I've done it. I did teach a Latin class and signed up my class as a chapter with ACL, JCL, and our state's Latin League. I don't think you have to be a part of a school or homeschooling group. If you're willing to pay the fees and your group meets the minimum number of students requirement, they're not going to turn down your application. This means you must have a group formed already with at least x number of students. (I can't remember the minimum number.) In our state, if you do add students into the group and they were not originally on the roster of students you sent in with your application, you would have to add them on and pay their membership fee before they can participate in the Certamen. It was better for me to have everyone join from the start as the fee increases after Dec. 1. The chapter in our local ps is composed of students who joined the after-school Latin club. If you think about it, it's similar to the situation you are in, except they meet regularly to study and prepare for the Certamen.

I second the Jansport suggestion for a backpack. I found ds' Jansport bag during a clearance sale when he was still being homeschooled (about two years before he went to ps.) He's been using the same bag all four years of ps high school and even with his copious books and binders, I have yet to see a single fray or broken buckle or zipper. The only drawback is the bag was from an era where laptops were not a necessity so if he brings the same backpack to college, I'll need to look for a laptop sleeve. Or get a new bag altogether...but this old one is really still in great shape.

Here's what I have for my son so far: Rutgers U- merit schoalrship New Jersey Institute of Technology - full ride RPI - merit scholarship Wating for three more...

OT: I do enjoy reading Joel Stein's writing. Maybe I'm biased because he's a graduate of our local high school. He created quite a fracas a few years ago writing about our how our town demographics has changed. Thanks for linking this article.

I know a student who is graduating from King's in May. Sending you a pm.

How about starting with Sketch Up Make? It's still free.

Yes, most teams stay downtown. Lots of hotels within a few blocks around the Dome, and the blocks are short. Once the official schedule starts, there is no time during the day to do anything. Pits usually close around 5-6 pm. Quite a lot of people walk from their hotels to the City Museum, but definitely go as a group if you're walking. There is also a bus that looped around downtown which cost $1--2 per person. I did that the first year we went since I didn't know the area and did not want to walk at night. Inquire a the hotel about the buses and trains. At the Center, they will also have people manning the tourism desk. There are quite a bit of international teams so once you meet them, maybe you can plan to do some stuff together as a group. We've never had a problem flying into the airport and taking the train to the hotel and back to the airport. Oh, okay, we did have a problem the first year we went. Our plane was delayed so we landed around 10:45 pm instead of 6 pm. The train only went up to a certain stop after 11 pm. Had to take a cab from that point to the hotel. I don't know if they have this in FLL but a few teams sponsor special events. One popular annual FTC/FRC event is the Roboprom. So there might be other things for you to do at night within the area. DS never went to Roboprom since he had to go back to the hotel to do his homework.

The reading every week is intensive. Teacher is Aaron Wells. He requires a summary of the reading every week. Yes, he does give feedback. DD had to write one two-page response paper last semester. I can't remember if there were any other assignments requiring writing other than the summaries. I guess I was expecting more writing, but DD is getting that in her medieval history class so it's a balanced workload for her.

sent you a pm :-)

We're more of a neighborhood team. Our members go to different schools or are homeschooled. The plane fare to St. Louis for us definitely costs less than yours. But with hotel and food, it does add up. That's another reason why I love Culinaria for meals. It is also a grocery store that stocks quite a variety of items. I can give you more specific info if you pm me.

My son's team made it to Worlds 3 years in a row and their favorite is the City Museum. One year, my daughters tagged along and hubby took them to the zoo and science museum. The Arch is also a must. What some teams like to do is to leave one person on top of the Arch while the rest go back down and lie down on the grass below making letters or figures. Then the one on top takes pictures. There is a security check that could be long at times (which you're used to anyway ;) ) Being from the Northeast, we do find St. Louis pretty quiet. The trains are very convenient. If you're just staying in St. Louis, you can get by without renting a car. You can take the metro from the airport to nearby the convention center. It also depends on where your hotel is. Call the hotel directly also to compare prices. You might be able to get a cheaper rate booking it yourself. There is this food market nearby called Culinaria which is our all-time favorite place to eat. Decent price and great hot sandwiches/burgers. It's a short walk from the convention center. DS's team is still in the midst of competing for a slot to Worlds. Congratulations to your team!

We used Henle which has quite a bit of English-to-Latin translations. I've found that's it has tremendously helped me and my dc with translating from Latin to English. It's also helped us practice those many, many verb conjugations. The ps my two dc are in never do any English-to-Latin translations and they do say even the Latin 4 students have a hard time with noun and verb endings. Just our experience.

Thanks! Makes my life easier to know this.

I am making one transcript with all of dd's grades on it. She has taken classes at the CC and from online classes such as PA homeschoolers, etc. Did you have the cc and online class teachers send the colleges copies of your child's grades? It's easy for the cc and PAHS to send transcripts but if I ask all to send a copy, dd will wind up with grades sent in from 5 different sources. I probably will go ahead and call each college separately but I wanted to find out what those that's BTDT have done. Thank you!

PMed you :001_smile:

Bummer for us. DD's January SAT was postponed due to bad weather so she just took it last Saturday. I wonder if they'll expedite the scoring? Glad to hear your ds did well. It is a load off their backs when they know they don't have to take it again. My ds wanted to burn all his review books but he couldn't since his sisters still have to use them.

If your dc has taken AP Art History, did they do it with an online class or did they self-study? Khan Academy has AP Art History. Has anyone ever used it before? Trying to decide whether AP Art History is the right path for dd next year. Thank you!

DD is planning to apply to art schools so the mailings she's been receiving have been very nice, as opposed to DS' mailings. She's gotten very impressive ones that can be used as coffee table books.

Same position as you, Quill. DS did not even want to apply to this safety but I made him (yes, just to make me feel better.) He received an e-mail to go in for an interview in their honors program on a Friday. He wasn't keen on doing that. Then on Saturday, at a robotics meet, we met this young lady who happens to be a freshman at that school and in the honors program. We talked to her and her enthusiasm for that school was very evident. DS admitted to her that that school is at the bottom of his list and she said the same thing. It was her bottom-of-the-barrel choice. She got accepted at other schools but it boiled down to finances for her. She, not her parents, made the choice not to go into debt or put a financial burden on her parents. But now that she's in the program, she absolutely loves it. That made DS go in for the interview and he did get into the honors program. We're still waiting for the financial package and the decisions from the other colleges he applied to. In all honesty, the main reason he doesn't like that safety is the location. It's in a downtown area in a city with a bad reputation, but it's pretty okay around the campus area (there are two colleges in the area which are next to each other.) Ranking-wise, it's rated higher than our state in engineering so it is a good school, just in a not very nice location. So not much help from me, but we will be having a long, hard discussion about all this when the other decisions come out. I wish you the best with the decision-making.

But some colleges ask for non-weighted GPA even though DS' school weigh their GPA. He has just also submitted scholarship applications where he had to submit his non-weighted GPA. What saved him was that his school has an A count as 4 points, while A+ count as 4.33 points. Since the application wanted the GPA based on 4.0, he did manage to get a 4.0 GPA since he racked up quite a number A+ in his freshman and sophomore years.

Rutgers U in NJ has rolling admissions and an easy application process. You even self report your grades in the application. No need to send in a transcript. The New Brunswick campus is the main one with the most majors while the other campuses have less choices but not as competitive to get into. She'll still be considered accepted at Rutgers no matter which campus she gets accepted into.

I remember this being asked late last year but I can find the thread. I'm preparing a transcript for DD for a summer program which is good practice for me. DD has taken classes from four different online sources and at CC. What is the best way to show this without excess use of asterisks or superscripts? If anyone has has a child's transcript with the same situation as my DD, would you be willing to share a scrubbed version? DD's transcript will be listed by subject, not by year. Thank you!

It's been a while since I looked into CTY but from what I remember when I researched it is that the courses are accredited. Having accredited courses for my homeschool was not an important factor for me so I could not justify the cost of going through CTY when I could just go directly to Thinkwell for math classes.

DD is taking Medieval History and Medieval Lit. She really enjoys her history teacher, Mr. Caro. He's a lively talker and makes the class very interesting. BUT he is one tough teacher when it comes to tests. Not that I mind since I think it is making DD improve on her essay writing skills on tests. As for the lit, I was expecting more long papers to be assigned. The verdict is still out on this one.

This conversation reminds me of a former coworker. Her son went to a university on the west coast. After one year, he dropped out of college and mainly just worked at any job he could find (all low-paying.) After a few years of this, he visited his sister at her university and met this girl who became his girlfriend. To make the long story short, he wound up going to the school so much, he took classes there and finally found his true academic love - physics. He did break up with the girl but continued on with his studies and now has a PhD in physics. I would never have imagined that in a million years based on what I know about him through his mom. Definitely a late-bloomer but I had always admired my co-worker for her patience with him. More so now that I have my own late-bloomers. Yes, I want to be a rock for them always.