If you are a high-resource family - what tips do you have for maximizing success in HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

Yes, it was worth it. I'm an attorney. Dual feds. 50k per year for high school tuition isn't in the cards for us, but I still feel like I am a reasonably successful person.

My kids seem to be getting good STEM educations, but they are not learning how to write anything other than AP exam essays. My youngest just finished eleventh grade. He has taken the highest level English classes available to him - all honors and AP. He has taken several AP history/government classes. Yet he had yet to write a single paper until June of this year. Their AP English teacher had them write a five or six page research paper after the AP exam was done. He had no clue how to go about doing so. He insisted it was getting along fine so I didn't helicopter. He got a C. Explained after the fact he just didn't understand how to write something longer than a page or two. My older kid is at a Catholic college with a bunch of kids who went to Catholic high schools. Did very poorly in freshman English.

No way would I put up with MCPS high school if I could afford private for them. Well, if I'd known how I'd feel, maybe I would have sacrificed home equity/college/retirement savings for private high school. Now it's too late. But if you have plenty of money? Private is no brainer.

I could have written your post. Literally every single thing you just said.

Me too. My kid did IB English this year (11th grade), only had to read two books for class over the entire year. I don’t think he’s had to write a paper longer than 2 pages.

I really do not get MCPS' aversion to writing. We ended up moving our DD to private during the pandemic and saw her writing for the first time ever. It was bad, which is surprising because she had all A's in a 'W' school before transferring. DH and I went to private school and were really shocked by how bad her writing was. Growing up, we were writing stories and essays beginning in 2nd grade. A lot of kids love to write in elementary school but there really aren't any opportunities to. Our youngest is still in public elementary school - not sure what to do or how to supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are interested in admission to the most selective colleges, hire a full service college counselor now - one of the ones who helps with setting a course through classes and ECs

Sound advice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of it is actually free or low cost.

Have your child build relationships with their teachers. If they have any accommodations, they should send an email as soon as they have their schedule. My kids always start a class with a hello and thank the teacher as they leave the room. Participate in class discussions. This is how you stand out and stay engaged in a large class. In addition, every teacher my kids had offered help sessions during advisory or lunch. Some even after school. Take advantage.

Work on study skills and organization. Some schools offer a course on this if your child has a disability. For kids without, MC had a great summer course years ago. Alternatively, if your child works well with you, teach these skills yourself. The shortcoming of MCPS is these skills are not explicitly taught to most kids.

Teach your child to self-advocate. They should be comfortable reaching out to teachers and counselors if they hit a bump in the road.

Hire a tutor at the first sign of struggle. We had the best luck with MCPS teachers who tutor on the side since they know the curriculum.

Emphasize to your child to check online for assignments and missing work daily.

+1

[Anonymous]

Lots of good advice on the low resource family thread. And it’s all free. You can save your money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

Yes, it was worth it. I'm an attorney. Dual feds. 50k per year for high school tuition isn't in the cards for us, but I still feel like I am a reasonably successful person.

My kids seem to be getting good STEM educations, but they are not learning how to write anything other than AP exam essays. My youngest just finished eleventh grade. He has taken the highest level English classes available to him - all honors and AP. He has taken several AP history/government classes. Yet he had yet to write a single paper until June of this year. Their AP English teacher had them write a five or six page research paper after the AP exam was done. He had no clue how to go about doing so. He insisted it was getting along fine so I didn't helicopter. He got a C. Explained after the fact he just didn't understand how to write something longer than a page or two. My older kid is at a Catholic college with a bunch of kids who went to Catholic high schools. Did very poorly in freshman English.

No way would I put up with MCPS high school if I could afford private for them. Well, if I'd known how I'd feel, maybe I would have sacrificed home equity/college/retirement savings for private high school. Now it's too late. But if you have plenty of money? Private is no brainer.

I could have written your post. Literally every single thing you just said.

Me too. My kid did IB English this year (11th grade), only had to read two books for class over the entire year. I don’t think he’s had to write a paper longer than 2 pages.

This is very surprising. IB in 11th grade is a lot of writing, if not for English, then at least for the SL course/s for which the student is taking exams.
I have an IB rising senior who wrote 2 long IAs (internal assessments) for history and another class. My kid took exams for both those as well. They have a lot more writing as IB seniors...more IAs (varying length but typically 1500-4000 words) and the extended essay (4000 words).

For a HS schooler with resources, I agree with the posters who say hire a college counselor. A lot of my kids' peers also are taking SAT prep classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

Yes, it was worth it. I'm an attorney. Dual feds. 50k per year for high school tuition isn't in the cards for us, but I still feel like I am a reasonably successful person.

My kids seem to be getting good STEM educations, but they are not learning how to write anything other than AP exam essays. My youngest just finished eleventh grade. He has taken the highest level English classes available to him - all honors and AP. He has taken several AP history/government classes. Yet he had yet to write a single paper until June of this year. Their AP English teacher had them write a five or six page research paper after the AP exam was done. He had no clue how to go about doing so. He insisted it was getting along fine so I didn't helicopter. He got a C. Explained after the fact he just didn't understand how to write something longer than a page or two. My older kid is at a Catholic college with a bunch of kids who went to Catholic high schools. Did very poorly in freshman English.

No way would I put up with MCPS high school if I could afford private for them. Well, if I'd known how I'd feel, maybe I would have sacrificed home equity/college/retirement savings for private high school. Now it's too late. But if you have plenty of money? Private is no brainer.

I could have written your post. Literally every single thing you just said.

Me too. My kid did IB English this year (11th grade), only had to read two books for class over the entire year. I don’t think he’s had to write a paper longer than 2 pages.

This is very surprising. IB in 11th grade is a lot of writing, if not for English, then at least for the SL course/s for which the student is taking exams.
I have an IB rising senior who wrote 2 long IAs (internal assessments) for history and another class. My kid took exams for both those as well. They have a lot more writing as IB seniors...more IAs (varying length but typically 1500-4000 words) and the extended essay (4000 words).

For a HS schooler with resources, I agree with the posters who say hire a college counselor. A lot of my kids' peers also are taking SAT prep classes.

Agree. I am curious what school has su Co a weak IB English program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how are your child’s executive function skills? We hired an executive function tutor, and it has been really valuable to our child.

Hi - OP here. To be honest, I'm not familiar with this concept of executive function skills. What falls in this category?

A place to start learning about EF and related skills:

https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/executive-function

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

Yes, it was worth it. I'm an attorney. Dual feds. 50k per year for high school tuition isn't in the cards for us, but I still feel like I am a reasonably successful person.

My kids seem to be getting good STEM educations, but they are not learning how to write anything other than AP exam essays. My youngest just finished eleventh grade. He has taken the highest level English classes available to him - all honors and AP. He has taken several AP history/government classes. Yet he had yet to write a single paper until June of this year. Their AP English teacher had them write a five or six page research paper after the AP exam was done. He had no clue how to go about doing so. He insisted it was getting along fine so I didn't helicopter. He got a C. Explained after the fact he just didn't understand how to write something longer than a page or two. My older kid is at a Catholic college with a bunch of kids who went to Catholic high schools. Did very poorly in freshman English.

No way would I put up with MCPS high school if I could afford private for them. Well, if I'd known how I'd feel, maybe I would have sacrificed home equity/college/retirement savings for private high school. Now it's too late. But if you have plenty of money? Private is no brainer.

I could have written your post. Literally every single thing you just said.

Me too. My kid did IB English this year (11th grade), only had to read two books for class over the entire year. I don’t think he’s had to write a paper longer than 2 pages.

That's honestly bizarre. IB classes have a ton of writing. Which school is this? We're at Seneca and my kid is taking a bunch of IB classes and there's a lot of writing in them.

[Anonymous]

To the PP who said her child has read 2 books and only written 2-page essays in IB English: What school is your child in?

[Anonymous]

Hiring a private college counselor is a waste of money. Everything is available online for free if you are willing to put a little bit of effort into it yourself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

When she says she can't afford it, she means she'd rather pour that money onto herself, unlike her parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hiring a private college counselor is a waste of money. Everything is available online for free if you are willing to put a little bit of effort into it yourself

The point of having money is so you can pay people to do things for you, so you can put effort into making more money, or having fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

When she says she can't afford it, she means she'd rather pour that money onto herself, unlike her parents.

Umm no. Private school tuition has risen as expected but salaries have not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have high resources, send your kid to private school.

This.

Signed,

MCPS parent who went to a big three but can’t afford that for my own kids

Do you feel like your own Big3 experience was worth it then? What was the benefit and ultimate impact?

I mean that as an honest question.

Yes, it was worth it. I'm an attorney. Dual feds. 50k per year for high school tuition isn't in the cards for us, but I still feel like I am a reasonably successful person.

My kids seem to be getting good STEM educations, but they are not learning how to write anything other than AP exam essays. My youngest just finished eleventh grade. He has taken the highest level English classes available to him - all honors and AP. He has taken several AP history/government classes. Yet he had yet to write a single paper until June of this year. Their AP English teacher had them write a five or six page research paper after the AP exam was done. He had no clue how to go about doing so. He insisted it was getting along fine so I didn't helicopter. He got a C. Explained after the fact he just didn't understand how to write something longer than a page or two. My older kid is at a Catholic college with a bunch of kids who went to Catholic high schools. Did very poorly in freshman English.

No way would I put up with MCPS high school if I could afford private for them. Well, if I'd known how I'd feel, maybe I would have sacrificed home equity/college/retirement savings for private high school. Now it's too late. But if you have plenty of money? Private is no brainer.

I could have written your post. Literally every single thing you just said.

Me too. My kid did IB English this year (11th grade), only had to read two books for class over the entire year. I don’t think he’s had to write a paper longer than 2 pages.

What school and IB English class is your child in? IB yclasses have lots of writing.