<p>^good to consider, thanks! </p>
<p>Mamabear, I meant to tell you that D received that “colleges and universities” magazine too but happily, no phone calls to the best of my knowledge. If she provided her cell phone number, there’s no way they will ever get an answer from her. She barely picks up when ** I ** call her.</p>
<p>Today she received mail from Caltech, Olin, and Carnegie Mellon. I find it funny that these mathy schools all hit on the same day. Yesterday it was the religious schools: Texas Christian University and List College. She isn’t really paying much attention to the mail but there are some tidbits from time to time (along with a few scams-two different “leadership” invitations, yuck). So far it’s still a net positive and not too intrusive. I like that a lot of the contact is by email now; it’s much more ecologically sound and much easier to manage. </p>
<p>Our school puts the kids into a pre-calc class that is given through a local university for junior year. You can choose to pay for the credits or not pay if you want. Then senior year they go into AP Calc. AB or BC depends on how many kids they have interested in each. This year they only offered AB. Next year they should have enough for BC as the Class of 2015 is very academically-oriented.</p>
<p>The pre-calc class is very low-keyed. Yes, the teacher has to answer to the university but D feels it’s very laid back with no AP test or Regents at the end of the year. She said the teacher is a lot less stressed than past math teachers with no test to prep for.</p>
<p>There also was no AP Stat this year. D is trying to convince her Trig teacher from last year to teach it next year lol.</p>
<p>In our HS most kids who are a ahead in math take 9H in 8th grade, 10H in 9th grade, 11H in 10th grade, and honors pre-calc junior year. Senior year they take either AP - AB or BC. There have only been one or two kids in previous years who completed AP calc BC before senior year and they ended up taking classes through a local college ( they also completed AP stats, etc). Please forgive me if I am repeating myself… 
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<p>Anyway my D had course selection day today and she will be taking a college Spanish class through SUNY, as well as AP chem, AP Euro, IB English… And…she chose AB calc!! 
Evidently the teacher told my D that her schedule is going to be very rigorous with calc AB given the other courses and college apps, and she does not want to make my kid TOTALLY crazed with school work :-? plus all of the college essays that she will need to do. Seems ( and confirmed by my D) that she recommended AB to all the kids who were taking a heavy AP/IB course load ( relative to our school), and BC to kids who were not taking all AP classes ( perhaps an honors level social studies). The only kids who had BC recommended were those who had an honors level social studies and/or English class in their schedule to balance it out. </p>
<p>My D just asked me if she should drop AP Euro and take honors Economics instead and then switch to BC calc. I told her that in my opinion, no, but it is her decision. If she takes honors economics she will work just as hard as she would for AP Euro ( self imposed) , so there would not be less rigor to make room for the extra time that BC may require. </p>
<p>I find this to be very confusing… :-? </p>
<p>Twogirls – that’s pretty much what I suggested to my D. If she chooses BC, then IMO she shouldn’t take AP Euro (just take a regular social studies track). I agree that it’s not a good idea to have too many APs along with all the college apps and stress. We have been told that this should NOT hurt college admissions at all. That kids should go with their strengths and also have a balanced schedule. Reading on CC it’s easy to think that if you don’t have 25 APs you can’t get into college, but it really isn’t the case. It remains to be seen what my D chooses, since the course catalog isn’t even out yet – I guess she won’t have to decide until next month.</p>
<p>I agree that this is all quite confusing!</p>
<p>Twogirls, that’s really confusing!! I promise I’m not trying to create more confusion or stress but the counselor’s reasoning sounds bizarre to me. She recommended BC calc to kids who weren’t taking all AP classes and AB Calc to those who were? That makes no sense to me. I’d think the first questions should be where the person’s interests lie, what grades have been earned in what level math along the way, and what sort of higher level study is contemplated. I would have thought the recommendation would be BC calc for kids with an interest in STEM-related fields or study in college and AB calc for those who weren’t planning to pursue math in college. </p>
<p>I’m not pushing either class at all and I don’t think it will have an impact on admissions! If AP Euro is something your D wants to take and history is something she loves, by all means that is the right choice. But if her love is science and math, there’s no need to take AP Euro. I guess it just sounds like the counselor’s reasoning was the complete reverse of what I’d expect. </p>
<p>Yes 3girls that is exactly what I thought and what we were originally told- if you were going into the sciences you should take BC, and humanities should take AB. That is why I am so confused. This was not asked- instead, the kids were asked what type of schedule they had next year. Anyway, if calc BC is so intense then perhaps it would be better if she took AB given that her other classes are intense. </p>
<p>I do not know much about calc AB versus BC, but my D just stated that BC has labs every other day (?) and AB has labs maybe once every two weeks (?). She claims that she does not want all the labs, but she also commented that if she is going into medicine maybe she should take BC… However it seems that at least for now she is leaving her schedule as it is. Honestly I know that she can absolutely handle BC on an academic level; it’s the emotional piece that worries me when it’s taken in conjunction with the other courses plus college apps. I tend to be on the same page as MamaBear. </p>
<p>We have conferences tonight so I will have this discussion with the teacher :"> </p>
<p>Ok, at least it sounds like your daughter knows more than the counselor! She is making the decision for the right reasons and that’s what’s important.</p>
<p>Labs? Oh crap. (am I allowed to say that?) I had no idea this would involve labs. Labs are almost never a good thing. </p>
<p>I don’t think labs are universally part of Calc AB or BC classes - I can say that in our county there are no labs - DS1 took AB and DS2 is taking BC - neither had labs.</p>
<p>So how many college apps do people think is a good number?</p>
<p>I’m asking because our school tries to limit the number (citing that too many causes too much stress, time away from actual studying, and also gives the kids less time to make each app special/good). I’m talking about apps with supplemental essays, since if it’s just the common app and the submit button it wouldn’t cause extra stress. I was thinking that casting a wide net could be a good thing (more choice, maybe some merit aid, etc), but after watching a friend’s D this year (she applied to almost 20 schools) become so stressed she couldn’t even write the essays, I’m hoping for a more balanced, less stress-filled approach for my D. Any thoughts on this one?</p>
<p>The number I usually hear mentioned at our school and nearby is nine – balanced among matches, reaches, and safeties. However, parents in our area are Type A’s as are the kids, and there may be some “mission creep.” With DC#1, he was planning on nine and had actually filed five when he got his favorable ED decision. </p>
<p>Anecdotally, if you can find a rolling admissions school your kid likes, jump on that early. It is a nice confidence boost to have one in the bag while slogging through the essays for places where the overall admit rate is low. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine why anyone would apply to 20 schools. I recently saw on CC a student who had applied to 22 schools and thought to myself that she must have too much free time on her hands but then she also divulged that she had taken 15 AP classes as well. It all belongs on the fast train to crazytown! I’m hoping for less but the upper number in my mind would be 10. My older son had originally been interested in Carleton but when he went to pull up their supplemental essays and saw that there were 7 of them he cut it from the list. Younger son is sitting with an excellent ACT score in his back pocket and refuses to take any SAT 2 tests so that is eliminating a few schools from his list - it’s okay because those schools were not going to work from a financial stand point - so it’s all good.</p>
<p>@need2learn, whew. thank you for that! D has had too many experiences with kids who haven’t pulled their weight in labs and who have worked under an assumption that everyone else (read: D) is responsible for pulling it all together. She has re-run data and redone reports when others fell short and just didn’t care. She’s also had a couple of bad experiences with one particularly aggressive girl who (1) failed to finish her portion of a report on time and then submitted it to the group in unreadable ink–D redid it that time and (2) failed to finalize her portion of a lab report by 11 pm when it was due by midnight and then questioned my kid when it wasn’t submitted online. That one left me scratching my head–how was MY kid going to know when THAT kid had finished HER part?? and I told D to make sure NEVER to work with this kid again. </p>
<p>@mamabear, I have no idea. I wish I did.</p>
<p>I’ve been told 8-10 is a good number. It was so painful watching our friend’s D so stressed (and now waiting to hear back from so many schools). The combination of a tough AP-filled schedule and all those application supplements really made for an awful Fall semester.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of calc labs either. I just wish the physics classes would spend more time catapulting stuff off the roof a la the early years of the David Letterman show. They make physics the dullest class on earth and then wonder why kids lose interest in STEM. </p>
<p>Hey, SOG, they actually do that here! But then they teach physics as a freshman class…</p>
<p>I’m sure my older son had classmates who applied, say, to EVERY Ivy. But I can’t imagine how they had the time to actually write good school-specific essays. The ones my kid did usually referred specifically to a program or extracurricular that is unique to the school, and that took some research. </p>
<p>MamaBear, 8-10 sounds like a good number to me. I don’t know how this girl is going to be able to make a decision this spring! </p>
<p>My son is lucky to have one of those great teachers who brings the subject to life. My husband is a Physicist and both of the kids have experienced their eyes glassing over when dad explains some experiment. I think that is why DS2 always said he wanted to major in CS. But this physics teacher has made him question that. They are always doing cool labs - some of them outdoors - for example on a ropes course. Son comes home every day excited to share what he learned - it’s a beautiful thing! Teacher wants them to build an electric car over the summer - on his own time.</p>
<p>I wanted to clarify that it was the teacher who was making these recommendations- not the GC 
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