@Corinthian – re: AZ pilot program – could be. IIRC, it was announced only recently, so that’s probably it.
The reference is more of a Swedish Chef reference, but by the time I realized it might also be a Star Trek reference, it was too late to change…
D19’s current school paid for and administered PSAT for all sophomores and juniors. Her old school in AZ not only didn’t pay for the PSAT, they didn’t tell the kids of the availability of the PSAT. So a lot of her old classmates didn’t even take the PSAT because they didn’t know about it.
No free tests here. We pay for PSAT, SAT, ACT, and APs. It would be nice if something was paid for.
Our school pays for AP exams as well
@BorgityBorg ah Swedish Chef! Anyway, you prompted me to use Google and I found this article: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/12/26/house-bill-2037-proposes-free-sat-and-act-tests-all-arizona-juniors-azmerit/977487001/ . I wonder how they allocated the grant for the free testing. Frankly our high school is one of the more affluent public high schools so IMHO it would’ve been better for limited grant money to have been spent on another school or district. Needless to say, nobody asked me!
Our school pays for the PSAT for 10th graders. For 9th and 11th graders the parents must pay. Sometimes the school pays for APs if there is extra money because they want more kids to take the tests.
So I just read thru the Northeastern EA thread and wow, lots of kids deferred and rejected with amazing scores. I thin it’s even got more crazy than last year when my son applied. He got deferred too, and I remember thinking he’d never be accepted at the time. It’s amazing how many high stats kids apply there now. I would have never imagined that 20 years ago. My son should feel lucky he got in when he got in, as I don’t think he’d make the cut now. Son17 likes the school too, and might apply, but I don’t know if he’d get accepted for engineering. The test scores and stats they are seeking are very high.
I had to pay all the AP test fees over $1000. No free tests.
A couple days ago we were talking about how the kids were starting to get emails from colleges. Today S asks me why he is getting emails from schools he can’t possibly get into. It turns out that my kid with an 1100 PSAT and a GPA just over 3.0, just got one from University of Chicago. Seriously. At least he’s sensible enough to just laugh at it.
@me29034 yep. Emails coming like crazy now. Haven’t seen an uptick in any snail mail yet though. S19 also knows enough to understand it’s all marketing. On the upside, he’s seeing some schools that would be safeties that look interesting to him. He’s clear that the two emails he’s received from Harvard mean nothing!
When we started getting our college list together and slowly started visiting some, it seemed so fun; but now reality is hitting me hard and I’m having a hard time digesting the fact that we are halfway done junior year and will be actually applying to schools in the near future.
Originally my H and I put a 7 hour driving radius limitation on distance. Seemed reasonable at the time. But now I feel like I’m having small panic attacks thinking my D could be that far away from us!!
Is anyone else feeling this way? Is the reality of what’s ahead becoming hard for you?
…
Ha ha that was for a completely different thread. Sorry if anyone sees it before I delete it. It was for the one about driving with a recent grad.
Panic? No - there’s next fall for all that usually taking the form of Mom cares alot about the deadlines and kid is nonchalant about it.
Wanted to add on the AP tests - our town doesn’t pay for anything but PSAT for sophmores, and AP tests are all but mandatory because (and here’s the fun) the school uses the consolidated scores to review the teacher’s performance! Makes sense but I wish the board would pay for it then!
We did not put any distance constraints on our older daughter and she ended up about a 10 hour drive away. She has been flying for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break. I am much more aware of travel logistics now after we have experienced travel issues with her coming home at Christmas. Both years she has ended up with one of her travel days being a day when there is a storm and there have been large numbers of delays and cancellations. This last time, I think her flight was the first of the day to actually get out. All earlier flights were cancelled. We were driving to the airport with her checking her phone constantly to make sure it was still going. It gets very stressful.
Because of all this, I am telling S that he can only go places that have direct flights from Boston, and where there are multiple flights per day so if his gets cancelled there are options. I haven’t put any distance restrictions on him yet.
Piggybacking my last post ^^^, my D also has a major medical condition, which is why we put a distance restriction on her. I do think this is contributing to my emotions.
Kiddo has two schools on the opposite coast and one in Ireland on his list. If he chooses any of those, we’re only seeing him for Christmas and the summers. God, I hope not. Then again, since kiddo is our one and only, my husband might uproot and move to wherever he goes if he’s too far. Unless it’s Ireland, where hubby can’t get a permanent visa. Maybe that’s why Trinity College Dublin is so attractive.
I like reading people’s opinions on distance, especially those who have experience first hand. We prefer that S19 is either (a) less than a six hour drive or (b) a direct flight from Chicago with easy travel on the other side.
We’ve got five schools on the list that are less than six hour drive, most right at six hours. Those can also be reached by flights and are close to airports so we would have the option to drive or fly. All of the rest of the list are direct flights but some are easier to get to than others once his flight gets in. (It certain helps to live in Chicago in order to have all of these direct flights.)
S19 has said no west coast and no far south so he put those restrictions on the search on his own. I’ve got a few schools in mind that I know would be great that are in the NE but the commute from the local airport to the school seems a little far and it’s not ideal. I’ll have to look more closely at how kids get back and forth to the airport for those schools before we decide if he should apply.
We put no restrictions on S18. He has just chosen his college: 12 hours away driving. We flew up this past weekend and the trip was 5 hours with layovers. The train is 24 hours.
I kind of wish S19 would be up for any travel arrangement to college but, if we are honestly considering “fit”, being too far away or not being able to get home would not be best for him. If he feels isolated from family, I think being away would be harder on him. I’m very curious to see how he feels about going to school that requires a flight. Once we get back from our March college trip, I think he will have an opinion. He will see first hand what his travel will be like. I think he’ll be fine with it if he finds things to like about a school that’s a flight away…especially if it’s south of here and warmer!!