Yvonne, I was kind of surprised to see this as well. I had never heard of a resume for college admissions until a few months ago. As you know, my ds is not applying to highly selective schools, but at least two of them have a place to upload a resume and link a zeemee account. If there isn't much room to write descriptions for activities on the common app, I can see where it would be useful. We haven't filled out that part of the app yet because my ds has been too busy lately to work on it. I've been googling "college admission resume" to get some ideas. I'm going to wait and see how completely we can describe his activities on the common app before delving into it, though. If it's all going to be a repeat, I don't think I'll do it. As far as the zeemee account, I won't use that for my son, but I may have video of my dd giving the winning speech she did and maybe a Latin oratory and some other stuff. I know your sons are in speech & debate as well.

Okay, I haven't actually filled out the descriptions yet in the student activities section, so I didn't realize those were very limited for space.

There is a section on the common app to give detailed info about student activities. Then, on the individual college section, there is a section to upload a resume. I'm thinking the resume will just be a repeat of the student activities section for my ds. He has 10 solid activities, but that is it. Should I do the resume as well?

Yeah, I was thinking not but just wanted to make sure. So, this would be more for things like a Gold Medal on the National Latin Exam.

Would honor roll count for this? And do any of you have an honor roll for your homeschool? This is for a student with almost all As and Bs, so if they were in public school they would be on the honor roll. I think I remember my dd somehow being on the honor roll for Lone Pine, but never thought about it for our homeschool.

We can make time for one practice test. It's just good to hear others didn't spend too much time on this in 10th.

Well, I am glad to hear this! We aren't going to prep this year either, then!

I'm still trying to figure out the right balance between teaching my kids financial responsibility and independence and helping them. I worked my way through college. Tuition at the time was $1200 a semester and minimum wage was $4.25. Now tuition at the same university is $5,000/semester and minimum wage is about $8. When I did it, I actually made more like $12/hr word processing, but I was also completely supporting myself. I really struggled through those years financially, living off of toast and popcorn, limited heat and no extra gas money to drive anywhere but to work and school. But, as my situation improved, it was so sweet and I appreciated every new improvement in my situation tremendously. For me, it was a really valuable experience that I would never trade and my parents could have easily helped me. My son has a job and is working 15 hours a week. He pays his own car insurance, gas (which was $75 to fill the tank this week!) cell phone and he'll hopefully be able to pay for his car repairs. He and I are working through Dave Ramsey's program and he's going to open up an investment account this week. I want to teach him how to do this and for him to develop a sense of responsibilty for himself. On the other hand, my in-laws gave him one of their old cars and, imo, that was a good thing because it would have taken him forever to be able to afford something. I could have easily pick up a $800 car that was reasonably reliable when I was a teen but that isn't the case now. I also want him to be able to go away to college because I think that will further his sense of independence in a way that commuting to a local school will not. If he had to work enough to pay for tuition, I don't think he would do well in school and there is no way he could work enough hours to pay for room and board as well with the current college costs. So, we will definitely be helping. A lot. I don't know yet whether we'll ask him to work at college at all because I'm honestly not sure he'll be able to juggle college and work. So, I do understand where the OP is coming from, but I think things have changed in a way that makes it much more difficult for kids to take on full financial responsibility for themselves right at 18. ETA: Another big difference now is that once I reached my goal of earning a degree, the money floodgates instantly opened because I now had the golden ticket. I don't think that's so true today except for very specific types of degrees that my son isn't likely to earn.

My son is using TT precalculus right now and when he misses a problem, I make sure he watches the video that explains how to do the problem and try it again. Then, the next day, before he goes on to the next lesson, I delete all the problems he got wrong the day before and have him redo them. Rinse and repeat if he gets any wrong again. Another thing I have found helpful is that TT has a nice outline of notes for each chapter in the appendix of the book. I have my son spend about 5 minutes a day reading through those notes, emphasizing that he needs to memorize any rules he doesn't know. I, too, sit in the room with him. From what I've seen of TT, I think the instruction is excellent, but I think there may not be enough practice of the new concept for some kids. My son has already done precalculus and we're just using TT to keep his skills fresh this year, but I'm not sure it would be a good fit if it was his first exposure to the material.

Sue's post reminded that Lone Pine really builds a lot of prep in for the NLE and the kids do very well on it.

We have used the self-grading option for algebra 2 and precalculus and were very happy with it. Derek is a wonderful person and incredibly kind. My dd really liked the way he explained things and he was always great about replying to any questions I had.

I just looked on their website and here are Lone Pine's updated AP Latin results from what I posted above. "So far, we have received six 5, eight 4, and one 3 score, so the mean is 4.33. A 5 on the AP is corresponding to an A in the course, a 4 is corresponding to a B or C, and a 3 is corresponding to a "not passing" grade thus far." Apparently, their AP Latin classes wind up being very small. Lukeion got so many kids through to the AP level this year, they wound up dividing the class.

My dd wound up switching to Lukeion, but Lone Pine could be and probably is very worth it for some people due to the community. My dd went to the Colorado Latin convention with them after she took Latin 2 and she did enjoy it, but she also had major problems with her allergies and headaches while she was there, so it wasn't "the best time of her life" like I really believe it is for many kids. I remember reading a lot of the comments from kids that attended and it was an amazing experience for many of them. They also offer certamen, which is another great opportunity to get involved with the other kids. If my dd had been an extrovert and really craving more peer interaction, we definitely would have stayed with Lone Pine because they offer a lot more than Lukeion in that way. Lukeion is more organized, though, and the expectations are more clear. For my dd, while she liked the LP class, she has really loved the Lukeion classes and teachers. The main thing we did not care for with Lone Pine were the multiple dates assignments were released and due on. And there were many, many small assignments. Every other class my dd has had either gives out a syllabus with all the homework assignments on it ahead of time or assigns new homework on the day of class and then makes it due on a specific day the following week. Perhaps it was just my dd, but I had to get involved because she kept missing due dates. She was still in middle school at the time, but she's never had that problem with any other class. Anyway, Latin is a subject my dd loves and Lukeion fills her needs better, but if she were really social, she could have still done well with Lone Pine as far as the Latin goes, but it could have also been very nice for meeting those social needs.

My ds got one when he got his driver's license and also had a job so he could pay for it. He uses Republic Wireless which is only $10/month. Prior to that, I had an old phone that I bought on ebay for about $20 that I kept on the Republic Wireless plan just for the times when I was dropping one or both of my kids off somewhere like a dance, the bowling alley or if they were travelling on their own.

Thanks so much for your help!

Wow, thanks for that extra encouragement to go ahead and invest in this course. I was already thinking my ds would really enjoy it, but now you've got me considering including my dd as well. I agree with you and jdhlquist about the visual part being vital for econ. That was my initial thought as well, but when I saw it was also available as an audiobook, I thought maybe this class was presented so differently than a typical econ class it wasn't necessary.

I've gone back and forth on this as well. There are a few classes that my son has taken that clearly stand out as being above your typical high school level course. Right now, I'm leaning toward labelling those as honors since there is at least one school he is applying to that wants to see that kind of thing.

There is a third course that is just called "Economics" by Tim Taylor. That is the one that I think is being referred to, though someone please correct me if I am wrong. I did think the "America and the New Global Economy" one looks pretty interesting, though. Thank you.

And I had thought of classifying the scoutmaster as a coach, because he is in a way, but now I'm thinking it is too late because I'd have to delete him and add him in again and then it would lead to confusion because the first invite we sent him wouldn't work. Do people agree? Or is it worth the confusion?

Aha! The third school lists very specific types of "other" recommenders -- coach, clergy, employer. This is my son's scoutmaster, which falls in the "other" category of "other" recommenders. Lol! It seems a shame we can't use him, but at least I know why it won't let me add him. So, here's another question. My son has worked at a rehab and assisted living center for the last two years as a volunteer. He's reported to the same lady the entire time. If he asks her for a recommendation, do you think it would be okay to list her as an employer even though he isn't paid? He has a job as well and I'm sure he could get a reference there, but this lady has developed more of a relationship with him.

I guess that leads to my next question. I've heard whenever a school says something is optional, I should consider it as required. Does that mean I should have two "other" recommenders even though they are optional? We will have all the teacher recommenders.

This is for "other recommenders". I input the info for the person, then when I went to assign him to the schools, his name was listed in a drop down box for two of the schools, but for the third, it just says "add a recommender" and his name doesn't show up so I can add him. If I click on "add a recommender", it takes me back to the page where I originally input all his info but won't let me add him. There are two optional "other" recommenders for this school and I was only going to add one.

I have input the name and info of one of my sons references and then was able to add this reference's name to two of my son's college applications, but not the third. Is there a two-college limit for references or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for the reminder. My dd participated last year with an essay she wrote for Maya Inspektor's class. I will mention it to her, but I'm not sure she'll have the time to invest in it this year. I hope some of your son's essays can be repurposed. Does he write poetry? My dd entered a poem and a literacy narrative last year.

Okay, thanks. I will see if I can find the dvds used. Many of the GCs are available in both formats, and a lot of times it is just someone standing at a lectern so it's hard to know when the video really adds something and when it doesn't.