Parents of the Class of 2019

[soccerdad72]

The tutor our son worked with did a couple sessions early on in person, but after that they were all on Facetime, mostly because the tutor lived across town and finding a good meeting place that wasn't too bad of a drive for both of them was hard. My son didn't seem to mind the sessions over Facetime - in fact, I think he preferred them, because he could be at his desk in his room and not in a random library.

His tutoring sessions were an hour long each (I think we paid for 16 hours). I honestly don't know how much other time he spent on homework, but they did do two practice tests - one before his SAT test and one before the ACT.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We still have several schools to see, but DD is leaning very heavily toward 2 years of Community College and a transfer. As long as there’s no catastrophe with her grades this year, she can do 2 years tuition free through the A+ program, and avoid room & board expenses entirely. We’ve identified several schools (both in state & out) that will accept all her (planned) transfer credits.

For most of her choices, this should get her through 4 years debt free, and potentially a start on her Masters if she doesn’t stop at Bachelor.

 

[mjkacmom]

Dd meg with the tutor in our living room, but he lives in our town a mile away. I would’ve loved Skye, so I didn’t have to hide and always clean my bathroom on tutoring day. He started out with 2 hour sessions once a week, and then one hour. He had her do a practice test in between each session. Math is her best subject and she couldn’t get it over 31, but they really focused on the English which she did awesome on. He did tutor her on her math subject test, but I made the mistake of signing her up got math 2, he tutored her for math 1 (she took ap calculus this year so I thought she’d be ready, but only got a 3, she had timing issues).

She has 4 books to read before school including a paper comparing similar fiction and non fiction novels, plus assignments for 3 other AP classes.

ETA she said she spent about 6 hours a week on practice tests.

 

[bjscheel]

We still have several schools to see, but DD is leaning very heavily toward 2 years of Community College and a transfer. As long as there’s no catastrophe with her grades this year, she can do 2 years tuition free through the A+ program, and avoid room & board expenses entirely. We’ve identified several schools (both in state & out) that will accept all her (planned) transfer credits.

For most of her choices, this should get her through 4 years debt free, and potentially a start on her Masters if she doesn’t stop at Bachelor.

Sounds good. We aren't in easy commuting distance of a cc, unfortunately. But I recommend joining Phi Theta Kappa during cc if her grades are good, it can be good for transfer scholarships at some schools. Debt free can be such freedom after graduation!

On College Confidential, lots of talk about starting college admission essays. DD probably won't have to write one for admission to her likely choices, but I was just looking at the requirements to get competitive merit at one of them. Write about a significant challenge in your academic or personal life, what you did to address it and the result... Okay she really hasn't had any hardships in life. She's not going to win any sob story award. AP Lit was hard and her friends can be crappy but what do you write an essay on? Actually, now as I type this out, thinking maybe she could use being super homesick when she started working at camp and how the job turned out to be a really great thing for her maturity, independence, work ethic, social skills, etc.!

 

[PollyannaMom]

We still have several schools to see, but DD is leaning very heavily toward 2 years of Community College and a transfer. As long as there’s no catastrophe with her grades this year, she can do 2 years tuition free through the A+ program, and avoid room & board expenses entirely. We’ve identified several schools (both in state & out) that will accept all her (planned) transfer credits.

For most of her choices, this should get her through 4 years debt free, and potentially a start on her Masters if she doesn’t stop at Bachelor.

That's excellent!

DS is considering starting "small and inexpensive" as well - mostly because he's really not sure what he wants to do.

But I recommend joining Phi Theta Kappa during cc if her grades are good, it can be good for transfer scholarships at some schools.

Thank you for the tip!

 

[soccerdad72]

We still have several schools to see, but DD is leaning very heavily toward 2 years of Community College and a transfer. As long as there’s no catastrophe with her grades this year, she can do 2 years tuition free through the A+ program, and avoid room & board expenses entirely. We’ve identified several schools (both in state & out) that will accept all her (planned) transfer credits.

For most of her choices, this should get her through 4 years debt free, and potentially a start on her Masters if she doesn’t stop at Bachelor.

As long as you make sure she works with a transfer specialist at the CC so that there's no surprises (e.g. finding out that certain classes won't transfer), it's an excellent choice for many students.

Of course, I'm a little biased - as I work at a community college (in administration).

 

[PollyannaMom]

On College Confidential, lots of talk about starting college admission essays. DD probably won't have to write one for admission to her likely choices, but I was just looking at the requirements to get competitive merit at one of them. Write about a significant challenge in your academic or personal life...

I wish I could convince DS to start his!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Sounds good. We aren't in easy commuting distance of a cc, unfortunately. But I recommend joining Phi Theta Kappa during cc if her grades are good, it can be good for transfer scholarships at some schools. Debt free can be such freedom after graduation!

On College Confidential, lots of talk about starting college admission essays. DD probably won't have to write one for admission to her likely choices, but I was just looking at the requirements to get competitive merit at one of them. Write about a significant challenge in your academic or personal life, what you did to address it and the result... Okay she really hasn't had any hardships in life. She's not going to win any sob story award. AP Lit was hard and her friends can be crappy but what do you write an essay on? Actually, now as I type this out, thinking maybe she could use being super homesick when she started working at camp and how the job turned out to be a really great thing for her maturity, independence, work ethic, social skills, etc.!

Great point on Phi Thera Kappa - noticed there’s a $750 scholarship for the school we were looking over recently

 

[Eureka]

As long as you make sure she works with a transfer specialist at the CC so that there's no surprises (e.g. finding out that certain classes won't transfer), it's an excellent choice for many students.

Of course, I'm a little biased - as I work at a community college (in administration).

Yes, definitely make sure she is in a transfer program. And encourage her to take advantage of all the resources the school offers. I used to be a librarian at a community college and many people did not realize that although our library was small, we had an extensive system of online databases and interlibrary loan programs.

 

[Eureka]

I wish I could convince DS to start his!

DS hasn’t started his either but he has created his profiles for the coalition and common apps. Something anyway.

 

[bjscheel]

Great point on Phi Thera Kappa - noticed there’s a $750 scholarship for the school we were looking over recently

It really varies, at Northwest Missouri State it is $3500/year!

 

[tink1970]

On College Confidential, lots of talk about starting college admission essays

I wish I could convince DS to start his!

DS hasn’t started his either but he has created his profiles for the coalition and common apps. Something anyway.

DD has a class that requires a college application essay the first day of school, so she has been working on it and is currently "refining" it. Unfortunately at some point the Common App went down (?this weekend) so that threw her off. She has read 2 of the three books that will have quizzes the first week of school and is finishing the final one. She continues to work on Khan to hopefully boost her SAT math score (her verbal has been consistently excellent but math...eh, not so much) and will take the SAT for the final time Aug 25th Of the 100 hours of her community service she's done 84 so if she stays on track this week and next it should be close to done .

I can't believe Senior Orientation is next Monday and school begins the Monday after. Where oh where did the summer go??

 

[mjkacmom]

I wish Dd had to submit her college essay (I think she has a 10 page paper in addition to annotating two novels). My older kids did not take AP English 4, and the first assignment was working on the college essay. Apparently Dd will not have any assistance in class. At least her rough draft is done. She missed out on the August SAT date (tried to sign up before the deadline, but apparently every spot in the state was full), so has to wait for October. Since I’ll have to now still pay her tutor, I’ll have him look at it. Ds19 was not the best writer, so I had his tutor work with him (different tutor who really helped him up his ACT score). Thank goodness I read it, it needed so much editing! Dd’s boyfriend is going to major in journalism at Fordham, he can help,also.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

DD has had her second school tour a couple of weekends ago. She went to see Washington University in St. Louis. She really liked the campus, it's a smaller school which I think she'll like as well, and they do a lot of research, which she was excited about. She did get in to take the ACT from stand-by in August, and her score went up another point, with a perfect on her science section! She didn't improve in the math section again, so she'll probably try again in September and we'll get her a tutor for a couple of sessions for just math.

She's got her list, it's 11 schools long right now, but I think the tours may weed some of them out. She's been working with the college search organization on her common application and her essay, but she writes so well that I'm not even a little bit worried about it. They start school next week, so getting everything ready, and she's doing the AP Lit essay that she put off all summer!

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

We still have several schools to see, but DD is leaning very heavily toward 2 years of Community College and a transfer. As long as there’s no catastrophe with her grades this year, she can do 2 years tuition free through the A+ program, and avoid room & board expenses entirely. We’ve identified several schools (both in state & out) that will accept all her (planned) transfer credits.

For most of her choices, this should get her through 4 years debt free, and potentially a start on her Masters if she doesn’t stop at Bachelor.

Based on the advice from our college search company, if she's looking at all in the sciences, have her take a look at Texas Tech, they offer some pretty good merit aid. The only drawback is it's Lubbock .

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Based on the advice from our college search company, if she's looking at all in the sciences, have her take a look at Texas Tech, they offer some pretty good merit aid. The only drawback is it's Lubbock .

She’s not, but thanks

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DD has had her second school tour a couple of weekends ago. She went to see Washington University in St. Louis. She really liked the campus, it's a smaller school which I think she'll like as well, and they do a lot of research, which she was excited about. She did get in to take the ACT from stand-by in August, and her score went up another point, with a perfect on her science section! She didn't improve in the math section again, so she'll probably try again in September and we'll get her a tutor for a couple of sessions for just math.

She's got her list, it's 11 schools long right now, but I think the tours may weed some of them out. She's been working with the college search organization on her common application and her essay, but she writes so well that I'm not even a little bit worried about it. They start school next week, so getting everything ready, and she's doing the AP Lit essay that she put off all summer!

It’s a beautiful campus - was just there for a concert Sunday night.

 

[Colleen27]

DS’s list of colleges is finally made! He’s applying to 8 schools and met with his college counselor today to make sure it’s a well balanced list (couple of safety schools as well as some maybe and reaches). I felt like narrowing down the list was hard, so it’s a relief to have that done.

I'll bet! I'm working on getting DD to EXPAND her list a bit. Right now, there are only 3 schools she's seriously interested in and another couple that look decent on paper but we haven't visited yet, and she's really all-in on just one top choice. I'm going to be on pins and needles for the rest of the year because she's applying early decision to her top school and really doesn't even want to think about fallbacks unless she's rejected. It is funny, I wanted her to find a school she really "clicked" with and wanted to be at, but now that she has I'm wishing she had a bunch of choices that she'd be equally happy with.

On College Confidential, lots of talk about starting college admission essays. DD probably won't have to write one for admission to her likely choices, but I was just looking at the requirements to get competitive merit at one of them. Write about a significant challenge in your academic or personal life, what you did to address it and the result... Okay she really hasn't had any hardships in life. She's not going to win any sob story award. AP Lit was hard and her friends can be crappy but what do you write an essay on? Actually, now as I type this out, thinking maybe she could use being super homesick when she started working at camp and how the job turned out to be a really great thing for her maturity, independence, work ethic, social skills, etc.!

That's my DD's take - she's going to write about her experiences in Japan, overcoming nervousness and homesickness for the sake of the experience.

Her school has the kids in AP English classes start the essays after the exams, since our school year doesn't end until mid-June, so she's been working on the Wellesley supplement essay already. The common app essay has to wait until she's home because she knew she wanted to talk about her experiences in Japan in some way.

And she is going to be SO slammed with summer homework when she gets back! She took her AP Lit books with her in e-book format and has been working on that while her high-school-aged host siblings do their homework, but her AP Bio & AP Calc textbooks aren't available digitally and were too heavy to pack so she hasn't even cracked those open. She'll have just a hair under 3 weeks from the time she gets home until the first day of school to get it all done.

 

[mjkacmom]

I'll bet! I'm working on getting DD to EXPAND her list a bit. Right now, there are only 3 schools she's seriously interested in and another couple that look decent on paper but we haven't visited yet, and she's really all-in on just one top choice. I'm going to be on pins and needles for the rest of the year because she's applying early decision to her top school and really doesn't even want to think about fallbacks unless she's rejected. It is funny, I wanted her to find a school she really "clicked" with and wanted to be at, but now that she has I'm wishing she had a bunch of choices that she'd be equally happy with.



That's my DD's take - she's going to write about her experiences in Japan, overcoming nervousness and homesickness for the sake of the experience.

Her school has the kids in AP English classes start the essays after the exams, since our school year doesn't end until mid-June, so she's been working on the Wellesley supplement essay already. The common app essay has to wait until she's home because she knew she wanted to talk about her experiences in Japan in some way.

And she is going to be SO slammed with summer homework when she gets back! She took her AP Lit books with her in e-book format and has been working on that while her high-school-aged host siblings do their homework, but her AP Bio & AP Calc textbooks aren't available digitally and were too heavy to pack so she hasn't even cracked those open. She'll have just a hair under 3 weeks from the time she gets home until the first day of school to get it all done.

So they start the essay in the end up sophomore year? That’s great! Our school has a giant paper due at the end of AP lit, but it would be great to start the college essay.

 

[Colleen27]

So they start the essay in the end up sophomore year? That’s great! Our school has a giant paper due at the end of AP lit, but it would be great to start the college essay.

If they have AP Lang or Lit as sophomores, yes. DD didn't take an AP English section until junior year, so she just started this past spring... which is still a lot better than the "deadline driven" habits she has when she is pacing herself! And it really is a great idea, far better than the 'capstone' projects and papers I've heard the public school AP sections assign to fill the post-test weeks of the class.