<p>Suzy- you may recall my d1 was in the same situation as pepper’s son’s friend. She dropped 10+ points from sophomore to Junior yr and missed the cut off by 1 point. She was devastated. Fast forward and by April of her senior year she had 3 full ride ( tuition and board) offers and was a US Presidential scholar semi finalist. NMF would have been wonderful , but not getting it was not the end of the world. Students with these type of stats will be offered amazing opportunities! I am ready to stand by with a virtual glass of wine to help calm you nerves next year!</p>
<p>I am passing out some virtual green box love to you all today!</p>
<p>Oops I need to wait till 24hrs have passed!</p>
<p>Oh goodness Gibson, I remembered the story but couldn’t remember who that was. I will remember this now, and the encouraging words about her scholarships. Seriously I know I’m crazy, but I’m glad I can spill the crazy here. You all have been great to me, and I appreciate the support and commiseration. Green box love has been going out from me today too. :)</p>
<p>I was at S2’s counselor office the other day. He said “Oh BTW I have the PSAT and PLAN scores.” I asked if I could have the reports. He said no because they wanted to pass them out next Thursday night at a parent meeting to go over the scores. Oh well, whether this week or next week, I couldn’t careless.</p>
<p>Gibson I don’t recall that happening-ouch! But it is a great example of how things work out-if the kids are in that range there are going to be opportunities available!</p>
<p>suzy don’t worry we’ll get each other through this! I feel so much calmer (so far) this time around-things that seemed life and death for my son don’t bother me nearly as much-at least not yet! Believe me we will all have our moments-my buddies on the 2011 thread kept me both same and from hitting my boy with a frying pan-in fact that frying pan is still used as a joke when we feel someone needs a little attitude adjustment! :)</p>
<p>Suzy, don’t worry about being irrational. By next year, most of us will be right there with you for one reason or another. I’m enjoying this discussion though because most of the time I’m the most tightly wound person around and this time, I get to feel a little laid back. Believe it or not, I completely forgot about the PSAT! Maybe it’s a coping mechanism so that I save my craziness until later on or maybe it’s because I’ve truly internalized what Pepper and Gibson are saying and what I know is true: NMSF really isn’t critical. The first time we dealt with college stuff, my D qualified, came home with the paperwork and waved it in my face, saying, “You don’t really expect me to do this, do you?” You can imagine how fun that year was for us.</p>
<p>S got Plan scores this week. He was pretty excited about scoring higher than “the smart kids in my Honors Biology class”. His phrasing cracked me up. I don’t know why beating their scores doesn’t make him a smart kid too…</p>
<p>PSAT scores are still in the wild beyond somewhere.</p>
<p>I didn’t know anything about Plan either. Thanks OHMom. </p>
<p>Still curiously waiting for PSAT. </p>
<p>It really feels like holiday season. D’s school had winter concert. It was really nice. She was acknowledged for getting into all state band. Several others got into All State Chorus.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve ratcheted down my crazy, realizing the PSAT really doesn’t mean anything this year. D said PLAN was pretty easy, she did not prepare. PSAT results tomorrow.</p>
<p>Now my crazy is directed at getting her driving. Just looked at the cost for driving school. </p>
<p>FYI- The cost of Drivers Ed is tax deductible in our state taxes. I think we paid around $500.</p>
<p>D2 was telling me that GA has introduced SLO testing for some subjects- they couldn’t come up with another acronym. She will sit the Chemistry SLO next week. I pride myself in being an informed parent, but I have never heard of it. D1 never sat these. She has EOCT’s for Math today and tomorrow and then finals next week. I can’t keep up with all the standardized testing!</p>
<p>D’15 continues to do extremely well but is working like crazy in APEuro. She purposely took it instead of APHuman because she likes a challenge and thought it would look better for selective colleges. Anyway, other than that AP class, her load is pretty easy for her to handle, and she is taking 8 classes which is pretty rare (kids who want lunch every day take 6, and kids that can tolerate not having lunch every other day take 7. You have to get special permission to even take 7, let alone 8). </p>
<p>Tonight she was asking my opinion about next year’s courses and two big questions arose. First, it was always assumed she would take AP English in 11th and 12th but her current English teacher told her not to take it because the teacher is horrible, and she said that the rest of the department is trying to get the AP teacher fired. So the question arises as to whether D should take it anyway, or hope that a top school understands why she skipped it. </p>
<p>Secondly there is the question of what science to take. There are 2 tracks in the Academy that she is in, and the hardest track recommends taking an AP science in 11th (either Bio, Chem, or Physics). She has done very well in Bio last year and Chem this year, and was wondering if an AP in either of those might be less onerous than AP Physics since she would have never taken physics before. Or, she could take AP Environmental which is considered an AP “Lite” but must not be too detrimental in the grand scheme of things at selective colleges since D’12 took it and still got into them. </p>
<p>I would love to hear people’s opinions about these two issues.</p>
<p>I’d ask some parents of older kids about that AP English teacher before skipping based on one other teacher’s opinion.</p>
<p>Our HS won’t allow any AP/II science without taking the first one…hers will allow AP Physics without Physics first? Even if so, I’d choose either regular Physics (so she gets all 3 HS sciences) and/or AP Bio or Chem, whichever she prefers. Or Enviro, if she wants that. Is she thinking of a science major in college?</p>
<p>Can you/she/both meet with her GC about all this? We just had a really good meeting with ours about many of the same issues.</p>
apparently. Here is the list of suggested courses for Junior year. This follows Honors Bio in 9th and honors Chem in 10th.</p>
<p>Grade 11</p>
<pre><code>Academy Honors English 11 or AP English Language
Academy Math Analysis or AP Calculus AB or BC
U.S. History or AP U.S. History
AP Biology, AP Chemistry or AP Physics
Physiology & Pathophysiology I*
(includes clinical rotations)
Medical Science Elective
AP Foreign Language or Latin
Fine or Practical Arts (2 semesters)
</code></pre>
<p>Hi! I haven’t been here in awhile! My S2015 is taking behind the wheel. Cost here is $295. Driver’s Ed is part of the school PE curriculum. I guess we are lucky to have that! The BTW is also offered through the school system for the fee. It makes it nice because if you have all the paperwork and all the requirements done, they turn in everything for you and you can get your provisional permit through them (they process the paperwork somehow).</p>
<p>On AP English. While it is important, it isn’t the end of the world. My DS1 (2011 hs grad) didn’t take any AP English courses in HS. He took a number of other APs (psych, chemistry, history, math, etc, for a total of 7 I believe). He was accepted to most of his schools, including an ivy, where he attends. In hindsight he says he should have taken them, but at the time he really didn’t want to and I didn’t push him because he was taking all those other AP’s. He just didn’t like english that much and really didn’t want to take it.</p>
<p>Our school wouldn’t allow you to take the AP science without the regular class first either. I would find out if the material covered is based on the first class, because if you don’t have the basis it will be hard to jump into the AP class.</p>
<p>I’m not even thinking about psat scores. DS2 has some ld issues and I know he won’t do well on the test, as he doesn’t test well. I’m just planning on getting him some tutoring before he takes the SAT and hope he gets a decent score. We won’t be looking at the same schools for him as DS1. We’ll be happy for him to get accepted!</p>
<p>We get PSAT results in January. However, S may apply to a summer program with early deadline. In that case he can get results back to submit before break but will get full score report back with the rest of class in January. </p>
<p>S will take PLAN in the spring along with the rest of sophomores. This is new for us since my D’12 never took PLAN and we were not aware of it being offered at our school in the past.</p>
<p>Driver’s ed is around $450 here. We will cross that bridge once he shows an interest.</p>
<p>D. got 210 for her PSAT. a respectable sophomore PSAT score, right?</p>
<p>A whole bunch of group pictures are taken this week - mock trial group (she missed the picture), science bowl, debate team, and band. They don’t take the pictures during their meetings for these activities. Instead, they take pictures with chorus, marching band, etc. during AP physics time!</p>
<p>@Maxwell - I think that’s an excellent score for a sophomore!!
I also have the same complaints about taking class time doing ER related. But I understand that’s part of American culture now.</p>
I’m enjoying this discussion though because most of the time I’m the most tightly wound person around and this time, I get to feel a little laid back. Believe it or not, I completely forgot about the PSAT! Maybe it’s a coping mechanism so that I save my craziness until later on or maybe it’s because I’ve truly internalized what Pepper and Gibson are saying and what I know is true: NMSF really isn’t critical. The first time we dealt with college stuff, my D qualified, came home with the paperwork and waved it in my face, saying, “You don’t really expect me to do this, do you?” You can imagine how fun that year was for us.</p>