<p>Woohoo - All State band! Congrats!</p>
<p>Our HS hands out PSAT scores the last day of school before winter break, so Dec 21st</p>
<p>Oooh, Dec 21st would make me crazy, particularly if my kid was a junior. I don’t get why they do that.</p>
<p>Pepper, my D is tired all of the time too - she just doesn’t get enough sleep. The weekends are the worst because she want to lay in bed until noon but I want her up. Drives me crazy!</p>
<p>FloraFauna, tutoring may help. Lots of times there will be free student tutors at the school - at least it’s worth asking about. (And I don’t think a B is going to be that detrimental.)</p>
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<p>I could’ve written that! :eek:</p>
<p>PN & suzy100 – I know it’s hard for us ‘rents to wait, but handing out the scores on the very last day before vacation is actually good for the kids. It allows them to process their results in private, with their family, instead of in the swirling social milieu. It can help to tamp down the kids’ competitiveness and reduce their stress levels.</p>
<p>Speaking of kids’ stress levels, now would be a great time to look for a [screening[/url</a>] of the film [url=<a href=“http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film]Race”>http://www.racetonowhere.com/about-film]Race</a> to Nowhere](<a href=“http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings]screening[/url”>http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings).</p>
<p>I know it sounds crazy - does anyone know your 15’s summer plan yet? This evening my D’s school is having an informational meeting for something the school is doing in the summer of 2014!</p>
<p>^^^ Yes, more-or-less. D2 is going to continue to volunteer at the same summer camp she has attended/worked at for the past 5 years, and do her Girl Scout Gold Award project. We’ll might combine some sort of family vacation with visiting colleges in August. Exciting, huh?</p>
<p>Now, D1 is a different matter. I have no idea about her plans for summer. She’s mentioned applying for some internships. Maybe when she gets home from college for Christmas break she’ll enlighten me.</p>
<p>I’m not stressed mihcal! Well, not about PSAT scores. About whether or not I’ll get my Christmas shopping done? Definitely. I just don’t have any real inspired ideas for any of my guys. Anyone out there have any great ideas for guys ages 15-21?</p>
<p>As far as summer plans go, I’d love for S to find something cool to do. Right now we just have a couple week long activities in mind, and he’s supposed to find a job.</p>
<p>PN & suzy100 – I know it’s hard for us ‘rents to wait, but handing out the scores on the very last day before vacation is actually good for the kids. It allows them to process their results in private, with their family, instead of in the swirling social milieu. It can help to tamp down the kids’ competitiveness and reduce their stress levels.</p>
<p>I’ll admit it - I am a bit stressed about it for a bunch of reasons that I won’t bore you with, and that ultimately are dumb. Oh and get this - at the school, they bring all of the juniors together right after passing out scores first thing in the morning. Talk about a stressful environment!</p>
<p>I’m with PN in that I’m SUPER stressed about the holidays. PN, my SS who is a college freshman wants slippers that look like shoes, sweatpants, hoodies, one of those reading lights you can clip on a book, and gift cards for the restaurants at school. Other SS (who is 16) has yet to produce a list, but I’ll let you know if anything looks good on it once I get it. Nothing really “great” here I’m afraid.</p>
<p>For summer D will get a job, and I’m hoping to swing some college visits in conjunction with a vacation. After 2 summers of school, she is not interested in anything academic and I can’t say I blame her.</p>
<p>We won’t get PSAT scores until JANUARY. Oh well.</p>
<p>@Mihcal1</p>
<p>Yes, AP scores are forever. Note, however, that they are self-reported on college apps and not formally sent until you are actually going to a college - so perhaps thought not as reliable? You can also repeat AP exams and report only the highest scores. </p>
<p>Better yet is to take the SATII, which becomes part of your College Board SAT score profile. Because she was under 13, she wrote a letter to College Board to have them made permanent. (SATs of any type under age 13 are erased each year unless requested to keep in writing). She got an 800, so certainly keep. </p>
<p>@OHMOM</p>
<p>D called the lab, went over and talked to them, and got in under age 16. It’s worth trying, especially if you child is mature and focused. National labs are stricter, but local colleges may be more flexible on an individual basis. She worked with mice, not human tissue, and not with hazardous materials. She loved the hands-on learning. Went back last summer too.</p>
<p>wow- lots of posts today! Congrats to all with good news.</p>
<p>Softball girl did not progress to the next round in Governors Honors Program. She came home with a tear stained face from school yesterday : ( Tonight we are getting excited looking for fun summer camps for her. She has a great summer planned. My in laws are taking her to Italy for her 16th birthday. Did the same for d1. We have a family wedding in Milan so we get to join them there after they spend a week in Rome/Venice. Plan is to spend some time as a family vacationing in the Lake Como area. D2 and I will head back " home" to Scotland for a week or so. So we have a very restrictive time period for camps. She is looking for something in the pre med/ Biology field in mid July in the south east. Anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>PSAT scores for us come in Jan??
Prepmom that is an amazing SAT II score- congrats to your d.</p>
<p>2prepmom, thanks - and good for her! D is working with a local LAC on her independent study so we’ll see what develops.</p>
<p>Gibson: [Two-Week</a> Non-Credit Courses : Emory Pre-College Program: An Academic Summer Program for High School Students](<a href=“http://precollege.emory.edu/courses/noncredit.html]Two-Week”>http://precollege.emory.edu/courses/noncredit.html)</p>
<p>At D’s school, they have an assembly with all of the Juniors and hand out the PSAT scores there. All together. So everyone instantly knows everyone else’s scores. (And it’s a residential school, so they don’t get to get away from everyone immediately afterward. I know this from D’12.)</p>
<p>I have no idea when they give out the PSAT scores but for sophomores they really don’t mean anything other than to give some rough idea if they can score high enough as a junior to make the state cutoff-for an award that means less financially every year it seems.</p>
<p>My son went up a lot from his sophomore score. I have a friend whose son would have qualified with his sophomore score but when he took it as a junior his score went down a little and the state cutoff went up a little and he missed it by one point.</p>
<p>So if you are stressing try and remember in the grand scheme of things it’s not worth it-really in the grand scheme of things how important is so much of what we fret about?</p>
<p>I would love to see “Race to Nowhere” but it rarely has screenings around here.</p>
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<p>While the federal NMS is typically only a $2500 dollop, National Merit status can open doors to more lucrative private scholarships (e.g., USC’s half-tuition Presidential award for National Merit finalists).</p>
<p>And although the NMS represented only a sliver of D1’s college costs, it’s still almost as much as she earned for an entire summer’s work at her NASA internship. That sure puts things in perspective!</p>
<p>I don’t mean to suggest it is worthless-my son is on a full scholarship because of it-but that for many schools awards for this have been scaled back a great amount and you may get no $ at all-so depending on where you got to college it could mean nothing or a great deal-but I just was trying to convey it is not worth the angst I have seen it cause here on CC at times.</p>
<p>My son ended up looking at his school only because of the award and ended up picking it and loving it so believe me it is great for him-but it is also so much to base a single test on a single day on-and if you don’t make that cutoff you are out of the running-that was the point I was trying to make. :)</p>
<p>We are enormously grateful for the opportunity he was given but is can be so random-witness the story about his friend. :(</p>
<p>Pepper, I totally understand what you are saying and completely believe that my stress is irrational. (Not saying you are calling me irrational - at least not yet! 
) Your S’s friend’s story is my nightmare scenario. There is no way to control what happens on one day on one test. Sometimes I wish my D hadn’t taken it so young and done well, then I wouldn’t worry about it. We are going to need some hefty merit $ to get her to any school, and I know how much this one test could potentially make a big difference - but not even until next year! (I’ll probably need to be sedated this time next year. 
)</p>
<p>Luckily, my D is mostly unaware of my concerns about testing, but they do spill over here.</p>
<p>suzy–sedation may have its benefits!! ;)</p>