DDA Chapter 26

[bear74]

Miss Jenna stay put for a couple more weeks. Kristine good luck with the cerclage removal.

 

[bear74]

So since I am starting to feel better and have more energy. I have started trying to plan in my head and on paper Virginia's Halloween Disney themed Birthday party.

 

[bethbuchall]

No way that is happening unless you are doing a scheduled c section for which I am adamantly against....and they will not induce someone doing VBAC. So there you have it

I hope that the cerclage removal goes easily for you. Just remember, people are much more likely to share their horrifying stories online than the routine, run-of-the-mill ones. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you can avoid the c-section, too.

 

[bethbuchall]

I have been following everyone's discussion about required classes with great interest. Our school system also has undergone vast changes in the 20 years our daughters were there, as well as years since they left. Take all that I am about to say with a grain of salt and it is offered based on what we discovered as the years went by (man, I sound ancient!).

Most colleges will not look seriously at a student who has done the bare minimum. There are a million kids out there with that background. Many schools won't look at a student with the basic requirements and the top schools will weed through those with the highest honors and still not take everyone. This is well documented, but I can tell you from personal experience both with our two as well as the 40 or so seniors I have seen graduate that GPAs of 4.0+ are a dime a dozen anymore.

Minimum requirements must still be met in order to get into colleges and minimum requirements must be met while in college. It doesn't matter if a student enters an Ivy League school, a state school or a conservatory. It doesn't matter what a student chooses to study either. One of our girls got a BA and the other a BFA. Both our daughters applied to and were accepted to private colleges, state colleges (including UVA and William & Mary) and Kristin also applied to conservatories as well as state universities with conservatory-approach curricula and they were still required to meet certain minimum requirements. A foreign language facility based on a minimum number of years of high school study as well as a certain number credits in English/Literature, math and sciences will likely need to be met.

With those courses firmly in hand and both with top HS grades our girls were still required to take hours of testing to make certain they were competent in those fields before final acceptance to the schools of their choice. Each of our daughters was able to opt out of the college foreign language requirement because they had studied for a number of years in high school. Their AP test scores allowed them to gain college credit as well as opt out of the college level classes in most of the other required curricula. Other than for those reasons there were no exceptions. Seems you either have to take it now or take it later.

I agree that 4.0+ gpas are becoming dime a dozen. I think it's partly because they weight classes now. We didn't have weighted averages at my high school. I don't remember the exact formula my kids' high school uses, but an AP class is worth more than an honors class which is worth more than a Regents class which is worth more than a non-Regents class.

 

[bethbuchall]

I've just spent 2 hours arguing with the camper dealer. They called to say that they transposed some numbers or the 72 year old salesman made a mistake...and they wanted $4500.00 more. Obviously that is NOT an option. We left a deposit and was told the deal was done and I had spoken with them twice since and no mention of a problem. So the second phone call they came down to Wanting $3000 more. I still said absolutely not, have the owner call me. 3rd call (2 hours later) they will honor the deal and consider it advertising I have been sick to my stomache since the first call. I'm very happy that we are getting for the agreed upon price which we felt was a good deal to begin with, but not as amazing a deal as they'd like us to believe.

I'm glad that you were confident enough not to back down! for the pick-up! (Just keep remembering that you are doing nothing wrong, no matter how they want you to feel about it.)

 

[bethbuchall]

Elin I agree with you.

A close friend is an AP English teacher and she always says getting a kid ready to apply for college is like building a tapestry. She must of known what she was doing because her kid got a full ride! But he not only had accedemic excellence, he was into sports, music, school politics and did major community service. How he did that all remains a mystery.

Now in Jonathan's case, he was on an all AP track and went into college with 39 credits. What was nice for him is that he did not have to take a single Gen Ed class or the foreign language. I anticipate Jackie moving in the same direction.

Now my Christopher may pose a challenge. He is the only one of the four who is not academically driven. It will be a whole new world for me. Hopefully he doesn't drive me over the edge.

The one problem with all these AP credits is that some college refuse to accept them. I think that they don't want you to get out of paying for a year of college or something. Sometimes the college will accept them but a particular department will not allow you to use them. Matthew was not allowed to use Physics (which we knew ahead of time because he took the B exam), Calculus, or Chemistry despite getting 5s on the exams. His friend who is attending the same university but in a different department was able to get the credits after an appeal, but the answer for Matthew's department was a very firm no. Fortunately, the gen ed credits (American History, Literature, Economics) do count, so that helps him avoid those classes. The material in the courses that he was forced to repeat was much easier for him, too, since he had already been through it once. The exams are over $80 each, so it's hard to make that decision on taking the exam. Last year our high school changed its policy on calculating quality points. Without taking the AP exam, the points are calculated as if it were an honors class, not an AP class. Since they made the decision late, they covered all the exam fees for that year. We lucked out there, since Laura had 5 AP exams. This year Laura is taking 6 AP classes, and we will have to be a little selective on whether she takes the exams. By then, though, she'll have her college acceptances, so we can find out their policies.

 

[bethbuchall]

Nick can opt to take Dartmouth courses instead of high school courses starting his junior year. There are restrictions as to which classes, but the option is there.

Our high school used to have some courses that could be taken through different universities. I don't think that they have any of those left, though there is a program that can be used for credits at RIT.

 

[bethbuchall]

so they gave dad 2 more units of blood today, and they kept him overnight again. They rechecked his blood count around 5pm but have not heard the results. I think they plan to check it again in the AM.

I hope that he is doing better today!

 

[bethbuchall]

Quickly before I head to bed, I don't remember if I ever posted, but my dad's post-op appt last week went really well. There were only 2 small spots of cancer and they were completely incapsulated in the prostate. He'll follow up in 1 month, 6 months and then once a year for regular PSA tests, which should come back undetectable. No radiation is necessary at this time and as soon as the healing process takes it's time, he'll be as good as new. Thanks again for all of the thoughts and prayers.

Great news!

 

[bethbuchall]

As the great Rafiki said "It is time."

Well (without TMI) it has become apparent that I must have an edometrial ablation. They are also doing a tubal ligation at the same time. Hoping this will make my life alittle easier in the TOM respect which has been quite brutal the past few years. Now I am just waiting to get a surgery date.

that it all goes well for you!

 

[bethbuchall]

Bernadette, I think you asked if Miles is going to middle school. It's a little complicated this year. Normally the 6th graders do start middle school. Since ours in under major construction, though, the 6th graders were moved to one of the elementary schools last year and this year. They still run it as closely as possible to how it was run in the middle school. It is not his elementary school (which he walked to), so he will still take a bus for the first time. We go to the orientation tonight, and he has received his schedule.

We are still waiting on high school schedules. I just have my fingers crossed that they didn't mess anything up on that one. Matthew's guidance counselor messed up his senior year, and by the time we found out, it was too late for him to get into AP US Government. The class was full and there were no exceptions. He had to take regular PIG (Participation in Government).

 

[Tammi67]

OMG!! My current daycare just called. The kids will be staying there! I'm so happy!

 

[Tammi67]

Anne Marie - I'm so sorry you have to go through this. Hopefully it will go smoothly.

 

[babytrees]

OMG!! My current daycare just called. The kids will be staying there! I'm so happy!

how did that work out? oh, who cares? let's do the banana dance

 

[my3princes]

OMG!! My current daycare just called. The kids will be staying there! I'm so happy!

 

[mommykds]

OMG!! My current daycare just called. The kids will be staying there! I'm so happy!

 

[mommykds]

Thanks everyone.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

OMG!! My current daycare just called. The kids will be staying there! I'm so happy!

That is good news!

Anne Marie, hope your procedure goes well!

Beth, good luck to Miles!

DS learned yesterday that he should NEVER blow off studying for a night. He had vocab to study, but he decided to take the night off Monday. SURPRISE! The test was TODAY! And last night he wasn't doing very well with the words. There were only 10 this week, which could be a blessing or a curse. Less to learn, but less wiggle room to get them wrong and still pass!

He did do his Theatre resume by himself, following the example he got in class. He had a copy of the resume I had done for him with the dates of all of his classes so he copied those over. He was in too much of a hurry to wait for me to get home and send the old resume to his computer, so his whole document was from scratch.

Beth, I had no idea there was a FEE for the AP exams! Learn something new every day. I am glad you will know ahead of time which exams will be worthwhile for Laura!

 

[PNO4TE]

Tammi - I hope the drive went well for your Dad today!

Anne Marie - I hope it helps.

 

[KristineN]

And the fees are high and add up quickly!