Same. She said she could probably have gotten a 3 without taking AP Psych.
Sighā¦all the anxiety about the broken wrist and the AP Psych test got canceled anywayā¦. I feel AWFUL for all the kids who are upset. Our junior prom was last night and many of the girls were stressed and scrambling to change their hair appointments etc. My kid is actually thrilled because her wrist should feel a lot better in another couple weeks. What a mess though!
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We live in a big district with a lot of diverse options. The state we live in has also pushed for colleges to partner with high schools to provide dual credit programs.
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Districts around here are by town/city (not county), so unless you live in a big city not much diveristy in offerings:) There is one 1 high school in most places (or a regional vocational school)ā¦ even most smaller cities have 1 HS, maybe 2 by region.
We have excellent outcomes so this isnāt a complaint, but I suspect others would disagree.
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yep. My daughter had 50 minutes left with each section. Most of the kids did!
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Iāve never understood tiny school districts. I grew up in a state with county-wide school districts, and later lived in another state with county-wide school districts, a state with large (though in urban areas not always county-wide) ones, and a state with county-wide or larger school districtsāplus one where each high school gets its own district.
The inefficiencies in that last one were just utterly mindboggling to me.
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Where we live, 4 neighboring cities each have their own K-8 districts of 4-5 elementary schools + 1 middle school each, and all the 4 high schools belong to one separate high school district. It seems to work well.
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The weirdest example I know.. Hanover, NH and Norwich, Vermont share a public high school! (yes across state lines!)..though not elementary schools (maybe middle?). Some things have to be approved by their respective state houses, I think! I had a friend who lived there for awhile! so weird.
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Our town in Vermont doesnāt even have a HS. Very few do. Those that donāt have school choice and can send them to another school in or even out of state, including privates.
I mean, lots of towns donāt have a high schoolāso they go to the nearest high school, the one that theyāre zoned for. Vermont doesnāt work that way?
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Hi all, back from retrieving my D22 from college (complete with driving adventures and a damaged car, ugh) ā then S25 graduated Thursday night, and we had his grad party this afternoon. All went well, he had a great time with friends, and we are so very tired, lol.
But on the topic of cords ā my girlsā private school does not allow any cords or stoles or anything. The last headmaster held the opinion that everyone is equal at graduation because everyone is earning the same diploma. Thereās an honors day ceremony a few weeks earlier where they give out awards, but at graduation, only the valedictorian and salutatorian are recognized by being allowed to speak. (A lot of parents are salty about this. Our D22 was sal so we were chuffed that she was asked to speak, but my D26 is unlikely to be in the top two, so Iām not sure how weāll feel.)
S25, on the other hand, just graduated from our public school. Below is his cord situation. The blue/yellow cord was for NHS, which was given to everyone inducted. And then, he actually completed the stringent service requirement for NHS, so he was given the medal, too. The double white cord was for graduating cum laude. The red/white/blue cord was given at an external service organization (YMSL). The gold/red cord was for (nearly) perfect attendance, lol. And then two more for club/organizations. Oh, plus the stole was for International Thespian Society.
Itās a little ridiculous, and it was cumbersome to wear all that ā but not gonna lie, this is a kid that we didnāt think would ever graduate from high school or live independently, so Iām thrilled that he far exceeded our expectations in high school and was honored accordingly.
The minute we got back to the car after his evening graduation, he peeled off all this mess, the gown, even his dress shirt ā and we hit up McDās on the drive home with him wearing his undershirt and his cap. 
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My daughterās private hs was the same about all the extras. There was only one āextraā for high academics (a small imprint on the bottom of the stole) and all the honors stuff was before. College was the same other than she could wear her honors medallion at graduation but most people did what ever they wanted and wore their extra cords from clubs and such. The extras were noted in the graduation program though.
Not sure how my D felt about seeing photos of hs friends loaded down in cords. I donāt think she cared but maybe???
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Many NE states have towns that donāt have their own HS (even quite close to Boston this is true (concord-carlisle/ Acton-Boxborough / Dover-Sherbon) - so not even only in rural areas), but having not lived in VT I am surprised they pay for privates! That is interestingā¦In places I have lived (a few states) the town district shared a HS with another local town and that was pretty much that (some exceptions).
There are also a few"academiesā left in new england which are also unusual.and sort of like a private/public mix ish.
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Our competitive public HS has two honors assemblies (one academic, one for community service). No cords, stoles, medals at graduation. Worked out just fine.
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Yeah, a lot of people who have children in competitive winter sports will move here so they can send their kids to the private academies to train etc.
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When I was in high school, many of the towns in Maine found it cheaper to pay for the kids to attend BS (which was MUCH more affordable then) thsn to pay to have their own high schools.
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thatās a total crap way of doing it, at UMD they assign the freshman dorms, so if you have a roommate youāll maybe get put together, if you donāt theyāll assign you at random. At GT you do pick your room but everyone is assigned a time so if you know your roommate(s) the one with the earliest time will go first. But you get no real benefit.
Mine isnāt even thinking about roommates, heāll likely just get matched up by the university or something. All the kids posting on social media are, well, kids who post on social media. Neither of my kids are social media kids, my youngest JUST got instagram.
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my sonās HS doesnāt do anything. They donāt wear grad gowns, they donāt have hats and tassels, no stoles, nothing. just a plain white tux with black pants (which he got fitted for at school and it will be delivered to school). Itās glorious.
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Itās been a weekend you guys. The last day of classes was technically on Friday, with a senior BBQ / field day kind of thing all day long. Theoretically all work was due by 10:00AM Friday. Of course my kid wasnāt done. He busted his butt Thursday night, but wasnāt finished with science. He got extensions through the Saturday and finished his science then. He finished his photography portfolio Sunday (but that class only has a few seniors, and she wasnāt making them meet the deadline anyway, so that wasnāt an extension). Heās finally done. I donāt think he did well enough to bring his grades back to Aās in some of the classes where it was close, but thatās ok. I think he did enough in the nightmare grade lab course (seriously, what child goes from a 95 in Q1, to an 86 in Q2, to a 33 in Q3 and no one at school sees a problem or is concerned enough to reach out to us/him?) to get it to a C for the year. It sucks, heās going to have, I think, three pretty solid quarters, but to average out that 33 high enough to get a B for the year he needed to get a 104 this quarterā¦ not possible. So a C it is. Iām just glad itās over.
We went to a graduation party for one of his friends on Saturday. My husband couldnāt join us, which kind of stunk for me, as I didnāt know very many people there. Finally someone arrived that I did know (albeit not well) so that helped. I am clearly out of the socializing / party mojo, as it was freaking exhausting to talk to people I donāt know well for that long. (Also, I donāt know if this was just a super well off crowd, but I felt very very poor listening to them talk about vacations and travel plans. I am objectively not poor, but I clearly am not on their socioeconomic scale either.)
My S22 was home for three days before starting his summer job in Pittsburgh, so that was nice to spend some time with him. Iām really bummed that he doesnāt live at home for more than 3-4 days anymore. Heās just a lot of fun to have around and I really like talking with him. I drove with him to PGH yesterday to get settled into his summer place. The room/apartment heās subletting is kind of a dump, but itās airconditioned (not standard in student housing in PGH), has dedicated off street parking, is in a pretty good area for both his commute and to get to stuff near Pitt/CMU, and was relatively inexpensive. So weāll take the dump. I took him to the grocery store to at least buy food for the week, cooked him a ton of chicken and rice that he can have for dinners this week, and he took me to the airport and I flew home. It was a long day, but I feel good for having gotten my guy settled in a bit.
Today S25 starts his senior experience project (the required internship thing after APs and before graduation). Heās working at the place that heāll be working over the summer. His college major is construction management, and heās working this summer for a small family owned excavating firm. For the period of the internship heās going to be shadowing the more professional staff - the surveyors, business owner, site manager etc. The rest of the summer heās going to be a paid laborer. Since he has no skills, heāll basically be the guy carrying stuff back and forth I think. Weāll see. Heās excited about this, and Iām glad heāll get the experience to see what the job is really like. I do need to buy him some more clothes though. We got him some good steel toe boots, so thatās taken care of, but he only owns like two pair of jeans. All his other pants are some version of sweats/athletic pants. So more jeans or other work appropriate pants need to get bought.
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Iām glad he got everything in! Sounds very stressful for you for sure.
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