<p>Igloo – I believe your GC was painting with too broad a brush when he/she said that “State Universities exclusively rely on GPA and SAT/ACT.” This isn’t the case with all public colleges, although it is indeed true of some.</p>
<p>Colleges that accept the Common Application are required to adhere to a holistic admissions policy. The specific language that they agree to is as follows:</p>
<p>“5.Consider subjective criteria in the admission process, including requiring ALL the following:
a.An untimed essay of at least 250 words or an untimed graded paper;
b.A recommendation form from a school-based counselor and/or teacher that allows the recommender to make substantive written comments on the form or in an attached letter;
c.Information allowing you to select a diverse student body.”</p>
<p>Virtually all of the SUNYs are Common Application members. So too is the University of Delaware, University of Maine, University of Massachusetts, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, University of Virginia, The College of William & Mary, The College of New Jersey, Miami (of Ohio) and so on.</p>
<p>A complete list of public colleges and universities that are members of the Common Application consortium can be found here:</p>
<p>At one of the two large public universities in our state, we were told that the university only looked at essays and other parts of the application if the student didn’t meet the rank/GPA/score requirements.</p>
<p>Ooops, please don’t take what I said about State Universities seriously. GC’s may have been talking about State Uni’s kids at my D’s HS frequently go to.</p>
<p>Went to D1’s school science fair recently and learned a couple things.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Average quality of the projects is directly proportional to the quality of students’ teacher. Her older brother had a much better AP Bio teacher in 10th grade and his class had clearly better projects overall.</p></li>
<li><p>Seniors who still participate in the school science fair are genuinely passionate about science. What they do now no longer has any bearing on their college admissions, and yet they still invested gobs of time on their projects.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>DS is registering now for next year. They do it online and his form would not work since the elective that he put down is flagging a “needs dept. approval”. I am very worried that he is way overloading himself and do NOT want him to take this schedule. He and I are fighting about this tonite. He has down to take:</p>
<p>AP Calculus AB
AP Physics B
AP Chemistry
AP English Language
AP Spanish Language
Honors American History
Honors Marine Science (we need to get his teacher to sign off on this for some reason)</p>
<p>He is not a well organized kid and is a slow reader. I did not want him to take the AP English but his teacher convinced him to take it. I emailed her and told her that he cannot handle it and she called me on the phone today to tell me how important that class was to his education etc… </p>
<p>I cannot convince him to give up one of his other AP classes instead. I am already flipping out.</p>
<p>Seiclan
If you can’t change his mind (which would be my number one choice), look into the audio versions of the textbooks. There may be some on his high school campus, if not check with your public library or the publisher. They can be very pricey, but even one might help him get through the year.</p>
<p>We have had a challenge with D’s math teacher. She wants everyone to take AP Calc BC. Long, passionate lectures in class about having the opportunity to try and explore and blah blah blah. I flat told D I would not sign any form with AP Calc BC on it. She’s not scoring high enough in PreCalc H to demonstrate she’s ready for AP Calc BC (her only B–and it’s a low B). She is not really happy with me, but that’s ok. Her schedule includes 4 AP’s, the first year of HL English, and honors Spanish. She’s passionate about and very involved with Girl Scouts and Mock Trial. If her knee heals she might want to add a sport. Oh, and she’s in an IB program and will start ToK mid year. I think that’s enough. I have to say, she’s stopped fighting me about it…I wonder if she might be relieved. It’s ok with me if it’s “mom’s fault”. I do wonder about some of things the teachers say–D’s best friend, a great student, has been throughly intimidated by the English H teacher and won’t take APUSH next year. I’ve know this kid for years, I have no doubt the kid would enjoy the class and do well.</p>
<p>Never heard of an audio textbook. Bet he would have liked that last night when he pulled an all nighter studying for a 3 chapter AP World Test. This is why I flip out. He pulls all nighters occasionally now, when he has 2 AP and 5 honors classes. I can only imagine the carnage next year if he takes 2 honors and 5 AP’s (and all of them HARD AP’s). I am definitely feeling panic right now. He says that is what he wants and likes. He will have NO life other than schoolwork!</p>
<p>There are audio versions of most textbooks. Get the ISBN then go to the publisher’s website and input the ISBN–you are looking for the ancillaries or suppliments list. If you want, send me a pm and I’ll see what I can find. D is a very visual type, and reads really quickly, so I haven’t used them, but I know folks who have found them useful. Mostly English or History classes…and you still need a hard copy text around, especially for the art in the history classes.</p>
<p>I need some of your opinions here. D’12 will be taking 4 or 5 AP classes next year (her school has no honors level.) It may look like a full load to other people but I know to CC’ers, it isn’t. The thing is, she is active in a full time sport where she travels yet she is very academically inclined. Some of her peers have chosen the sport route and take the regular level classes to lighten the load. D will not choose to “lighten the load” for sports and we support her.
My question is, is it worth it if she takes AP and doesn’t take the test for a class? Let’s say, APUSH, on her transcript it will show that she took AP classes, but do the colleges care if she takes the test? Some of the schools she’s interested in won’t even give credit for some of the AP classes or will give them elective credit.<br>
She thinks she can do it all but looking ahead to next spring, she’s facing 4-5 AP tests, the SAT and SAT II’s as well as her sport.</p>
<p>Based solely on personal experience, I don’t think it matters. D1 took AP English Lang, AP Calc, APUSH, and AP Gov, but took just the English (4) and Calc (5) tests. She only got college credit for the Calc test; no one ever questioned why she hadn’t taken the other two.</p>
<p>As an aside, the reason she didn’t take the other two is that those classes are also eligible for credit from a local top-20 LAC, so we figured she would get college credit that way. Unfortunately, we learned too late that her university wouldn’t accept those credits:(</p>
<p>lilmom: have her take the AP tests and the SAT2s. She can study for them together. She should take the SAT in January or March, but not at the same time as the SPs and SAT2s.</p>
<p>The AP test are hard, but not THAT hard. If she is going to do the work for the class, she will have donethe bulk of the prep work.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that studying for the APs will probably prep her for the SAT IIs, especially if she takes the SAT IIs at the first of June session.</p>
<p>Is there any way for her to move the SAT earlier in the year (maybe early spring semester)? That would separate the testing and let her have more time to focus on the APs.</p>
<p>If she’s taking 4-5 APs next year, are there any SAT IIs she’s be ready for after this year? My dd was out of town during the June test time, but she took the SAT IIs during the earliest test this fall. She did have to review, but felt it all came back to her.</p>
<p>4-5 APs is a lot to study for, but it does depend on how much prep the teacher includes in class. If the teacher gives a lot of old AP questions on exams and as assignments, then there should be less outside work to do. </p>
<p>Will any of her teachers be upset or impose other requirements if she chooses not to take the exams? I’ve heard of teachers who require those not taking the AP exam to take a past AP exam during class or complete some other major assignment. If so, I don’t think that skipping the exam will help.</p>
<p>When choosing which AP exams to take, I’d definitely look at the AP credit policies at some of the schools she’s interested in to see which exams would be the most helpful.
Consider
Will she get credit for a required course? If so, is it a course she would want to skip or one she feels she needs to take in college?
Will she get credit for a course or just for an “AP credit” class?
Will the course credit help for any core/distribution requirements and let her focus on her major(s) and other interests?</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the replies. I will look into her taking the SAT earlier. I have heard of some AP teachers “strongly encouraging” the students to take the test, but i don’t know what, if any, consequences there area if they don’t. So, we’ll look into that, too. It does seem to make sense to sign up for the classes anyway (there’s really no choice) and to focus on the scheduling of the SAT II’s and the SAT so that it makes sense!</p>
<p>Glido, her sport at the hs is in the fall but year round, otherwise.</p>
<p>I am trying to register my D for a course at a community college to place out a science requirement. Does anyone know how I should proceed? Can hs students register for a course at CC without going through admissions office? Thank you.</p>
<p>I’m sure it varies from school to school. At our community college, you would need a form filled out by your high school counselor attesting to you meeting the concurrent enrollment requirements.</p>
<p>Then, you’d have to go through CC admissions (which takes less than 30 minutes, unless you have to wait for a counselor).</p>
<p>Iglooo- it should say on the CC website the procedure for HS students to enroll at the CC. In our case you fill out online an application that states you are still in HS. The application is not complete till you have a form signed by the HS saying what courses they are allowing you to take. We have to take the form in person to the CC. Also in our case HS students get last priority in registration times for the CC. Make sure you have approval for some alternative choices in case her first choice is full.</p>
<p>mathinokc and mom60, Thank you. Got it. CC website here didn’t have much about HS students but I called and got the info to download the form. Has to be signed by D’s hs and she has to take assesment test(?).</p>