@gusmahler Ugh. That’s so rough. I’m sure it’s got to be hurting her self esteem as well, which may be contributing to her inability to raise her grades for the second grading period. I’m sure that sleeping more will help.
School districts are certainly different. Our high school is more challenging academically than the other surrounding high schools. It’s not just from state to state. Our AP classes are more rigorous than the neighboring high schools. I know this for a fact since we have nieces and nephews at these schools. Tests are harder, reading assignments are longer, papers are graded on a tough scale. It’s especially interesting when the class is supposedly preparing them for the same AP test. Plus, if you moved into a neighborhood with especially good schools, you’re probably getting better and more involved teachers and those teachers expect much from their students.
Maybe you could meet with her guidance counselor as a family? Figure out if she’s studying efficiently and wisely? If she was sailing through school in AZ, then applying study skills is new to her. I would imagine that this is most of the problem. Maybe see if she can join some study groups (perhaps with some girls from her XC team?), so that she can see how other kids are preparing for class and tests.
In some ways, it’s good that she’s being challenged now in high school and can figure out “how to study” before she gets to college. I flew through an “easy” high school, thought I was a super bright star, and really had an awful time freshman year in college. I was away from home for the first time and failing classes was crushing my ego. The anxiety of it all was awful.
So, many pages back I posted a question about S19 wanting to do video/fim production as a college major and got some suggestions for potential schools…
Now of course his focus as changed and what he really wants is to go into broadcasting (on the technical/production/directing side; he has no interest in being on camera). I think that switches our focus to journalism programs, but I this is completely new ground for me.
It looks like Syracuse, for example, has a program, but it might be a stretch for S19 (we’ll know more when we get is PSAT scores back). Plus, I think the school is larger than he would want.
Where else should we consider? Finding engineering schools that fit S16 was so much easier…
@dbjs70 Northwestern’s Radio/TV/Film major has turned out many a successful star on both the production side and the on-camera side. So many of our friends in that major (from back in the late 80s) have had amazing careers. Check it out.
@dbjs70 - I know it isn’t a big winner as far as CC folks go, but Ball State in Muncie, IN is home to a pretty great telecommunications major which would fit with what your son is looking for. It is home to the David Letterman Communication and Media Building, apparently one of the most state-of-the-art media/digital/visual imaging labs in the country. Good luck with your search!
UF has a great journalism program. Not sure about the radio/TV end of it, but they certainly had top-notch facilities when I was there. It’s also way cheap, but has gotten much more selective since they let me in.
The FAFSA EFC is a number that determines whether you qualify for a Pell grant.
Some states use it to award state grants.
Everyone who files a FAFSA can take out direct student loans. They are capped by year in school, i.e. $5,500 freshman, $6,500 sophomore, $7,500 junior and senior. Up to a certain amount can be subsidized, if there is unmet need.
I want to do a big public thank you to @eandesmom . Based on your posting and pm I did an adult self diagnositic screening for adhd for S19. I had looked at child diagnostics before and they don’t really fit him well. But on the adult one he is off the chart strong adhd. Now that I research this I can see that this has been true for a long time but he has been very good at working out his own coping mechanisms that have served him extremely well over that years but now that he has an extremely tough academic load his previous strategies aren’t enough.
Wheels are slowing turning on exactly what we are going to do with this but already it has helped a lot even to have a tentative label. We have had a couple of great conversations and we are moving forward with a family team attitude. It isn’t parents against stubborn teen but coaches helping our talented but not always skilled athlete learn what structures, routines and strategies best help HIM succeed.
A good journalism school that’s relatively easy to get into is at Arizona State Univeristy. Their Walter Cronkite School of Journalism has won many awards.
University of Southern California has a very highly regarded film/visual arts school, though it’s obviously harder to get into (and much more expensive) than ASU.
Awww thank you @mom23travelers! That is so sweet. I would not have had my S looked at were it not from some mom friends from a long ago pregancy board (dating myself here, iVillage) from S17’s days that’s morphed into an amazing group of women across the globe that I’ve now known for 18 years. They know me, and my kids and there have been a ton of “real life” interactions over the years. I’d trust them with just about anything. We have a private FB group and it is all thanks to them that I “made” him get looked at. Happy to pay it forward!
It really has been a godsend. That said, there are some nutrition ways to treat things. I don’t recall exactly as we didn’t go there but it’s pretty big in Europe. My ped had said that the best way to go about that was through elimination diets and we were not up for that. Not to mention adoption and adherence would be difficult.
LOVE the coaches helping our talented but not always skilled athletes analogy. Love it!
My earlier worries turned out to be worst case scenario. Today is last day of grading period (a semester is made up of 3 grading periods here.) D19 ended up raising AP history to a B and pre-AP Chemistry to an A. So it’s a weighted 4.00 and an unweighted 3.42. She still got her first C, though.
Odd thing is that her confidence isn’t shaken at all. I asked her how she feels and she said, “I’m just as smart as I was last year, the school is just harder here.” So perhaps my worries were unfounded?
Blergh - D got a second interim report card (not a semester grade) and the A- in Chinese, a month later, is inexplicably now a C+. I really dislike this teacher’s style and lack of consistency. We’re laying low, though. PT conf. next week. We’ll see.
@gusmahler that is one healthy attitude your daughter has! Kids who obsess over As can be so stressed. Our S19 said to me yesterday, “Mom, a B is fine…Chem is a hard honors class. I feel like I’m learning a ton. It’s ok!” He schooled me. He’s absolutely right.
I have a question for everyone- what do you think about tests that require the kids to move at a fast clip?
Our S19’s chemistry class has long tests and many of the kids can’t finish. He had a test yesterday with four word problems and they were given 40 minutes. Only half the kids finished. S19 got a little bit into the fourth problem but didn’t finish it. He showed me the types of problems and they are LONG. Lots of math involved, etc. There are so many places to make mistakes throughout each of the problems.
I actually called the teacher because S19 worked so hard the night before the test, practicing these types of problems for two hours. He practiced setting them up correctly, working neatly as to not make mistakes, and going as fast as he could. Why would the department make tests too long for most kids to finish? She said that it’s important to work fast because they’ll need to work fast on the standardized tests that are coming up next year. I had to disagree with her. If the kids had maybe ten more minutes, they could show what they know. Didn’t she want to know if they understood what she was teaching? She said she understood my point, but the science department has decided that students need to get the problems correct and work very quickly. She agreed that S19 is a very thoughtful student, eager to learn, and a deep thinker…and that these tests may always be a struggle for a kid like that. She pulled his test out and told me that everything he finished on the test was correct. But he will still get a 80% because he didn’t finish. So I guess the grade just won’t reflect how well he knows the concepts?
And now I hear that the final is 200 multiple choice questions in 90 minutes. Yikes.
@carolinamom2boys I just don’t think that’s a life skill. And the whole system is broken. Work fast! God forbid that the kids enjoy the learning. Get those scores! That is messed up.
I’ve been reading books like How To Raise an Adult by the dean of freshman at Stanford. She’s telling everyone to get off of the crazy train. I’m with her.
@homerdog I disagree that working under time constraints is not a necessary life skill. Doctors , paramedics, fireman,policeman, nurses, lawyers, the military use that skill daily. We don’t always have the luxury of making a point or showing what we know in a long period of time . It’s not just a skill needed for test taking , it’s a skill needed for life .
He’s absolutely right.