College preparation/planning for a middle schooler
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Anonymous
You shouldn’t worry about this until sophomore year. |
Anonymous
Beautiful! Couldn't agree more!!! |
Anonymous
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What race are you? There are different standards for different races. College admissions are tough for Asian-Americans and they pretty much need to excel in all aspects of education and EC to get to good colleges and majors.
Yes, we absolutely did our planning and prep from the very early age for our Asian-American kids. It basically meant - - Focus on Academics --- Pieced together a world class curriculum for our children by using resources outside the school. Did not adhere to the curriculum, textbooks, syllabus of US schools. --- Taught them Math, Science, Foreign Language, Geography and History at home by myself. Used interesting materials (movies, documentaries) to make learning fun. - EC Activities --- Introduced them to a good blend of service projects, music/dance/art education, travel, sports, content creation on educational topics for our children. --- Participated in scholastic events, research projects --- Helped them to build their interview skills, resume writing and coached them to advocate for themselves. --- Taught my kids to create opportunities for themselves when others did not give them opportunities --- Made our kids connect to both the cultures - culture of our country of origin and of USA. - Other - Know the criteria for admissions for the most rigorous courses in the most selective colleges in ES and MS. Then make sure that your kid is exposed to the enrichment and acceleration gradually over years in a way that they are not pressured or stressed, but when the time comes in HS to get 4.0 uwGPA, 1600 SAT, 12+ APs scoring 4s and 5s, excelling in ECs, getting into Honor Society, having service hours etc - it is the easiest thing for them. - make friends with other high achievers and their families. If you hang with losers you will become one. Create a tribe and achieve together. |
Anonymous
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It’s a big mistake to jump into college planning at this age.
The most important thing is to SAVE MONEY. Otherwise, tell your kid they are too young to worry about that now. It will be a relief for them. Having fully funded 529’s will allow them to ED where they don’t have to cross such a high academic threshold. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| You really need a college counselor to start meeting with him monthly (weekly starting in tenth grade). As others noted, rigor is critical, have him take the most challenging classes available. Middle school is a little early to take the SAT but he can start prepping and then take it starting in 9th grade. Big one, volunteer hours are not enough, he needs to organize a volunteer opportunity with his peers. |
Anonymous
This is satire, right? Why would even a 10th grader need to meet weekly with a college counselor? |
Anonymous
This! |
Anonymous
This is most important and necessary for everything in life. Learning study and time management/organization skills will help ease the stress of school and life. |
Anonymous
| We have a HS kid and a MS kid. In 7th we started having more family conversations about ECs and how important 9th is for positioning that HS track. We're more so focused on exploring new things and discovering/fostering passions in MS to prepare them for the commitment in HS. in 8th, we've dragged DS along on 1 college tour with older brother and talked really vaguely about what it takes to get into different schools- HYP vs Flagships vs LACS. Essentially just presenting DS with pathways and using older brother as an example of what pathways they have and how early planning can be beneficial if you're after something more prestigious. |
Anonymous
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OP I think you're fine to be prepping your kid academically at this point but I wouldn't worry about specific colleges at all at this stage.
Try to ensure they're in the most rigorous classes for each major academic area; math, science, social science, English. If they're good at languages, exploit that. Start languages in 6th grade take a 2nd language in 8th or 9th. With ECs if they have a sport, musical instrument or other activity they like, help them to do their best at it, if they can - sports camps, musical tutors. Look at MSM Summer. Make sure they do all their SSL hours as early as possible. In the DMV there's an unspoken competition in terms of how many hours get done. the minimum is 75 but most HS seniors have done about 300. That's fine so long as the focus is on the charities / causes that mean most to the kid, so 4 yrs volunteering for the same soup kitchen is more valuable to them than a different cause every year. If you're very serious about planning the HS years, get an individual college counselor like Richard Montauk to help you from 9th grade through 12th. He is excellent and he really, really knows his stuff. |
Anonymous
There were two pages of comments telling the OP that they are worrying about college too early. This was the information that they requested, too early for most families but their choice for their kid. |
Anonymous
+1 And also focus on your own life - are you finding time for your own interests, hobbies, exercise, volunteering? If we aren't doing these things as adults it just adds to the message kids get that the only reason to do extracurricular activities is "for college." |
Anonymous
nonsense |
Anonymous
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All the PPs saying it is too early to craft a pathway, and that such crafting isn’t beneficial anyway, are correct.
If you’re still insistent on doing SOMETHING, encourage your child to take a fine/performing arts class at some point during high school. There are a surprising number of schools who like to see or even require something from that bucket on a HS transcript, no matter what the applicant wants to major in. DS’s “hey, I think I want to try this cool theater tech class because I’ve heard the teacher is fun” moment in 9th grade came in handy… |