yes, that's the sort of thing I'm worried about. I can't imagine that Putin will get through Ukraine and decide on Hungary specifically as his next step before May, but I can imagine that being in the general region could get unpleasant and possibly dangerous at some point.

He got an e-mail from his US college today that was just "yes, we're keeping an eye on things and consulting with the state department" so nothing disrupted at the moment. His program is 35 kids all from different US colleges. He is keeping plenty of cash on hand; I'll mention keeping his passport with him to him. He already has his return ticket for May; it can be changed to earlier if needed, although, of course, if everyone's suddenly trying to leave it would be tough I imagine.

Yeah, I'm not really worried about an actual invasion or anything so much as general war-related disruptions of...some sort? I really wasn't too nervous until my stepmother called this morning. She was talking about cyber attacks and getting stuck there if air travel is disrupted and...yeah, but that could happen anywhere. This whole study abroad thing has tested my nerves, though...I bought his ticket when Eastern Europe was literally the worst place in the world for covid. He went anyway and immediately got covid (but he's fine!) and now this. The next kid who wants to study abroad can spend a nice semester in Winnipeg or somewhere! And, OF COURSE, worrying about him is absolutely nothing compared to people who are in the thick of things...I just want to make sure I'm not worrying TOO LITTLE (seems unlikely, given that I'm me).

So. How worried should I be at the moment about DS who’s (supposed to be) studying abroad in Budapest until the end of May? My parents would like for him to be on the next plane home, but I’m trying to be rational and not paranoid. I mean, he’s 20, so it’s not like I can make him come home anyway.

If people can't see a connection between anti-democratic movements in the US and anti-democratic movements abroad, then I don't know that the fact that most Republicans think Putin is a bad dude helps us that much in the long run.

As has always been the case, it's not just what people believe themselves, it's what things are and aren't dealbreakers for them. So we'll see whether the prominent Republicans who ARE valorizing Putin face any electoral consequences for it in the future.

I think Bravewriter does a class...by the time I found it it was already full, so no personal experience. I found a tutor on outschool to work one on one with my 12th grader, and we were both happy with how that worked out. He's a good writer, but he can be VERY slow when it's not a format he's comfortable with, so it was hugely helpful to have someone who wasn't me guiding him through it and giving him deadlines. I think he did a total of 3 half hour sessions.

The NYT map has Cuyahoga county at 8.6/100,000 (averaged over the past week): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html ETA: looks like your link shows cases per 100,000 over 7 days, whereas the thread I was talking about looked at daily cases per 100,000.

Honestly, he didn't supplement with a textbook or extra problems, and he got a 4 on the exam, so it worked out fine (I believe there is a specific free textbook recommended, though, with extra problems). It was a last minute substitution for us; the original plan was that he'd take a DE science class in 11th grade and then DE physics senior year, but covid thwarted that plan. So then he did the physics-prep course with the idea that if wasn't successful and he bombed the exam he could still do DE physics senior year. But with the motivator that if he DID do well on the exam, he could go lighter on senior year science (which is what he's doing--a course on the science of music that we put together). If he were planning on a STEM major we would have gone a different route, but this worked for our purposes--which was, basically, to get physics done and also show he could handle a higher level science class.

28: none pre HS, 10 DE, 5 AP 28.5: none pre HS, 3 DE, 8 AP We leaned more heavily on AP than DE for my current senior partly because of covid, but mostly because we wanted a more flexible schedule with more done at home because of music commitments (he's headed for music school)

My son did the Jack Kernion self-paced Physics 1 last year, and had a pretty good experience with it (https://physics-prep.com). My understanding is that it's the same material as PAH, but much cheaper without the live component/grading/etc. He only did Physics 1, not 1/2 in the same year, which made for a much more relaxed pace. He did it pretty much entirely on his own, although his calc teacher dad was available for any math help he needed, which happened occasionally but not often (he was taking Calc AB concurrently). While some places, like PAH, combine Physics 1/2 in one year, the college board calls Physics 1 a full year course and many schools teach it that way.

Bob Wachter had a long thread on twitter the other day about when he'll go back to indoor restaurants and stop masking in most situations....there were assorted caveats, but it boiled down to when cases are under 10/100,000 per day in his area. I appreciated seeing an actual number, with a lot of thoughtful reasoning behind it, and also one that seems like it might actually happen soon in most places (although likely not stay there forever; I'm expecting to be adjusting my behavior based on case counts for the foreseeable future). My husband and son were just in Cleveland last weekend and ate at indoor restaurants a couple of times...so I was pleased to read the thread and realize that they happened to be in one of the only parts of the country that comes in under the 10/100,000 threshold.

re: how many schools. Echoing that it really just depends on the situation. My oldest applied to 16, I think. Looking back, that was probably too many, but not by much. Like I can think of maybe 2-3 on his list that he almost certainly wouldn't have attended AND that he was pretty unlikely to be accepted to anyway. But if he's cut the list down to 10, he probably wouldn't have applied to the school he ended up going to. He was applying mostly to top 30 LAC, with a few outliers, and we needed to compare financial aid packages. He wound up on a LOT of waitlists and with a few acceptances at highly selective schools...there would have been no way to predict beforehand which would be the waitlists and which would be the acceptances. The few I'd cut, in retrospect, were places that made it easy to apply by not having extra essays and/or application fees, but which he hadn't visited and had no special interest in. My current senior only applied to 6. They all require auditions, which are very time consuming both to do and to prepare for (and application fees are usually higher for audition-only programs), and we really just couldn't find all that many schools that fit his needs: good clarinet teacher, good need based financial aid, realistic shot at admission (in retrospect this time, we might have added in a couple more places that seemed too reach-y at first...with the hindsight that he ended up passing all his prescreens). He also had a school we guessed/hoped would be a safety (that's a lot harder to gauge with music schools) that he would be genuinely happy to attend. Next kid might end up doing early decision somewhere so we don't have to go through this long, drawn out process again!

I'll also say that I think for my kid not being in school (and most of this would also apply to not being in a school with a big music program) has been a net positive. He's mostly played with selective, very talented ensembles, so he's used to playing music at a high level and also to knowing where he stands in relation to the best young musicians in the area. I think a lot of kids get used to being the best in their school ensembles, often without having to put in a ton of effort, and that can lead to complacency and bad practice habits and a rude awakening whenever they leave that bubble. There are some extracurriculars where not having school programs can be a huge disadvantage, but we haven't found music to be one of them.

Report back! I love admitted students weekends! I'm a giant dork. Is anywhere doing overnight visits these days? My oldest found those really helpful in making decisions, I think...a lot more immersive and less choreographed than standard visits with information sessions and tours.

The waiting is TERRIBLE! (I think I hate it way more than my kid, at least in this kid's case)

DS and DH fly to Cleveland tonight for the last of his auditions! Baldwin Wallace...we visited last summer, and he's done a lesson with the clarinet prof (who plays with the Cleveland Orchestra, making him one of the few full time orchestral musicians among his potential teachers. The only one, in fact, I think), and he likes it a lot. But I'm not sure it's likely to much of a contender for him; if the NPC is to be trusted it would be the least affordable option. But we'll see! Tomorrow the high is 25 in Cleveland with snow and 30 mph winds, so I'm off to Target to buy decent gloves today before they leave. Next up is waiting for decisions; he's supposed to hear from BW by March 8, and then Bard, Oberlin, and Vanderbilt are all clustered in mid-late March. And then we find out where we're going for spring break, based on where he gets in! I hate not being able to plan.

My son is applying to colleges as a clarinet performance major right now. He decided he wanted to major in music towards the end of 9th grade, after not starting clarinet until summer before 9th grade. And he's homeschooled, so everything has been outside of school. I think the two most important things he did/we did for him were getting him the best private teacher we could find and finding him groups he could perform with where the expectations and talent level were high (i.e. places where he wouldn't be the best clarinetist in the room and would be challenged). When I asked the same sort of question when we were first thinking this stuff through, a lot of people stressed the importance of summer programs as well. But thanks to covid he only did one camp, the year after he started playing, and I don't think it's hurt him (of course, most kids were in the same boat the past few years). Junior year he did sample lessons at colleges he was interested in to get an idea of what teachers he'd work well with, and right now we're nearly finished with audition season (phew!)...he's applied to 6 schools total, which is WAY fewer than my oldest, non-music kid applied to, because doing more auditions than that seemed overwhelming (and expensive...although a bunch of them were switched to virtual). So far he's been accepted at 2 and is waiting to hear from the rest. ETA more specific details about what the music part of his time looks like: right now he has a 1 hour private lesson every week, plays in a clarinet choir and a youth symphony on Sundays, in a youth wind ensemble on Mondays, and practices a couple of hours a day. He's auditioned for district honor band and All-state the past few years (and is actually getting to do all state in person this year!) but hasn't done any competitions otherwise. He took a music theory class through WTM Academy last year and also takes piano lessons.

Ugh--so frustrating! But maybe better to know now that he doesn't want to deal with them long term!

At least in the US, from what I can tell, teaching calculus in high school was pretty much unheard of until the 50s/60s. I don't see any trend at all to teach it to fewer students right now, but to push more and more unprepared students into it. I also don't see that anyone is substituting music and sports for academic subjects; it's the same wealthy schools that offer a bunch of AP classes that have robust music programs and lots of money for sports. I know that around here the schools in poorer areas can't play football games on Friday nights because they can't afford lights for their fields. My kids just auditioned into district honor band in our county where there are huge socio-economic variations across the county, and just about every single kid who got into district came from the wealthier, whiter/more Asian half of the county where there are schools with strong music programs and parents who can afford private lessons. The kids getting the best shots at succeeding in sports and music are the same ones getting the best shots academically.

My first two had 28 and (will have; graduating in May) 28.5

This is an interesting example, because my oldest took AP Human Geography and has ended up doing a geography minor (or possibly but not likely a double major), and his AP credit actually did count for the required intro class for that. But even elective credits can help you graduate early or just free up space in your schedule to fit in other requirements. Also AP HUG is just an interesting class, and, yes, a fairly gentle intro to AP exams.

There does seem to be a trend to offer non-AP calculus (my husband's school started offering it a few years ago). According to the survey in the report, admissions people still look more favorably on on-AP calc than on AP stats. From what I can tell, it's a good life raft for kids who would be in over their heads with an AP class but find themselves needing to take calc because of how they were placed back in 7th or 8th grade. How useful the class is probably depends on the situation....my husband tutored one kid who struggled with AB in 11th grade but likely could have handled it and done okay with a lot of effort; she decided to switch to non-AP calc just because the stress wasn't worth it to her, and she's doing great in the (very) slow paced class. Since she's just in 11th grade, it means she can still take AP calc next year if she wants and get that AP credit, and it will likely be a lot easier because she's had a gentle introduction to the subject this year.

My son did the WTM Academy music theory in 10th grade and really enjoyed it.

Yes, for sure. I guess a lot of it is a built in problem with trying to make school in general work for a huge population; there's only so much you can do and so much variety you can offer. Dual enrollment gives you a lot more options, but then you run into the problem of wondering how admissions people are going to evaluate classes they're not familiar with or a non-standard sequence.