<p>Bass guitar. He’s a music tech/bass BM student at a conservatory within a university.</p>
<p>Film production can be a great career, we have a lot “in the business” in our family…some in LA, some NY. I was going to suggest USC until I saw it at the end of your list.</p>
<p>Welcome aboard, ShabaMama!
My D2 used to wear mis-matched Chuck Taylors, too, back in middle school when they required the kids to wear close-toed shoes. Now that she’s in HS where they’re more relaxed about footwear she wears flip flops every day, all year long. She says she hates shoes! So I’m looking for schools with good science programs in warm-weather climes. We’re going to tour the Claremont Colleges over her Thanksgiving break.</p>
<p>Welcome to you, ShabaMama!! I believe it is important for our kids to give it a go at what they are passionate about. My oldest is a theatre major, and my youngest is a bass player.</p>
<p>I hope the PSAT goes well for any kids taking it today.</p>
<p>We opted not to have our son take it at the last minute. I have decided to wait until I can (hopefully) have his accommodations in place for his vision disability and his diabetes.</p>
<p>I was encouraged by his practice tests on the critical reading sections where he only missed two problems, but his math is worrisome with an old documented disability. We’re homeschoolers, so it’s not going to get a retest in high school since the $$ for that isn’t there.</p>
<p>How did your children make their wish list for the colleges they want to go? Mine has no clue. She likes Princeton because a good friend of hers went there. I think having Princeton as the only one in the list is dangerous. 
:p</p>
<p>Sunnydayfun, what a fantastic call to get from a teacher! It’s especially impressive that it took place in a big school. That would have made my year. Yay to your son and to his teacher. </p>
<p>Shabamama, welcome, your D sounds great and I love her array of interests. My D has insisted on mismatched socks for years. Mihcal, when we lived in the frozen north, my girls all tried to wear flip flops year round. I’ll be eager to hear what you think of the Claremont Colleges.</p>
<p>Maxwellequations, my D has no idea where she wants to go nor has she even attempted to make a list yet. I think it’s too early but I do have a tendency to want to bury my head in the sand. I also have too many biases left over from experiences with the older two that I have to keep to myself. That will be my greatest challenge in this process.</p>
<p>Maxwellequations – here’s how we figured it out with D1:</p>
<ul>
<li>We started off in her freshman & sophomore years doing day-visits to local colleges just to get a feel for what options are out there and what are the trade-offs: a big selective public (UC), a huge less-selective public (CSU), a big private (USC), and a couple small privates of various selectivity (Claremont colleges, Chapman, Concordia). Hmmm … we seem to have a thing going with the letter “C”. ;)</li>
</ul>
<p>Those initial visits gave her some context for what sorts of options were available. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The next step was for her to accumulate some grades and first test scores to start evaluating where she was likely to fit in selectivity-wise. She also did some evaluations (e.g., College Board’s “know yourself” [url=<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/know-yourself]inventory[/url”>College Prep – BigFuture | College Board]inventory[/url</a>]. That helped her to narrow down some options for majors (in her case Chemistry, Physics and Engineering). </p></li>
<li><p>With that self-knowledge, we identified some might-fit schools interest that happened to be geographically near some family trips scheduled for summer after Sophomore year & winter of Junior year. e.g., en route to a family reunion in South Bend, IN, we visited Purdue, Notre Dame, Northwestern, and U.Chicago. Four very different schools! But that helped her to identify what qualities she liked/didn’t like – I had her make a pro-cons chart for each school.</p></li>
<li><p>Armed with that, I was able to consult Rugg’s Recommendations and Fiske Guide and make a list of several dozen schools for her to read about. Using Fiske, u-n-i-g-o, c-o-l-l-e-g-e-p-r-o-w-l-e-r, and the colleges’ websites, she narrowed that list down to about a dozen-and-a-half. Those schools became our priority for visits, and we managed to see a good fraction of them. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>We’re starting to do the same with D2 now, except that she has the advantage of having already visited a bunch of schools (i.e., she was dragged all over creation visiting schools with D1). Because of that, she can mostly skip the “what’s out there and what are the trade-offs” initial visits. However, we cannot really identify where she’ll fit in selectivity-wise until we see some more grades and standardized test scores (PLAN and mock-PSAT). So we’re pretty much in a wait-and-hold pattern for now. The visit to the Claremont schools is happening this fall because family friends with a HS Junior invited us to go along with them.</p>
<p>3girls3cats – the Claremont colleges are pretty local (~1hr drive). I go there now-and-then for various functions and events, and I have friends on faculty. My D1 seriously considered HMC, and a good friend’s daughter seriously considered Scripps. PM me if there’s anything in particular that you want to know.</p>
<p>Ah yes; yesterday’s PSAT. The feedback wife & I received: “it was hard; the vocabulary was very difficult; I guess I should have opened the prep books over the summer Dad got for me so I knew what to expect.” </p>
<p>As Mr. Glass Half-Full; we can look at it as “now she knows what to expect the next go around.”</p>
<p>Immediately after the PSAT was a field hockey game against a local rival, then homework last night. D is off now at a softball tournament with mom as Dad has outdoor chores to do today in 66 degree sunny weather. Not many of these kinds of days left here this Fall.</p>
<p>My D thought the PSAT was a lot easier than the practice tests. I really tried to take the stress off of her this year by reminding her it doesn’t really count and it’s just good practice. She’s competitive though, so I don’t know how much good that might have done. </p>
<p>Sent from my EVO using CC</p>
<p>I imagine there are different versions administered. The consensus at D’s school was that it was easy. I think what that means is that the kids expected it to be really hard and were surprised that it was easier than they expected, especially the math. I do not think the scores will be any higher than those who found it difficult though.</p>
<p>Threesdad, I’m with you. I think a lower score in the sophomore year is, in some ways, a better outcome than one which lulls the kid into an overconfident state. As long as it doesn’t dampen confidence, it can galvanize the kid into doing some good preparation before the “real” thing.</p>
<p>Hi all,
I’ve been reading for some time. D is a 15/19 also.</p>
<p>Wanted to respond to sbjdorlo
My D had accommodations for the PSAT yesterday. Her school applied last May (freshman year) to the College Board on her behalf, using private educational testing that was completed in January of freshman year, documenting LD’s. Because she is at a Catholic school, the “private” testing was necessary, as they don’t provided that service.</p>
<p>She also had testing from 2nd and 5th grade (public school) documenting the same problems, which I’m sure was also mentioned, although I never saw the application. The educational testing for 9th grade was different because it included timed and un-timed tests, showing how extended time made a difference.</p>
<p>They granted her PSAT, SAT, AP accommodations–it covers any test that the College Board oversees for college–I’m guessing that’s what the school requested on the application. </p>
<p>She received extended time on every test section, including instructions, extra breaks and use of a keyboard for essays (SAT and AP). These accommodations will take her through spring of senior year, if necessary.</p>
<p>Also, there was another girl at her school, who is now a senior, who received accommodations for the ACT so the test was read to her and the answers she gave were all verbal. Her LD’s are pretty severe, but she is very smart.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long email, but my point is there are accommodations for kids who need them, and don’t wait–now is the time to get them set up for your son. Best of luck.</p>
<p>maystarmom,</p>
<p>Thank-you so much for your post! It was very encouraging. I procrastinated on getting accommodations but I got the package from College Board in the mail yesterday, so at least I’ve started the ball rolling. I still have to get all the documentation from the ophthalmologist and the endocrinologist, but I’ve emailed both of them and will follow up.</p>
<p>I have been discouraged by my son’s various “special needs” but I was so encouraged by his practice test on the PSAT. I know he tested 99.9% on certain untimed IQ and achievement tests on certain sections, but he’s so slow to finish work and gets behind quite easily. Some days I feel that he just isn’t cut out for college. Other days, I think he might make it if he has the proper accommodations.</p>
<p>Thanks again for your encouragement. I’m hoping to have everything in place so he can take the PSAT and SAT as a junior.</p>
<p>PS. My parents paid to have my son get extensive private testing (IQ and achievement) done when he was 10 1/2 before his diabetes diagnosis, and then a follow up achievement test done at age 11 1/2, before his vision disability and depression were diagnosed. He showed a pretty significant math disability, but I decided just to go for accommodations for the vision disability and diabetes.</p>
<p>Hello Maystarmom and ShabaMama - it’s nice to see more people joining the discussion! </p>
<p>sbjdorlo, hopefully it will be smooth sailing getting the accommodations taken care of for your S. I imagine there is a fair amount of red tape involved - something I’m not very good at working through. It’s so nice that Maystarmom could help.</p>
<p>D said PSAT was what she had expected. She didn’t study, and told me afterwards that she didn’t think it would help much anyway. Then, about 1 minute later she told me she had to leave one of the math Q’s blank because she couldn’t remember the formula. I just raised my eyebrow at her and she laughed and admitted studying could have helped. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Our high school also requires all sophomores to take the PSAT and the district pays for it. Juniors have to pay but there are always a good number that do take it. The college board markets it as a “college-readiness” test and, for the sophomores, the school district uses it as one indication of readiness for AP classes. S said it went okay but that could mean about anything. On his practice, he did extremely well on math, decent on reading and pretty poorly on writing. We mainly want to get a read on how much we should encourage (okay, push) him to study next summer if he might be within striking distance of National Merit semifinalist.</p>
<p>Good morning all!</p>
<p>I’m so impressed by both sbjorlo and maystarmom in the efforts they’ve taken to find the right paths for kids who needs accommodations for testing. I’m sure finding your way through the application process for that can be intimidating. </p>
<p>mihcal - thanks for taking the time to post your strategy in finding schools for you kids to apply to! I think S and I will go visit some colleges over spring break. I think we’re going to do a round of small midwest LAC’s on that trip and maybe visit some universities on the second trip. I really have no idea what he’ll end up studying. Right now he says he’s interested in psychology, but he’s never had a psych class or read about it as far as I know. :rolleyes: </p>
<p>With my older two boys, I did a ton of looking at different colleges through online search engines like college board and princeton re-view. I narrowed it down to about 30 schools for S1 and much fewer for S2, and then they read about them and picked which ones to really look at. </p>
<p>He thought the PSAT went well - I think our school sends home the scores the last day before Christmas break. </p>
<p>Welcome, ShabaMama! Anyone with mismatched Chuck Taylors must be all right! ;)</p>
<p>Thank you mihcal. The college board link should be very helpful for her to find out her possible major. We’ll have to sit down, list things and read about colleges. </p>
<p>She took the PSAT last Wed. She gave her email address, which is a place she created just for college applications, according to the suggestions made by people here. I found it’s a great suggestion! I’ve heard from my local friends that after PSAT scores come out, messages from colleges will start coming in.</p>
<p>Finally coming on board this thread. I have a S’15. This year his classes are German, Latin, Chemistry, Geometry, English and History. He is a good, hardworking student. He has a few colleges in mind but does not want me to “stress him out” (his words, not mine) about colleges yet. He took the PSAT last week but has not said much about it.</p>
<p>Welcome momsthebest!</p>
<p>Welcome shabamom,maystarmom and momsthebest.</p>
<pre><code> This thread sure is busy these days.D took the Psat last week.But won’t tell me how it went.she said she had around five minutes lefy for each section and she could review the test.
As far as college visits,we attended few college information sessions that were held near our area.D liked a few.Hated yale's presentation.We are planning to start visiting nearby colleges in the winter.
I think we will start from the claremont colleges as they are closeby.Just 30 minutes drive.Mihcal1,let us know how yours went.
Two more days togo for the SAT II results.D is nervous.Hope she gets a good score,so she need not retake it.
</code></pre>