Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[Mrs. Ciz]

DD has been a Girl Scout camper for the past 6 summers, the last two summers she was in the counselor in training program. She has decided she really doesn't want to be a counselor and she doesn't want to be a camper so she applied to be part of the kitchen staff for the summer. She is contemplating culinary school and thought this would be good experience. (we agree) So, last week she contacted the camp folks, then sent off a resume, cover letter and application to the council. Yesterday she received an email, they are setting her up for an interview! She is so excited. The job would run the course of about 6 weeks and she would be a resident at the camp as part of the staff for those 6 weeks. She won't make a ton of money but she will be paid and all her room/board will be covered.

As for ACT's, she said she had no idea they could get scores online, then she texted several friends and none of them knew of this option. She was going to investigate further, meanwhile, she continues to stalk the mailbox and is scheduled to take the new SAT this weekend. She opted to add the essay to her ACT and wonders if by doing so, it removed the online results option?

DD took her ACT with writing and still got her scores online last week. Your DD needs to log on to her ACT account and check there.

 

[aprilgail]

Um, YES! I have twin daughters as well and I think I'm looking forward to the school year ending just as much as they are! Seems the teachers have really started loading up the work lately. Both have big research papers due. In addition to that, sports and SAT tutoring they are exhausted.

As for next year they are taking pretty tough courses again. PreCalc, English, Psych, Physics. They both dropped Spanish as they did take it for 3 years already. I wish they would just take the 4th year but I think that will be too much.

I wonder if the school has a requirement that they have to be there X amount of days a week in order to meet state requirements for the year. That may be why they can't do all in one day.

Mine took pre-calc this year, she actually a 100 average in it, that is her strong subject-wish the rest were as good as that!, she also took AP physics and Psych this year too. Next year as a senior it is AP Calc BC, AP Statistics, AP Lang, AP Macro (or is it micro, I cant recall which she is taking), AP Bio (she took that in 9th grade but is taking it again because she liked it LOL), gym (required) and chorus.

Mine dropped Spanish this year so she got her 3 years of honors spanish in 8,9 and 10. She missed the first week of school because she was sick- her first day back the Spanish teacher gives her this big stack of work to make up and tells her it is due the next day my daughter just handed it back to her and said "you know what, I am out of here"- she went down to guidance and dropped the class. She really hated taking Spanish anyway.

Right now its great not much homework anymore, most of her classes are AP and they took the exams this week so basically those classes are over as far as loading with homework etc.

 

[punkin]

She has decided to apply to 5 schools so far:
Amherst - This is the dream school
Univ TX-Austin (UT) - her IB diploma should get her in here although its not high on her list as its far to large of a campus for what she wants
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA - This is a choice that we the parents do not support, I refer to this place as the Montessori college. Stupid expensive with non traditional structure.
The Art Institute (Culinary) - AS degree, very expensive
Texas State - She says this is her safety school.

DD has this one track mind, she wants to go Northeast for school. She has no idea what she wants to study, she just wants to live in a quaint place like Amherst and go to school.

Funny you should say that about Hampshire. My DH just suggested to DNiece that she should consider it. Niece writes and hates math. He thought a school with a loose curriculum would work for her and she would have access to consortium classes should she want it. Montessori college can be a wonderful place for the right student.

 

[Poohforyou]

My dd probably just finished her 2nd of 3 AP tests right now. She has the last one tomorrow morning and them junior prom tomorrow night. I imagine she'll be sleeping most of Saturday.

Next year she's taking AP gov, calc 2 (college level program), advanced statistical modeling (took AP Stat last year), creative writing/journalism (1 semester each), bioethics/astronomy, orchestra and gym. She's taking AP physics this year and can't deal with another lab science. She also dropped her foreign language.

As for ACT scores being online, I don't see how they wouldn't be. All college board tests are online including the SAT with essay. I was actually able to see my dd's essay from her SAT last fall. She was one and done. She got an amazing score and it's very unlikely she'd top it.

 

[mamacatnv]

Funny you should say that about Hampshire. My DH just suggested to DNiece that she should consider it. Niece writes and hates math. He thought a school with a loose curriculum would work for her and she would have access to consortium classes should she want it. Montessori college can be a wonderful place for the right student.

DD toured all the Amherst schools in February. She LOVED Hampshire but we have since been doing a ton of research and as much as I understand the concept, I don't think the educational outcome is worth the cost, it is very expensive for a make your own major type school. DD has also voiced some concern that she needs more structure than Hampshire offers but she loved the "feel" of the place.

 

[punkin]

DD toured all the Amherst schools in February. She LOVED Hampshire but we have since been doing a ton of research and as much as I understand the concept, I don't think the educational outcome is worth the cost, it is very expensive for a make your own major type school. DD has also voiced some concern that she needs more structure than Hampshire offers but she loved the "feel" of the place.

We toured it with DD and she did not like it at all, but then, she was looking for a more well rounded traditional experience. NIece just wants to write.

 

[lucky978]

Happy SAT day (at least for us)! Are most of your children taking the SAT's today?

Mine took pre-calc this year, she actually a 100 average in it, that is her strong subject-wish the rest were as good as that!, she also took AP physics and Psych this year too. Next year as a senior it is AP Calc BC, AP Statistics, AP Lang, AP Macro (or is it micro, I cant recall which she is taking), AP Bio (she took that in 9th grade but is taking it again because she liked it LOL), gym (required) and chorus.

Wow that is quite a workload of AP classes! Good for her though! Sounds like she is a great student! How was AP Psych? My girls are taking it next year as seniors.

Mine dropped Spanish this year so she got her 3 years of honors spanish in 8,9 and 10. She missed the first week of school because she was sick- her first day back the Spanish teacher gives her this big stack of work to make up and tells her it is due the next day my daughter just handed it back to her and said "you know what, I am out of here"- she went down to guidance and dropped the class. She really hated taking Spanish anyway.

That definitely sounds like something my girls would do, too. That's quite a bit of work to make up in one day!

 

[aprilgail]

Happy SAT day (at least for us)! Are most of your children taking the SAT's today?

Wow that is quite a workload of AP classes! Good for her though! Sounds like she is a great student! How was AP Psych? My girls are taking it next year as seniors.

That definitely sounds like something my girls would do, too. That's quite a bit of work to make up in one day!

Our school doesn't offer AP psych- it was a just a regular psych class but she liked it- she is taking forensics now and really likes that class. Today was another SAT day for her- she is taking the June 4th SAT subject tests and then the June 11 ACT and that is IT- no more tests!!

 

[Poohforyou]

Happy SAT day (at least for us)! Are most of your children taking the SAT's today?

No, dd went to junior prom last night after having 3 AP exams this week. Fortunately she exceeded the score she was aiming for on the old SAT in Oct so she's done.

She's anxiously waiting for the PSAT/NMQT benchmarks to be announced. That probably won't happen until sept. She has a good shot at being at least a commended scholar. She's one of those lucky kids that tests really well. Definitely not something I was,able to do

 

[lucky978]

Our school doesn't offer AP psych- it was a just a regular psych class but she liked it- she is taking forensics now and really likes that class. Today was another SAT day for her- she is taking the June 4th SAT subject tests and then the June 11 ACT and that is IT- no more tests!!

Excellent! I think the forensics class sounds interesting - I wish our school offered that.

She's anxiously waiting for the PSAT/NMQT benchmarks to be announced. That probably won't happen until sept. She has a good shot at being at least a commended scholar. She's one of those lucky kids that tests really well. Definitely not something I was,able to do

Wow that's amazing!

 

[bjscheel]

Did a session of senior pictures today! Her cousin who is a month older than her (but a senior this year) does a great job at a great price. It was a bunch of fun and from the ones he let us see on the camera, I can see they are going to be so good. He takes a lot of his clients to the city, but that's not DD. So we started out at the end of a dirt road in our neighborhood, then went to my parents' farm for wildflowers, the track at school, my parents' deck with the blooming azalea, some brick buildings in town, and the lake. Oh, and then we remembered she wanted some with her artwork so she held a couple of pieces out in our yard. Yesterday we bought ribbon to hang her track medals on so she could drape them over her arms- we had seen that idea from another track girl.

I don't know if we'll do another session. I think we got plenty of good ones. She wants some at Disney but he won't be there so I'll try my hand but it won't look like his.

 

[aprilgail]

Did a session of senior pictures today! Her cousin who is a month older than her (but a senior this year) does a great job at a great price. It was a bunch of fun and from the ones he let us see on the camera, I can see they are going to be so good. He takes a lot of his clients to the city, but that's not DD. So we started out at the end of a dirt road in our neighborhood, then went to my parents' farm for wildflowers, the track at school, my parents' deck with the blooming azalea, some brick buildings in town, and the lake. Oh, and then we remembered she wanted some with her artwork so she held a couple of pieces out in our yard. Yesterday we bought ribbon to hang her track medals on so she could drape them over her arms- we had seen that idea from another track girl.

I don't know if we'll do another session. I think we got plenty of good ones. She wants some at Disney but he won't be there so I'll try my hand but it won't look like his.

Nice- my daughters is mid June- doing them through the school- if you don't do it through the school they don't go in the yearbook and she wants to be in the yearbook. We have an apt in June and my daughter booked a spray tan prior to that so she wont be her normal pasty white.

 

[bjscheel]

DD just went with pasty white He already has 6 up on his FB page for a sneak peek and I love them. One of them her eyes are a little droopy so I'd like to see some of the other shots of that pose. I love that we got to do them in some special places. When I did them it was mostly in a studio with different backdrops, plus some in a park and one at a nursing home so I could be by a grand piano. When my sister was in school there was a semi truck that came with backdrops in the trailer and you just went out to the trailer when it was your turn!

 

[lucky978]

My daughters took the SAT on Saturday. Their proctor told their group that they didn't need to take section 5. So they were done about 20 minutes before everyone else! I'm on hold with College Board now trying to figure this all out. No clue why he would tell them that. Obviously I'm concerned about what those missing answers will do to their scores! ugh!

 

[robinb]

My daughters took the SAT on Saturday. Their proctor told their group that they didn't need to take section 5. So they were done about 20 minutes before everyone else! I'm on hold with College Board now trying to figure this all out. No clue why he would tell them that. Obviously I'm concerned about what those missing answers will do to their scores! ugh!

That's terrible! I assume they would void the test and allow them to retake it for free.

 

[aprilgail]

My daughters took the SAT on Saturday. Their proctor told their group that they didn't need to take section 5. So they were done about 20 minutes before everyone else! I'm on hold with College Board now trying to figure this all out. No clue why he would tell them that. Obviously I'm concerned about what those missing answers will do to their scores! ugh!

Did you get it straightened out? My daughter said they did section 5 when she took it Saturday.

 

[lucky978]

That's terrible! I assume they would void the test and allow them to retake it for free.

Did you get it straightened out? My daughter said they did section 5 when she took it Saturday.

I've called College Board twice - they say the issue is being reviewed by and "upper level" and I will be contacted. This is so frustrating. They worked so hard (and not to mention what we paid for tutoring). I'm furious. Going to call the guidance department tomorrow morning to get their opinion on the issue.

 

[aprilgail]

The March SAT scores are up! My daughter had said they were easier than the old ones and I guess she was right- she went up the equivalent of 350 points!

 

[okeydokey]

I am thinking that Colleges will also ramp up their SAT requirements as well then, if they are expecting scores from the new SAT will be up across the board. Scholarships too.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I am thinking that Colleges will also ramp up their SAT requirements as well then, if they are expecting scores from the new SAT will be up across the board. Scholarships too.

The March SAT scores are up! My daughter had said they were easier than the old ones and I guess she was right- she went up the equivalent of 350 points!

DD got her scores back today too. They are higher than we expected. So I guess the big question is… is a new SAT 1200 math/verbal score on par with the old SAT 1200 math/verbal score? Or is a new 1200 lower than the old 1200???!!!! I think we may just stick with the ACT; it's a known entity.