Woodland Mist Academy Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I guess I'm just obsessing about the passion thing - not really so much for standing out for the purposes of college admission, so maybe this post doesn't belong on this thread - but more for the sake of thinking about the passion itself, and the parent's role (if any) in supporting/encouraging it, vs. standing back and letting it be wholly owned by the kid. Maybe I should start a new thread :leaving: Did you start a thread about this? I looked, but couldn't find it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 spam reported Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 We didn't really start looking until senior year of high school, but then again, all of my kids have taken a gap year between high school and college. I just made sure to follow general college requirements throughout high school so that they'd be mostly prepared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest elizaturrill Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 I think it's never too early to start saving! There's an interesting discussion going on about this on a college planning website, parentsandcolleges, if you're interested. http://www.parentsandcolleges.com/forum/#/20120216/when-should-i-start-thinking-about-the-applic-1286059/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Well, I live in flyover country, and neither DH nor I went to a top 50 anything, but here's my thought anyway... ;) Chucki, your daughter has interests, activities, solid academics, and a mom who is very invested in her education. I think that no matter where she ends up or what she ends up doing, she will have a rich, full life. It seems now is a good time to start making a list of potential schools, and have her start thinking about career options. Provide her whatever opportunities you can, and don't stress about the ones you can't. Aim high, but don't set life aside to build a resume. And enjoy her while she's still with you. :grouphug: ETA: Oops! I finally got caught by the dreaded zombie thread... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Am I the only one whose dream is for the kids to get scholarships to a respectable state school? What does it take for that these days? I went to a little dinky private school with not an AP class in sight, graduated #1 in a class of 30, made 32 on the ACT, a few ECs, and bam! Instant full ride to local university. I'm guessing times have changed in 20 years, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Calvin started looking this year, which is his penultimate year at school. He has been going on university visits since last summer. Before that, he wasn't emotionally ready to think seriously about leaving home. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Thanks Chucki for asking this question. Reading some of the other recent college threads, this was exactly the question that came to my mind. My son is in 7th grade this year and reading these threads, I can feel my panic rise :willy_nilly: . Maybe a short board break is in order :smash: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 I missed this thread the first time round. As I was reading, I had planned on quoting a post or 2, but by the time I got to the end, I realized I would have quoted all of Regentrude's, Snowbeltmom's, and several others posts. ;) One topic that I didn't see discussed in this thread is that admissions is only part of the picture. Seriously. Some things to consider---What is the dynamic on-campus? Are students cut-throat competitive? Is there more of a collaborative learning environment? Is the school on the 1/4 system or a traditional semester? Are TAs or professors teaching the classes? Do undergrads have research internship opportunities or are they having to compete with grad students for them? What is the relationship of the school with industry? (after all, that is how students get jobs!) Does the school have a strong co-op program? All of these issues impact the student daily while attending. Not only do they have to be admitted, but the goal should be graduation and employment. FWIW, I have a student with built-in passion for a subject. It is absolutely nothing you can "create" in a person. It is not even anything I could even "encourage" him to foster and have it be what it is. It is completely an internal motivation. Seeing it, I understand **passion** but seeing it, I also know that anyone trying to force a different child to replicate this sort of "passion" would probably destroy the other individual's individuality/spirit/self-ness in the process. Top schools are a crap-shoot. I would personally never sacrifice my child's childhood and the "who" that they are for some hypothetical chance that they might get accepted. (insert scene from "Baby Boom" where Diane Keaton is listening to mothers talk about Ivy League pre-schools determining the fate of their child while holding babies and toddlers.) That is just crazy and a worldview that is way out of line with ours. I'd much rather focus on the child in front of me and help them fulfill their potential as who they are and worry about the future when it arrives. There are plenty of great schools that do not require sacrificing childhood for future success. Our goal is to help our students be the best academic students they can be (as well as the best them they can be!!!) and make sure that we meet general admission criteria, regardless of the school. (pretty standard stuff here......4 English, math, science, history, and 3 foreign language.) Then they simply apply to where they actually feel would be a good match for them. ETA: since some of you may not read the college board, there have been recent discussions about admission rates. Here is one thread http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/466662-stanford-class-of-2017-acceptance-rate-57-lowest-ever/ but there are others as well. I also tried to search for a really old thread about MIT. I couldn't find it though. I thought the poster's name was something like little red ridinghood??? Anyway, her ds was accepted at MIT with a pretty avg. application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle My Bell Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 And this advice is what tells me we have already messed up. Don't feel that way, there is time. Just four short years ago I was of a completely different mindset than I am today. I used to feel that girls didn't really need to go to college if they were just going to get married and raise a family, so I wasn't preparing my daughter for college in any way. We didn't plan for advanced math or science, no testing, etc... Well a lot went down that changed my thinking completely on this topic and now I am of the mindset that I really want all my children to aim high and see where the Lord puts them. I don't want to shortchange them in any way. Anyhow, my daughter was a Sophomore when this realization started to come on me and I started to panic. I didn't know anything about college, transcripts and our homeschool was lacking in college prep courses. After a good talk with my daughter, we started on the fast track. She accelerated her academics and began working hard to catch up. I sought out every opportunity I could find to learn more about what we needed to accomplish. I felt it was important that if her transcripts were lacking in any way, I wanted to make sure she did well on the ACT. She spent 3 months studying for the ACT. The first time she took it she scored pretty high. We were thrilled! She continued to plug along at an accelerated pace with her schooling and we went to our first college visit during the spring of her Jr. year. That was key. It gave me so much information and helped with deadlines. By the beginning of her Sr. year, we filled out her college application and had finished her initial transcript. She joined a highly academic co-op her Sr. year which helped her transcripts immeasurably. In Feb. we found out she was accepted to her college of choice with a full academic scholarship. We continued to attend any events the college put on as it is a learning experience each time. We even had a personal visit with a specific department she was interested in. That was hugely helpful. Because of these visits, we learned about honors college. It made her excited about the possibility and so she applied. Now we just found out she has been accepted into honors college! I said it just keeps getting better and better! :) We actually have an appointment today to discuss a dual major. This is something that she learned about recently that she is very interested in pursuing. So my encouragement to you is not to get discouraged but to just start where you are and jump in. You never know what you can accomplish. In fact, her friend who graduated last year and has been doing CLEP tests at home is very interested in going to the college as well. She visited with us and really wants to start this fall! She will have to work very hard and very fast to get in, but I think it is a possibility for her. Blessings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Am I the only one whose dream is for the kids to get scholarships to a respectable state school? What does it take for that these days? I went to a little dinky private school with not an AP class in sight, graduated #1 in a class of 30, made 32 on the ACT, a few ECs, and bam! Instant full ride to local university. I'm guessing times have changed in 20 years, though. Because of budget cuts in recent years, admissions to state schools have become much more competitive. Our local Cal State (2nd tier of the state university system) went from accepting about 2/3 of applicants to rejecting 2/3. A good SAT/ACT and class rank would presumably be enough to make the cut, but a merit scholarship would be pretty competitive these days. I know a girl who got one a couple years ago, and she has the stats that in the past would've probably gotten her into one of the more selective UC campuses: 1520 SAT, valedictorian of her class, 10 AP's, varsity athlete, president of the 4H club (that's how we knew her), etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I also tried to search for a really old thread about MIT. I couldn't find it though. I thought the poster's name was something like little red ridinghood??? Anyway, her ds was accepted at MIT with a pretty avg. application. Ironically while searching for a different post totally unrelated to this, I found this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/161440-mit/#entry1587500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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