<p>I suddenly have to relocate from one midwest city to another. My daughter is in junior high. We are worried about any negative impacts she will get if she moves now with me (the alternative is my wife stays with her until she gratudates) . Daughter excels academically, the current high school and the high schools near where I relocate to are all excellent. Daughter does not have resistance moving with me (she loves the city we are moving to), but daughter, my wife and I are all worried about any negative impacts for her college applications, such as teacher recommendations (since she may not have enough time to get to know teachers in the new school well) etc. Can you share your thoughts? Thanks.</p>
<p>You said she is in Junior High?<br>
Could you elaborate on some of the issues that you see as being impacted by the move? I’m missing something here. I don’t see any problem with moving, as you say the schools where you are going are excellent. Why are you concerned about this, given she is still so young?</p>
<p>Family is so much more important than college positioning, in any case, that it makes no sense to divide the family. Junior high? No, your family should stay intact - all should go, or all should stay.</p>
<p>I should add that teacher recs are from high school only. Your daughter will be at no disadvantage relative to the other students at her school.</p>
<p>I am confused – is your daughter a junior in high school or is she in junior high school?</p>
<p>Keep the family together–junior high is to early to worry about it.</p>
<p>Another vote here for family staying together. Unless there are compelling circumstances (like the D being a nationally ranked athlete and getting essential coaching at current location) it’s a lot easier seeing the child stressed by family separation versus being stressed by relocation.</p>
<p>Your daughter will be better off with her family intact. Understand my bias. This is coming from the daughter of a man who chose to move solo rather than keep his family together. Even if it did impact college acceptance, which it wouldn’t, families belong together and your daughter will be a stronger woman with her father always being there for her than she would be if you weren’t. That is way more important than getting into an Ivy.</p>
<p>Assuming that she is a Jr. in HS, admissions committees know that circumstances happen that are beyond kids’ control and I can’t see it hurting her chances. She will have to make the effort to get to know a new crop of teachers but the majority of kids at my high school get letters from teachers they had their Sr. year anyway so she isn’t going to be at any sort of disadvantage on that score.</p>
<p>Assuming she is in Jr. High I echo A.S.A.P.</p>
<p>Family first - I’d stay together.</p>
<p>I believe havingTwo’s daughter is a Junior in H.S. I would say that 20 months is still a very long time to keep family apart. Though one midwest city to another may not be too far apart, depending what the cities are. If they are near enough, and you can easily drive/fly cheaply on the weekends, it may not be too awful. Many families live in one home, but travel so much that they are together less than every weekend.</p>
<p>However, since the new H.S. is excellent, and your D very bright, I would expect that she would flourish in the new environment, and keep doing well. As far as rank and decile go, I know that in our High School, newer students benefitted over those who spent all 4 years there, as the new students did not have their previous grades counted. This could be to her disadvantage though, if she has a perfect gpa now.</p>
<p>Questions for the new H.S. I suppose.</p>
<p>family stay together. in the end she’ll still be successful</p>
<p>If she’s a junior in HS, I moved 1900 miles with my parents and youngers sis the day after Christmas of my junior year. Absolutely awful. I hated my parents for 2 years and still resent it, though I had very nice friends, and really, did well, etc. I just hated the whole idea. They moved again, across country, the month after I started college. </p>
<p>A child in junior high though is much much different. Everyone will be happier if you stay together. Just look on it as an adventure. But please don’t move after grade 9.</p>
<p>Sorry, I made a big mistake. D is in high school junior year, and she has started taking ACT, SAT exams already.</p>
<p>Wow, that is a big mistake, and I wonder about that…btw its still okay to keep the family together, people move all the time and get into great colleges…is the stress, two households etc worth it?</p>
<p>ps- I moved in HS, twice…I lived through it and did just fine</p>
<p>Parents stay together and find a friend, cousin, auntie, housemate for the D. Or even better, have her graduate early.</p>
<p>Telecommute for a couple of years? Find another job in the original town?</p>
<p>It is very difficult to find a job matching my skill in the original town. It is about 350 miles between two cities, thus weekly visit can be tough, although possible. My D’s main concern is that if the teachers at the new school may favor the students stayed with same high school all the time when writing recommendation letters for college, etc.</p>
<p>Since your daughter doesn’t seem to object to moving, I’d say take the family. These years are precious. Colleges understand.
Who knows, maybe they’ll see her resilience and sense of adventure as a plus! And if she continues to do well in her new school, that just proves how capable she is, and how she can adjust to new situations.
Dads are very important in their girl’s lives. Don’t underestimate your influence. She has positive feelings about the move. That says a lot about how important you are to her.</p>
<p>Also, I think teachers base their recs on the student’s performance in their classes. In that case, she would have a chance to shine in their classes.</p>
<p>Also, don’t overlook getting a rec from the old school, if your daughter has a favorite teacher there. That is a common practice.</p>
<p>I agree with ASAP. There’s no way I would have even considered being separate even if I had to take a pay cut to stay together. Remember you likely have only a couple of years left and she’ll be off to college. Maximize those couple of years with your family - I don’t think you’ll regret it.</p>
<p>Unless it’s a very small HS I doubt that teacher favoritism would be much of a concern. Larger HSs are always having new students come and go and with the specialization (like AP History, AP Chem for example) they typically don’t know a lot of the students anyway. Letters of recommendation can easily come from a teacher she’s only had for a year at the new HS or she could even get them from teachers at her old HS.</p>
<p>Most kids who are miserable on moves during HS age are so due to being separated from their friends and activities but this varies from person to person. If this isn’t a big deal to your D then I say move. If it is then I say see how ceative you can be to stay where you are.</p>
<p>I say make the move, especially since your daughter has no objections. It is possible for your daughter to get recs from her current teachers; they don’t have to be from her new school only.</p>
<p>*Didn’t see above post, so I agree with ucsd.</p>
<p>Since your daughter has a positive attitude about moving, I say move the family and her very resilient and positive approach will give her an edge in college. She will be fine.</p>