On another note, we are thinking about taking a detour to Annapolis on a (non-college related) road trip to South Carolina. I’ve heard it has a nice historic downtown area. Does anyone know if it’s like Newport, RI or Alexandria, VA? Worth a visit?
As for DD taking AP Calc as a non-STEM kid her school doesn’t offer AP or Honors Stats (not sure if they have regular Stats) and she wanted all 4 years of math. Almost everyone takes AP Calc at her school as a senior. I think Stats would have been much more interesting and relevant to her future goals but it is what it is I guess.
Thanks @CT1417 We have become pros at this. We have actually only been here a year as I stayed behind on our last Relo so older DD didn’t have to go to three high schools and transfer senior year. It could have jeopardized a scholarship. Amazing what we do for our kids. (And it’s only been these last two where we didn’t stay very long. Just bad timing)
@eandesmom Ha! Same here! 2 APs for junior year and 3 for senior year. I’m overwhelmed with the number of APs kids here are taking!
My D came home and said her final grade for regular Chem was B. I was disappointed but what can I do? We might have to make some adjustment to the current college list.
Did any of you visit Smith during the summer? I’m visiting Smith with my D (a rising senior) this summer and I’m hoping she’ll get a good enough feel from the schools without students there. We’re also visiting Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Tufts, and Muhlenberg. Wellesley was on her list, but may have fallen off due to things she’s read. For those who have visited (particularly when students were in session), did you sense an overly competitive vibe? My daughter doesn’t want a college where students are so cut-throat that they won’t collaborate and help one another.
@HiToWaMom I know! I am amazed as well, I don’t know about you but most of the kids we know had a similar class load, maybe 1 more AP or honors but not all of their classes. Of course most kids we know are dual band kids which doesn’t leave much room for extra AP’s or honors classes. Even the kids I know that have gotten into Ivies etc didn’t have the 5-6 I see here so it’s kind of fascinating. Of course on the flip side, we don’t have issues with the VPA requirements for the UC/Cal State schools so I guess there is that.
Sorry to hear about Chem, that is so frustrating. Will that one grade really mean looking at the list again? Where does your list stand at the moment? I think we sill have some crossover. I am crossing my fingers nothing bad happens with the regular USH final tomorrow. He pulled AP Physics up to an A- today with a retake of a test (pleasant surprise to both of us) so as long as nothing else drops, we can live with the grades where they are. All things considered (the F in Spanish 3 as of 3 weeks ago which is now a B) I can live with it, as can he. 3 A-, 2 A, B+ and a B. Not earth shattering but doesn’t make things any worse so that’s something. LOL! Of course if he does well the USH could go up, and in theory so could AP Lang but I’m not getting my hopes up. Really ready to be done with it, S19 has been killing me. LOL
@smcirish I visited Bryn Mawr and Wellesley with my D. We just did self-guided tours so we couldn’t tell student vibe even though the schools were in session. My D13 goes to Vassar. It is not cut-throat at all.
@HiToWaMom At my son’s school and other schools I know of in our area, there is not much of an option other than to take AP courses as there is really nothing left to register for. The only subject my son had an option other than an AP class is science. He’s not a STEM kid so was not interested in AP bio, AP chem or AP physics. He took the honors versions of those and is done. His only other options were AP Enviro or Forensics. All of the non-STEM kids are signing up for AP enviro because it’s supposed to be the easiest of the APs and non-stem kids fill the class. I told my son to take forensics and enjoy the year but he was hesitant because he said he didn’t think colleges would view it as a 4th year of science. It’s like if it is not an AP class the kids think it doesn’t count. I showed him the curriculum for AP enviro and asked him if he felt he wanted to spend a year in the class. He registered for forensics. 
At least I had a victory in having him remain true to what he would like in that instance. I lost the battle on AP Calc but by the end of the summer, AP Calc will be a fleeting memory.
@jmek15 - Annapolis is very nice. More to see and do than Alexandria. Very easy to also walk around the Naval Academy.
Eeeek. So sorry to hear about your GCs moving on @CT1417 and @Gator88NE – best of luck breaking in your new GCs quickly!
@fun1234 Have a great time at the Grand Canyon! We haven’t been there since before having kids. The rangers told the story of a little kid who took one look over the edge and said, “I don’t see what the big deal is. Most of it’s missing.”
@disshar Sorry about the inconvenient move date! Glad you have a plan.
@flatKansas How cool to have a special election year gov’t class!
Senior year rigor: S will have 4 classes at the HS in the morning and 2-3 at the UC in the afternoon. Not really clear on what UC classes, since he has to ask permission to register from the professors, and only the fall quarter schedule is out so far. We are guessing based on previous years for winter and spring.
Altogether he will have at least 11 science and engineering classes on his transcript.
HS classes: AP English Lit, AP Macro (1 semester), AP Gov’t (1 semester), 2 engineering capstone courses (Advanced Engineering Physics and Mechatronics)
He’s run out of other challenging classes at the HS that he wants to take, having already taken AP Physics B (predecessor of 1&2), Chemistry, Biology, Calc BC, CompSci, APUSH, English Lang, and Spanish. He would like to take Micro, but they don’t make it particularly possible to schedule both AP econs. He doesn’t want to take AP Stats, EnvSci, or Psychology since they are all super easy at his school.
He really wishes they would offer AP Physics C, but they don’t. He may take the AP tests for these 2 anyway.
UC classes, fall quarter: Linear Algebra, Astronomy, Automata and Formal Languages (this may be tough to get into, since it is upper division). If he gets all those, it is 12 quarter units, so near rigor mortis 8-X when combined with the HS classes.
UC classes, winter and spring quarters: Hopefully Differential Eq and/or Stats with calculus, some computer science, and maybe more geology and astronomy. He’ll cross those bridges when he gets there. Probably will take spring quarter easier, because the engineering capstone gets busy with a trip to the Bay Area Maker Faire to show whatever they build.
@HiToWaMom and @eandesmom What you are seeing is partially due to the CC bubble and partially why when kids on here post thinking that they are top dog at their school and real superstars that they are reminded that when they apply to competitive schools that they are competing with kids from around the country and internationally. It is not the norm on average, but it is the norm for some colleges. It is healthy to keep that perspective when creating your child is creating their list and applying.
When you hang around math competition kids or become involved in certain academic groups, you become aware of just how utterly amazing some kids’ accomplishments are.
Fwiw, it is why I am encouraging my Dd to not get her hopes up for a couple of the competitive scholarships she is planning on applying for. She is pretty amazing in her own right, but the competition is too, and maybe even more so.
In 2014 when Ds applied to GA Tech, the avg accepted EA applicant (5000 of them) had 9 AP/DE classes. (Ds had 10, all very lopsided in math and science.) They plastered it all over the place (tweets, Facebook, etc.) That is an indication that they are probably selecting the students who will bring down those types of averages very, very carefully and few in number. It is a huge part of the marketing game.
Here is GA Tech’s press release for 2015:
I would look for that sort of data for the schools on your child’s list. That sort of info tells you what they are looking for. At one of the schools Dd is looking at, they have highlighted how many national and international awards their accepted students have. Obviously that data point is important to them. It is worth investigating in order to understand what data pts the particular admission offices are looking for.
@whataboutcollege I have a Chem. Eng degree and and MS in comp sci . Since she has taken Bio take the CS class. My daughter did a Java class this summer since her school does not offer AP CS. My daughter really liked programming but is going to still stay ME or BME
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Understand you dilemma since my D 17 is also looking a the competitive schools and I’m telling her the same thing. That everyone will be like you and the chances to get money will be slim. I’m also trying to prepare her for the rigors of engineering in college. It is much different I’m sure then when I went but still very hard.
We have GT on our list and she liked it when we visited. I’m not counting on getting any money so trying to get my daughter to choice a few less expensive options.
That’s an amazing statistics @Mom2aphysicsgeek. A 36th ranked (US News) school, GA Tech has an average SAT score at 98.78%ile, ACT 99%ile, and with 10 AP/college level courses, I wonder why these kids even go to college?! As I look at these stats, it’s pretty humbling when I compare my DD’s stats (slightly better on the standardized testing) to the GA Tech’s averages. I think the base level of performance of students accepted at top 50 schools (take away URM, recruited athletes and such) is just unreal.
@OHToCollege It is sobering. It is also why students need to be realistic. For example, 5000 kids with those stats are accepted, but only 50 presidential scholarships exist. 1% chance. Those stats are far worse than admission to tippy top schools. So students who think they are shoo-ins for things like Morehead, Jefferson, Parks, etc are really disconnected from their competition. Admission alone is a high bar.
The stress of applying to only scenarios like that is also crushing. Students start to receive rejections in Dec and suddenly their world is turned upside down bc they didn’t suspect they would get rejected from *those * schools. (I remember reading threads on different forums for GATech and NCSU that yr. Ds was accepted to both, but Imwas shocked by the profiles of some of the kids deferred and rejected.) The CC mantra of having a safety you love should definitely not be ignored if your student is applying to competitive schools.
I’m procrastinating again. I am supposed to be working on dd’s course descriptions.
For those who might be wondering about ds and his GT acceptance, I just looked at his transcript and he had 11 math credits (5 cal up) and 11 science credits (including AP chem and 5 cal physics up + 3 self-studied college equivalent independent study astronomy courses. Side note tidbit, one of his physics professors signed off on his taking a 400 level astronomy course b/c he had used the lower level course’s textbook in one of his independent study courses in high school.)
@smcirish we visited Smith in May, school had just finished so we didn’t see any classes in session. We had two tour guides (and were the only ones on the tour!) who were great, very open and very kind. They talked a lot about the unique housing system which builds community, the weekly teas, the very small class sizes, how they both came to Smith with specific majors in mind, only to totally change direction, and how you only have to take the required courses for your major - and can experiment with a lot of electives. They also talked about the alumni network post graduation. It seemed like a very collaborative environment of highly intelligent women to me.
I cannot fault your approach, but we took used a different strategy. D’s likely major is Psychology so she will need a sequence of statistics courses, but she can choose General Psychology (no calc) or a Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience specialization (Calc 1&2)
My D really wants to take AP Calc AB/BC senior year, for the challenge and hopefully for the accomplishment. She also wanted to take AP Stats. That would be three periods of math for someone whose strength is not math.
I encouraged her to hold off on AP Stats since I am concerned the HS version may not give her the foundation she needs for the rest of the Stats courses she will need to take for her degree. So she is taking AB/BC Calc in HS with the hope of getting a 4 on the AP exam, that will give her credit for Calc 1 & 2 in college.
So that gives her three possible outcomes:
[ul]
[]Gets a 4 on the AP exam - done with math for either path she takes
[]Does not get a 4, but gets a good foundation in Calc - Better chance of success in Calc 1 & 2 atcollege
[li]Calc in HS is a disaster - Take the path that only requires College Algebra[/li][/ul]
So, because of the ability to get college credit for AP classes, our strategy has been to take the AP version of the classes she hopes to avoid in college and leave subjects that are core to her major or where she wants a really strong foundation in for college.
AP CompSci
DS took it as a sophomore and LOVED it. I think it is what got him interested in the field. However, I have noticed that at a lot of the “top” CS programs he’s considering, a 5 on that exam does not place you out of anything for the major (sometimes it gives credit for an intro CS class for non-majors, I think). So my guess is that it’s not considered super rigorous, though it can be a great introduction to the field.
AP Stats
DS took it this past year along with AP Calc. He really liked it, and didn’t find it to be difficult (consistent with the reputation that it’s an easier course). Also, it doesn’t seem to carry much weight in terms of credit/placement in stem majors (that I’ve looked at). My guess is that most of these want a calc based stats class, which AP stats is not.