This is good advice even for someone who hasn’t missed school, so thank you! My D26 is in AP Bio, and she’s never had Bio before in any form, so it’s all new material. (Her school switched around the curriculum, so she had Honors Physics freshman year, then Honors Chem, then AP Physics last year. And she doesn’t remember anything from middle school science because Covid.) I will tell her to try AP Classroom to study for her tests.
Hope your D26 continues to recover quickly and get caught up!
Discussions about how your student is impacted by policies or how you are using that information to make college decisions is totally fine and appropriate in this thread, as long as it doesn’t devolve into the debating of the actual politics.
Same at our HS. D26 is having a hard time with the pace of CalcBC and some of the concepts. I think I might have her use AP Classroom as a resource.
Calc BC is a hard class! My D22 went straight into it from Honors Pre-calc, and the class created a group chat and stressed their way through it together. It was a mix of juniors and seniors in there depending on what track the student started in middle school.
Just know that usually a 60% will net her a 5 on the AP exam – the material is that hard.
D26 was on that accelerated track but didn’t have the best experience in Honors Pre-calc, so her teacher recommended her for Calc AB as a junior instead. That’s rarely done at her school, and we were unsure about it at the time, but it turned out to be a great option for her. She loved the AB teacher (asked him for a rec letter), and this year she’s having a much easier time in Calc BC because of it. (At least until next semester when the AB portion will be over, and it will be all new material, LOL.)
Yep, this is what D26 did. She could’ve taken AB, I guess, but she went with BC because she liked the teacher better. It’s still early. I think because she’s in a fall sport and it’s such a huge time commitment, she’s just tired and having a hard time juggling it all.
Both of my kids are very neutral and middle of the road about politics. D26 actively avoids discussing politics with friends and classmates. She feels it divides people more than brings them together. She has opinions on political topics but it’s not a hobby or special interest.
Honestly, I think everybody should step away from the news for a couple of days. They’ll see their mood improve.
FWIW, this seems to have gotten better for my S22 since he went to college. Part of it is because home for us is a DC suburb, so politics / political landscape is the local news and it’s what half (or more) of the parents of his peers do for a living. You can’t really escape it at home. At school, though, he’s 400 miles away and it’s not as constant of a thing. Yes, the kids at his school are still a politically aware group, it’s not like he’s living in a bubble, but it’s less in your face, which has made him fixate less, and has mitigated some of the anxiety.
In terms of managing it while at home, we just try to turn the focus onto other things and if the Big World is too much or too scary, to try to give some ownership by coming up with something local he can do to feel like he’s making a difference. Like - you’re worried about climate change / environment? Ok, globally not much we can do, but we can put in a couple hours with the county working on invasive plant removal at the parks. Worried about hunger / poverty? Let’s see if we can carve some time to work at the food pantry, or use some of our resources to buy some food to donate, or go through our things to see what we can donate that might benefit someone in need. Worried about elected representatives? See if there’s something small you can do with the local gov’t - like get out the vote for school board or something - that isn’t too time consuming but might feel like a positive action. It’s small things, but sometimes being able to even do a small thing that gives you some ownership helps. Of course, during busy application season there’s not much time for this, but even something small like making cookies for neighbors to build community and a reminder that we, as people, care for each other might help.
Just going to point out that some people are more directly affected by this administration’s policies than others, so not everyone has that luxury. And I mean that across a range of factors - right this moment , some federal employees may be wondering if they still have jobs.
I don’t know if this is helpful or realistic, but I wonder if applying to a university in another country might alleviate some of the anxiety. Even if it’s not something he would normally do, it might help to feel like he could have an alternative to college in the States. It’s similar to people applying for passports from their parents or grandparents country just in case.
D26 is pretty neutral on politics, not particularly outspoken. She’s not one to have strong feelings about much though, just her personality.
I was planning trying to reinstate back into the federal government next year, but I suspect the positions I’m targeting are likely eliminated. 
At least she’s a senior and any possible GPA ding won’t affect her as much. My D26 took Physics C and CalcBC last year as a junior and got Bs in both courses all year. Now, if she were a senior with Bs it wouldn’t impact her as much, but those courses kinds tanked her GPA last year (especially for the UCs, which only consider 10-11th grade grades). If we were to do it over, I think she would have been better off taking those courses as a senior.
My daughters (D26 and D30) are fairly tuned in to what’s going on; the controversial figure who was shot several weeks ago was actually the impetus for D30 to get involved in speech and debate, because he made her so angry. Neither of my daughters, though, are prone to much anxiety, partially because they just have no frame of reference to know how bad things are.
D26 is about to apply ED to her top choice (disclaimer: we know all of the financial and legal implications of ED). A small factor in this decision is that when I think about where I want my kid, this is it: a fairly small, intellectually rigorous Jesuit SLAC with a strong sense of social justice. I fully realize that we are extremely fortunate to be able to do this for her. It is a little bit of a consolation for me, to be honest. It just feels like, this is where she will need to be.
I hope so!!! D26’s ED1 app to a highly rejective school went in already so fingers crossed that it’ll be a minor issue! 
Oh gosh, re applying elsewhere, just saw this. Different visa issues but still! It seems there are limited visa places per college. I wonder if the surge in applications there is related to what’s been happening here.
I hate seeing this article 
lol
This has been one of my biggest fears since one of D26s top choices is an international school.
(we are actually going over for a campus visit in a couple of weeks)
I also worry that places may retaliate against US students if things get worse over here for international students going to US schools.
If she gets accepted and decides to go- does something like this happen last minute and leaves her with no time to pivot to other top choices.
We are just going to stay the course- and hope for the best.
This IS a crappy timeline. My daughter is concerned (as am I) – I think trying to minimize the concerns isn’t really helpful. But refocusing on what HE can control might help. As I tell me daughter, it’s a crappy timeline, but you still gotta eat and go to school and live life. So have him focus on what things can you control such as daily activities, registering to vote when he turns 18 etc. Maybe he wants to canvas for a someone running for office if he wants to be more involved.
This is the sentiment at our house 
.
Constantly hearing the phrase ‘how do we get off of this timeline!’ at our house. 
Both D26 and S20 are hyper aware of politics.
We take the direct approach. No catastrophizing and no sugar coating it. What can we control and what can’t we control. And what the plan is if things get too crazy.
D26 does have an international school on her list. I think it feels good to have that safety net hanging out there. (she did pick out international schools as an option years ago- so not related to the current climate- but is surely helping with it 
)
All this really did affect the college application process. So many great schools where not even considered just based on location. Such a weird time to be going through all of this. Luckily there are so many great options all over- that even with having many no-go states, there are many great options still available!
that’s a fair point.
what I should have included is that my kids have been listening to students passionately lecture others about their flavor of politics since D24 was in 7th grade. In a big election cycle, it would ramp up a lot. At one point in the latter half of high school, D24 was chastised by classmates for getting a drink from Starbucks. I can’t remember the political reason for why everybody at the time was anti-Starbucks. But D24 felt like she had to hide her Starbucks usage for awhile.
The intensity of some of her classmates over it ended up driving D24 to look for colleges that seemed to be pretty middle of the road/accepting of multiple points of view/encouraging of open & respectful exchange of ideas & debate.
She ended up at a school that is spot on about that and she really likes it there. The sort of place where students are friends with people who don’t align with their political views 100% of the time.
Which ones seemed this way? It’s a concern for my D also.
the answer to that question is “it depends.” It depends on what colleges are on the student’s potential list.
For my kid (other people’s mileage may vary on this), it meant eliminating schools like:
For D24, she ended up at an LAC in Texas. Students there are pretty chill, very accepting. There’s strong diversity there, people from all different backgrounds attend, strong support for 1st gen students. Not a big protest culture there. When there’s hot topics going on in the outside world, the faculty & administration organize formal debate & discussions in the biggest lecture hall on campus so everybody can respectfully discuss the hot topic and exchange ideas and listen to each other. To me, feels fairly libertarian with the vibe of “you & I are different but we can also find some common ground & although we don’t practice the same religion as each other & don’t vote for the same people, we can still hang out, get to know each other, and have a good time together. You want to go get some pizza?”
the other 2 LACs D24 applied to felt very similar.