oh fun! Davis is great.
I have a relative that works at UConn and a friend who’s dad was a prof there ages, great spot! (Assuming one likes campusy-campus and not urban. That was my personal prefence way back when and still like it. I think 27 may prefer slighly more urban, but we shall see!)
@Frogger73 I lived just off Davis for a few years after college as well! It was great, but it has changed so much since then.
My husband had a good meeting with S27’s academic advisor this past week and it looks like course selection for next year is finally ironed out. I’m inspired to start planning some tours of schools this summer as well if we can block off a few days here and there, just to get a feel for what he’s interested in. We found it really difficult to get school tours or visits done with S25 when school was in session between athletic schedules and driving times to get everywhere. I’d like to avoid that this time because S27 is less clear about what he’s looking for, so we’ll need to invest a bit more time in earlier research. He’ll be better equipped to work with his college advisor if he’s got some points of reference to start the conversation.
Good luck to all those taking the AP Euro exam today!
It’s hard to believe AP testing is here already! D27 has been studying all weekend for AP Gov. Good luck to everyone testing in these next two (?) weeks!
27 picked classes for next year recently and I don’t remember all of what they chose, but I think it was:
College level humanities block class their school offers in which they “explore themes involving the family, politics, war, alienation, gender, migration, and issues of cultural assimilation.”
Honors Integrated Math 3
French 4
Physics
AP Environmental Science
Required Junior Seminar (focuses on college planning/applications/essays/etc)
Required computer science programming course (all juniors must take this course)
Also, for the winter term, they will be doing an off campus program through their school from late November through early March, camping, backpacking, and otherwise outdoor adventuring while taking all of their courses outdoors and traveling through the American West. It’s a small group of about 10 students and 2 teachers.
There may be an art course in there somewhere as well. 
It has been interesting to see 27s change in perspective after a year of reflecting on our college visits last spring and the ensuing deluge of emails they have received from those and other schools. We are planning another tour of colleges, this time in PA, over this summer. Also, 27 has been hired as a residential summer camp counselor for June-August, so we will only see them on Saturday nights.
So far, schools that seem to be of interest to 27:
Connecticut College
Dartmouth
Smith
Boston College (a firm maybe at this point, but it’s not as sure as the others)
Western Washington (27 adored Bellingham, WA and thought it was an ideal college town)
On the “no thank you” side of colleges so far (but we all know this can change!):
Northeastern
Bowdoin
Wheaton College (MA)
I am also excited to get access to Naviance as my older kids didn’t go to a school that had it and I’m so curious! I think 27 will get access this upcoming year.
What an amazing set of offerings for 11th grade! so cool. I love the humanities class - I want to take it! And that winter term trip 
Sounds like Dartmouth’s The Stretch | Department of Earth Science (Had a friend that did that and told me it was amazing - admittedly 30 years ago!)
I am also impressed you have done so many college trips already, though I suppose we will catch up quick in June (4!). We are going to Northeastern and Dartmouth in August which are overlaps. Tons of kids from 25 and 27s HS go to Northeastern, but have never been on campus ourselves.
I am super curious which schools my kid ends up liking/disliking. We are seeing a 2 state flagships, a smaller, focused, engineering school, and smaller-private university. Kid seems to think this is all too early and doesn’t want to think about it yet - not sure how that will work given they are SO busy during the school year and basically tied up all their spring break with robotics competitions. 
They very much wanted a small HS and NOT the big public, and am curious if that vibe will have changed for college.
They took a sample ACT recently to compare to PSAT and definitely going to study for ACT (even with upcoming changes leading to unknowns). Talking to the test prep/tutor today to set up for summer. I have my 
can take in Sept, Dec and be done with it.
My HS Class of '18/Dartmouth '22 did that and it’s still as amazing as it was 30 years ago (and still required for the Earth Science degree at Dartmouth)!
My 27 wanted to wait until school was over to do the mock ACT/SAT. My two older ones found that their scores were significantly higher on the mock ACT than the mock SAT (like 1100 on the SAT and 33 on the ACT - both taken with zero prep) so it was very clear which test was the right one for them. Will be interesting to see if 27 follows the same path.
so cool! I didn’t realize it was required of the majors:) I actually love that.
And same with my kid - They had a MUCH higher ACT than SAT w/ zero prep- not even in same ballpark and most of the things wrong on the ACT were things that are SO easy to prep for (commas, apostrophes, circles)..
Their school actually offered them, proctered, on a weekend, so kid just did it then with their friends.
I am a touch worried about changes and unknown impact of them, for this year, but it is what it is, I guess.
From what I have seen so far, if a school has said either way, they have declared the science section to be optional (most have not said either way yet), but a few schools (Boston University is one I recall) are requesting that students take the ACT with science still, so if my student decides on the ACT, they will take it with science to be safe.
Yeah, that is our plan, I am VERY glad to have confirmation others thinking same, my 25 didn’t end up taking ACT OR SAT in the end. So this is our first time really doing this test-prep thing full out. (Started down the path and realized all their schools would be TO and their test scores would always be “worse” than their grades).
I actually have a call with our old SSAT test prep tutor (they also do SAT/ACT) today so will be curious if they have any other insights 
Kid did well enough (31) with zero prep so not too worried about doing pretty well on that section - they are also not “scared” by sciencey-language.
BU is also possibly on their list so even more reason to do it..
@RoonilWazlib99 - that sounds like a terrific trip!
We’re nearing the end of the school year for my 27 as well. Final exams next week, and then he’s all done.
He threw us for a bit of a loop last week and had his first meeting with the college counselor on the early side because he indicated an interest in possibly pursuing recruiting for one of his sports. This caught us all a bit off guard, and I am really not sure how it’s all going to play out, but one advantage is that she gave him (but not us!) early access to their college guidance software (I think they use Maia). I am so curious to see what’s on the list of schools she wants him to research! But we’re waiting to ask more about that until he’s through his exam week. He’s really knuckled down since his March break, and it’s been neat to see. Hopefully his exams go well and he ends an up-and-down school year on a high note.
We are going to try to get to some schools within a 3-4 hour drive this summer, just to get a feel for what he likes and doesn’t like. He is so different from his older brother, and it’s much harder to get an idea of what he’s going to prioritize or is interested in pursuing. We’ll probably do a more formal visit of the state flagship (he’s been on campus a bunch visiting family). His school is also doing an exploratory tour of a few colleges of different sizes and types, but it conflicts with his preseason. It will be a challenge to do these because we have a hard time getting out of town in the summer (it’s the best time of year here!). We’ll see what the list from his counselor says, but my goal is to get to a state flagship (either ours or a neighboring state), a smaller engineering/STEM-type school, and one or two LACs, all depending on how the schedule shakes out.
On testing, he really did not do super well on the PSAT last fall, but we are going to chalk that up to not yet having finished algebra 2 and geometry, both of which he is finishing this year. I think we’ll be making test prep a part of the routine this summer. And maybe add in a mock ACT as well for good measure. FWIW, my 25 did take the ACT - with the science - but he ended up doing better on the SAT.
Other summer plans? Well, they are in the development stage, let’s put it that way. And they most definitely need a little more structure than what he has currently pitched to us…
I had a really nice conversation with D27 this week. For the moment, she has decided she wants a small liberal arts school and prefers a traditional campus to a more urban setting. I love that our spring break trip to visit some schools has borne fruit in making her think through what she likes (though I’m very aware that her preferences could change over the next year or so).
This past school year, she took both the PSAT and PACT and did reasonably well on both with no prep. Our state mandates that all juniors take the ACT, so I think we’ll see how she does on that (next March) before she decides whether to take the SAT (my C24 only ever took the school-administered ACT).
This year went well for D27; she’ll finish the year with 7 As and one either B or C (AP Pre-Calc has been rough, and it remains to be seen if they can pull their grade up). This teacher is known for being extremely difficult, and I’m interested to see whether or not D27’s AP score mirrors whatever grade she gets in the class.
My 25 had an AP CS (not pre-cal) teacher that basically scaled grades to expected AP scores- an A in class was meant to mimic a 5 on the AP and B was a 4, etc. I think it actually was quite aligned from what I could gather…there is a chance this person does same? I can’t imagine this teacher was unique in that approach?
Also, it seems like AP Pre-Cal is rough a lot of places..I feel like I keep seeing people whose kids are really struggling with it. Neither of my kids schools offers that, so am not sure if teachers are still getting use to curriculum or it is really THAT much harder than honors was at most places..
In this particular case, it’s more of a teacher issue. Parents have complained about him for years (long before AP Precalc debuted). He tends to hand the last quiz/test back either the same day or immediately before the next test, which makes it hard for kids to see how they’re doing in time to prep for the next test, and he isn’t fabulous at explaining concepts. He seems to grade on some sort of a curve, but it’s hard to tell? It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it does make it kind of hard for kids to learn effectively.
This is my biggest pet peeve in teachers and don’t know how it is so common.
There is no learning without feedback- to me it shows not only little respect for students but zero understanding of how people learn . Arrrrgh
We are in the last stretch of sophomore year and step-up day is in a week. D27 is now considering herself a junior. She is taking the SAT next week, anyone else? She also set up her Scoir account and I have a more realistic view of the schools she is interested in and I will stop suggesting schools for her. She knows what she wants. Hope everything is smooth sailing the next few weeks everyone and you don’t experience the “sophomore slump”. 
Mine just has exams left, but their end of year events have already happened since Srs are already done and gone. I have my fingers crossed their grades are at least as good falls semester 1. Their mid-term for sem 2 (not on any transcript) dipped a bit, but I think recouped.
Got their ACT prep all set up for summer- will take for first in September. I am hoping by some miracle it is 1 and done, but suspect will want to take a couple of times for super-score purposes. Most of other dates are very hard for 27s schedule.
They were just given a big leadership role for their robotics team, which is super exciting! Also will (finally) have their summer schedule finalized on Tuesday at the volunteer program they are doing. I can’t wait for that so can plan some short trips we need to set up for summer.
I don’t think we get Scoir until fall 
though it is a small school and they just published the matriculation list for 25s (as they always do) so have some idea of range of typical. It is private, so a much smaller range than is typical…
Wow, they get out early for New England, but maybe because it’s private school. Good luck with finals. Congrats on the robotics leadership role-that is very exiting!
As for testing prep, we need to figure out if they would prefer an in person tutor/class or are okay with zoom tutoring. This summer we are focusing on driving after she gets home from camp.
Scoir is fun to play around with. Although they’ve made changes on what we have access to compared to when I was researching/working with S24 (ie, I know 2 kids applied to certain schools and now there is not enough data).
yes, it’s because it is private… the public school isn’t out for weeks! But most privates around here are wrapping up (or already done).
Oh geez, I forgot about driving! kid is doing that too…class over the course of a long, boring week then on the road, probably not lessons until August due to other stuff..likely will take them forever.
I feel like they have a slow summer lined up but I am now thinking they don’t eek.
I feel like an test prep group class has fun potential, though if kids aren’t all at roughly same level could be less effective..That said, i’d defer to kid what they think works best!
Hello, popping into this thread for the first time. Good luck to all of your 27 kiddos! Midwestern S27 has finished up the academic year and is taking the SAT for the first time on Saturday (he had trig this semester, so figured it might be better to take it now rather than when he’s in the midst of calculus next year). Luckily he already has his license so it will be so nice to have a summer with no chaufeuring duties. He heads out for an orchestra trip to NYC the next day, and then is headed to New Balance Nationals to compete with some of his teammates in a relay event. A week of cross country camp and then a week of vacation, followed by our first real college trip. Schools on the list for that trip are Kenyon, Oberlin, Case Western, Penn State, Bucknell, and Carnegie Mellon. Hopefully that variety will give him a sense of the type of school he’s aiming at and help us narrow things down a bit. Our school’s summer break is super short (2 months) so that will put us almost back to school time!