Wow!! Good for him!!!
Congratulations! Looks like his hard work paid off (I love it when that happens!)
1 Like
Amazing!! Congratulations to your son!
Checking in. Our student left on Monday for an off term with their high school. They will be gone for three weeks off grid, backpacking, camping, etc (but they still have classes every day in English, social studies, and science - just not their language or math). Then home over winter break, and back to camping, rock climbing, river rafting, etc for seven weeks after the break. The students get to call home once during the seven week stretch, so they are truly off the grid for a long time. The school has been doing this program for over 60 years and every student says it is really transformative. I’m glad my student was accepted to it (they only take ten students each winter and spring). Of course, it started snowing the day they started and didn’t stop the whole day! They will be all over Vermont mostly, but other parts of New England as well for the first three weeks, so lots of winter camping skills will be built and they will either love or hate snow by the end!
PSAT went well, they scored about a hundred points higher than last year. ACT was fine (a point off their goal score), and they’ll take it again in June.
Other than that, we will probably do another college tour in March during spring break to some SLACs around New England.
Oh, and they got their school to approve their Eagle Scout project so now they need to get the Council to approve it and then they can move forward. They also signed up to do an Academic Concentration at their school (about 7-8 students do one each graduating class - they have to take courses in a certain discipline and complete an independent research project over two years). They are doing theirs in Environmental Science and have proposed a deep look into native plants in the region, their indigenous uses (food, medicine, clothing, shelter, etc), and their current status, as well as building two raised garden beds for the school - one to house native plants so other students can learn about them and the other for the school to use for whatever experiential learning they’d like. The school offers courses in Botany, Environmental Science, Forest Ecology, and more, so they will definitely make use of the planting space!
2 Likes
wow! so much cool news!!! amazing for your kid. That trip, especially, sounds amazing. Northern New England that time of year really can be VERY cold and snowy (as you know) - so much different than southern New England or near coast! It sounds amazing though! What an opportunity. I hope it is a fantastic experience.
My 27’s school is really kicking off college counseling now which is fun, scary, and all the feelings at once. Their weekly 1:1s with their college counselor start in early January so some parent meetings now. In January, they will be creating long lists and (finally) seeing detailed school Naviance data - it is a tiny HS, so they gatekeep this data a bit - which I get. I realized they wait until January so they can give first semester grades (duh!) to help them navigate list a bit better. I am SO SO curious to see the list and early thoughts on what is reach and what is target for them. My 25 was a very different student and went to a different HS, so hard to judge a bit. I think I have a rough handle on such things, but I may also be way off. We shall see. Kid has already seen a lot of schools and has a longish list, and knows a lot (they feel very ahead of the game as I love this stuff! Obviously, I am here:) but I may now have to hand it over a fair bit;) They are super competent and experienced counselors, former AOs and really love working with teens.
First, we need to get through exams for both kids. My 25 is also about to go through their first “real” exam period. Their HS wasn’t big on high-stakes exams, so this is a rude awakening. They didn’t even have a true mid-term period. They had a final period, but only a couple of teachers really even used it for its real purpose 
2 Likes
Our student’s school started their college counseling over the summer (with just how to log in to Naviance and navigate that type of stuff) and then parent and student meetings over the fall. As our student will be gone through the whole winter term, they had to meet with their counselor prior to the break to make an initial list. Once they return, they’ll have weekly meetings and a “junior seminar” class where they fill out the Common App and start on essays, etc. Initial list in Naviance is (in alpha order):
Bates
Brown
Connecticut College
Dartmouth
Gettysburg
Lafayette ¶
Lewis and Clark
Scripps
Smith
University of Richmond
Wesleyan
That could all change in a few months, though! According to Naviance data from previous admissions cycles at their school and average GPAs and test scores from admitted students, Connecticut College, Gettysburg, Lafayette, Lewis and Clark, and Smith are solid likely/target schools. Wesleyan is a low reach, and the others are reach/unlikely.
2 Likes
Starting in January, they head to Texas and the American West, with plans to go to the Choctaw Nation, Big Bend (with a four-day river trip on the Rio Grande), Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, and other New Mexico spaces, the Navajo Nation, Joshua Tree, Red Rocks, and more. Plus, they have four-day solos while on the trip, where they go off by themselves four days/three nights with no contact from anyone and survive on their own. Such an incredible experience!
2 Likes
More amazing travel! and sounds like a solid list, and the Naviance supports it - woo-hoo! Counselors usually know their context very well. I always feel like one C vs a B can throw everything off and would make me too nervous to narrow down that much. I am also paranoid:) That said, my kid goes to a school where kids actually can get a C, even if they try hard, which isn’t the case in some places. (No clue about your kids’ school obviously:)
That is a great list of schools, and so many amazing places. I wish my kids would go a SLAC route, but alas, they both want/wanted engineering majors, and the 3+2 path isn’t their (or my) favorite. I was hoping 27 would love Tufts or Rochester, as they sort of meet in the middle with real engineering programs, but were sort of “eh” about them. Dartmouth or Brown could end up on their list as an ED school, but probably not worth it unless their ACT goes up a few more points, and neither is quite engineering-heavy enough for them (though I think they would like them both for other reasons!). Cornell would be more likely…
So interesting to hear what everyone is up to - what great things going on for your kids!!
It just amazes me how differently all the schools manage the college process. I literally have never heard from a guidance counselor except when I’ve specifically reached out AND my kids have never met with theirs outside of a request to meet – and these interactions have only been around class scheduling issues! Maybe in the spring semester there will be more guidance? I am imagining they’re probably pretty busy with the seniors at the moment.
What an adventure!!! Thats amazing!
1 Like
My 25 went to a very good public school that sent kids to top universities, and this was close to their experience. They met with their counselor 1 time about college, jr spring, I think (all kids did). That said, there were 2 presentations for parents and for students (as groups), jr winter/sr fall…so you might not have got there yet?. RoonilWazlib99 and I have 27s in independent schools, which are wildly different than 99% of publics on these processes. I will speak at my kids’ school. They have 2 FT college counselors for ~50ish kids a grade, both former AOs at selective schools, and this is their FT job - college counseling, nothing else. All kids are applying to selective colleges. They do advise on course selection strategy, college list, essays, and keep kids on task in applying - basically what an expensive private college counselor might do. Kids also have a regular academic advisor whom they meet with weekly, which is separate.
1 Like
That school sounds fantastic!
I mean these independent prep schools run nearly as much as college tuition a year, they should be good 
(many also have lots of generous aid )… lots have endowments more than vast majority of colleges.. it’s another world.
That said colleges know kids have access to these resources…no great secret to them.:. Its taken into consideration in admissions…
1 Like
These traveling experiences included in HS curriculum sound amazing!
Good luck to anyone taking the SAT today!
And just got text from D27 that they still haven’t started…it’s almost 9:00. I feel so bad for these kids as they stress so much then to be having difficulties. They should go back to the paper tests.
1 Like
Wow! I am so jealous of your college public school counseling resources. My son’s big suburban school has counselors with 300 student loads and 1 college-specific counselor for a school with about 1800 juniors and seniors. As far as I can tell, they’ve done nothing yet with the juniors (they had a required career fair in November which focused on careers that didn’t need 4-year college degrees). I am seriously thinking about getting some outside help. Our situation is also complicated by the athletic recruiting process which we’ve already started. I’ve been trying to do a lot of research myself, but I just don’t think I have enough time in the day to do it justice. I also feel like the nagging I am doing to try to get my S27 moving is wearing thin on him at this point. Hopefully he is doing a practice ACT this weekend in prep for taking it next Sat…
Oh gosh, how hard for those kids! Hoping they sort it out before my kid starts hers here on the west coast in two hours…
1 Like
My S27 overslept and missed the bus to an extracurricular competition this morning. He is usually so good at waking up that we didn’t set an alarm to check on him (he needed to be out the door at 6am). 
. Team rule is you have to ride the bus to participate so we couldn’t drive him there. Ugh, such a hard life lesson (check and double check your alarms and set multiple!), and I’m glad this was a competition of lower importance in terms of the overall activity. But I’m still worried for him that there may be consequences in terms of future responsibilities he may or may not be given in regards to this activity if he is perceived as unreliable. I’m glad it was this and not a flight or a job interview or something like that. Hopefully it’s a memorable lesson.
5 Likes
The counseling resources at my kid’s large public high school are not great. We agreed that starting in January, the Kid is going to spend about an hour each week researching a college to put on the yes, no, or maybe lists for applications. I don’t think we need a private counselor for our purposes.
3 Likes
Turns out it was a staffing issue, not all the proctors showed up 
. Good luck to your child!
ugh that is SO annoying.
Hope the rest of the morning goes smoothly!
1 Like