I guess I'm lucky. The summer before my freshman year of college I was called for jury duty which would take place during the school year. I got what I think would be termed an automatic exemption because I would be a full time college student. There are also exemptions if you are the full time caretaker for young children. I'm in TX. There must be some way for your son to get it deferred or get out of it in this case! I hope it works out!

Honestly, anyone with a Facebook who knows my real name can find me and find a picture that is actually me. They can also see my network. But this information means nothing to anyone who doesn't know me, and it's highly unlikely anyone could do anything with it. What worries me about this is default privacy settings combined with the newest Facebook users - especially if they are teenagers. The "recommended" FB privacy settings have people's status, photos, posts, bio, family, and relationships visible to *EVERYONE*. Those are exactly the things I *don't* want strangers seeing. In fact, my family relationships are hidden from most of my FB friends!

Hmm. I graduated from public hs in the top 3% of my class. I heard a story of a student who submitted a mostly blank application to a state school in TX, knowing that he/she would be accepted because of the top 10% rule. Our top 10% shrank as the senior year went on, so students in the 8-10th% were encouraged to apply to state schools early when they were still in the top 10%. I could never quite figure out if going to a school with 3000+ students was an advantage or disadvantage when it came to the top 10%. Would it be easier or harder to stay in it than at a smaller school? My weighted grade average (not GPA, but actual numerical grade average) was *always* over 100, and I was several spots away from being in the top 12, let alone valedictorian. It was very competitive. I also remember UT being one of the hardest public universities to get into. I'm sure there were several people in my class who really wanted to go there and were very relieved to be in the top 10%. Not all of the UTexas schools are equally handicapped by the 10% rule. Thinking about the rule now, it definitely seems unnecessary/unfair. The kids in the top 10% of public hs classes would most likely get in on their own merits, and those students who are just as qualified academically but don't hold the placement are disadvantaged.

Off the top of my head, I own at least 5 Bibles. My husband owns one. Kind of sad, perhaps... Granted, some of these Bibles are ones I've had for a while and haven't gotten rid of for sentimental reasons. But still.

I was in public hs for three years, and I never heard of anyone actually attending a lipstick party. I am very, very grateful that if it was happening, I missed it. Just so you moms know that it's not a given for public schoolers to be exposed to that. :)

In the school district I attended, the only required supplies in high school were those which the student would be expected to use himself. The teacher sometimes wanted specific things, so that the student could do his work a specific way, but never was an individual student expected to buy anything for anyone else. However, teachers would often offer bonuses for bringing Kleenex - because Kleenex was kept on the teacher's desk, and everyone could use it. In other classrooms, the teacher had no Kleenex and anyone who asked for it was sent to the bathroom (unless she *really* liked you). However, all of the math classrooms had a set of graphing calculators, as did some of the science classrooms. I don't really understand why elementary (and even middle) schools have the class lists they do. It's as if the school is trying to collect all their consumable supplies for the year from students' parents. It would make sense to me for everyone to bring their own labeled supplies and then have to deal with the consequences if they ran out. It would also make sense to have financial help for those kids who really cannot afford the required supplies. I think the district budget probably runs out before school supplies get covered.

My sophomore year of public high school, there was a dress code. Shirts had to be collared and tucked in, a belt had to be worn with pants, and there was a length requirement on shorts and skirts. My junior and senior year they restricted colors as well as requiring all of the above. Tops could be white, khaki, navy blue, or black. Bottoms could be white, khaki, or navy blue. I believe they added black to bottoms my senior year. This dress code is still in effect. Logos are *NOT* allowed on shirts. Until you can't have logos you don't realize how many great school-uniform shirts have logos on them. It's a uniform. Do they call it that? No, because then they would have to help people buy the uniforms if they got free lunch. :mad: By calling it a dress code, the school had no obligation to help anyone with the cost of new special school clothes. This was a district-wide dress code, with some variations from elementary to high school.

I remember trying to read some version of this story as a kid and despising it. If you all hate it, don't waste your time! Then I read a different version for college English. It was rather short, and in poetic form. I don't remember much about it, honestly, but I must have tolerated it.

Oh wow! I didn't realize it was a hand-signed letter. That's exciting! Those are quite rare in the college-mail world. :001_smile: If I was your dd and I was interested in a college which sent me a hand-signed invite to their honors college, I would probably apply to the college and the Honors program. I would also consider calling them up and talking to a representative. There's no harm in applying, even if her chances of acceptable financial aid are small.

Huh. So, if I worked as a checker at a grocery store which is listed as having unsafe receipts...does that make me more liable to have receipt-poisoning? Is this an occupational hazard? :001_huh: Seriously, half the time I touch the receipts just enough to throw them out. Then again, I almost never have to buy large amounts of anything, and so it's *really* easy to see if I'm being overcharged on anything. I'm so not going to worry about this. It's not worth it.

I received many mailings like that from various colleges as a high school senior. If you have good test scores, that somehow gets out. I think the College Board is also connected with it - at some point there's a box you check or don't check and your info gets out based on that..I think? It's a vague memory. There is absolutely no obligation to respond to the letter unless your dd wants to. Based on some info this college has gathered about your dd (most likely test scores), they think she could be in the Honors College - or there's a high probability of it. They're just trying to market themselves. :)

I think student publications, such as literary magazines, are probably much more representative of the students than they are of what happens in the English department. I know the lit mag at my school, while it would never contain soft p*rn, is also not representative of our curriculum. :) It's just students being creative. We do have another publication which is more representative of the academic side of the college. Would it be possible for you/your ds to talk to individual English professors or request info about the curriculum from the English depts at the schools he's looking at? The info may also be online. In my limited experience, colleges tend to be very open to answering prospective students' questions.

I graduated public HS in 2007 so this is a very recent list.. 9th grade - I was homeschooled, but still read Great Expectations. My friends who went to my ps for 9th had to read GE and Tale of Two Cities. I've never understood *why* because I've yet to meet anyone who appreciated them in 9th grade. :( 10th grade: My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok. I loved this book, but had many friends who thought it was boring. Yellow Raft in Blue Water Lord of the Flies - and Animal Farm (hated both) To Kill a Mockingbird (which I also read for a history class in college) Plus one or two others 11th grade: Their Eyes Were Watching God - I distinctly remember a fellow student (who happened to be from Bangladesh) having a lot of trouble with the conversations in this book! Scarlet Letter (we didn't have to read the prologue, hallelujah) and others... I TA'd for my 11th grade teacher the next year, and that class had to read The Things They Carried, Native Son, and In Cold Blood. I had a friend who downright refused to read Native Son. 12th grade: We read at least 16 books over the year. This class was harder than my freshman English classes at UD! In no particular order: Moll Flanders Crime and Punishment House of Spirits Jane Eyre Wide Sargasso Sea - I strongly disliked this book. It's the story of the crazy wife in Jane Eyre. Cold Mountain The Iliad Catch-22 King Lear Pride and Prejudice Our Mutual Friend - the Dickens book which is super-long and has NO sparknotes..to the chagrin of many of my classmates. Mrs. Dalloway Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - a VERY confusing book Life of Pi - which was weird and somewhat disturbing And one or two others. We also had to do a senior research paper on a book. I did mine on Mansfield Park.

Coming from a kid's perspective here...I grew up going to a local public library. I rarely go now, and my family has switched to another, much bigger public library. But when I go to the "original" one, it's all the same people, they all remember me, and I rarely need to give them my library card! Then again, I was the kid who asked for Charles Dickens books when I was 10 - so I guess I was rather memorable. :P I also did community service there, when I was 12 (the minimum age) and also when I was in high school.

I don't have a list, but the college I go to does not have any fraternities/sororities at all. (Except for one service fraternity which accepts both guys and girls - and it is a minor presence on campus.) College guides tend to have statistics on how much Greek life there is. Perhaps those would be helpful?

At the public library I grew up going to, they would actually charge damages if a book was returned with writing inside it or other defacement. I think most libraries have such rules but they aren't all enforced the same.

My high school had (and has) tracks - AP, honors/pre-AP which usually preceded AP, and regular. However, they were not something kids were arbitrarily assigned to. Parents could override any placement made by teachers/counselors - if the teacher refused to sign off on an AP class, the parents could put the kid in it anyway. Also, students often mixed up different level classes. For instance, I took AP English and social studies classes whenever I had the chance, but I never took anything beyond honors math/science. Once you were in an honors or AP class you pretty much knew everyone else who was in honors/AP classes. This is in a school of 3000+ students. It has troubled me that there wasn't more demand for the advanced classes.

I had to read Josephus' The Jewish War in my history seminar class. One of the things we talked about was that the Jews had (have?) very mixed feelings about him because he kind of went over to the Romans when Jerusalem fell, and made weird "prophecies" about the Romans succeeding, etc. So he may not be the best authority on Judaism. Then again I could be wrong. :) I am far from an expert on anything involving Judaism, but I know that there is a Jewish Study Bible available. I have looked at it, but don't know what viewpoint it's coming from or anything. Just throwing it out there. :)

Pretty much any and all Pixar movies. Also, Veggietales is awesome (at least the older ones). The TV shows I loved as a kid were things like: Wishbone Magic School Bus Reading Rainbow Adventures from the Book of Virtues Unfortunately I'm not sure how many of those are still accessible, they're all kind of old by now. I remember watching Liberty's Kids when it was on PBS originally, and I was quite sad when it ended. Here in the Dallas area we have a station called Qubo which shows nothing but kids' shows all the time. They have Adventures from the Book of Virtues on there, and other kids' shows more like what I remember watching on PBS as a kid. I don't know if there's something like that where you're going, but there might be.

Former hs'ed student here.. :) I may have finished the 7th grade Rod and Staff grammar book, but I never did the 8th grade one. I took the PSAT and SAT in 2005-2006 and got very, very high verbal scores on both. (I'm also a NM Scholar.) There is *NO WAY* the words "demonstrative pronoun" will be on the SAT. Prepositional phrase, maybe. From what I remember of those tests, any grammar stuff did not require you to know terms, but just correct usage - OR the terms were simple ones, like direct object vs object, which I think you learn in Rod and Staff grade 3 or something. So, basically, no need to worry about R&S Grade 8 grammar if you're worried about PSAT/SAT tests. :) At my college, the only people I know who actually *know* advanced grammar terms are the classics majors, who take large amounts of Latin and Greek.

As for AP/IB credits, as far as I know the only way you can end up forgoing freshman scholarships is from dual credit from a community college. AP credits should *not* disqualify anyone from freshman scholarships. Prior enrollment in a community college with enough credits to make them into a transfer student might. For AP, the college decides to give the incoming freshman credit for various classes. Once given, those classes are covered and the student may turn into a sophomore. They don't automatically come in with the credits. If your friend's dd has so many AP credits, she may be able to continue as normal even with a deferred enrollment. :)

I lived on-campus at my college and am now a commuter (yay being married!). My college is intended to be a residential campus - there is a requirement to live on campus through your junior year. However, those who live in the area with their parents can be exempted easily. It can be much harder to get involved on campus as a commuter, since many social events take place in the evenings or on weekends, when commuter students are less likely to be around. I'm not talking just school events, either - I'm talking about hanging out with friends and getting to know classmates. People who live in a dorm are able to get to know each other rather well, in my experience, and those who don't live in dorms miss out on that unless they put a lot of effort into socializing. That being said, I have one friend who is a commuter and is one of the most sociable people I know. He spends a *lot* of time on campus after class hours are over, as well as spending time at friends' residences. Most of the commuters I know are not so successful. I think it would be very difficult to get involved/make college friends if one had a lot of home responsibilities (aka the same ones as when one was homeschooled and lived at home, or something - not "be home by x time, clean up your room, clean up after yourself"). If a young adult is living at home and has the freedom to stay later at school if he or she so desires, that's great. If they *have* to be home as *soon* as classes are over, they will have very few opportunities to make friends. When I lived on campus I went home every weekend to spend time with my boyfriend (now dh), family, and friends. I've never regretted that decision, but it has meant that despite living on campus I am not as involved with friends there as I could be.

I had a friend who was asked to re-apply to a very small, very demanding liberal arts college in about a year. They told her that they didn't think she was ready for the workload/demands of the coursework yet, but they thought she would be after some time had passed. She applied again the next year and got in. Another reason for deferred enrollment, perhaps, would be that these people will do well at X college but are not as prepared as others, and the class for that year is already rather full. Just guessing here though.

I was a National Merit Scholar, and I don't remember *ever* faxing my awards letters to any school. However, I was also in public school at the time, so that *may* have made a difference. I doubt it though. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation refers to kids like your dd as Commended Students, but National Merit Commended seems to work better for a one-liner on a list of awards.

At University of Dallas we have a music department, but no music major. Students can take one 30-minute lesson per week with an instructor and be part of ensembles, etc. or be in the choir. I can see why some schools which are famous for their music departments would not want to give resources to someone who is not majoring. I have a friend who's a music ed major at Baylor University, and she has to struggle to get studio time. I'm guessing this varies a lot from school to school though. Hopefully your dd can find a college where she can keep working on her violin as well as pursuing another course of study. :grouphug: