The Kid had a good fall semester. He has been having fun rehearsing for the spring musical. We are now done with 3 of the 6 semesters of high school, before he applies for college. He did not enjoy drivers ed, so he is glad that is over with (the classroom portion). It was a virtual pass/fail class. Our school district administers the preACT to sophomores, so that is coming up. Next year the Kid wants to take 5 APs (Physics I, Lit, Calc BC, APUSH, and Psych), so he’s going to be busy.
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D27 had a great fall semester. They’re looking at course schedule for next year and the overall plan for senior year as well. The only thing that has me worried is about picking the AP courses when they haven’t experienced the AP exams yet, but planning on AP Chem and APUSH, and the rest will be honors classes. We’ve started building a college list and have our first official visit scheduled over spring break (she’s been on a few with her older sibling).
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Hello! 
Was checking in on the class of 2024 page and realized it is probably time to get active on this one.
We spent some time this weekend planning D27’s schedule for next year and looking at some college tours. D27 will do a lot of traveling with her soccer club this spring and we want to try and hit a few nearby college campuses when it makes sense.
D27 is my 4th kiddo and the most independent, private and stubborn. BUT she also has already come up with quite a few parameters that really narrow her choices. We are trying to emphasize that we want to be on the same team with her as she decides on a college. She has a librarian mother (me!) who LOVES to research and I have done this 3 times already. We will see how this goes…
The biggest balancing act will be getting D27 to open up and getting DH to stop starting every conversation with “another thought I had about college”.
I have always said that this kiddo came along to show us that we haven’t actually learned anything about parenting. 
Looking forward to hearing about everyone’s ups and downs the next 2 years!
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My class of 2027 son is also my 4th child to go through this! I have already started brainstorming a spring break road trip next year!
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Will be excited to learn from the two of you on child 4!!
I also LOVE to do research, my '25 is probably sick of it - 
My '27 keeps telling me it is too soon to even talk about. I kind of think it is too - however, we need to start planning summer schedules! They are also have always have had a VERY clear idea of things they like and very logical. Once decided, they don’t second guess. I hope this means we will have a relatively easy job of narrowing things down…(if not an easy job of getting in!) Probably over optimistic.
I don’t think it’s too soon at all, unfortunately - they really do have to plan out what classes they want to take and summer activities that align with their interests. I feel like I’ve learned from my older three that you need a lot of diverse experiences to cover all of the essay topics!
‘27 goes to a very academically minded school (average sat is close to 1500), so school tries very hard to not add college pressure given nature of the students (who are driven by nature).
my kid is oblivious to societal pressure so he doesn’t need to be relaxed 
Also I really meant he thinks too early to think about specific colleges- not preparing to apply (he gets he needs something reportable ok activity list this summer)
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Hi folks, just realized this page has been here for years, wow! Since I didn’t manage to stay off of CC when my class of 2022 kid left for college, I might as well admit to myself that CC will be a more and more frequent scroll now that the second kid is halfway through sophomore year. I thought I was “so over it” (in terms of the amount of my own mental space that would be spent on the college thing for the second kid), but here I am…
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welcome back(ish)!
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Haven’t checked in for a few months. My '27’s school finished fall back in November, so they’re halfway through winter term right now. And won’t pick classes until the spring, so they don’t have to spend too much time worrying about that yet.
They have applied for a job for the summer and also have a very neat service project lined up for two weeks. Still working on Eagle rank in Scouts.
Have more college visits planned this summer and trying to get '27 on board with a revisit to the UK to look at schools. But this summer it will be a trip through Pennsylvania.
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also, weren’t we both just trying to get 27s into HS ?! (I remember you from prep school boards!)
Was yesterday, it seems!
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Yep! That was me!
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Heading in Spring Break. How many of you are going on college visits?
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Ohh have fun! We were hoping to do a tour next week, but it had to get cancelled for a conflict. But is a good reminder I need to get on this for summer…I have been so distracted by my '25! (They are in final stages!) We have so many schools that can be a day trip, but need to narrow down!
This week 27 and I will be finally talking about course selection for 11th and looking towards 12th too. They are at a private school with excellent counseling, so they have a meeting with college counselors (to talk about courses, not college) in a week too. Their final selections will be put in during early April..
Also, '27s school doesn’t do fall PSAT for 10th graders (but does do them in spring and a mock ACT). I am feeling a little lost on a college list without their potential test scores. They took SSAT for HS entrance, but not sure how much that aligns..I think have potential for very good scores, which would make some highly selective colleges worth the bother (even if still big reaches!). I could make them take a practice one, but figure I should just wait for school-run ones which will also be under very realistic conditions.
If 27 stays set on engineering (which it looks like) path forward for school list may be not super hard. I think they will have a clear geographic focus…but they could change their mind, still early!
We will be in Seattle for a bit, so we are taking a look at the U-Dub. Hope the quad will be full of cherry blossoms.
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We did our first official college tour over our spring break, Providence College. It was not what she expected as she went in thinking she would love it. The campus is small and four semesters of Western Civ. is daunting. However it will stay on the list as it was the first official tour. I’ve scheduled a tour for UConn to see how that compares. A larger school may be a better fit. We are also in the process of picking classes for next year, signed up for the June SAT, and driving lessons. Here’s to the beginning of the hardest “year” of high school and Sophomore year is barely 3/4 through.
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wow that is a lot! Are there choices within “western civ” or does everyone take the same thing?
eek - yes!
Also about to sign for driving lessons (for a June start) here 
I am not looking forward to trying to slot in the road lessons, which are very hard to schedule here (no matter the company). ugh.
Mine is also a bit reluctant to go on their first tour, I think they have zero desire to leave HS, so anything college-related freaks them out. It isn’t really a big rush, this summer would be totally fine, but would love to start getting a “vibe check” on city vs. country etc.
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We are! Heading up to Massachusetts to see the schools in the 5-college consortium. I figure it’s a good chance for D27 to (a) see a state in the Northeast (because she wants to go somewhere cooler than where we live now), (b) see a few types of colleges (state School, all-girls LACs, extremely tiny LAC). Plus, we get to tack on two days in Boston just for fun.
Meantime, D27 got her driver’s license a few weeks ago and also registered for Junior year and suddenly it all seems like college apps are a lot closer than I’d really thought. We’re definitely out of the “feeling out high school” phase and into “omg, suddenly everything really matters.” It’s fun and disconcerting.
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DS27 just took the PSAT10 yesterday without prep. We’ll use this as a base to see how to prep for the SATs. I feel like HS just began and here we are in Sophomore Spring. I did this with DD20, who recently graduated from college May '24. Feels different this time around. We’ll be visiting schools in the Tri State this Spring, NE this summer and hopefully get to a few others late summer.
DS is much more laid back than DD ever was, lol!
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The first three classes are all the same, but the last one is a seminar and you can focus on different things. That is the basics of it. It will be more of a deep dive if it becomes a real consideration.
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