Who else has college bound Juniors?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-17-2004
Who else has college bound Juniors?
26
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!
Avatar for soccermom03
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 07-05-2007 - 4:15pm

Yup, I am absolutely a soccermom, lol. Chris has played since he was a little guy, maybe 4 or 5. He began our local club travel program as an 11 year old (was playing lots of other sports as well at that time) and eventually played ODP for a while. Our high school has an awful boys' program and it did really turn him off the sport though. He ended up focusing more on track and had more success there. A repetitive stress injury (entrapment of the deep peroneal nerve on top his foot) required surgery the summer before his senior year and he skipped soccer to fully recover for track in the spring, only to tear his hamstring toward the end of the season. ::sigh:: Still, it was a stellar career, with many All State credentials his sophomore and junior seasons, and a great letter jacket covered with patches for winning this and that. DD15 plays soccer as well and will challenge for a varsity spot since our state finals girls team graduated 11 members since last fall. She will be a sophomore and is a speedy midfield winger with great footwork. Our girls program is as strong as our boys' is weak, so we are looking for a great season again this fall.

Chris didn't take any of the SAT II exams, our guidance counselor felt they would be a waste since he had lots of AP credit in his chosen field. BTW, Chris got impatient and called for his AP Bio score today and got it early (for a fee, of course) and once again pulled that perfect score of 5- YAHOO! That means another 12 hours or so of honors credit at UArk. We're blessed with a dynamic duo in our HS science department, too, and Chris was able to take several courses with them (honors Chem I, AP Chem, AP Bio, college credit Anatomy I & II) and feels very well-prepared for his college courses. His AP Chem teacher currently holds the highest average student score in the nation for the AP Chem exam- a 4.3 average for his students and I think the national average is something like a 2.8.

I don't think I mentioned, but we are in west central Indiana. I also teach, only I am an elementary school LD resource teacher at a small inner-city school. UArk is about 540 miles from us, or about 9 hours- a long way away to send one's only son. I do have one other thing to add: ENJOY this time with your HSer. I know it is bittersweet, but it is such an exciting time. It'll be over before you know it and you'll be shopping for their dorm rooms and listening to them hum their university fight songs at the dinner table, lol.

Avatar for imomtojd
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 07-05-2007 - 5:39pm

My son has a great mix of social life, work and academics. He's taking the usual - honors pre-cal, English, history, chorus (considered honors because at this point it's audition only), French 3; AP Environmental Science (took honors physics last year cause chemistry didn't fit the schedule); and regular French 2. (We're on the block schedule so he can take one course the first semester and one the next.) He took the PSAT last year so he'd know what to prepare for this year. He'll do that in January and then take the SAT next year. I really don't think I'll have his take a prep course, maybe just take extra time and study off the web. He also does theatre, so he'll probably do two shows, one in the fall and one in the spring. He has been asked to join the boys quartet this year, so he'll have extra rehearsals, and his chorus is going to London over the holidays for an inaugural international festival. He also started working this summer, so he'll try to keep up a few shifts over the school year.

He is a good student, but not a great one. He doesn't put too much time into his studies, and usually gets by with the lowest A possible. But he has a wonderful mix of things going on in his life, and I really think that sometimes that's more (or at least as) important as being busy every minute of your life. I do not want him to take more than one or two AP courses a year - I want him to enjoy and remember his high school as more than just academics. But I truly respect that everyone has different goals for their children.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-17-2004
Tue, 07-17-2007 - 1:40pm
Well ladies in a few days we take off for our first campus vists. I have promised the girls not to embarrass them and to hang in the back of the group on the tour. These are two Northern CA schools so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will love them!
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Tue, 07-17-2007 - 2:17pm

What schools in Northern California if you don't mind me asking? The college process can be stressful, believe me I know. I have triplets, Reagan, Bradford, and Shea who just graduated high school this year and Carlin who will be a junior next year. All of my children are college-bound and I am so proud of them because it is a lot harder now a days then it was when I went to college.

Academics and test scores are VERY important. Have your girls take multiple AP and honor classes and have them do well in them. Colleges dont want to see a person take 5 AP classes in one year, but only get C's in all of them. Have them chose AP's that they will do well in. SAT/ACT, I recommed taking both. A lot of people do better on the ACT's than the SATs and a majority of colleges take both. Take it more than once even if your kid gets a 2350 the first try. College wants to make sure that it wasn't blind luck, and your kid could always improve. Prep classes work well and so do the prep books. For SAT 2 take them right after the AP exam so that the knowledge is still fresh. Carlin has taken 4 SAT 2 already because she took them right after taking the classes. Also, remember state schools look at test scores differently than privates. Privates look at the whole package of the applicant so it is okay if their test scores aren't near perfect while state schools really weigh in test scores.

Colleges want well rounded students so have them do extra-curriculars and take leadership roles. Also, it wouldn't be a bad thing to hire a person to help with the essays and make sure that they are perfect.

What colleges are your kids looking at? Carlin has her sight set high and is looking at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD. She will sprinkle in some fall back schools. She is really interested in the medical schools. Reagn will go to UC Santa Cruz, Shea will go to UC Santa Barbara, and Bradford will go to Stanford this fall. Three down, one more to go.

Stephanie

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Registered: 05-17-2004
Tue, 07-17-2007 - 2:49pm

Hey Stephanie! I am a UCSC alum. I loved it there! Go SLUGS!!! My girls are visiting Santa Clara University and Cal State Monterey Bay. Right now the schools in CA they are interested in are:

The Claremont McKenna Colleges
Cal Poly San Luis
Saint Mary's
SCU
CSUMB (Safety)
CS Stanislaus (Safety)
UC Davis

In Oregon

Willamette
U of Portland
Pacific

and finally in Texas...go figure
Trinity

There are only five APs offered at our teeny little hs and Erin will take all. Kathleen is not taking pre calc till Sr. year so she wont be taking AP calc.

They have wanted to be vetinarians since they learned in pre-school that their first career choice, being farmers, would entail raising animals, not for fun, but for food. They are excellent science students and at this point plan to major in animal science or bio depending upon where they decide to go.

I am in to small schools as our community is small, my girls are quiet and reserved, and I want to feel like their professors know their names. But UCD and Cal Poly are definate contenders because of the vet thing. The girls will tour all of the campuses except for maybe Trinity b4 applying.

They have lots of EC and CS but They are planning to step up to a stronger leadership role over the next couple of years. They are by nature inclined to the worker-bee type role and so it will be a big reach for them to initiate, facilitate and manage a community service project.

Congrats on having such smart kids. I am impressed! When my girls were little we had an acquaintance w/ triplets. Whenever I was feeling overwhelmed by twins I would think of her and marvel. At least w/ two babies I had two arms, breasts and parents to help care for them. I can't imagine three but since multiples were both of our firsts we had the benefit of not knowing any different right :-) We had another child too, 4 years later. I don't know if it was just by comparison to mothering infant twins or if God just gave me the perfect baby but I couldn't believe how easy it was to have just one baby. Keep us updated on your college search with #4.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-17-2004
Tue, 07-17-2007 - 2:51pm
UHHHHHHHHHHHHH that was supposed to be veterinarians, not vetinarians.
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Registered: 09-09-2006
Wed, 07-18-2007 - 7:14pm

My daughter, Brooklyn, will be a junior next year. She is a little stressed because she is not sure on where she wants to go. She is an intelligent girl, but feels pressured to go to a top school because we are a very academic family. Both my husband and I graduated from Yale and then got our PhD at UCSD. My oldest, Gavin, went to MIT and is now at Johns Hopkins for his PhD/MD. Jacob will be a sophomore at the Naval Academy. I keep telling her that she does not need to go to Harvard or an Academy to do well, but she is still worried. She just doesn't fully know where she wants to go yet. She has good grades, honor roll and CSF and has extracurriculars. She will take the SATs for the first time in September and we will go from there.

Kate

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Wed, 07-18-2007 - 8:01pm

That is amazing that you went to Santa Cruz. Reagan is kind of the more hippy, natural one of the family so I know that she will really love it there. Santa Clara is a really nice school. We visited it when we were looking at schools in the Bay area. Its a Catholic school right? My kids aren't that religious and none of them ended up applying there (that wasnt the only reason just one). I have never seen CSUMB and I don't really know anything about it except that it used to be like a military base or something along those lines.

Claremont McKenna is a great school. Bradford was accepted to Harvey Mudd, but decided not to go. It is a great school, but its not as known nationally as Stanford or Berkeley. Cal Poly SLO is very, very populated. Reagan got into there, but there are so many people and she kind of wanted to go farther away. UCD is a perfect school for veterniarian and agriculture, 2 things none of my kids are interested in. I heard that there are cows there just outside sometimes, but we didn't see any when we visited them. I don't have any information about the other schools sorry.

What is the difference between pre-calc and AP calc? My children's school only has AP calc. If pre is pretty much the same as AP calculus I would recommend Kathleen just taking AP. At least she would be getting AP credit if she does well and her effort will mean a lot. Since there aren't a lot of AP classes offered at your school you can see if there are courses available at a local community college or they can teach themselves the classes. Bradford took the third year of calculus and a second year of physics at a JC because the school did not offer it. I don't know, its just something to look into.

That is really good that your girls are branching out of their comfort zones. Its really admirable and I am sure that they will enjoy it. We didn't get to see NYU or BU before they applied. Its important to just see them before they accept or not.

Thank you. I think that if you ever have one kid after a set of multiples is so much easier. Actually, Carlin was not not necessarily easier in the beginning because she had a lot of health problems. Now she is by far the easiest behind Bradford because she is so quiet and collective.

Stephanie

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-14-2006
Thu, 07-19-2007 - 8:11am
L is taking an SAT prep class this summer - she's enjoying some of the subject matter, and is really growing in her confidence about the test. She has set high standards for herself, so I'm glad the class is helping her!
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-16-2007
Thu, 07-19-2007 - 9:56am

Morning all

I have a just graduated sr and a rising hs freshman. Just wanted to share how we pursued this process. First of all BREATH and don't make college the topic of every converstion cuz they will tune you out!!!. There is a college out there for all who want to go. We began in the fall of jr year by getting registered on all the websites i.e., princeton reveiw, college board & peterson. That forces you to think about criteria and give lots of good extra info on the process. Get all brochures that might be remotely of interest. We did 6 visits during her 2 week spring break. Most were road trips with 1 trip to atlanta & 1 to miami. Be flexible on the visits; if they want to leave, leave. If they don't want to get out of the car just keep driving. They really need to have the "warm & fuzzy". You don't have to visit every school before you apply..they'll be plenty of time. There are 2 schools of thought on test prep courses. Some say prep before you take it the first time. Others say take it cold first then prep for the second round. We did the former because we thought it too hectic fall of senior yr to fit it in. She took it again in Oct..applied ED to her 1st choice, EA to her 2nd choice and got into both schools. We were done by before XMAS. WHEW

good luck
L