May be of interest to some on this thread, the Pitt application is now open:
oafa.pitt.edu/apply
And this is one reason S17 didn’t take APUSH. They do that here. S17 could read the books, pass the tests fine, would have loved the class discussion. The essays would have been more of a struggle but he could have handled it. But he would have refused to do handwritten notes like this, and gotten a big fat zero on these assignments. He doesn’t need to write detailed notes like this to learn the material, it takes him twice as long as other students and he plain on refuses to do busy work like this. (Yes I know note taking is helpful for most kids but not him.) Then his grade take a huge hit & we have a very stressed out kid. And this is why I say some AP classes aren’t really like college classes. What college professor has a student turn in their notes for credit.
The more classes are really like they would be at university the better he gets for grades. His AP Bio teacher graded primarily on Tests with only a minor part of the grade on labs and a handful of homework assignments over the whole years. Most of the homework was read the book, take notes (if you want) and study for tests.
@geogirl1 - I agree that with @carachel2, you are paying 2 different set of eyes to go over the essay. Seems like majority of getting some bump. DS got 31 in writing (35C) in September. all his classmate who took later with 35 or 36C ended up getting writing score in 20s and couple of them retook. One improved to 30. It appears most schools are going to ignore ACT essay score.
@itsgettingreal17: Gotcha. I guess that I read it as a blanket endorsement of AP courses. FWIW, I don’t really see an anti-AP bias on CC (if anything the reverse)—there’s a difference between saying “maybe we shouldn’t focus on them so much” (which is what I see a lot of, including from me) and “they’re worthless”.
(Well, and also, from me and others, there’s a lot of “their benefits are often oversold”.)
@curiositycat333 I agree with most of your post, but I did want to urge caution with your ds in terms of labs if by chance he is planning on majoring in a field where he will be taking in-major sciences. Labs can be a huge portion of the class grade. Some of my ds’s lab write-ups have been 10+ pages.
@curiositycat333 …exactly! Same at Ds school. The sheer volume of busywork was sucking the lifeblood out of her. She is a kid loves to learn and know and describe and process and really “get” the material. AP at her school is all about endless assignments and tasks and busywork. I wonder how these kids do when they go off to college and don’t have agazillion homework grades to boost their class grade? (not generalizing to AP in general, just speaking to the program at her school).
My hope in the AP system is restored though when I read other schools are doing it right!
^I agree, and also my D writes notes on her own (no grade) and rewrites them to better memorize the lecture material in college.
@mommdc …that is good to hear! It was crazy to see how Ds note taking process evolved when she started IB and notes were no longer graded. It took her awhile to learn a system that made sense to HER and not done so rapidly just to be turned in for a grade.
And don’t EVEN get me started on the kids who have been caught copying each others notes. :-S I think handwriting all the notes was intended to keep kids from cheating but it hasn’t slowed down a certain group of kids.
California public schools publish a A-G “list” of approved courses. Only courses on that list are included in the GPA. They regulate what is defined as an H. Course, only 8 SEMESTERS of honors are used to Calculate GPA. And only 10-12th grade.
What this means:
Concert Band, Art, Dance qualify a UC class and are include in GPA.
Marching Band, PE, sport, or health class is not.
All AP classes get a +1 point.
Classes like Honors Geometry, Honors Sophomore English don’t get the +1 point.
But other listed classes like Honors Pre-Calculus & Honors Chemistry do count.
The above distinction may be different by H.S. UC approves classes for this distinction. Just because it’s called honors doesn’t mean the class is eligible for an extra point. Back in the day when I applied to a UC, I had to prove that my honors courses from my sophmore year in a East Coast public school were rigorous enough to be given the extra point.
I didn’t realize there are some many different ways schools calculate grades. It almost sounds like school districts are trying to be unique 
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, you are correct. I have never heard of the mommy math wars (they sound scary)! I am not familiar with different approaches to teaching math. Are you saying that the AoPS teaching approach would result in different outcomes (e.g., on the AP test) than more traditional approaches?
I don’t know what methods my S’s calculus teacher used, only the results that they produced (increases in S’s knowledge, enjoyment, interest, confidence, and skills in math, as well as success on the AP test).
Finally caught up after a weekend away in Portland. We visited Lewis and Clark, Willamette, Reed and Whitman, while also squeezing in a doctor visit for D17. We took formal tours of Reed and Whitman, but just walked around the other two. Very interesting. In some ways Reed and Whitman seem complete opposites (D compared them to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, which seemed surprisingly apt) but in other ways they are similar in some of their educational approaches. I can write more about our visits later if anyone is interested, but the tl;dr version is: We loved Reed after our tour, with some reservations. But we LOVED Whitman far more than we expected. D17 was reluctant to even visit, mostly due to the remote location, but halfway through the tour she was texting me to ask what our EFC was (a little higher than I would like, unfortunately, but there may be options).
AP news: she took two and got a 5 on APBio and a 4 on English Lit. We’re pleased with that. Her biology teacher emailed to say that she’d never taught a student who had received a 5, so that was a nice boost. Our school offers maybe (?) seven or eight APs and I think she will have taken 6 or maybe 7 by the end of senior year.
ACT w/writing: @geogirl1 we are in the same boat. D took it in April and got a 32© and a 33 in writing. She took again in June and got a 34 © and a 23 in writing. I am trying to decide whether to have it rescored. At this point I’m inclined to leave it alone, although I know she’s a great writer. If we send both scores they’ll see the 33 and her other scores and hopefully discount the 23. And most schools we are interested in have the essay optional, or specifically state they won’t be using that score for admissions decisions. It’s just pretty frustrating.
In case this summer was not stressful enough, our doctor visit confirmed that we can schedule D17’s surgery for the end of August (Ack!). She’ll be hospitalized for 2-3 days and then needs to stick near Portland for about 7 to ten days after for follow up. Then a couple of regular trips back in the subsequent weeks. At this point I am just throwing my hands in the air and trusting that everything will go smoothly and work out ok. We’re putting her on a plane early early tomorrow for three weeks at Smith College, and I think I’ve maxed out my worrying capability.
At our school they tell the kids to expect 1 plus hours of homework per AP class they take. My son seems to think that is the norm, whether it be reading, busy work etc. it’s still 1 hour of homework per AP class. So, he is just not into taking random AP classes he will have no use for such as AP Human Geography or AP Biology and doing extra work that will never benefit him in his career. He signed up for honors level classes across the board since he was a sophomore. I can’t really argue against his choice, but it does hurt him in the GPA battle.
@carachel2 There is research that shows that for the majority of student handwritten notes help for the retention of material. (I’d have to go look it up & I really should be doing something else.) Something about handwriting the material helps people retain the material. And that typing these notes isn’t as helpful. But my S17 is one of the minority that this doesn’t help.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Yes I’m aware that Labs are important. Labs were counted as a part of the grade. There just wasn’t much homework, and no “I’m grading your notes”. In many University courses Lab’s are a separate class with an entirely different grade.
Just asked D17 and she said her HS doesn’t request nor grade on handwrite notes. I never bothered look over her class work since she always handles everything diligently. Will be pretty upset if the grades come from handwritten notes (even when she has very good handwritings) :))
@picklesarenice I went to Willamette. When we went to Portland on vacation last year we did formal tours of Willamette, Reed and Lewis and Clark. DD20 loved Reed, DD17 thought it was way, way too quirky. Both thought Lewis and Clark was for kids who couldn’t get in to the other two. DD17 is applying to Willamette but I don’t think we can afford it.
@262mom There are a lot of different approaches to teaching math. Not sure you are really looking for an explanation of the differences?? Some courses focus on procedures, methods, and implementing formulas. Others focus on conceptual understanding. Some are somewhere in between.
AoPS’s approach is very problem-solving oriented by ensuring that students understand the theories behind what they are studying and can prove every concept they are using. It isn’t easy to explain the difference in methodology, but once you see it in action, you know that the difference is huge.
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/articles/what-is-problem-solving
@VickiSoCal we also visited Reed last summer and while S17 liked it, D19 LOVED it and has been saying that she wants to go there for the past year! Maybe our younger D’s will meet up there one day
(Though that’s one that I worry about affording too).
@whataboutcollege …that is great! D is the same way with handling everything and that is the only way I noticed! She was up until midnight almost 3-5 times per week and I couldn’t understand why. Then she showed me the volumes of handwritten notes that were required.
@VickiSoCal We toured Lewis&Clark in the spring. S17 didn’t like it. His comment was it didn’t feel “real”. Tour spent too much time on the social aspect on college not enough on academics.
We didn’t look at Reed even though it was my dream school when I was a kid (my BF attended) because it was too much of a reach for him. Neither of us thought Willamette was that good of a fit after looking online to warrant a visit. We did visit UofO and OSU both which is loved and are on the top of his list.