Anonymous wrote:To those who recommend cutting back on sports to focus on GPA, don't kids need involvement with extracurriculars too? Our DS is in private in 9th, and the workload is intense. I can see the attraction to cutting back on sports, but would that just leave him with a higher GPA and not the other things he needs?

We never did sports and if hasn’t impacted our admissions yet. D had been accepted to multiple honors programs. GPA and SAT are more important. Colleges aren’t going to care enough whether your D was on a very casual sports team or one that requires a lot of practice.

Take 1 easier AP Freshman year. It just sets them up for success in later years even if they get a 2 or 3. My D got a 2 on her first AP but scored all 4s and 5s by junior year.

To those who recommend cutting back on sports to focus on GPA, don't kids need involvement with extracurriculars too? Our DS is in private in 9th, and the workload is intense. I can see the attraction to cutting back on sports, but would that just leave him with a higher GPA and not the other things he needs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son and I visited UVA in the spring of this junior year. At the end of the presentation by the admissions person he looked over at me and said, “I wish I had heard all of this when I was in 8th grade or a freshman”. I thought that was pretty telling.

We did tell my DC the things they need to know, and even an older cousin had the talk and said, "I wish someone had told me at your age..." but it didn't make a difference because sometimes their brains are not ready to hear about or process the future.

agree with this. for some, even though the information is there, they don't absorb it until years later.

Anonymous wrote:My son and I visited UVA in the spring of this junior year. At the end of the presentation by the admissions person he looked over at me and said, “I wish I had heard all of this when I was in 8th grade or a freshman”. I thought that was pretty telling.

We did tell my DC the things they need to know, and even an older cousin had the talk and said, "I wish someone had told me at your age..." but it didn't make a difference because sometimes their brains are not ready to hear about or process the future.

Anonymous wrote:We would have moved DC to private for middle school. We would have hired a tutor sooner. We would have cut way back on sports in high school.

Why private for middle school? Smaller class sizes?

Anonymous wrote:My son and I visited UVA in the spring of this junior year. At the end of the presentation by the admissions person he looked over at me and said, “I wish I had heard all of this when I was in 8th grade or a freshman”. I thought that was pretty telling.

Do you know what specifically he wished he’d heard?

My son and I visited UVA in the spring of this junior year. At the end of the presentation by the admissions person he looked over at me and said, “I wish I had heard all of this when I was in 8th grade or a freshman”. I thought that was pretty telling.

I would have taken DD out of corrupt HRCS and put her in our public or a parochial school. We would have hired a private college counselor at the beginning of the freshman year like so many others do in DC, but keep mum about it.

Anonymous wrote:Wasting time talking to our top private’s college counselor - school’s interests don’t really coincide with the bulk of its students in a given year.

What are the school's interests?

We would have moved DC to private for middle school. We would have hired a tutor sooner. We would have cut way back on sports in high school.

Anonymous wrote:What do you wish you had known when your DC was starting high school? (Or, better yet, what does your DC wish they’d known, done, and not done?) What ended up being important in college admissions, what ended up being overkill, etc?

Do not opt in to the college mailing lists when you take the PSAT/SAT. I think it's called the Student Search Service. It's a nightmarish, years-long torrent of both junk mail and emails, 99% of which are from schools you will have zero interest in. If you would like to be on a school's mailing list, you can easily achieve that by going to that school's own website and requesting info.

Anonymous wrote:My senior really wishes they studied more freshman year. That 9th grade GPA is dragging down the high grades in later years.

Totally agree. There were a lot of distractions in 9th including sports. If I had to do it again, I would cancel sports and focus on GPA.

Wasting time talking to our top private’s college counselor - school’s interests don’t really coincide with the bulk of its students in a given year.

Use middle school to get study habits and turning in assignments on time all worked out. So 9th grade can be more about academics then disorganization issues. Our 9th grade boy had mostly Bs in core classes. But 10th and 11th were As. Will it matter? He got in ED, but may have lowered his goal a tad due to 9th grade stats.