<p>FromMD, that is hilarious about the Spanish test.</p>
<p>4cookie what a nice email to get!!</p>
<p>Field Hockey is done. D’s team was eliminated 3-1 in the Group Final of the State Tournament by a team who wins the State title for this sized school every 2nd or 3rd year. Great run for DD’s completing the season 18-5-1; which should (hopefully) keep her team ranked in the Top 20 of the state in the end-of-year rankings.</p>
<p>What made the game even more exciting for D & her teammates was the fact two separate Big Ten field hockey coaches were at the game & were taking copiuos notes about the players on the pitch. Last year D’s team had a HYPS coach in the stands for a state tourney game.</p>
<p>The team has an end of season meeting today where the coach reviews the season, sets meeting dates for individual meetings with each player and underclassmen elect next years captains, who will be announced at the team banquet help next week.</p>
<p>Ooh, this thread is making me laugh today. </p>
<p>Threesdad, good for your D! I can’t remember - is she looking to play in college?</p>
<p>I am looking into a college visit to Boston in the spring and a friend (who has used this service before) recommended a website to me where people rent rooms, apartments and houses. For big (expensive) cities like Boston, it looks like a really good way to go. Just wanted to share for anybody else that this may help: <a href=“https://www.airbnb.com/[/url]”>https://www.airbnb.com/</a></p>
<p>“It turns out that because of these new Common Core Standards our school is now giving grades in gym. It used to be " satisfactory,” S+ etc. Thankfully the gym grade is not counted in the GPA."</p>
<p>PE has always counted in GPA at our school. Last year there was a .01 between Val and Sal…Sal blamed gym. Of course when it is that close it really boils down to one quiz grade, in one class, one marking period, of one school year! Or not being able to dribble as well as the next guy…</p>
<p>Gym has always counted in GPA at our school too. It was actually a plus because until this year there was no weighting so an “A+” in gym was as good as an A+ in AP Physics, for GPA.</p>
<p>D received a couple of handwritten postcards thanking her for touring two schools we visited last month. The postcards were from the tour guides. One is a small LAC where we had a private tour so I get that, but the other is from a large state U where our tour group included a dozen or more people. I never saw that with my S.</p>
<p>Gym counts for GPA in our school too but you pretty much get 100 if you get changed and are on time every class. Unless you get the one a-hole teacher who goes on a power trip and gives out 99’s just to watch the Val/Sal kids and parents freak out. He’s a real piece of work.</p>
<p>Threesdad…congrats on the great season!! Hope you thawed out from TNT last weekend ;). There should be a law saying no tourneys after Halloween.</p>
<p>We got a whole slew of mail after the PLAN and PSAT last year. The snail mail has slowed considerably but there are still 2-3 emails a day.</p>
<p>Hello All,</p>
<p>I enjoy following this thread; thanks to all who contribute. I would just like to chime in regarding the Student Search Service (SSS) that has been mentioned…</p>
<p>The SSS is run quasi-independently inside the College Board. It does not receive student data from its parent until all the tests have been processed and then this data is not made available to colleges for mining purposes for another week or so after that. Just for example, the SSS received student PSAT data on January 7th this past year and did not make it available to its customers until January 14th.</p>
<p>College mail received before that time is not likely to convey any information about the most recent PSAT results. I cannot speak directly to any correspondence received from the CB itself. They see the data in real time of course and they parse it in many ways for their own purposes. But they are not selling the data to third parties through SSS until some time in January.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info YZ. I am glad that gym is not counted in GPA because studying for football tests would stress her out. Up until now they were given a grade based on attendance, participation, being prepared etc ( S, S+ etc) but now they added tests in the mix. She has been tested on tennis, football and something else. </p>
<p>We have not gotten any follow up postcards from tour guides. Surveys from the school- yes.</p>
<p>Suzy: We are headed to West Palm Beach for the USA National Field Hockey Festival over Thanksgiving; so yes she’s considering playing FH at the next level.</p>
<p>KMC: It was as cold yesterday @ FH as it was on Sunday @ TNT; evry one of the FH players had under armour tops & bottoms on under their uniforms. Today would have been a much nicer day to play.</p>
<p>Do your kids miss school frequently due to sports, music, student council meeting, academic competitions, etc.? Sometimes I feel the number of days they miss school is just overwhelming.</p>
<p>Thanks for that info YZ. What it says to me is that we can continue to cheer for 4Cookiemonster’s D without also torturing ourselves over the volume and types of mail coming into our own mailboxes. :)</p>
<p>Gym is not even a class period at D’s school. You satisfy the requirement by participating on a team or by taking an afterschool class or through independent activity. The only exception is that there is one elective dance class that satsifies the p.e. credit. I am fairly certain that elective grades do not figure into gpa but even if they do, the school doesn’t rank students beyond reporting decile distributions on its school profile. </p>
<p>Threesdad, congratulations to your D and her team! It sounds like it was a very strong season for them. How cool to have the coaches watching!!</p>
<p>Our school uses electives in the GPA. This year her elective is an honors class that is weighted, and last year the grade had to take health as their elective. She took one art elective and is officially done with art. Our school ranks by decile and by number, although the number is not given out unless you ask. I suppose they let you know senior year because we do have a val and sal. </p>
<p>Some kids miss school for sports etc but my daughter usually refuses ( surprised she gets away with it). She missed half a day at school for a " yearbook convention" and was very unhappy about the missed time. Refuses to do that again. </p>
<p>Threesdad good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>Threesdad, let us know how the Festival goes. That’s very exciting! I can’t imagine adding sports recruiting into the mix right now.</p>
<p>My D participates in a county-wide leadership program which causes her to miss at least one day of school a month. With that, a few sick days and going out of town to see her dad, it feels like she has missed a fair amount of school this semester. She’s been able to manage it OK though.</p>
<p>Oh, D’s school requires semesters of gym. She knocked them both out over the summer - gym every morning for 3 hours for 8 weeks I think. It was unpleasant!</p>
<p>suzy and twogirls, it sounds like your kids don’t miss a lot of school at all. My D. will miss school for a mock trial “training” tomorrow, whole day. Tuesday there was a student council thing that made her miss school after lunch. then yesterday there was an award ceremony to a regional math contest she participated. It was again during her school time. so she talked to the teacher. So we (parents) went instead. It turns out she got the first place (hooray!) but she wasn’t there. the other kids were mostly there. The principal was upset because D wasn’t there. He went to yell at the teacher. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s just a thing in our area?! I remember once went to help with physics. In middle of the class two people got up and left. I stared at them and asked the teacher what was going on? The teacher said they went to take pictures with their EC team. </p>
<p>Take this math award ceremony as an example, why can’t they do it after school? I don’t understand that. I feel bad D. didn’t go. But on the other hand, I understand why she didn’t want to go - she simply didn’t want to miss school THREE DAYS IN A WEEK! (even though two are half days.) esp. when she is taking 4 AP classes.</p>
<p>No, BHG does not miss any school for activities, but some of her friends do for debate, mock trial & Model UN, as they travel across the country for competitions–mainly the east coast and Chicago. </p>
<p>BHG has a 7th hour study hall, and leaves early 4 days a week for dance, but that does not affect any of her classes. </p>
<p>PE and electives are computed within the GPA at BHG’s school, but most electives are academic in nature, like Genetics/Molecular Genetics, a semester on the Civil War, Literature of Jane Austen, Mythology, and etc.</p>
<p>DS won’t miss any school for Mock Trial. They have arranged an optional trip to a legal office to vet their arguments; some will go, some wont. Practice/training happens before or after school.</p>
<p>Got him scheduled for his ACT in JUNE - seats fill up fast!</p>
<p>My kid had an issue yesterday with a " friend" taking my daughter’s research and trying to pass it as her own. I am proud to report that my daughter handled it appropriately and it all worked out. The lack of character some have really astonishes me. </p>
<p>ACT and SAT seats fill up very fast . That is why I signed my daughter up for Jan and Feb before getting back Dec. I don’t want to travel an hour.</p>
<p>I don’t like the school year test dates for ACT/SAT. There already is enough to do what with AP and Honors; keeping the grades up… never wanted to risk “overload” by throwing a high pressure ACT test into the mix. But I can see wanting to get it out of the way too…</p>
<p>I think D is done with ACT/SAT. The scores could be higher, but I think realistically her time is better spent doing other things. Perhaps if she wants to retake in June, but I think I’ll discourage it.</p>