<p>My S is a young sophomore and he isn’t into the social scene yet either. He does very well at school and is a math kid as well. He is very busy and when he’s not, he likes to hang out with the guys. I figure it will come in time and we’re enjoying the time with him while we have it. </p>
<p>My older D is a freshman in college and so he is getting some of the college exposure through her. We saw her become much more social her junior and senior years, so we expect his day will come along too. I wonder if it is more common for introverts to slowly find their place in high school.</p>
<p>If you have older kids, you might agree this is at least a little bit comical. Yesterday we hit a milestone: the first piece of mail from Wash U St. Louis. My son’s sophomore PSAT was so so and his PLAN score was okay but neither showed him to be a stellar prospect and he has zero interest in WUSL - but based on his sister’s snail mail experience WUSL kills the most trees of any school in the U.S.A. (She had never indicated any interest in WUSL either.) </p>
<p>A lot of stdents from our HS apply there. I guess their mail blitz is effective.</p>
<p>my D did not check the box so has gotten no mail. Her scores were not that great anyway.</p>
<p>the thing we are thinking about in our house is next year’s schedule, particulary science as the rest is set. The plan is-</p>
<p>American Lit (not opting for AP Eng Lang)
USH (not opting for APUSH)
AP Calc AB (must be taken before BC)
AP Latin
…
for science she is in H Chem now and she likes it. She did not like Bio. Her options would be to take AP Chem and/or H Phys. I want her to take Physics before graduation so she knows if she doesn’t take it next year she will take it Sr year. </p>
<p>As you can see since she isn’t taking all the top classes, she isn’t a standout student, but is a very good student. Private school probably wouldn’t allow all APs anyway and Eng/Hist are not her strengths. Because she is not attempting to take them all, I think doubling in the sciences would be accepted but not sure if it is too much work.</p>
<p>If she only takes one science, the other choice might be Stats, but I’m not sure this would be approved if she wanted AP Chem and Stats. Or if she doesn’t take AP Chem there is an Orgo Chem elective and then a Phys optics/waves elective that would cover the first two trimesters. The H Physc curriculum covers mech and e&m. It is a pre-req for AP Phys C, ie you can’t take reg Phys and then go to AP. Right now she says she isn’t interested in Physics, but of course she hasn’t tried it yet.</p>
<p>we’re on the non-math side of the AP equation:
APUSH
AP English
College prep math (the slowest entry into calculus, with SAT prep)
Chemistry (not AP)
French 4 (not AP)
Glee choir (well, who could help that?)</p>
<p>We don’t subscribe to the belief that the all kids should take the most rigorous classes the school has to offer. For most, it should be the most rigor the kid can handle. Our son chose to challenge himself with APs in English, his best subject, but not in math. So far, he’s been admitted to 4 colleges and is still waiting to hear from 3 more. </p>
<p>However, if the student wants to attend a highly selective school, it goes without saying that rigor does matter. My 2012 daughter is one of those students and we’ve had to readjust our thinking. She intends to take APUSH, Chem AP, Calc AP, Engl AP, an art elective, her sport, so far. Her sport is year round and it will be interesting to see how she manages her time. </p>
<p>We will be spending a lot more time on this thread in the coming year! The junior year is a major one - lots of stress for the kids. It was the most challenging year for our son (and us) school-wise and family-wise. If it wasn’t for CC where I could vent, things may not have been as peaceful in this house! :)</p>
<p>MY DS has somewhat of a mix. LOVES science and humanities, hates math,</p>
<p>AP Bio
APUSH
AP Latin
Eng 3 ( no AP ENG at his school till 12th grade, he could take ENG 3 H, a weighted class, but decided against it because of the Bio. which is very rigorous at his school.)
ALG 2
Christian scriptures( has to take it)
Advanced Honors Philosophy of Religion( above an AP)
Acting workshop( audition only acting class… very hard to get into.)</p>
<p>I’m a little worried he has gone over board… he really doesn’t like to study that much:-)))</p>
<p>D got her first college mail yesterday from U Chicago, except it was addressed to us.</p>
<p>The Euro Hist teacher wants D to take the AP test in April, I am not sure it’s a good idea. I think AP Lat. Lit is enough. She is complaining too much lately about the amount of homework she had to do.
I don’t know why but ten grade is always the most challenging year for my kids.</p>
<p>pullinghair- assume you mean AP Latin Vergil as Lit was discontinued after last year.</p>
<p>Who pays for the AP tests at your school? And it seems like they are not mandatory? If the money isn’t a factor, it may be good to try it. The tests are a week apart (5/7 and 5/14) and the scores are self reported to colleges. If she doesn’t take it and doesn’t report it, colleges might wonder what’s up and might assume she is hiding a bad grade. </p>
<p>lilmom- I agree there is no need to push to overboard, and at our school it is very rigorous and the profile states “Students are encouraged to limit themselves to 2 AP courses” But they have added three additional APs (Eng Lang, Chem, Physics C) to the schedule starting this year so I’m not sure if the school profile language will be adjusted. My first D took 2 jr year and 5 sr year (including one of the new ones), far more than most kids. I will be talking to a current jr parent soon and will ask her about what current jrs are doing. This is a private school and even the courses not designated as honors are rigorous. My D is probably not looking at a t20 school.</p>
<p>My daughter is applying to another school for her junior and senior year. However, she still has to do her re-enrollment paperwork at her current school. Currently, she’s signing up for</p>
<ul>
<li>AP English Language</li>
<li>AP US History</li>
<li>PE (needs a year and hasn’t taken any)</li>
</ul>
<p>If she’s still at this high school next year, she’ll take everything else through concurrent enrollment – she wants to take Organic Chemistry, Linear Algebra or DEs, and either an engineering or advanced physics class.</p>
<p>My daughter took no AP’s in 9th grade, though one was available. She is taking 2 AP’s and 3 honors classes this year (with a total of 3 science classes), along with dual enrollment calculus at the local community college. She just started calc 3 last month. Her plans are to take 5 AP classes next year. Her school is putting together next years schedules with the students now, so we will see how that shakes out. </p>
<p>She also plans to do differential equations and another class at the community college this summer and next year begin the physics sequence in dual enrollment at the cc. Needless to say, she loves calc and science. She also gets some good balance in her life with drama class and charity work.</p>
<p>She is aiming for the stars, literally. She thinks she wants to be an astrophysicist.</p>
<p>I spoke with a friend yesterday whose son is currently an 11th grade student at my son’s school. Her son is taking 5 AP classes and is challenged, but not drowning, in schoolwork and he is doing very well in his classes. She says that, knowing my son, he can handle (5 AP’s and) both AP Chemistry and AP Biology along with AP Calculus, AP USH, and AP Psychology (“easier AP”). He would also take Honors English 3 and Honors Marine Science 1 with this. Do you guys think that this would be too much? I was originally planning for him to take only one science AP (although science is his thing) next year and was not sure he should take APUSH since he has been getting B’s in AP World History this year. I had planned for him to take Honors US History instead. My girlfriend says that APUSH is easier than World because it is more interesting and contains less material to learn. She also said that AP USH and Honors US history is about the same amount of work at our school so he may as well get the honors weighting and be able to take the AP exam for credit. What do you CC’ers think of this?</p>
<p>seiclan- I’d go with what people at your school say, if your friend thinks it’s doable, and if he wants that schedule, give it a try. I think the difficulty of AP subjectX differs widely between schools from minimal teach to the test up to very similar to a college course.</p>
<p>Do people think it is best for an AP science class to follow the pre-req class in that same subject, or is a year gap not a big deal? I know this is also school dependent on how much review they do. I’m wondering pro/con of AP Chem jr year vs waiting till sr year.</p>
<p>I agree, seiclan, as long as he can switch out if he feels overwhelmed. Some schools make that difficult but otherwise, if he wants to undertake such a tough schedule, why not try it? (At our school AP psych can be a heavy workload but it really does seem to differ school by school.)</p>
<p>My son would like to do both AP Bio and AP chem precisely because of what JAVACC just brought up. He is currently taking honors chemistry AND honors anatomy and physiology (he had honors Bio last year). He feels he is now adequately prepared and should now
take ap chem and ap bio while the material is fresh. He will save AP physics until senior year. Unfortunately, his school makes it very difficult to switch out of classes once they have begun so he may find himself stuck with his/our decision. At our HS, AP Psych is no harder than any honors class so he should be fine with that. I really don’t know how AP Calculus AB is/will be but my son’s precalculus teacher feels he will not have any trouble with it.</p>
<p>One more thing guys, has anyone here had a child take/do a summer discovery program (through Musiker) at a college for 2 weeks? We are looking at one they give at Villanova in PA. The kids do a SAT Prep class (18 hours) in the mornings and spend the afternoons and weekends doing college tours in the area (PA, NJ, NY, MD). Any thoughts on this type of sat prep and or college tours? I thought it might get my son to focus what type of school he may like (big, small, city, rural, public, private etc…)</p>
<p>Just FYI, but AP Human Geography is one of the easiest APs.</p>
<p>My daughter is doing AP Physics C, AP Bio, AP Spanish, and AP World this year.</p>
<p>AP Bio and AP World are both a lot of content – lots of reading and memory work.
AP Physics and AP Chem (which she took last year) are like having an extra math class – daily problem sets and more things that can be figured out from formula sheets. (There’s some memory work in Chem – solubility rules and the like, but it’s much less than AP Bio or a history course.)</p>
<p>My daughter’s chem teacher advised that AP Chem immediately follow Chemistry I. On the other hand, my daughter had a gap between Biology and AP Bio and it hasn’t made a difference for her.</p>
<p>mathinokc- thanks for the info I’ll have to check to see what our Chem teacher recommends before course signup time.</p>
<p>seiclan- is the proposal on the table to take three sciences next year (AP Chem, AP Bio, marine science) ? Even though science is his fave, I fear it looking too lopsided. I didn’t see a foreign language, is he done with that? </p>
<p>I understand the focus in his strong area- my older D wanted to take 3 langugages this year but it didn’t work in her schedule and I was concerned about it. She would not have taken a history and she was questioned about her reasons in one interview. She ended up needing to drop one language but is taking two math. She was also able to pick up history for 2/3 of the year (electives)</p>
<p>So if your friend thinks AP Bio+Chem is good for your son he should try it. Just make sure that any case he is not taking 4 years of a core course is well thought out.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of that program you could try a question in the summer programs area.</p>