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Really? That's weird! How can they count something that is experimental and that the kids didn't know they had?
She did better than we expected. Her score was almost 100 points higher than her previous Khan Practice test score. .... She studied on Khan faithfully every school day for 3 months, and then took the actual SAT and even with feeling very uncomfortable due to not liking quiet and sitting still, as well as having the 5th section thrown at her, her score was almost 100 points higher.
I'll be very curious to see how her score is this coming year! She will have more Khan practice, will have completed Algebra 2 (which she had not done last year) and hopefully also won't have that 5th section!
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My dd is taking Chemistry at a local co-op. Class is very organized, and we are fans of Apologia for her.
The teacher said that the kids can take their tests (which are taken at home) open-book or closed book and that it is up to the parent. My daughter will be taking hers closed-book because I don't think that is reality to let high schoolers take their tests open-book.
However, my daughter did ask if she could have an index card with formulas and conversions....
Should I let her do that? And if so, should she get one card for the entire year or one for each Unit?
She is not a future STEM major and will likely have only one Science class in college, and she will be sure to sign up for the easiest one they have. 🙂
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Why not calculate weighted and unweighted and put both on transcript?
But, IMO if you had to choose and your child took a lot of HOnors classes, or AP or DE, I think you do do them a disservice by not including weighted GPA. The last college I spoke with regarding my daughter said GPA is the number one determining factor over and above the type of class, with SAT's a close second factor. She explained that in my dd's case the fact that she does NOT have many honors and AP doesn't affect her too poorly because she got mostly A's and therefore her GPA is close to 3.8 right now...(junior year is much harder so we will see how that changes things.) But of course, if she had gotten mostly A's in AP classes her GPA would be above 4.0. But they said that they do take above-4.0 weighted GPA's kind of in one go-round, and then look at the SAT scores, and then the classes. ...so in this circumstance a 4.5 doesn't get you too much farther than a 4.1....but a 4.1 gets you a lot farther than a 3.8...
BUT since you have control over your transcript just include both and make sure that you save the website calculator, or the math that you used in case anyone asks..but- they won't.
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6 hours ago, LisaK in VA said:
My son's commute is 30 minutes, door to door (maybe a bit more in the afternoon going home, if traffic is an issue). I had to walk that far in the 90s to get from my senior dorm to the classrooms...in a dress and heels. He attends Old Dominion University.
If DS had said he didn't want to swim, I'd be fine with it. He wants to swim, but felt like his schedule and what he thought about DH and my schedule made it too difficult (he didn't ask us, just made assumptions). He also hadn't had one normal week. He based everything off of how he was feeling the two major weeks of extra meetings (and 18,000 pounds of household goods being dumped on us -- which he hasn't actually had much to do with). He's currently upstairs playing online games, and has been doing so for several hours (that's another nerve pretty raw right now).
Yeah, he should definitely give it at least a month before making any major life changing decisions 🙂
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You are correct- there is no way to print the tests. I contacted them to be sure last year, and their suggestion was to print a paper test, and have her take it on paper and save those, and if I needed grading help to re-take it on the computer ...
I guess it was lazy but I chose not to do this. I printed the grades, and I made up my own syllabus. I also printed the table of Contents.
However I am not worried about it. After Geometry (not even having taken ALg 2) her SAT score was 570 in Math which we expect to be closer to 600 after taking Algebra 2. I feel that the SAT score stands by itself as a testament that her math education was not lacking.
🙂 We were very happy with her score considering she doesn't like math and the long sitting for the SAT is not her strong point. She gave educated guesses using logical thought, on the problems she didn't know. She said there were a large number she had not covered yet since she had not done ALg 2 yet. But the beauty of TT is that, whatever she did cover, it really stuck with her.
Hopefully you'll have the same outcome, or better, with the SAT...
now if only they'd resolve this server issue
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We can't even see our Alg 2 because we purchased Friday, before we knew this craziness was going on. We also ordered the physical textbooks but they won't arrive for quite a while. So, my dd is already two weeks behind in math (after a failed co-op class attempt) and now each day this week will put her further behind.
I hope it gets resolved soon. My husband was in networking for over 20 years and though we feel compassion for them and we support them, as a small business with a truly life changing product, I hope they make some changes to their staff and hire people who can be more proactive, and more on their game.
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scan me the first week or two of lessons and answer keys? I can furnish receipts showing I just bought the texts and also the 3.0 but with their entire system being down nothing is on the way, and we can't get into her ALg 2 at all - many people can at least log in and print, but we cannot because purchased DURING the server change-over, not knowing this was going on, so they haven't even added the Alg 2 to her login.
PM me and I will send you my email address as well as receipts if it would make you feel good to know I'm not stealing from them.
🙂
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Wow RootAnn I love your post! That makes me more confident that my up and coming dd will adjust ok, because she's not really doing a lot of DE, just a bunch of pretty strong college prep co-op classes.
Kate- sounds fantastic, what a good transition all around. So happy for you!
LisaK- swimming is a huge commitment...I would encourage him to stick with it but if he's really tired of it....after a whole semster...do you think it's ok to let him drop it? The problem with swimming is you have to go twice per day six days per week....
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4 hours ago, Lanny said:
DD is doing fine. 😀 Her roommate is an International student and DD is an Overseas American, so they have a lot in common. They are getting along well, which is a huge relief, after reading some of the nightmare stories about roommates from hell. The mother of the roommate went to the USA with her daughter and she spent a few days there, and DD spent some time with them, shopping for things for the room, etc., and I suspect the mother of the roommate was very happy to see that my DD is a nice young woman. 😀
The trip from Colombia on the 12th of August was the first time DD had gone anywhere by herself, but it was pretty well planned (Spirit Airlines had begun service to Cali last Christmas and to Raleigh-Durham early in May) and we were blessed that someone here on WTM picked her up at the airport in NC and got her and her luggage safely into her Dorm that night and saw that she could check-in and sleep there as planned. That same family invited her to their house for Lunch on Labor Day. It is truly a blessing from God, for my DD and for us to have them helping. 😀 Much appreciated!
This is so wonderful it brought tears to my eyes. Glad there are loving helpful people in the world willing to go out of their way for others. So glad your dd is doing well.
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Good point, my guy has taken lots of initiative to get out there and do stuff but he's just fine eating alone or going to an event alone if no one wants to go (such as the tours going on right now etc.) 🙂
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My dd seems to be adjusting well though it's been a bit stressful this week as the full impact of how much work it is, is sinking in.
Algebra 2 seems to be difficult as they only meet twice per week, and it's moving VERY fast. She will have to speak up and ask her teacher to meet after class today, and is turning in some homework not all the way done because we tried but couldn't figure out the calculator stuff ...we called my son at college and he helped with some of it but had to go before all her questions were answered. (such a great kid -still helping us 2000 miles away LOL)
I think this will definitely be a more challenging year but if she can handle it, she will definitely be prepared for college. She has 5 college prep level classes, plus piano, and is out of the house a full day Tues/Thurs plus some time Weds and Fri, so time management is key 🙂
How are your juniors doing? Any advice or things that are helping or working for them?
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I will start:
Ds seems to be super happy and doing well.
All classes are do-able, and the only class that is really making him work right now, so far is Latin as it's all brand new. BUt he really loves Latin and finds it easier than German was. 🙂
He joined several clubs, started a board game group from his floor and is enjoying his Special Living Option, so far no drinking at all, relatively early nights and good sleep, and enjoying all the parties and meetings that the Special Living Option provides. ...he will have to weed out some of the clubs after he attends a few meetings because 5 clubs, the Special Living Option requirements and 17 credits is too much 🙂 So the next few weeks he will whittle it down to just one physical and one engineering based club. 🙂
Room mate awesome, a total blessing, thank God.
He didn't drink enough water the first week because he just wasn't thinking about it but now has found the filling station 🙂 ....
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These are great ideas! I think we will go with a cc class next year or next semester, and visit a MegaChurch just for the feel of a large environment....
she has already heard a LOT about getting emails for a study group (needs to do that now actually for some of her classes) and has seen/heard how attending office hours has really helped her brother, as well as when to think about getting tutoring, (aka not wait till you're already failing)...so other than just the feel of a large crowd, I think she's ok, though we will try to do the megachurch idea. 🙂
My son's classes at PSU range from 40-350 right now. He said it's really cool the way they use the IClicker and they have good rules to keep the class orderly.
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Sorry this is long...just some backstory...
DD is a junior this year and doing very well with her life. Halfway to having her drivers license, had a summer job which required a lot of responsibility (was one of only two 15 year olds doing the same job as an all over-18 staff), handled customer service, some rather long, hot days, dealt with sensitive issues (trans people asking about bathrooms), had up to 5000.00 in her till at the end of the day (not all cash of course), with only one till mistake all summer...She flies across the country with me about three times per year, and navigates the airport (aka she goes ahead with her long legs and i follow so she really knows the drill), she also knows how to get a rental car and other travel stuff...(in theory, as we do that as a family)
...she is doing amazing with her school work and overcame a third MTBI and loss of her best friend and hobby (horse) last year...she has a mild LD which doens't seem to affect her much (seemed much worse after the concussion last year but I'm now realizing that was the concussion wreaking havoc with her.) she ended the year amazingly strong and her emotions evened out as well as her sleep, etc. ....she's also come out of her shell...she was an extrovert as a child, then an introvert for about two years and now she is a very extroverted introvert (loves people, hates to be alone too much... but needs to recharge alone a little each day.)
She plans to follow in her big brothers footsteps to PennState probably for a Graphic Design/specializing in U/I design degree and had worked with her dad over the summer to pinpoint that as a career option, studied about it and has messed around with it, and he thinks she has good potential (he definitely knows what he's talking about so I trust him on that.) if she gets into the big campus, She will do their special introductory program so that she can get a gentle intro to the huge campus. Or she will go to a smaller campus, if she doesn't get into their main campus.
Halfway through the school year this year she will be driving herself to the co-op, the grocery store, then over the summer we will add work to her driving schedule and by senior year she will be driving herself all around.
The one thing I think she really needs work on, is learning in a larger environment. Her co-op is tiny and even our community colleges are super tiny, with class sizes in the 10 and under size range. There is a larger community college, but you can't get into that without waiting in very long lines and it's pretty far away, so not sure we can make that work.
So, any out of the box ideas to practice that??
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On 8/28/2019 at 1:44 PM, frogger said:
Well, there are a lot of scholarships that go unclaimed or unapplied for by many applicants because they often don't help. I know that you probably know this but I can see how that part could turn out confusing to people.
If you go to a school that charges based on "need" and then get a scholarship so the school thinks you "need" less it doesn't really pay to spend tons of time for scholarships for $500 here or $1000 there and then you end up paying the same amount out of pocket anyway. They can help at State schools more so but we didn't bother. DS figured he could be working and making money rather than working at asking for money unsure if he would get it.
We spent over five hours going through teh entire website (the one that filters on your stats, ethnicity, major etc.) and the scholarship books at the library.
We came away with TWO that he could apply for because almost every single one would go like this:
Latino heritage, engineering major, ....blah blah, blah, five lines, down "must demonstrate significant financial need"
Honestly unless you are lower income, there isn't much out there. The scholarships are VERY specific- to the background, ethnicity, major etc. and then 99.99999% say you need to demonstrate significant need.
Total waste of time. One of the ones he could apply for was under 250.00, and the other one required a very significantly difficult essay, and reading of a 1000 page book that he loved, that one may have been worth it but he felt overwhelmed by the essay prompts.
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I have about 7 family members including siblings that served in the military, uncles and currently a nephew...
Please be aware that while the benefits are amazing the student needs to participate because of a true love for our country and desire to fight, die, serve and sacrifice for it. If they don't have that they will be embittered. If they do have that they will never regret it even with the sacrifices made and hard times to come they will always know in their heart they did the right thing for their country.
The military, even for "safe" positions can take a very hard toll on your body and your physical and even mental health because of the long hours, high standards, "mind games," as well as being deployed puts them in the possibility of being exposed to diseases, situations, and chemicals that can affect the body long term. Very few positions never get deployed, they are needed overseas all the time, to back up or support the personal on the front lines, etc.
That said, we have several family members that did really well, used their GI bill, and now have amazing careers with bachelor degrees and no major health or emotional issues, and learned so much respect for authority, about the world, and so much about how to get along when things are tough.....
We also have family members with mild PTSD, and others with sort of unexplained autoimmune issues. (presumably due to chemical exposure and over exposure of the body to harsh conditions and being at their physical limit.) They don't regret it because they truly wanted to be in the military all their lives and it wasn't just for the scholarship money 🙂 I am happy that's how they feel.
I know others, outside my family, actually in my extended family who are truly embittered because they felt they were sold a "bill of goods" and didn't realize what they were getting into.
Best of luck to your daughter whatever she decides!!!
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On 8/18/2019 at 2:17 PM, perkybunch said:
Well, my kid with milk, egg, and peanut allergies can't get the Dining Coordinator to answer her emails, and my dd chooses not to elevate it to the Disabilities department. But she's living at home and commuting to school, so we are making do. There is a Subway on campus (safe for her to get specific sandwiches) and an Einstein Bros. Bagels, plus a grill place that presumably she could get a plain hamburger. This semester, she only needs to eat on campus twice a week for lunch.
It's not easy. I don't think a celiac kid would do well here relying on the Dining people, but it is very common to live off campus, so adjustments can be made, I think.
I think this is the vast minority of colleges, nowadays, but they do exist. We read reviews for Azuza Pacific, for example that were horrible concerning food allergies. My son had no interest in going there but I was looking for my dd who doesn't have allergies and just came across a review of them. I think you have to be more wary of (according to my somewhat subjective thoughts after reading hundreds of websites and facebook posts from the FA parents)
-Small private colleges (don't have the funds for extra staffing required)
-commuter colleges (most kids don't live there, why would they hire great staffing for food allergies etc.)
...but of course always do your research on any college 🙂
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My daughter had this thrown at her too. As far as worrying about it, she wasn't that concerned, as she hadn't really thought much about how many sections there would be.
BUT it made it REALLY hard for her to focus, as she was already feeling anxious from all of the sitting still and focusing and quiet (she has ADHD and non medicated, we use various vitamins and dietary help)...so she said she was really at her limit when they threw it at her and she was so relieved to know that it wasn't going to be graded after I explained to her what it was about.
However, I am almost 100% sure her 5th section was at the end of the regular test, before the essay but after reading/LA and math, not in the middle....
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Also keep in mind that big schools also sometimes have special programs to help kids adjust. My daughter is catching the PennState bug, and once she visits it'll be all over- she will want to apply there...I really think a smaller school would have been better EXCEPT that PennState has a program called LEAP during the summer where kids are assigned a group and go around with just that group for 6 weeks, getting to know the campus, getting advice, and the group leaders stay with them, make sure they know how to use all the services the campus provides, how to take the bus lines, and where all the basic things are. So, I've said yes to her applying there as long as she does LEAP 🙂
You can always do some research and see if your big colleges have these programs. There are all kinds of summer programs that could help kids adjust. Also, minority students or first gen students can often sign up for special programs that have the same affect, and usually that is also a discounted rate.
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Well I say congrats!! Sit back and relax and feel proud of you and your son!!!
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15 hours ago, cintinative said:
Thank you so much. I wanted to ask--were you able to research the dietary stuff over the phone, or was it necessary to visit the school? I was kind of hoping that we could do a bit of pre-screening over the phone, and if that sounded decent, then consider a visit. However, if there were all kinds of problems on the phone, we would really have to reconsider.
Do you know how to find out who runs the food service at a given college? Is it on the website usually? I am off to google a few to check.
It's a combination of checking the website, calling, and last, visiting...you can also join facebook groups such as "....College name here" Parents of Students with Food Allergies" or just "College name parents" ie Penn State Parents and then you can ask on there, parents are very helpful with this stuff! If you say your kid is only seriously interested but due to severe food allergies you'd like to ask parents what the situation is, they will probably allow you to join even if your kid is not accepted yet.
I was not extremely surprised about UPenn, that the food allergy situation wasn't awesome. I didn't expect it to be HORRIBLE, but due to the research online, reading parents comments, and the general lack of detailed info from the Dining Manager, I didn't expect it to be at the top of the list. But of course since it's an Ivy League school I was absolutely shocked at how abysmal it was. (They have a whole group of people petitioning the school to change things there, but I think a lot of the kids just start eating out around the city, so they're not too upset about the dining hall.)
To be honest, we ended up accepting at Penn State before we visited! It was a bit of a gamble but here's what happened- we visited eastern colleges in January so my son could feel what the cold was like and also that's just what worked for us. There was a big freeze (this was a week before the Polar Vortex) and a snow in Central PA and all the roads were closed. Due to extreme cold conditions the tours were canceled and the roads from Philly to central PA were not all cleared. Obviously, we felt it was safer to skip it.
His acceptance came a week after we returned home and we accepted his acceptance early due to worrying about housing situation....we figured we could always rescind the acceptance if he changed his mind...
But I felt safe about that because of the Penn State Parents group, their food allergy parents group, multiple emails with the dietitian and hearing that their dining halls were amazing, overall. And sure enough after visiting and seeing for ourselves they were right. Obviously it would be better to visit first, before accepting 🙂
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TO be honest it was just really time consuming and painstaking...
I will say that even since I began researching about four years ago, hundreds and hundreds of universities have made vast, sweeping changes and improvements.
I Would recommend joining the facebook group Parents of College Students with Food Allergies. Also join the FARE page which has occasional helpful info. Purchase a NIMA sensor for Celiac.
Really what we did was make the list of colleges that my son was interested in, first. THEN we researched the dietary situation, how they handled food allergies, and spoke directly with the dietician. Really, only one university got such a bad score- a total F for food being horrible in general, as well as lack of knowledge from the staff and it was an Ivy League School, disgusting food, complete lack of knowledge and it was run by Bon Apetit a nationwide college service chain. So, I would steer clear of anything run by Bon Apetit. Sodexo actually does a great job and has the Simple Servings Stations.
To be honest, most of the schools we toured, and most on our list do a fantastic job and had lots of healthy food choices. My son has opted to meet with the chef at Penn State the day before move-in and order weekly lunches and dinners to be picked up at a specified time. That does not mean he can't eat in the dining hall when he's there with friends, he just has to navigate carefully, ask for ingredient lists, and ask for the staff to get food from the back if it's near anything with nuts, while being served, or being served by customers (self serve.) He had two meetings with the dietitian at PSU, toured the dining halls in summer and has spoke to the chef of his dining hall over the phone. He was AWESOME, already learned my son's name, took down his phone number, exchanged info, set up a meeting for the day before official move-in. If something happens it won't be for lack of extreme diligence and effort on both their part and my son's...we feel very good about it overall.
I would encourage you to stay very positive, since the universities are getting better and better at this!
FYI every dining hall at PSU has a celiac station with cereal, bread, bagels, rice cups, pre packaged and individually labeled snacks and clear signage that other food items are to be kept away. They also can make made-t0-order meals for your kid up to three times per day (most kids just do two and eat breakfast in their room or grab a bagel), and they also have clear signage.
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I don't think being a homeschooler has anything to do with it- but instead the personality of your kid and maybe also their life experiences.
My son spent a lot of time (two years) navigating a large community college all on his own, so he feels confident that he won't get lost in a sea of people at a large u. He doesn't worry about how big it is, or how to get from place to place, has no problem taking Uber, Lyft, Taxi, etc. He does have sensory issues for other things and needs his sleep....and was lucky enough to get a quiet dorm, on the quiet side of campus 🙂
My dd doesn't like navigating new places, or meeting new people, though she is on the extrovert side of wanting to be AROUND people and spend time with them a lot, crowds and lots of new people aren't her thing. She has some issues which might require work-arounds from profs or visiting the computer center to take exams....and she also just plain doesn't enjoy or like humungous noisy places (she hated NYC for example) ...aside from all of that she has been 100% adamant in talking about college, in stating loud and clear she wants to go to a SMALL U (less than 4K)
So, you can see it's quite obvious that a large U is not for my dd...my son would have been fine either way and we think a Big U is better so he has more opportunity to find "his people."
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Out of these options, I think he should dorm at the City College ABET engineering program. Though it'll cost 10k a year, that is still a 60K savings over NYU! Don't let things be all or nothing. It's great that he's rethinking finances, but changing course completely right now probably isn't a good idea.
He will always have music and he can always enjoy music. Being able to support himself with his engineering degree will benefit him FOR LIFE, and it's very hard to go back to school once you've left.
So, I would say go for the middle road. Graduating with an ABET degree with only 20K worth of debt is very reasonable!
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Let my dd use an Index Card for Chemistry?
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
Ok, that makes sense! What should I say are her limits for what's allowed on the card?