<p>Congratulations to Sally’s D on her nomination for the GHP and best of luck to her this time around! I bet her junior standing will help. Do I remember correctly that sophomores are rarely nominated and even more rarely accepted to the program?</p>
<p>It amazes me that colleges do not pay as much attention to the writing section, especially when it comes to scholarships and honors programs. I am sure that some attention is paid to it, but from what I gather it is really CR/M.</p>
<p>3girls3cats- yes, you remember well! Last years app process was a debacle. Soooo much smoother this year. She looked so grown up and confident this year! Now we wait till after Thanksgiving… sigh</p>
<p>Momsings and Slackermom, AP Chem is one of the killer courses at D’s school too. That and APUSH and any of the honors math classes. Ironically, I hear that the AP Calc BC class is easier than the preceding honors math classes! We’ll see if it turns out to be true though. Physics B is considered an easy class and there are a bunch of sophomores who take it after freshman physics. D may take Physics C next year but there are a lot of competing classes for a very few schedule slots, lol.</p>
<p>There is no AP Bio per se but the regular bio class covers much of the AP curriculum and there is an advanced class that doesn’t mimic the AP curriculum but enables kids in that class to take the exam–or at least it did. </p>
<p>The school comes down very hard on kids to discourage them from taking AP Chem and APUSH together because they are both so demanding. My understanding is that there are only 3 kids in the entire junior class who are attempting it. I’m happy that my D elected to take AP Comp Sci instead.</p>
<p>Yikes, my d is taking AP chem and APUSH- and yes it is kicking her butt! She is scraping an A in both classes. She has the highest grade in APUSH in her class and it is just an A. We are on block schedule and the class was paired with a Lit class so the kids took the class year long. In their wisdom the admin changed it to a semester long class , the kids are struggling ( thankfully the teacher is sympathetic). I fear this group of students are going to suffer from this change when it comes to the AP Exam next May.</p>
<p>^ Physics B ( and C) is considered one of the hardest AP classes in our school. Last year kids were told that they were " not mature enough" for Physics B, and the physics B teacher told kids that they will be thanking him for a D ( great). So far the class is not as scary as we thought, although my kid puts in many many hours. Today was a test and seniors in the top 2% who are NMF walked out crying. </p>
<p>The teacher drops the lowest grade each marking period and gives a Regents level physics test in its place. So far my kid is doing well in the class, but she was a bit nervous in August. </p>
<p>The main reason why AP physics developed this reputation is partly because it is not memorization and spitting back info. I think all of the AP sciences are heading in this direction. It is interesting to see how different schools operate. AP physics requires a tremendous amount of out of the box thinking, especially for the labs which many kids get Cs on… Regents ( regular) physics is not like that- it’s more concrete. I was told that what regular physics covers in 2 weeks is what AP covers in 1 class ( is this possible?). </p>
<p>My daughter’a friend in AP bio says it’s hard. My daughter is in IB English and so far 11H last year was harder- lots more work. I guess soon it will be time to figure out if next years math will be AB or BC. Right now she is in honors pre-calc ( and it’s called honors pre-calc LOL). </p>
<p>Funny- lately she is putting in a tremendous amount of time for her elective.</p>
<p>Thanks to so many of you for the summer suggestions. My D has had some emotional struggles with depression, and is doing well now but I worry…This idea that she has to be far away makes me nervous. She did a one week sleep away thing at a local college last summer but I really think she should do 2 to 3 weeks somewhere that looks and feels different. However wilderness is not for her, she gets very nervous off the grid. We stayed in a cabin at the Boundary waters and she could not stop worrying that something horrible like 9/11 would happen while we were gone. She thinks she would like living in a big city so we may try one of those programs at a college in a bigger city. So many option. None of them cheap, but probably cheaper than a failed attempt at a freshman year too far from home.</p>
<p>She did get switched into a regular Biology class today. Said there were kids in the room that she had not seen since Elementary school ( there are 500 in her class, and the kids who take Latin, orchestra and skipped a couple years of math have always had their classes together and not mixed too much with the rest of the class). The book is much smaller and tests cover one chapter instead of a few chapters so she is excited and relieved now that the decision is made.</p>
<p>Got an annoying mailing today, from Champlain which is high on her list. It said something like " There are 4100 schools, 377 are the ‘best’ according to some list, and YOU can only choose ONE"</p>
<p>It annoyed me because it puts too much pressure on the decison. I hope the school my D chooses is the right one for her, but a large number of kids end of transferring schools and their life turns out just fine. </p>
<p>Also got the first email today about college planning for my second D, who will graduate in 18. She is likely to be a recruited athlete ( soccer goalie) and she has been invited to a planning session hosted by the state association at a local college. I really have no idea what my opinion is on the issue. Being a varsity athlete changes the college experience and I am not ready to wrap my head around that, but apparently I need to plan for her earlier if she wants to go that route. Right now she thinks she does, but she also wants to do debate, robotics and theater so I am not sure how being a high school athelete is going to work for her let alone a college athlete. Such different kids, with such different choices!</p>
<p>It’s strange to see how different HS’s handle various AP classes. In our HS, students cannot take AP Chem until senior year simply because of the scheduling constraints. They are required to take Honors Chem and achieve a minimum grade before being allowed to schedule AP Chem. The HS also requires Physics (regular, Honors, or AP) to be taken as a pre-req or at least concurrently in order to schedule AP Bio. </p>
<p>D2 is still trying to figure out exactly what she wants to take next year. She currently has 4 APs (Calc AB, Psych, English Lang, Spanish), Honors Chem, and Econ. Econ will change to American Gov’t next semester. So far she’s managed to keep everything pretty well balanced, and now that cross country is over she’ll have a little breathing room until track starts in the spring…unless she gets guilted into doing indoor track this winter. :(</p>
<p>I’ve suggested (FWIW) that she not take more than 2 APs next year (she’s thinking Stats and maybe Bio) but she’s worried that it’ll look like she’s “taking it easy” senior year. It concerns me how the kids are getting caught up in thinking they have to take more and more APs to be considered “competitive”. The die is pretty much cast for admissions (transcript-wise at least) at the end of their junior year, so I hope she can learn to relax at least a little bit and try to enjoy her senior year. But what would I know…I’m just a silly parent. :)</p>
<p>Mitten I am happy that the science issue worked out- you made the right decision. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you dealing with college issues for two at the same time.</p>
<p>Wolverine86: It concerns me how the kids are getting caught up in thinking they have to take more and more APs to be considered “competitive”. The die is pretty much cast for admissions (transcript-wise at least) at the end of their junior year, so I hope she can learn to relax at least a little bit and try to enjoy her senior year. But what would I know…I’m just a silly parent. </p>
<p>I agree, and in my D’s case I would have discouraged it but for the conversation I had with her GC earlier in the year. D’s counselor strongly advised that D take AP Calc next year (she’s taking APStats this year) even though she will have probably 3 other AP courses (at least) as a senior. She really thinks she needs to take the hardest math class, along with foreign language and English. D has resigned herself to it.</p>
<p>mittentigger, I’ll see you in the “Class of '18” thread. :)</p>
<p>suzy…I guess a lot depends on the circumstances of the individual student/family. There can certainly be financial advantages to having multiple APs on the transcript as it might allow for fewer paid credits prior to college graduation. If money isn’t an overriding factor, then AP credit certainly allows many students some flexibility in college scheduling to accommodate particular interests, minors, double majors, etc.</p>
<p>What I hope D2 can avoid is taking unnecessary AP classes just for the sake of showing “rigor”. She’s currently interested in studying some variant of Psychology, so taking AP Physics (for example) would seem to me to be unnecessary since AP Bio or AP Chem would satisfy her Science requirement at most universities. If she were interested in a more technical major, priorities for senior year APs could change. The hard part will be researching all the potential universities’ AP credit policies and various major requirements prior to submitting a course request sheet for senior year. Just one more thing to add to the “to-do” list. :)</p>
<p>I think D should chill a little next year too, or at least only take hard classes in the subjects that she enjoys.</p>
<p>I so agree with you, that there is too much pressure to take the most challenging courses! It would be wonderful if the kids felt free to focus that energy on a few courses that they are most interested in. </p>
<p>D is scheduled to take the SAT this Saturday. Anyone else taking it then? Her best friend is taking is at the same time. I don’t know if the friend has been studying, but D has stuck to her plan to just not study and see how she does, then retake ‘if she needs to’…which to me means, definitely retake. I think it might help for her to have scores in-hand to see how they stack up. I just hope this plan doesn’t come back to bite her somehow.</p>
<p>3girls–pretty much ditto regarding APUSH and AP Chem. S is taking APUSH and it is plenty of homework, that is for certain. There is only a handful of kids taking both at our school too.</p>
<p>My daughter had an early night last night LOL. She started her HW at 3:30 and at 10:00 she proudly announced that she was done and was going to bed early. She had no physics hw because there was a test, but she still spent some time reviewing her notes. Senior year for her will not be a walk in the park either, I am afraid. I think it may a little easier than this year. </p>
<p>37 days until the Dec ACT, and 44 days until the ACT. Anybody else taking the December test? Good luck to your daughter this Saturday Shoboe. </p>
<p>My daughter refuses to takes these tests after February, and told me that she only studies because she has it assigned as “HW.” For some reason she is not as driven with these tests as she is with her schoolwork, which is probably a good thing so I should not complain. The next few week will be very hard because she is going to be given about 4 hours of test prep since she is prepping for both tests. I need to get some SAT science in there too, but I know that will not be easy. </p>
<p>I am trying to explain to my kid very nicely ( I want to avoid stress) that for her it is not just a matter of getting into a school- she needs to get some merit aid if they are OOS and/ or private. Although nothing in life is guaranteed, there are 3 OOS publics that should give her merit money ( these schools give a lot out but you never know…) based on her stats and based on what we have seen them give to others with lower stats, HOWEVER these schools will most likely not be her first choice ( nothing is this easy ). Her first choice school ( so far) is much more competitive. I am trying to explain this to her while at the same time trying not to stress her. </p>
<p>Thankfully she likes two of our state schools. The tuition is less than what I paid for preschool- it’s the room and board that makes it more money. How crazy is that ?</p>
<p>A school such as the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities gets mentioned sometimes on CC. Kids from our school do not usually venture off to that part of the country, but at a price just under $32,000 for OOS it seems more reasonable than some of the other OOS publics that can start in the low 40’s and can go up to 50. My kid would go to California if I let her- but that’s too far. </p>
<p>My dream is for her to get merit to two of her top private schools, but she needs a back up plan!</p>
<p>mitten, I’m glad to see your daughter figured out a solution for herself that works. I think this constant drumbeat to take only top classes puts so much pressure on the kids and indirectly the parents. I can’t even begin to imagine the sports world. </p>
<p>btw, my daughter is on her robotics team. I think it’s not bad doing a sport and robotics if they are not in the same season. I’m not sure about throwing theater into the mix - all three seem to eat up a lot of time in chunks. In D’s school, I think they’re also the very different populations: athletes, artsy types and greeks. Geeks and athletes overlap but I’m not sure about the theater kids.</p>
<p>The top students at D’s school load up on AP classes in their senior year. It seems insane to take more than 4 AP classes but there’s the mantra of “colleges want the most rigorous schedule”. It’s filtered down to students on the next level. I’m expecting meltdowns next fall when college applications need to be done. Next semester D is taking an easy intro psych class. If she likes it, she’ll take AP Psych next year; if not, that’s okay - the class is a break from the honors/AP classes.</p>
<p>There was a great op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about a week ago, and an equally great response from a college admissions counselor yesterday. The title was “the college admissions passion play”, and the gist of it was that there is a perception that one has to show a single minded passion in order to be admitted anywhere, while colleges are perfectly happy to admit well rounded kids, in other words kids who are interested in a lot of things but not necessarily world beaters in any one of them. Not only happy to admit them, but looking for them. </p>
<p>For every rule there is an exception, of course, but this rule sounds like the road to sanity, and I am going to give it a try. </p>
<p>We are parents, of course we are worried about scores, we wouldn’t be parents if we weren’t. But I do remember how intimidating it was on the 2013 thread during what I now think of as “score season”. 2013 turned out to be a great group, very supportive and good humored. But my first encounter with the worries about scores not being high enough nearly sent me to the showers. </p>
<p>My kid #1 had strong verbal and not strong math scores. I was thinking it was all over for her. The college counselor at her school told me “stop worrying, she can write.” I followed orders. She found the college she loved, it had great academics, she applied ED, and got in. She also got into a couple other really good schools (we didn’t get her application withdrawn in time, so that’s how we know). She is taking regular bio and lowest level math, and doing much better in the college versions than she did in high school. Everything is possible. Really and truly. </p>
<p>What I’m saying is, your kids sound great. The only thing you have to worry about is burn out. The scores and the acceptances will take care of themselves.</p>
<p>Sanity is good!! Having a happy kid is my priority. Everything else is icing on the cake.</p>
<p>Thanks ssacdfamily, can you throw in a sanity check reminder every few weeks or so? </p>
<p>When D was in lower elementary in Montessori, I remember the same type of worrying: is my child learning? how will she adjust to traditional school? Has She Been Ruined?!</p>
<p>Then a very sensible mom stood up and pretty much said something along the same lines as you. Her eldest daughter had graduated and was in high school, doing very well. Although she hadn’t taken the traditionally named courses, her knowledge was as good or better then her classmates. This mom told everyone to calm down and breathe. (not sure everyone listened)</p>
<p>twogirls, happy is good.</p>
<p>D is taking the SAT this weekend because I can’t figure out a calendar. She’s okay with it although again her main complaint seems to be she doesn’t know anyone else taking the exam on the same day. (um, what about the actual content of the test?)</p>