<p>College mailings mean that your child indicated interest on the PSAT-so they will be bombarded sooner or later. I forget to tell my daughter about this so the recycling bin is already overflowing.</p>
<p>She survived the first quarter with her first B. In the beginning she was very upset but she has worked through it quite nicely. I think she had a great first quarter all things considered. She has finally caught up with her sleep and work. The soccer season had a happy ending as her team won the state championship! I enjoyed the season very much even though she barely played and didn’t step foot on the field during the playoffs. I loved rooting for the team and so many of the girls and their parents-I have known many of them since they were little! She feels she did nothing to earn it so she didn’t get caught up in it-I do understand where she is coming from but I look at it that she did well to even make the team-she should play a lot next year but she has to put in even more work during the offseason for that to happen-that’s her decision.</p>
<p>No college mailings here yet, thank goodness! I didn’t counsel my daughter not to check the box but it seems she figured it out on her own–or missed it entirely. Either way, I’m happy. I’m definitely not ready to go through this process again yet. Maybe because she’s my youngest, I’m trying to hold onto my fantasy that she’s still a little girl.</p>
<p>Pepper, how great that your D enjoyed the soccer season and that you did too. And best of all, it’s OVER. (You can tell I’m a really bad sports parent. I’m trying to reform </p>
<p>OHMomof 2, we continue to get mailings from a college where D1 was accepted and where she even put down a deposit but ultimately didn’t attend. They are all addressed to her as a student/alum or to us as parents of a student/alum. We joked that we could probably list D1 as an alum and they’d look her up and think D3 was a sibling.</p>
<p>Hello all! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break. D slept a lot!</p>
<p>Pepper, hooray for a state championship! Pretty cool to be part of that, and nice that your D can relax a bit.</p>
<p>We are in the home stretch here, although the last day of school is Dec. 21. D is not happy because it cuts into her “Christmas time,” i.e., shopping time. :)</p>
<p>D has not received any mailings, so I assume she did not check the box when she took the PSAT. I think we’ll get the result of that test in early December (per her counselor), so it should be interesting. I know all of the schools vary as to when they release scores to the students. Does anyone know when CB releases them to the schools?</p>
<p>D is taking the PLAN test in a few weeks. Anybody else have a kiddo taking that?</p>
<p>My D2015 took the PLAN in late October. She said that the questions were easy but that there were a lot of them so you have to work fast. She also said that the science section is more about reading comprehension than actual science knowledge. My D also took a mock-PSAT (not an official College Board test, but a “service” provided by Princeton Review(*)), in mid-November. </p>
<p>Our school calendar says kids will get their scores on Dec 11th or 12th.</p>
<p>(*) At our HS, sophomores are only allowed to signup for the PLAN and the mock-PSAT and are barred from the official College Board PSAT. The mock-PSAT seems always to be much harder than the real PSAT. My tinfoil-hat theory is that Princeton Review is trying to scare parents into paying up for test-prep courses and then claiming credit for the kids’ dramatic increases in test scores. This feels like a scam to me, and if I hadn’t been away (out of the country for a couple of weeks) I wouldn’t have allowed my D to take the mock-PSAT.</p>
<p>Update on the independent study, we met with GC yesterday: It looks like it will be approved with the HS chem teacher as the mentor that meets with her weekly or every other week, as long as the college neuro prof agrees to approve the curriculum, meet with her 2-3 times over the semester, and evaluate her final project.</p>
<p>She has to write up the official proposal now, and the college prof hasn’t yet agreed to do it, but he and D are in email contact and he’s asking good questions. He indicated he’s willing to do it if it doesn’t take lots of time, and since HS chem teacher is on-board for the regular meetings, I think she’ll make it work.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice all!</p>
<p>(GC and I also talked about some other things…AP vs dual, the “most rigorous” GC form question…if anyone wants to know about that i have a separate thread going in this forum)</p>
<p>OHMomof2, that’s really some good info on the AP/DE thread you posted - thanks for the reference. I saw there that your GC has been great - I’m jealous! My D’s is starting to come around a bit, and honestly, she has so so many kids to manage that I understand that she isn’t plugged-in to my kid. However, something she said to me struck me as kind of odd.</p>
<p>My D is good at, but not interested in math/science courses. So she and I talked about her taking physics next year, but maybe not AP physics. I asked the GC about that, and what it would mean for the “most rigorous schedule” checkbox, and she told me that what she does is break it down by subject, so she may say “most rigorous” for English, language, social studies, etc., but then for science would just mark “rigorous.” </p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of the Common App, you really can’t do that. Has anyone ever heard of this?</p>
<p>What GC said to me was that she gives the “most rigorous” check if a student takes advanced courses and goes all the way to the hardest course in any subject, it doesn’t have to be all of them (or even more than one I guess). </p>
<p>She was very clear that the check box is subjective. And she says she also addresses that in her LOR…maybe that’s what yours meant?</p>
<p>In D’s case, the only subject she is not going to AP-everything in is social studies. She is just not that into history and would rather spend time and energy on other things. She’s not all that into English either but in our HS the best English teachers have the AP classes so she will do those. I think she also knows that being able to write well is important even if it’s harder for her.</p>
<p>One thing that I wonder about what you said is your D is thinking Physics instead of AP Physics - is it either/or at your school? Our HS offers 3 physics courses. Students can take either Physics or “IAP” (integrated analysis and physics). IAP is the “most rigorous” option and it’s math and science in one, so 2 credits. But they do also offer Physics II which is sort of like AP Physics. But you can’t take that *instead *of IAP or regular…all of our AP sciences assume you’ve taken the regular physics or IAP before it. </p>
<p>Most students do Bio or pre-AP bio, Chem or pre-CHem II, Physics or IAP and only then do an AP of any of those. (This is why D wants to double up on science next year, so she can get two science APs before she graduates).</p>
<p>Congrats Maxwell! It must feel great to get the official word.</p>
<p>OHMomof2, I’m envious of your GC. She sounds terrific. I attended a program at D’s school yesterday and I’m amazed at how thoughtful and careful the program is …and how dreadful the GCs seem to be. Their hearts seem to be in the right place and they seem to spend a lot of time working with the kids but oh my, are they clueless. A parent asked a question about helping introverts in high school and in the college process and the GC responding missed the point entirely, talking on and on about introverts’ strength in writing and how that ability will trump outspokenness. Another parent then asked, wait, what about the introvert who excels in math but doesn’t particularly like to write? She had no answer to that. </p>
<p>Somehow I’ve managed to remain ignorant of the “most rigorous” checkbox and it’s never once been discussed with us. My Ds have all attended small private schools with limited flexibility in curriculum and a smattering of honors and APs, limited mainly to math and science classes. I wonder if all kids get that checkmark?</p>
<p>I think your D’s independent study sounds fantastic and I’m glad it worked out for her. I also read through your other thread which I found very interesting. I have to disagree with some of the posters who, IMHO, look at things too narrowly and too traditionally. My sense is that every high achieving kid and his brother comes into the application process with schedules that look like clones of each other. What differentiates one kid from another and what makes the high school experience worthwhile is the schedule that dares to step outside the predictable. I understand that there’s a need to fulfill the requirements for graduation and to take the classes colleges want to see but honestly, I think seeking out and taking the unusual classes that are most fulfilling is the way to go. My D just mentioned an IS in architecture with a teacher she works with in an engineering IS this year. I have no idea how it will be regarded later on but I’m so happy to hear my D express interest and excitement in a study path that I don’t much care. At my older girls’ school, it was routine for kids interested in math or science to take a quick and dirty version of US History (required) over the summer and double up on math or science classes over the following year. It was also very common for kids to take math over the summer to move up to the higher level the next year. </p>
<p>Suzy, in my kids’ school and in friends’ schools, it was pretty standard for top students who liked but didn’t love physics to opt out of AP physics and take honors physics instead. We are lucky here in that physics is taught as conceptual physics as a standard freshman class. From there, kids can opt into AP Physics B or wait and take the more math-based AP Physics C…or never take another physics class at all.</p>
<p>From OHMomof2: She was very clear that the check box is subjective. And she says she also addresses that in her LOR…maybe that’s what yours meant?</p>
<p>You might be right. I really wish it wasn’t a subjective process. I’d love to see some type of standard, like “If you take X amount of AP or accelerated courses, then you will be considered to have taken the most rigorous course load offered.” The guessing is not fun, plus what one counselor decides is “most rigorous” could certainly differ from another counselor’s opinion at the same school.</p>
<p>Either way, I think D will end up in accelerated physics. It is an “either/or” choice at her school.</p>
<p>Congrats to Maxwell’s D on making All State band! </p>
<p>OHMom - I’m so glad the independent study worked out for your D! :)</p>
<p>suzy - I’m not sure exactly how our school does the “most rigorous” thing. I think at one point S’s guidance counselor said something about selecting a rating for each subject, and I kind of thought to myself, “Huh. I didn’t know the common app separated it out like that,” but I didn’t really dig into it to figure it out. </p>
<p>As far as physics goes, our HS offers 5 different classes: Integrated Chem-Phys, Physics I, AP Phys B, AP Phys C, and IB Phys. My 2012 graduate took Phys B junior year and Phys C senior year. My sophomore is taking AP Phys B next year as his first class, which I think is normal for the kids who do AP Phys.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. I just realized that her choices are not as varied as I thought: next year she can take either Physics I or Accelerated Physics - no AP offered at this level. Accelerated Physics is only a semester class (Physics I just compressed) but there really isn’t a next-level semester Physics course offered, so I don’t get why someone would take the Accelerated version. (Maybe to fit a fine art course or something in, I guess.) This makes the choice much easier. She’ll have 4 other Honors/AP courses, which is plenty.</p>
<p>PN: *suzy - I’m not sure exactly how our school does the “most rigorous” thing. I think at one point S’s guidance counselor said something about selecting a rating for each subject, and I kind of thought to myself, “Huh. I didn’t know the common app separated it out like that,” but I didn’t really dig into it to figure it out. *</p>
<p>Right, I was wondering the same thing. Maybe OHMomof2 is right, and it’s addressed in the LOR. I will f/u with GC on that eventually.</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments. I agree, and our GC agrees, that what she is currently doing - taking all that she can that interests her, including the IS, will make a better impression for college AND provide a superior experience in HS (and the latter is what she should really focus on IMO).</p>
<p>I’d love to hear more about your D’s IS experiences. My D is still negotiating by email with the college prof about the specifics of her IS and he hasn’t agreed to work with her yet, though I think he will…if not then she’ll get another, as she’s not asking for much now that she has her HS science teacher on board. I’m helping her organize her proposal - at our HS an IS requires a pretty detailed proposal with benchmarks and evaluations, and a big presentation to a board at the end. I want her to do as much as possible but I also want to help her put it together…it’s always so hard to balance this stuff :)</p>
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<p>Absolutely. This is why I emailed her to ask, and why she suggested we all meet. Maybe your GC will let you know what HER parameters are?</p>
<p>So is it “normal” for all kids to take a basic or advanced/honors/pre-AP Physics, Chemistry and Biology course and then choose ONE AP/II science, unless doubling up?</p>
<p>Does anyone’s school let them do AP science as the first course of study in that science?</p>
<p>Checking in after some time away catching up on posts, (and life!) :). My S’15 is doing well in his courses. His German class, (German I), is an online accredited course. He goes to a local college for tutoring and conversation with a student majoring in German. Our HS does not offer German and he has always wanted to study the language. I did make the academic dean aware that my S is taking the online course in addition to his courses at school. I am almost certain the grade that he receives will be added to his school transcript once the course is completed.</p>
<p>S has an interest in engineering. I am a little worried that he has not made an appointment with our GC yet to discuss his plans and to get some guidance. Our GC is very good, provides lots of information, and encourages the kids to read often and keep their grades up. There are many resources in the college planning office including self surveys to fill out and sample forms to keep track of EC’s and employment. By this time in her hs career my D’12 had her surveys completed and had met with the GC twice. I admit I prodded her a bit but I felt like she was on track. However S’15 is like a boulder; he’s not budging. I am trying to get him to think about summer programs in engineering or science but he is not showing much enthusiasm. His only EC is Science Olympiad and he has gone to a few meetings of a new robotics club.</p>
<p>OHMomof2- After general Bio and Chem (1 year courses) students can take either AP Physics or regular Physics at our school. There is Adv. Bio or Adv. Chem offered with general Bio and general Chem as prerequisites.</p>
<p>Thanks momsthebest. It’s interesting to me that there’s a pre-req for advanced Bio and Chem but not for Physics…I wonder what’s different about Physics there?</p>
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