The school ds#1 attends gave strict merit aid amounts based on ACT score. Get this score, get this much, get between x and y, get this much, etc. There were other scholarships but they were very focused, like which county or school or whatever, you came from. He qualified for none of them. Ds#2 has been accepted to 2 schools and waiting on the third. One is like ds#1's school and he received the highest merit award (made the private way cheaper than the state flagship). One gave nothing in merit aid although it is roughly the same as the school that did give him merit money. We won't find out about school 3 until March/April. There is no chance of him attending school 3 no matter how much he wants to go there unless they offer over 50% in merit aid. (This school costs over $50K). He know the facts and also knows he is not at the top of the heap but a good candidate. Both dh and myself put ourselves though college with little support from family. It was different back in the 70's when we graduated. Tuition only at the local state u was -- $252 a semester. Today it is $6200 a semester and the fees are huge! We have saved from the day they were born and bought college bonds that mature each year they are in school. We saved our money since we know we would not qualify for need based aid. Is it enough? NOPE. Since our investments, like everyones, took a hit, so did what we thought would be college money. We are nearing retirement and will not take out PLUS loans at this stage of our lives. We will help ds2 as much as we did for ds1.

From 1969 and graduated in 1972 from one of the top PS in the state, long before magnet schools. No AP or honors classes offered, just plain old good teaching. When I read TWTM, I thought well---isn't that what all schools do? since I had much of that all the way from K-12. Still is a great school system - they start foreign language in 1st grade now instead of 4th when I went - and very expensive to live there now. I did read that most of the kids don't go to kindergarten until they are 6 - take another year of "pre-school" at 5K+ a year. I did what I needed to get by and just being in class getting by, you got a lot. Total underachiever but I took the hardest classes offered. My counselor was worthless, not helpful at all. I have not kept in contact with anyone from there - my class was 600 and there were 2500 total in the school. I marched to my own tune and I wasn't in step with the rest of my class. To escape, I read lots of books.

Ds#1 took 5 AP classes but only 3 exams. One he didn't take was because the college did not give credit no matter what the score. The other was in his major and they do not let you test out of classes in the major. Ds#2 will have 4 AP classes, none of which he will sit for the exams. All of the classes will be in his major and like above, many colleges will not give credit or let you place out in your major. They did gain a lot of knowledge and having taken the classes, they should do better when they have to take them in college. The money is just not well spent to take the exams.

If you take the test in June or Dec. then you can pay to get the test and his answers. The first time both of mine took the test was June of sophomore year and I did get the test and answers. Made a huge difference to find out where they were making errors - like silly math mistakes.

A friend's dd went to Notre Dame for undergrad. She majored in Bio., had a very good GPA, shadowed and worked for doctors every summer with great recs, a great MCAT score but didn't get into med school on the first try. She applied to 10 I think and had many interviews. She wanted to specialize in Breast cancer or something like that. One of the schools told her part of the problem with her (and many others) was the specialization part. They were looking for GP's and she should apply the next year. They told her once she is in, then you can say you want to specialize. She did get in the next year, graduating this year, and will be starting at Mayo soon.

At the colleges ds1 applied to, they did indeed say they super scored the ACT when we were there for the open houses/visit days. But, it was for admissions only, not for scholarship consideration. Scholarships were based on the highest composite score from one sitting. At the time, none of websites mentioned superscoring. At a college visit a couple weeks ago for ds2, no mention was made about superscoring.

LOL!!! I kind of thought they might do that - it really is a big rivalry.

We used http://www.homeschooldiploma.com/

Sorry, I haven't been following your ds's journey closely. Did you tell IWU that Augustana is the other contender? I know IWU considers Augustana one of their biggest competitors. I have heard that they often will give more based on the other colleges you are considering. Tough choice. But, Vanderbilt is more expensive than either of those. Are you assuming he would get enough at V to make the cost comparable?

:iagree: Or, they can read it themselves or as a read aloud together.

Twentieth Century, a Brief Global History by Goff. It is a college text and found a syllabus online that also had essay questions to answer. There is also a companion site from the publisher. DS1 loved it (was a senior)and DS2 read it last summer (between 9th and 10th). Hope this helps.

I use some of the online tests from the publisher, some other online quizzes that many AP teachers have put online, and the AP DBQ's and FRQ's from the college board web site for essay questions. Hope this helps.

Augustana and IWU compete for the same kids. If your ds gets accepted at both and can't decide, let both know about the other and the financial aid they have offered. I have heard they try to match the other.

Ds was in ps until 7th and the history they taught was pretty much all U.S. with a 3 weeks of Rome and Greece in 6th grade. I used them (and many other things) as a supplement to Spielvogel's Human Odyssey in high school. Spread HO out over 2 years and added them where appropriate. They were ok for my purpose but I afterschooled the younger with them in 4th-5th grade. Hope this helps a bit.

On pulling her out now instead of leaving her to languish. Ds#1 was taught whole language and we all know that was a total disaster country-wide. No phonics at all. ARGH!!! He finally started really reading in 2nd grade and then kind of took off and became an avid reader. He didn't learn phonics until I pulled him out of school at the end of 6th grade. I taught him phonics because he was also taught invented spelling. That doesn't work either. They didn't teach things like endings, prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc. either. I had to do a lot of remedial work in 7th-8th grade with him. He is now in college and a good speller and can use phonics to try to spell (and pronounce) words that are very difficult. Ds#2 was totally different. He taught himself to read at 4 using phonics to sound out words. All on his own, I had nothing to do with it. They did change the curriculum between the two but they still don't do much with phonics. Ds2 was not hsed. Hope this helps.

(and he was 10 at the time) through the ps and it was traditional. Before he started private lessons, almost 2 years later, the teacher at school gave him suzuki music to do on his own since he picked it up quite quickly. Once he started with a private teacher, she just kept testing him on suzuki books until he got to a level where he needed help. None of it was done strictly by ear. I don't know if that is good or not. I was under the impression that the suzuki method is good for those starting very young and don't know how to read yet. That probably wasn't too helpful.

That is how I saw samples of Foerster and also how I compared side by side Speilvogel's HO, WC, WH.

Most of ds's classes are based strictly on points. At the beginning of the semester, they are given how many points are for what - like 4 exams of 200 points each, 10 quizzes for 10 points each, paper 200 points, etc. There is also a scale of how many points is an A, B, C, etc. No curve, you get what you get in points, period. Maybe they know from years of experience how to make the points a bell curve.

I know the hive can help me here. We have been invited to a B'nai Mitzvah. They live in our neighborhood, we have known the kids since they were born, ds (15) hangs out with them, kind of like a big brother at times. They are having a ceremony at the temple in the morning. Then the invitation says Oneg to follow the service. Then there is a celebration at 6 pm with dinner at a local hotel. We did attend a funeral at the temple a few years ago but that is our only exposure to Jewish ceremonies. What should we expect at the ceremony? Is it only for these kids or like confirmation where there is a whole class of kids? What is an Oneg? I looked it up on wiki and it seems like a celebration but then what is the purpose of the later celebration? For the dinner, it just says to choose meat or fish. Is there a traditional meat or fish that is served? Are there any things we should not do or participate in? Anything we should do, other than attend and give a gift? Thanks!!!

I audited a class once but I still had to pay the full price for the class. Something else to check out.

First semester freshman, calculus class with a prof that was horrible. Only 2 people passed the class and they had had calculus at cc. I didn't know at the time you could drop a class. Eventually, they fired the prof. because so many kids complained. I do remember getting a W or a WP (withdraw passing) on my transcript for another class I dropped. There may be differences in the way colleges handle them. Their course book should have a section on how they handle drops.

But does anyone have any suggestions on how to save the information, other than just bookmarking or copy and paste into a document (and trying to keep it straight :001_smile:)? As I said before, this is the most interesting, informative, thought provoking, grace filled, etc. thread I have ever read on a message board (but I don't visit too many so that isn't saying much). :thumbup:

:iagree:

I supplemented with the Famous Men Series from Greenleaf. I broke HO into 2 parts over 9th and 10th. Lit selections came from TWTM for the appropriate time period or from Prentice Hall Great (World?) Masterpieces text (I don't have that book anymore). Off and on, I used the study guide from HO but found it was busy work as Pam mentioned. The study guide did help ds a little in the area of looking at the chapter from an outline perspective. Hope this helps.

Thank you all for the most interesting thread I have ever read on any message board. I have learned so much. :)