Depends on what counts as inexpensive. I bought a Cuisenart ice cream maker at Costco for around $50, I think (a few yrs ago). The "bucket" gets frozen so there's no need to add ice.

Oops, I don't know why I was thinking monthly (duh). Sorry!

https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships

Considering that type of income level, I imagine that the schools he applied to don't meet full need, at least not in a meaningful way. I think this is typical of out of state publics. Too late for this year, but on the off-chance that it might help someone else reading this, a high-stats kid with a family income under 65k(?) might apply to Questbridge, a program that matches low-income kids with top colleges. I don't know anything about it except that it's binding and comes with a full ride. Fingers crossed for your ds that he finds some interesing, workable alternatives soon!

No. Eta, no I don't think that's true. Choose the texts that teach algebra and geom the best for your student. There may be a topic or two you'd want to add -- for example, last November's PSAT included a question on standard deviation. The SAT usually has a question involving the equation for a circle. Pearson/Prentice Hall are not known for high-quality word problems. You absolutely should do specific SAT prep no matter what math text you use!

I never knew it was a thing (with or without actually naming it) until I was sitting in a conference room full of lawyers one day, long story. And yet, law school was the single best decision I ever made for developing abilities and skills that led to increase in self-confidence.

I'm pretty sure the deadline for UAH is either May 1 or June 1. There are other schools like Wyoming also with late deadlines (so late that it's hard to find them on the websites)

Dd will be able to take the road test in about a week, though I think she needs a little more practice for a few things to become automatic - I see progress but we're not quite there yet. Dh gave up on this job. I'm determined to rope him in again. My twin boys turned 15 recently and I am making them sit through the week-long class to get their permits this summer. They'll have to wait an entire year after getting the permit to get the license, so I want to get the clock started. With dd, she didn't want to drive... until she did, and then had to wait out the year while her friends are all driving. But I don't think I can teach my boys. We had dd do a Masterdrive class and I have an issue with the new-fangled instruction to keep hands at 9 and 3 instead of 10 and 2. My understanding is that crossing the middle of the steering wheel is to be avoided to prevent a broken arm and is somehow driven by insurance companies. But, she's been driving my Suburban, where I feel she really needs to take the bull by the horns at 10 and 2. Anyway, the weird steering instruction messed up her natural feel for steering - she was shuffling hands along the bottom, strangely - and we had to take a couple months off driving to get it back. She now varies her hands between the 10-2 and 9-3 positions but at least is steering more intuitively again.

I just got off the highway with my dd16 driving. She's gradually getting better with more experience. Lane changing even on a smaller road = serious gray hair.

My understanding is that some schools use sitting for the AP exam in May to impact a course grade, as a way to require the AP exam. The AP exam scores themselves don't come back until after grades have been finalized for the year for the vast majority of schools. Senior transcripts are due at most colleges before the AP exam scores are released. I haven't heard of any schools where the AP exam score itself is reflected in the final course grade; I suppose it would be possible for a school to use the exam score for junior year grades, but I haven't read about it actually happening.

I would give typing a try - it would be interesting to see what happens with the uppercase issue. And I wouldn't wait on cursive - it's been a few years for me now, but the OTs recommended cursive even for young handwriting strugglers, something about not having to pick up the pencil off the page. (And if we really wanted to get into it, there can be a connection between handwriting and neuroinflammation... handwriting is a listed symptom in my pans/pandas world, although the rest of my kids also have bad handwriting, as I do. At this point, my middle and high schoolers are typing most school assignments, just the nature of the schools - computers/ipads.) Eta, I'd also mention it at next vision checkup

Anyone who has the new book - is there any reason a public school would hesitate to use the new printing (religion-wise)? Thanks :)

Something I have not looked into: are there specific essay-type questions where an applicant has an opportunity to explain, say, how an EC had an impact on their personal development, besides just the main Common App essay? Or is that simply demonstrated by what is presented in the list? I've seen the Common App form briefly but don't remember this. (ETA, the Common App essay is just one essay, correct? And then the supplements are individual to each school?) I recall a list with a limit of 10, but besides that, are there EC-related short-answer questions either in the Common App or in typical supplements?

FWIW, someplace along the way I read about supplements that can help prevent damage from cipro. A quick google turned up this article https://floxiehope.com/tag/nac/ though there may be others. (e.g. magnesium, vit E, NAC) (eta, I took cipro years ago, no problems whatsoever. But just in case a family member ever needs to take it again, I am keeping track of these ideas)

Can we talk prep books for Math 2? Last night I ordered the College Board's official book of all subject tests and another College Board official book specifically for Math 2 (4 tests). I'm hoping the two books don't have the same tests. Will that be enough practice for a very good math student or do I need to pick up a Princeton Review or something?

Just a PSA that I feel is worth pointing out, for those mulling over costs: that college has a relatively low R&B cost at 8.3k; R&B generally runs in a range of 10-15k at most colleges. Between the family's planned 10k contribution and federal subsidized student loans, from the very outset of the search, this full-pay student was prepared to cover living expenses only and was likely to need a full-tuition scholarship or something close to that, unless the school has super-low costs.

Sounds like a good plan to me. FWIW, I don't think that angle, most demanding schedule, is applicable to DE - that wouldn't make sense. I think it's only applicable to what is offered within a B&M high school.

At dd's high school, AP 1 replaced the honors physics offering and became the prerequisite to AP C. I'm under the impression that this is common among high schools. My dd will be taking the AP 1 exam this spring and then the AP C (both mech and E&M) course in the fall. (The college credit differences are not important to her at all.) I'm not familiar with the old structure, but the new structure is annoying in that it doesn't correspond to the SAT2 subject test. Her AP 1 class is year-long and her school does not offer AP 2. She will not have had enough topic coverage to take the SAT2 physics test unless she were to self-study. Last fall, my dd saw some very bright, ivy-aiming friends really struggle in the beginning of the C course with concurrent calc, despite all kinds of extra hours with the physics teacher. I'm so glad she was able to witness that - she is planning to learn calc 1 over the summer to be ready for C in the fall. This is encouraging! My dd has been enjoying the AP 1 course very much - right now it's her favorite class. She says the math is easy peasy but she seems well challenged by everything else. Lots and lots of problem solving.

She has not yet taken any physics class, correct? Isn't an algebra-based physics (such as high school physics) usually recommended prior to taking calc-based? (Regentrude?)

Fancy burgers. Really good. Get some fancy buns to go with.

I wouldn't quite analogize these AP Physics courses to calc AB and BC. My rough understanding is that the focus is different, with 1 and 2 being more theoretical and C being more application. I don't know about DE physics but I'm sure someone else here will know. One question might be whether a DE algebra-based physics is a good idea prior to taking DE calc-based physics (as is often the case with AP Physics C)

My understanding is that it's not ideal to apply to selective colleges without any physics - some level of physics is expected, but it doesn't have to be AP. I think AP Physics 1 is just honors-level physics, but I'm not entirely clear on that. AP Physics 1 has the lowest pass rate of any AP exam, but does the low pass rate on the exam say much about how a kid will perform in a particular class? She wouldn't need to even take the exam, which would occur at the end of her senior year. FWIW, my junior (who attends B&M school) did not like honors chem but is loving AP Physics 1. I don't think loving is too strong a word in this case. I imagine that AP Physics C is a harder class than AP Physics 1; we will find out in the fall :)

I would go with option #1 so that he can finish high school with precalc, and accordingly, be ready for college-level math when he gets to college. I think this is a much more important consideration than the testing. NM is based on the Selection Index (reading, writhing and math test scores each out of total possible 38, added and doubled). Here is this year's PSAT score document (Understanding Scores) with percentiles, if that helps (pay attention to "user" percentiles rather than "national"). It also explains the Selection Index. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-understanding-scores.pdf Even though the SI is weighted two-thirds reading and writing, and even though perhaps the PSAT doesn't include very much algebra 2, I think it would be pretty challenging to attain a PSAT math score high enough for NM without the completion of algebra 2 (guessing wildly based on my junior's change in math score from fall sophomore to fall junior year; she took alg 2 as a sophomore). Here are Sawyer's guesses for this year's NM cutoffs https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/

(LOL I had clicked on a random video from the other course and was kinda hooked for a bit, getting some calc review, because I remember nothing :)) This looks fantastic! So, she could use these Strang videos as an intro to get the big picture first and then add on whatever additional AB topics she needed from the calc 1+2 course above. Thank you, Kathy!!!

Guessing MIT OCW may be a better online option than, say, Khan for a summer intro to calc (calc 1/calc AB)? I bought Stewart and also Schaum's Outine just to have around for reference, but she'll need something more substantial. I am looking at this course https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/syllabus/ I'm wondering whether this covers calc 1 or calc 1+2 ? Maybe I can look at a syllabus for AB and figure this out...