My son had a 5th section both today and back in May. He said some of the problems were even the same. College Board does disclose the possibility of this happening and says it's random. However, my understanding was that kids who are doing the essay don't get it. Hmmm.

Oct 16 -- primary date Oct 19 -- Saturday date Oct 30 -- alternate date

Not supply related, but make sure your kiddo knows how to do laundry -- specifically checking the lint trap in the dryer. At two different tours this summer we heard about dryer fires the first week of school in the freshmen dorms from our tour guides. The tour guides were rising sophomores and lived in the respective dorms. Also, be sure you are familiar with the dorm rules before buying things. My DS's school does not allow foam mattress toppers -- and they do check during fire drills and will throw them out, string lights of any kind, or open flames of any kind, including birthday candles.

It doesn't have to be a well-known private. Every public school student in our district has a P/F course on their transcript from freshman year. It's a once a week, 1/4 credit, first semester class, that helps with the transition to high school. There's no way to not take it. I have no idea what colleges do with it.

It's legit. I recommend doing the trial lesson and then deciding. It wasn't a fit for us. DS got dropped twice during the trial and he couldn't stand being able to hear other conversations in the background. It's call center style on their end, unless things have changed.

Here's the thing -- all schools, big, medium, or small will have a different feel in the summer. Small schools may feel dead and isolated, but the bigger schools tend to be overrun with high school age and sometimes even younger campers. That's not the school's regular vibe either. If summer is the only time you can go -- it was for us -- then that's what you go with if you think it's necessary.

Maybe the Container Store?

I have been following along and am curious about this as well. Which schools? Mainly curious in case my rising senior has/puts any of them on his list. My current college junior was never asked to supply these for interviews. For the most part, those interviews were with alums of the schools who would have no idea about these things. He ended up at a school that does not interview any applicants, nor has any additional requirements for homeschoolers. My rising senior has one interview next week, and the school specifically says not to bring anything -- this is with the admissions office not an alum. There is an extensive questionnaire all interviewees, not just homeschoolers, fill out when they sign up and that is what is used. This is a T50 school. A second school requires a phone interview for homeschoolers once the Common App is filed. They use what is provided in it for their info. Right now no other schools on his list require/recommend interviews for any applicants.

Pretty sure she majored in IR. Although Deliotte is a big 4 accounting firm, they are also the world's largest consulting firm and I think that's where she ended up.

We have a neighbor whose daughter graduated from the program this spring. Here's what I know: She did her freshman and senior years at William and Mary and sophomore and junior years at St. Andrews. For her family cost of being OOS was not a object -- it was cheaper than her NE boarding school. Also, she did a full year abroad with a host family in Spain during high school, so being overseas was not new to her. St. Andrews (the town) is small -- about 16,000 people -- and isolated on the coast. The family attended both the graduation at William and Mary in May and then St. Andrews in June. She got a job with Deliotte in DC and starts there in August.

Lanny: No worries. Back to the OP -- it looks like Rice uses the words recommendation and evaluation interchangeably. This is from their admissions site: Recommendations—Candidates must submit evaluations from their guidance counselor and two teachers. At least one teacher recommendation should relate to the applicant's intended area of study, and both should highlight their academic strengths and contributions in the classroom.

Not sure it's particularly easier to get in to Duke. From the Duke Chronicle (the student newspaper) regarding the class of 2023: With a record high of 41,600 applicants applying for admission overall, the University outdid its record of more than 37,302 students who applied to Duke last year. The Class of 2023 had a regular decision acceptance rate of 5.7 percent—with 37,761 applying under the Regular Decision program and another 81 students who were deferred during the early decision round receiving offers of admission. This year’s early decision acceptance rate was also a record low, with 882 high school seniors admitted out of a record-high 4,852 applicants. Students receiving offers in the early decision round comprised 51 percent of those admitted to the Class of 2023. The acceptance rate for ED was 18.2% if you do the math. I would expect the "Zion effect" to be real for the class of 2024, even though he's gone.

He's at a school with 9000 undergrads, so not particularly large -- he wanted that 5000-10000 range. Also not a tech school, not a school I would call "nerdy", and has a required core. He and his group are almost all econ or finance majors.

Whether they're safeties or affordable, I can't tell you, but most Catholic colleges and universities will be strong in classics and have robust Latin offerings.

Has she been a DM? My son just started his own group in his dorm. He had been a DM as far back as age 9 -- getting his elementary school friends to play -- so this wasn't a big deal to him and had planned on it from the beginning. He took all of his basic supplies to school, plus extra dice sets. She could do the same thing.

i"ll jump in. My DH is a co-coordinator for a citizen science project.. We decided that at least for high school -- not sure what age you're proposing this for -- involvement in these would count as volunteer hours, not for science class. The main reason for this decision is that for most of these projects you are only collecting data or answering simple yes/no questions, but not doing any actual scientific testing/analysis. High school needs more. Just one approach.

Thanks, all!

DS wants to do a psychology course for his senior year. I know many recommend the Myers AP Psychology text, but he would rather use a regular college text. I searched what our local university uses as well as some of the other schools he may be applying to. Below is a list of what I've found. I have no idea how to choose, so if anyone has any thoughts/experience, or other suggestions, I'd love some input. FYI, we will do this as a year long course. Thanks. Invitation to Psychology, Wade and Tarvis Psychology in Context, Kosslyn and Rosenberg Psychology, Myers and DeWall Psychology in Your Life, Grison and Gazzaniga Psychology: A Concise Introduction, Griggs

Laptop. As someone stated above at my son's school you can't access the lock-down browser for testing, nor can you print remotely to the library or computer lab printers -- again, the software is not supported. Also Chromebooks typically have limited capacity so you might not be able to download a large program. Your school should have a website dedicated to computing needs that gives minimum specs.

I have a Protestant (Episcopalian) kid at a Jesuit Catholic university. It's been a non-issue. The school is about 70% Catholic, but with 10,000 undergrads that leaves 3,000 who aren't. Interesting you mention Baylor -- my kid refused to even consider it due to the mandatory chapel requirement.

Not specific to homeschooling, but I've always liked this info from MIT: https://mitadmissions.org/apply/parents-educators/writingrecs/

Thanks. Just to add, we don't need any PE. This kid is a year round athlete, so that's covered. Also, human anatomy was well covered in bio. If it exists, I think something straight forward, out of the box, may be best. Kassia, how did you modify? We also only need the 1/2 credit of health.

Looking for a one semester, get 'er done health curriculum. Absolutely must be secular. Suggestions? Thanks!

If you live near a Nordstrom's check with them for summer associate/sales positions. They hire specifically for their anniversary sale. It's salary plus commission -- you can make a lot of money if you're good -- there is a guaranteed minimum, too. My son did this summer after senior year and after freshman year. You do have to be 18.

My guess is every school does it their own way. We will face this in 2020-21. I can see now what the current college asks for on their forms: name of student, name of college, expected graduation year, full time or half time, undergrad or grad, non-need based aid amount. You update the school once the sibling has decided where to attend and then it gets verified in September. But we don't know how they use the info. This is a meets full need school that uses the CSS profile for incoming students and then uses its own forms thereafter. We are running the NPCs with just one in college and as a family of 3 to get an idea of what years 2-4 will look like for our younger student.