<p>FromMD- my d1 is at our state flagship too on a free ride. I hear what you say on the ego. I had so many hurtful remarks when my d1 went to UGA rather than the other schools that she was accepted too. I just smile when they now ask about her summer travels. She has studied at Oxford, LSE and in Argentina. All fully funded. I think they are starting to " get it" now why she choose this path.</p>
<p>We are in the same boat with the 529. How did you get the money out without penalty?
I’ll pm you later.</p>
<p>I remember being incredibly angry about how our school handled PSAT score distribution the year my D1 took it. They had all Juniors come pick them up from a table setup in the quad at lunchtime. They just rifled through the stack of score reports in front of everyone until they found your paper – basically, guaranteeing that everyone saw everyone else’s scores. My D had wanted to keep her scores private, but no dice.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether they kept doing it the same way in subsequent years. Y’all have reminded me that I should go talk to the administration about it beforehand. I sit on the School Site Council, so that gives me an opening to go in and ask about such things.</p>
<p>That reminds me of last year when they called everyone over in a big group and just handed out transcripts- not in an envelope. One girl yanked my daughter’s transcript out of her hand and passed it around. Mihcal your situation is worse because the papers are on a table.</p>
<p>Time spent driving: as much as possible given that she can only use my car when I’m not. A month in, I am very happy she can drive. She can go to 4 hour LAX clinics an hour away without me, take herself to club meetings in the evenings, help drive on long trips. During the six months she had her permit I basically had her drive all the time so she’s already driven in snow-fog-ice, downtown of our nearest large city many times, rural unpaved roads, suburban shopping strips, interstates, you name it. She is very good.</p>
<p>OHmom I think it’s great that your daughter has done so much driving- that’s exactly what the instructors want us to be doing with them. How did you get over your fear? I hate being in the car with her on main roads, making left hand turns when traffic is coming towards you, etc. how do you deal with highways? I am very jealous of your ability to do this!</p>
<p>I think it’s horrible that everybody sees your kids PSAT scores!</p>
<p>Twogirls, our girls will be taking the same tests. We can wait out the scores together. For the PLAN, the kids were called to a meeting with the GC in groups of 4. My D was the only Soph to take the PSAT last year bc I brought her to another school to do it. Long story but our school wouldn’t allow her take it as a 10th grader. Putting them out on a table is an awful way to do it!!</p>
<p>I guess we just did baby steps…parking lot first, then quiet street, then busier streets. As she mastered each step I felt comfortable with going to the next. She was very enthusiastic, and she also had official driver training (4 x 3 hours in our state, plus classroom) so she knew what to do, it was just a matter of practice. </p>
<p>When my parents taught me to drive they insisted I do all kinds of hard driving - an ice storm on the way to Texas one Christmas comes to mind - so I’d be ready when I had to face that stuff alone. I decided to do the same with D, let her drive all the hard stuff she can while I’m still in the car with her. </p>
<p>I also talked to her a lot when I was driving before she was old enough to, about when to pass and how to handle skidding and not hogging the left lane and keeping away from the right side of the road, and she was very interested in hearing me talk about that stuff. </p>
<p>My 19yo S, on the other hand, never bothered to get his license and has his permit now. I am white knuckled a lot with him because he takes corners too fast and is generally less cautious than she is. I am in no hurry for him to get his license because I think I should be in the car with him a LOT more before he drives alone.</p>
<p>keepmecruisin, these schools really differ in their approaches. D’s high school has 9th, 10th and 11th graders take PSATs. I thought 9th grade was a bit overkill but maybe this prevented the school from actually having classes on that one day. </p>
<p>I could have sworn that PSAT scores were mailed to the student’s home address. I hope that’s not something the school just does for freshmen and sophomores.</p>
<p>OHMomof2 - I see how you got so confident in your daughter’s driving. I’m impressed with your parents - wisdom and bravery - but I don’t know if my nerves strong enough to be the one in the car during the ice/snow storm. I’ll put D into the Subaru with my husband.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly the SAT scores are released 19 days after the test ( Dec 26) and the ACT score is released 2-2/12 weeks after the test ( approx Dec 30 and the writing may come later). Ugh- stress!</p>
<p>Another day of a good mood- yippee! She has a makeup game tomorrow, a game Saturday, a football game Saturday night and some sort of feast that she is volunteering at on Sunday for two hours for World Language Honor Society. Busy weekend!</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t do NHS. They do [url=<a href=“http://csf-cjsf.org/wordpress/]CSF[/url”>http://csf-cjsf.org/wordpress/]CSF[/url</a>] instead.<br>
Requirements are a 3.5 GPA and some community service tutoring. A student who attains membership for the requisite number of semesters gets a gold seal on their HS diploma and wears a gold braid at graduation.</p>
<p>Our HS did NHS invites at the end of sophomore year, with the induction ceremony occurring just before the end of the school year. I think the intent was for the kids to be able to work on their community service hours over the summer. GPA requirement is 3.7 with teacher recommendations for the initial invite. Completion of service hours and continuing GPA above 3.7 required to maintain membership. NHS kids get an additional braid at graduation.</p>
<p>I have no idea about our school’s NHS, just remember seeing it in the local newspaper in the past years. so I guess it’ll happen. I wonder what NHS does in our school. What does it do in your schools? Do they have some kind of activities, like a club?</p>
<p>The NHS seems to allow wide latitude on requirements imposed by the high school, both for GPA and service requirements. In our district the requirements vary from one HS to another. AT my D’s HS service is 60 hours but no more than 30 hours at any one activity. She had 100s of hours at one volunteer organization but had to scrounge up 30 hours-a couple hours here, a couple there. Everything has to be documented, date of service, hours, contact info of administrators/organizers. Of course, no good records were kept,so we had to go back through old calendars to find dates and then look at websites to find contact info. Such-a-pain. Kids have to write an essay. HS has 2 staff members who administer the program on top of regular teaching duties. At my son’s HS the requirement is only 30 hours and doesn’t matter how they are compiled, but again have to document. GC has forms one can use to keep track and I have encouraged (OK harangued) him to do this as he goes along so that next month we don’t have to go through the time consuming hunt to put the package together that we did for sis. A lot of kids who are eligible don’t bother applying I think because the benefit doesn’t seem worth it. The kids who are super involved in everything participate in school-related volunteer stuff for NHS, working at school events, or fundraisers. But for most kids here it’s just the induction ceremony and one more thing to add to the list on college app. Colleges see your GPA/volunteer activities that you report and GC reports about discipline on their submission. The only thing NHS adds is one more layer of validity that kid is not faking stuff on app. Since presumably high school administrator verified some of the activities while vetting NHS app.</p>