As far as I know, the standard math track here for college prep/honors kids is Algebra in 8th grade, Geometry in 9th, Algebra 2/Trig in 10th, Pre-Calc in 11th, and either AP Calc AB or CD in 12th. Math has never been my DDs strongest subject but she works hard. They actually placed her in both Geometry Concepts and Geometry in 9th grade. The Concepts is a more intro course and at first she was going to try to get out of that class as she didn’t think she needed it. But she actually liked it and it helped her a lot so she kept it and ended up with As in both classes. I’m not sure why she was placed in it as she got an A- and B in Algebra Adv. in 8th grade; perhaps they did a placement test that I don’t know about. Either way, she has done very well in math in high school, never dropping below an A- and will be taking AP Calc AB senior year. It’s not common but some kids do move ahead in math more quickly but there is only one example I know of (a girl who was in DDs grade but skipped 8th grade so she just graduated, and she was taking college math classes this year).
OK, who’s kid is applying to at least one school that is not in the top, say, 200 in USNWR (or considered a ‘regional’ school, and not even in the ranking? Woo hoo! :-h
Carry on. Back to packing for me. Your kids are all amazing!
Guidance counselors have to fill out a form which discusses a student’s course load in comparison to the actual courses offered at their particular school. (Most rigorous is the highest option.) That form allows ad coms to focus on the individual student’s accomplishments based on available opportunities vs. direct comparison to all students in general.
@IABooks My DDs school also doesn’t have any AP math until Calc (they have both AB and BC but that is the highest math offered at her school). Pre-Calc they can do Honors.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (USNWR RNP) and the University of Alaska Anchorage (USNWR 77, but as a western regional) are required to be on my daughter’s list as ultimate safeties. Last I checked for the Spreadsheet of Serendipity, the lowest USNWR rank on the list is #115.
Lol @2muchquan we had one or two on our list but they fell off with the last cuts (not for that reason) With the final list we do have 3 that didn’t make it into Fiske, one whose entire state didn’t make it in into Fiske makes you feel any better.
Honestly I liked one of the non ranked better than a regional that’s still in play.
My dd is applying to a regional school (Truman State) but it is ranked regionally. My oldest ds’s chemE degree is from a regionally ranked university as well.
Our current local university is a RNP university. That is truly not ranked. Most of the local kids do attend there, so it obviously doesn’t bother a majority of families. We did visit the school b/c ironically it does have a Russian major!! However, it is an incredibly weak dept and the srs we spoke to in the dept have no post-graduation direction or job prospects. That is a huge indicator about a dept. We always ask what grads from the program are doing b/c that demonstrates just how much the focus is on student goals/objectives. (I have shared before that we visited a physics dept where the dean and the UG advisor looked at each other thinking the other could answer the question. Big turn off. Run the other way!! ****** And that school—It is ranked in the top 100 national universities. Ranking isn’t everything!******)
@2muchquan LoL. I was going to say DD is applying to Howard as her backup/safety and it isn’t top 200 but I looked it up and it’s 135 :)) She is definitely aiming high but has the stats/ECs to back it up. The parents and kids in this thread are definitely outstanding!
@eandesmom the grades takes so long because it’s a state mandated end of course exam that accounts for 20% of the final grade. So the teachers have already put in all of the grades the last day of school but the course final needs to be scored and curved by the state and then applied to the grade at some point. Last year was the first year they implemented this dumb test and it was such a cluster*** that the grades were thrown out and never used. I’m hoping that will happen again but there’s no way to know how long I have to wait
A little late but congrats @BigPapiofthree
val/sal our school has both and they both speak at graduation. Has anyone seen the video of the middle school kid speaking at his graduation impersonating the presidential candidates? What a personality!
@flatKansas @IABooks DS is interested in film production and screenwriting. University of Kansas has been listed as a good place to study film on a couple of sites he’s found and we will be relatively close in July so I thought we would check it out. My feeling is that he will change his mind about his major in college and wanted him somewhere where there are a lot of majors to choose from. He seems to like the larger private and public universities so he’s looking into big schools with film programs. He is also interested in honors programs so that is a factor too. He really likes UT Austin but it isn’t a sure thing since he is not in the top 7%. He loves Boston University. I am just too cheap to pay the amount BU would expect us to pay. He also loves the idea of Columbia University but understands that it would be better for a Masters degree if he is still interested in film.
QOTD: Math tracks. DS’s school did GT testing in 3rd grade and they were pulled into small groups to work on more difficult math/language arts. At the end of sixth grade, they determined if they were going to go into a math track that was either one year or two years advanced. I still remember the day that he found out he was going into the one year ahead in math track. He was distraught because he missed the two year advanced track by one point. I didn’t push it for him to go to the more advanced track and I’m glad I didn’t. He has done well in math in high school and I think it would have been more stressful if he were struggling to keep up. Ugh. I hate even thinking about his 5th/6th grade year. It was the start of bullying and you can image how easy it is for a boy dancer in middle/jr. high school. I digress…
@2muchquan - Western Washington U. Regionally but not nationally ranked.
Well, in my persistent procrastination in writing course descriptions, I wasted about 3 hours researching another entire list of universities that resulted in zero being added to dd’s list. X_X (I wanted one of me smacking myself upside the head, but I didn’t see one.)
So instead of dd having to fill out another application or schedule another tour, I am going to have a glass of whine. (that one was not autocorrect. :-S )
My D took math analysis in 10th grade and Ap Calc BC in 11th. Is math analysis what everyone here refer to as pre-calc? :-/ My S is going to magnet high school coming fall. They had all incoming freshman sit in math placement tests for algebra and geometry. I am hoping he can be directly placed in math analysis instead of having to do algebra 2 ( what he would be placed if he were to go to our regular HS) since he pretty much know those already. I have no idea what is the math track here O:-)
@flatKansas I forgot to add that DS loves the UA dorms from their pictures. He really liked the one-on-one he had with the rep and wants to visit UA too. They have a new digital media lab for their film students so it is worth a look. I’m not sure when we’ll fit it all in this summer.
Laughing and crying with you @Mom2aphysicsgeek I did the same exact thing last week…and promptly ate a bar of dark chocolate :))
@mtrosemom the regionals don’t seem to fare well in many of the rankings…Fiske leaves them out entirely (or at least the ones we looked at) and PR seem to leave them off the 380 but will acknowledge a few things about them.
Which I find amusing when I compare the grad stats of WWU to 3 of the nationally ranked universities on our list, WWU has much better numbers and only slightly lower than a top 100 school on our list. Granted these aren’t top 100 schools (135+) but still. I figure top 50% of the regional ranking is not that different than say top 50-100.
Don’t know where WPI and RIT are ranked but likely applying to at least one of these. Not sure what ranking we are all looking at though.
Math tracks
Our local public high school has 3 math tracks. In the feeder middle school we go to, there are also 3 math tracks. In middle school, you are placed into one of the three levels based on 5th grade work and 5th grade standardized testing.
The “normal high” track finishes algebra 2 in grade 8. The “middle” track finishes algebra 1 in grade 8. The other track completes pre-algebra.
In high-school the honors track starts with Geometry in grade 9, Pre-calc grade 10, and Calc BC grade 11. Grade 12 is AP Stats and/or Calc III and linear algebra. The accelerated track does Algebra 2, Geometry, Precalc, and then Calc AB or AP Stats. The college prep track does Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre Calc or Advanced Mathematical Decision Making.
As far as I know, there is no locked in requirement to be a in a particular track. There are high school placement tests where you test and are placed into a track, but I think if you really want you can register for a higher level. More commonly, students test into the honors track but choose the accelerated track. (Pre-calc honors is rumoured to be the most difficult class at the high school.)
@2muchquan I didn’t know the rankings of any of the schools that DS is interested in so far. Thanks for leading me down the rabbit hole of looking at the UNSWR site for the rankings. I guess it isn’t super important on his list if I didn’t know what the rankings are.