I first discovered this activity of hers a year or so ago when I saw a giant color coded spreadsheet when looking over her shoulder at her computer screen. I asked what it was and she nonchalantly told me it was “how I’ve organized all these volunteers” — I was like “what volunteers are you even talking about?” Turns out she was supervising and training like 15 people to be moderators. I’d been concerned that she wasn’t really involved at school or sports or anything. My opinions on the amount of online time she was changed notably that day 
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I can imagine! That is incredible dedication and takes a TON of skills, wow! And I wouldn’t recommend sharing the topic, but I have a strong suspicion it is a fascinating and interesting community of people too:) Sounds like a cool kid! That sort of passion and drive is awesome in my book.
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That is so cool! (Also makes me smile how nonchalant she was about the whole thing!)
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My S25 did a week-long volunteer camp that was overnight and it counted as 96 hours. So somewhere in between - not sure how they calculated it.
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There are still a few more weeks of school here and kids are in the midst of end of school year events. It’s busy. S27 is finishing the year strong and I’m really proud of him. We’re working on finalizing a road trip to look at some colleges in NYS this summer. Other than that, he will be working (hopefully a decent amount of hours), doing marching band practices and band camp, fishing (his plan for the summer), and studying for the SAT in August.
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There is still about four more weeks of school here, but the busiest is over with, especially since the AP exams are completed. Seniors are also finished with classes so some classes are really winding down. The next few weeks will be spent studying for the June SAT, one last time. They started working on their Common App., which is making it real. With all the reading, research, and college visits, I can really identify the college application cycle. The pre-work is complete, and here we are at the beginning of the class of 2027 application season. …countdown to August 1st.
So a bit of a snafu with S27’s schedule. Because of Jazz Ensemble, his English choice (honors college Composition/public speaking) doesn’t fit. Obviously English senior year is required for graduation but he is not willing to give up Jazz Band, and I support that. Other English options are AP Lit (he did AP Lang this year and did great in class- still waiting on AP exam score- but he does not want to take AP Lit) OR a non honors journalism class that is more sophmore-juniors OR a summer online class. The one class that he had some flexibility in moving/substituting is the same period as the English Department’s prep so that didn’t help, and his other classes couldnt be moved or substituted. He has no lunch or free period next year due to music and an extra science elective. Of course he did not talk to us about this, thankfully the counselor reached out. I suspect he will want to take the summer course. I’m not sure how I feel about any of those options, frankly. The counselor was reassuring about how that all might be viewed by colleges (the assumption is that he doesnt go with AP Lit) but of course I worry.
That is absolutely fantastic!
And I’ve been wondering about how to calculate voluntary hours as well. Some of it’s pretty straightforward but, like you said, extended stuff is hard to pin down
Does anyone feel like it’s all going by too fast? I mean, I knew it would go by quickly, but the sense of running out of time is now palpable. DS27 won a scholarship for this summer(yay) and it means he’ll be away for three weeks. So not only will I miss him, but it means he can’t get a summer job. And this is it! His last summer that is bookended by grade school and he won’t have had a job slinging FroYo or Boba or whatever.
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Parents of HS Class of 2027 you can get this designation next to your username and a cool flair by joining this group: Parents hs class of 2027 - College Confidential Forums
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Why doesn’t he want to take AP Lit?
I would be concerned about my kid not having a lunch period. Is he planning to eat quickly in between classes, or wait until the end of the day to eat?
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I second all of this!
He doesn’t particularly enjoy English classes in general, he took AP Lang this year, and he’s taking 4 other APs next year and the school requires you test. In his mind, he’s all set with all that and is pretty vehement about not taking AP Lit. School counselor supports that. I was ok with it based on the English classes he had originally chosen but I don’t exactly love his current options.
Regarding no lunch, he won’t give up his Band and Jazz Band (2 periods a day) and also wants to take an extra science elective. He’s done no lunch one semester this year - he snacks in the Band classes and they are certainly a break from other academic subject classes. But it was a bit much at midterms for sure. It’s fairly common at the school for the music students to forego lunch to squeeze in an academic elective.
I quickly looked at the online offering and had some questions about the curriculum and how it compares with what he’s already taken. We still need to talk and reach back out to the guidance department and probably this year’s AP Lang teacher for his thoughts.
ahh, 5 APs is a ton, agree on that.
I can’t believe schools out there allow no lunches. That is wild to me. Definitely not possible at either of my kids’ HSs…they just say no. You have to eat. It is a health, wellness, and safety issue to them. That said I get the peer pressure and norms can be hard to overcome when schedules make it hard to avoid.
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Wow. I admire all your brick and mortar school kids, but don’t envy them! Taking 4-5 AP classes and no lunch sounds terrible. For better or worse, my homeschool kids could never take that many APs unless they self studied them all. There are some I have the background to lead myself, and I can pay for an online outside class for others, but no more than a couple of those at a time based on budget and logistics.
My D27 strongly dislikes writing. Debating whether to do a scientific writing focused class next year or a ‘boot camp for college’ type of approach where it’s just all about making sure she can crank out the kind of essays she’ll need for non-STEM college classes.
Yesterday was the last day of classes for D27 and I’m angry. In the last month of school, she managed to tank her GPA because she basically stopped handing in assignments during AP testing and never bothered to catch up. She turned two solid As into Bs solely by dint of having missing work. I mean, she got a B in art. ART!!! Like, I didn’t even realize that was possible.
I am having big feelings about this. I’m so frustrated at what I perceive is D27’s self destructive streak. She could have gotten her work done if she’d tried, but she chose to lollygag instead. She’d hole herself up in her room for hours, saying she was working, but she clearly wasn’t. She left 8 assignments undone in the end.
Right now, she’s pretty sure she wants to go to art school, so I think she thinks academics don’t matter. But portfolio-based admissions seem to be basically a crap shoot, and now she doesn’t have a solid academic record to fall back for at the out-of-state schools she likes.
(I’m mostly venting and may delete this later)
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It’s so hard to watch when they do things like this. Hang in there!
Sorry you find yourself here. I went thru a bit of this with my kiddo and had to put myself into a new frame of mind where I had to become okay with her suffering whatever natural consequences arose. i had a conversation with her in which i said “it hurts to see you removing options for yourself, but ultimately it is your life to live.” Thankfully she did turn it around.
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Is something else going on? It’s a rough time of year with AP testing, prom, end of the year activities, etc… It’s a tough lesson.
Anyone else take the SAT? C27 said it was easier than others. I’m seeing online it was hard, but don’t they always say that? This is the last one they are going to take. Fingers crossed for a score they can submit to their higher reach schools.
My S27 took it this morning. He thought the second math module was hard. Ran out of time on second modules for both RW/Math and scrambled to guess for the last few questions. The time crunch is always what gets him though.
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