks to squelch a student’s aspirations, that teacher is betraying this trust. Of my 4 kids, only DS15 has a significant musical gift. He inherited a musical gene from somewhere in the family tree (not from DH or me, that’s for sure). But his orchestra teacher works to diminish his gifts, in a big way. I’m still not sure when he will stop taking orchestra class, but - when that day arrives - I have an earful coming for the school administration once DS’s final grades are in. I won’t be the first or last parent to complain (& I’ve already met with the Vice Principal this year), and the teacher cannot be fired (obviously), but she does not deserve the privilege of working with kids. Ugh, sorry for the rant.</p>
<p>DS has almost 350 service hours in HS. He does what he can, when he can, but there’s no real theme or passion there - truthfully. However, I know he enjoys some aspects of service - and it sure doesn’t hurt him to help others. Our HS awards some kind of…what do you call it?..rope thingy??..that Graduates with at least 25 hours can wear. The student has to purchase it. Most of the top students at DS’s HS perform at least 100 hours per year, earning the Presidential Service Award, and the HS holds an assembly for this. But service hours aren’t stressed and, sadly, there aren’t any opportunities for school-wide, group service. That would be neat.</p>
<p>DS is about a year behind most of his peers in the driving category. We started him a year late - on purpose. He can be very absent-minded and immature, so he still only drives with an adult in the car. After he turns 16 (and matures a bit), then he can drive to his Summer job. Maybe. The jury is still out on the Maturing part…</p>
<p>College mail & email here is coming from 2 sources. PLAN (from 9th, but that mail just started this past Fall for whatever reason) and PSAT (from 10th). At first, <em>I</em> loved the mail because I’m in the advertising business. Now, it’s borderline annoying. DS is just not that into it. He liked a Frisbee he got from Carleton, and his little brother loves the occasional key chain or decal, but it’s sort of all pointless because I’ve gotten my head around college costs and we simply have not saved enough. Not for 4 kids, anyway. So DS will cast a wide net, hope that he gets some decent merit somewhere, and he is probably headed for the state flagship like 1/3 of this classmates. Nothing wrong with that, but I’d love to see him branch out a bit when the time comes. Just comes down to funding (and acceptance, obviously).</p>
<p>Welcome bopper! How is your older d enjoying Suny Bing? I spent most of my high school free time in the school choir room; I very much appreciate your younger D’s activities!</p>
<p>I resisted the whole driving thing with my older girls. My oldest was very eager to get behind the wheel but my middle D was not, thank goodness. Youngest D is counting the days. I really can’t believe we’re going to go through this again.</p>
<p>The frisbee from Carleton sounds pretty cool. The more I think about it, the less I get the whole concept of college mail. What do the colleges get out of it? It sounds like a good number of the schools that are sending it out are already well known and flooded with applications. Are they hoping to raise revenue from the application fees or are they simply hoping to raise/maintain their selectivity rating by attracting even more applicants? Is it really worth the cost of advertising? Why on earth would Harvard or for that matter Carleton need to do this? </p>
<p>From the applicant’s point of view, I can see a couple of benefits, intangible and tangible. With some kids, it makes the process more real and helps them to focus. On a more tangible level, I remember my girls receiving “fast track” and waived fee applications at schools they liked. I don’t know if this is still the case but it was a great perk.</p>
<p>GoAskDad–re: college mail. </p>
<p>There was an article in the WSJ this week about the efforts colleges undertake to entice accepted students to enroll. Here was my favorite paragraph:</p>
<p>Four-year colleges spent an average of $2,311 per student on recruiting in 2011, according to 2012 report by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. In 2011, the yield rate for private four-year schools was 36%, down from 48% in 2002. The rate for public four-year schools fell to 43% from 51% over the same period.</p>
<p>Some of the brochures that these schools have been sending look very expensive. On another note my daughter had 4 tests this week and 5 next week. She will be working again all weekend!! Bopper we looked at Bing two weeks ago and it looks like they are building several new dorms. It seems like a very comfortable school.</p>
<p>Bing was Kiplinger’s Best Value for Out of State schools…that is why I suggested it. She ended up picking it because of being in NY (where she would like to end up teaching Math) and for its generous credits for IB exams (she claims she can graduate in 2.5 years (with a couple of summer courses). </p>
<p>She loves it there…she doesn’t mind cooler weather. She likes to be around academic peers and doesn’t care about school spirit and what not. I think she would be happy just about anywhere though</p>
<p>Re: all the mail from colleges…my older one got carpet-bombed with info from WPI…I said they must love you so apply. She did, and got in, and gave her a scholarship, but the end cost would still be $41,000. No thanks, WPI!</p>
<p>DD16 has her learner’s permit and is actually quite good at driving…her older sister was, let’s say, not a natural. DD16 could always give you directions around town even when she was in 7th grade. DD19, well, thank goodness for GPS.</p>