Oy vey…the fun never stops! 😅

Erika, I’m so happy for your son that he is making decisions in line with his values and putting his mental health first. What a good way to begin his young adulthood! My daughter hasn’t been bullied, but she is dealing with some very heavy stuff at her ballet school. Her best friend had a family tragedy last year and, even before this loss, the friend was struggling mightily. She’s now far into a substance abuse problem, compounded with other mental health issues. My DD is being challenged to remain deeply compassionate, but also make and keep clear boundaries to protect herself. It hasn’t been easy and while she loves her friend and certainly wants the best for her, she’s having to pull away to protect herself. In a perfect world, my 17 year old wouldn’t be dealing with these complex, profound problems, but I guess I’m happy that she is doing so with open lines of communication and lots of family support. The professional ballet world can be very toxic; I’m glad we discovered this while DD still had time to pivot and prepare for an alternative career path.

@kokotg Good luck to your DS with his auditions. My DD is at a lull right now waiting for one EA decision by 1/31 (her top choice school) and then she has several more RD apps that she won’t get decisions on until late-March/April 1. The waiting is…hard!

Oh, nooooo! Jetta’s physics class is for everyone, not just STEM kids! My DD17 took and loved it as a 9th grader. I’m planning to have my 12-year old do the same— even though she a very different student (not as strong/accelerated). Great teaching is great teaching!

FWIW, my DD could never attend the live lectures due to her ballet schedule. (And even on the rare weeks when ballet didn’t conflict with class, she didn’t attend the lectures.) Instead, she would watch the recording of class at 2x speed. Generally, by the time she had watched it, she had completed the week’s work and found it to just be a review. There is no requirement that students must attend if it doesn’t match their learning style, goals, schedule, etc.

My student did nothing outside of Serbicki’s class to score her 5 on Lang. She also scored a 36 on English and a 35 on reading section of the ACT, so it’s possible she’s just a great test taker and/or is very well-prepared from 12 years of rigorous, WTM-inspired homeschooling. Not every kid needs a heavy workload to get ‘it’. Know thy student.

Hits for senior DD: AP Calc AB at Blue Tent Senior Eng at Blue Tent AP Bio at Blue Tent Orgo Chem at Clover Valley Latin IV at CLRC Intro to Sociology* at ASU Universal Lerner *She is only 2 weeks into the course, but finds the course organized and easy to navigate and the content interesting and totally manageable. Her only complaint is that you have to stay on the pacing of the course (1 module per week) and can’t work ahead. Instructor says it should be 18 hours/week of work, but DD says it has taken her exactly 3 hours each week so far.

No personal experience with Inspektor’s course, but I specifically chose Serbicki’s class because it’s ‘lean & mean’, as you say. I think I remember reading that Inspektor’s course was a very heavy workload and, like yours, my student didn’t need or want that.

I’ll echo comments above: very good course, but not overwhelming in any way. My DD enjoyed it, grew a bit as a reader/writer, and scored a 5 on the (abbreviated 2020) AP exam.

Michigan Math & Science Scholars is great if your student is so inclined. It was residential pre-Covid, but my DD did it via Zoom last year and really enjoyed her course, Orgo 101.

Hello! Indeed it has been a long time! My dancer is wrapping up her senior year and final year of dance training at Miami City Ballet. For the first time since 2017, she is not auditioning for SIs; it feels so weird! She has college applications submitted (with 6 admits and 8 decisions still pending) as a non-dance major. She may continue dancing at a few of the schools as a dance minor, but for the most part, she is ready to move on and focus on other things. It’s been an amazing journey and she certainly had some great stories to tell in her essays and interviews, so hopefully her ballet training will serve her well even though she is choosing not to pursue dance professionally. MCBS has been open for in-person dance training since June of 2020. They’ve just recently had an outbreak of Covid cases, but never closed the doors. Students have just had additional testing requirements. It seems like it has been handled well, for the most part. Hope everyone is hanging in there right now. How are your dancing kids? Plans for summer?

That’s fantastic! Congratulations to her and you. She has great options.

Ashley Porter’s Hon Pre-Calc at BT was well-organized and capably taught. DD earned an A and is sailing through BT Calc AB. She is bright and hardworking, but not particularly mathy/math-loving.

Ugh 😑 that seems so wrong!

Wonderful news!!

I can’t speak to BC, but my DD is taking Blue Tent Calc AB currently and finds the teaching to be among the best she’s ever experienced. Can’t say whether the class would be a good fit for your student, but Dr. Shin Yen is an excellent instructor.

Thank you. That is essentially what I did. I uploaded it to Common App, so all the CA schools have now received it. Our one non-CA school replied to our email with a fully non-sensical explanation of where/how to upload it (I’m assuming it was a student…who just didn’t read what they had written for clarity). Since the form we were supposed to submit had a snail mail address on it, I printed and mailed both the form and my mid-year transcript. They say they prefer electronic submission, but we couldn’t make it work. Oh well, it’s likely not going to be a do-able school for DD anyway, so we were just ready to complete it and be finished!

It isn’t exactly what you’re asking for, but I recently watched the Your Inner Fish 3-part documentary with my 7th grader while studying anatomy. It’s fascinating and approachable for that age. here’s a link: https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-program-your-inner-fish-series-promo/

Anyone else throw in a last-minute application this weekend? DD saw her pediatrician in late-Dec and told her all about her college application process. Doctor asked her, have you considered applying to X (for reasons very specific to DD’s profile/goals which Doc knows well)? We really hadn’t but that comment sent us down a rabbit-hole. Long story short, DD put in her final (and, I think, best) application on Sunday. We’ll see…

That sounds like a much more robust plan than any other I’ve heard of.

Ugh, I find carpet disgusting even at home (kids, pets, outdoor shoes inevitably make a mess of it). I can’t imagine having it in a college dorm. Yuck. I like being able to sweep and wash my floors weekly.

I’m sure this has been asked and answered, but I’m not finding it at a quick glance. I need to provide an update for DD’s fall senior year grades to both common app schools and one non-common app school (Georgetown). Can anyone advise how to do it? My transcript only lists final year grades. Do I update the transcript and note in comments that grades are in process and only reflect first semester? Or do I just creat another document like a report card showing fall semester grades only? Any BTDT from Georgetown? They’re obviously not on Common App, so how/where do I send updated grades? I can email the admissions department next week, but I suspect they’re out-of-office this week for the holiday and I’m getting antsy!

None my girls have been in were carpeted.

DD was accepted to Seattle University with good merit. We’ve basically ruled it out (for reasons that have little to do with the school itself), but it’s always nice to be asked! So, that’s 6-for-6 on the safeties. The target/lotteries are all outstanding. January-March is going to be…interesting! Not going to lie, I’m a little jealous of all the ED applicants who were admitted; I’d be very happy if DD knew where she was going to college at this point in senior year!

And the roller coaster ride continues… Today DD was deferred to regular admission by a school to which she applied during early action. It isn’t much of a blow because this school was the most expensive on her list (via NPC) and would have most-likely been unaffordable.