Thanks for all that! UAH comes up over and over again--we should definitely take a look. We're only looking at places that either meet 100% of demonstrated need or where he'd have a good shot at significant merit, so the sticker price at the places I've listed isn't what we're looking at....but if UAH keeps offering merit like they've done in the past, it sounds like they'd still come out ahead of nearly anywhere else (barring pulling off getting into Harvard or getting one of the handful of full rides at UGA or somewhere).

We've kind of looked at Tech...we haven't actually done a visit, because I think he's leaning more toward a LAC. He's into math right now, but is also interested in political science and a bunch of other stuff...a LAC with an open or semi-open curriculum might be a better fit so he can explore a bit more before settling on one thing. We should do a visit at least, though, because the whole part where he'd have a Zell Miller scholarship and maybe even be able to live at home at least some of the time is awfully appealing financially.

I'd love for him to be that close, and I hear the campus is gorgeous....but I think Berry would be way too conservative for his tastes.

We have a giant list of schools in the Northeast and midwest that DS17 (rising senior) is considering, but not a whole lot closer to home (north Georgia). We've toured UGA, Emory, and Oxford; he'll certainly apply to UGA, but I really see him doing better at a smaller school. He liked Oxford, but isn't sure about the part where you end up at Emory after 2 years (he liked Emory fine, but didn't love it). What he's looking for (and/or what his parents are looking for): *strong math department (not interested in engineering or sciences other than possibly physics) *liberal/progressive vibe *greek life either non-existent or not a big deal on campus *academically minded *preferably more quirky than preppy *great financial aid (either merit or need-based or a combo) Doesn't care about sporty vs. not (he likes watching sports but doesn't play any). Not picky about location as far as urban vs. rural. He has an excellent transcript/GPA/SAT We toured a bunch of schools in the northeast over the summer and his favorites were Bowdoin, Vassar, Williams, and Hamilton (with the caveat that there weren't many students around, so it was hard to get a feel for some things). In the midwest, he hasn't yet visited but is interested in Grinnell, Carleton, St. Olaf, Oberlin, Earlham, Knox, maybe Macalester. Our current list is a little light on safeties/matches; of course he had to love Williams and Bowdoin :)....so more of those, but still places with very strong academics would be nice. Where should we be looking in the southeast?

Every selective college we've looked into has said they want to see 4 years for the 5 core subjects and to see that you're challenging yourself, given the options available to you. I would consider AB Calc for a non-mathy kid to be plenty challenging. My husband teaches calc at a public high school and he regularly has students accepted at Georgia Tech with just AB, so even for kids who want to go into engineering or sciences at selective schools, AB is fine.

So you're saying I DO have an excuse to buy another one ?. We'll definitely spend time comparing the different translations....I love talking about stuff like that!

I should have thought to check there! Thanks--we just did a side by side comparison of the first few lines for the three translations I have, and the kids and I all liked Fagles the best. There's an interesting sounding translation that came out last year (first by a woman, I think)....but I'm going to resist buying yet another translation and stick with Fagles ?

Just an update: various scheduling issues meant he only ended up doing one interview on our summer trip, at Hamilton. He of course doesn't want to give me too many details, but it seems to have gone pretty well. He was in a good mood when he finished, and Hamilton's at the top of his short list now. He was already fretting about it so much that I was wary of making him even more nervous by talking about it too much, but we went over questions they were likely to ask and he made sure to be ready with a few questions of his own. I think he's at least confident that the interview didn't hurt his chances, and he should feel a little less overwhelmed about any he does going forward.

Anyone want to make a case for a particular translation of The Odyssey? I'm starting off the year with it for my three oldest, who are in 7th, 9th, and 12th grades. I have on hand translations by Edward McCrorie, Robert Fagles, and EV Rieu (Penguin Classics). Apparently I'm not capable of passing up a copy at the thrift store...

We live in Georgia but travel in the summer; last year we were in California when scores came out and California was the last day (it's based on where you are, not where you live or where you took the test). This year California is first, but we're going to be in Canada, so last day again. We'll have to check the score release schedule before making plans for next summer ?

Sorry your son had a hard time, too, but I'm kind of glad at least that it's not just mine. I wish it weren't such a long wait for scores!

DS just got out of Calc BC. He was feeling pretty confident going in, but not so much now ? . Hoping it went better than he thinks it did. He's gotten 4s on all 3 exams he's taken so far, and I know he's really hoping for a 5 on this one.

Here (in Georgia) the state agency that oversees dual enrollment lays out how much credit to give for the courses: 1-2 hours = 1/2 credit and 3-5 hours = 1 credit. We use dual enrollment when we feel like the college can do a better job with the subject than we could at home. Right now that means that my son (finishing junior year) does math and English at home. Next year he'll be doing math DE because he's finishing BC calc right now, which will put him into territory my husband hasn't dealt with much since college (he's a high school calc teacher), but we'll do AP English at home. This year he did Spanish, social sciences, and science DE.

My 11th grader just has BC Calc this year (he's mostly doing DE in place of APs now). My husband is a calculus teacher, so I've had absolutely no AP teaching responsibilities this year (DH even e-mailed around and found the testing site!)

I would start with Khan and see how it goes before putting a lot of money into something else. Our plan with DS was that he'd do Khan and give it a shot (spring of Junior year) and then work more intensively on any weak spots, and he could retake fall of Senior year. We paid for the service where you get your questions and answers back with the score report so we could see exactly what to work on. But then he ended up doing very well on the March test and won't take it again unless he decides to apply somewhere that requires the essay (which he almost did, but canceled at the last second because he hadn't prepared for it much. Turns out he should have just gone ahead with it). He did Khan academy almost daily (it's just a few minutes a day mostly, except when they have you do practice tests) starting in October or November to get ready for the March test and that ended up being plenty of prep for him. But he tests well and he was super diligent about doing the Khan practice every day without me having to stay on him about it.

Khan academy was my son's favorite, too.

What about government and/or economics instead? I think 4 years of history is actually pretty unusual for a typical high school course of study, but a lot of places require Econ and or government for graduation. It really just depends on where she's hoping to go to college, though.

Khan Academy. We tried a couple of practice books first, and DS found them clunky and hard to navigate. Khan is very well laid out and tells them what to do each day, including several full practice tests leading up to the real one.

Okay, thanks--that all makes sense. We're thinking maybe he'll do the alg/trig book next year (or however much of it he gets through; if he doesn't finish the trig sections, we won't worry about it) and then switch to a different pre-calc the next year. DH (he teaches calculus at a public school, so I am totally uninvolved with math decisions at this level...except to ask questions for him here when needs me to :)) likes the Foerster alg/trig a lot, but isn't thrilled with pre-calc. He also doesn't like the pre-calc book HIS school is using now, but he still has a copy of the one they used a few years ago and might go with that.

For people who have done Foersters and then gone on to Calculus: did you do the Algebra and Trig book followed by Pre-Calculus (this is for a kid who did Jacobs Algebra and is just finishing Jacobs Geometry)? DH is looking through the books now, and finding lots of overlap between the two (but not enough trig in the first book to take him straight into calculus). My oldest did kind of a compressed version (in one year plus a summer) of the two books, with DH going through and telling him which things to include and which to skip, but it left some gaps that had to be filled in as he's done calculus--which has been fine, but I'm wondering if there's a more organized way to do this. Are the books meant to be completed one after the other? Is the repetition intentional to really cement the concepts?

Ugh--yes--this is exactly what I'm afraid of! I just don't know how to make sure I get kids who really want to be there...I guess I could actually have an application process with some questions about why they want to take the class and what kind of literature and writing background they've had to prepare them. I'm just weighing whether it's worth it or not.

Right now I'm doing a very small group literature class for 11th grade--just my son and one of his friends. The goal for 12th grade is to get him ready for the AP lit exam, and I'd love to get a few more kids involved so that there's more actual discussion and less of just me talking. I did something similar with AP Human Geography when he was in 9th grade and it went pretty well, but for some reason this one seems more daunting. Maybe because I care more about literature than human geography, so I'll be sadder if I feel like it doesn't go well? Also because I had a pool of kids we knew to pull from for human geography, but most of those kids won't be interested in a class next year for assorted change of circumstance type reasons. So I'm thinking of trying to recruit some kids I don't know from local facebook groups. Initial thoughts: anywhere from 4-8 kids total, 11th and 12th graders, meeting once a week for 2-3 hours in person, and I'd likely to try to set something up to keep discussion going online throughout the week. I might charge a nominal fee (maybe $100/semester) for my time/materials/because I wonder if that will make people treat it more like a "real" class. Concerns: finding kids who will take it seriously and work hard. And actually do the reading! How to prep for the AP exam is also a concern, but not as big of one....my HUG kids did pretty well, overall, and I was completely flying blind on that. In theory, I'm actually qualified to teach AP lit (in a former life, I was an English phD student, taught freshman comp, etc.) Anyway, does anyone have experience with something similar? How'd it go?

oops--wrong place!

Here's my experience: my son has done 4 AP courses at home so far, and earlier this year I had a moment where I thought I'd really messed up by not getting syllabi approved when I found out that UGA--one of the schools he'll definitely apply to--only weights AP grades. Not honors, not dual enrollment. But I e-mailed admissions to ask if they'd still weight the grades if he took (and passed) the AP exams but his transcript read something like, "US History with AP exam." And they told me they would. So I stopped worrying (I'm also making sure to save the e-mail in case anyone tries to tell us something different in the future). UGA was really the only one I was worried about it because it's such a huge school and, in the Early Action round, doesn't do holistic admissions. Anywhere else he applies will be much smaller and, I'm assuming/hoping, more likely to take the time to figure out what's going on with his relatively wacky homeschool transcript.

He is a rising senior (he'll be 17 in early June)....and the schools we're visiting this summer are mostly 1000 miles from home, more or less, so it's really now or never (unless he does alumni interviews in the fall or winter instead, but it seems kind of silly not to do interviews when we're right there on campus....I feel like putting them off a few months would just give him a few more months to worry about them)