@3SailAway Can you just ask your GC if your D will get that box checked based on her current senior year plan? We’ve asked and our GC was willing to share that info. Maybe your D won’t have to change anything.
Thanks @elena13 , I thought I read something about getting it done early but that makes sense since the apps aren’t updated yet. Much appreciated 
@homerdog @3SailAway I’ve been wondering the same thing about the whole physics thing. I get rigor but how much is too much! I mean he is a full IB Diploma student and he should be able to take one elective he likes, he’s 17! But I also see the other side of you can do that in college… so I asked my consultant if it’s ok to ask GC now what box she’ll be checking with his current choices. I also emailed the GC and asked if we can set up a meeting so that I can come in and address some of these questions without sending an email full of questions. Of course, GC responded that she is still out from shoulder surgery and won’t be back until next week and even then it’s only going to be partial days… feeling so much anxiety
And the whole Bro attitude definition was spot on… as I was reading that I was also observing it happening in my homeroom. It is so frustrating to watch it develop and these kids are only in 8th grade but its already there.
@karen0 my older son used Testive a few years back and loved it. It was free back then. He used it almost every day for a few months and I thought it was quite helpful. I am not sure how it measures up to other products today, and son19 has not tried it.
@SunnyFlorida22 the schools all do recommendations their own way. You should just send in a note to the GC and ask. At out school, the kids can ask now, but the teachers are not required to complete them until near the ED/EA deadlines.
In the Fall, the kids log into Naviance and then select the school they are applying to and ask the teacher for a recommendation. You can ask different teachers to send letters or rec to different schools.
But mostly the kids and teachers are not doing any of this stuff until early Fall. So, over the summer, the kids work on their essays, fill out the common app, and then in the beginning of the school year they start putting all of the pieces together and get ready for the EA/ED deadlines.
Just curious…but, is anyone’s kids creating a ZeeMee video for college apps? A few of the colleges my S19 plans to apply to “recommend “ a ZeeMee…which to me means REQUIRES a ZeeMee. If it were my social butterfly daughters…not a problem! But my son is definitely an introvert, so this 1.5-2min requirement has me a little concerned.
his math is 800 but his verbal is 690, he’d like his verbal to be in the 740 zone.
his math is 800 but his verbal is 690, he’d like his verbal to be in the 740 zone.
I’ve been to Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth and MIT with S19 and to Yale with D16. Those have been some our favorite tours though perhaps we lucked out as the tours didn’t seem too crowded. We had a great tour guide from Atlanta for Harvard—granted we didn’t really go into many any buildings except the church. We ended up having discussions about non-tour related stuff with our guide, mostly about life-stuff at Harvard. Dartmouth we didn’t go into many places I suppose except the Baker Library, but the guide pointed out many things for us to see on our own afterwards. S19 loved our tour guide there, but she was big into the Outdoor Club so they hit it off. Stanford and Yale have really interesting campuses and at Stanford we spent a bit of time in Memorial Church which is very pretty. For Yale, we did the Engineering tour and the 2 tour guides were really personable (though they gave off the vibe of being over-worked by school, lol). With D16, we would sneak into buildings after the tours and explore. S19 is way too much of a rule-follower for that kind of fun (sigh).
My favorite tour has been UC Irvine. They gave us all, all 200 or so of us, reflective shades and had us dancing and doing a little silly school cheer by the end. What a hoot. We didn’t go into any buildings there either. The crowds were huge but the all the student guides were pros (and had mics) and were ‘working’ their groups.
The most “hilarious” tour guide was at RPI. It was his first tour and he had a more experienced guide with him to ‘review’ him. At one point in our 1 1/2 hr tour, that turned into 2 1/4 hrs, he detailed all the toiletries that could be bought at the campus shop. Another time, he explained—for 5 MINUTES–how the WiFi worked and how the usernames were set up. Then in the dorms, he explained how the dorms are really safe and how the RAs would come by at night to make sure everyone was safe and like if (or when) someone is passed out from drinking, they’d make sure you were ok. He was a freshman and we were in the freshman dorm. You could see the experienced guide die at this point and was thinking, “I can’t believe you just said that. Pls shut up.” Fortunately, the guide switched topics and then described the layout of the bathrooms—number of stalls, sinks, etc…on…each…floor.
I just want to echo @soxmom 's comment – I thought the college episodes on Revisionist History were the strongest of what is a pretty good series. It probably helps if you agree, but I can’t recommend the episodes “Food Fight” and “My Little Hundred Million” highly enough.
What tours have you all been on where the tour guides don’t walk backwards while talking? When we went to Duke the guide told us they are specifically told not to walk backwards, they aren’t allowed! Every other tour the guide has walked backward while talking.
NC State guides we had (perhaps these 3 girls were not the norm but…) didn’t talk while walking so no walking backwards. They would hit a spot and then talk. In between “spots” they barely cracked an expression and did not engage with the people on the tour. I tried to ask something or comment on something and got stink eye.
We have only had one tour so far where the guide walked backwards: Salisbury University.
All other tours the guides walked to a point and then talked: UMD-CP, UMBC, Shippensburg, Delaware.
Kona, DD is deciding about taking physics next year too. She’s an IB certificate student, not full diploma like your son. Does his school have HL Chem which is a 2 year class? (That’s what happens at DD’s school for most full IB students, I believe.)
If you are concerned about the most rigorous box being check~ just ask. My oldest did full IB which automatically gets most rigorous checked. My next two kids did AP. I asked their counselors which box would be checked.
As far as taking physics, my youngest is not interested. We are in VA and she has already met the advanced studies diploma requirements for science. She will graduate with 6 science credits and is not planning to go into STEM in college. She will be fine without physics. As a matter of fact I would suggest the only kids who really need physics in high school are kids planning to major in Physics or Engineering.
@3SailAway - Thanks so much for saying that. It helps a lot to know other parents are feeling the same way. Just as the kids can get sucked into the pressure of it all, it is so stressful to be the parent. We know on the one hand that there is so much more to life than getting into one particular college or set of colleges, but then you hear others talking about rigor, and subject tests, and state-level awards and you get whipped into a frenzy of anxiety, wondering if you are doing enough to give them the best chance at what they might want (or think they want).
The theater experience you described for your daughter sounds amazing and she will gain so much from that rather than taking another class that she can take later. Even though she should probably just do it for the experience and the enrichment, it sounds like it is the type of thing that would make her stand out in her applications. Just say no to the box!
@4MyKidz - My son’s list is far from being fully formed so I haven’t really looked into the ZeeMee thing. I thought about it for my D17 but then we were so overwhelmed with the other supplements and making a few arts supplement videos that it never happened. He might want to see if he could see some examples online and he might find some with a style that would fit better for an introverted kid (maybe where is not in view much).
Thank you @elena13 , I’ll check out samples and see which ones work for him.
Hi. I’m hopping over from parents of 2018. I was talking with someone today whose son is an athlete at college, and said that if your child is thinking of being on a college team, it’s really critical to make sure the school supports the team. Specifically, what’s the excused absence policy, can tests be made-up, how many days do the kids get to make up work, are the classes video-taped so kids can watch the lecture and if not will the prof give them notes from class or do they need to rely on other students, what are the provisions for studying if the team is traveling, etc. Just thought I’d share because if your kid’s planning on joining a team, these issues could be vital.
From my kids’ tours over the past few years:
Walked backward:
[ul][]Colgate U
[]Macalester College
[]Mt Holyoke College
[]Muhlenberg College
[]U of Kansas
[]U of Minnesota—Twin Cities[/ul]
Didn’t walk backward:
[ul][]Drake U
[]Earlham College
[]George Mason U
[]Miami U (Ohio)
[]Ohio State U
[]U of Alabama
[]U of Alaska Anchorage
[]U of St Thomas (Minnesota)
[]U of Utah
[]Westminster College (Utah)[/ul]