@“What???!!” Rarely do they have any value and are generally the schools just trying to increase their number of applications.
HAPPY EARLY FATHER’S DAY to all the dads here!
MATH TRACKS
Our middle schools offer regular, advanced and honors in all academic areas. Mostly, children are placed by state testing results and teacher recommendation. If a child has an IEP or 504 plan, parents have more rights to override a placement. Unfortunately, most parents aren’t even aware of the differences. At the end of 6th grade, students in advanced and honors Math take the Hanna-Orleans diagnostic test and, again with state-wide test results, are placed either in integrated 7th grade Math or into Algebra Honors. All high school credits (science, math, foreign language) taken in middle school are considered Honors and weighted with a 0.5 value. The normal sequence for most everyone is starting with Algebra I in 9th grade though. The super-accelerated track starts with Algebra in 7th and ends with AP Calc BC or AB Calc Stats or College Algebra (dual enrolment) in 12th. A few very gifted math students take super-advanced math on the college campus. Luckily, most math teachers we have encountered are extremely good.
Appalachian State is a beautiful campus. My bil graduated from there and has an incredibly successful career.
Our oldest Dd went to a forensic science camp there. That was when she was going through her “I want to be a forensic chemist” stage bs she thought it would be like Abby on NCIS. I knew she would hate working in a lab. She is definitely a people person and needs to chat and talk all day long. I searched everywhere for a camp, and there one was at App. Best decision ever bc she came home saying no way! 
Her dorm had no air conditioning. She had to use fans. That would be miserable a lot of places during the summer, but up in the mtns it wasn’t too bad.
@“what???!!” Mailers mean absolutely nothing. More kids applying lowers their acceptance rate. A win for them.
Regional rankings…I was pretty sure it had to do with grad programs (my ds’s regionally ranked university had a few masters programs, but not many, and no phd programs. That is part of it, here is their definition:
@2muchquan Have a great trip – enjoy and unplug some! We look forward to hearing about your adventures.
Gender-- I’m a mom – - bet you guessed that.
@mdcmom – thanks for he data point - very helpful - no AP Calc & still Cornell engineering!! There is hope then.
My DS will take BC Calc though I am now worried he has a hard time visualizing certain things - relies a lot on a calculator – will be challenging for him I am sure. He loves Physics though - we’ll see how Physics C goes - really thinking more about engineering schools that allow changes of major and are fairly flexible about minors - any parents of future engineers who are master wizards at “spreadsheets” out there with any guidance to share – I’d be grateful. Need to create college profiles for the 15-20 maybes on his list. Seems CMU is not easy to move around in & USC is better & more flexible. Also important - declaring your major without lots of hurdles!!
@Hades321 we use the Princeton Review 380 one more than the Fiske. I think it’s because the PR is organized better. We’ll look at PR first, then look at the Fiske to get a second perspective on the schools we find in PR.
@itsgettingreal17 yes, sometimes I make guesses based on the avatar and name. Not usually with the writing, though.
Do adcoms google our kids? Eh, maybe a few of the super selective schools that do 10 rounds of winnowing-that might be one thing they check. I’m guessing 99% of the schools ain’t got time for that, though…
@MichiganGeorgia I’ve heard some nice things about Valdosta State, like it’s got bright (but not necessarily academic), liberal-minded (comparatively-remember, this is still georgia, lol) engaged students and teachers. We’re going to visit it tomorrow so I’ll do a report on what we see.
I’ve also heard good things about Appalachian State, and one of the Freakonomics guys (not the economist, the other one) graduated from there and speaks about it fondly.
My username is fairly gender obvious 
In real life I’m not quite as dragon-y unless poked. My id comes out a lot in my writing voice. I get a lot of personality and looks comparisons to Cameron Diaz in the Charlie’s Angels movies-“I love tickets!” “Feel free to stick things in my slot!”
My husband looks like Khal Drogo, but acts nothing like him (thank god!).
https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/undergraduate
@dfbdfb, check out University of Pittsburgh. See if D can visit with Honors College, Neuroscience Dept and Global Studies Center.
About 10-15 Chancellor’s scholars are selected each year, if your D would qualify for it, it is a full ride.
A lot of the previous C scholars seem to have double and triple majors and/or BPhil. I think the mission of the C scholarship is to free students from monetary constraints so they can fully explore the depth and breadth of all the course offerings of their interest.
@dfbdfb - My friend’s daughter is a student @Appalachian State. IF you need any information, I can find out.
I thought the mail/email came from checkbox choice when you sign up test. something like “if you want to participate into the talent search”
@ca1543 Does your son really like math and feel very confident in his math skills? I can’t speak to the calculator dependency bc I don’t allow much calculator use at all for math until pre-cal. But math confidence built on competence is an absolute must to make it through engineering and physics. (Most physics majors end up doubling in math bc it only requires a few more math classes.) Math is probably the number 1 weeding out factor for both majors.
Fwiw, if I had a child who really wanted to be an engineer and I described him the way you did in your post, I would discourage him from applying to engineering powerhouse/competitive schools. I would look at lower ranked regional schools with solid engineering programs. I would want him in an environment where a lot of students are probably entering with pre-cal or AB as their highest math course and plan on re-taking cal at the university. You want him to feel successful his freshman yr, not behind/trying to keep up.
Wow this thread moves quickly!
Rankings: I had to check because honestly, I have no clue. And like @2muchquan I am somewhat confused about how one compares regional universities to national liberal arts colleges, etc. On the list is one that is regionally ranked - Western Washington - and it doesn’t appear in the Princeton Guide. Ohio Wesleyan is somewhere between 65 and 145 depending on whose ranking you prefer. There are a few mid 20s LACs (Kenyon, Oberlin, Mac) and the rest are in the 50-100 range.
Maths: In the public schools, you get placed into advanced math track by middle school, usually by virtue of an IEP for gifted that was acquired in elementary school. Without that early start, it’s very difficult to move into a more advanced sequence. The private middle schools do math placement according to an entrance exam but students can move into more advanced courses at any time between 6-8th grade if they demonstrate the aptitude and interest. Upon reaching HS, there’s very little wiggle room anywhere. Advanced sequence at my kid’s HS is Alg 2, Pre Calc, Calc 1 (two different levels of intensity), and Calc 2 (or Stats).
I did hear of one family that arranged to have their elementary school kid take HS math classes, by virtue of engaging their gale force helicopter blades. He ended up going to Exeter for HS.
App State: One of the smartest people I know got his BA at App State. He’s now a tenured professor at a state flagship.
Spam: USC sends snail mail 1-2 times per week. D17 has shown no interest, yet it still comes. Wash U was her first spammer, beginning freshman year (!?) but no longer shows her the love. She’s saving all of it for her graduation party, which will feature a ceremonial college spam bonfire. As for the email, I’m not sure because I don’t see it.
@mamaedefamilia I’m sure you didn’t mean it derogatorily, but I just wanted to share that some kids are ready for high school math in elementary school and no helicopter blades are required. (Brakes more likely.) We did everything possible to slow our son down to a manageable pace (manageable for me, not him. ) He took his first alg class at age 10. We threw in competition math and courses like counting and probability and AoPS alg 3. We told him no to taking multiple courses his freshman yr of high school. We only let him DE in 2 300 level courses his sr yr of high school which meant he couldn’t take the additional math course he wanted bc he wanted to take 2 physics courses. Even with blocking him and slowing him down, he finished high school with multivariable, diffEQ, and linear. He would have finished at with at least 2-3 more math classes if he had had his way (and he could have done so without much difficulty. We just wanted him to have more time to be a kid.)
^ Sorry, @Mom2aphysicsgeek - I most certainly did not mean it derogatorily, my apologies for coming across that way! It was meant to be a reflection on the rigidity of the public schools and what was required to get what was needed, not that the parents were unreasonable. They had to push very, very hard and once he got to middle school, the public schools were unwilling to be flexible. They also were unable to get accommodation at the priciest and highest prestige private school within a reasonable driving distance. Hence the shift to boarding school!
Do adcoms google our kids? I have no idea whether they do. But just in case, I’ve googled my kid to see what they would find. He’s done a good job of keeping his video gaming under an alias, so everything that comes up is positive. He has a moderate size digital footprint and a fairly unique name. (Kids without unique names would be difficult for adcoms to google.)
You can use startpage.com to google without your browsing history affecting the search results.
@dfbdfb Thanks for the CollegeFactual info!
I also Google my son’s name and also told him to be careful about postings/comments on social media. He also has decent footprints with most of his accomplishments showing up.
Regionally ranked: CalPoly is regionally ranked, and there are a lot of other great schools on the western regionally ranked list. I don’t think regionally ranked is chopped liver.
I’ve looked more at various physics and CS rankings than campus-wide rankings. I checked, and our lowest USNWR research univ ranking is 82.
@whataboutcollege I don’t see that anyone answered, but yes, Math Analysis and Precalculus are the same thing I think. The topics covered can vary a lot. Trig is covered in our Alg II class, but sometimes it is in precalculus. Our Honors Precalc is reportedly quite easy, repeats material from Alg II, and doesn’t cover matrices well. Other people on CC say their Precalc course is very tough.
@Ynotgo thank you! I think I just got a hang of D’s HS curriculum, now have to start again with D going to a different school.