<p>Our HS doesn’t require community service, but the kids get an annotation on their transcripts for doing 25 hours of service per year. My D does a lot of service through Girl Scouts. Additionally, our HS requires kids to do at least 2 hours of peer tutoring per semester to qualify for CSF (California’s version of NHS). She also volunteers at nature camp each summer, and that puts her over the threshold for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. </p>
<p>My D2015 got her driver’s license two weeks ago. She’s a good, careful driver, so I don’t worry too much. It’s such a relief not having to schlepp her to-and-from the dance studio 5~6 days per week! I’ve been celebrating with a nice glass of wine most evenings. :)</p>
<p>DD’15 has a DB’13 so all my energy and efforts have been concentrating there.
He has some absolutely fabulous offers that, I am sure, she is already jealous of.
But she has a totally different plan - she wants to go to college in Europe .
There are some incredible offers that we are beginning to investigate!</p>
<p>In the meantime there are 5 AP test to take care of…</p>
<p>How are you handling the “mandatory study time” ??? ;)</p>
<p>Bing will definitely be on my daughter’s list as it is an affordable in state option along with Buffalo and Geneseo ( Gen may be too small for her). How is the school spirit at Bing? My daughter wants to be with her academic peers but also enjoys attending sporting events. When we visited back in February my daughter was planning to do the IB diploma so I paid special attention- she has since changed her mind and will be doing AP. We were told that if a student completes the IB program and receives the diploma, and gets a certain score (5?) on a certain number of HL tests (4?) then that student will enter on sophomore status. I suppose that your daughter is right and that if she takes classes over the summer she can graduate in less than 3 years. WOW!! Will she be staying in Bing for her masters or will she work first? In NY she will eventually need a masters but I think they give you five years.</p>
<p>Kelowna, which European schools are you investigating? DD13 was interested in Sciences Po and it was reasonable but the admissions office was not very responsive. She also considered Jacobs Bremen. There are definitely some good schools in GB but not much FA for internationals.</p>
<p>I wonder how many kids really graduate early after multiple APs and/or the IB diploma. It seems like many schools will give credit for high scores but won’t let you use those courses towards distribution requirements. I’m not sure there is any savings…</p>
<p>Apollo I tend to agree. My nephew entered school on sophomore status but is not graduating early. I have never met anybody who actually graduated early based on having these credits. I guess having enough APs can help someone graduate on time lol? On another note, what happens when a school is kind of far and they track demonstrated interest? Will the school consider meeting with a rep closer to home or going to an information session close to home as demonstrated interest? I think it may be impossible to visit a few of these schools prior to a possible acceptance.</p>
<p>Lots of the elite schools use APs for placement, which can make it worthwhile. I also think it can help distinguish kids at the top. It’s very hard to compare kids across high schools (and for kids to compare themselves nationally) and AP exams (and classes) are an easy metric, and more meaningful than SATs or ACTs.</p>
<p>I think service is an important and wonderful thing for the kids who want to do it. I just don’t see any value in forcing the kids who have 1) no desire to do it (forcing them makes it less attractive, not more attractive) and 2) have other things they want or need to do with their time. You can’t force people to be good members of their community. You can <em>convince</em> them or incentivize them to contribute.</p>
<p>D has been invited to apply for a writing tutor position for next year. It is one more thing to do (and I’m not worried about her completing her service hours) but if she’d enjoy it, I say go for it.</p>
<p>My daughter tutors at the writing center this year and loves it. When it’s empty she gets to do her homework, so it works for everyone. Lately she is in a mood… Seems like she works and everyone texts her for the answers. Ugh. She does not mind helping her friends but refuses to give out answers to her acquaintances who don’t put in the time. It just amazes me how many kids and parents think that good grades are just coming to them without working. My daughter recently got an A+ on a project that she worked hard on for weeks, memorized the presentation, videotaped herself and critiqued etc. Her friend’s mom ( my acquaintance/friend) called me complaining that the " teacher gave her daughter a B-." Hello… I learned that this kid did the project the night before it was due and read off of her index cards. Again, the grade is coming to her without putting in the time. Very frustrating. Thanks for listening!</p>
<p>My daughter managed to graduate in 3-1/2 years using AP credits. I think she took extra classes during the year though so I’m not sure how much they actually helped. They did not satisfy distribution requirements but eliminated any language requirement and freed her up to take higher level classes from the start.</p>
<p>My three have all attended private schools where APs are not well regarded. One regional private school has eliminated them entirely. There’s a feeling that they teach too strictly to a test and restrict a teacher’s ability to fashion the curriculum to his own liking and to delve too deeply into subjects. I joke that this means that they can’t torture the kids enough if they stick to the AP curriculum. The kids at these schools tend to do very well on the tests they do take. I don’t have an opinion on them either way except that I’d love for my youngest to have the opportunity to (1) place out of basic college classes and (2) earn extra credits in advance, to the extent that this is still available. I don’t see her distinguishing herself with a bunch of 5s–seems way too common. </p>
<p>I Just Drive, I tend to agree that simply imposing service hours on kids without direction or support is not a good thing. I also think the school misses an opportunity by doing this. Even the most reluctant participant can become more conscious of the need to give back and the rewards in doing so if there is more support. My older girls worked on a schoolwide project over a weekend. Neither girl went in with any enthusiasm. They worked hard, complained endlessly about heat but came out of it with a different perspective. My oldest went on to volunteer in a community garden, then worked on an organic farm and then wrote for a well known publication on food policy issues. My middle daughter discovered that she enjoyed working with people and became a very popular counselor in a nonprofit anti-poverty group she worked with over several years in college.</p>
<p>D15 has been waiting for the chance to work as a writing tutor. It’s only available to upperclassmen and she only now qualifies, or at least we hope so. This will be a great opportunity for my quiet, self-effacing girl. </p>
<p>Twogirls, I hear you on the frustration of kids and parents who think A’s are coming to them without effort. It makes it even worse when the kids who are overloaded expect that the hard working kid will pick up their slack. </p>
<p>Mihcal, congratulations! That glass of wine sounds nice. Especially since I worry no matter what and when I should not.</p>
<p>No ACT today. Thought about doing it in June but decided against it because she is doing two SAT subject tests. She will do her first ACT on October 26.</p>
<p>No SAT/ACT for another few months. D hasn’t done any prep work for SAT/ACT yet and clearly not ready for SAT/ACT at this point. My guess is she won’t be ready until end of this year or so. For now, she is trying to get herself ready for the AP tests – making progress but showing stress over one of the tests she feels nervous. </p>
<p>Question: my daughter took the bio SAT 2 last June. This June she is taking the SAT 2 in chem and lit back-to-back on the same day. Will she be able to split up the test in the event that she wants to send bio and lit, or bio and chem? When we go on line to College Board will there be an option of only sending one test from this June if that is what we want? I have spoken to them on the phone before and they seem very helpful so I can’t imagine that it will matter.</p>
<p>I actually know several people who graduated in 3 years (with close to 4.0 GPA too) due to the APs they took in high school.</p>
<p>D. will take US history subject test in June. We just signed her up last night. We’re still debating if she should take chemistry as well. She is taking AP chem. From the practice test we predict she’ll do well in AP exam. But somehow she took a sample SAT chem test and got 630. So she decided not to take SAT chem. For what she wants to do in college, chemistry doesn’t matter much. (she likes to do international business.) she should probably take a foreign language test, and she wants to take math II anyway. those will probably happen next year.</p>
<p>Apollo6 – my D1 took 8 APs, and it saved her exactly two one-semester classes in college. She got to skip one semester of English, and one semester of Math. The rest of the APs allowed her to place into higher-level classes (e.g., she was able to place directly into an upper-division Latin class), but she still needs to take the same number of courses for distribution and major requirements.</p>
<p>Maxwellequations – the curriculum for AP Chem does not line up well with what is tested on the SATII Chem test. My D1 found that there are a bunch of topics that weren’t covered in her chemistry class (e.g., electrochemistry). If your D cares, she can look over the College Board SATII prep book and self-study the stuff she’s missing. OTOH, if she’s not looking to a chem-related major, then she may be better off spending her time and energy elsewhere.</p>
<p>Re. Sending scores to colleges: As long as it isn’t one of the rare schools that requires all scores, you can select the individual SAT II tests that you want to send. You don’t have to send all the tests from a particular date.</p>
OP here…</p>