I am trying to get a general understanding of topics that colleges use for essay topics. I know the specific question will depend on the college, but I was wondering if they are similar concepts, ie: what kind of "hardships" have you overcome? What do we do if DS is just a regular kind of guy with no serious hardships. He just works hard and gets good grades? Is he destined to only lower rung colleges because he hasn't undergone some major tragedy in his life? I ask this because any essay response that I have seen in the news is about some major hardship the person has overcome. What about just plain-vanilla types of kids that have just had a normal life? Hot Lava Mama

Welcome to the introverts club! We have millions of members, but no meetings. Ever. We just all wonder, privately, why those extroverts keep getting in our face and wish they would just be quiet! :) Hot Lava Mama

So, is it just for "information?" Is it important to know? If so, do they do anything different when they have this information or is just "to know?" Just curious. Hot Lava Mama

Yep. No leftovers here. I think there was one piece of "picked over" pumpkin pie. That's it. I was hoping I could get away with not cooking today. Bummer! Hot Lava Mama

That is too funny! My 11 year old boy does that too. The other kids get such a kick out of it when he talks about how much weight he gains after a meal. My 11 year old will be the biggest of all the boys. He was born...as we say...with "big paws" and has a huge wide back. His uncles on Daddy's side are huge weight-lifters. They all fill up the door frame when they walk in. That is his future. :) Hot Lava Mama

Nope. Not yet. Still waiting to hear those words. Perhaps when he turns a little older he will remark "how smart" I have become. :) Hot Lava mama

"I'm full!" Words NEVER uttered by him before! All it took was two days of cooking. Pies as far as the eyes can see. Tons of potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and two chickens! Whew. I was wondering if maybe he had a huge hole in his throat and the food never made it to his tummy! :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hot Lava Mama

Question: Why do they do the blood work? What is the point? Do they prescribe something? Just wondering Hot Lava Mama

Thanks!

And, are we getting the results via e-mail or paper? Hot Lava Mama

Fantastic! Thanks for the help, Regentrude! Have a great Thanksgiving! :) Hot Lava Mama

Should I expect colleges to ask to look at the details (ie: break-down of percentages, grades by test, etc.) of grading for my student? The reason I ask is because I have been refining Ds transcripts and changed the percentage around for classes. For example, I moved the weight of tests to daily work, which ultimately didn't change the grade. However, should I go back and make sure everything is exactly correct with my low level details?? Will they be asking for low level details like that? Thanks Hot Lava Mama

Yep. Here, too. But we have three side-by-side. Hot Lava Mama

Thanks for all the responses. Yep, my gut feeling was correct. I don't trust these types of "honors" that show up randomly! Thanks for all the help. Hot Lava Mama

Ds took the ACT earlier this year, as well as the PSAT in October. He is in 11th grade, so we had him fill out the "extra" stuff on those tests for information about colleges, what his interests are, etc. As such, we have been getting a lot of things because of that information. He recently received a packet from the "National Student Leadership Conference." I have never heard of this before. It appears to be some kind of camp-type thing for engineers. They said he was "chosen" to represent "Home School Clearing House" at the 2016 conference. Thing is-I don't know what the "Home School Clearing House" is! The "camp" is at a very good college that is relatively close (UC Berkeley). He is very interested in engineering and did get a pretty good score on the ACT (33). So, is this a scam? Has anyone ever heard of this before? I was thinking of calling up UCB to see if it is for real. I could also call the place that sent this packet (as they have a number on it), but I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell if it was a scam or not. Any suggestions? Thanks! Hot Lava Mama

I must have worded my comment awkwardly as I didn't mean to imply that the OP had done anything wrong. It was more of me talking aloud to myself as in, "That's weird that I have never seen that...I wonder what I have missed or what has been hidden from me regarding billing." OP, if you thought I as implying something, please accept my apology. I wasn't trying to point any fingers at you. I was just so startled by the revelation of what your doctor was doing that I wanted to figure out if the same thing was happening to us by our doctor. Hot Lava Mama

Oh, o.k. I had never seen it before. I thought ICD codes were mostly for the "back office" type of thing for billing. It seemed like the doctor's office was out of control or something and maybe handed her papers that were for their billing office. Hot Lava Mama Hmmm. Just checked some of our billing and didn't see any codes. Anyone have ideas on how I can see what they are WITHOUT calling our doc? Just wondering if our doctor did the same thing but we never saw it because they don't include the codes. I am wondering if my insurance company would give up that information? Very disturbing that a doctor would do that!

Where did you see this code? Was it on some paperwork they handed you or did you see it in the doctor's files? Weird that they would give you something with a billing code on it. Hot Lava Mama

Ds is glad to hear about this. He has been practicing his cursive, but it takes so long! He hates it! :) Hot Lava Mama

Oh! That makes sense. Thanks! Hot Lava Mama

Thanks! Good to know. He would have been stressed on how to answer these questions. We discussed them so now he knows. :) Hot Lava Mama

Fabulous! Thanks! Hot Lava Mama

Thank you! I tried to search for this, but, aye-aye-aye, my search skills are "sub-par"! I needed that! :) Hot Lava Mama

What personal information does Ds need to know to fill out the form for the PSAT? I assume: Address Name of our home school Homeschool code for California (can't remember where I get this one...can you help?) Does he need to know his social security number? What does he do if he doesn't know which schools to send the scores to, yet? Is there anywhere where I can see the actual form that he will be filling out? I tried searching for it, but was just getting off-the-wall stuff. Hot Lava Mama

I second audio books. You can check them out from the library, too. If you have kids that get car sick (as I do), you don't want to do books or anything where their attention is focused on a particular item because their body senses "movement" but their eyes don't. Audio books are good because they entertain the kids' mind but the kids can still peer out the windows. Good luck! Hot Lava Mama