[Graduating college at 18 with a "co-chosen" major]

I think the last time we talked about this, it was from this today show segment: https://www.today.com/news/meet-family-who-sent-six-kids-college-age-12-1C9316706

 

An illuminating quote jumped out at me:

 

"Seth was motivated by his brother Keith's success. Keith is just down the hall, studying finite mathematics, a college senior -- at 14"

 

Finite math is basically high school level math, I think it counts as remedial math for stem-type majors, so having a "college senior" taking it at 14 seems not terribly advanced.  At this university, the prereq for finite math is high-school level algebra.

 

ETA:  Well, that's odd, this book is a different book about a family of 6 sending their all their kids to college early.

 

 

[She's going to Spain. I need ya'll to tell me this will be ok.]

 

 

About 5 years later, my boss gets married and for their honeymoon an Uncle loans him a nice Condo that he owns in a very posh area on the coast of Spain.  It wasn't neat Barcelona.  He shows me photos of them eating at a nice restaurant near the condo.  Dark wood wine storage is behind them at their table, a nice painting seen on the side of the photo.  I asked what those white things were in the top of the photo.  He flushed.  The restaurant stored raw meat hanging from the ceiling in the dining room.   Hanging down from the meat was white twine which ended in Dixie cups to catch the blood.  

 

 

Oh good lord.  That's not raw meat, that's Jamon Serrano dry curing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam%C3%B3n_serrano

 

This is a delicacy you'll see all over Spain.  The cups are to catch the fat as the meat cures.

[Morning movies at theaters]

Movies start in the afternoon here too during the school year anyway.  (I haven't checked during the summer).  But it makes sense since they don't want to pay for staff to be there when most people are not free to go to the movies. 

 

Also, if a good percentage of their employees are students, it may be difficult to staff during school hours.

[Temporary Protected Status]

Possibly the Congress can write a law that will give the DACA people, and possibly the TPS people, a path to Permanent Residency (Green card), but both sides of the aisle will need to compromise, a lot, and there isn't a lot of compromising going on in the Congress in Washington DC. Without compromise, those people will remain in limbo.

 

 

Why do both sides of the aisle need to compromise?  One side holds a majority in both houses and the presidency.  They could pass whatever they like. 

[Temporary Protected Status]

dp 

 

[article: Why Being An Adjunct Faculty Member Is Terrible]

My first job was teaching ESL at the college level.  It was at a CC, but it was just short of full time.  I made just enough to pay for my living expenses as a single.  No benefits.  I had intended to teach adult ESL at a college or University, but after most of my friends who were in my grad program were making nothing, not getting full time jobs, etc... I opted to get my teaching credentials and teach K-12.  I have never regretted it.  

 

 

What's really shocking is how much better the pay and conditions can be for teaching high school vs. adjuncting at a college.

[Do you think Oprah will really run for President?]

The presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ticket must be from two different states 

 

 

That's not exactly correct.  The two candidates may be from the same state, but electoral college voters can't vote for both presidential and vice-presidential candidates if they are both from the voter's state.  That is, if two candidates are from Wyoming, only the Wyoming electoral college electors are prohibited from voting for both.  

 

If the vice-presidential candidate cleared 270 electoral vote, that would win the office.  If not, then the Senate would get to elect the vice president.

[Have you ever run for office? (Not "political", more "civics")]

Check out ballotpedia for previous similar races in your state.  They frequently have links to campaign finance reports, which might give you a rough estimate of how much money you need to raise and how many votes are typically needed to win.

[What's with all my college dreams lately?]

I would go to class after having missed several classes and find out that I had an exam that day! I continued to have variations of this dream for the past 18 years. 

 

I, too, have had these anxiety dreams for years.  I know many people who also have them.

 

I don't know that these anxiety dreams have any deep meaning, but I think, as adults, we forget how stressful college can be for students.  Imagine today, if you had to take a comprehensive exam every six months that graded, say, your parenting skills, and ranked you against every other parent you know.  This is the sort of pressure that college students can be under.

 

Perhaps we can use the dreams to remind us of the stress our college kids can face, and grant them a little grace.

[So, this just happened]

Ds (19) asked if his girlfriend can come visit for a few days before they return to college. Sure, no problem. But then he asked if they can sleep in the same room.

 

 

Betcha he cleans his room like it has never been cleaned before...

[Trip to Germany--esp. need cell phone advice]

Duh traveled to Germany several times in the past few years. His apple iphone , which I believe is considered unlocked, worked just fine.

 

I have nothing to add, except the bolded may be the best autocorrect typo ever.  Assuming it wasn't intentional, that is...

[Visiting Chicago]

Is that a good way to get tickets?  Are they less $?

 

Because you can get tickets on the site of the theater 

 

If you really want to go, it is a very bad way to get tickets, because only a very small percentage of lottery entries win, and lottery winners only get to buy 2 tickets.

 

The upside is that lottery winners only pay $10 for the tickets.  Anywhere else is going to be .... somewhat more expensive.

[Visiting Chicago]

If it were me, I'd enter the lottery for Hamilton tickets.

[Why are so many College Graduates still Underemployment / Underpaid?]

Basically, it's showing that low wage jobs (< $25k) have increased from 8.6% to 13% (peaked at 15% in 2010) for recent college graduates. 

 

Forgive my aged brain, but I'm still not understanding what this is a percentage of?  

 

Is this one line claiming that of all the low wage jobs in the US economy, 13% are now held by recent college graduates?  Without knowing how many total (or relative) low wages jobs there are in the economy, seems like this percentage doesn't mean much.

[Why are so many College Graduates still Underemployment / Underpaid?]

The National average starting salary is about $50,000

When you view the statistics by major, the average starting salary for EVERY major is above $25,000

So here’s my new question: how can 40% of graduates be making less than $25,000? 

 

If you are just interested in the statistics, as I try to teach, the average says nothing about the distribution.   If you believe these numbers are correct and are measuring the same thing, then there just is a wide range of salaries. Costs of living vary widely across the country, so that's not so surprising. Indeed, 99% of graduates could be making < $25k, and the average salary could still be twice that, if the peak salaries were particularly high.  

 

Or, maybe these numbers aren't correct, or aren't consistent with each other.  Digger deeper, I see that the national average starting salary comes from one source (from the placement departments of many colleges), and the 40% statistic comes from a completely different survey from Accenture, using a completely different methodology (online survey of recent grads).  I'm not sure how much to trust on online survey of this nature.  It is completely unclear who either study considers a new graduate in the workplace. As brought up above, in some salary surveys, students who immediately go on to graduate work aren't counted as having started their first jobs.

 

My theory is that the two surveys are measuring different things.

[High School Latin Tests]

Should my son take both the National Latin Exam and the SAT2 Latin test? Would it be redundant?

 

Or just one or the other?

 

What are the benefits of each?

 

I see that the subject test requires two or more years, which he'll have eventually (he'll make it through Latin 2).

 

Hope the way I'm wording this makes sense 😕.

 

Thanks

 

 

The NLE has a different level for evey year of Latin.  It is much lower key than the SAT2 or AP Latin tests -- you can administer them yourself, it is lower stress, the results aren't reported to colleges, etc.  I think it is a great introduction to the world of standardized exams, and I would recommend that every high school Latin student take the appropriate NLE level every year.

 

The SAT2 is a much more serious test, and I'd wait until Latin 3 to take it.

 

AP Latin is much harder still, and requires the student to have translated a large number of lines of certain works.  Getting all the lines done in a school year is a slog.

[Oxford Comma]

Do you require your children to use an Oxford comma when writing?   Do you use one in your own writing?   I have strong feelings about the Oxford comma, and I am just curious what is the "norm" in the homeschool community.   

 

I think the important thing to teach our kids about grammar and formal writing is that there are some things that are "universal" rules that must always be followed, not matter what.  These are things like noun-verb agreement, use of there vs their vs they're, etc.  Additional aspects of writing, though, may come under the jurisdiction of a local style guide, depending on what you are writing.  The style guide may present additional rules, like use of the Oxford comma, that you must use for that publication, even if it isn't a universal grammar rule.

 

It isn't as important to teach all the rules of, say, the MLA style guide, as to teach that there is such a thing, and you should find out what (if any) style guide is in play for what you are writing, and look up, and follow those guidelines.

[A stupid reminder to myself]

Could it be a spell checker correction for something else?  Furnace?  Fish Fry?

[Reasons to Consider a Less Selective, Less Expensive College]

Well, about 60% of students get a C or F on any one standard. (no D's here). What I like about the system is that they challenge good students through higher level thinking rather than just more content to memorize.

 

What are high school grades used for in NZ?  I assume that your University system is like the UK system, where admissions are mainly based on test scores, and GPA doesn't matter much for entrance to university.

[College interview frustrations]

It wouldn't surprise me if the main goal of alumni interviews is engagement and fundraising with the alumni, and only secondarily about admissions.

[To Future Physics majors (and their parents)]

The article claims:

 

If you are a physics professor, you probably followed the traditional path to get where you are: undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics, one or more postdoctoral positions, and then a faculty position. Perhaps you think most of the physics majors you now teach will follow in your footsteps and that you best serve them by preparing them to become physics professors. If so, you are mistaken.

According to data from the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics (AIP; publisher of Physics Today), only about 5% of US physics bachelor’s degree graduates end up employed as physics professors

 

Isn't this true for pretty much any college major?  I doubt that more than 5% of undergraduate English or Psychology or History majors end up as professors in their fields.

[College interview frustrations]

So DS was stood up for the second time by his interviewer just now.  After the first time, the interviewer apologized later and said he was having trouble with Skype (it was a strange email back and forth and frankly didn't really make sense), and he suggested a different time.  DS waited for him online just now, and he never showed up, and hasn't yet responded to email.  We're telling him to request another interviewer.  DH is saying that for future interviews, DS should send them an email reminder the day before.  This seems potentially insulting to me, though.  What do you think?

 

First, are these alumni interviews, or with school officials?

 

In any case, I think if worded carefully, a double-check email the day before or the morning of can look very professional.  It should say something like

 

"I just wanted to confirm that I have you on my schedule for tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th of November from 1 to 2 pm EDT, and I will call you at your skype name xxx.  I'm looking forward to learning more about college xyz."

[Reasons to Consider a Less Selective, Less Expensive College]

 instead of obsessing about a 4.5 GPA or 1600 SAT scores, look at what the kids in the bottom 25% of admitted students were doing that made them stand out enough to be admitted.

 

Is there any way to determine what this is, other than anecdotally?

[Reasons to Consider a Less Selective, Less Expensive College]

I sometimes wonder if we had less grade inflation if our kids would be less stressed out because maybe they would be taking fewer exams.

 

 

Even without the added work of AP exams, etc, I think the grade inflation may be causing additional stress.  If students think they need to get a 4.0 cumulative GPA to get into a "good" college, a single B in a single semester of high school work is a mistake that they can't recover from.  That must weigh heavy upon them.

[Setback for definitive proof of a flat Earth:]

Do these people really believe this stuff or do they just say they do for attention?

 

 

I'm sure this guy is just doing it for the attention.  

 

Let's say, hypothetically, that you were skeptical about the roundness of the earth, but you had an open mind, and wanted to prove the earth was flat (or not).  There's all kinds of ways to demonstrate this that cost a whole lot less than the $30,000 he shelled out for this stunt.