Wow – I see some schools have very advanced math tracks - we don’t pretty high performing(public school) – BC Calc is the top. Hope that’s good enough for selective engineering schools. Tracking starts in 6th grade but is a bit flexible till 10th grade I think.
@jedwards70 We don’t focus on rankings. I know them, but I simply disregard them. (Can’t afford them, so no point. worrying about what we can’t change.)
@CA1543 It is hard to say for sure. Cal Tech is going to be a math snob. No question. Some of the elite schools are going to have a majority of kids having completed at minimum cal (as well as close to 800s on the math 2.) Schools like GA Tech like boasting about how many advanced courses their accepted students have taken, though they don’t specify what subjects. (I don’t have a data point for you. Ds was accepted but had 3 college maths beyond cal 2.)
Your typical flagship is not going to expect calculus to have been completed. Keep in mind that all engineering 4 yr plans start with cal 1. FWIW, public flagships are typically solid engineering schools. States have it in their best interests to have well-educated engineers.
@jedwards70, Temple is also supposed to have a good film program.
@2muchquan We had several regional and unranked schools on our early lists. They fell off, however, not because of ranking (which neither of us cares about), but because they don’t have football teams or their teams aren’t power players, according to D. 
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – thanks for that info – appreciate it – DS needs small classes and good dose of hands-on labs and to get to know profs. Not a math genius but has a lot of innate ability for electronics and programming. Lately really loving physics too.
@CA1543, BC is our top math also (large public in CA). Our HS sends kids to all the UCs and Cal Poly Slo, although I don’t know what majors are being selected. Haven’t seen any Caltech, but at least one Harvey Mudd. I think it’s great when kids who are advanced at math can accelerate according to their abilities, but we did not push for anything beyond the acceleration that was offered by the school. My D will be taking BC as a senior. My S20 got caught behind the Common Core wave and will be taking Integrated Math II as a freshman, which is one year accelerated. It all eventually leads to Calculus anyway, they haven’t changed that.
My D received a voicemail from Univ of Arizona a few days ago. She was addressed by her first name and she was told the application goes live July 25. It was very friendly and a nice touch. She showed interest a few months ago by clicking on a link in an email and doing a short questionnaire, I believe. According to CDS, interest is “important”, although the acceptance rate is pretty high.
Our HS doesn’t rank (reports deciles) so no official Val/Sal. I think the speakers at graduation apply to do so.
I wouldn’t say that we care about the ratings and rankings per se however I do find it helpful to have multiple data points. Since we are not looking at tippy top schools seeing how all of the various places great schools is helpful to give big picture especially for ones faraway that we may not be able to visit until post acceptance. Each source, (and we look quite a few) provides me with a little bit of information that I might not be able to get on my own just by looking at the website or visiting the school and putting all of those pieces together gives me a bigger picture.
Vals/ Sals: One of the topics discussed during a tour of colleges that came through our area was on the topic of Vals/Sals. It was mentioned that there is a small school that names ALL of its seniors as Val which they discovered when they started seeing apps from the same school and more than 1 kid had listed being Val on the app. They called the school for further information and learned that because it’s a smalls school and GPAs so close, they name them all valedictorian. Obviously it makes it meaningless so I don’t understand the point. Other than they are teaching kids to work the system by saying the were Val without the kid being dishonest. They just don’t tell you the entire class was also Val. My son’s school does not have Val/Sal. Class President makes the speech.
Today my son received a funny email (funny to me, not so much to him) from state flagship which said they created an account for him to go on and complete his application and here is your username and password. Please log in and change the password. He found this “creepy”.
@IA books The benefit of the school profile is it will represent what you stated in your post #7641. Admissions officers will see what your son’s school offered and base his schedule in comparison to what the school offered. It will work out okay.
@2muchquan my son does not have any unranked schools on his list but ranking was not a criteria. I have a friend who when applying to law school was accepted to a top 10 law school. No merit aid and she did not qualify for any financial assistance. She was accepted to an unranked regional law school and offered a full ride. She took the full ride and saved herself $75K. She has had an amazingly successful career and recognized as a person to watch in a national magazine. Lots of successful people attend unranked schools so ranking never fit into the selection criteria.
Catching up on some of the last week, I’m not sure that my son has any fears about college yet. My fear for him is he suffers from a medical condition which, as his cardiologist told him, has sent many freshman who do not heed his guidance, back home by the end of the first semester. He’s lived on college campuses for summer programs and he has done a great job of managing his condition and I am sure he will do well but I can’t help but worry.
On things to teach our kids before they head off to college, make sure your child can speak to their medical history on their own. This advice was given to me by my son’s pediatrician 5 years ago. Resistant in the younger years but now my son can answer questions about his medical history, medications, allergies and symptoms he is experiencing. I requested an extra insurance card from our carrier years ago and he is expected to carry it in his wallet. He knows which pharmacy we use and knows how to check medication for the imprint information and how to check online if the medication looks different than what he would expect to see. My son will be entitled to a medical accommodation for housing. Our college counselor said the colleges will interview the kids that require accommodations and the student sits through this interview by themselves. If the student cannot articulate their medical condition, they can be initially denied causing unnecessary stress for a new freshman.
Regarding top USNWR-we’re not using that list, so I’m not sure if the Ds’ likes are on it. We are using the Fiske and the PR 380 top, though. Additionally, D18 will have Valdosta State on there as a HOPE scholarship/in-state safety school, and I don’t think that’s on the list.
We are not obsessed with prestige (only one prestigious school on D’s current list), but we’ve been to enough colleges/universities to know that there can be a substantial difference in ability/dedication/competency of the profs. This doesn’t necessarily correlate with ranking, though-not at all. It seems to correlate more with how the university treats their professors and teaching staff. That metric is a lot harder to tease out, for sure.
Worry. I worry about everything. I am an equal-opportunity worrier. You name it, I’ve had a nightmare about it.
** Math for Engineering Schools **
Our school has no AP Calculus at all…the highest math class is a plain vanilla calculus class without college credit attached. DS’15 got into Cornell Engineering with that, and was deferred from ED at MIT (later denied). So that’s one data point anyway.
[b ]Rankings /b
DS’17 is interested in U Alabama Huntsville, at #187. He may also apply to SUNY Cortland as a safety, which is regionally but not nationally ranked.
I see many interests in u Alabama. I see our HS’16 also has a good number of students going there. Just curious, are you also interested in Rutgers?
D had precalc as freshman and AB in sophomore to slow her math down. For junior, she doubled up BC and Stat. Will do linear algebra next year.
Question: do you think adcom google our kids to see their digital footprints?
@whataboutcollege The interest in AL stems from their generous scholarships. I have an advanced physics/math major who just finished his 2nd yr there. (Technically, he should be a rising jr, but he has enough credit hours to be a 2nd semester sr.)
He absolutely loves Bama. He is in their CBH research honors program and it has been a wonderful experience for him. He will be able to earn his masters in physics while an UG. (I’m slightly concerned b/c he is currently registered for 3 grad physics classes plus 2 UG classes for fall semester. That is a heavy load, even for an A student.) He has been participating in research since his freshman yr.
@SincererLove Seems like it would be tough to check digital footprints of all applicants. Maybe smaller schools could do it? Not sure how larger ones could do that (at least to any meaningful degree).
My kids have very little in the way of a digital footprint. Neither my wife nor I do either. Not sure how the lack of digital footprint would be viewed.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Rutgers also has automatic scholarship based on GPA and standard test scores. And I heard they just build a brand new honor college a couple of years ago. I know Rutgers CS program is ranked well. It’s 6yr pharmacy program is also very hot. I’m not sure about scholarships for this program though.
@MotherOfDragons Which one of Fiske and PR 380 would you recommend. I want to get one of them first. My DD is looking for universities which are ranked well for pre med (any major) and possibility of some merit scholarship
My wife steers people away from pharmacy (not Rutgers specifically but in general). Though that is a whole different issue.
Ok. I have at least partially redeemed myself. I finished 6 math course descriptions. (Well, I did cheat a little. Ds and dd did use the same textbook for 2 of them. 
) But hers are now all formatted together and officially in newly created course description folder created for dd.
@whataboutcollege Can you share the automatic scholarship info for Rutgers? When I looked at their website, it stated that their scholarships were competitive and varied in amt.
Totally random post of the day … Am I the only one having a hard time telling the gender of certain posters on this thread? I assume one thing and then they say something and it’s like, oops, I totally misjudged that one. :))
@itsgettingreal17 me too :))