<p>It is interesting to see how much work, or NOT, APs are in every school. DS’s AP English class isn’t that much work. Papers, yes, but he writes well and fast. There is reading and analysis, but not so much graded things. In fact, I just looked at 2nd Q grades and there were 3 essays, 3 quizzes and one in class grade. That’s it. He has been taking AP practice tests and scoring a 5, so I think he is being prepared. </p>
<p>Now, AP Bio is A LOT of work. 2nd quarter saw 27 grades: labs, tests, quizzes and HW. APUSH, lots of reading and memorization with 12 tests and quizzes, but no HW grades in the 2nd quarter. </p>
<p>Kids in our HS traditionally do pretty well on the AP tests (4s and 5s) so it makes me wonder whether some more competetive schools give a lot more “work” than they have to, or if it is necessary to load on that much work to learn the material and get that coveted 5. </p>
<p>On a side note, our middle of the road HS just made Newsweeks list at just over 1000. Not trying to start a debate about ranking HS’s or Newsweek vs US News and World rankings, just saying I was actually a bit suprised that we did so well. I think there are over 27,000 HSs in the US, so a bit over 1000 is pretty good (although I don’t like their ranking system).</p>
<p>Last night I pulled some APUSH flashcards for S to study for a two chapter test tomorrow, and I noticed that the cards don’t match his Inventing America textbook. The Teapot Dome scandal is never mentioned, and the topic is instead referred to as events surrounding the “Ohio Gang.” Looking through more cards, it looks like 1/3 or so are decidedly different. The difference seems to be in the book - many terms that I thought were common are not used in the text - I remember learning about Teapot Dome. </p>
<p>S says that he realized some time ago that the book doesn’t follow the AP exam exactly, so he’s had to study using two or three sources all along. Another reason why APUSH is so much work!</p>
<p>mihcal1 - I think what seiclan is saying is that this year her S is taking 5 “core” APs, and next year 3 of his 5 APs (Gov, Psych and Human Geo) are among the “non-core” APs which are typically viewed to be less intense than the APs in core subjects.</p>
<p>This was the call we had to make when choosing D’s online AP math class. AP Stats is considered by adcoms to be a “lesser” AP than AP Calc, but we felt comfortable making the choice given the rest of her schedule and the fact that she is doing it online.</p>
<p>All that said, seiclanSon has remarkable ambition and drive - it’s impressive!</p>
<p>Thank you PRJ, that is exactly what I meant. I will say though, not to put my son down but, his ambition and drive vary during the school year. He still will do the minimum amount of work to “go for” the A. This last fall semester his grades dropped, though not catastrophically, (4 A’s, 2B+, 1 B)due to his inability to juggle the workload. His class rank dropped about 4 points from that semester. I can guess that it will drop another 4 or 5 points after this semester as well. He is recognizing that although he does have ambition and loves to learn (science and math), he really dosen’t want to “work that hard”. This may change though, I am not sure. </p>
<p>We will not have a final college application list until late June, when we see his class rank and GPA AND get his newest SAT scores (after having some prep sessions). We don’t know if he is going to fit into the A student or B student threads yet! Who knows what will be his match/target schools at this point? </p>
<p>I don’t know how impressed the adcoms will be with the rigor of his classes if he gets B’s in most of them!</p>
<p>Seiclan - our sons, like many here, are of the “do enough to get the a/A-”, but sometimes they misjudge and get the B+. Oh well, if only they were perfect, like us! :} I am jealous that you have class rank info. We have no idea where DS stands. I’m hoping top 10%, but to be honest, we could be in for a surprise come next Oct (the first time they let the kids know). </p>
<p>Is your son looking at marine bio schools? DS has a very preliminary list, but really hasn’t started really looking yet.</p>
<p>My son is not sure if he wants to go premed or engineering (or biomedical engineering). He doesn’t want marine science. He will probably look to major in Bio, Chem or even Physics. We have a preliminary list (from the private guidance counselor) but it is very fluid at this point because of everything (post #3324). He is looking at Columbia and U Penn but also at Tulane and U Miami. Emory is rising on his list (but I am not sure if the lack of school spirit (no football team) will be an issue for him. Vanderbilt, Wash U. and Carnegie Mellon also have caught our eye but…alas, until he takes those June SAT’s we won’t know if he will need to cut 3/4 of this list! Our GC says that he needs close to 1500 (M/CR) for Vandy, Wash U and CMU (Columbia and U Penn are big reaches regardless of what he scores). </p>
<p>We are unsure if he will decide come February of his senior year, as did his sister, that the state of Florida is the place to be for college. We will cast a WIDE net.</p>
<p>re: class rank. our school does not weight grades and also stopped ranking a few years ago, but they do publish GPA deciles. I assumed D’s GPA of 3.99 would put her in the top 10%, but no such luck. either a lot of her peers in the advanced classes are getting A+'s while she mostly has As or there are lots of kids getting A+'s in easier classes. or both. I’m not going to worry about it.</p>
<p>I will confess, however, to asking D1’s GC to do the math so he could say she was in the top 25% instead of the 3rd decile :o</p>
<p>Great list! I am going to look into biomed engineering for DD13, but DS12 is not on any engineering path. That 1500 CR/M isn’t really doable for DS12, so I guess we are looking a little lower schoolwise, although U Miami is on our list. </p>
<p>DS is prepped to take the SAT on Saturday. We are hoping for 700CR/650M/720W. I think if he has a good day the CR and writing are doable, but he has prepped very little for the math. I’m thinking he’ll only hit 620 or so. </p>
<p>Fingers crossed for your DS - hoping he pulls it all off!</p>
<p>GPA deciles…wow, I was not familiar with that concept. </p>
<p>I wish that our school did not rank. It would slow the arm’s race a bit I think. The top ten kids (top 1%) fight tooth and nail for their spots. One of my son’s friends is in that group and he is taking 9 AP classes (DE and online plus 7 at the school)!!! These kids take classes all summer long (and lie to each other about what and how many each are taking) to one up each other. My son is somewhere in the top 5% and it is not quite so underhanded in his corner of the pool, thank goodness.</p>
<p>I think HS’s are damned if they do and damned if they don’t (rank). Ours only publishes the unweighted GPA on the transcript, but then ranks based on weighted. However, they don’t publish rankings (to keep the arms race Seiclan described to a minimum) until the last possible second. However, it leaves kids like my DS in no where land, but we have no idea how he will rank. It would be nice to know if he is in the top 10%. If not, that means we are probably shooting too high on colleges. Only time will tell, I guess. I think he is going to handle next year just fine - me, however, I am going to be a mess of nerves!</p>
<p>speaking of the arms race, DH and I saw “Race to Nowhere” yesterday, the documentary about the intense pressure on HS students, exactly like seiclan describes with the top 1% at her S’s school. really thought provoking. as D2 is our last, we are really at the end of this process, but I will admit that seeing the film changed my thinking a bit. we’ve been disappointed with the few AP options at our local HS, but in a way that has protected our kids from the arms race. they simply can’t take 5 or 6 or 9 (!!) AP classes at the same time.</p>
<p>It looks like my daughters schedule next year will be:</p>
<p>AP Gov/Econ
AP Calculus AB
AP European History
AP English Lit
AP French or French 3
Orchestra</p>
<p>Because of orchestra and basketball she was not able to take French as a freshman and is currently, as a junior, taking French 2. We are trying to decide if she should test out of French 3 so that she could take AP French as a senior. Given the rest of her schedule we are concerned that adding AP French, especially considering that she will be bypassing French 3, will be too much. Anyone have any advice on this issue?</p>
<p>I hate the ‘arms race’ too and feel pretty lucky we are in a rural area with too such a wide variety of kids in school that it’s not as noticeable. I’m amazed by the kids here and at D’s school who take 5 or even 6 APs, extra community college courses in summer, etc. But I think we’re almost lucky that D is just incapable of higher-level math/science. She’s so conscientious she would have undertaken all those courses but honestly I’m glad she hasn’t. She takes AP English and History (next year AP Art History, and Psych)…still she spends more time on her regular level chemistry class, just to keep her grade at 90 or so. But she also takes tons of music classes, and spends 25-30 hours a week on her EC (theater). So she’s had a real-world education complete with all kinds of artistic and business experience, at the same time as her academic education. </p>
<p>I have no idea how colleges will look at this, but then I can’t foresee the future at all–so I’m glad to know she’s had a challenging and satisfying high school experience, that she’s gone her own way with such dedication. Still I’m going to be horribly anxious next year!</p>
<p>Seiclan, has your son considered the ISP program at Northwestern? FindAPlace told me about it, and it sounds wonderful for a kid with eclectic science interests. </p>
<p>My D12 is talking about engineering, and I worry about whether that is the best match for her. She does well science, but struggles at the B+/A- boundary in math. On the other hand, she set the top of the curve in APUSH, is a big wheel in the school’s Latin JCL club, and writes Wikipedia entries on Greek and Roman mythology for fun. </p>
<p>But … she says she doesn’t like the “mushiness” of humanities. She loves to read, but hates literary analysis. She likes that math and science questions have a right answer. (Um, not really – but I can see why a HS’er thinks that.) Mainly, she says that math/science geeks are her “kind” of person, and she likes hanging out with them. It’s probably my and DH’s fault, because we’re both math-science-y types and raised our kids with too much pointy-headed dinner table conversation. :p</p>
<p>Our HS allows kids to take outside classes (at CC or summer school or online) and petition for credit, but it only gets listed on the transcript pass/fail and doesn’t count toward GPA or rank. My D12 did that with Health (summer after 9th) and US Govt (summer after 10th) and Econ (this summer) to make room in her schedule for Orchestra.</p>
<p>Also, I was struck by what Seiclan said about kids’ lying to each-other to psych one-another out. I see that here, with all sorts of bravado of kids telling one-another how much time they’re spending on projects or reporting test scores (sometimes the parent tells me something different than their kid told D12, so someone must be lying). It seems cruel to me, or maybe sad that the kids feel they have to lie.</p>
<p>I don’t think so. I don’t think they even run the program till next fall. We have a “getting ready for college aps” meeting next week, maybe I’ll ask her is she can give me an idea.</p>
<p>I was a student like your daughter. I have an EE undergrad but from a liberal arts college where I could double major in English. I went on to get an MS in BME to strengthen my engineering credentials. It ended up being a great combination. There are benefits to being and engineer who can write. I also despised Calculus - it was a means to an end - and I never really learned the math until I needed to use it in an engineering class. So, I would not rule out engineering for the non-math geek. </p>
<p>@CountMonteCristo.</p>
<p>My older D has several friends who skipped a level of language by going to the Middlebury summer language programs. They did not get “credit” for a class, but their skills improved enough to jump to the next level.</p>
<p>Nice to meet everyone here! I’ve been lurking for a bit & am a bit stressed about college admissions.</p>
<p>My B/G twins are HS class of 2012. My son is gifted in math & is applying to highly selective schools that I fear he won’t get into, while my daughter is gifted in writing, which colleges disregard…and her math skills are pretty weak. At least my son has a decent safety school in mind, while my daughter really doesn’t have one that appeals to her.</p>
<p>I also have an older daughter who graduated from Washington & Jefferson College in 2008 & a younger daughter who’s in the 7th grade. What else…I’m from Maryland right outside D.C. and I am a sci fi/fantasy media geek. :D</p>