Parents of the HS Class of 2018 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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D is starting to question her plan for a few more AP classes next year. Her friends taking certain classes this year that she would take next year and having a stressful time of it, even the chill ones are freaking out.

This is why dh didn’t want her on a heavy AP track to begin with, because he sees the kids’ stress and tears, and he wanted her to have a balanced life.

I want to encourage her but I also wonder what the point is if we’re mostly aiming for merit at less selective colleges where awards are mostly automatic based on SAT scores and GPAs.

What if she were to just take the APs in a subject or two that are of true interest to her? Would it be the end of the world?

I just ran the NPC on Lafayette, a school we visited last year that D likes. Speaking to their reps since, too, they really emphasize rigor. So she has the scores to get in and solid rigor for her school according to her GC. But their NPC spit out a much higher number than any college so far. So why totally stress out for something that would be financially unattainable anyway, even with their merit?

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Do we need to send PSAT scores to colleges?

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@SugarlessCandy - colleges don’t care about PSAT scores.

2764

Good. One less thing to worry about.

2765

@MACmiracle I empathize. What do her teachers say? My D’s teachers who know her well encouraged her to go a surprising direction with her schedule for next year. It’s not what I would have chosen for her, but I’m supporting her decisions.

The point of taking APs at this stage IMO is for the college credit. The less selective colleges tend to be very generous with AP credit, giving the student more flexibility with scheduling. But there’s a lot to be said for enjoying a less stressful senior year.

Good luck with your family’s decisions.

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My DH made a good point, colleges already have D’s PSAT. That’s why she is getting dozens of letters every week. It’s amazing how much money these colleges invest in mass marketing.

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@ShrimpBurrito , That’s an interesting idea about asking a teacher. That’s not something I’d thought about. I’m going to talk to her about that today.

Because of my oldest D’s experience, I’ve been a little skeptical of using AP for college credit. She had a major that required certain sequences of classes and even the gen ed requirements had to be filled by certain classes to meet the requirements of the major. So no credits from high school could have helped with that. Then in the last year of college, she had so many credits that she basically had to find classes to keep her above the minimum for full-time to keep her loan and her housing. She couldn’t finish early because of the sequence of required classes. So now I tend to be a little skeptical about acquiring a lot of college credit in high school.

I realize that most people won’t be in such a restrictive program, but that’s what we had to deal with.

It might help if D had more of an idea of what she wants to major in and where.

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@SugarlessCandy - colleges never see your student’s PSAT score. They can buy a list of student names and contact information from College Board that fits certain criteria (all students scoring above a 1300, all Hispanic-identifying students who scored above 1400, all students in the PNW who scored 1260 or higher NS marked Classics as a potential major, etc. The possibilities are endless).

They get a huge list of contacts and send mailers to the students on that list, but they never see your student’s individual score.

2769

Talk to me about Texas A&M. S18 was researching National Merit stuff and saw they are incredibly generous with scholarships for both semifinalists and finalists. For finalists they even guarantee tuition waivers for out of state kids.

He is interested in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering for a major. He had not considered any Texas schools prior to this as he is worried it wouldn’t be a good fit with him politically and socially. He is pretty liberal and social-justice oriented.

Any thoughts on the school’s climate politically? Diversity wise? Pros? Cons?

Thanks!

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@RoonilWazlib99 For engineering, the NMF schools I would look at would be UTD and UAH. That’s not a knock on TAMU; I just don’t know anything about it.

UAH has connections to a large research park, NASA and I believe Lockheed Martin.

UTD is a STEM school founded by one of the principals of Texas Instruments. They, too, have lots of great industry connections, plus there’s a competitive scholarship called the McDermott is that is definitely worth checking out.

My understanding is that TAMU is more conservative than UT, UTD, etc., but I only know that from reading these boards. I have no direct experience. My understanding is that TAMU feels conservative, but many of the other Texas campuses (e.g UTD) feel urban, cosmopolitan and much more moderate / liberal-leaning. S leans liberal himself, and UTD is high on his list.

Demographically, UTD is very diverse, with good representation of Asian, Hispanic and International students. UTD has modern buildings, no football and no Greek presence. It is often described as feeling more like a research park than a college campus, so if the traditional college feel is important, a visit is in order. It used to be a commuter campus, but that has changed a lot in the last 2-5 years. I hear that the dorms give each student their own bedroom. :wink:

We’ll be at UTD in April, and I’ll be happy to report back. S is pre-med moreso than engineering, but BME is a possibility, and UTD has a well-regarded brain institute.

TAMU is full tuition (per the NMF yolasite). UAH is a full ride. UTD is very close to a full ride (full-tuition and then some). UTD’s McDermott is wayyy beyond a full ride.

I know you asked about TAMU, so apologies if this is off-topic. I thought the engineering connection might be helpful. :slight_smile:

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@RoonilWazlib99 Your S has taken the SAT, right? I stumbled across a post of yours a while back where you were talking about your S trying “fear free” versions of both and choosing the ACT. I’m sure you probably already know this, but your S has to take the SAT at least once to get a confirming score for National Merit. The score doesn’t have to be as high as the PSAT but I don’t know the ballpark range. Anyhow, I’m not trying to be pedantic or anything, I would just hate for anyone to miss out on National Merit because they didn’t take the SAT. On the small chance that he hasn’t taken it already, I believe he has to do so in either May or June to continue to participate in National Merit.

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@DiotimaDM - he hasn’t yet taken the SAT, but knows he needs to. I’ll have to check into it, but unless they changed the rules in the past two months, he should have until December to take it. He is considering Stanford and they require you to send all sittings of tests and he doesn’t want the pressure of having to get a perfect score to match up with his high ACT. So we are still ruminating on what is best for him to do - apply early to Stanford and all the publics he is considering and take the SAT in December, which is too late for Stanford admissions or take the SAT in August before the stress of school starts again and hope for the best, or something else altogether.

Thanks for the info on the other schools. TAMU was the only one from the Yolasite that caught his eye. I think it’s ranked something like 16th in the country for engineering and the scholarships are so generous. It might be enough to get him to take a visit to a TX school. He definitely likes a traditional college campus and the campus feel/look has been enough to take a school off his list. He has a great list of schools already so honestly, anything that takes a school off at this point is fine with us!

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@RoonilWazlib99 - I am not sure you need to send Stanford all sittings of both tests - just the one you choose to submit (i.e. you don’t have to submit SAT and ACT scores if you took both). Someone please correct me if this is not correct.

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Stanford requires every test you have taken:

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Ha! @planner03 I just copied the same paragraph from Stanford’s site to come back and post!

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@RoonilWazlib99 Re: SAT - OK, cool. :slight_smile: I am probably wrong about the deadline. I didn’t pay much attention to that part because we’re already done with it.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

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I just went by what this year’s deadline was. For class of 2017, they needed to take the SAT by Dec 2016. I am assuming they will have the same deadline for class of 2018. Hope so anyway. It would stink for them to change it without giving enough time for the kids to take it in the fall!

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Yeah, it can’t be by the end of this school year. That would mean the deadline had passed before students ever knew they were NMSF.

Anyhow, there’s a new test date in August. Might be good to knock it down before the new school year heats up.

Re: someone more knowledgeable - I meant about TAMU. Apparently I was typing too fast while getting ready for the morning.

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Gotcha. The August date is one option, but he’ll most likely only do that if he decides not to apply to Stanford just to take the pressure off. He can do well enough with no studying (as evidenced by the PSAT), but if he knew a college was going to be reviewing it (and one as selective as Stanford), he would want to put a lot more effort into it or just take it when it is too late for his application.

2780

Oooh, fun! I didn’t think he would have any interest, but DS18 just got his first college coach recruiting email! That’s kind of exciting!