Yes. There are definitely schools (even non-techy ones) that have very tight 25/75th percentiles. I think Carleton’s ACT range is 33-35.
I’ve spent the last two days watching our local high school students protest gun violence and unsafe schools. Several local schools staged walk outs and I was able to go to both of them.
On Tuesday one of the town high schools (not ours) was planning a silent memorial in their school courtyard. Apparently work got around that some of the kids thought they should plan a walk out where they were just going to walk outside of the school gates for a little bit. Somehow that turned into hundreds of students deciding pretty much on the spot to walk all the way to Parkland to the Stoneman Douglas school to pay their respects. My friend and I heard about it on Facebook and decided to drive out there to bring them water. Along the way we decided to grab food too and we ended up bringing 6 cases of water, 13 pizzas and tons of cookies. I have never seen anybody so excited for pizza! These kids were amazing - they were not prepared for their almost 12 mile walk - I saw kids in flip flops, sweatpants (it was very hot and sunny), girls in tight jeans and long leggings and many were still carrying their heavy backpacks. It took them over 4 hours to get there but most of them made it the whole way despite being super sweaty, sunburnt and blistered.
Yesterday two of the other local high schools (including ours) also did walk outs and they walked to City Hall. The schools called the night before and asked the kids not to do it but they were determined to do something to really show how they are feeling. The farthest away school came first, they walked 8 1/2 miles and did a 17 minute moment of silence in the parking lot. Then some middle schoolers showed up followed by about 1,500 kids from our high school including D19 and D21. There were even three girls from NYC who were here on spring break - they heard about what the kids were doing, made signs and joined the march about half way through! I loved seeing the first school get so excited when our high school showed up - usually the other town schools are rivals of course but yesterday they were cheering and hugging each other. There were tons of signs and chants and several people stood up and spoke to the crowd. Some of our high school administrators ended up joining the kids including the principal who walked the 2.5 miles even though she is injured and using a crutch!! They did not sanction the event but I guess they decided it was better to join in and support the kids in the end.
Parents and students here have each started writing campaigns to get our superintendent to agree to a walk out day. If the administration does not sponsor it, the kids will be marked unexcused and for some seniors that’s a problem if they are waiting on scholarships. We will see what happens. I have a feeling the superintendent will approve the request as I think we are only asking for 17 minutes.
I’m extremely excited about the kids in FL who have stood up.
Wow @momtogkc I love this! And of course now, I’m crying. But that’s okay. It’s so great to be part of something so cathartic. Glad you were able to help out those kids!
Yeah I received a letter from the school district stating the consequences if kids try and use school time to protest. But I would do it anyway!
@homerdog Some kids were worried about what the school would do for punishment. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t do much because it would be such bad press for them. Many of the kids at our school knew some of the victims at Parkland and I was sure parents would throw a fit if they did anything too serious to the kids. I was surprised the principal and some of the deans came though - I’m not sure if they were being nice or if they just knew they would look like jerks if they didn’t come! :))
I’m on a campaign of different sorts. I work at a college and we have been deeply engaged in preparedness ever since VT. Our local public high school uses the terminology “lockdown and teach in place” which is totally a mixed message to students. They use this for medical evacuations (overdoses:() as well as drug sweeps. The words lockdown and teach should never be used in the same scenario. I’ve had no luck so far but I wonder if the super will now listen, especially given all the use of technology during this latest tragedy.
Thanks for sharing @momtogkc. These kids give me hope.
One of our local school board members has been basically encouraging the walkouts on Twitter, although the actual rules are pretty cryptic. Students are allowed to engage in walkouts and protests during the school day, but are simultaneously supposed to participate in class. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I learned during D16’s adventures in HS that the school doesn’t seem to care about unexcused absences beyond a robo-call to parents, so I wouldn’t have any worries about that.
Thanks for sharing @momtogkc. The kids are truly inspiring right now.
My kids’ high school principal brought the seniors together (it’s a small school) and suggested that they form a committee to lead their fellow students in expressing themselves. While school leadership would prefer to not have an all-day walkout, they will work with the kids to figure something out. Parents are being kept in the loop.
Just so it’s mentioned on the thread, I’ll note that this idea has often been repeated (including by people in places like the Department of Education who should know better), but actual studies of over/undermatching have found that undermatching (i.e., a strong-stats student going to a “weaker” college populated by lower-stats students) does not appear to have measurable negative effects on outcomes.
Your kid’s individual mileage may vary, of course—but as a blanket statement, no.
The kids at son’s high school staged a walkout and 17 minutes of silence yesterday. They planned it during their equivalent of a study period. It was peaceful. They didn’t leave campus, just congregated on the athletic fields. It was supported by the administration, and parents received a letter from administration expressing pride in the students. I appreciate the way it was handled. Hopefully some of the less supportive schools will come around.
Yes every kid is different. My S19 can be organizationally challenged at times so a large school with a pile of geneds will likely be a poor match. We are on vacation and will make our way by Hoboken on Saturday and maybe after a cannoli stop at Carlo’s, we can do a drive by at Stevens. On the way down we walked through Manhattan which was agreed by all, to not be a great fit campus wise. New engineering building coming in 2020 but no construction yet.
As I finish The Gatekeepers, I can’t help myself but to compare the writing on every page to that of my kids (and even myself to some extent) as the author’s graduated from my son’s high school 35 years earlier. Our town’s school ranked among the best in Massachusetts back in the day, but not so much now. In all the years I’ve been in this town (20) we’ve not had a kid go to an Ivy. Our val a couple of years ago was an Eagle Scout just like my son, an accomplished violinist, and was completely shut out of the Ivies. He’s happily at RPI though as a dual physics/CS major.
@MAandMEmom Can you elaborate on why you didn’t like Manhattan? That is one of the few schools that my S has actually expressed an interest in.
I tried to no avail to encourage son19 to head out for a college visit today. Today is the only totally free day of his vacation week, and I just don’t. think he was too excited to ride in the car and sit thru a boring info session. I think he just want to be a teenager today and sleep in do fun things , so I approve. :-bd It’s a nice day out today, so hopefully he’ll go hang out with his friends and have a fun day.
Tomorrow, he has to go downtown all day for a track meet, and seems a little stressed out about it.
There will be plenty of other days for info tours and campus visits.
Our school is on vacation week , so no protests or walkouts. I have not seen reports of any other local schools organizing anything either. I like to see the kids in other parts of the country trying to rally support for their cause, and I hope they succeed in getting important changes made. I’m not sure what can be done at this point, but taking no action is obviously not working out very well.
Just returned from visiting University of Alabama - Huntsville and University of Alabama. These are currently S19’s most affordable choices. UAH would give him 100% tuition and housing for 4 years. UA would be the Presidential Elite Scholarship and Engineering scholarship combined. Although S19 has been fairly sure he wants a large school, we looked at UAH (about 8,500 students) because I wasn’t sold on a big university for him since he attends a HS of 900 and lives in a town of 6,000.
Although he originally agreed to the trip to appease me, he was blown away by each school. Both schools provided very personalized full-day visits. We toured the campus, met with engineering professors, met one on one with the Dean of each Honors College, met with co-op/internship departments and (of course) tried out the cafeteria food. In the end, UA confirmed for him that he does indeed want a large school and all that has to offer. He found UA very impressive and it has now moved to the top of his list.
We go to DE in the summer, so will visit OSU, PITT, UMD-College Park and UDel on the way. If he makes NMSF next fall, he may add a trip to UCF. Since we started with a list of about 15 schools before test scores, etc. it has been nice to see his list get shorter and more focused.
@me29034 the location of the engineering building was removed from the main section of the campus and the outdoor athletic complex split the two. The engineering building itself was very, very old although it appears they are building a new one. A picture at the building site looks pretty awesome but no work has started. It lists 2020 so not sure if that’s the start or opening. I couldn’t imagine my kid making his was from the main area of the campus all the way to the engineering building in a reasonable time. That would mean skipping class blocks I would imagine.
I know it was discussed earlier - but deadline for course selection for next year was yesterday and dd of course, waiting until the last second to finalize her choices (literally 5 min before the deadline texting me from the HS). I tried to get through to her about how busy fall senior year would be just with applications and essay writing (not her strength), but she is on this self-inflicted “race to nowhere” and insisted on selecting all APs or honors, except for gym (and she’d take the honors version if there was one even though she’s no athlete). Tired of seeing her so tired and staying up till 2 am last few nights just trying to finish homework. Yesterday she had to read Gulliver’s Travels (whole book) for a test today - she had put this off obviously but claimed there was too much other homework from physics and math, apush…to get to it earlier… It’s just a vent, but this road to nowhere thing is awful to watch, she’s at that point where she does listen to me but she’s got her own ideas and sometimes all the “mom’s been here and done that” doesn’t make a difference in her mindset. How many APs is enough, seriously?
@amandakayak Totally hear you. I don’t think these kids know how to get off that AP bandwagon at this point. S19 has a few non-AP classes next year (Multivariable Calc Honors and Honors Writing Seminar and Philosophy Honors). While they are still honors classes, the teachers do not have to fit in an AP curriculum so he heard that they aren’t as homework heavy and I hope that will help with the homework load.
AP Physics will be his bear next year. His other APs (Micro, Macro, Government, French) will hopefully not be too bad. He will obviously need to keep his grades up but, honestly, will probably only take the French AP test as a senior and not the others since he won’t use them for college credit or to advance place. I’m hoping that will help with the pressure.
^^. My son said he might add AP Gov to his list next year which includes AP Physics, AP Calc, AP Comp Sci.
He said he doesn’t think the AP Gov will be much harder than honors social studies. He doesn’t want to take AP Lit.
@homerdog, at our school the rule is if the kid takes the AP test then you don’t have to take a final exam. Most of the kids like that concept. I know son19 is relieved because he did well on AP stats mid term, but he was not looking forward to having to take the final. He can keep his quarterly grades up for the next 2 quarters, and finish with an A, regardless of what he gets on the AP test. ( I think, unless there is a weird rule where the kid has to get above a 3 on the ap test). So one less Final exam is nice.
I almost wish our district didn’t have so many APs offered - so that rigor could be 5-6. We are way beyond that and it makes it nuts. She will have 11 - I find that insane.