She nailed math (99th percentile). While she did well in reading (95th percentile), but she wants to take the exam in December to hopefully raise her reading score and be done before senior year.
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I asked my kid to do the list, and he came back and said that he couldnāt figure out where music and opportunities for service would fit on the list, and those are really important to him. Also, what if doing sports is important to you, and watching NCAA teams isnāt?
Anyway, I thought it was a great tool for figuring out what he wants even though it didnāt yield a list.
Right now his list is:
Existence of a 5/6 year combined degree program in OT
Cost
Strength in the specific program
Culture of service, and particularly service with children with disabilities
Music
Coed (although we think there are no all male schools that have OT programs, so this is a given)
Small size (Class size kind of gets rolled in with this)
Student support
Sports he can participate in with other people (heās not really picky about which sports)
Distance (Heād really liked to be close to home, or to his girlfriend)
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Hey, thatās a great list! Itās a lot better than him saying, āUhā¦I donāt knowā when you ask him why he does or doesnāt like specific schools.
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Anyone elseās kid thinking about being a student poll worker for Election Day? Mine is considering it. (Iāve done it before too.) I still donāt understand why the US doesnāt make Election Day a holiday like most other countries do.
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I think itās a great idea I didnāt know about it but S26 was intrigued by the some of the paid positions, heās starting to think about a part time job so he can make his own money.
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What is a student poll worker? Here poll workers have to be 18 afaik. S26 would love to do that otherwise (he would love the $200 it pays too 
) . Kids are off school on election day, because most schools are polling places.
I asked him about going on some college tours during his upcoming two day fall break. His answer: Iāll think about it. I think that means ānot interestedā 
Our school is in session on election day. In our state, in order to be a poll worker, you have to be a registered voter, so no poll worker stuff for D26 yet. 
Maybe it varies by county or state. Our requirements are 16 yo and a citizen, and the stipend for a student poll worker is $160 (I think thatās less than a regular one).
(Oh and minimum GPA of 2.5 and both parent and school permission.)
But now X26 is saying it sounds like a long boring day and maybe they wonāt do it after all!
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D26 starts at Taco Bell later this week!
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Yea, I think it does depend on locality. In our city, high school poll workers must be juniors or seniors, 3.0 GPA, have written approval by parent and principal, etc.
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Interesting that they do it by grade rather than age. X26 only turns 16 mid-October so just makes the age cut off as of Election Day, but mostly the just-turned-16s at our school would be sophomores so would not be eligible on your city rules but are by ours.
I havenāt posted in this thread yet (or posted very often at all so far). My S26 will be a poll worker in the upcoming election. Heās approved and has gone through the training - 3 hours of in-person training and 3 hours of online training. He will be working on Nov 2nd and 3rd from 9am-8pm and Nov 5th from 6am-9pm. Wasnāt really expecting those hours.
He will get an excused absence for the Tuesday. And the compensation is $80 for training, $100 for each day and an extra $100 if you know a second language. So, thatās $480. All together.
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wow, thatās a lot of money for a 16 yo, thatās wonderful. And I think itās crazy how differently this is handled from state to state.
I see it as a good idea to involve 16 year olds, it could really increase their interest in public affairs and hopefully turn them into future voters.
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Ours only get $15 extra for being bilingual! Really a lot of differences between places. The info did warn it would be a 6am-9pm day (which I remember from my own poll working).
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We have a program in our county where kids can work at the polls, but they get paid in service hours not in cash. They do things like handing out the I voted stickers, setting up the polling places, and standing in line on behalf of elderly or disabled voters.
They get more middle schoolers than high schoolers, but the kids I know who have done it have enjoyed it. My kids havenāt done it because they are at private schools that arenāt polling places so they arenāt closed on election day.
My S26 is a registered voter. He canāt vote, of course, because heās 17, but here you can register to vote when you get your DL, and then youāre already registered when you turn 18. I wonder if that means he could be a poll worker if he didnāt need to be in school that day.
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D26 got word today that her 1st shift at Taco Bell is tomorrow evening. Yay!
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X26 is doing PSAT on the 16th. They got tagged for a psat academy at school next week (with no info as to what itās about) but I guess some kind of prep for that. I wonder if this is also an idea of the new college counselor they have. I donāt remember D19 having a prep session at school for PSAT, though I also donāt recall at all if they had already switched to the block system with academy slots by her junior year.
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We started dipping our toes in this summer. Went on 3 official tours so far and 2 cheer clinics - but have down the tours in those 2 schools yet.
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I scheduled a campus tour & honors college info session at University of Arizona for D26 & I on the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend (her high school has that day off). D26 has been to U of A before back in 9th or 10th grade when her grade at the time had a field trip there. Going there for a field trip is great, but itās a different experience when youāre exploring it with your parent(s) from the perspective of āIs this some place Iād like to live for 4 years?ā
D26 has next week off of school for fall break. Weāre not going anywhere, other than DH going to TX this weekend to visit D24 at college (she has a choir concert).
D26ās school is doing the PSAT on I think Wed 10/16. Am not going to bother having D26 study, prep, or anything for it because itāll just totally stress her out and for the most part, I donāt think whatever her score is will make a difference in anything. Sheās taking the SAT in early Nov.
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Interested to hear UoA feedback. Looks like it would be a safety for X26 (albeit for a BArch not BS Arch) though weād probably only visit it (and ASU) if they donāt get into their top choice. And certain other developments happen. Weāve only spent like half a day in Tucson so donāt know it.
We donāt get a fall break, just thanksgiving week for the school, but work for H & I means itās really only the long weekend that we can go away for. We are currently planning to go to Death Valley then.
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