<p>Hi winker, glad you joined us. International BS parent here. D just graduated and will return to the states for college. S15 is spending his 3rd summer at Oxford. He will apply to a few UK schools. Where is you D spending her yr. abroad?</p>
<p>Happy 4th of July to all in the US!!! Hi Winker.</p>
<p>Happy 4th of July!<br>
My D2015 won third place in the watermelon eating contest at our neighborhood carnival. She also won a Barbie cake, with sprinkle-frosting skirt, in the cake-walk. Probably not worthy of mention in her college apps, tho. ;)</p>
<p>^ so funny- congrats!! Happy 4th to everyone.</p>
<p>@mihcal, that’s great! a lot better than getting any recognition in one of those hot dog competitions. :D</p>
<p>D. is all ready to go to England for her camp. super excited. </p>
<p>Had a great 4th of July concert. :)</p>
<p>@mihcal</p>
<p>You never know. It could be spun into a college essay. “Because I came in only third in a watermelon eating contest, it crushed my hopes and dreams of a career on the competitive eating circuit, so I decided to go to college instead.”</p>
<p>One of our guests, yesterday, told the tale of a top student who tried to hook Harvard by writing an essay how she would be the first student in the history of her high school to be admitted there. Alas, didn’t work.</p>
<p>Besides if you are applying to the University of Chicago, they pose quirky essay topics and expect quirkier answers. E.g.,</p>
<p>Find X
Where is Waldo, really?
How do you feel about Wednesday?
How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)
Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?
<a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/essays/past.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/essays/past.shtml</a></p>
<p>My answer to the two types of people question: one type is those who think there are two types of people in the world, and the other is those who think there aren’t two types of people. </p>
<p>My favorite answer though is from the Manchurian Candidate: “Have you ever noticed that the human race is divided into two distinct and irreconcilable groups: those that walk into rooms and automatically turn television sets on, and those that walk into rooms and automatically turn them off. The trouble is that they end up marrying each other.”</p>
<p>Anyone seen the movie Spanglish? The story is framed by a college essay about an applicants life as the daughter of a domestic. The story catches the attention of an admissions officer plowing through stacks of vanilla submissions. </p>
<p>The serious point is that it doesn’t hurt to have a way to stand out amidst the thousands of applicants. Picture the bored adcom sifting through them all, hoping against hope for an essay to lift them out of their occupational boredom.</p>
<p>D. got a 4 in AP chem. Although it doesn’t sound great, in her school’s history, before this year, there were only two people passed AP chem. (last year failure rate is 100%) So we consider it a success. It’s always a challenge for students in her school to compete with kids in other areas.</p>
<p>The essay is more important than some realize. The goal is to tell a story as though you are talking to a friend. The story has to be engaging and interesting, and it must tell the reader about who you are as a person. They don’t want to read about your trip to Alaska and about what you did- boring ( not to me lol). They DO want to hear about how you are afraid to eat fish but somehow on this trip you learned something about yourself and suddenly got the courage to eat this type of fish ( you get my drift). They don’t care what you write about. One kid told a story about how he rode a NYC bus all day and what he learned about himself just by watching the people get on and off. My friend’s son wrote about roller coasters. My nephew wrote about breaking his nose and is currently at UNC-CH OOS. My older daughter wrote about a scavenger hunt that she did in Boston. What I loved about her essay was that it spoke about who she was- energetic, loves activity and running, competitive when playing sports, etc. The fact that she happened to be in Boston at the time was not the main part of the essay, but it was woven in. They changed the essay prompts on the common-app. I actually took a picture and saved it on my phone. One day when my daughter said she was bored I sent it to her and told her to start thinking. She thinks I am nuts- she is probably right.</p>
<p>herandhismom, I think that score is great! Seriously, I will be thrilled with D if she gets that score on APUSH. Can’t check until tomorrow. Bah.</p>
<p>mihcal, I love the watermelon-eating contest story! Seriously, she should keep that one in her back pocket. :)</p>
<p>Stood in the rain last night with my D’s waiting for the fireworks to start, but they were canceled - eventually! Trying again tonight I think but the weather still doesn’t look great. Very soggy here in the midwest.</p>
<p>Welcome, winker!</p>
<p>Herandhismom that score is amazing!!! It sounds like a huge success to me.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone!</p>
<p>And good luck with all your children’s AP scores. 
There are so many people checking today, it “crashed” college board’s website. lol</p>
<p>@Max, I’m sure your D. will have a great time in Europe!! I’m jealous.</p>
<p>A 4 is terrific! If D gets that on Euro she’ll be happy…she can check tomorrow.</p>
<p>Softball girl scored 5’s on AP World History and Human Geography. So proud of her! We are still overseas, but H checked for her. He was under firm instructions if the results were not as good she hoped that he was to tell her that he couldn’t gain access. We are back on Sunday and I didn’t want her to be disappointed the last few days of her trip. She is all smiles tonight!</p>
<p>D got her scores this morning as well - two 5s (Stat and APUSH) and one 4 (Art History). She’s happy it’s over. </p>
<p>For those kids getting scores tomorrow, good luck!</p>
<p>Herandhismom – Congrats to your D for succeeding despite long odds. I find it disturbing that your school keeps teaching AP Chem with such a dismal failure rate. If our school got those sorts of results, the teacher would get hounded out of a job. (That actually happened with Physics and Latin teachers in recent memory.)</p>
<p>@mihcal, really? I never thought things like that would happen. not just my kids school, it’s the whole county. But I just heard one person (a good friend of D’s) in a different school got a 5 in chem. He was so excited. </p>
<p>What really made me happy is this - same thing was true in physics in D’s school. the highest score anybody ever got in AP physics (B) was 3, and very rarely did people get 3. most got 1 or 2. This past year I spent significant amount of time helping with physics, and I just found out two of them got 5!! That just made my day. :)</p>
<p>My daughter was finally able to get into the AP site for her APUSH score . She got a 4! She’s really happy with the result, esp since she ran out of time and left about 10 of the MC blank. Time is her main issue with test taking in general.</p>
<p>Next year, she’s taking 4 AP classes, which has her somewhat nervous.</p>
<p>Congrats on the 4 Quotia! We should be able to see my D’s APUSH in the morning. She is a little worried. She decided not to stress herself over it and didn’t study much at all. Fingers crossed! I do think time is a big factor for a lot of our kids, especially since they like to take time to think things through.</p>
<p>Congrats to all on their AP accomplishments! Our HS doesn’t offer APs until Junior year, are we the only ones?</p>
<p>And mihcal, love the watermelon & Barbie cake story!</p>