<p>Thanks, mathmom. My feeling was to trust Naviance as well. I just don’t want to aim too high and wind up with nothing!</p>
<p>Mathmom is right on target. S2’s school has limited info on a couple of his schools, and the only way I know it’s valid is that I had been able to look at S1’s Naviance data (similar program, different school) and they had more applicants with a wider range of GPAs/SAT scores, and looking at the two combined, I could get a better sense of who the school liked. The more data points, the better.</p>
<p>OTOH, we have a very high degree of confidence in S2’s likelies – tons of data points, and a wide enough band of acceptances (grades vs. GPA) to know he’s an attractive candidate.</p>
<p>CountingDown - I suspect your DS will love W&M. :)</p>
<p>mom2010 - my D got that letter from Carleton too. </p>
<p>I have no idea whether she’s been getting new emails from schools - she hasn’t said anything. I suspect that if she has, she’s just been deleting them. 
She still gets a few pieces by snail mail, and I still get a few emails to my address (which she used for her soph-year PSAT). I changed most of them to hers, but I don’t think she’s looked at one - ever!</p>
<p>I do think setting up a separate email account for college stuff is a good idea - and I though we’d done that, but then she made that her personal account and stopped using her old one.</p>
<p>Oh, and DougBetsy - sorry your S doesn’t have next week off - but two days off is better than nothing.</p>
<p>D just got a call from Temple University. Not on her list though. She wasn’t home, but I was curious to know what the young lady who called had to say. She asked when she might be able to reach D, and I suggested Thursday night. Maybe I’ll ask D to take the call, even though I’m not a fan of telemarketers.</p>
<p>Ds got a letter from Carleton, too, but his talked about his likely status in the Natl. Hisp Rec Program.</p>
<p>I need some quick advice. D is not sure if she wants to take AB or BC calculus next year. Anyone have any pros or cons for each one. She is fairly math focused but SUCKS on tests.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2–D had received a postcard from Binghamton highlighting next week for admissions visits, so perhaps our paths will cross; in any case, hope you and your D have a helpful and informative visit. Because we’re planning to drive up, I’m keeping an eye on the weather forecast. It’s early yet, but it looks it will be clear but cold (high in the upper 20s). If D is going to consider Binghamton, it may be just as well that she gets a taste of upstate NY winter. </p>
<p>A few days beforehand, we’re also going to go down to Emory, so at least that will give us a (very brief) respite from winter. </p>
<p>I grew up in Connecticut and remember getting a week off in February, but here in PA we have the four day President’s Day weekend. At least it gives us a little opportunity to get in some visits. D’s college email has also been ramping up within the last week. She was wondering if it was in the wake of the PSATs or the December ACTs–it seemed a little soon for the Jan. SATs.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom – Math traditionally hasn’t been D’s strong suit, so I don’t have a real detailed handle of the differences between AB & BC. Since D has been doing consistently well in Pre-Calc. this year, she spoke with the AB Calc. teacher, who seems to feel that she can handle AB next year. The sense that we had was that BC would be better suited to students with a stronger interest and aptitude in math.</p>
<p>Interesting how different schools handle the AB/BC thing. At mine, a well-reputed math/science magnet, the top students do a full year of AB and then a full year of BC. If you want to skip, you’ll have to take a calc course over the summer.</p>
<p>We do have very high pass rates, though. And I guess it’s the school’s way of making us take more AP tests (required to take test if you take the class, and no, they don’t pay for any of the $86/test) to increase Newsweek ranking.</p>
<p>Yeah, D is having trouble deciding on classes for next year and the form is due tomorrow. She did very well in pre-calc this year. The other issue is she is taking 3 other AP classes (one of which is AP Music Theory, which is supposed to be absolutely killer) plus honors physics (2 other classes are not honors). I don’t want her burning out. She stresses enough as it is. Then again, she’d be stressing in AB too.</p>
<p>She also dropped Honors French 5 because she does not like the teacher she would have next year. Instead she took a social studies elective (no weighting).</p>
<p>Ack. I don’t know what to do. I am leaning to BC, but my husband is leaning to AB. My D is leaning equally both ways.</p>
<p>In our school honors pre-calc has already started on the Calc material. Most of the kids will go on to Calc BC, but BC has a pretty high drop out rate. (They just drop into AB - it’s not a big deal.) S1 was the math whiz so it’s hard to judge. I took BC a million years ago when I was just 16 and got an A then bombed the AP. I always felt it was just beyond my understanding. Took it again at 19 and was amazed at how easy it was, my brain felt more ready. S2 is definitely planning on BC - he’s pretty good at math despite being terrible at memorizing formulas. I can’t imagine stretching the material in BC calc over two full years. Any way, I suggest she does what the teacher recommends, but if she’s doing well in pre-calc she’ll probably be fine in BC. The AP Exam for BC calc actually comes with two scores so if you just do well on the AB material you can still get credit for that.</p>
<p>S2 wants to take history electives (unweighted I think) in Asian History and South American History instead of the more usual AP Gov or AP Econ. He’d have to pass tests for NY regents requirements and do some gov related community service.</p>
<p>DD announced yesterday at 4:45PM that class requests were due by 5:00PM… So it was scramble time to get it into the online system (a new to us module in Naviance).</p>
<p>Schedule looks like a handful to me:</p>
<p>AP Political Science
Honor Econ (1 semester class - no AP anymore)
AP Stats
AP English Lit
AP Environmental Science
Photo (meets UC Art Requirement)
Newspaper (1 semester to fill in behind econ)</p>
<p>I have to say registration was a piece of cake… beats the old paper system for sure!!!</p>
<p>We submitted Son’s 12th grade schedule last night. (And D’s 10th grade, too. 
) </p>
<p>Turns out he’s the only kid signed-up for AP French. I sure hope they don’t cancel. It’s one of his favorite classes. I hope they let him squat in III or IV and self study.</p>
<p>Anybody have experience in this?</p>
<p>D registered last week - they meet with their GC who makes sure whatever the student and parent have signed off on are classes the student has been approved to take. This is what she signed up for:</p>
<p>AP Engl Lit
AP Span Lang
AP BC Calc
AP Bio
AP Gov
AP Econ
Wind Ensemble
PE - Aerobics or Yoga</p>
<p>At her school, both AP Gov and AP Econ are full-year courses - annoying in some ways, but at least it won’t be months between one of the classes and the end of the course.</p>
<p>Mathmom - are there Regents in both American Government and Economics? I was hoping she’d be Regents-free after this year! It’s not that they’re hard, but they seem to go to the very end of June. Since all ofher classes are APs, I was sort of hoping she’d be done with everything but band and gym by mid-May…lol. Wouldn’t that be a great way to finish senior year? </p>
<p>QM - sorry I can’t help you with AB vs. BC. D decided to take BC - she’s a strong math student, and her teacher recommended her for it, so she figured that was the way to go.</p>
<p>Like Keilexandra, we have a full year AB and then a full year BC after that so D will be taking AB next year. QM, if I remember math is not her focus. I would pick going with AB to give her some breathing room with her otherwise full schedule and the application stress.</p>
<p>No you don’t actually take a Regents in either. I believe you have to take a semester long course in each - or pass an exam to get out of it. In our school they do AP Econ or AP Gov as yearlong courses, but claim they cover both Regents requirements at the same time. They did do some gov in the Econ course - especially after the AP! No worries she won’t have any Regents to worry about! But that looks like a killer May!</p>
<p>Well, D apparently decided on AB, but I think her choices aren’t set in stone until May sometime, so she can still change. BTW, she is rather Math oriented and Honors pre-calc actually put her on track for BC. I am just worried about her.</p>
<p>mathmom - it looks like a killer schedule in general, but at least D should have a somewhat relaxing time after the APs. I believe she’ll still have her senior project to finish up, but she’ll have plenty of time to work on it.</p>
<p>Oh, and thanks for filling me in about the Regents.</p>
<p>At our public HS (four year enrollment around 2,100) the current enrollment in AP Calculus is 10 in BC and 58 in AB. In recent years, that’s been the typical split. Since a ten student enrollment is the general cut off for whether a class is offered or not, my S (who took AP Calculus BC last year and really enjoyed it) went around lobbying his math/science friends to take BC so it would be offered again this year. The pass rate in AB and BC (especially BC with 9 at 5 and 1 at 4) is pretty high. </p>
<p>The calculus teacher has been around awhile. He’s quite personable and is also the varsity soccer coach. He really makes the BC students feel good about taking “the hardest class the HS has to offer” (the AP Physics C teacher usually has something to say about this.) The BC students tend to be more focused and many have already decided they may want to major in engineering, math or science.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s obvious with the applications for next year in the bag, the U’s are starting to crank with their advertising for the crop of 2010. My S has received more of these emails in the past week.</p>
<p>It’s quite an eclectic assortment. I’ve decided to stop wracking my brain to find some commonality, since part of it’s based on their own marketing needs, coupled with what my S put as info on his College Board site.</p>
<p>Here’s last weeks assortment:</p>
<p>Hofstra
Hamilton
Colgate
Grinell
Rice
Cal Tech
OSU (Ohio State)
Humboldt State
Kettering
Davidson</p>
<p>He might have interest in Rice and Cal Tech. As for the others, especially the smaller LACs in semi-rural areas, I can’t envision what would spark an interest there.</p>