<p>FAP- are they dropping AP French Lang? Because the collegeboard is dropping French Lit which is a shame because although I don’t know what is covered in that class, I enjoyed taking French Lit classes in college.</p>
<p>And I commiserate with you because I had similar cutbacks when I was a senior in HS due to budget/revenue raising changes which severely impacted the schools and other municipal departments.</p>
<p>Our school publishes rates of 3 or higher on AP classes which I think is bogus as most schools only award credit/standing for 4 or 5. At least most colleges where kids from our school apply. I would love to see the whole breakdown or at least the %age for 4 or higher also.</p>
<p>MilwDad, I agree with the advice to just start visiting local colleges to see what feels right to ds, as soon as possible. We started summer before sophomore year with one uni because we happened to be in town. Last summer went to four more while on another trip. This summer we’ll do five more while on yet another trip.</p>
<p>I had ds do a minimal workup on each school: write down three pros, three cons and then a sentence or two about the school. Sometimes, he would do much more than the minimum, so I knew he was getting into it. </p>
<p>Same thing this weekend. We spent time on Naviance and I gave him a specific task – write down the 50% range and the admit rate, then decided whether the schools on his list are reaches, matches or safeties. He went beyond that and did more research on certain schools. On Sunday, I had him fill out the FAFSA4caster to get him thinking about $$$ and, on his own, he joined fastweb and started researching scholarships.</p>
<p>Sometimes, all they need is a little prompting.</p>
<p>Oh, something he did over the winter break was to go through the box of mailings from the previous year and actually look at some of it and divide the mailings into “maybes” and “not a chance.” Minimal effort but some exposure to the idea of choosing a college.</p>
<p>Is there ANY college in these here United States that isn’t “picturesque?” Should D get a mailing that says "come visit us at our academically exceptional, friendly, and butt ugly campus, she’s going there!</p>
<p>FindAPlace (and everyone else whose schools may be changing/cutting courses this fall),</p>
<p><em>Make sure</em> that the GC designates those AP exams as “not available” or removes them altogether from the school report that will go out with seniors’s applications next year. Those kinds of edits often get lost in the rush to get new numbers for the senior class posted.</p>
<p>I noticed two years ago that the school report for S’s school (for the class before him) listed classes that were no longer offered. Given that these were very high-level courses which the top students in this program were likely to take given their interests and intended majors, we felt this could put folks at a disadvantage with college adcoms who didn’t know these courses were, in fact, not available.</p>
<p>The GC got it corrected before school reports went out for S1’s senior year. </p>
<p>S also made a couple of clarifications about coursework listed on his transcript (i.e., transcript course name didn’t indicate what kind of science, etc.). He did this in an Additional Information section which he attached to his app. In one case, the GC included a specific paragraph in her rec letter about a course that was listed as AP but in fact was a college-level physics major intro sequence w/heavy, heavy math prerequisites (i.e., MV/DiffEq).</p>
<p>Zooser, “Butt ugly” has been associated with Harvey Mudd’s campus by some prospies. ;D When we visited, I didn’t think it was so bad! Any campus that is 30 minutes from both the beach and snowy mountains is plenty nice enough to me without glamorous architecture!</p>
<p>ditto CountingDown! That’s one of the questions I thought of when looking at our “improved profile” They list classes from like the last 5 years but not all are always offered. I would like them to note the ones the current class had available to them. This is especially important because our school is ADDING some APs and without comments it will look like they were bypassed by this group.</p>
<p>and I’m sure the ugly discussion will fuel this thread for a while. D would add Clark to the list. The outside was only moderately ugly but the buildings definitely looked like the inside of 50 year old public school buildings. No creature comforts anywhere, very utilitarian and old. The dining hall reminded me of an old HS gymnasium (only small windows up high and yellow brick)</p>
<p>jackief, I was under the impression that you could get college credit with a 3 at a lot of schools. You are right! Thanks for alerting me to this. I just checked at a lot of schools my son is considering and they all want a 4 or 5.</p>
<p>Our hs is considered to be very good, yet glancing at scores over the past couple of years, I only see 2 AP classes where the average is a 4 or slightly higher than 4. Two classes have a class average below 2, and one is in the high 3 range. This tells me that very few kids from our hs are getting any AP credit. What a shame.</p>
<p>Actually, looking closer at the APs out of the total number of tests taken across the board somewhere between 40-50% were 4s and 5s, but the heaviest portion came from 2 AP classes in the math and sciences.</p>
<p>My older son wasn’t even that interested after I took him on a tour. That isn’t stopping me from taking younger son even earlier. He already seems a little more engaged. We’ve even looked at college campuses from google satellite maps. Things that seem to be smaller than his high school are definitely out! I don’t think the older son was really and truly engaged until he’d been accepted and had to make a choice!</p>
<p>For those of us in the Cleveland area, NACAC has its Spring college fair on April 26. I took D two years ago when she was just a freshman and she enjoyed the introduction to the college admissions process. This link will provide college fair info for other areas of the country, too!</p>
We are returning in April with a different goal because some of d's favorite schools will be exhibitors and she can winnow her lists of dozens down to a manageable few to begin visiting soon.
<p>I wonder if it makes sense to go to one of those schools, graduate in under 3 years (paying less money), getting much higher grades. getting merit money and then apply to a prestigious graduate school with no debt going in.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom,
When we met with the GC in spring of junior year, we asked for a school report for the current graduating class. Was not a problem, and if it were, I would have pushed the issue. I never did see the 2008 school report for S1’s class, but was assured by the GC that updates were made. She did a great job for the kids and sent out an unprompted update on S in addition to mid-year reports, so I have no reason to believe there were any problems.</p>
<p>I got one for 2008 for S2’s school. Was good to see breakdowns for AP scores, average SAT scores, etc.</p>
<p>Mathmom, the school where my niece ('10) will likely attend her first two years gives credit for AP 3 scores. It’s a small public university in her hometown and given the quality of education in the area, the school is THRILLED to see kids taking APs, period. It has an articulation agreement with the state flagship that will ensure those 3s give her credit when she transfers, too.</p>
<p>mathmom, I just looked at couple of schools that are tier 3s, and they want 4s and 5s. In today’s economy, I do think that some schools that offer credit for 3s might see a spike in enrollment if the rest of the merit/financial package is good.</p>
<p>Just quickly googled AP score of 3 and college credit and came up with 3 state schools that accept a 3 in a lot from a lot of AP classes. You would need to check if the class that your child took qualifies for credit with just a 3. Three schools that I found to take a lot of 3s are: Binghamton, Clemson, and Virginia Commonwealth U.</p>
^^^</p>