Once in a blue moon when we remember. We are relying on Greenies dental treats to keep her teeth healthy.

To be honest, no, we didn't. We had college decision saturation by then. My daughter had other choices that she was happy with. In the end, she decided she wanted to stay in state, so she picked one of our state university campuses. I am happy to hear that it worked out well for your sister though.

Thank you so much for your input. I have seen some of my daughter's emails to professors. She is actually pretty good. In later elementary and middle school, I would run my emails through her for her input and final approval. Once she hit high school, I always had her email her teachers herself, running her communications with them through me first, and copying me in the email. Having said that, that template is particularly useful because it is so specific to grad school. I will share it with my daughter. I am sure she will appreciate it and will benefit from it. There is also a lot of other useful information in that website, so thank you so much again.

Sure, you can learn it, but shouldn't knowing grammar help, just to give an for example, with direct object versus indirect object pronouns etc? I remember learning grammar at school from a very early age. I distinctly remember analyzing sentences in 4th grade. Having a solid grammar foundation made understanding and learning other languages' grammar a lot easier. Is it essential? No, but it is an extra neurological hook to which new knowledge will readily attach and therefore make the process smoother and faster.

UC merit scholarships vary depending on each individual campus. My dd has a merit scholarship that is not need based. We are full pay at UCs. ETA The UCs are, in general, not terribly generous with merit scholarships if there is no financial need. Some campuses give a little more money than others. UCSD has the Jacobs Scholarship for engineering which offers a full ride. I know someone who is about to graduate as a Jacobs scholar and they have no financial need.

Yes, but grammar study, including the corresponding nomenclature, can help tremendously to speed up the process, especially in the acquisition of a foreign language.

Thank you. My daughter left a message with her doctor, the pulmonologist, who ordered the test. She managed to reschedule the test until Friday to give time for the doctor to get back to her. We shall see what he says!

We just were told our deductible will apply fully. Before we go ahead, is there an alternative that will be less costly? My college kid has an appointment this morning and we were just told. It's for an ongoing cough. I asked her to ask her Dr but there maybe not time before the appointment! Help?

True, and yet, for our family, even though we drive older second hand cars, etc., etc., the profile schools expected 1/3 of our gross income to go in college costs. We are penalized heavily for having assets that are not officially retirement savings but which are very much retirement funds. We came to the U.S. later in our years, and so we started funding our 401 late as a result. And we are older parents. And our two children do not overlap in college. And we live in a high cost of living location. In other words, we are toast!

In my district, science placement recommendation depends on math level. For students on grade level, the science sequence is Biology (2 trimesters) in 9th, followed by Geoscience (2 trimesters) or Fundamentals of Chemistry/Chemistry 1-2 (3 trimester course) in 10th. Advanced students can follow that same sequence or opt for Fundamentals of Chemistry/Chemistry 1-2 (3 trimester course) in 9th, followed by AP Biology in 10th (3 trimesters). Advanced math students in Middle school are placed in advanced science in 8th grade. These recommendations changed from when my older dd entered high school 7 years ago. The recommendation for advanced students at that time was to take AP Biology in 9th grade, then Chemistry.

In complete agreement. It is a fine balance indeed. I think all we can do as parents is to instill values, push for effort, keep high but achievable expectations for each child, but also listen and watch very carefully.

Haha. My 13 year old dd is like your 12 year old son. She considers herself lucky compared to her Indian friends and school mates!

My kids are half South Asian and I live in California, in a district with a lot of Asian techie families. I think a key element in kids happiness is camaraderie. These families socialize a lot among themselves. Everyone knows each other. They are high achieving and push other onwards. Honestly, I hear the kids complaining a lot about excessive work, but they understand their parents' motives. Most have ambition to reach high themselves, and they have each other to validate those feelings and to complain about having no life. They also like the sense of accomplishment they get from their academics and extracurricular activities and competitions.

. I don’t know. I can only speculate that the frequency, length and severity and variety of abusive actions may be quantified somehow by health and social work professionals?

You are right. Some signs can be hard to detect or link to abuse. Mandatory reporter training addresses this however. The following is a sample training module for school personnel in California. http://educators.mandatedreporterca.com/default.htm Many of the signs rely on someone who knows the child and can observe changes over time. And many of the possible signs will not be linked to abuse or neglect all the time. I wish that we had a fail safe method to know but we are not required to have prove to report, only reasonable suspicion.

I just read his book today because my 13 dd brought it home from the library. I was unaware of this case until now. Are you guys familiar with it? At the time, it was the third worst case of abuse ever in the entire state of California. In his case, he was saved thanks to his school noticing and acting on it. Even then, it took years of abuse before someone did notice and something was done to stop it. I would like to believe schools are better prepared these days to notice and to intervene than at the time his abuse happened. I, for one, as a mandatory reporter, have to take a training course at the beginning of every school year where we are reminded of signs to look out for and steps to take. Did you see him being interviewed on HLN?

My husband has used them in the past with success. I don't know if he has ever cleaned the trap. I try to stay away from anything rat related as much as possible. He has had the best success with peanut butter for bait.

I am so sorry. Your daughter felt your unconditional love every single day of her life. Prayers that you can find peace.

We have done it both ways. Each has a different feel. The accepted students day was on a Saturday, so the only current students in attendance were there actively helping with the event in some capacity. It was a very fun day, there were multiple lectures and sessions that you could attend depending on interest. There were tables with student clubs, so that was good too. There were tables with refreshments and food as well. The regular day visit will give you more of the feel what a day in your student's life would be like, fewer crowds, but no or fewer exciting tailored events. Most likely (not always) you will have to grab lunch on your own. Once we had all admissions, my dd attended one accepted student day, a couple of ordinary campus tours and visits, and a couple of personally tailored visits (including one overnight) at two of her full tuition colleges. She ended up at one the ordinary visit colleges, but I don't think the kind of visit had much to do with that if at all.

I am about to turn 54. I managed the chair test in under 14 seconds. I could do the sitting down from standing and back up again but I got a 0.5 penalty for losing balance. I used to be able to do it without losing balance at all. I am doomed!

How do you all deal with the noise? I mean, if you are teaching in the middle of the night or early morning, does your voice not disturb the family when everything else is so quiet? Is everyone used to some noise? I am just thinking how I would deal with this since we have an open plan house.

You really need to know your hard limit. For us, it was the cost of the University of California instate. My oldest applied to some privates. There were a couple that were within that limit because they offered full tuition or very close to it. The rest were at least $10,000 over our limit per year. In the end, she decided to go to one of the UC campuses where she received a merit scholarship. We had no way of anticipating this since these scholarships are not automatic or strictly dependent on specific GPAs or test scores.

Haha. But only after the horoscopes and everything else matches!

The co-chosen major part is definitely very common in certain ethnic/cultural groups. My dh remembers a saying from his home country that was like "doctor, proctor, accountant, engineer" meaning those were the professions strongly favored by parents. In countries where arranged marriages are the norm, one's profession is an extremely important part of the deal. One of my Indian friends was just telling me recently that, when it was time for her parents to look for a husband for her and her sister, all of the top candidates were looking for brides with computer science degrees. Her sister had a masters in a social science, and she had a masters in biology (not going into medicine). Apparently, it was slim pickings for them. She faired a lot better than her sister, despite her sister being prettier and more social than herself, because she had a good job and had demonstrated good earning power unlike her sister.

I know a kid who graduated from Berkeley in engineering in three years. I don't recommend this path, however, this kid is, as I understand, burned out and taking time off.