Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
4961

@payn4ward wrote

I just saw those yesterday when I was out with my husband getting a fancy schmancy pizza lunch there :smiley: I almost bought them, but I need a variety of binders (full of women, lol Romney) and they were a ton of one kind in each package, so I passed.

@snoozn wrote

What!?! Awesome that your daughter took charge and did the presentation, though. It’ll make for a good story someday over the dinner table.

@Mom2aphysicsgeek wrote

That was a wonderful song! Both DH and I dream of living as close to the ocean as we can get someday. The beach and the ocean are my happy places. Being warm all the time is H’s happy place-he can take or leave the beach. “The ocean is my only medication” Amen! Reminds me of a country western Jimmy Buffet :).

@greeny8 wrote

Ours don’t drink and they’re not allowed to. Along with being rule followers (it’s illegal here), we’ve had a lot of talks with them about the different effects of alcohol on the teenage brain, and how it can have permanent depressive effects on the still-developing frontal cortex.

I’ve explained to them if you raise the decision making part of your brain with alcohol, it’ll have a tough time knowing how to function without it. Much like nicotine burns permanent pathways in your brain (metaphorically speaking-those receptors never go away), drinking alcohol while your frontal cortex (decision making abilities) is still developing just makes life a lot harder for you later. They’re both pretty good at having a good time and letting their hair down/freak flag fly without alcohol, since we’re a family that gets pretty wacky without it so there’s no familial patterns there.

DH and I do drink occasionally socially (because he’s an introvert so we don’t socialize a lot) and to celebrate stuff, but it’s not a daily thing. I used to have a glass of wine almost every night with dinner starting in my late 30’s, but I stopped a few months ago because I didn’t like feeling habituated to it, it was messing with my sleep patterns, and I don’t like drinking my calories and was stubbornly stuck at about 8 lbs above my target weight.

The most interesting thing I’ve noticed switching to special occasion drinking is that my fitbit is clocking me as being about 25% more active without me making any changes to my exercise routine Depressive effects, indeed! Now I’m only 4 lbs over and after the first few weeks didn’t miss the glass of wine that much. Occasionally over a good italian meal I’ll be like, le sigh, but I get over it :).

@2muchquan wrote

From my research it seems like the honors dorms tend to be quieter in all of the colleges we’ve looked at because the kids tend to prioritize their grades over partying. So while I don’t think I could find a drug/alcohol-free dorm for her (and I don’t think I’d want to), being with kids who prioritize their work over the parties is a good thing for her-she is very no-nonsense about getting her work done. While Eckerd college isn’t on D17’s list (maybe younger D’s though), they appear to have a very strict no-alcohol policy in the dorms.

@carachel2 wrote

yeah, that’s pretty much word for word us, as well. Down to the kids (and me) being uber-control freaks and not liking to feel like we’re off our game or out of control.

We never drink beer because it just seems like a huge caloric overload and the smell reminds me of what happened to the horse’s feed buckets if rain got in them, but we do like a good scotch every now and then. DH has some friends who make craft beers, and we’ll drink those, but man some of those are so thick you can chew them! None of us drink soda either (although we go through La Croix water like crazy). Whole “don’t drink your calories” thing again.

I do talk to them a lot about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And we are uber-nerdy so we come at a lot of stuff from a science-y /philosophy point of view vs. a morality pov, although morality and moral compasses and consequences always come into play, if only to talk about potential lost opportunities.

They are going to do what they’re going to do; my job is to help them to make good choices and enforce the consequences if they break family rules (like not getting in a car with a guy. Ever. They have their own cars and as stupid as my rule may seem to them, they know why I do it and they know what happens if they break it. They usually only test me once or not at all on rules, and they know I’m good at catching them in a lie because they have physical tells that I can pick up on.)

I also have a phenomenal sense of smell and can smell the by-products of alcohol on people’s breath and skin. It’s a nasty smell, btw, and I wish I didn’t have that ability, but I am pretty sure I’d pick it up if one of the kids ever drank. They know about my sense of smell-I’m the stinkometer for shoes, armpits, shark week, and teeth. I am deeply, deeply odd. :stuck_out_tongue:

@Mom2aphysicsgeek I did look at the converter table. And got immediately confused.

woo! helooooo monday morning. On my third cup of tea. whee!!!

4962

@Mom2aphysicsgeek I think you probably have a better feeling about how schools will use that information, but I can’t believe colleges will be comparing new SAT to ACT until they have some more historical information on the new SAT. For kids who only take the new SAT in this current round (2017), I believe they’ll get a little benefit of the doubt with scores, again until they have more data. Don’t know if that answered your question :slight_smile:

My assumption, too, is that the Honors dorms would be a bit a bit quieter, somewhere between a normal dorm and a sub-free dorm. I haven’t done any research yet into sub-free dorms, but I’m not naive enough to think that means there is never going to be drugs or alcohol anywhere in this type of dorm (that would be weird :slight_smile: ). I thought it was just for kids who didn’t want to be around it all the time. Maybe I’m wrong. I think it will still be a ‘thing’, just more on the down-low. Kids may narc on their dorm-mates more in a sub-free dorm, who knows. I’m not sure how they actually differ from regular dorms in the drug/alcohol policy. If anyone has some info, please share. I’ll look for some old threads, just 'cuz I’m curious.

4963

“woo! helooooo monday morning. On my third cup of tea. whee!!!”

I’ll have what @MotherOfDragons is having!

4964

@2muchquan My question is actually more about whether or not schools will only look at M+CR vs. their total score M+(R+W) score. The SAT’s writing MC questions used to be part of the essay/writing score. Now they have mixed those questions in with reading questions for a single score.

Some schools have their own formula even with the ACT.

Also, in terms of substance-free dorms, I have read on these forums that some of the worst offenders end up in those dorms bc they are forced there by their parents, not a real desire for that environment. i think that themed housing or honors dorms might be better situations. No guarantees in any direction.

4965

My kids have been “scared straight” by their coaches. If they get caught drinking they are basically exiled from their sports teams for a long duration of time, which essentially means they will not play again. The coach will find other players to use that don’t get into trouble. So my kids stay on the straight side of things. I’ve never really had to say much about it.
My younger son attended an overnight soccer camp last year hosted by a professional soccer team. Their nutritionist grilled the kids on drugs on alcohol and what it does to your system and performance. My son totally bought in, awesome.
I hardly ever drink ( like 2-3 hard ciders a year) , and my wife only likes beer. The kids can’t stand the smell so maybe they’ll just avoid it for a while. I don’t think any of son17’s friends drink. He knows a few kids in school that do drink and smoke some weed, he basically laughs about it, as the kids are kind of goofballs.
I just tell my kids I personally think it’s a waste of calories, can give you a wicked headache, can get you into trouble, and it’s just harder to get moving the next day after partying. I’m usually up early to go biking, snowboarding, golf, boat etc.

I

4966

On drinking calories: A few years ago, with mounting stress in work and other stuff, I had a bottle of beer with dinner daily for a few days, and viola 8 lbs! Never do that again. :open_mouth:

A friend said a few years ago that her D hates going to high school dance, she would say ‘There is so much grinding that I could get pregnant from dance! yuk!’ :open_mouth: :-&

4967

@Mom2aphysicsgeek My intuition is that for this 1st year, colleges will convert new SAT scores to old scores, because they’ve internalized what’s a “good score” for their college on the old test.

If you use the online converter to convert new to old, it asks for the total score, the two 3-digit scores and also the three 2-digit subscores. It then calculates all the M, CR, and W parts of the old score. But, of course, the essay isn’t included, so the Writing score is measuring different things.

I would also guess that colleges that didn’t already will put more emphasis on just CR+M for old scores. Not just because of the new SAT changes, but also because of it becoming obvious that your ACT (and so probably SAT) essay score is pretty subjective and for a lot of kids depends on whether they knew that rescoring was available.

I noticed that CB now has a downloadable spreadsheet for bulk conversion of SAT scores. It lets colleges load in a file of scores they get and converts the old scores to new scores and the new scores to old scores. So, it does support the model of looking at everything converted to old scores.

Of course, there isn’t a large pool of percentile data yet, so I don’t know that I trust the concordance tables really. But, it’s all the colleges have to work with at this point, so they will probably accept that they are stuck trusting the concordance tables the CB provided.

I don’t know what they will make of the back and forth between the ACT and CB about whether concordances between new SAT and ACT are valid. But, if they convert to old SAT scores, they have more historical background on what old SAT scores match up with what ACT scores.

4968

On SAT scores…

So some of you may remember me mentioning the Texas A&M visit that my daughter was invited to. Well today she received an updated invitation. Requirements - 1300 (old SAT), 1270 (new SAT). Interesting!

4969

Anyone taking SAT also even with good ACT score? MY DS has ACT 35C and his friend who got 36C in second attempt (35C first attempt) is taking SAT also and he is wondering if he should do same or not. My recommendation was taking only if he NMSF (PSAT SI 220 in CA, so not sure).

4970

@srk2017 I agree with that recommendation. With a 220 in CA, he can always wait until after the NMSF announcement in September to take the October test.

4971

@ynotgo So what do you think they will convert from-to? New 3 parts to old 3 parts, new 3 pars to old 2 parts, or new 2 parts to old 2 parts?

If that makes any sense. I am just not sure which way they would go bc some schools like MIT seem to prefer the ACT English over the reading, so would they really dismiss the writing MC? My dd is obviously not looking at MIT, but I know they look do not look at subscores equally.

I know that some schools only gave scholarships based on m+CR, but I wonder if that was mainly due to the essay.

Just mostly thinking out loud.

4972

I think colleges are as much confused as we are.
Not an enviable position for AOs or Class of 17ers :-&

4973

@itsgettingreal17 …Did she get the Texas A&M invite for Feb visit? My S got one also however we could not attend do to UIL testing. Hopefully we see another invite soon. Did she get it email or regular mail? That is interesting about the SAT scores old and new though. What do you think about that?

4974

@itsgettingreal17 It’s interesting about TA&M. That should have been reversed.

4975

Yeah, between getting hit with the new PSAT/SAT, new ACT essay format/scoring, and a whole bunch of revamped AP exams, my D keeps asking why her class has to be the guinea pigs for everything!

4976

@itsgettingreal17 I wonder if A & M’s lower threshold for the new SAT simply reflects an acknowledgement that less reliability/validity data are available for the new test, so they assume a wider margin of error (in both directions) for the new scores and are simply casting a wider net to make sure qualified students are not omitted because of potentially lower reliability of new test scores. As others have commented, it will become easier (for students/families and colleges) to interpret the new SAT scores as more data become available in the next few months (after more administrations). All this ambiguity is super frustrating though!

(At this point all we have for DS is an ACT score from spring of sophomore year, old PSAT from sophomore year and new PSAT from junior year… waiting impatiently for school administered ACT scores from last month & state NMSF cutoff, which will guide decision about taking new SAT…it’s pretty much impossible to make a good college list without more info).

4977

@Tgirlfriend She received the invite by email. Its from “the DFW Prospective Student Center,” so appears to be regional. The trip is in July and all expenses paid. I’m guessing its a bus trip leaving from a central location in DFW. She’s busy and can’t attend.

Re: SAT scores. I’m not sure. I don’t have enough information (or the inclination) to attempt to convert the scores to figure out how they came up with the 1270 (new). D contacted two of her top schools last week that offer competitive scholarships with no SAT minimum per say, but where almost all of the scholarship recipients fit a certain profile (SAT, GPA, and class rank) and asked how they would be treating the new SAT scores for the scholarships. And they told her not to get hung up on the “profile” and that they had just gotten their first batch of new SAT scores and were working through them to determine how they will handle scholarships for those submitting new SAT scores.

4978

@thermom My D has been saying the same thing. Feels like they are being the test cases for everything. First for the new APUSH exam last year, new AP Euro exam this year, new PSAT, and new SAT. The only thing she missed out on was the revised ACT essay format/scoring, as she was done with her ACT in June.

@srk2017 D took the ACT twice last spring, 34C both times (though 35 superscore). She only took the SAT in March because her 220 SI should be good enough in our state for NMSF. Her results on the SAT were comparable to her PSAT, so she is done testing (except for SAT IIs).

4979

@itsgettingreal17 …gotcha. Probably not the same thing we got then. Ours was not all expenses paid. That would be nice though. I think ours said something about NM prospect. We are down to 5 colleges on the list and I would like to visit them all this summer then go back to the ones that really peak our interest in the fall. A lot will be determined if we make NMF or not.

4980

@thermom Most of class of 2017 are born prior to 2000, so they were made guinea pigs for y2k babies :slight_smile: My DS is born in 2000, but still became a guinea pig :slight_smile: