<p>I’m glad ssacdfamily posted his/her last post. I remember reading the 2013 thread last year and worried that my kid would either burn out or not make those impressive scores like other posters brilliant children on that thread.
This time around with S15, I’m a little more relaxed. It worked out just fine for D13 and it will work out for all of our 2015ers. but…there is one little worry I can’t shake from my mind and that is the fear of the CA glitches. I hope we don’t have to go through what the 2014ers had to deal with this year, fingers crossed.</p>
<p>Excellent post, ssacdfamily!</p>
<p>Agree 100% but I find it extremely difficult to get off the hamster wheel. As expected, this year is turning out to be a rough year for D but she is “hanging on” so far.</p>
<p>For those you with USC on your list, D received a letter from them asking her to apply to USC’s Resident Honors Program - it’s specifically designed for Junior kids and, if selected, allow kids to start college one year ahead (not completely sure how that works) with 1/4 merit scholarship. If NMF, years 2-4 are 1/2 tuition merit (but not stacked). The letter says app is due December 1. Just FYI…</p>
<p>FromMD, my D got that letter too yesterday. We both chuckled at the thought of her heading off to college next year - NOT ready. </p>
<p>I second the request for a periodic sanity check post from ssacdfamily!</p>
<p>We got the USC letter for my son, too…I wonder how many of these they sent out!? Maybe based on SAT? We typically view all direct mailings like this with skepticism. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine sending DS off to college a year early!</p>
<p>Yeah, D is not applying either. It may make sense for certain kids but not for D. She is not ready either.</p>
<p>@shoboemom and SlackerMom, Good luck to your kids this Saturday. My D. is going to take it next month.
shoboemom - My d. used to play the oboe too. But we never owned an oboe. The instrument belonged to her school. She is not a great player, but since she play the piano and clarinet very well, she has good sense with music. She started off pretty well. But then she had that problem with the band teacher last year. She quit band, and the oboe went away with it. 
We thought about buying one. But D. said not to bother, because she is not all that interested, and too busy with other things. </p>
<p>@FromMD and suzy, it’d make me chuckle too if my D. got a letter like that. But at least you know they’re wonderful students. USC is a great school. They wouldn’t send a letter to someone who is just ordinary.
now that I see so many kids got the letter, I wonder if we’ve got one but just tossed it away? hmmm</p>
<p>For those of you who received that letter, did your kids take the October SAT? D is still receiving no college mail because (I’m assuming) she’s never checked that box. Every so often a stray piece of mail trickles in but I suspect it’s coming from her participation in her summer program. I told her to establish a separate email account for college mailings and check the box the next time around. I’m particularly interested in “fast track” applications and those that waive fees. At one time Brandeis did this, offering a free, rolling admissions, non-binding decision. While she’s not even close to ready to leave for college–if anything she needs an extra year before taking off–I like to know what is out there. This USC early admission program would have been an ideal option for D1.</p>
<p>Thanks for that post ssacdfamily. My worries are a little different and a little harder to dismiss. While there’s the typical and common stress over scores, grades, and overload, both student and parents in this familly are able to put this in context. Yes, D works too hard but to some extent it is part of her personality and working less would be more stressful. The stress and worry really bloom when we think of her extracurricular life. She is so shy and so passive that she is just not engaged in much. I don’t think I’ve read about a single kid in this group who isn’t involved in his/her school or outside world in some significant way. This is where H and I tend to wring our hands. It does no good to push her because she just doesn’t cooperate. She consistently sits on the outside of things, never jumps in, gives up as soon as she encounters resistance from anyone, and does the work of things only to allow others to take credit. This, I fear, can be a much bigger hurdle to finding a good school fit than a less than amazing SAT score or a less than perfect transcript. My “big girls” were both joiners and leaders in a big way and their scores/grades were good enough that they did very well in finding a great set of choices when the time came. But it was quite clear to me that having those activities was key to their admissions results.</p>
<p>@Felicita, My D got the letter from USC too. Ever since she scored 228(PSAT) last year, we kept getting piles of letters from colleges all over the places. I believe colleges access the info. via College Board.</p>
<p>3girls do you think your daughter would enjoy tutoring? Perhaps the one-to- one would be easier for her?</p>
<p>D did visit USC this year, and did take the Oct. SAT (high score, probably high enough, but still a small disappointment) and did NOT get the USC letter. I don’t know which boxes she checked on either SAT or PSAT.</p>
<p>Twogirls, she is a peer tutor but because the school has redesigned its writing center, she rarely has anything to do there. In the past, all freshmen were paired with upper class peer tutors who helped them through their first writing assignments. This was mandatory. Last year, the school scrapped the mandatory buddy system and simply left it to the individual students to seek help via the writing center on a voluntary basis and very few have elected to do so. Maybe demand will pick up as finals approach, I don’t know. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I fear for her until she grows up a bit and finds her voice. This is a bigger worry than just where she gets into college. I am going to attend a local talk given by Susan Cain (author of the book Quiet) and see if she has any pearls of wisdom to add. </p>
<p>IJD, she probably didn’t check the box.</p>
<p>Are there any organizations outside of school where she can get involved quietly? For example I have a friend whose daughter sounds like yours and she is involved in a county organization that does clean ups and she took her artistic talents and with a friend they decorated garbage cans in the community. It sounds like she needs smaller scale one-to- one activities, which is ok.</p>
<p>In regard to the USC letter, I think my D got a mailing earlier in the fall as well, before she took the SAT. I think it may have been based on her PSAT scores from sophomore year, but I really have no way to know.</p>
<p>Twogirls, I really appreciate your suggestions! I wish I could find the right outlet for her.</p>
<p>The problem she’s faced is that we made a cross-country move right when she started high school. That change hit her very hard and the school wasn’t terrific in embracing her-basically, she fell through the cracks for her entire freshman year. She was placed in the wrong classes and completely overlooked. Her advisor had checked out and never encouraged her to join things. No one seemed to notice that she was the ONLY kid in the entire freshman class that had entered from so far away and without any connections to the school. Her friends hit the ground running, just as I think she would have (in a quieter way of course) if we’d stayed where she knew a lot of people and where people wanted to engage her. I tried to involve her in outside activities. She froze and/or resisted every time. She tried crew and it was a disaster. She refused to join our local youth commission. She served as an aide at a religious organization but hated it and stopped. She works with me on a social action committee but is unenthusiastic and fearful. She joined the orchestra at school but refused to play in a chamber music group or a regional orchestra. When she started learning computer coding, I was hopeful that she’d found something she’d become involved in but after trying to establish a club at school, she’s run into resistance from the administration and she seems to be giving up. </p>
<p>I have stayed on the sidelines, going only so far as suggesting activities and encouraging those steps outside the comfort zone. I would love to intervene and make it easy for her of course but she doesn’t want that help and I’m not sure it would actually be helpful if I were to take over. (I’m reeeally tempted to contact the Girls Who Code folks and ask them for help though. :)) I’m always certain that whatever tact I take, it’s the wrong one. </p>
<p>Now that she’s lived in this new state for two years she’s more comfortable but she’s more at the level of a middle school kid than a high schooler. Given that she’s a year younger than many of her peers and emotionally even younger than that, I would love to find a way for her to add another year of high school somehow somewhere (not her current school). A gap year would be great but applying to college next year and then deferring is not ideal.</p>
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<p>She could apply during the gap year…a friend’s daughter did a year abroad gap year through Rotary and did her apps from India.</p>
<p>I’ve thought of that idea but there are so many things that can and will go wrong, especially from a distant place. We’ve been told that this is not the best course to take. Maybe if the teacher recs, scores, and transcripts are all lined up well beforehand and all that’s left to do (ha) are the essays and applications. It can’t be any harder than juggling that while still tackling a full high school load though it depends on what the gap year entails and where it takes place. It’s definitely food for thought.</p>
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<p>Absolutely! Teachers leave, stuff happens. </p>
<p>I advised D to ask her teachers for recs this spring - they should have a lot more time and since she’s asking junior year teachers anyway, her info will be “fresh” for them. I don’t know if they’d write them before fall, but she can ask, and give them her EC/interests resume and so forth. In fact she will need two recs for summer programs she says she plans to apply to, they might as well kill two birds with one stone.</p>
<p>Unrelated: Do any of your kids post on CC? My son, now 19, walked up behind me when I was looking at a thread called “colleges for Jewish B students” (we are not Jewish but he was a B student) and just rolled his eyes at me 
He’d never consider reading this forum. D, also, hasn’t shown any interest in this forum though she is aware I participate in it and has looked over my shoulder a couple of times.</p>
<p>I just looked in on the High School Life forum, in particular some class of 2015 threads, a thread on cheating, some other stuff and…wow. Kids posting there seem very different from D and yet there are similarities in terms of grades and interests. I wonder if she will decide to look in here at some point? She’s not a screen kid - hates TV, doesn’t do internet much beyond Snapchat on her phone and such. </p>
<p>I just wonder if the parents who post here and the kids who post here are from the same families or if one or the other tends to enjoy this research and discussion?</p>
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Consider yourself lucky. 
My D. doesn’t watch TV except for one or two shows. (like BBC’s Doctor Who, our family favorite) But she uses internet heavily - too much imo. I can’t get her interested in CC though. she did check CC a couple times. She found it out from google when she had a couple specific questions related to SAT. At one point we were so frustrated with her internet connections we thought to block everything. But as time goes she seems to have much better sense about it. It’s interesting once she tried to convince us to leave her alone - “You should let me find out things and learn to be in control. Otherwise, once I go to college, I’ll have freedom and I’ll be screwed.” </p>
<p>Never looked at high school thread. I feel it’s a good thing that D. is not interested in CC. At least she won’t know what we are talking about here. :p</p>