<p>Wonderful news oldfort! Congrats to DD!</p>
<p>Oldfort - that is REALLY wonderful news! Congratulations to D. It must be tough moving junior year, not knowing whether “the new kid” will have many opportunities to distinguish herself. She did it! That’s some good stuff to throw down on the apps.</p>
<p>Congrats, Oldfort! </p>
<p>Sounds like she’s got everything she needs.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your D Oldfort!</p>
<p>oldfort - Great news! Congratulations to her and how wonderful that she is doing so well at her new school!</p>
<p>Unbelievable, oldfort. Congrats!</p>
<p>oldfort - great news for your D. Congratulations to her!</p>
<p>Wonderful positive feedback Oldfort. I am quite sure that she will get excellent recommendations from her new teacher since she really did swope in and wow them. She stands out academically, they will write about that. </p>
<p>DS will be choosing Senior year schedule in two weeks and I am concerned (as usual) that he may be overloading himself. He is on the fence as to whether or not to take AP Biology. He is leaning toward being a chem or bio major in college on the premed route but knows that AP Bio is a ton of work (at our school, lots of projects) and he won’t be using the AP credits regardless (better to take the normal college premed biology sequence in prep for med school applications).
So far he is thinking of taking:</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C
AP Psychology
AP US Government/Honors Economics (each half year)
AP Biology OR AP Environmental Science OR AP Human Geography
Honors English 4 (or AP English Literature…trying to talk him out of this big time!!)
Honors Astronomy
I am trying to convince him to drop the 5th AP class (Bio, ES or HG) and instead take another honors class like Honors Law (a unique class about the American legal system taught by a lawyer…and not a tough class). </p>
<p>I remember with my girls that after the midyear mark they both got serious senioritis and didn’t want to “work” anymore. I don’t want him to be stuck with so many labor intensive classes during senior year. I also want him to drop AP English. He is struggling in AP Language this year and although he has learned a lot of valuable college skills, I don’t think he really belongs in the class. He hates to read and does so only when it is assigned. I think reading British literature on an AP level will be absolute torture for him!</p>
<p>seiclan –</p>
<p>Of course course difficulty can vary from school to school, but AP Human Geography and AP Environmental Science are both considered fairly easy AP exams. Both are the equivalent of a 1 semester college course, so have far less material than AP Biology</p>
<p>So Mathinokc, you are saying that taking AP ES or AP HG would be no big deal, and could be his 5th AP without breaking the camel’s back? I know he would have no problems with the content of AP biology, just the projects (which are extensive). He already took honors biology and honors anatomy and physiology. </p>
<p>He currently has 5 killer AP classes and 2 honors classes (for which he dosen’t open a book). His GPA has taken a hit this semester and I hate to see him set himself up for too much work senior year. He needs to have a social life too.</p>
<p>seiclan –</p>
<p>I don’t know your son, or how those courses are taught. I’m saying that if he wants to take another AP, then APES or AP HuG should be easier than AP Biology. If he has a lot of biology background, APES should be easier (there’s a lot of overlap between APES and AP Bio) that HuG.</p>
<p>My understanding is that there is about 1/3 overlap between AP Bio and APES. The actual AP test for ES is easier than the AP test for Bio. However, the class work required by each teacher for the grade associated with the class can very greatly from teacher to teacher. In our school, APES is considered an easier class, but it requires a lot more work (and time) than AP Bio. The time to complete the work required by the teacher is very school or teacher dependant.</p>
<p>Many congratulations, oldfort! It is SO hard to start a new school at this age, and to really distinguish oneself academically too-- it’s wonderful!</p>
<p>okay, so I am feeling like an idiot. for all the time I spend on CC… my D will end up taking the ACT in February as a stand-by (hopefully)!</p>
<p>I’d been pretty relaxed about it. she’s already taken the SAT and her scores were decent, but I think she should take the ACT just to see how she does. so today I go to check the remaining ACT dates, and discover that she has a huge EC conflict in April and will already be away at her summer job for the June one.:eek:</p>
<p>so the only other date is Feb 12 and we are a week past the late registration deadline, hence her stand-by status. sigh.</p>
<p>It’ll be OK, PRJ. My D ended up taking the October SAT stand-by, and it all worked out just fine. I was a wreck, it didn’t phase her at all. I don’t know if ACT will do this, but SAT will tell you the day before if the test site is completely sold out, and which test sites near you have seats. It’s certainly reassuring!</p>
<p>Thanks, IJustDrive. That is reassuring. It would be great to know ahead of time if the test center is full - if only to avoid D’s complete horror at having to get up early on a Saturday morning for nothing!!</p>
<p>…but PRJ, maybe you know that standby exists because you are so wise form all of your time on CC? Let’s go with that.</p>
<p>Congrats to daughterfort making a great impression at her new school!</p>
<p>seiclan - what’s the ‘word on the street’ about how much work each of these classes is at your S’s school? It just varies so much by school. When my S was setting up this year’s schedule, I called the GC and asked about each AP he wanted to take and what the reputation was regarding workload. This year he just asked everyone he knows at school in the AP’s he’s interested in or puts it on facebook and gets 20 answers in 10 minutes (at least that’s how it seems to me) about how much work each class is. </p>
<p>Our school doesn’t have honors in classes where an AP is offered, so it’s either AP or regular - that makes it even harder to cut out some AP’s! I think he has decided to take regular English instead of AP Lang - he took Lit this year and got one of the two really hard teachers (heavy workload and ridiculous grading scale). He’s done his time in the world of AP English! And a lot of schools don’t give credit for AP Lang it seems, just for AP Lit.</p>
<p>After lurking here for sometime I feel like I should officially introduce myself. DS is starting the college hunt, and I feel as if I’ve starting my career as his private GC. :-). He’s a quirky, lopsided kid - very good test scores (will definitely make the NMSF, has taken the SAT and ACT once, will take the SAT again in March), loves learning, is interested in almost everything, but is totally unmotivated by grades…and it shows. His (private) school isn’t exactly competitive per se, but lots of very high-achieving students and high expectation parents. He’s just under a 3.5, after a pretty lackluster 9th grade and improvement (slow) since then. Almost no APs at the school and no honors sections, but he took 2 last year self-studying (in line with his courses), and is signed up for 4 this spring - he actually likes taking tests, so the AP format is a good match for him. </p>
<p>I don’t know what colleges are going to make of him - young for his grade, obviously bright, and passionate about his intended field - but with a transcript that doesn’t quite match the potential; they’ll need to be swayed by his recs and essays (which I suspect will be very strong). We’re visiting UMCP and Georgetown in a few weeks, and visited Arizona State over the break. It’s going to be an interesting ride.</p>
<p>PM2:</p>
<p>Welcome!</p>
<p>Your son sounds just like my daughter. She takes standardized tests like a machine, but wouldn’t cross the street to please a teacher, and struggles to understand what some of them expect of her.</p>
<p>Does he have first semester grades for this year? My daughter’s slow improvement accelerated this year, which has reduced the stress levels around here a little bit.</p>
<p>For these very lopsided kids, I think Naviance can be great – to give you a sense of what that ‘low’ GPA actually means at your school. Also, it’s nice if your kid can pinpoint some ‘likelies’ early on that he can live with. There are a couple of big state schools with pretty predictable admissions that DD completely loves, and that keeps me from fretting too much about ‘what colleges are going to make of’ her. </p>
<p>Because, yeah, you’re right. Who knows?</p>
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<p>That’s just child abuse. ;)</p>