Help! College issues with Ivy league son

1NJParent
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 10:36:40 +0000

This is more than presuming inflated grades and easy courses. OP’s son did take 15 AP and get mostly 5 scores.

APs are far from the standards of rigor. Most APs are just ancillaries and serve little purpose other than being big money makers for the College Board. APs are certainly not equivalent to corresponding courses at more rigorous colleges. Using the number of APs as evidence of college preparedness is, IMO, unwarranted.

The issues OP’s son face, more likely than not, won’t go away after one semester. CS is not the most difficult major. Freshman discrete math and/or algorithm classes (if those were what he was taking) are not the most challenging. College burnouts are not that uncommon. If you used up all your energies in HS with all the AP courses and ECs trying to get into a top college with no ability to kick up a notch or two or three, you’re a candidate for burnout.