@gallentjill we never had to account for summers for my DS16 and he was accepted at every school he applied to.
@BorgityBorg I admit that my D19 hasnāt started looking yet but I still think there are summer minimum wage jobs available here in hot AZ. Iāve seen several help wanted signs including my neighborhood Bed Bath and Beyond. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/upshot/fast-food-jobs-teenagers-shortage.html.
@Corinthian But I wonder how many of those jobs are just āwe want workers and you just happen to be starting in summer.ā Iām not particularly interested in having her work beyond mid-August. If employers are OK with those terms because 10 weeks of help is better than nothing, then OK, but I honestly donāt know if they areā¦
@BorgityBorg I think summer fast food type employers are used to that and minimum wage employees always have tremendous turnover. Our public HS starts back on August 7.
Regarding the common app, my D15 never directly listed summer activities. Her summers were always spent doing a combination of going to debate nationals, going to speech & debate camp for 2 weeks, one time trying a week long engineering camp, and one or two family vacation breaks. Her experiences appeared indirectly because she listed qualifying for debate nationals under awards, and she turned her experience at the week long engineering camp into her main common app essay about why she decided not to do engineering.
D19 has been spending her summers doing summer school, taking the classes she hates the most and would avoid if she could. The previous two summers she took Latin 1 and Latin 2, and this summer she has to take PE, a graduation requirement. So whatever she does has to be worked around that.
On the activities section of the common app, thereās a drop down menu that asks if the activity was during the school year or not during the school year. I wish there was a ābothā option as it forces the applicant to put activities on a separate line for stuff that was done outside the school year and S19 has a few things he does yearl round. He will have to figure out the best way to list everything.
@BorgityBorg My DS16 was told by more than one employer that they did not hire help for just the summer as the cost to train and for uniforms did not provide the return that they wanted. Iām sure that it varies.
Before we signed the kiddo up for summer community college classes and he got this part in the play, he was thinking about doing a large artistic project this summer.
He had this idea about creating a themed card deck with characters from one of his favorite shows. He had made a couple of ācardsā, but it would take him a long time to put together all 52. I told him I had no objections to that being his summer ājobā. He still may putter about with the project but I donāt think heāll have time to do the whole thing this summer.
If your kid can design and carry out a major project during a summer and then write about it afterwards, I would say it was time well spent. It wouldnāt have to be artistic - if the kid is an environmentalist then putting together a stream survey might work, if the kid is a coder then have them write an app?
@mom2twogirls @BorgityBorg Thanks for the insights about visiting safeties and reaches. Right now D has three safeties on her list, in the ālikely admit but not guaranteedā vein. Weāve visited one, but all are in the same general category. Right now Iām leaning toward taking her to one more safety, which is where we have relatives I really need to visit. Then weāll do four LACs, one match, two low reaches, and one high reach. One will probably just have to be a campus walkaround because we wonāt have time for full official tours at all of them. Somewhat redundant, Iāll admit, but since weāre thinking she prefers a LAC, this will serve to expose her to variations on a theme and let her ātry onā the reality of spending the better part of a day traveling to a school. One of the many things I do 180s on is whether we should encourage her to go far away to school or keep her in our region. I do know that I donāt want her right in our city because then she will spend her college years doing the exact same things she does in high school, which will mean weekends at the local mall and hanging out with her little sister. Little sis would like this but I think D needs some nudging from the nestā¦just not sure how far to nudgeā¦
I agree with @ninakatarina about summer. Donāt overlook the possibility of your child creating something from scratch. D has been creating/experiencing a qualitative research study since November in her area of interest and one of the agenda items for this summer is to write about it. She just hasnāt had time to tend to the formalized writeup during the school year.
As for summer jobs, what about camp counselors? D is working for day camps at a childrenās museum. Of course itās volunteer in her case, but I know many general interest day camps have some paid positions for teens. Not for everybody, but something confined to the summer months. In summer of 2019 I fully intend D to have a paid job the entire summer and this is what Iām thinking sheād like.
My parents did something interesting with me when I was that age, which seems sort of cool now that I look back on it. They had opened a small mutual fund in my name years before. When it came time to send in my deposit to hold my spot at my chosen college, they had me use that mutual fund and write the check myself. It was therefore the first check I ever wrote. I donāt remember if they articulated their rationale to me, but I do remember a feeling of pride and ownership over my decision. I remember such a feeling when purchasing my own computer from the college bookstore during orientation week using my earnings from that that summer.
@SDCounty3Mom - Love the story of you writing your deposit check. What a nice memory.
Iām leaving tomorrow to fly north to help D17 move out of her dorm and move things into storage. It has been a crazy journey to get to this point. The college search process was long and stressful and just before May 1st last year, we both took a leap of faith when she decided on her college and being so far from home. It was a rough first semester for her (and for me as result) even though she did well academically, but we both knew she should give it a full year. She made a dorm change and got involved in an number of activities, and she has been much happier this semester. Sheās looking forward to returning for sophomore year. I know she has gained so much this year and met many interesting people. I hope S19 has the same kinds of experiences, although he says heāll never call me to complain. 
My DD will be attending Governorās School for the Arts for 4 weeks this summer. It starts one week after school gets out and runs until just before her birthday in July. She will be living on a college campus about 5 hours from home. Guess we get a preview of what it will like to drop the youngest off at college. August is full of plans to study for the SAT, work on applications, volunteer, and travel.
As far as a college list we have 2 schools she will definitely being applying to, a bunch of maybes, and a few no thanks. I can see this kid wanting to do an ED application just for the chance to be done in the fall.
DD took two AP exams (Calc AB & Bio) and submitted a portfolio for Art 2D. Her reply to how the tests wereā¦ āOkā. She has a couple VA state tests (SOLs) up next. School gets out mid June here but most of the teaching is done.
@elena13, Iām behind in this fast-moving thread, but glad to hear positives about IB! We have no experience with it, but I know one of my kids would love to be able to take philosophy in high school.
After a busy week with two big tests each for my kids (2 APs for D 19 and 2 state subject tests for D22) today D19 and I are meeting up w/ old friends from club volleyball to tour the University of Houston this afternoon. Should be interesting because it got really hot here in the last few days. We are all driving 3+ hours to get to Houston, hoping the drive is uneventful. After the tour we are staying in a hotel, just like old times. Iām kind of looking forward to the trip, I guess I miss road trips since my D quit volleyball. Back then during the season we were on the road pretty much every other weekend to Dallas, Houston, wherever. My friend asked if we need to bring transcripts or anything, I chuckled since we have been on plenty of college visits and this is their first. No, itās just a tour, they arenāt going to offer you admittance yet.
My kiddos have 13 more days of school, but it seems like it will take forever for June 7th to get here. D19 is also taking the SAT again on June 2, which will hopefully be her last time. D is going to volunteer w/ the animal defense league this summer to take care of her NHS hours, but so far no other plans for a job or camps. We have a few family vacations, so she wonāt have a big block of time so Iām not pushing anything.
Ever since May 1 when a few of the parents from the Class of 2018 posted here to pass us the baton Iāve been trying to read their (entire) thread. I havenāt read any lately but I have gleaned a few tidbits. I found a mention of a book there (I think?) which I hope will be helpful for my D. Itās College Match: A Blueprint for Choosing the Best School for You, Steven R. Antonoff PhD. I have no idea what kind of school my D would actually do well in. Hoping this gives her a better idea of what environment she will do well in.
Son19 is going to be working on a summer project. He is designing something using CAD and will build it in his grandfatherās wood/work shop. He really wants to learn how to use more power tools and machines, so he is going to get some practice in this summer. He plans on documenting his project and I think he can use it on a few applications that allow a portfolio to be sent in. We need to look into that to see how complicated that really is and what it entails.
Iāve found another school we can afford thatās closer to home than the one we visited last. Iām keeping it under my hat for a little while- she had been salivating over an unaffordable one but I havenāt heard anything about it for a couple weeks so Iām waiting for that obsession to die down before I propose we look at something different.
In the meantime, Iām obsessing over the new one because thatās what I do! I checked out the gen eds and picked out a list of ones I thought she would choose, just to get a feel for it. I thought they had really good choices that are up her alley. Yesterday she told me what college credit classes she is taking next year and they both match gen eds I had picked (World Regional Geography and World Music). So thatās neat.
Can you tell us which one you found?
SAT scores coming out today from the most recent test date! Thereās a banner on the website saying that scores will be released throughout the day. DD felt like it went better than the last time. Iām hoping her scores reflect that, not because I care so much if she raises her score, but because sheāll be dismayed if she felt like her studying helped and she did better, only for it not to show in the scores. Sheās got a lot of test anxiety, so perfectly possible for there to be a disconnect between how she feels about a test and the actual results.
I hope you get good news @soxmom !
Good luck @soxmom . DS19 also has test anxiety.
It has taken me forever to catch up from when I was last on! LOLā¦ so many topics that I missed.
I am just happy that S is not taking any AP classes this year and is full IB, of course I wonāt be say that next year when he is sitting for six external assessments but at least there is no AP studying this year. He came to my last Friday night and told me that he had a bunch of stuff due by May 25th and to expect several instances of stress crying. It was the first time he told us ahead of time so we have been prepared. So far he seems to handled this week ok, but weāll see what happens over the weekend and into next week. He has an IA for Math due (6-12 pages) and he is writing about āIntegration and Kingda Kaā (ride at Great Adventure)ā¦ I barely understand what he is doing but it sounds good. The draft is due May 25 and the final copy is due the last week of school. He has his English Orals next week and apparently has no idea what book his quote will come from that he has to talk about for 10 mins. He said he hopes it is 1984 because he would nail it but if itās Hamlet heās not going to do well. He also has a written task due for English.
We too are debating the whole ED thing. I think that if William & Mary remains his #1 he should apply ED. Our EFC is too high so we would be full pay, any type of merit would be great. But we still have about five more schools to see this summer. Virginia Tech is offering EA this year for the first time!! Yay!
For those of you with IB students and taking TOK, do they have to do a presentation? My sonās TOK presentation is also next week! Lol!! He is enjoying that class too, they get into some interesting debates and discussions.