@sbinaz - Good luck to your daughter!
D26 and I recently got back from a 3-day nurse camp at BGSU (Bowling Green), followed by a tour of U of Michigan (which she LOVED – but will be a huge reach), and then today a local tour at Loyola Chicago. I think I am finally beginning to get a feel for what types of campuses D26 prefers!
Near U Mich, there’s a fun arcade. D24 and I spent about an hour playing pinball when we visited.
How was the nurse camp? D26 wants to do one next summer.
She liked it! About 40-50 campers broken into groups of about 10. She had a particularly nice and diverse group, and really liked her group’s counselor (upper level BSN student). She said the BSN instructors were also nice and entertaining.
Sounds like a good portion of the first day was getting American Heart Association CPR/AED/First Aid certified. The second day was various lab/activity rotations – everything from blood typing yourself to a sim lab escape room. On the final day they got a Mercy Life Flight demo, and talked to the nurse, EMT and pilot on board. Then there was a nursing panel with different specialties represented. Overall, it was well run, interesting and inexpensive. She left feeling the same or better about pursing nursing (although she still has some reservations about committing to such a definite pathway at 17 years old).
On the negative side, it was not a residential camp so I had to stay with her. We opted to stay in the dorms which were inexpensive and offered a private bath (but not a comfortable mattress); you could also stay at a local hotel. FYI BGSU is mostly a 2+2 nursing program (apply end of sophomore year) although my D said they told the campers there were a few direct admit spots for high stats kids.
There are a bunch of other nurse camps out there – UC Irvine, UC Davis, Ohio State, Auburn, TCU, UNLV and several smaller/regional schools (e.g., Southern Illinois University). We picked the BGSU camp mostly because the dates and location were relatively convenient for us, and the cost was low. I’m not sure how much value camps like this have, other than helping your child decide if a particular path is right for them.
S26 just took the SAT in June for the first time just to get the feel of it. He did not study and did not even practice. 
He scored a 1340. I told him imagine if you had done a practice test! He signed up to take the August 24 one and plans to practice this time lol. S26 is my youngest, and big brothers told him it’s best to take the SAT in August before the start of junior year because it’s going to be a crazy year with marching band, volunteer work, and 4 AP classes! Eeeek! If he needs to take the SAT again, he’ll do it in June or Aug 2025.
I also just signed up for the August SAT – and it was so full we will actually have to drive to a neighboring state for it! Unfortunately, it’s like pulling teeth to get D26 to do anything productive right now, so I am not feeling very confident about her doing much summer test prep. I have a company already lined up to help guide her, but D26 hasn’t even done the diagnostic test to get started.
EDITED TO ADD: I’m not sure if my kids are the exception or the rule, but they are just not that motivated academically in high school. At this point, since D26 is my third, I just don’t have the bandwidth to push, prod and coax anymore!
Wow, it’s full already?! That’s crazy! Hope it’s not too far from you!
I feel you on having unmotivated kids. It’s like mine can’t see beyond high school yet. I remind mine of their goals - to be a writer/computer scientist/film editor - and tell them there are many steps to get to their goal and taking the SAT and doing well is one of them. When I frame it that way, they get it. But do they actually study/practice for the SAT much, that I can’t control, only they can and the score they get is what they get.
Our highschool here in norcal is booked until next summer, I checked and the closest place for us to take the SAT in August is Phoenix. There’s zero testing sites in CA for August.
that’s insane!
We flew to Portland so D22 could take the SAT in 2022. We are lucky we can afford stuff like that… but it’s still ridiculous. I got S26 a spot in May 2025, only 1.5 hours from us. That felt like a win!
Makes me feel like I kind of need to get on top of it and get D26 signed up for the November SAT.
Stay strong. Don’t let the mob crowd create doubt with FOMO. 
We are in Bay Area and as soon as the SAT exam registration opened in May, all nearby centers filled up pretty fast, for all the dates till the end of year.
I had no idea there was an issue I was planning on signing S26 the week before the SAT until a mom told me most places are already filled. We are flying to San Diego because that’s the only place that was available in October just in case he also booked a place in December that’s “only” a 2.5 hr drive. I thought the test being digital meant there would be a lot of options and it would be easy to find a place to take it. I was very wrong.
I signed up for the November SAT (just in case) the same time as the August one, once I saw how few testing sites still had seats available. I had much better selection in November.
D26 is going to apply for a couple more jobs this week. My favorite college counselor at our high school left at the end of this past school year, had to relocate to another state due to a spouse’s job transfer. So I’m bummed about that, but the counselor that’s still here is awesome, too.
At our huge, urban public, counselors are so overloaded with students that there is virtually no individualized support. And budgetary constraints make it impossible to hire more. I’m not sure D26 could name or even describe her counselor!
Same situation here, huge good suburban public, 1 counselor per class/650-700 students. College admissions is not their focus.
The school district is opening a brand new HS in the fall, which S26 will attend. There will be a smaller number of upperclassmen, so we will see how that will affect counselor ratios.
Somehow I didn’t really realize the SAT registration was open. When I finally did, everything close was full in August. So he’s signed up 3 hours away, but my parents are about 45 min from that. I’ll keep checking to hopefully get something closer and just pay the fee. He’s deciding on November or December as well.
He’s never met his school counselor. It’s alphabetical so D24 has the same one. It was her 4th in 4 years. Big turn over every year it seems. This one is very slow to respond to questions. S26 emailed a question about scheduling in April and never got a response at all. It makes it hard.
Lovely. We got an email today with reminders for the fall and counselors were listed. His is TDB again. This will be #4 and he’s only in 11th grade!