Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[roliepolieoliefan]

Yes my son took the new SAT yesterday
He said it was easier than the practice tests

 

[punkin]

Yes. Niece took it yesterday too. She thinks she aced the English sections but math was a struggle.

 

[robinb]

Anyone take the new SAT yesterday? My daughter took the old one last Saturday and the new one this Saturday- she said she didn't see much difference in either one.

Holy cow! Your DD took the old one then the new one in the space of 7 days? How many times has she taken the SAT already? IIRC many times ( or was that the PSAT?). Is she shooting for a perfect score? From your previous posts I get the feeling that her scores are already top notch.

 

[aprilgail]

Holy cow! Your DD took the old one then the new one in the space of 7 days? How many times has she taken the SAT already? IIRC many times ( or was that the PSAT?). Is she shooting for a perfect score? From your previous posts I get the feeling that her scores are already top notch.

Nooo they were not top notch! She got an 1850 on the first one. She was scheduled to take the old SAT in Jan but it was snowed out so it was moved to the last Sat. in Feb and she was already scheduled for the new one in March so she ended up with 2 in a row. She took the old one twice and I know she wants to take the new one at least twice plus she wants to take some more SAT subject tests- I know she took 4 or so of those, have no idea which ones other than the biology one I know she took. She is scheduled for the ACT in April. The PSAT her school gives them in every grade from 9th on and every kid takes them every grade-some of the 7th graders they have take the SAT's also but she didn't make that cut in 7th grade.

 

[robinb]

Nooo they were not top notch! She got an 1850 on the first one. She was scheduled to take the old SAT in Jan but it was snowed out so it was moved to the last Sat. in Feb and she was already scheduled for the new one in March so she ended up with 2 in a row. She took the old one twice and I know she wants to take the new one at least twice plus she wants to take some more SAT subject tests- I know she took 4 or so of those, have no idea which ones other than the biology one I know she took. She is scheduled for the ACT in April. The PSAT her school gives them in every grade from 9th on and every kid takes them every grade-some of the 7th graders they have take the SAT's also but she didn't make that cut in 7th grade.

Darn . An 1850 isn't bad, but it's not the score she needs for the kinds of schools she's hoping for. She's so smart, I'm sure she'll bring it up! My DD went to a prep class but I know that some parents hire tutors just for the SAT/ACT.

My DD took the real ACT last Wednesday and now we're waiting for a score. She scored a 21 on the full practice ACT test she took a couple weeks ago through her prep class and she said she ran out of time on a couple of of the tests. She needs a better score than that! I bought her the "red book" from ACT and she studied that for a few days before the test. She said that she felt a lot better on the real test (fingers crossed) and she managed her time better after I bought her a cheap Casio watch and then disabled the beep (I googled it).

I mentioned before that my DD really wants to swim in college. She loves to swim and compete and she wants the academic support that is offered to athletes. She really wants to go to a D1 school but her times were just "meh". They were good enough to get her into the big state championship meet this last weekend but she was ranked really low going in. Well ... she did great! She had 3 personal bests over the weekend and her 100 back and 200 back are now fast enough for some good looks by college coaches, even some D1 schools .

 

[aprilgail]

Darn . An 1850 isn't bad, but it's not the score she needs for the kinds of schools she's hoping for. She's so smart, I'm sure she'll bring it up! My DD went to a prep class but I know that some parents hire tutors just for the SAT/ACT.


.

She took a prep class that was pretty useless but a friend of mine hooked me up with some online prep thing that she had bought so she is letting my daughter log on and work with that so hopefully it helped with the last SAT grade.

 

[mamacatnv]

Well, DD has thrown us all for a loop - she doesn't want to go to a traditional college - she wants to go to a Culinary school and study Pastry/Baking. She has always loved baking, this hobby is not something new, I just never gave a pastry chef as a career path much thought.
Now I am torn between certificate programs and degree programs. Both have really high price tags and little return. The price tag is astounding and I can't seem to figure out how to get her to understand that a $10hr profession will not pay off a $150K education.
Certificate programs or an AS degree in pastry will run $75K
Ugh...........I hate this part of teenagehood - trying to figure out what direction to go in

 

[Poohforyou]

Well, DD has thrown us all for a loop - she doesn't want to go to a traditional college - she wants to go to a Culinary school and study Pastry/Baking. She has always loved baking, this hobby is not something new, I just never gave a pastry chef as a career path much thought.
Now I am torn between certificate programs and degree programs. Both have really high price tags and little return. The price tag is astounding and I can't seem to figure out how to get her to understand that a $10hr profession will not pay off a $150K education.
Certificate programs or an AS degree in pastry will run $75K
Ugh...........I hate this part of teenagehood - trying to figure out what direction to go in

Could she apprentice somewhere near your home over the summer? Maybe getting some hands on experience and practical advice might be a worthwhile for her to make a decision.

 

[mamacatnv]

Could she apprentice somewhere near your home over the summer? Maybe getting some hands on experience and practical advice might be a worthwhile for her to make a decision.

That is a really really good idea - I am going to suggest that to her.
The local community college has a very well regarded culinary and pastry program with a AS degree.
For some reason she is heck bent to go to New England, Boston or New York for school - I'm not sure of all her motives but she really wants to go North. Ugh

 

[aprilgail]

\

Well, DD has thrown us all for a loop - she doesn't want to go to a traditional college - she wants to go to a Culinary school and study Pastry/Baking. She has always loved baking, this hobby is not something new, I just never gave a pastry chef as a career path much thought.
Now I am torn between certificate programs and degree programs. Both have really high price tags and little return. The price tag is astounding and I can't seem to figure out how to get her to understand that a $10hr profession will not pay off a $150K education.
Certificate programs or an AS degree in pastry will run $75K
Ugh...........I hate this part of teenagehood - trying to figure out what direction to go in

wow that is pricey- but pasty chef sounds like a fun career!

 

[aprilgail]

Got the form and date for senior pictures- April 1st is my daughters date- prices are insane- smallest package is 150.00- 300 for medium and 500 for large. an 8x10 alone is 60.00.

 

[bjscheel]

DD's cousin does senior pictures so we'll be doing them with him. He is just 1 month older than DD17 and they've been especially close cousins, so this will be fun and convenient. I think he just charges a fee like $50 and then you get the digital versions to order from somewhere like Shutterfly- I'll have to find out. He does a great job. He was asking me this week when & where she would like to have them taken. Once the weather warms up we'll probably do a few sessions. Definitely some on the track at school- better do some there before she has to turn in her uniform. He's got some good locations he uses, though I don't know if she'd be into the city ones. She'd love some at WDW...I might have to try taking some with my camera when we're down there and see if he can tweak them to look nice.

In other news, I'm getting bunches of emails from colleges that got her name from ACT! I haven't gotten her score in the mail yet (January test), just viewed it online. I would think it would come soon.

 

[robinb]

Many families around here use private photographers. A friend had the best photos taken for her DD 2 years ago. IIRC they cost her about $1200 but they were freaking gorgeous.

We are going on another college trip over spring break. My DD has always wanted to be a Minnesota Gopher so we have a visit scheduled for next week. She's emailing the swim coach to see if she can meet with someone there about the swim program.

 

[AustinTink]

My son got a letter for the National Hispanic Recognition Program based off his PSAT scores. 5000 recipients out of the 250,000 hispanic juniors who took the test. I'm one proud mama!

 

[robinb]

My DD got her ACT score in the mail. she doesn't want to open it until her boyfriend leaves. It's been sitting on the table all day and it's making me crazy!

 

[bjscheel]

My DD got her ACT score in the mail. she doesn't want to open it until her boyfriend leaves. It's been sitting on the table all day and it's making me crazy!

We haven't gotten DD's in the mail yet but I was able to see them online weeks ago.

Is anyone working on National Honor Society? School sent home a paper but it says to write your essay about the following 5 items and we're wondering if she is supposed to address all of those items or just pick one or two. The guidance counselor hasn't been in so she needs to remember to email him. She really doesn't have any community service to speak of, so I don't know how important that will be.

 

[AustinTink]

We haven't gotten DD's in the mail yet but I was able to see them online weeks ago.

Is anyone working on National Honor Society? School sent home a paper but it says to write your essay about the following 5 items and we're wondering if she is supposed to address all of those items or just pick one or two. The guidance counselor hasn't been in so she needs to remember to email him. She really doesn't have any community service to speak of, so I don't know how important that will be.

My son had one topic when he wrote his NHS essay last year. They didn't have 5 items to choose from though. Maybe the essay portion varies by school? He had a fair amount of service hours, nothing outstanding, and he got in.

 

[Poohforyou]

We haven't gotten DD's in the mail yet but I was able to see them online weeks ago.

Is anyone working on National Honor Society? School sent home a paper but it says to write your essay about the following 5 items and we're wondering if she is supposed to address all of those items or just pick one or two. The guidance counselor hasn't been in so she needs to remember to email him. She really doesn't have any community service to speak of, so I don't know how important that will be.

My dd got inducted into NHS in January. She had to write an essay about what being a leader means to her. Depending on how many service hours she needs you can probably get them pretty easily. Churches are a great place to start.

 

[sksjasams]

We are going on another college trip over spring break. My DD has always wanted to be a Minnesota Gopher so we have a visit scheduled for next week. She's emailing the swim coach to see if she can meet with someone there about the swim program.

Robin, how did your UMN visit go? We will visit there this summer. We were scheduled to visit UW-
LaCrosse over spring break but ended up canceling due to their foot of snow!

Julie

 

[aprilgail]

We haven't gotten DD's in the mail yet but I was able to see them online weeks ago.

Is anyone working on National Honor Society? School sent home a paper but it says to write your essay about the following 5 items and we're wondering if she is supposed to address all of those items or just pick one or two. The guidance counselor hasn't been in so she needs to remember to email him. She really doesn't have any community service to speak of, so I don't know how important that will be.

Every school is different- at the school my brother teaches at you basically just needed a certain average to get in- at my daughters school you couldn't get in without community service. I volunteer for a non profit so all my daughters friends were scrambling trying to find things they could do with me there for some hours!