@Dad2020 Our school is big. 2800 students. We have 25 counselors, though, and they are really involved. Each one has around 30 juniors. Iām sure theyāve heard the scoop that (1) some kids know their scores through the leak and (2) we all know they have the scores. I just thought it was interesting that their āofficialā take is that scores come out Monday and thatās when we will get them. I could call our counselor and ask but Iām guessing she wonāt bend any rules or sheāll be answering to parents all day long. I donāt mind waiting at this point.
We donāt belong to any sort of support group. I really ought to get off of my butt and find one. Thanks for the suggestion, @mom2twogirls
Our school put up an announcement on the website telling people to look for their scores on December 11. Virginia actually gets scores on December 13, so Iām sure they will be fielding some calls/e-mails.
We have 8 counselors for about 2100-2200 students. I doubt S19ās counselor could pick him out in a iineup.
Weāre possibly getting some snow here tomorrow. Part of me wants it to close schools so I donāt have to go to a school event I volunteered for, and part of me wants S19 to just get his ACT over with tomorrow, haha.
4901. Our school size and counselors are similar to #4903's. The last two weeks they have also been working on next year's schedules. Juniors picked last week. Sophomore and Freshman this week. Also the semester ends the 22nd. While my daughter is class of 2020 many friends are 2019.
I checked our schoolās Naviance after GC sent an email detailing how to access PSAT scores next Monday and found that the 2017 PSAT scores are loaded. Thanks CC for the tip.
@Dad2020 - Wow, itās early to pick next yearās schedule! Our students do it in February (although our semester ends in late January). Hopefully S19 will be ready to choose by then - heās not sure which Calc to take, doesnāt know if he wants Physics 2, Physics C or AP Chem, and is unsure about one of his elective slots.
@homerdog ā Iām jealous about the number of counselors you have! Our school has over 2800 high school students and 10 counselors.
Counselors met with students this past week to do the latest round of post-secondary planning. They put it into a Prezi and emailed parents today with a link to the presentation. First piece of advice was to sign up to take the SAT and/or ACT. 
I had asked D on Monday what the presentation was about. āAll old stuff,ā she said.
Our district switched last year to a calendar that coincides with most Colleges. Final exams are December 20-22. School started Mid August and supposed to end by Memorial Day (Depending on the Chicago area weather).
Our kids ranked their choices for next year this week. Kiddo signed up for four acting courses as electives choices 1, 2, 3 and 4. It seems way too early to me, but what do I know. Maybe to help capacity planning and so forth. I didnāt see the words āAPā attached to any of those course choices, but maybe they donāt do that until grades are in?
DS19 texted me that he got his scores (probably from GC? got Naviance? I donāt know as I donāt have Naviance log-in.)
It went down from his sophomore scores, -20. +20 would have put him in NMS range.
Oh well.
Clicking Helpful for {{Hugs}} >:D<
Sorry to hear about the play outcome @ninakatarina . You found the right place to vent. Feel free to share and commiserate here. =(( :x
We donāt have Naviance at our school either, but now Iām dying to know if D scored in NM range. She hit the very low end last year- so weāre really hoping.
Our school is around 2500 students- with 4, YES FOUR, GCs. Although it looks like there are also 2 āgraduation advisersā, which we havenāt heard anything from at this point. We will get the paper work to pick classes for senior year in January- Iām wondering if we are on our own choosing as we have been for the previous years. Luckily I act as my own kidās GC, but although I obviously have Dās best interests at heart, I still am NOT a GC and am super worried about not picking the correct classes for her.
Interesting weirdness: My school districtās Naviance-like system, Q Connection, has test scores (but no cool scatterplots of college possibilities). My D19 took the PSAT in 9th grade, and thatās been there in the system visible to me, both scores and percentiles for each section, including last week when I checked to see if maybe we were lucky enough that the district had messed up and entered/made her scores visible there early.
No such luck. I went onto the system today for something else, though, and discovered that not only are her 11th grade PSAT scores not on there, but the only 9th grade PSAT information is her math percentile.
Not really of any importance whatsoever, just weird. My assumption, which may be entirely wrong, is that her scores have been entered in but made invisible, and they accidentally hid part of her 9th grade PSAT record in the processābut thatās purely guesswork on my part.
@homerdog wow, that is a big school, 2800 kids. My kidās school is about 1/2 of that, and I feel like itās almost too big. It must be so competitive to be on certain teams, clubs with that many kids.
@ninakatarina hopefully your son cheers up a bit and does well on the ACT.
@dfbdfb I would guess itās there and invisible as well. That sounds like the kind of thing my kidsā schools do on the parent portal when they are loading new schedules.
Teachers at our school are currently discussing course options with students for next year. D19 chose 4 half year English courses she is interested in for next year, of which she will get 2. She is definitely- assuming they fit together in a schedule- taking AP Physics (I forget which one we haveā¦C? I think) and DE Forensics (which is a DE chem class) class, AP gov and DE Calc 3. She has 2 empty slots and she is deciding between DE Spanish 5, AP Computer something and APES. I had thought she would do Computer and Spanish but she loves science and the teacher who teaches APES is a favorite so I think she might go for it. It isnāt a lab science and if it will make her happier, I think she should. So that leaves a choice between Spanish 5 and AP Computers. I have no idea which she will choose.
@RightCoaster Yes. Itās a big school and hyper competitive. To get on any of the teams, kids need to specialize in a sport by fifth grade. The school also wins a crazy amount of state championships for sports and academic type teams. Itās a pressure cooker. When I see kids with a laundry list of ECs, I get bummed out. At our high school, kids can pretty much (a) do a sport or (b) do music or theater or Ā© choose an academic type EC like Science Olympiad, yearbook, Model UN, etc. There is absolutely no way to do multiple things. Everything is year round and a time suck. Iām pretty sure AOs know the deal. The school is well-known and lots of kids get into highly ranked colleges but it is very limiting for students. God forbid that you want to play in the band and play soccerā¦
Having 25 guidance counselors is terrific. Most are pretty good. Donāt ask me what our local taxes are though. We joke that we pay private school costs, just in our taxes instead of directly to a school. My husband grew up here and we moved back for the schools. The teachers are out of this world and our kids are definitely getting an amazing education. I just wish the place was less stressful.
@homerdog your school and tax situation seems similar to ours, just our school is a bit smaller at about 350-375 kids per grade. It is really hard to play on a skilled varsity sport like soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey etc. You need to be really good to get any play time. My son is fortunate to play varsity level soccer and run varsity track and has some limited time to join a few clubs. Robotics is held Friday nights and over the weekend, so that works for him. He does MUN, Math Team and this year joined DECA. Both of those clubs are held right after school 2-3pm. Sports practice usually starts at 3pm and ends 5-5:30. Game times are another story, just depends on the schedule. He tries to make it to his clubs as much as possible. He is also a member of a regional club soccer team, so he is training and games with them too.
I donāt know too many kids that do band and play a varsity sport, but there are probably a few. Most kids never get the chance to play a sport at the HS level because it is so competitive, so those kids load up on clubs and service. They become the presidents of clubs and leaders of certain groups. There are also a bunch of kids that just do clubs that take up minimal time, but load up on AP classes and end uo with super high GPA 's. Most of the kids that are really active in sports/clubs/service canāt fully load up on every AP because theyād be up to 4 in the morning doing homework. Itās quite silly.
Regarding Senior Schedules: We donāt select for a while because in order to be placed into certain AP classes students need to maintain an A level in their current class for the 1st two semesters. So I think we figure it all out in March maybe. My kid already knows what he wants to take, heāll just have to wait to officially submit it.
4916. Thought of this kid my daughter knows from school. Our school is a little west of you and not as highly rated as yours (it's the district that has the mall everyone goes to this time of year). Ironically he's a starter on the varsity soccer team and is in the band (ours is a marching band also). He does miss band at football games because they conflicted with soccer. He's on speech team. math team, chess team, and BPA. And that just the ones I know of. He also takes 5AP classes (none are math since he did multivariable calc. last year.) . So while it seems impossible (at least to me) it can be done.
@RightCoaster Our S19 loved band and wanted to continue freshman year but, at the time, he was playing soccer and club soccer. He made the freshman team (they even cut for the freshman team - 45 kids tried out and 22 made it. all of these kids having played club soccer since grade school!) but then the coaches said no band. Marching band practice is at the same time as sports practices and he had to choose. Marching band is required in order to do any band program. So, there went music.
He hated soccer. Didnāt like the boys or the coaches so is now running xc/winter track/track and the coaches are just as insane. There are no cuts but kids drop like flies because the coaches are out to win and have no mercy. Throwing up at practice happens quite regularly. Principal knows but doesnāt care. Coach has even advised the kids to take easier classes so that they can get eight hours of sleep. No one takes his advice, though, as these are some of the smartest boys in the school. They are all up until midnight most nights doing homework.
S19 is an artist and has been taking art classes outside school since fourth grade. His XC told him āI love art but, if you want to take a class outside school, then you canāt run on my team.ā What baloney. S19 has made it work, taking art at the high school and sneaking to his art teacher outside school if heās ever hurt or is in between each running season. Art is also awesome at the high school so heās managed to keep that going.
Other than that, heās had to choose things that work with his schedule. Heās a peer leader. That meets in the mornings and during gym periods. He works on our local community house junior board which meets on Sundays. There are so many cool ECs that heād like to do at the school but cannot. Iāve begged him to stop running but his teammates are his best friends and he feels, without that time with them, heād be miserable. I donāt want to rush my kidsā childhoods, but I am really looking forward to him going to college and getting off this hamster wheel of an existence.
Senior schedules done in Feb. I think S19 will take AP Stats, AP French, AP Physics, AP Gov (one sem), AP Macro (one sem), Honors Writing Seminar, AP Art, and he wants to take Philosophy. He finally gets to choose a class he wants to take! That schedule looks nuts but I think stats is easier than BC Calc which heās taking now and AP Gov & Macro shouldnāt be bad. His hardest class with be Physics.