<p>We’re in the 3-day countdown with no real classes. Bunheadgirl currently is at the amusement park, tomorrow is a picnic, and Wednesday is clean out lockers and year book signing day. </p>
<p>D rather have gotten out last week as she does not need school sponsored trips to hang out with friends or have fun.</p>
<p>If the core distribution issue is important to your child, then it’s good to also check the AP credit policies of the universities to see how many requirements can be knocked out that way. Have to read carefully as a policy may seem to be generous with credit, but you sometimes find they grant general credits that don’t count against core/distribution. So then it’s essentially useless. I don’t know that this would have been a deal breaker for my D13, but she has a double major and one of them is very tightly structured. So it’s nice for scheduling that she has a good chunk of that stuff already out of the way, doesn’t have to worry where to squeeze in a history class required for graduation. </p>
<p>Also, if by late junior year you have a general list of colleges to apply to and have looked over their policies, it might have an effect on senior year schedule. For example, many schools which grant credit for AP English seem to allow kids to use one of the classes to skip one semester of freshman English, but not use both classes to skip both semesters. The 2nd class might get just general credits. They want kids to take at least one semester of writing training with them. So if your child is deciding between Bible as Lit and a 2nd year of AP English and also weighing the possible onset of senioritis, he might tip towards the fun class if it is pretty clear there will be no real benefit for college in taking the more difficult class. Unless of course, he considers the AP class more fun or useful for other reasons.</p>
<p>Our school district this year started offering a summer ACT/SAT prep course for only $20!! It’s 2 hrs a day for 6 weeks. Even if my son only goes for 2 weeks it’s a great deal. Cuts into the HS captain’s soccer practices a bit, but he knows he needs to work on test prep, so made the right decision.</p>
<p>^ $20 is an amazing deal!!! These courses can be $1,000 or more.</p>
<p>S15’s Beijing school celebrated “graduation” last week for all the international students moving on to regular classes with native students or returning to their own countries. Then they returned to their classes for more studies the next day. Typical. S15 was master of ceremonies for graduation. Two weeks until he comes home.</p>
<p>Excellent point on AP/IB credit policies, and dual enrollment too. My S’12 knocked off a semester’s worth of credits - all applied to his gen-ed requirements - via AP and dual enrollment. His college was pretty generous with them, though. Some will only accept 5s, some will take 4s for credit but not to fulfill a required class, etc. Every college we applied to had a policy or even very specific chart we could look up for that.</p>
<p>Thanks Celeste. Those are great points. My D took a semester off from college to work on a presidential campaign but still managed to graduate on time thanks to AP credits. But as you say, you have to look very carefully. For example, a school like Middlebury that prides itself on its language curriculum isn’t going to exempt you from language study with a 5 on the AP. At most you will ger a higher placementand then only after taking a placement test. (Disclaimer: as of 6 years ago this was true.)</p>
<p>Not only is my D done, we’ve already received her grades! Her last day was a half day on a Tuesday…also kind of silly.</p>
<p>So cool, Apollo! Have you been getting detailed stories about his adventures over there? What a wonderful experience for him!</p>
<p>I’ve been Skyping with S15 almost weekly. He started out the year blogging but gave up by December. He promises to show photos when he gets home.
Re. AP/IB credit, I’ve found you can find most colleges’ policies by searching “credit by examination” on their websites.</p>
<p>Hey sorry for snooping on the parents forum as a student! I just figured that many of you would be able to answer my question given your expirence on this site. My school offers about 25-30 of the avaliable AP Courses, and by graduation I will have taken 10. I know colleges get a school profile, and they compare your schedules ‘rigor’ to that of your surroundings. Will my have only taken around 1/3 of the courses offered; specifically 1 sophomore year, 4 junior year, and 5 senior year; affect the way they view my relative ‘rigor’? Thanks in advance for the help.</p>
<p>10 AP classes sounds more than fine! Just because a school offers 25-30 AP classes does not mean that you are supposed to take all ( or most) of them. Our school offers about 25 AP classes also and most kids take no more than 8-9. I called guidance and asked how a student gets " most rigorous" checked off, and he told me that any student who takes all honors, AP, and/or IB will get it checked. I was surprised to hear that honors counted as well.</p>
<p>Bunheadgirl’s school does not offer AP classes, because all courses are AP level beginning with 9th grade biology. The lack of AP designated classes did not stop the majority of this year’s seniors from receiving acceptances to HYP and top 25 colleges. The whole class was accepted to top 40 schools. </p>
<p>The students sit AP exams and score well, though.</p>
<p>@VThunder - Generally speaking I too agree with twogirls. I think 10 is a good number. Make sure to study hard and score well on AP exams if you are going after merit scholarship - admin office will see your 10th and 11th AP scores but not 12th. Good luck.</p>
<p>My son’s school, a state U, promiscuously accepts AP credits. My daighter’s, a small lac, will only give you credit for college courses taken at a college. </p>
<p>One option if you take APs, and a college doesn’t accept them is the CLEP exams from the college board. You take a test and get college credit. </p>
<p>Some schools that don’t take APs may give you credit for a CLEP. Or you could study on your own for other courses. </p>
<p>[College</a> Search | CLEP](<a href=“http://clep.collegeboard.org/search/colleges]College”>http://clep.collegeboard.org/search/colleges)</p>
<p>Stress level 10+ in the house tonight. DD classmate was just killed. he went for a bike ride yesterday and didn’t come home. A tree fell on him in the storm that came through the area yesterday afternoon. The police found his body in the park this afternoon. DD found out on Twitter and Facebook after school.</p>
<p>I walked in the house from work and she was hysterically crying. He was in her AP class. I finally got her to calm down but I don’t see how she or her other classmates can study for exams that they have scheduled for tomorrow. </p>
<p>Condolences to his family. there aren’t many public details so I don’t know who it is yet. I couldn’t get many details from her earlier because she was crying too hard. I found out most of the details from the news after she finally went to her room to lay down. I didn’t know what to say. I just hugged her and let her cry.</p>
<p>Wow, that is horrible. The unexpectedness of something like that happening, the freak nature of it, just compounds what is already a terrible tragedy :(</p>
<p>Peace to his family and friends.</p>
<p>Oh my 4cookie, So sorry to hear. So sad.</p>
<p>I am so sorry, 4cookie.</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear about this awful tragedy.</p>
<p>4cookie that’s terrible! so sorry to hear that.</p>
<p>Thanks all. It’s been a long day.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to hug your love ones!</p>