Who else has college bound Juniors?
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Who else has college bound Juniors?
| Wed, 07-04-2007 - 3:38pm |
I have twin DDs who will be entering their Junior year in High School and am interested in connection with other parents of college bound Juniors re. college choice, SATs etc. I have really had some aniety over the whole year but the parents of College Students board has helped me relax. Anyway, I was looking for you and if you are out there it'd be fun to share. Thanks!

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Hi there :)
I have a DS who will be a junior this yr and is going to college after he graduates. We have started the research on schools he wants to visit to narrow down where he will want to apply. We are taking two trips this fall. I am also keeping my fingers crossed that when he see's some of these schools that he will really take his junior yr as seriously as he needs to! :)
Julie
My youngest will be going into his last year of high school in September but since we live
in different countries, we will have different concerns. I don't think I can be a source of advice or source of shared information.
Kids here don't write tests like SATs. That's an American thing, thank G**. Moreover, out application process for universities are much more straight forward. Colleges are very different here from universities.
Having gone thru this before, I have no anxiety about the next year.
Hi! thanks for replying. We are taking one trip later this month and another this fall. Then I think we will be taking another couple in the winter of 08. It is difficult to sechedule because my girls play soccer in the fall and run track in the spring. It makes me grateful that they started looking at viewbooks and brochures early. Do you know abour collegeconfidential.com? They have a page on their site that tells you how to get the most out of a college visit. I can't remember all of what it said but will definately visit the site before we go to the campuses. What schools are you visiting? We are going to Santa Clara University and Cal State Monterey Bay. They have over 10 schools they are looking at right now so I hope the visits will help them narrow the field a bit.
Is your son looking for out of state schools? One of my daughters is quite interested in Trinity University in San Antonio. We live in Northern California. The school looks wonderful! But it is so far from home and DH is not at all in favor of his little girl moving so far away.
"Is your son looking for out of state schools? One of my daughters is quite interested in Trinity University in San Antonio."
Yes, Sadly :( LOL So far he is looking at NYU, Julliard,(20 in one thousand chance) Ohio State, and Otterbein which is also outside of Columbus OH. Our first trip is going to be to Ohio to visit OSU and Otterbein. We like you have a hard time with the schedualing of these trips. DS is in Theater and will be looking at Theater/Musical Theater and Broadcast Journalism programs. He will be booked with one musical after another this next yr and so far October was the only free month ;)
We have a great friend whos son went to Trinity. We live outside of Dallas, but spent a year in San Antonio....LOVED IT :) This boy played football for Trinity and had a great 4 yr experience. He is now getting a Masters from University of Texas. I'm glad to here of someone else in this "process" now :) Have your DD's taken any SAT prep coarses yet?
Julie
I've got a DD entering her junior year as well. She is still very vague on where she wants to go, and what she wants to study! I think her gut feeling is to look for a good Liberal Arts program, so she can get exposure to lots of things before narrowing down for a career.
We live in NYC, and part of me would like her to go a little bit away - just to experience something different than what she's known since she was 6.
She's taking an SAT prep course this summer - it starts tomorrow, actually. It runs three days a week for four weeks - about 3 hours a day. She's looking forward to this - I think it will reduce her worry about the test (although, I'm not nearly as worried as she is!).
Sue
We really have heard nothing but positives about Trinity according to my DDs criteria. The only drawback is distance If she goes there she will likely only be able to come home at Christmas and Easter. It is sad to think that our babies may be so far away. Maybe she'll choose one of the 4 schools on her list that are located in central and northern CA but of her first five choices of campuses 4 are in Southern CA, Oregon and Trinity in Texas. My other daughter's first choice is University of Portland but her other top 5 choices are in Northern and Central CA. I'm torn because as much as I want them to stay within arm's reach, I know that this decision has to rest largely with them.
As far as SAT prep goes, there is one class offered here that they will participate in but I think that they will use the college board's SAT prep book at home as much as anything.
Nice sharing with you!
Good Luck w/ SAT prep. Is it a Kaplan or Princeton Review program? Let us know how it goes for her esp. after the test results ;-) What is your schedule for SATs? I think that my girls will take them in March or April and then the SAT II in June after AP testing. If they need to take them again...they are hoping for high 600s at the lowest, then they will do that in the fall of their Sr. year.
Let's keep touching base as the year continues. Thanks!
Well, I don't have a college-bound junior, but I have a just-graduated senior who will enter college next month. Thought I'd throw my recently BTDT .02 in if anyone is interested. My DS18, Chris, was an honors student at a rigorous, medium sized public HS (top AP program in our state, graduating class of 450). He knew early on he wanted to work in the science field, either as a physician or research chemist, so he was able to load his HS schedule with honors math and science (honors Bio, Chem, Physics, college credit Anatomy I & II, honors Alg II, Geometry, PreCalc, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics), plus he took German (highly recommended) and honors English courses including a college-level Comp course. Our high school doesn't weight GPAs for honors/AP classes but he ended up with a 3.87 cum.
He didn't take any review courses and only sat for the SAT once, fall of his senior year. He nailed it pretty well though, with a 1480 Math/Critical Reasoning score and a 2160 overall including the writing portion. Many colleges were uninterested in the writing component. He also took the ACT for good measure (once, Dec of his senior year) and scored a 34. Obviously he is very fortunate that he tests well. :) As for extracurriculars, he was an athlete (3 years varsity soccer, 4 years varsity track- 2 years as captain of the state-ranked team) 3 years of Youth Leadership, 1 year student council, volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, youth soccer league referee, part time job for 2 years. Not tons compared to some of his classmates, but all ones that he truly enjoyed and was very active with.
His college search was interesting. DH works for a small, very elite private engineering college that is consistently rated the #1 undergrad engineering program in the US by Newsweek, and Chris could have attended there tuition free. One-hundred percent of their undergrads applying to med school were accepted, more than 90% to their first choice school. He applied and was accepted early. He also applied to Indiana University, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke and some others, and was accepted at all.
After much thought and a great deal of advice from a surgeon he job shadowed with all year, Chris began thinking more about what he wanted from his college experience and came up with a list. Among the things on it: a "big school" experience, undergraduated research opportunities, study abroad opportunities, young, dynamic faculty, medium sized city with lots of outdoor recreation, a strong men's track program with opportunities for walk-ons, and, of course... AWAY from home. Much to DH and I's initial shock and chagrin, he began seriously looking at the University of Arkansas. My younger brother earned his doctorate there 10 years ago in Optical Physics, so there was a connection there I guess. It had everything Chris was looking for, including recently well-endowed honors college. Some readers of this board may also remember that he met a girl from the area while on a campus visit with friends- ugh- and she did play a role in him making his decision to attend.
He applied, was accepted, and received an Honors College Scholarship worth approximately $52,000 over 4 years. He will be a freshman double majoring in Biochemistry and Biology in the Fulbright Honors College this fall. He will begin his research second semester of his freshman year, probably in their new multimillion dollar Center for Protein Structure and Research, and as an honors student, will have to complete a senior thesis/research project as a graduation requirement. His department has an annual scholarship budget of $100,000 for study abroad, and encourages all undergrads to study at least one semester or summer abroad. He's also been in touch with the men's track coaching staff and they are quite interested in having him walk on. They are consistently a top ten program and the head coach is widely viewed as the best track coach in the US.
DH and I weren't excited at all about UArk until attending orientation last month. They have a parent's orientation that runs concurrently with student orientation and after 2 days I went from skeptical to quite impressed with the university. Their committment to research is wonderful, as are the study abroad programs and we loved the setup of the honors program. Chris will have 4 academic advisors- one from the Chem dept, one from Bio, one from the PreMed board, and one from Fulbright Honors. He will meet with them as a team for scheduling, but can seek any one of them out at any time one on one. There are many perks for the honors college kids- honors only study lounges (with free sodas, water and snacks, Chris noted LOL) in every academic building, honors- only computer labs, honors study groups, etc. The area is just beautiful, nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks, with all sorts of camping, hiking, and water sports available. Chris will attend a weeklong freshman camp just before classes start that features canoeing on the Illinois River, hiking and rock climbing- all right up his alley!
As we walked around campus the last day of orientation, DH remarked that it sure wasn't where we thought Chris would end up, or where *we* thought would be best for him, but it did really *feel* right. I have no doubt that he will love it down there and be very successful. Oh yeah, he and the girl- ugh - have since broken up, and believe it or not he is still as, if not even more, enthused about going to UArk, lol. He did recently learn that a Miss America contestant from one of the southeastern states lives on his floor in his brand new, coed, suite-style dorm....and he plans to introduce himself and "make her feel really, really welcome". Egad.
Bottom line, have your students take a rigorous class load right up through senior year, SAT/ACT scores are VERY important (in our experience, more so than GPA), have some extracurriculars that actually mean something to your student and aren't just resume-builders..........then keep an open mind. College is about more than academics- they'll get a good education at most schools, but look for a school that is a GOOD FIT for your student. College years should be some of the best years of their lives, where they will do much of the growing and changing on their way to becoming adults. The hardest thing we've done as parents was to put aside our preconceived ideas about where Chris should go and allow him to make this decision. We raised a good kid with a good head on his shoulders- as have all of you- and it was truly his decision to make.
Thanks for the story....oh and by the way, where can I get one like yours LOL :) Congrats and I am sure you are very proud of your DS :)
Julie
WOW! Thanks for sharing your story. Your son sounds like a smart, grounded and funny guy. Congrats! We live in rural Nor. California. I teach history at the HS my girls attend...the only one in town. It has a student pop of <500 students. We do offer 5 AP courses. My DDs are taking three of them this year, English Comp, Bio and US Hist. Then in Sr. Year it's AP Lit for both and AP Calc for Erin. Kathleen will be taking Pre Calc senior year. There are no AP offerings Sophomore or Freshman year. We are the best HS in the county and compare favorably with schools in the larger counties surrounding us. We are just smal and therefore limited in what we can offer. They, like your son, are very science orriented...the are planning to follow a pre-ve bio major wherever they go. We are very fortunate here in regards to our science program. I would be willing to match up the science department ...2 guys... at our school with any in the nation. They get fantastic preparation here in the sciences.
On another board someone suggested that taking AP courses and getting a good night's sleep was the best SAT prep :-) Sounds like a plan to me, at least for the first go around.
Did your son take the SATII in the subjects in which he had recently finished AP work ??
I notice your username...I'm one too. In fact being able to still participate in soccer is a prerequesite for both of my girls when it comes to college choice. Intramurals or club soccer will be fine with them but they are drawn to d2 and d3 scools because they figure they may have a shot at their soccer programs. They would consider CCs as well if they can get on their teams.
Anyway, thanks for the informative post. I appreciate it and it's nice getting to know your and your son's experiences with the whole Jr. year chaos.
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