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learners4life

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Everything posted by learners4life

  1. What are the average lengths? I finished my school profile today, and have one day to get the counselor letter done (I know, I know). I did a search and found one thread in which people were posting about very lengthy school profiles. Mine is 1.5 pages long. I used this one, from the college board, as a guide https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/counseling/profile/sample , along with the 2 page sample from Jeannette Webb. Is everyone up here writing really long profiles? Also wondering about counselor letters. Average length?
  2. I wrote my school profile today and it is nothing in length compared to the examples above - 1.5 pages. I looked at examples of those from public schools, and the one given on the college board: https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/counseling/profile/sample The one Jeannette Webb uses is only two pages long, with plenty of white space on the second page. Anyone else do a reasonably short one?
  3. I like the idea of combining it with the transcript. Which way did you do it?
  4. So, I currently said that I will have two transcripts to report - one from me and one from Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP program. Should I change that to say 3 and then add the course descriptions in the third slot? Thank you Quark!
  5. I've wondered about this. The last laptop we purchased was directly from Dell, and it has been fantastic. Hmm....
  6. Oh my gosh! We ordered the same laptop and sent it back! Costco? We reordered a Dell 7000 series because we have a two year-old laptop of the same series that has been great. Unfortunately, the new one has some of the same problems as the 5000 series. Not as bad, but still a problem. I have a Dell desktop that is wonderful, and we had a Dell laptop last 8 years, but it appears Dell is not what it used to be. We are going to order an HP. It is on sale at Costco online for $879, regularly $1349. Here's a link: http://www.costco.com/HP-Pavilion-15t-Touchscreen-Laptop---Intel-Core-i7---2GB-Graphics---1080p.product.100317267.html I'm sure others had good replies above, so sorry if this is duplicate - didn't have time to read.
  7. I was concerned about this as well, although I never thought about it until it was too late to change anything (senior year). By then, it was what it was. My daughter ended up with 27 on the UC app, not counting P.E., which the UCs don't want entered. However, I am changing that on the Common App. Two years of her English included an online Great Books course in addition to her regular English Composition and Grammar. For the Common App, these will be split into two different classes. It is truly more correct, as the Great Books courses alone should be more than one credit. The bonus is the additional units - she will now have 29, making her transcript a little more competitive. Do I think it was absolutely necessary? No. Am I glad for the change all the same? Yes. I think that the universities see right through padded transcripts, or transcripts full of classes all over the place showing no clear interests. I think the latter can happen easily in schools that use block scheduling. I think block scheduling is bad.
  8. Wanted to point at that only certain colleges accept CLEP test scores for credit, but usually all schools accept most AP exams scores. Tess - Since your son isn't sure about college, and isn't so keen on biology in the first place, the AP Biology course is probably not the way to go. AP is much more difficult than CLEP. If things start looking like he is college bound, and he wants something to look good on his application, he can always take the SAT Biology Subject Test. Schools won't give credit for it like they do CLEP or AP, but it looks good on the transcript.
  9. Last year of homeschooling for us too. I am sad. Homeschooling has been such a good education for my daughter - I know she is well prepared for college. I will miss homeschooling, though. I did it for DD, but ended up loving it myself.
  10. DD has taken 6 AP exams, 5 of which were through Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. We mentioned this in the additional comments. All of the rest of her courses were done at home, and I am of the mind that her ACT and SAT exams (34 and 1550) should be proof of the quality education she is receiving. We did tell a little about our homeschooling path in the additional comments, but looking back now, I wish we had told a little more about the nuts and bolts. We, unfortunately did it the last day (although we had been talking about it), and it would have been better had we taken a few days to do the actual writing. Can't worry about it now. Again, I think test scores speak VOLUMES! Eta: DD did fulfill all of the a-g requirements.
  11. :iagree: We did fulfill all of the a-g requirements, but not with "approved" providers from their list. To be sure, we also fulfilled the acceptance by examination requirements at a level more than the minimum required.
  12. We found that the application hotline staff to vary by university and by day. UCD seemed to rely upon students, but I was transferred once to an admissions counselor when the student was unsure of an answer. When dd called Berkeley and UCLA she spoke to a "mature" voice on the other end, and, especially the person at UCLA, they were both helpful. Which campus did you call Sebastian? Eta-I misread your original post - I thought you said that they weren't helpful! I guess my answer agrees with you then! I am still curious which campus(es) your son applied to?
  13. With a huge sigh of relief, it went in at 6:33 this morning after being up all night finishing last bits. Thanks to everyone here for their helpful input along the way, and good luck to all the rest of the UC applicants!
  14. While the questions are a bit different between the ACT and SAT exams, doing some studying through Khan Academy should still be helpful. My daughter took both exams and did use Khan Academy a bit. Your daughter will still want to study using an ACT specific study guide - Barron's is good. I would suggest that your daughter reconsider taking the SAT. It doesn't hurt to give it a try, and she may be surprised by her scores. If she is not happy with her score, she needn't report it. Keep in mind that speed is a bigger factor when taking the ACT than when taking the SAT. If she can work quickly, that will give her an advantage, score-wise on the ACT. If not, it can really hurt.
  15. Yes, the mix of students can make a big difference! ETA - And, yes, depends on the student too - not every student and teacher are going to be a good match!
  16. Agree with all of your likes! DD has had, or currently has, all of these classes with these instructors. They have all been very good and she has gotten nothing but 5's. On the other hand, we have a different opinion of AP Biology with Terri Kanner. We thought the class was very good and very interesting. My dd made friends in the class (10th grade) that she still snapchats, skypes, etc with on a weekly, if not daily, basis. The teacher encouraged the use of the discussion board, and the students DID use it. She had some exercises that might seem tedious on the surface, but, in fact, were quite fruitful for close examination of a topic. For example, each student would be assigned a multiple choice question from the quiz and would have to write a lengthy response on why each of the wrong answers were wrong, and why the correct answer was correct. Then they were required to leave thoughtful comments on this same work that was done by other students. Actually quite helpful for thoroughly/deeply understanding several topics of the quiz. This is just one example. The teacher covered the experiments from the AP Biology Lab Manual well. DD got a 5, answering every question with time to spare - very well prepared (although I will say that she did also review with the Barron's AP Bio prep book). We did have one bad experience with PAH, and that was last year with AP Euro. That teacher is no longer teaching the course!
  17. I have to admit that I kind of felt the same way as Janeway when I read this. I think that when students test through AP exams, SAT tests, ACT tests, and SAT II Subject tests, asking for more information about their school is unnecessary. If the scores are good, the method of schooling is obviously working. I don't mind sharing, I LOVE to talk about homeschooling, but I am worried that things are going to be read into whatever I say.
  18. I just starting seeing stuff from Ms. Sun last week, but didn't look at it too much as we were going to get to many cooks spoiling the stew. However, it is interesting that you say she said to treat them like interview questions. Dd has written all of hers, so far, as more like telling a story focusing on a particular personal strength or characteristic. Only the homeschooling would be different. I like Ms. Sun's example. I think the major difference between say, the famous Costco essay and Ms. Sun's essay is that Ms. Sun's is very much in the now and the future, whereas the Costco essay reflected back over a lifetime and shows how that relates to the now and the future. Thanks for the outline of what you included in your homeschooling essay. It is a lot of what we are including except that we aren't addressing the evening/weekend. Didn't really consider that, and probably couldn't due to the 350 word limit. I don't know how he managed to do that!! Great idea about adding extras into additional comments section. Did you ever ask Cal about using that section for homeschooling? I will call UCD on Monday and ask them. Will post what they say.
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