You put a smile on my face. Congratulations!

Thank you for this. I just received my used copy, as it appears to be out of print. It's a few years old, but the essay writing chapter looks great.

Our area does not host an award ceremony. They did a few years ago, and while it was well-attended, it was held on a weekday during rush hour. Some people would have had to drive 2+ hours to pick up their certificate. I remember thinking while they didn't ask for RSVPs they acted annoyed that people weren't showing up.

It's also covered in AoPS' Introduction to Number Theory text, so if you don't get it now, no worries, you can always return to it later. It isn't a standard part of an elementary curriculum, but a good thing to know long term, like some time before graduating high school.

I think I may have been misleading in a previous post. I want to emphasize that there are many paths to a PhD. One can even work in industry for a couple of years before returning to school for a doctorate. So I see no point in providing a specific plan of action except to make sure he is well educated and prepared academically with rigorous coursework.

As someone with very little art experience. At. All. I found DwC to be of limited use. We did some of the exercises, but after a few weeks I wasn't sure what to do with it. One of my dd's really enjoyed Mark Kistler's mini Marshmallow art lessons, because it's just so cute and fun, but I imagine it might not be every kid's cup of tea.

Was this recently? I was wondering whether I was checking the website too early for registration.

You can have 2 opposing statements, if the answer is not definitively known. Is Drake's Equation the best model for predicting the probability of extraterrestrial life? Educated scientific minds can disagree. Is there water on Mars? A few years ago we didn't know, but I imagine scientists were arguing this fact. Is life more likely to be found on Mars or Europa, and where should we devote limited research funding? I imagine there are Europa researchers who are shaking their heads, thinking we are devoting too much effort to Mars. And vice versa. There was a time when the octet rule was unknown. Were electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets, or was it plum pudding or was it something else? Is is possible for the truth to be unknown. Do butterflies taste with their feet? How do we test this or design an experiment such that the answer is definitive? Yes, as I explained that there is a binary in that a bridge either stays up or does not stay up. How long will it stay up? Will it withstand an earthquake or high winds? Is it beautiful? Is it cheaper than other bridge proposals? Would you rather have an iPhone or an AT&T Princess phone? Both make phone calls and thus satisfy the binary design requirement of a telephone.

No it makes sense. It's hard for us since we haven't met your son personally. You know him best and what sort of information he really wants. On the one hand, it's not like the path to a PhD is some state secret, like sex or something. (lol!) How would he react if you told him all the nitty gritty details? Does he really want to know, or is he just thinking out loud, and just expecting you to say something along the lines of, "PhD? Sounds great to me!" <-- I would err on that side, general encouragement, just because he is so young. As he gets older and demonstrates greater commitment to a certain field, you can talk about goals, particularly if he seems to be on the wrong track. BTW, it depends on the field, but generally in the sciences, one would go straight from undergrad to a PhD program if that's your intention. (This may be different in the liberal arts.) And some fields (not all) will require at least one, and sometimes several post-doctoral fellowships if one intends to be an academic, which can have a significant impact on one's young adult life. But no need to burden him with all this info now. Who knows what will happen in 10-15 years?

True, true. But beyond introductory courses, if you want to think like an engineer, you need to learn how to design...whether's it's a bridge or an electronic circuit or a program. There is the binary of the designed object working or not working. But there is such a thing as better and more elegant code, a better bridge, a better circuit. Beyond the introductory math courses, you will be expected to prove theorems. And beyond that, you will be expected to prove things you don't even know to be true. In biology, you need to be able to design an experiment which come as close as possible to corroborating some model of how an organism works. Scientists will argue long into the night what is "true."

Yeah, I feel like it's unfair that if you are serious about sports or music or dance, everyone is down with that, but not if it's academics. Or snakes. Or academic snakes.

She doesn't need to take AP bio, but I think she should gain as much familiarity with chemistry, biology, and physics as possible before beginning college. Because once she enters college (depending on the college) these courses get much tougher with more competition. In comparison, the AP exams will seem like a breeze. That's why I recommend she learn how to discipline herself now, stay caught up and not fall behind. Learn how to learn and how to seek out help if she needs it. AP isn't the only option here. She can also take tough science courses at a local cc if that's an option for you. She can self-study and do research if she's interested. She can take a MOOC like udacity or coursera. My dd hadn't taken high school chemistry before embarking on AP chem. It was tough, but she's ambitious with a good work ethic, so it was fine. I prefer to spread out the tougher science courses over 4 years, so we don't need to double up. She'll take AP bio as a sophomore, and AP physics as a junior. I have no idea what we'll do for senior year. I plan to ask these boards in another year or so.

You'll want to take AP physics either concurrently or after AP calculus. My dd took AP chemistry as a freshman from PAH and appeared to be successful. (Still waiting on the scores.) AP chem is a lot of work, but then, that's what being a premed is like, so it's a good introduction to your future life, lol! Best of luck to her, and keep posting with specific questions as she progresses through high school.

Is this your 9 year old who wants to get a PhD? If so, all you need to do now is make sure he has a solid understanding of math, and to cultivate his interest in the sciences. Even if he changes his mind, his math skills will serve him sell. I think he's too young to have ownership (at least my kids were at that age), but then, they weren't asking to be PhDs either. Good luck!

A white board with colorful markers. Maybe a problem of the day, or draw 3D picture of a sphere or tetrahedron or cube.

Agreed. My dd is not oblivious and cares intensely what other girls think of her. Which is why she leads a double life: her fun normal girl life with her friends who aren't really academically oriented, and her hardworking ambitious self which she leads at home and in classes, camps, etc. I was asked to be in charge of dividing up the check because I'm mathy. Yuck. I'm not in the mood to be everyone's human calculator when I could be enjoying conversations with friends.

Follow up question: It looks like you can't sign up for the PSAT via the CB website. Should I wait until September to start contacting local high schools? Have you had much success in finding a location to take the PSAT?

Answering my own question from the CB website: "Same test, different seasons."

Are these basically the same test?

Um, I've never been to a homeschooling conference. Am I allowed to make a suggestion, if you take it with a grain of salt? Although I've never attended, I'm presenting at a local conference on how to teach math. Looking at the schedule, I notice there aren't any other talks that are subject-specific. I would love to learn something along the lines of "How to Teach History" or "How to Teach Literature" or "How to Teach Writing" or similar. However, there are several unschooling workshops, go figure.

You know, we only took just the general student tour, so we didn't get very specific on engineering. Our leaders were a physics major and a biology major.

Happy to help!

I was so pleased to read Cynthia's college visit reports from years back, that I decided to submit my own from Cal Tech. It's a small campus, definitely not what I'm accustomed to, but big enough to have several dining options and places to hang out on campus. Lots of house traditions and a culture of pranking, having goofy/nerdy fun. Very nerdy culture & pride. Pretty extreme honor system: Students can take home final exams and take them whenever they want before deadline. Exam instructions may say to allow 4 hours to take the test, open book, but no internet allowed, turn in by Friday. The dorm/houses were...charming? We were taken through a rec room, and gosh it smelled bad. I hate to say it, but why don't these schools make it a priority to make their living conditions a bit nicer? It does make such a difference, I think. Or maybe I'm just getting old. SURF=summer undergraduate research fellowships. Very easy to obtain, and it seems like practically all students take advantage of them. Our tour guide did research at JPL modeling Europa. Very cool! Lots of corporate recruiting, because these are generally very smart kids, but also lots of students go on for PhDs. I used to think CalTech was really all about physics (Feynmann?), and everything else is secondary. Not true. I had also feared that the freshman core classes would be an attempt to weed out students, but that also appears to be untrue. Lots of collaboration and help from peers and upper classmen. They assured me that students will not be admitted if it appears they will be unable to handle the core. Homeschool friendly: I think they admitted 6 students in the most recent freshman class?

We just returned from a tour of Harvey Mudd, so I thought I would poke around the WTM archives and see what others had to say. Found this thread and decided to post a 2016 update. Unfortunately we scheduled our visit after school was out, but before many students were returning for their summer research, so it wasn't ideal. In fact, it turned out to be very problematic, as we had planned to each lunch on campus before the info session only to find there is only one cafeteria on campus and it was closed for the summer. Whah? So I asked about the other college campuses next door, and the folks in the office were completely unaware of eating options at the other campuses, so they sent us walking 3 blocks off campus to a grocery store, lol. Our info session included one other student from New Jersey, and it was informative. I got this sense that there is quite a bit of Mudd pride and involvement by alumni. My dd and I were the only ones on our tour. Many of the labs seem to be underground, and a little old looking, but wow, the faculty are so nice and accessible, not intimidating at all. Eager to stop and chat and answer questions. This is why one attends a smaller school. Such a contrast to our subsequent trip to UCLA. My big negative was the fact that there is a single engineering major at Mudd: Engineering. I think electrical and mechanical are highly different courses of study, and I don't think they work well combined in this age. But if any readers disagree, I'm happy to hear your thoughts. I like the idea of visit reports! We should resurrect this idea on this board!

I don't know how common this is, but I have heard (secondhand) about nepotism at the level of the superintendent, and the hiring of incompetent administrators resulting in retirements of the best teachers and high turnover. My information came to me from a parent in the district who decided to homeschool, lol.