<p>D14 was in Chicago for HOBY this summer so we did a whirlwind mid-West tour. Saw Macalester, Carleton, Wash U, Univ. of Chicago, Northwestern and Loyola Chicago. I agree you probably don’t get the same feel as when it’s in session. We just have so little time off in the school year and decided to take advantage of being far from home. It helped D14 clarify that she’s not particularly excited about a smaller school (under 3000) and she definitely prefers a more urban setting (or at least close to one). School doesn’t begin until after Labor Day so we’re enjoying our 90 degree dog days of summer.</p>
<p>D14 will be taking AP Calc, AP English (Lang), AP World History, Orchestra, Advanced Web Design and Spanish. She has not been too interested in college visits yet, but I anticipate several casual visits in the fall, as many of her friends will be freshmen at a variety of schools. I don’t know that she is interested in those specific colleges, but at least she will get a feel for size, location, etc.</p>
<p>We haven’t started college tours. The plan is to visit local schools on days when high school is not in session or possibly missing a day or two of school. Visits to out of state schools will likely need to happen on spring break and next summer. I’ve also noticed on some brochures we have received recently for OOS schools that they are visiting our area at particular times throughout the school year. We will try to take advantage of that too.</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t start for a few weeks and my 2014er is contemplating a schedule change but for now, the schedule is AP Chem, APUSH, AP Lang & Comp, AP Calc AB, band, and a Spanish course that is similiar to an AP class. It is like a level five course although there are two level five options because some kids don’t want the college level course but still want to study the language. In our state, the flagship university offers certain courses in the high schools. When these courses are offered, the “AP” version is not. If the student does well in the course, they earn credits from the university, officially starting their college transcript.</p>
<p>These kids’ schedules are impressive! D14 is taking AP Lang and Comp, AP Chem, Honors Bio (no AP offered), US History, Religon, Choir, Calculus and French 4. Decided to forego APUSH and AP Calc so that she would feel less stressed about fitting in her extracurriculars and part-time job. Still a tough schedule and nothing to feel bad about. Perhaps the hardest part is the natural feeling that you have to compare your “rigor” to others. Aiming for challenge and balance…and not feeling overly competitive!</p>
<p>D14 and I (and a friend) finally went on our first college tour on Friday on our way to UMass Amherst where the girls were volunteering all weekend for Special Olympics with HOBY. We toured Mount Holyoke and I think it opened her eyes up to the possibility of a women’s college. Despite the rain, the campus was beautiful, and the thunder conveniently stopped before the tour so we were able to go. The tour guide was great - involved in sports and singing - which was good since D14 is my musical theatre kid and her friend is the sports kid. The new science building is impressive and the “average” dorm room we saw was huge - especially compared to my freshman double at a rival women’s college! We didn’t get to attend an info session because they only have one a day at 11:30 (I think) and we were on a 3:00 tour. She was interested enough to want to go back during school and go to the info session and do an interview. I picked MHC to see because I’m hoping she’ll have more of a chance for merit aid there but we’ll see. After our visit there we drove around Smith (in the rain), Northampton and then around UMass a bit but she’s seen that before because her brother is there. </p>
<p>I’m glad she liked MHC enough to give it another visit. She really liked what the guide told us about the honor code - that no one goes around asking what grades you got on things and that you aren’t competing with other students, just with yourself to do the best you can. It was a good message and really hit home for her as she hates being asked how she did!</p>
<p>As for courses, she’s taking APUSH, AP Spanish, Pre-AP Physics (we’re not really sure what that means!), Analysis Honors (Pre-Calculus), English Honors, Religion and Forensics Honors. Her school just this year began offering APUSH to juniors as the only AP available. Band didn’t fit into her schedule and she had to move Spanish around which is how she ended up in AP Spanish and Forensics. She’s skipping Spanish 4 but decided she’d rather take AP Spanish this year with Forensics because she really wanted to take that class and didn’t want to do AP Bio and APUSH in the same year. Now if she’d just get going on the AP summer homework. School starts two weeks from today!</p>
<p>DS is taking APUSH, AP Language & Composition, AP Biology, Pre-AP Physics (Honors), Pre-AP Pre-Calc/Trig, Pre-AP German II, Cross Country (1st Sem) / Art (2nd Sem). I’m just looking closer at the course catalog and wondering if maybe he could change his Pre-AP Physics to AP Physics. I thought when I had read it earlier, Pre-Ap was required before AP. Now I’m seeing that it’s not necessarily required. hmmm…I’ll have to talk to DS about that! 
Cross Country is actually before school, so the kids run at 7am, then get to school at 8am to shower and study hall type period (can you say goof off???).</p>
<p>akamom124: I’m glad to hear about Mt. Holyoke. My dd was initially very against the idea of an all women’s school (“There’d be way too much drama!”) but has gotten lots of mail from Mt. Holyoke and is now more interested in looking at it. It does look lovely indeed!</p>
<p>dd is taking APUSH, AP Lit, AP Lang, Spanish 4, Physics and Precalc. She has an open period for the first time and is very excited about it. She’s actually 2.5 credits over a full load after completing two years of high school, so I think it’s fine.</p>
<p>My ds12 heads off to college in nine days and dd14 is going to really miss him! It will be a very different year for all of us, but change is good, right?</p>
<p>We’ve gotten an absolute load of information from Mt. Holyoke too…to the point where we laugh when another piece comes in the mail!</p>
<p>This summer has been busy, so not alot of time for visiting campuses. I decided to squeeze in a tour of NYU this week, as it is local. DD ended up loving it. She is heavily leaning towards a city setting. So with a DC visit already under our belt, I guess we will be planning a trip to Boston sometime this fall.</p>
<p>DD’s jr year schedule looks like this: Chorus, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Enviromental Sci (she did not want to go anywhere near physics…not even a basic physics course), Math (not quite sure the name of it, but a pretty basic math…can you tell she’s not a math & sci girl? I’m fine with that.), & Honors Italian. She wanted to take a music theory course but we opted for a study hall. Her ECs often take her until 8pm at night and I felt that some built-in study time during the day would come in handy…particularly with 3 APs this year.</p>
<p>Glad to hear so many of your daughters are considering Mount Holyoke. It’s a great school, and I believe they really deliver an excellent liberal arts education. I went to Smith so of course I wish they’d all apply there too :). I am now convinced after my own daughter’s experience at a more “hands off” institution that there’s no substitute for being in a close knit community of students and professors who care about your learning experience.</p>
<p>Hi All
Can’t believe summer is about over.
K2 had a busy summer. Wisdom teeth out in early June. Then a big canoe trip. A sports camp, and some work. Also retested for testing accomodations. Got a drivers license.
Summer reading is almost complete.
K2 has been a big help around the house with a few tasks I wanted done before K1 went back to college --good to get these little family chores done when the whole family is around to pitch in.</p>
<p>I feel badly I don’t know eactly whats on the schedule!
I know k2 is taking honors chinese 4, math of some sort, 2 history courses- at least one is an AP–I know an econ class is in the mix either the fall or spring… chem, english etc.<br>
Ordered the books and think they are all here.<br>
k2 is planning on going by the school to get stuff into the locker before day1…</p>
<p>I will go back and read a bit to catch up on everyone. Enjoy these last days of summer…</p>
<p>D is suddenly spending a lot of time with her last minute summer reading for her AP and honors classes this year. A couple of email reminders from teachers made her realize she had to get the work done as school starts next Thursday.</p>
<p>On the bright side, she is looking forward to getting her bathroom back to herself as her older brother (S-11) returns to college on Wednesday to begin his sophomore year. :D</p>
<p>Avon - Your D sounds like mine! She’s been working hard on her APUSH work lately and now has 7 of 8 articles read and essays written! AP Spanish is a little farther behind though. She was at school yesterday from 7:30 till 2:00 with a food pantry truck delivery, helping to sell used uniforms and then band camp. Similar day today except we’ve stuck a driving lesson in this morning before band camp and the food pantry truck repeats Friday morning. She’ll be at school so many hours this week - and it doesn’t start for her officially until next Wednesday although she’ll be there all day Tuesday for Freshman orientation. I hope Monday is nice weather to enjoy the last “free” day of the summer!</p>
<p>And she’s also looking forward to DS11’s return to college over Labor Day weekend to get her bathroom back too!</p>
<p>Junior year started yesterday for DS. Classes were expected - no surprises. APUSH homework was still being done the night before. Their assignment included reading and vocabulary words for 4 chapters (close to 200 vocabulary words … can you say busy work?!?) and watching 5 movies, along with written summaries, to get them familiar with historical events. Saving Private Ryan was still on at 10:30pm Sunday night! But it all got done - in his typical last minute fashion!</p>
<p>College fair at school is scheduled for 9/18. Curious to see what colleges will be there. We’re not really in a sought after market, so it will probably be many of the in-state colleges.</p>
<p>One year from now we’ll be worrying about applications … two years from now we’ll be moving them into their dream colleges! YIKES!!</p>
<p>We’ve got a Last Minute Larry, too. School started last week, still doing AP Chem summer homework the night before. The excuse? It’s “suggested” homework. Yeah, like the ion test today was only a “suggested” test. Might just give somebody the kick in the pants she needs to get going.</p>
<p>Have any of your children developed a case of cold feet about their schedule right before school starts?</p>
<p>I hinted at this is a previous comment but didn’t go into it other than that “these are the classes for now but it might change.”</p>
<p>From what I can tell, my child is nervous about AP Chem. The horror stories from past students have been heard. The schedule, as it stands, is AP heavy and the counselor told me this week that she is still well on track to meet the “most rigorous” criteria on the common app. even if the science is dropped down a notch.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I should push for staying in the class, especially given pre-AP chem was a successful course or if I need to not say anything. If no change is made to the current science schedule, the high school course series will have been…</p>
<p>9th: Biology(typically a 10th grade class but qualified to take it early)
10th: Pre-AP Chem
11th: AP Chem
12th: AP Biology</p>
<p>If the change is made according to my 2014er’s current idea, it will look like this…</p>
<p>9th: Biology
10th: Pre-AP Chem
11th: General Physics(recommended for 10th grade and higher with above average mathematical ability)
12: An AP science class…could be chem, bio, or Physics B</p>
<p>***I can see merit in either scenario. The first shows a student who dove deeply into biology and chemistry. The second shows a student who sampled bio, chem, and physics and is now choosing the favorite one for deeper study.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on how college admission folks might view this? A science field of study in college can’t be ruled out right now for this child but there are other non-science interests on the table too.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>I don’t work in admissions. I work with at-risk freshman. Personally, I’d rather see the second schedule. I guess I just don’t see the need to delve deeply in high school. That’s what one does in college. At what point does a kid get to see what’s out there if not in high school?</p>
<p>fwiw, my older S chickened out of APUSH during the summer before Junior year (when he opened the summer homework package). Taking the history class down a notch did not seem to hurt his chances for college admissions. </p>
<p>I think the 2nd schedule looks perfectly reasonable, and if your S is more comfortable with it, and especially since his counselor says that will still count as a “most rigorous” schedule, I say he should go for it.</p>
<p>Thank you, mathmomvt and ordinarylives!</p>
<p>I thought most schools wanted Physics as well as Biology and Chemistry? I know at D’s school, they have to take all three and then can take other science classes, either AP or honors. Besides, it’s probably better to have seen Physics before college if going into the sciences and will have to study them all again anyway!</p>