Out of curiosity, are you glad you left?

So do people feel that going the second tier, scholarship route is a better way to go? I guess it does open the search to the entire US.

This has been a really interesting thread. In the light of 8FillTheHeart's posts, I'm wondering what people think of this situation: We are in CA in a high cost-of-living area. We are renting at below-market, a house that we are running out of space in. We can't buy a house in near our current place that would even come close to matching the original-condition rental we have except in areas that have drugs and gangs (and even those areas seem to be too expensive now). We would have to move 20-30 miles away--or out of state (hence the questions about St. Louis and probably more on other cities to come) to buy a house. With three kids, would you stick it out in CA with a dismal housing situation, nanny state regulations, and long commute for the possibility of being able to attend state schools at half the price of the Ivy's? Or would you move somewhere more affordable house-wise and just figure out the college thing later?

True, but let's be clear, some kids can do it at an early age, some can't. I have one that takes the train to the city followed by a group cab. But I wouldn't do the same with his brother. Not all kids have that maturity.

Yeah........ Spring freshman year, I missed most lectures. 10am/11am plus more of another class that might've been at 2pm. And I even lived in a dorm that was in the middle of campus. And once you're behind, you've no clue what's going on. It was Pass/Fail, but I still got Bs in most of the classes. Not exactly a good wakeup call. I do think I must've made a decent amount of the fall classes, but I don't remember for sure. But by spring all good habits were out the door. Such a waste. I didn't get back into the groove until my 5th year in college. Had taken a year off and made a decision to go to every class from there on out. But my sleep cycle was completely wrecked (I worked that year for a software company that refused to buy enough computers for everyone so I worked a graveyard shift to get dedicated time on the computer I needed). So many things I wish I could do over again.

I'm really disappointed that Pattonville HS doesn't have fencing as one of the sports.

Thanks! Since we'd be moving in summer before school starts, Metro High (which I agree seemed to have less math classes than Ladue/Clayton) is out since it's a charter school. Applications must be from someone living in St. Louis due in January I think. Ok good to know. I didn't realize Clayton was smaller. I hadn't thought about looking at the Performing Arts offerings, but that's a good point. Kid is thinking of dabbling in Theater. I'll take a closer look at that for Parkway.

PS: Do you know anything about Ladue district? They seem to have multiple middle schoolers taking the AMC10 and doing well enough to make the honor rolls.

Sorry, for information, we might move when my son goes to high school. That said, elementary information could also be valuable for my other two kids who are younger.

Thanks for the link. I will definitely look into it. We haven't had him officially tested using WISC. His recent scores have been high or 99%ile on ISEE and IOWA standardized testing, and he exceeded DYS's SAT score cutoff for his grade. Given the latter, I go ahead now and use the PG term, although I know that much of SAT testing mathwise is simply having seen the material which isn't necessarily an innate thing so much as an environmental thing. But his English score wasn't far off from his Math score.

Wow! That is definitely the path less taken :)

If it makes you feel better, I went from highly responsible to what you're describing after I went to college. It was probably partly depression from the sudden change in environment and loss of friends/family, and definitely an abnormal social environment (the most fun stuff happened after 2am on my hall, and I wanted to be awake for it) . But my mom was always pretty hands-off--she made me get up in the morning, make breakfast, pack lunch, and get myself onto a city bus all by myself--starting in first grade.

But then at least the papers would have to say "Zuckerberg, a Harvard graduate" :)

I don't homeschool. I could have the kids taking summer classes during the summer but I don't because I feel that they need the down time and that as they get older, I want them to get a job rather than being a perpetual student. My mom encouraged me to take summer classes instead of getting a job, and I feel it led to a view of "more school is better" and "I'm not good enough yet to do a job" which led to me staying in college way too long has hurt me financially and career-wise. Clearly your situation is very different, and if you kid needs to have academics throughout the summer to stay sane, go for it. I do have a friend who says that she homeschools throughout the summer because she doesn't take a break, so why should the kids? But she also does half-days--morning is work, afternoon is play, so I think the kids still have a good balance.

Anyone here from St. Louis who can give me their perspective on B&M schools for a PG kid who excels in Math?

Do you guys ever wonder how much Zuckerberg hates the "Harvard drop-out" title he's gotten? I'm surprised Harvard hasn't just awarded him a business degree so that they can both get past this idea that dropping out of Harvard is good for your career.

So did you go? :)

True, but EECS comprises about 1/4-1/3 of MIT's undergrads, so that's a pretty wide selection of professors and their research available at MIT. It's also possible that the kid wanted a more liberal arts focussed education, though. MIT only require one humanities course per semester.

One way to solve this is to undo the grade skip if she homeschools later then.

Ok, so if I understand correctly, grade skipping isn't the problem here, it's simply a question of whether her daughter is still in the 99%ile (aka "competitive") as a senior in high school even if she's only 15 or 16?

Can you fill me in on this? I was not aware that college scholarships had any age cutoffs.

Fascintating. The only comp sci major i knew from Harvard spent a lot of time taking classes and hanging out at MIT.

I hate to say it, but this sounds quite normal. I think she'll grow out of it as she gets older. You might tell her that you can't play games with her if she won't share winning or if she cheats. As for extra snuggles, I've heard that more one-on-one time can help with the neediness. If you can snuggle her to sleep, might be easiest for you. I sympathize..... My 7 year old is like this. Frankly, I think good losers and kids who *don't* cheat are abnormal (though pleasantly so!). PS: More sleep tends to help with the attitude the next day, so even more so, helping her to get to sleep quickly and happily might be the best strategy.

Honestly, I really liked the bus stop analogy--that everywhere you go (or stop), you want to have a friend, even if it's not a best friend. I've at times been more the burn the bridge kind of person. And it can get kind of lonely. Now I realize that keeping friends is important, although I still find it difficult as an introvert to make them. I like the kid's attitude of seeing everyone as a potential friend. Sometimes those bus stops friends can turn into really close ones. There was one person I met through my husband who I really didn't have anything in common with at all. But now that she and I both have kids, I find that we have more in common on many issues than my husband has with either of us. You just never know. :)

Ooops. Maybe we should delete threads after a couple of months?