<p>Oh I’ve looked at that high school class of 2015 thread and it scares me a little. Some of those kids just seem so focused on college stuff that it disturbs me so I don’t peek in there often. My D knows I get info on this site, but she would never get on here and I wouldn’t WANT her to get on here. I think it would just create pressure.</p>
<p>3g3c, have you considered Teach for America (I think that’s what it’s called) during a gap year for your D? I’m sorry she had such a rough transition. It’s clearly been hard to watch her struggle and I would be feeling exactly as you do. Heck, even without a big move I have some fears for my 8th grade D. She’s not as mature as my D15 was at that age, and I worry that she will be lost in the shuffle of the very big high school she will be attending.</p>
<p>Ikeail, Maybe it was based on the PSAT. DS got a 224 (If I remember correctly) sophomore year. After going through the admissions process with his older brother, we really don’t take any of these direct mailings all that seriously…</p>
<p>@Felicita, We went to a 10-day college visit trip to east coast this summer(from midwest). D had her preference. Now we only pay attention to mailings from the ones she likes. Another trip scheduled for west coast during Spring break 2014.</p>
<p>Ikeail, we are Midwest, too. DS went on all of the college visits with his '13 brother, including a week long east coast road trip. (Which was a blast!) I asked him if he wanted to see anything else. He said no, he’ll just apply and see where he gets in and visit as an accepted student. Yay!!</p>
<p>The tutor is here now and he is having a lot of difficulty reading her essay due to her poor handwriting. I know that she can write neatly when she tries, but most of the time she writes illegibly. She was just told that for her, the most important thing is to write legibly or else they will not read her essay. They will not spend time trying to decipher her handwriting. He said if it means she writes less, so be it. The sad part is that she is an amazing writer. Ugh. </p>
<p>Now she has to practice writing a legible essay in 25 minutes. He told her not to concern herself with the content- she needs to write neatly. He gave her an essay to do for next week and told her to write less and write legibly. </p>
<p>3girls I feel your pain with the writing section, even if the reasons are different.</p>
<p>Twogirls, I hope it was just a bad writing day but you have my sympathies. The legible handwriting issue is something that gets in my D’s way too but yes, it’s letting go of the perfect content that is the biggest hurdle. </p>
<p>Felicita and Ikeail, it probably was the PSAT but since my D didn’t check the box to receive college mail (her immediate reaction being why would I do that?) she hasn’t gotten any mailings. The more I think about it the more I think it’s a good thing because there are days I’d be tempted to file the application for her. </p>
<p>Suzy, is there a Teach For America program for post-high school kids? I haven’t done any looking at anything so I don’t know what the options are. Once we figure out what’s what, we’ll have to do some research. Thanks so much for your sympathetic words.</p>
<p>OHmom, not only do my girls not look at cc, they would be appalled if they knew I posted here.</p>
<p>My S has illegible handwriting and I warn him that he should try to clean it up a little. I don’t know why his teachers don’t complain or maybe they do and I don’t know about it.</p>
<p>Two of my boys have horrible handwriting…their cursive looks like it was written by third graders! One was so bad that he would lose points on exams because of his teeny tiny chicken scratch. He’s a great writer, so before every test we have the handwriting talk.</p>
<p>The problem is twofold: kids type their papers now and when they are in school they have to take notes so quickly that they write very sloppy, and it becomes a habit. She has two essays to write for next week- one SAT and one ACT. She will practice writing legibly even if it means skimping on the content. </p>
<p>My kid knows that I am on CC all the time, but I don’t know if she realizes that I am an active participant. She would think I was nuts and it would make her very nervous. </p>
<p>The tutor keeps telling me that today’s SAT tests are harder than the blue book. I asked him how much harder- are today’s tests WAY WAY harder? How could that be? He said just a little harder- not much much harder. My kid is doing a decent job but some of these tests are from a few years ago and are considered " easier." Ugh. Another thing besides the writing issue to deal with.</p>
<p>3girls3cats- I hear you. We had something similar in our house, and it tore me apart to watch it happen. Similar facts - shy girl, a year younger than many of her classmates, and not nearly ready to grow up when the other girls were already looking and acting like 25 year olds. Individually, nice girls, but as a group, overwhelming, and not in a healthy way. I have to hand it to my daughter - there were things going on that she didn’t like, and she pulled away from it - but “away” meant going farther and farther into her own shell. In her case, these were girls she had been with since kindergarten, and it was still a problem - I can only imagine what the situation would have been if she had been the “new girl” on top of everything else. </p>
<p>What struck a chord with me was your comment about “fear” - that’s what we saw. She had been an outgoing younger girl, and started shutting down in middle school, and it just got worse into high school. With 20-20 hindsight, the fear had started to color much of what she did. </p>
<p>I think you have a good idea to try to get her another year of high school. We did that too, and it was a huge plus. Switching schools makes it much easier. In our case, we went the boarding school route, but switching to another school in the same town would have worked also. One of my big regrets is that we didn’t make the move a year earlier than we did - again with 20-20 hindsight, I was in denial, still thinking that there was something I could do that would fix it all. </p>
<p>The other thing that helped was for her to find something that had nothing to do with what her parents were interested in. In her case, it turned out to be Poetry Society and the Speech Team. It was a complete change from the activities we had done together when she was younger - and she liked those activities (sports, dance), but she also wanted to do something that was intellectual and a clean break from Mom & Dad - and she finally found it. It took awhile, and it wasn’t till the 2nd year of boarding school that she really got her legs under her - but she got there. Girls who Code, or something like it, sounds fantastic, but again, your daughter may have to find it by herself. </p>
<p>Got my fingers crossed for you and her. Keep pushing for the solution - she will find it.</p>
<p>Wow, ssacdfamily, thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful response. It helps to hear that we are not alone and that your D came out of this on the other end.</p>
<p>I am so ‘right-there-with-you’ on this! I feel like I am walking a sort of tightrope between trying to make sure she understands what is needed and that she needs to work at it, but trying not to stress her out.</p>
<p>I wish that D’s teachers would assign studying for the SAT/ACT! It would make so much sense! </p>
<p>We heard from a friend who has a daughter, now in her freshman year at the state flagship, majoring in math/engineering, and she was telling us that she strongly recommends that, even if you get the AP credit, take the classes again in college. She said, even though the AP/IB, etc are college credit, they just aren’t the same caliber as some of the courses in college. Her D got a 7 on the physics test and scored similarly (not sure of exact scores) on all her ‘test out’ tests but she (with mom’s ‘encouragement’) is taking those courses again in college, and has been glad she decided to. She said that other friends who decided to take the credit and skip to the next level courses were really struggling. I imagine this to mostly be true in the math/science courses.<br>
When we toured another college recently the bio professor spoke, he said pretty much the same thing.<br>
So that is what our recommendation will be to our D. If it makes the course easy…great! But, if, as we are hearing, even with the AP/IB under your belt, there is more depth to the college course, it will really be beneficial to take the course.</p>
<p>My bearcub got the USC letter too, a few weeks ago. She’s never taken the SAT but we did visit and she had taken the PSAT sophomore year. I tossed it since she is in no way ready to go to college a year early (and I’m not ready either!). I just assumed that they sent the letter to everyone on their mailing list.</p>
<p>First, I appreciate the reminder to stay calm…yes it will all work out…probably…hopefully…maybe…lol </p>
<p>Burnout is definitely an issue. I think a lot of the kids (mine included) sort of crashed and burned last year and now they are, as my daughter says,“over it”. she says everyone seems stressed and burned out…sort of a mix of stressing about it and just deciding not to deal, and just not caring about grades, etc as much. It does seem a bit puzzling, D and I were just talking about it, that they really don’t seem to have as much homework as last year, and the teachers are calmer, but the stress level is still high…I think a lot has to do with residual effect from last year. the system, with all it’s pressures does take its toll.</p>
<p>3girls, I feel for you and your daughter. My d has been dealing with anxiety issues, and it does make planning and dealing with the ‘typical’ stressors that much more challenging. Would community college be an option for the year after high school? She could get away from some of the high school drama, and be with students who have chosen the college path, while not having to be away from home and independent yet. At least here, the community college seems to have relatively small classes too, which sounds like it would be a plus. I imagine you have thought of and tried many things, but I will suggest anyway…maybe one of the martial arts, or yoga as something to become involved in? Yoga would be good in that it is an individual, non-competitive thing, but done in a group environment for some social interaction… Or maybe something like tennis, where it would be a very small group?</p>
<p>ok, one more thing…then you can all get a word in lol…</p>
<p>D doesn’t get on CC, and rolls her eyes a bit about my involvement with it, but I can imagine the possibility of her looking at it later, once she is seriously looking at college choices. I have tried to ask questions that I think might be helpful to her later if she types in a search. ;-)</p>