@MotherOfDragons I read “Temple of Destiny Binder” and I thought for a split second, “Umm, that’s a bit too much. I do not want to start worshipping the colleges like bad guys in Indiana Jones movie.” >:) 
My eyes have their own mind as someone previously read BS/MD as BDSM. =))
@HiToWaMom I tried to console him telling all the mishaps I caused. Oh, yeah, don’t worry, the other side light has been broken by myself and dad fixed it easily. I am regretting that now. X_X
@eandesmom Happy birthday to your S! Its too bad that the school refuses to accommodate his injury. Ooh, now I want strawberry pancakes!
D has once again put off the college search. She had to read and annotate a book for summer reading and says that she can’t look at colleges until it’s done. Ugh, I think she’s just terrified to realize the process is upon us. I can hardly believe it!
@whataboutcollege, the easiest way to find a common data set is to google “common data set <>”. It should pop up either via the school website or directly as a pdf file on the Google search page.
@mtrosemom thank you!!! Works like a charm!!! :x
@payn4ward who was with your son when he got into a fender bender? Were the police invlved? I hope it won’t affect insurance.
@mamaedefamilia big sigh of relief for your D! Whew
^^^^^
What she said. Common Data Set is a very useful report, it should give you a lot of insight on the schools you are interested in.
Collegedata.com seems to gather a lot of that info into one website which is handy. But I still double checked the schools my son was interested in.
Son17 finally has some time tonight to study for the ACT this weekend. Not much happening in school anymore, the seniors have graduated. He has to turn in a few reports, but there don’t seem to be a lot tests/quizzes until finals. Good.
I have to admit there is a huge part of me that is relieved we do not have the ACT this weekend (nor did we have a practice test last and 2 tutoring sessions). I am hoping fall is better for actual studying versus the end of junior year second semester crunch mode! Still, not worth the broken wrist just for that!
@greeny8. Well the good news is I just double checked and the final only counts for 40% of the college credit aspect (not 70) and only 10% of the classroom grade. Only. All he really has to do is pass though and I would be shocked if he didn’t. Even if he flunks it, unless I am doing the math wrong, as long as he gets some points (I think 15% correct is all he would need lol) he will definitely pass the college credit aspect. So not too worried on that front. I don’t expect him to knock it out of the park but I don’t think the transcript will be showing a D either. We will see but I actually think the college credit grade will be a relatively livable (for him anyway) B but it may drop his class grade down to a B as well. Hopefully there are other in class items that will bring the class grade back up. It is interesting though as the academic plan states the teacher will give updates on the college credit grade throughout the year and I don’t believe that has happened but the weighting is published so it’s not rocket science to figure out where he is at, which is a B+ in both right now. Not thrilled with the idea of a B but it is what it is and we will live.
LOL on the curve. No. Teacher doesn’t use a curve at all in this class. S would be doing MUCH better in there if he did! No yummy dinner and cake tonight (although we are going to hit a new food truck) as we have the concert he can’t play at but is required to go to messing with all that. And, the kid wants to open a present tonight even though we will celebrate out Friday. Except NONE of the presents have arrived yet. Unless a grandparent card is in the mailbox. Fingers crossed for that!
@paynforward. Thanks! It has to improve. Oh NO on your DS. Learners permit accident? UGH. My DS does not have his license either as he terrifies me. And now with the wrist…ugh. I’m not keen on the insurance costs, he isn’t keen on saving his money for a car so…maybe an electric bike IS the answer for him. I still want him to get his license before graduation though but honestly it won’t kill me to delay it.
I say that now…
@whataboutcollege. We aren’t out until the 24th. After the precalc test tomorrow I have no clue what my kid will so for the rest of the year outside of Spanish. Yes, visits counts as interest.
@snoozn. I did the math today. The worst it could impact the classroom grade is half a point and that assumes there is nothing to counteract it. S feels he has enough time for it (2+ hours) even with the handicap. We will see. If it’s due to legibility though…we will fight it. I know S will fight it though and I won’t need to. The good news is he has a very very strong relationship with the math teacher, he will almost certainly be an LOR so I do know he will do what he can.
@saillakeerie I agree, it’s a lot of dead down time after AP’s.
@mamaedefamilia. Thanks. Good news on the great report card!
@jedwards70 thanks! I hope so too! We will know how much better if he gets upgraded to the short cast on Monday!
@HiToWaMom oh your poor D! S was saying no one at his table finished the practice test. His close friend (arguably a far better student than S) didn’t finish a single problem. S at least finished both so that’s something. I guess. I will be VERY glad when it is over. I am glad I did the math today to at least determine that paying for the credit was probably worth it in the sense that he should get credit. That said, it doesn’t count for a whole lot. It can suffice as a placement test for some schools but for most will fall under elective/gen ed extra credits versus an actual math requirement being met. Still, for the price, I’ll take the 5 credits.
S liked the pancakes a lot! S19 did too, lucky beneficiary of his brothers request (except S17 got ALL the strawberries which seemed fair lol).
We have a close friend who is a 2016 kid…got in a nasty accident a couple of weeks ago and then they had a big crash assembly at school. Kid is absolutely traumatized, had his cousin, and baby cousin in the car. Everyone is ok but his car was totaled. Lost focus for just a moment.
Personally, I had 2 scares in HS and one in college. I’m ok with the kids waiting. To a point. SD14 still doesn’t have her license!
@busynapping. It was a new request, he was a happy boy (and full one!). Which is good as he often forgets to eat. Not good. Nice stall tactic with the summer homework, that’s funny! I want to pin S17 down on another pass on the rest of the list as he is supposed to have an essay meeting the week after and having a general idea of the essay load would help a lot though we will start with the common app.
I’m happy that no one hurt in the fender bender too. S had one of those in January, right after the 6 month grace period where he couldn’t take other kids. He was picking up equipment for robotics and had two kids in the car with him. No injuries to any person. Just the cars. The accident was deemed a 50/50 fault accident. And as I said, no person was hurt. He didn’t want to drive for a while after that.
DS got his driving permit yesterday! once school starts, he will have crazy schedule. So we need to spend sometime this summer on teaching him driving.
My DS likes to try new things. In fact he signs up as beta tester for different products (tech). He will probably wants to check-out coalition app 
@srk2017 – love that your son is a beta tester - sounds familiar ;
@eandesmom – wow – you are amazing with your responses to everyone - especially in light of your son’s broken wrist!! in awe! =D>
@payn4ward Sorry to hear about the fender bender - hope nobody was hurt and his confidence isn’t too shaken.
We just got my daughter’s provisional license upgraded to a full license today. Can’t believe it’s been a year already!
@HiToWaMom totally unrelated but speaking of pre-calc, turns out that sophomores can take the class but cannot get college credit for it. I am a bit annoyed by that rule for S19!
@CA1543 lol! It’s not my broken wrist. He is doing ok all things considered and at least I did pick up a homemade (granted, not by me) raspberry pie for after the concert that he can’t play at so hopefully that will ease the pain a little. It is torture though for him to sit there and not be able to play.
I sewed a button back on for S19 for the concert tonight (even washed and made sure the shirt was wrinkle free). I figure between that and the pancakes this morning I can go back to my regularly scheduled “not that mom” norm of making the kids fend for themselves. I don’t want them getting ideas.
:))
@greeny8 No police/ticket involved. It was at a parking lot and he scratched a parked car. Our car has more damage that is minor.
For the parents with new drivers I would like to share what worked for our family while my son was learning to drive. For consistency, I was designated the driving supervisor. It was my son’s choice after my husband and I each gave a driving lesson. If more than one parent is the supervisor make sure your supervising style is consistent. I had my son talk through what he was going to do. Parents that I recommended this approach to said it has reduced their level of stress significantly. It’s less stressful if the kid says they will drive to the corner, stop at the stop sign and then proceed straight. No one in the car screaming about make sure you don’t run through that stop sign. Knowing what his thought process was and what he was going to do before he did it reduced my stress significantly 
While we drove around, I pointed things out to him that we as experienced drivers would be aware of. The entire time was spent talking about nothing but driving. Our driving lessons started out 15 minutes long and after a week moved to 30 minutes. We did this consistently After a month we moved to 45 minutes. The first day he drove off by himself (1 year and 5 months after getting his permit) I was scared to death but I knew he was well prepared. Good luck on the driving lessons this summer!
I was thinking last week about the timing of the AP exams. For my son, AP exams and SAT subject matter tests were immediately followed by finals, papers and projects due and, as many of you have said, it was such a brutal month. My son was physically and mentally exhausted. I couldn’t wait for it to end last week and I don’t know how the kids who are still grinding away have the stamina to get through it.
Happy birthday to the kids who are celebrating their birthday! @2muchquan – LOL when you said your daughter received the first birthday card and said “that’s creepy”. My son would have used the exact same phrase. Not the reaction schools are hoping for :))
^ In our state, a state-approved driver’s ed course is mandatory to obtain a license. Then a high minimum number of supervised hours over a 6 month period, with a certain % of night time hours that must be logged and signed off by a parent or guardian. By the time they get their license, they are pretty well prepared.
When I was a kid, it was just me and my dad starting out in an empty parking lot on a Sunday… Stick shift too.
we have the state approved driver’s ed course as mandatory too. it was 5 days during spring break. I decided to take matters into my own hands when my son said that they never left the school parking lot until the last day. On the last day, the instructor did the highway driving. Since the same driving school covers the entire county through the public school system, I became increasingly concerned about the quality of the driver’s ed provided.
How many schools do kids generally apply to? What percentile is being used to determine between safety and target? Our GC said 25%.
DS’17 is my youngest and the last to get his driving license. I sure don’t miss that part of raising teenagers . Sadly, it looks like he has missed his chance to learned to drive stick. Our standard transmission car failed catastrophically today…on our way back from the hospital where we spent the day so that DH could be checked over b/c of severe kidney stone pain. He’s better now b/c they gave him some very nice meds but lordy lordy what a day.
DS is taking more charge of contacting coaches and narrowing his list now which makes me so happy. Right now we’ve got the four D1 SUNYs (Binghamton, Albany, Stony Brook, Buffalo), U Alabama Huntsville, and two others whose coaches initiated contact, U Mass Lowell and Bryant. We’ll be taking a couple of trips east next month to catch Albany, Lowell, and Bryant, probably camping for the overnighters. Maybe we could even take a road trip to Huntsville, but later on. Progress is happening