Awesome @4kids2graduate - that is a nice scholarship! <:-P
DS also got a $1000 scholarship today. We’ll take it!
@palm715 - hoping the birthday trip is successful. If they show her extra love her maybe they will give her a birthday (vegan) cupcake to seal the deal!
@Cheeringsection I don’t think I offered my congrats on Valpo yet, so let me remedy that now, great choice. Having attended a smaller Lutheran LAC, we all look at Valpo like the Lutheran version of Notre Dame (-:
@labegg: #18908: killer post. wanted to both ‘like,’ and hit ‘helpful.’ So, Helpful, as well.
Some of the local kids have done semester abroad in Europe have figured out how to 3-4 day weekends to hop on the trains and go around.
Thanks @ChicagoSportsFn and @Skates76 ! It will be fun for my DS to experience all those things about the school and community.
We have had this conversation. :-/
Enjoy!
Today is S’s 18th birthday. He and I will be attending a dinner for scholarship recipients at UNC Chapel Hill tonight. It’s not one of his top choices, but our most affordable on by quite a bit…feeling a little bad for taking him away from celebrating with friends tonight!
Ok ya’ll I could use some advice for my D18 and since everyone here has successfully navigated the HS experience I am hoping to mine your expertise!
D18 is very similar stats wise to D16 but with slightly higher GPA & PSAT scores
(3.6uw/4.8w GPA) but has fewer extracurriculars and not leadership positions to date. D18 is on varsity cheer at school & a level 4/restricted 5 all star cheer, she is in Latin Club, NHS & Diamond Darlings, (yeah don’t ask…it’s a Texas thing). IMO she really needs to add another academic EC, but cheer is a huge time suck.
D16 had/has 11 APs (which I am convinced was an important contributing factor to her admission success). D18 is on a similar AP track. D18’s AP’s so far are Hum Geo (4), WHAP. D18 junior year is scheduled as AP English Comp, APUSH, AP Physics, AP Psych, honors Pre Calc, honors Latin III and Cheer. Senior year she will probably do AP US Gov/AP Econ, AP English Lit, AP Euro, AP Calc AB, Cheer and she has to do a science and an additional elective.
D18 has no idea what she wants to major in maybe anthropology or marketing but I am 75% sure it will not be a STEM, although she has been asking about what she can do related to Algebra II (I have not idea…). Nor has she expressed any preference for any particular college or university, expect for NYU (which we have already told her we are not willing to fund that adventure)
So my questions are…
- Do you think D18 needs/should take AP Physics?
It has to be physics, per school district requirement. They no longer offer honors physics, so it an unweighted regular physics class or the weighted AP class. Engineer Dad says absolutely yes, Liberal Arts Mom says ehhh probably not but it couldn’t hurt, D16 Sister says no and D18 is on the fence. She was a high B/low A honors Algebra I student, a mid B honors Geometry student and is doing really well in honors Algebra II with a low/mid A. She had/has mid/high B’s in honors Biology and honors Chemistry.
- What science would you recommend for Senior year or just regular unweighted science class? What about AP Stats instead of AP Calc AB?
I am not sure if she is over the critical mass of APs so it really doesn’t matter so she could drop the AP Physics. I read most schools think 5 APs are plenty. But I do think the 11 that D16 has bridged the gap on her average GPA and SAT/ACT scores. We are not looking at Ivies or lottery schools really. We have until the end of the month to request a change to the Junior year schedule.
- Do you think she should find another EC?
Thank you. I would have posted this out there in another forum, but it can be a bit of a shark tank sometimes.
How is the AP Physics teacher? What about the regular physics teacher? I would not recommend AP Physics to a non-math kid. I don’t believe it will matter (much).
Edited to add:I would favor AP cal cover AP stats.
I think her Junior Year schedule demonstrates a rigorous schedule as its written. I know APs are different at each school, but at our school AP Psych is a lot of reading which sucks up a lot of time. I don’t think it would hurt to take AP Physics since she’s not sure what she wants to study . I don’t think that she needs another EC with Cheer taking up a lot of time. I’d focus on academics with this year being the most important when applying to college. I know options are like belly buttons , everyone has one and they’re all different . That’s my 2 cents.
@labegg this will really depend on the type of college your D wants to attend. My kid has decided that he is completely uninterested in UCB and UCLA which his high academic choices got him into and now had found that he really is a CTCL kid.
I think you D needs to choose a level that feels doable and interesting to her and this counts for her ECs as well. My kid missed his top two choices with perfect grades literally, an SAT of 2320 (2 of the 3 were 800s), 11 APs, 2 800s on SAT 2 tests in science), DE, wonderful LoRs (I read them), great essays (I has someone precessional read them), and halfway decent ECs so it was not worth the academic stress. But he is a kid that WANTED the challenge so didn’t feel cheated.
Ask your daughter what she wants! Does she want this stress that may or may not lead to something? Does she want to join an academic EC? It is time to let these kids destress. What we are doing to them is silly.
@labegg - how would taking vs. not taking AP Physics affect her GPA/ class rank? (how does your school rank, if it does?) Since you are Texas- that top 7-10% could be important if you are looking at flagships.
Does your school have UIL academic teams? I know different schools handle these competitions in a variety of ways with a wide range of time commitment required. Might just explore it but, I agree that the end of the Junior year transcript & focus on academics would be a priority.
@piesquared - I do in fact know some students who turned down Stanford for other schools, including after the admitted students’ visit. It is a wonderful place for some students. It is not the best fit for all students, even all who get in. The Greek/startup tech scene can be oppressive, especially for young men who aren’t into that. Peer pressure can be pretty overwhelming, especially in engineering and CS, where a very few students have made their first million before graduating (or dropping out). It’s often more competitive than collegial, and in the past couple of years, some departments and majors have been put at risk (German being one where I know someone affected) - most were ultimately salvaged after making the case for relevance, but it’s a perpetual threat.
And while the weather is fabulous in many respects, to those of us who live or work here, it’s not all that. S and I had a great time running around the Twin Cities late last week in the snow. Two of the three remaining ports on our SS Indecision cruise are in places with four distinct seasons, and the third has a bit more weather than here, although not in his preferred direction.
I’ve heard secondhand that a lot of people are wondering where S is going to decide. He’s played his cards close - very few people we know are aware of where he’s applied, where he was accepted - even family are trying to sort it out based on my occasional check-ins at coffee shops while we’re on accepted student visits. He posts something on social media about once a year, so no clues there, either. It’s definitely helped keep the pressure down. (Except for on his beloved mother, who - yes - is having avatar envy as well. Any avatar. We’ve got three choices, all of which would make him - and me - happy. Pick one, dear. 
)
D and her dad went up to admitted students’ day at Evergreen yesterday. We weren’t sure it was worth it to go since she has already been there a bunch of times, but it was a good trip. The best thing, I think, was that she was recognized and greeted by 3 separate people- one girl from a class she had visited, the head of admissions, and one other admissions rep. So that felt really good and she appreciated the personal touch.
This visit was all about figuring out logistics- how to get her AP and college credits to transfer in, etc. She got to sit down with an academic advisor person to talk about fall quarter and plan what she might take. Evergreen doesn’t have any “required” courses, so there’s a lot of options right from the start.
We’re going to be sending in the deposit and accepting FA, probably this week. Looking at the Reed data set from last year, he chances of getting in off the waiting list are something like 18% if it’s the same as last year. So other than adding those last couple of things to her admissions file up there, I think we just put that out of our mind and move forward with Evergreen unless we hear otherwise.
I do worry a bit because she’s accepting several merit scholarships at Evergreen. I’m hoping there’s a way for those to go out to another student if she does end up at Reed after all.
@Labegg, how about physics senior year? That way she has all three sciences bio, chem, physics, but not on junior transcript. Is AP physics recommended with only Algebra II knowledge? Concurrently with Precalc? I think reg physics would be fine.
AP Euro was a lot of reading! AP gov/econ should be plenty of social science. You could have her take AP stats to see if she likes it. Helpful for marketing.
Do they have computer science (not AP)? Ask if it would work in place of science class.
As for EC. Do you have DECA? Or mock trial?
@labegg I agree with @bookmom7 see how her choices will affect her rank. My ds18 is still lamenting his choice to take regular English in 9th grade instead of pre-ap English because it messed up his rank. Our school ranks based on weighted GPA so everyone that has a chance for the top 10% takes as many pre-AP and AP classes as possible, consequently the caliber of the non-weighted classes are much lower.
Since she’s in Algebra 2 and enjoying it, how about joining Mu Alpha Theta? At our school they only meet around six times a year and members are only required to attend two meetings a semester to stay in good standing.
@labegg There are many variations in AP physics. I am assuming you mean AP Physics 1? This does not need precalc but the teachers can make a lot of difference with Physics in terms of teaching well or not teaching at all.
Btw, Rice has been doing EdX classes for AP Physics.
@labegg. For D18, consider reading How to be a High School Superstar by Cal Newport for ideas.
@labegg I would echo @mommdc. Save AP Physics until after Pre-Calculus. She’ll need to be really handy with trig for AP Physics. I think AP Stat for junior year could be a great option, especially if the teacher has the rep of being good and not beating up the kids on grades. Honestly more kids’ jobs will have some relation to Statistics than to Calculus.
And yeah, AP Euro is a ton of reading.
So maybe:
11th:
AP English Comp,
APUSH,
AP Psych,
AP Stat
honors Pre Calc,
honors Latin III
Cheer.
12th:
AP Physics,
AP US Gov/AP Econ,
AP English Lit,
AP Euro (?)
AP Calc AB,
??
Cheer