<p>Octoberdana, I totally feel your pain! You sound like me nagging about college and projects, etc. In today’s climate, you don’t know what the heck these colleges are looking for! I’ve been to several lectures recently, some from the Ivy’ies, some from a group of top 8 schools, and then listening to counselors at my school and others, and I can tell you everyone is perplexed. Both public and private are having a difficult time guessing what is necessary, and the competition today is worse than ever. </p>
<p>My daughter had THE WORST algebra 1 teacher in 8th grade. She scarred her for life. The woman couldn’t teach but was tenured, so they kept the old bag on. Everyone in that class who had previously been A students dropped to C’s. It was awful. The following year in 9th grade, my d had geometry/trig, but because of her C avg she had to drop down to regular (they have reg, accelerated and honors math), but she had an A- . This year in Alg II she panicked, and of course, with no foundation, she got a C+ and the school hates C’s. She had the head of the math dept for a teacher, and she insisted my d come for extra help, and true to form with her school EXTRA HELP DOES NOTHING. If you don’t get it the first time in class, the teacher is of no value. They just ask you what questions you have. For my D the difficulty was that she just couldn’t process when to apply what. From my quarter to the next she went up a full grade to a B, and hopefully will end the year with a B+ (maybe) but that is only because they left Alg II in the dust and went on to trig again and pre-calc. I don’t know what she will do for the SAT’s in Jan and June (the psat’s were last oct and again this oct when it counts). She did well but bombed the math with a 53 out of 80. And that isn’t even the hard alg math that is on the SAT’s. </p>
<p>Some kids are good in the humanities and others in the sciences and math. My d is a B student in science, and the only honors class she takes is French. To get in AP in her school is next to impossible as they factor in your grade, a written essay you have to take at the end of the year, your previous year’s grades, your English grades (for AP history classes) and your PSAT scores. My D did well in English with an A, her PSAT scores were high 70’s, her essay writing is exemplary, but because she had two difficult history teachers (for world cultures last year and Euro this year), and had a B average, she would not be eligible for APUSH. In public school, the criteria is less (at least in these parts and I have a friend in upstate NY who has the same criteria), you just have to have a 90 (we use letter grades), and no essay or previous year grades are factored in. </p>
<p>That is why we were told at the Ivy meetings, that they know a lot of public schools allow AP courses from 9th grade on, whereas the private schools only allow 6 in all 4 yrs, and you are allowed 1 in soph yr only if you had A’s in history in 9th gr; then up to 3 in jr yr and 3 in sr yr with only 5 classes in sr year vs. 6-7 in previous years. The AP exams are much easier than the classes in my D’s school; however, even in her reg Euro history class, she looked at the AP exam book and the test seemed like a piece of cake. I told her school I will let her take the exam next year, because they don’t allow you to take the exam at her school without having taken the class. The college board says anyone can take the exam (they do that for homeschoolers in particular).</p>
<p>I am not going to have a heart attack over the college craze anymore, because there are a lot of factors going into the decisions. I recently read an article, which shocked me, that some of the colleges are going back to accepting high donors (whether the kids are qualified or not!), and “connections;” both of which I thought they did away with. The onslaught of students from overseas, especially Asians, also skews things because let’s face it, the Asians score so high in the exams, they are really hard to beat. But would I become a Tiger Mother just to get my D in an ivy? Not a chance in the world.</p>
<p>My D has a lot of leadership skills outside of school, and she has done a lot of adult activities, but she is a B student. Today the schools look at B’s as if they were some kind of contagious disease! But we are constantly told a B in her school is equal to an A in a public school (although there are a lot of rigorous public schools in our area, and I would gladly transfer her there but we are not in those districts even though our taxes are much higher). </p>
<p>It’s a crapshoot for sure. And I spoke with our head of school who told me years ago they advised the students to apply to maybe 6, at most 9, schools. Today in our area, both public and private, the average student applies to 15-19 schools, and there was one girl in my D’s school who applied to 25 schools! She was rejected by 23! And the two she was accepted in, she didn’t really want to go to but put them down only because the college counselors coaxed her to…Is that what this whole ridiculous college experience has become?</p>
<p>My D also had a friend who went to public, and she applied to 17 schools and was only rejected by 1 (Brown). She was accepted to all top schools and got into every Ivy (except Harvard, she was waitlisted), and so she is going to Yale. But it was not without sacrifice. She was in every AP class, got A’s (and mind you many kids have tutors, so if you don’t have the money, again, there is a level of unfairness) in all of them and 5’s, and she had 2 outside newspaper columns, wrote a play and directed it, and ran a domestic abuse club and fundraiser at school and also helped tutor SAT prep while having the lead in all her school shows and outside performances. </p>
<p>You just can’t compete with that. For my D, I am grateful she has B’s and A’s in her electives (which I’m told are not factored into the GPA when the colleges look at the transcripts), and we have a 98 mile commute (2 r/t’s a day), plus she has an autoimmune disorder, ADD and lyme, and my h and I are divorcing. We are not going back to this school because we can’t afford it, and so it will be a tremendous adjustment for my D next year - longer school year for one (a month longer and they go back last week of Aug; that is more upsetting to her than anything); meeting new friends (which is really tough) and new teachers and their teaching styles. She may not even last a couple of months I’m expecting because she likes the rigor of her classes and structure. </p>
<p>When we visited the ps in our area, for her it was culture shock because it was so big, and kids were just hanging out and looked a bit dazed. She found the large classes distracting, and the lack of enthusiasm scared her because she doesn’t want to lose her zeal. When everyone is competitive, you have the drive; but if the drive isn’t there, we are both afraid she will become lax. </p>
<p>I was told at Kenyon, for example, an excellent writer’s college where classes are taught by actual professors (not TA’s like in a lot of other colleges), the gpa to get in now is 4.0 where years ago, it was 3.7. A good friend of ours who is an alumni there went back for a reunion and said that he was astounded to hear that some of the incoming class for next year have already published 1-3 books! And that now that a lot of Ivy-qualified kids are being rejected, they are turning to the better liberal arts colleges, and they have high SAT scores and 4.0 gpa’s. So where do our kids wind up if they are not in honors/APs and not straight A’s but do have other skills? That is my big fear.</p>
<p>I’m wondering about Yale - I know a lot of high contributor families with let’s say “definitely not straight A kids” are getting in there, along with the children of Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Arianna Huffington and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. So they are turning more and more towards being “name brand” universities like in the old days and a colleague of mine said nepotism is running rampant. Stanford and Harvard are also open to large (library size) donations. </p>
<p>When you see kids in private schools paying big bucks because it used to be a shoe-in to an ivy or a top lib arts college, now getting into places like Lake Forest (not Wake Forest) or Univ of VT and the like, it makes you wonder. And if you read Mike Moyers book “How to make colleges want you,” he talks about how he had a 2. something gpa and yet got into highly competitive colleges because he had homing pigeons - a non-teenage activity. I’m afraid that won’t cut it anymore. The costs of even lower tier colleges are on the rise as well, and it makes you wonder if it is really worth even bothering to go to college if it won’t be a pleasant experience for your child. Wish I could find the article but there are quite a few to go through if you google “Is college worth it anymore.” If you want to develop a particular skill or talent, I say yes, but I don’t want my D going into debt just for a liberal arts education that leads to nowhere. </p>
<p>Hopefully by next year, we’ll all be more optimistic about the directions our kids are taking, and we will be less stressed (doubtful about the latter - lol!)</p>
She took the math 2 and world history SAT II’s Saturday. She had some time management issues with the math, but got through the history okay. She starts her job tomorrow and is excited about that as well. English teacher is making them work hard until the end and she will finally be finished with AP World this week when she presents her project!! Happy summer to all!!</p>
I’m encouraging him to keep a bunch of hours because that’s the only thing he’s got going on this summer.</p>