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Everything posted by Farrar
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I would not be so sure about their placement rates in top schools. I'm just throwing that out there. Some of this is definitely that top level admissions has gotten unbelievably cutthroat. But some of it seems to be that they are not a name with as much cache in college admissions as many homeschoolers seem to think.
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I've not seen the SOHS name be well known enough in college admissions that students can necessarily get ahead without AP's. And the fact that it's online is working against them, big time. Plus, while I generally focus on AP's as something that potentially helps students in the admissions process, both from SOHS and other privates with rigorous programs and no AP testing, I've heard tales about students who got to college essentially behind their peers and having to take a lot of classes over like calc and physics that they already did, especially if they end up at these tippy top publics like UW, Purdue, Michigan, etc. for engineering or similar. Look, I have the utmost respect for SOHS as an academic institution. I've worked with several students on SOHS admissions now and with students who took SOHS classes and applied to colleges. However, I'm not sold that their overall approach to presenting their students and setting them up is working for them in the admissions process.
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Lower-cost live online math classes
Farrar replied to Everything Chocolate's topic in High School and Self-Education Board
Classes for Teens, run by Marda Lea, has live Algebra I and Geometry and it's super affordable. -
My cat used to love tomato sauce above all else. My sil called him an Italian short haired tabby. Domesticating animals makes them weird.
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I don't want to say it won't matter. But college English for a STEM kid with modest goals? Really okay, as long as the goals are relatively modest. If it were me guiding you though, I might suggest he not do any of that at the CC and instead keep it at home and support long term skills, make sure it's not overwhelming, and then do comp 101 just junior year. But... again, this depends on so many things.
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Two thoughts. One, getting 1.5 credits every year in English won't look light. You don't have to do the stuff at home necessarily. If he does English 101, 102, etc. then he is FINE. And yeah, it won't look amazing next to the math, but he will look solid, including for more rejective schools (dependent on the full transcript and activities, of course). I think you're overthinking this. Second, don't assume that a small school has the best disability support. Sometimes large schools have much better systems that are much more comprehensive. I've heard a number of horror stories about schools that you'd think would be supportive that just refused to get it about a disability issue. And there are some schools that are enormous that have amazing reputations for support. Of course, there are plenty of stories the other way, but I wouldn't assume at this point. You have to dig down. Since his other subjects are pretty advanced, he may really want a large flagship university's options and opportunities and some of them have very small acceptance rates for certain STEM majors.
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I don't feel like I can answer this because there are a lot of unknowns. There are STEM-y colleges where students take one or two relatively easy writing classes that he could probably take on now if he needed to. And then there are colleges with strong STEM that also has a strong humanities core requirement. Similarly, there are jobs in STEM where people rarely need to write or speak and ones where people have to do it all the time. I think you should assume he just needs to work on all these skills some for the rest of high school. It's not like he can take one class and be done anyway. He has to do some English every year (colleges want to see English and math every year, not just 4 credits, but the every year distribution). It sounds like he could use that for life in general. I don't think he needs to be able to do much literary analysis or any creative writing at all unless he hopes to attend a college with a strong humanities gen ed type requirement. But given what you've said about him in the past, that seems just plain unlikely. He's really gifted and advanced in his STEM subjects, right? Do you see him looking at a lot of highly rejective programs? Engineering is just uber competitive, even at some schools that sound like they're "easier" to get into. Having stronger English from a transcript perspective will be helpful in admissions. But he doesn't need to try to beat the kids who love writing at their own game or anything. And how much that matters depends on where he wants to be.
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My understanding from people I know who have applied to phd programs is that these waitlists are more likely to be real waitlists and move. Not like the undergrad "waitlists" where they just shunt thousands more applicants than they could ever admit onto a "waitlist."
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The teacher for the architecture program is also the Spanish teacher and a lot of students seem to really like him. He just finished an architecture degree! I'm super psyched about graphic novels. And I'm teaching Film as Literature again and that class has been a blast this year. Almost all the kids talk all the time. They are super smart and interesting kids. I'm hoping both Graphic Novels and Film as Lit will be that way next year. Also, you know, AP World, lol. Though they do have fun as well. Just... different fun.
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In my experience, students who are leaning heavily on STEM with high level coursework can "get away" with 3 social studies credits (world, US, and one more, preferably government/econ). Conversely, students who are leaning heavily on humanities with high level coursework can "get away" with three sciences, especially if they're bio, chem, physics. No one can "escape" 4 years of English and math. Overall, I like the schedule you've planned. Be careful about that English. Unless he absolutely has to have it dual enrollment, I'd wait and do it junior year. The ideal is increasing rigor every year, so he'd ideally need to keep going but he doesn't want to, right? So I'd keep English at home and top off with DE the year before applying to college.
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I think it just helps to have a clear narrative about what you offered and why. What I've seen a few times that I think doesn't serve a student very well is that they took random courses as "honors" with sometimes a bunch one year and none the next. I think colleges don't know how to read it as telling a cohesive story. Did the kid increase their rigor? Lower it? It's messy. And it also begs the question for colleges - why did this school (you, you are a school) offer honors for these things and not those. And if it was available as honors, why not have the student take it. They want the student to take the maximum rigor available to the student. If you say, we didn't do AP courses because we have this other philosophy, then the kid can't be dinged for not having AP courses. If you say, we didn't label things honors and instead did high level work across the board, no ding. But if you have honors classes and the kid isn't taking them for everything, then that's a ding on the kid. I think it works to offer honors or AP or DE in one area and not another and then you explain it. We did AP sciences because they were at a high level but not AP humanities because we followed this classical approach. Or we did DE science because they offered in person labs, but not DE humanities because they weren't as rich as what we could do at home. Or we didn't have enough money to offer more than one AP course or more than two DE courses or whatever. Basically, make sure it's clear what the context is and make it make sense. If you do honors, make sure it's got a clear narrative in your profile.
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I took the same approach that EKS did. I didn't label anything honors and I made it clear that I didn't provide anything called "honors." But that much of the material was honors level. You get the shape the narrative. You can go all in for designating "honors" or not. I do think if you offer "honors" then be careful because then you need to do it across the board. I don't think this matters as much as some homeschoolers think. Mostly I think it's better to dial it back.
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Just thinking out loud (2024-2025 and beyond)
Farrar replied to 73349's topic in High School and Self-Education Board
I can't imagine why you'd hurry this kid through in any way. He sounds like he potentially needs an extra year regardless of what program. I wouldn't do stats with him unless he's interested. It tends to involve more writing. But I don't have any objection to things like environmental science or psychology. It's just that he's got to be able to do some level of output. It particularly concerns me that you're saying he struggles with oral fluency and communication as well. I think you need to get an outside dysgraphia tutor. I know you're saying you have experience teaching language arts, but he clearly needs a major intervention and the things you've done to this point haven't helped. I think one of your top goals has to be to stop scribing within the next two years. Everything is going to be predicated on that. He can't move forward if you're his only accommodation or assistive technology. He's got to get other ones. -
Oh my gosh. I was just talking about this to someone. My mother used to make it all the time. It was her potluck dish. My little brother LOVED it. It was one of his favorite things when he was little. And then he got the flu and it just happened to be the last thing he ate. So. The thing that happens with the flu happened to the seven layer salad. And he spent the never several... ages... talking about how evil the salad was. And then she never made it again. That was circa like 1990. He was probably 7 years old or something. No more seven layer salad. I never liked it, so I was not sorry to see it go.
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So... I see homeschoolers hyperfocusing on this lately and while it can be good, I think a lot of people decide on it by making a lot of assumptions instead of thinking about their specific situation. * People think it will be a huge boon in college admissions... but with so many students doing this now, it's not that much anymore * People think it will end up saving them money... and sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't, but you can't assume - you have to know where your kid is heading * People think it will be at this really high level... but the requirements for the associates aren't for the most part - they force students to do these very basic classes that could be richer at home if you weren't in such a hurry * People think it will get their kid out of general education courses... but again, this depends on where the student is heading * People assume that it will give their kids this big leg up by transferring and finishing early... but graduating college by age 19 or 20 is so young and a lot of young people don't really have a sense of what they want to do, and they skipped some of the stuff like internships and research opportunities in order to speedrun their education that might have helped them get into the working world (and actually launch). There are plenty of situations where it does make sense. I'm a fan of using dual enrollment, but doing it more strategically and focusing less on earning an associates by the end of high school. I think it helps more in admissions for four year colleges to use it strategically and that for students who aren't going to four year colleges right away, they shouldn't rush. Use it to try things out and get a head start on an associates or even try out trades pathways at the CC. Again, there are exceptions.
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I don't recommend the Zeffirelli version of R&J. I don't think it has aged that well and not just because of the lawsuit. I think knowing what Zeffirelli did to poor Olivia Hussey makes it nigh on unwatchable for me. But even more than that, there's an over the topness to the whole production that I think makes it not work that well for teens. The Baz Luhrmann version tends to resonate a lot more for teens (it's also just a better telling, IMHO) but it also has a lot more boundary pushing visuals for protective parents (it earned its PG-13) so there's that.
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Also late to the thread, but I'm not in favor of high schoolers getting associates degrees for the most part. But I would absolutely for this kid for the reason that everyone is saying. This is a job that's totally contingent on not getting injured. And it's one that's hard on the body. He'll be glad he has it one day, even if that's twenty years from now. It will give him a huge leg up if he decides to get a full BA/BS one day. Or if he decides to get a more practical associate's. It's also not that different from normal high school graduation requirements. Do it.
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There's a FB group called something like Homeschooling and NCAA Eligibility that is good. Obviously the focus is the eligibility, but people discuss adjacent topics around the recruitment process.
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Buffet (Chinese antique sort of thing). And lots and lots of bookcases. It's also the library. I find china cabinets so fussy. I could have taken one from family at a couple of points, but no interest.
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State laws that affect transgender adults and how does this play out?
Farrar replied to Ginevra's topic in The Chat Board
I just want to second that this is exactly what I see in my blue bubble as well. The attitude around it is very chill around the young people I know. There's no drama, no pressure. And there's a lot less discussion of medical transitions. Also, there is a more free flowing attitude. I have known multiple young folks who have changed back and forth in terms of social gender presentation, pronouns, etc. If you want it to be less entrenched and let young people grow and change and feel less pressure and not feel like they "must" have medical interventions, then that's what I see among the blue bubble kids. I think what happens in some cases in areas where there's a lot of anti-trans sentiment, is that people feel like they have no room to explore and figure things out. Everything has to be a big, all or nothing declaration. And the more pressure, the more entrenched feelings like dysphoria become. But the goal I see politically isn't to actually support young people or ease off medical transition options for most young people. It's to punish people for being different and to scaremonger. I also get that the thread has evolved and some people are trying to learn, but honestly, the discussion by cis folk of peoples medical choices around surgery, genitals, etc. etc. just feels invasively ick in the context of deciding what they "should" and "should not" do.- 224 replies
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The classes are encompassing - computer science, electronics, building, robotics, etc. I wouldn't do it for a school student who is already doing some of those things though. If there's really no robotics club, then something like one of those really good home-based kits might be the best you can do.
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Why do Amazon returns have so many different return locations?
Farrar replied to DawnM's topic in The Chat Board
That's so strange. You can't just go to Whole Foods?