They have to make it up, but people are such wimps about winter that they’d rather just stay inside and sleep and watch TV. I’m convinced the admins do this to give the teachers random breaks throughout the year, as mental health days, as escapes from the kids. At the end of the year when they do make up days, no one gives a crap and the kids just sit around and watch movies in class. They stick to the same schedule every year, as they have graduation dates set and testing dates already scheduled. So whatever days get added on they are just wasted days, no learning. I think they try to limit the number of days to under 5, because that doesn’t mess with the state mandated hours required, but they definitely play the system and take days off. It’s totally predictable. 10 am still not one flake!!
@RightCoaster We are having “icemaggedon” in my part of south central PA. Which, I admit, is rather treacherous. As a native New Englander, however, I rep my roots by constantly complaining about how everyone always freaks out about a little snow. Maryland, looking at you.
@ChicagoSportsFn it can hurt if there is a bad score, if you have one bad score and one good score your superscore will not be better than your one good score so why not just send the good score. Also some schools do frown upon retaking to many times so check for each school.
Sending the ACT scores costs money if you don’t use the 4 free ones you get when you take the test. Not a lot of money, but when you’re shelling out $100 per application on other costs, every little bit helps. $12 per school, isn’t it? for four schools, that’s $48 which is half the cost of a retest.
I’m telling kiddo to send the scores to the colleges lower on the list because this is his first try so he’s likely to have a lower score than any later attempts. If he gets a great score this time around I have no problem shelling out the cash to send it to the reaches. Also, sending your free score report to a match or safety helps convince them they’re not actually a safety. Nobody likes to be thought of as a last choice backup plan.
@RightCoaster you’re cracking me up. And, yes, make up days at the end of the year are a joke.
I used free reports to in-state safeties with S17. His practice scores were around 30-31 so good enough for in-state CO flagship. With S19 I haven’t done it so far. I think I will add a few in-state safeties now.
With SAT, you pay once and send all or score-choice what to send, so you can wait till the end. With ACT, you pay for every test report, so free reports actually do help.
Time to remind S19 to look for old TI 83 and add batteries as ACT does not allow TI Nspire CAS. sigh.
We forgot to take a photo, so last week I uploaded his 7th grade photo again. :))
We sent D’s 4 free SAT scores to schools that said that they required all scores to be reported. The score was pretty good, though not super-awesome, but since those schools in particular said “all scores,” we figured, why not?
In CO, the district plans a few snow days each year, so when snow days are not used up, they have random off days in spring, April/May.
Maybe they haven’t used up the allotted snow days in Boston, so they may be keeping students/teachers home not to spread flu/cold.
School closings are part of a larger question of how prepared the area is as a whole. Closing schools eases traffic on the roads, making rush hour better for everyone. And remember that, even though you may live close to your school, the teachers may not. Yeah, your kid can make the 10 minute walk to school sun or snow, the teacher’s 45 minute commute can become 2 hours in the snow.
Most school districts have a set number of days they are allowed to cancel. In the Houston area, it’s 9. But they were given a reprieve because of Hurricane Harvey. With the recent 2 day closing, D19’s school is no longer canceled on President’s Day.
My daughter has a TI NSpire non-CAS model. (I got this one specifically because I knew the CAS model was not allowed).
She used a label maker to put her name on the calculator. Some of her friends do that too . . . right over the CAS label. At a glance, the proctor can’t tell that it’s the CAS model. Apparently, the proctor never checks anyway.
I wouldn’t recommend that method to anyone here, of course. If caught, I assume you get thrown and and your score canceled.
Uh, S19 just spent an hour creating his Common App account, filling out what he could, and going over the essay prompts. At my urging. WHO IS THIS PERSON?!?!? :))
I will consider this a Snow Day Success.
As a born-and-raised Marylander (Southern Maryland, so even more so!), I’ll just point out that people from up north like to mock the DC area for shutting down over an inch of snow, but in response I simply say “vacation day”.
@dfbdfb Plus, isn’t it true that DC just does NOT have the equipment to get the streets cleared? Of course, it’s dangerous for teachers to drive to work and buses to get kids to school if the roads aren’t clear of snow and ice.
@dfbdfb I attended college in Maryland and married a born-and-raised Marylander. So my mocking is done with much love and appreciation.
WE NEED TO GET MILK AND TOILET PAPER!!!
OH NO, THE GIANT IS SOLD OUT!!!
WHAT WILL WE DO?!?!?!?!!?
SNOWWWWWWWW!!!
:)) 
I grew up in VA, so I totally get the affectionate mocking of Chicken Littles in the snow!
Has anyone else had to fill out a “Parent Recommendation” for their kid’s guidance counselor? Ours has 50 students in each grade, so I guess she’s using these to write her LOR’s. It took me a week of agonizing and editing to write and I’m still wondering whether I did it “right”.
They said to include “anecdotes”, but I honestly couldn’t think of any stories about D that somehow encapsulate why she should be accepted to college! I included examples of the things she loves and times when she’s been inspired. But was I supposed to be funny or cute?
One of the questions was to describe D at her best in the classroom. I didn’t write about that because not only am I not in the classroom (obviously!), D is a very independent student and she doesn’t share a lot about the academic part of school. I’m figuring that’s for teacher LOR’s, right?
@ChicagoSportsFn we sent D16s free ACT reports to his schools without ill effects . That said , he was targeting superselective , prestigious schools. It did get him provisional acceptance as a junior for Clemson though. ( they no longer do provisional acceptance there) I guess you need to determine your target schools , and make an educated guess about what’s best for your child . Clearly , everyone has an opinion.
The problem with snow driving in Maryland is that so many people are Not From Here. When you’re driving in snow in most areas you can make certain assumptions about the majority of other drivers. In Buffalo or Colorado you can assume that most other drivers have a good familiarity with how their vehicle handles in the snow, and how much speed and stopping distance they need. In snowless areas during a rare storm you can be sure that nobody else knows what they’re doing and you just drive at a crawl. In Maryland, you have a mixture of people who’ve never seen snow and people from northern areas with contempt for the whole thing. I have no idea if the idiot in the SUV ahead of me is driving at speed because he knows how to handle an unexpected skid, or he’s driving at speed because he’s an idiot who believed what the car salesman said about 4 wheel drive.
But today wasn’t snow, it was either ice or rain. I would rather drive on roads after a foot of snow than a half inch of ice.
So school would be getting out in about a 1/2 hour. There is whopping .5 inches on the ground. I think the kids and teachers could’ve survived.
Does anyone know if I have a chance at college or if I should give up?
I have a 3.3 UW and 3.75 weighted and I really just do not think I have a chance with an 1150 SAT