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asta

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Everything posted by asta

  1. Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands is a great book - even if it is geared towards international business. I like it because you can easily look up different countries quickly. If you go to that Amazon link you can then peruse the "people also bought" section. I would think the "Gestures" book would come in handy... a
  2. This is going to sound really odd but... He really needs to internalize that he is not bringing his citizenship / constitution / bill of rights with him to the new school. We have lived "not in the US" for more than half of Switzerland's life. The one thing we see repeatedly - in all of the countries where we have been - is Americans who are livid when something happens and their "rights" are not respected. Americans do not have American "rights" in foreign countries; they have to abide by the laws of the host nation. Many people think that, if they screw up, the Consulate will just pick them up and get them out of trouble - this is not the case. There are several books out there about living in different nations and the cultural mores and laws that one will be expected to follow "when in Rome". I would highly suggest that your son at least peruse one before leaving for school. Some things are very subtle (don't refer to a Scot as an Englishman!), others are a grave insult (simply handing a business card to a Japanese person - it should be placed in both hands, outstretched, with a small bow), and still others will get a person a lashing (vandalism to a car in Singapore). There are lots of weird things out there. Oh - you can't chew gum in Singapore, either! My son is lucky in that he has spent a lot of time in the nation where he will be attending school, yet he is still flummoxed as to what he will be bringing; the dorm room is tiny. I think it is a challenge for every new student. I suspect it will come down to his bug-out bag, his bike, his bagpipes, his computer and some office supplies. And I'm still not sure that will fit! asta
  3. In the "oh carp, didn't see that one coming" department: Switzerland has a completely valid US passport. He has to submit his passport to the UK consulate to get his Tier 4 visa for school. No problem, right? Wrong. We don't live in the US due to hubby's job (even though we are US citizens). We have a special visa to be able to stay in our current country w/o having to be considered a "resident" and pay their taxes. Because of this, rather than simply sending kid's passport off to the UK consulate in New York (or where ever), and waiting in our "birth country" for it to come back with the visa plastered in it, kid had to GET ANOTHER PASSPORT. He had two choices, actually: send off the passport that was in his hands and carry around a photocopy of it - never leaving the country and hoping no one wanted to check his papers (which actually happened about a month ago) lest he have to explain that another government had it and all he had was a copy (um... yeah - that would be fun to do in a foreign language. To the police.). Or he could apply for his next passport early and briefly have two (they're willing to let him hold on to the other one until the new one comes back from the UK consulate, as his current one is only good until Spring). I know - who really cares, right? But this is something to consider if you have a kid who is looking at going to school overseas. Not only is it going to be a pain in the butt to get a passport if they don't have one (it can take up to 3-4 months), if they DO have one, and it is set to expire during the school year, your kid will have to get a new passport while they are abroad. They may also have to pay for a new visa or to have the current visa transferred ($$$). Additionally - we learned this just yesterday - if your kid has visited a school and still has a valid "visitor visa" (90 days) in their passport at the time they are applying for their school visa (tier 4), the consulate simply won't grant it. They don't allow 2 visas to be in a passport concurrently. So... in Switzerland's case, he HAD to have that new passport - he had just been to Open Day and has a valid visitor visa! On the high side, he officially has his accommodation assignment, his acceptance letter, and all of his documentation. We just need his passport to show up so we can submit for the visa... LOL a
  4. I have "rant of the ages" about College Board (won't repeat it here - it really requires its own thread, LOL), but suffice to say, in one portion of the rant, CB literally lost one of his SAT2 tests. LOST. THE. TEST. Not only that, they lost HIM. They had no idea who he was when I called. And then they had the gall to hem, haw, lie, and then give him a score that was the exact mean for the scores that test day - as if nothing had ever happened. Oh - like no one is going to notice something fishy about a kid who has completed college biology with an A only managing to score in the low 600s! Call them on it. Sure, some kids simply bomb their tests. But CB are also @ssholes. asta
  5. Having been to three Open days (one ancient, one more ancient, LOL), I would say that your assessment is spot on. (we went to one school twice) I believe that this: is especially important. When I read the boards here, I often see posts referring to the first year of STEM programs as being a sort of "weed out" year. From what I saw in our Open days, there simply were no "particular" majors that had a weed out year. ALL the majors not only had to hit the ground running (and if they blew their first year, well, that was pretty much it...), but they had to KEEP running if they wished to make it through to an Honors degree (e.g. the one that would get them employed). It's hard to keep running when you hate to run. I am now officially unqualified to comment on the US system: Switzerland is going to his first Ancient Choice! (:: happy dance ::) a
  6. Something to make ya'll smile: kid was uploading his ACT report to his Uni yesterday, actually stopped to read it (durrr...) and said "HEY - did ACT calculate a GPA for me? How did they do that?" :: Bangs Head :: no, sweetie - that is your GPA - mommy gave it to them a
  7. TUM - but it was for their Brauwesen und Getranketechnologie BS and MS programs - and, well, they can be as picky as they want when they're essentially the ONLY place to go if you wish to learn it, LOL. (Or, rather, learn it and have the rest of the world respect your credentials) I don't blame them for not wanting to have to deal with communication problems. A
  8. Kiddo just received his diploma from the... printer... place... with no name... mentioned on this board... And it is STUNNING. Hand calligraphy for his name, heavy vellum, embossed foil ink seal (not a sticker that has been smashed into the paper). Printed mushy vinyl cover, too. You should have seen his face light up. It's like it wasn't real to him until that moment. We're scanning/sending it over to the uni as soon as dad gets home from business and can sign it. A
  9. S/O - one of the Unis my son considered before settling on his current one was in Germany. My son knows German - very, very well. He was taught by German tutors, not American ones. It is actually his first 'social' language, as we lived in Germany when he was small, and he started school at a German Kindergarten. IOW - he's no slouch, and when he speaks, he sounds like a native German from Hesse, not American - to the point that he often speaks English with German grammar (people who speak German will understand what I'm talking about here). But guess what? For him to attend the school, he had to pass a native level fluency exam. Which wasn't just reading, writing and speaking - it was also cultural. This requirement didn't exist at all German unis, but it did at the one HE wanted to attend (of course) - and I'm sure some others. This school had a program that was very rare, so they could be as selective as they wanted in regards to foreigners applying to their program. To be honest, I was really relieved when he shifted course (literally). He could have passed the test with some brushing up, but the sheer amount of paperwork I was going to have to provide the German government made me want to hurl. A
  10. Oh, I concur with this statement. I argue all of the time on these boards that not everyone wants to "be STEM". I just believe that society has had an enormous case of "mission creep" when it comes to degrees. The BA/BS has supplanted the high school diploma, the MA/MS has supplanted the BA/BS; then everyone has to have CEUs, never-ending certificate programs and recertifications... It never stops. I have my own whack theory of how it happened, but I'm not going to type it on an iPad, LOL. A
  11. If you get on their email list you'll get massive discount offers - 75 percent+ off. a
  12. SuperStar Student (we did the old one - don't know what the new one is like) High School Chemistry (I swear, his stoichiometry lessons were the best we ran across, and we did a LOT of chemistry!) Ferdinand & Isabella (You would not believe how much of this ended up on the World History SAT subject test this last Saturday...) History of Mathematics (If you ever want to know the WHY behind things, this is it) History of Western Civilization (absolutely huge, not for everyone, but DANG - how incredibly interesting! Got my kid completely hooked!) a
  13. William Bennett (former Ed Secretary) has written a book that is basically about this very thing. I saw a blurb interview on Yahoo news where he was discussing it. IMO, on the one hand, it is sad that the old axiom "follow your dreams" will basically land you working at Starbucks or the Gap nowadays (if you can even find a job). On the other, it appears the world is undergoing a fundamental shift - neither of which appear to lead to "hey! we're going to have a nice, soft economic landing!" The economist in me sees a much bleaker picture in which the very fabric of society as we know it will be rent, and the people who put it back together will not be those who majored in gender studies, cinema studies, or music/dance/art. I actually find the last one quite valuable in a post modern sense - it got the world through the middle ages after all - but an artist doesn't need a college degree to be fabulous (see: middle ages). I see the post modern world being put back together by the "traditional", "old" university degrees - well taught, as Dr. Bennett has pointed out, but unfortunately, lacking in some of the more important ones for thinking skills (such as philosophy - which is why it is so important we do what we do HERE). So - blah blah blah - Asta is rambling - you rebuild infrastructures with engineers, mathematicians, businessmen, etc. You rebuild medical care and science with physicians, chemists, biologists, physicists, etc. It isn't that society doesn't need/want people with the skill sets being offered by every school that has decided to offer a degree in something - IMO, it is simply that there isn't necessarily a need / certainly won't be a need to have individuals with degrees in non post modern subjects. Asta
  14. We did Administrator/Instructor. To be honest - I let kid choose which one he wanted. And it won't matter that we all have the same last names because our signatures are completely illegible. :lol: a
  15. The entire nation of South Korea had their scores invalidated/tests cancelled yesterday due to some kids cheating. It doesn't fix anyone's pain, but it kind of puts things in perspective. a
  16. I ordered Kid's diploma from HS diploma (above). We gave our HS a proper name a long time ago (it isn't "Asta's Happy Homeschool" or anything), so that went across the top, and the rest just looked like a "normal" college prep diploma. I like that HS diploma co. will do hand calligraphy and has real embossed seals so that it doesn't look like something made at Kinkos. His school wants a high school diploma but not a transcript. Their take is that transcripts are meaningless, as there are no universal standards for coursework. All they wanted were standardized test scores. It kind of bummed me out after all the work I'd put into the d@mn course descriptions and formatting a decent transcript... A
  17. You may wish to look at a few different things: * if he is going to go to the community college for a different class, have him utilize the tutoring center for math that he is doing at home (not a math class from the college) * look at the bulletin board at the community college and a local university (if you have one) for students offering tutoring * ask your local public high school math teacher if they have an advanced student who is always "helping" other kids with their work (there are a lot of smart kids/people, but not everyone is good at transferring knowledge), and if that kid may be interesting in a tutoring job. That kid may be interested in a FT math job over the summer (you can get a HUGE amount of math done when that is all you're doing - ask me how I know...) * do a swap with another parent for a subject you excel in * look online for a tutor who does skype tutoring (no, not Khan academy videos, and this is different than regular online stuff) * bite the bullet, adjust the family budget, and get a tutor Where I live, we have/had no access to community college, AP, co op, or any of the other stuff that pretty much most of the HSers here at WTM have. Kid simply has NOT responded to everything I offered in math (I discovered this... late). We now have a tutor who comes to our house twice a week. Pre-calc has taken less than 4 months. He simply needed a person. The fact that he is not having to go at the speed of a class (too slow or fast), is able to clarify concepts, or gloss over stuff that he understands immediately/intuitively has been TOTALLY worth it. This has actually saved him/us time; no driving to and from a school, no having to wait to meet w/ the professor for office hours, etc. It's a matter of how much my son's time and psychological health is worth (and mine, frankly). HTH asta
  18. Cognitive Ability and Employment in the 21st Century A blog post discussing the modern-day equivalents of [...] Fascinating. Discuss? a
  19. ARGGGG! Talking. Cross. Purposes. I am not talking about "employing college graduates". That would include ME. That would include half of this board at least. I'm not talking about employing 18-24 year olds. I'm not talking about "hiring 13% more". Or hiring anyone at this point. At this point, all I'm trying to show is that the NACE's study is saying that employers aren't planning on hiring many new college graduates - and by a pretty large margin. When I wrote my original piece, I had only seen the CNBC article because the other link was dead. This morning, I actually looked to figure out why and fixed it. "Employers taking part in the Job Outlook Spring Update 2013 survey have trimmed their hiring projections: Currently, they anticipate hiring 2.1 percent more new college graduates in 2012-13 than they did in 2011-12. That's down from a 13 percent hiring increase they originally projected in the fall of 2012." Perhaps the above quote from the NACE website is clearer: e.g. When asked in the fall of 2012 what their hiring projections would be, Employers taking part in NACE's survey said they projected a 13% increase over the same time in 2011. However, when asked the same question this Spring, these same employers adjusted their hiring projections downward. Their hiring number is X. Last Fall they projected it would be 1.13X. Now that it is Spring, they have realized it can only be 1.021X. That's all. And it is grim for everyone. This is a thread about college: the people posting on it are in/have a family member in/are finishing/have a family member finishing college. It isn't personal, it is the terrifying state of the US economy; ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. I don't know what people are seeing that shows the US economy 'improving' or in great shape - every economist I know/read besides Krugman is shaking their heads and wishing for a magic solution at this point. That isn't particular to the US economy, either. a
  20. The labs to which I was referring were at the middle and high school level. Chemistry was usually micro-chem, as stated above. The source for the college stat seems to be an apples and oranges misinterpretation: I was not referring to the well publicized statistics of how many people with college degrees have employment, or how many people with only X years of college (or no college) are employed or are under employed. I was referring to a very recent one, linked off of Cnbc (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100673848 - unfortunately, I had to actually go to the dead link and re-enter the URL because NBC typed it incorrectly): http://www.naceweb.org/Press/Releases/Employers_Trim_College_Hiring_Projections.aspx?mainindex-flash1-colhirflt-05022013. (Job Picture Looks Bleak...) This stat is about the prospects for college students who are graduating. Now. Not 4 years ago. It is bleak. It appears I was off by a couple tenths of a point, but I was going from memory and I didn't state it as well as I should have. I was p!ssed about the rest of the stuff I'd been writing about. I didn't realize I was going to be crucified for a stat that is pretty dang obvious considering the general unemployment/underemployment/sheer number of people who have given up and left the work force. Source: US Bureau of Labor and Statistics March Jobs Report: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm A
  21. Not everyone: * Has access to/can afford Community College, Dual Enrollment, AP courses, co ops, spiffy laboratories, "shadowing a professional" opportunities or online middle school and high school programs which require tuition. * Is remotely interested in being in STEM fields - even if it is the 'wave of the future'. And their parents probably get a wee bit tired of listening to how much better/faster/more all the STEM kids are than their kids will ever be. Because that is bullish!t. And it is condescending as well. * Is applying to a university that wants their students to have completed college prior to showing up (not just eliminating those 'pesky' lib studies classes, either). Many look at it as a detractor, believing that the student needs to come to study the entire package, not just the courses for their major; that "university" means something more than "here are the classes you want/need to get X certification - we're really only a job mill" - see ya! * Sees Community College as a complete waste of time. All of that said: I have friends and family who teach middle school, high school, are lecturers at the university level and are tenured professors at universities. Newsflash: some of the best public and private schools in the US no longer have science laboratories - students use digital labs. Myriad reasons, including budget cuts, but also quite a bit of "oh, the poor frog" and "little Johnny is going to be hurt by the evil chemicals" (yes that is hyperbole, but it gets the point across). Major universities where TAs in Master's programs (not PhDs, Master's) are teaching Freshman English. 3-500 seat lecture halls where TAs roll in a TV, turn on a DVD of the prof's recorded lecture and leave. Students signing up for a class at a B&M uni only to discover on the first day that oh, well, the prof is going to do it online and the student will come in for tests. But don't forget to pay that B&M fee! And by the way - that program we recruited you to the school for? We've done away with it! How about this one? You'll only have to stay an extra year and a half to get your degree... unless you take out an extra loan and go to BEAUTIFUL, EXCITING SOUTH AMERICA this summer for our extra, EXTRA special program! (true story, MAJOR university). IOW, there will always be a constant revolution of there is nothing / there is something / there might be something / there may never be anything... And what those things are will be very different for different people. They'll be different according to socioeconomic status, according to geography, according to simple desire, according to the helicopter-ness of the parent involved. And - OMG! Somewhere along the line the kid whose life is being impacted might even be consulted! Right now, the employment rate for students leaving college is 10%. The US economy added 88,000 jobs in March. In the dirt simple, completely inaccurate math dept., if 10% of those jobs were actually given to new college grads (highly, highly doubtful, given the amount of unemployed people out there with years of work experience), that would be a whopping 8,800 young adults being offered jobs.
  22. I find it fascinating how many posters on this thread went to Catholic school. (The RCC holds, as someone pointed out, the belief of one creator who set the evolutionary process in motion). I went to public school, with great science teachers and a Catholic theologian mom. A
  23. My mistake: Mathematics Level 1 Three years of college-preparatory mathematics, including two years of algebra and one year of geometry Mathematics Level 2 More than three years of college-preparatory mathematics, including two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and elementary functions (precalculus) and/or trigonometry. 􀅶􀀃 If you have had preparation in trigonometry and elementary functions and have attained grades of B or better in these courses, select Level 2. If you are sufficiently prepared to take Level 2 but take Level 1 in hopes of receiving a higher score, you may not do as well as you expect. % of Test 50 multiple-choice questions each Topics Covered* Level 1 Level 2 Number and Operations 10–14% 10–14% Operations, ratio and proportion, complex numbers, counting, elementary number theory, matrices, sequences, series, vectors Algebra and Functions 38–42% 48–52% Expressions, equations, inequalities, representation and modeling, properties of functions (linear, polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, periodic, piecewise, recursive, parametric) Geometry and Measurement 38–42% 28–32% Plane Euclidean/Measurement 18–22% - Coordinate Lines, parabolas, circles, ellipses, hyperbolas, symmetry, transformations, polar coordinates 8–12% 10–14% Three-dimensional Solids, surface area and volume (cylinders, cones, pyramids, spheres, prisms), coordinates in three dimensions 4–6% 4–6% Trigonometry Right triangles, identities, radian measure, law of cosines, law of sines, equations, double angle formulas 6–8% 12–16% Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability 8–12% 8–12% Mean, median, mode, range, interquartile range, standard deviation, graphs and plots, least squares regression (linear, quadratic, exponential), probability *Topics in italics are tested on the Level 2 Test only. The content of Level 1 overlaps somewhat with that on Level 2, but the emphasis on Level 2 is on more advanced content. Plane Euclidean geometry is not tested directly on Level 2.
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