D19 really liked Ursinus. It helped to have an arts major as a tour guide, and she brought D over to the theatre building to talk to some theatre tech folks. Beautiful campus even with construction underway on the new science building.
Perhaps more important – D has a better sense of the differences between a LAC and a “more tech” program. (And she is forming her own opinions vs relying on me. )
Anyone going to or have gone to a CTCL event? They will be in our area at the end of the month and I was thinking about attending with D. If you have been to one, any good advice, suggestions?
@ILMom13579 D19 and I are going to a CTCL event tonight. Will report back later.
@OrangeFish Where is Ursinus? I think you’re the one with the theater tech kid, like mine?
Thanks @Corinthian, will await your feedback.
My D19 will take the ACT in February. I haven’t signed her up yet, but there’s plenty of time. School for her starts the 28th, and she hasn’t really done her summer homework yet! She is about 1/2-way through Handmaid’s Tale, and she still needs to read Interpreter of Maladies after that. She also has Spanish homework. We leave Thursday morning for D17’s college orientation stuff, and are back late Monday night. I think I’m going to take D19’s phone away every evening of the trip to ensure she gets bored enough to do that %$%(*& reading and homework!
The high school musical this fall will be Chicago. D19 loved the movie (and we saw it in NYC a few years ago too) much more than last year’s (Urinetown) so she wants to audition for it instead of doing theater tech with one of her best friends who would be stage manager. In my opinion, D19 has a great voice. But, she has two left feet ad never took dance, and we always joke about how uncoordinated she is, so…we’ll see. Chicago has a lot of dancing in it!
In any case and as usual, she is happy and sunny and in a lovely mood; I don’t think she read the “How to be an Adolescent Girl” handbook either. 
So, I hate to drag her down with my “polite reminders” that she has some academic responsibilities. Maybe when/if she wakes up.
I know where you are coming from @JenJenJenJen - D19 spent most of Sunday finishing up her English 3H homework. She had already done the reading weeks ago but then she needed to answer all the questions/essays the teacher assigned. And this teacher is a stickler for detail…almost OCD about it so the questions were really tough to answer. School starts this Thursday - so glad she did not have AP USH work this summer - I think I would have pulled out what was left of my hair!
Our only focus this summer is summer HW, of which he is about half way through, but still has 3 weeks to get done once back in town. Tests will not happen until December or later.
@OrangeFish we really liked Ursinus as well, and loved the theater facilities. It was the last LAC standing on my S17’s list. The new science building will be lovely.
@ILMom13579 we went to one last year with S17. He went kicking and screaming and came out of it with 2 schools added to his application list, one that made it into his final 3. S19 is out of town this week or I’d take him, we will hit an event next summer for sure.
OMG…S19 received his schedule today and picked up his textbooks. He has an assignment for APUSH, due before Sept 1st to read 50 pgs, write vocab definitions and answer short answer questions. I’m having a panic moment and am wondering how much work is involved with these AP classs, combined with football, orchestra, SAT practice. S19 is very laid back and has always gotten all his work done…I’m just freaking out inside though…Pls forgive my venting!
Lots of work involved with AP courses. Ideally it’s taught like a college-level course.
@4MyKidz Does your son know anyone who took APUSH last year? Maybe they can give you guys a clue as to how much work it is. At our school, it depends on the teacher. And, of course, S19 ended up with the one that gives the most work. She’s also the one known as the best teacher so I’m trying to focus on that aspect and not all of the additional work!
APUSH was very time consuming at our school and was often a GPA tanker , especially if taken with AP Psych ,AP Calc or AP Physics
Exhausting and fun filled vacation day. When grandpa dropped us off at our hotel across from the airport last night, he told the girls to forget about school for the next week and have fun. So d19 told me she thinks she should listen to him and not read her AP lang book until we get back, lol. She will have two weeks so she will be fine, but it was pretty funny.
@homerdog Good idea, I’ll ask him to find out.
I support upping the rigor…a rigorous curriculum will help him prepare for the rigors of college. However, as a previous English/Social Studies teacher, I sometimes wonder how much students are actually learning about these very important topics. You don’t make a stronger reader by giving them a heavy book. So hopefully, teachers are not just assigning tons of reading just to make a point and/or to weed out students. Learning should be the first priority…so I just hope that S19 doesn’t walk away with a severe dislike for a great subject.
I needed to read this tonight 
Refreshing read @gatoramama , thanks for sharing!
@JenJenJenJen – Ursinus is just outside of Philadelphia, close to Valley Forge. It’s a beautiful campus and has a medium-size but strong theatre program. D19 plans to follow up with the director based on the conversations she had with theatre folks she met at the visit. The facilities are very nice!
@eandesmom – I can see why Ursinus placed so high on your DS’ list. They really have a strong program and the campus is beautiful.
@carolinamom2boys I keep trying to convince S19 to drop down to regular USH. He’ll have AP Calc, AP Physics, AP CS and AP Lang and I really think USH is the one that should go. His GPA doesn’t need anymore tanking. and history (and french) have been his achilles heel.
I’m not trying to scare anyone about APUSH , I’m just sharing what has happened at our HS. One of DS16’s friends was ranked in the top 10 in his class . He has been in her class since first grade. Excellent , conscientious student. She took APUSH , AP Eng Lit and AP Psych along with Honors Pre Calc and some chorus classes . She was active in the theatre program at the school as well. She went from being a straight A student to barely getting Bs with some Cs. She had taken multiple AP classes before , so it wasn’t that she wasn’t used to the rigor of AP. Our APUSH teacher warned her of the heavy reading expectation in APUSH and AP Psych , and suggested that she may want to consider dropping one of those classes to Honors. She decided to not change her schedule . She realizes one quarter in that the volume of work was impossible to keep up with. She dropped from being in the top 1% of the class to being below top 10%. This drop made her ineligible for our top level of state sponsored scholarship to the next level which ultimately cost her 10,000 dollars over 4 years . She told my son, listen to your teachers when they tell you that a combination of classes is too much. They know what the workload is , you don’t . It is ultimately a personal decision to be made between a student and his/her family . No one knows your student better than you.
First day of junior year for S19 and freshman year for D21. We took a photo of them but we are banned from posting it on any social media. :))
S19 taking APUSH and AP Lang (and BC Calc shoot me now). I’m concerned like the rest of you about that workload. In the past, he’s taken honors or AP science, math, and English courses but not history. Adding APUSH is worrisome but he fought hard with me to be able to take it. I’ve heard it’s the class where kids really learn to write, even more than AP Lang. There’s some sort of paper due every Friday at midnight. Could that be the most stupid time for a deadline for a high school student? That deadline really means Thursday night because what kid is writing his APUSH essay on Friday night?