@droppedit I really like how they calculate rigor at your D18’s school. That makes a lot of sense to me!
@TexasMom18 My stomach is in knots. My D18 didn’t feel super confident that she was able to raise her score significantly after the June ACT. She was under the weather the day she took it so I’m sure that didn’t help but ugh. She is away at Girls State this week so hopefully it won’t stress her out too much if she didn’t improve :(.
I will be checking for the June ACT scores in the morning. S18 is looking for a small jump in science to increase his composite a little. I doubt he even knows the scores come out soon, as today he starts the first performance of a musical he is directing, that runs all week. I suspect I am more curious about the ACT score than him!
@droppedit that sounds entirely logical. It seems like they should acquaint the students with it sooner!
According to my daughter, at her school, you get the “most rigorous” designation if and only if you are doing the IB diploma. I have no idea how you might get the other levels, or what the levels even are.
D’s school offers the IB diploma, but you can also get the “most rigorous” designation with AP classes. I don’t know what the exact qualifications are, but D’s counselor told her she needed to take AP Calc in order to get it; AP Stats wasn’t enough.
Yeah, tomorrow we will be checking ACT scores as well. :-SS [-O<
@ShrimpBurrito Burrito, I need to ask D’s high school about IB vs AP" most rigorous designation. . D is not planning to do IB but she take Calc BC, AP physics C, AP CHEM, APUSH, AP GOV, AP Lang and LIT but not AP foreign language.
To me that is pretty rigorous.
Yes, @BingeWatcher, definitely ask, as we are finding out here that each school has their own policy.
I like the way @droppedit 's school does it. Kids who are heavily inclined to either humanities or STEM should stretch themselves in the other direction. High school is too early to specialize.
@BingeWatcher – what we consider rigorous and what the school considers rigorous may be two different things! We almost learned that the hard way … and it would have been a bummer since the fix was easy.
I think my D18’s senior schedule is still too heavy on STEM. Switching to AP Psych definitely helps. She’s taking AP Calc BC, AP CS-A, AP Psych, AP Lit, so two STEM and two humanities … but she’s also taking Biotech Internship and Lab Aide (aka Scientific Research II). I would have liked some sort of Art class in there for fun and to exercise her creativity (however, I heard from another parent that the AP Art classes are not “fun”). I don’t want yet-another-walking-encyclopedia kid that knows everything but can’t do anything interesting/creative.
Oh my Gosh - just got back from a trip to the East Coast with our DD’18 – I have to many posts to read! You guys have been busy.
And @glido you owe us a report! 
@droppedit, my D will be heavy on STEM classes her senior year as well, by design. With all of the college essays that need to be written, she wants to do more concrete mathy work at school to break up all of the creative essay writing.
Edit: why can’t I tag people? The smiley box moved, too. :neutral:
Edit 2: and the smileys don’t work.
Pending the results of DS’ English AP test he is considering taking English 4 as a CBE over the summer. If gets a 4 on the AP test that will count as English 1301/1302 for the college he’s looking at. His only option for senior English is the AP class or on-level which he wouldn’t need if he gets the 4. On his mock AP he got a high 4 so we are optimistic. English isn’t his favorite and he thinks if he gets done he can lighten the load. Beyond that he’s taking Calculus BC AP, Chem AP, Gov;'t AP, Economics AP, Music Theory AP and band. Gov’t and Eco are only a semester each so he’ll have a free morning period. No idea what he’ll put in place of English. Figure we will discuss that on 7/8 when the AP scores are released and we will be on the road for 12 hours going to U of Alabama.
I think I posted this before, but our school district doesn’t weight GPA and doesn’t have class rank either. The highest GPA you can get is a 4.0 (if you had all As with no A-s for all four years).
The district just adopted a new graduation system instead of ranking (this year is the first class to use it). They did it to stop the stress and competitiveness of high school for the kids.
Now they do the cum laude system.
3.9+ = Summa cum laude
3.75-3.89 = magna cum laude
3.5-3.74 = cum laude
This allows students some breathing room and also allows for students to be recognized for hard work in all levels of courses. I think it’s important to realize that not everyone is on a college track nor is everyone ready to tackle college level courses in high school. But it doesn’t mean those students aren’t working hard to get an A or B in the on-level classes. Now students can get recognized for achievement in all classes.
I should note that even though the school does not weight IB courses, they do have a more lenient grading scale for them. In an IB course, a 90+ is an A or A-, whereas in the regular courses, a 90 is a B+.
Our DD’18 flew to Baltimore on her own and took a shuttle bus to the Naval Academy. She spent a week there. We flew into D.C., drove to Annapolis to pick her up. She was in high spirits, but very tired. We had a lovely day in Annapolis which, of course, included soft-shell crab.
We drove her up to West Point (She slept the whole way, except when we woke her up to ensure she could see the NYC skyline.) We checked into a hotel in the Hudson Valley, went for a hike, had dinner and went to bed. Early the next morning we dropped her off at West Point. Mom & Dad went to NYC to visit college friends and visit Ground Zero. (I lost a couple of college buddies there and found their names on the memorial) Then, up to Boston to visit DS’14. We walked several miles of the Bay Road between Lexington and Concord and then back down to West Point to retrieve DD’18 who was, you guessed it, in high spirits, but very tired.
Both of these schools are beautiful and have much to offer. DD’18 has a clear preference, but I have clear instructions from her not to say.
I will say this - there is tremendous value in having your kids visit a campus and meet other students and applicants if they can. There is a lot of truth in what we read and hear about “fit.”
On the way back to D.C. we stopped at Gettysburg to walk Cemetery Ridge, climb Little Round Top and ponder the tremendous sacrifice paid to end slavery.
Good trip.
@glido What a great trip. My D considered applying for that summer program at Naval Academy but decided it wasn’t for her. It takes a special kind of person to take that on. Congrats on raising an obviously confident and gutsy young woman.
@glido Great news about your D18s programs at the academies! My own D had Coast Guard Academy on her radar for a long time but that seems to be fading due to a change in prospective major. But the academies are fantastic! I wish her the best of luck in her pursuit…I know it’s a long road going through the DoDMERB process etc but well worth it if she gets the appointment to her dream institution.
@glido …sworn to secrecy…but we are anonymous strangers…surely that counts as a secret. Glad the trip was illiminating to her.
Sounds like a great trip @glido ! Doing a week at the Naval Academy especially must have given her a great sense of the place.
We are trying to visit, but the schools on D18’s list are far flung and not well clustered in any way geographically. It’s very hard to take time away during the school year! We visited two schools during spring break and have scheduled 3 to visit this summer. Summer is not the best time to visit, but should be better than nothing. The rest of her list she will just have to make her best guess on and visit after acceptance if the unvisited schools are at the top of the list at that point.
Can I please ask any of you that had kids take APUSH and AP CHEM at the same time a question?
D21 is an upcoming 9th grader and I am trying to figure out a schedule that will not overwhelm her and lead poor grades and not enough time to study.
I first requested she be allowed to take bio IS (this is the new honor course designation since it is an IB school) and chem IS as a 9th grader…The school shot me down.
so now I have requested to see if she can take APUSH as a 10th grader along with chem IS
The counselor said she could but this would be very discouraged since chem IS and APUSH are rigorous, time consuming classes.
IF she does not take APUSH in 10th then it would be 11th with AP chem, AP physics 1 and AP calc either AB or BC and APUSH.
Or she could take AP physics 1 in 10th grade along with chem IS.
but I would rather her take physics 1 in 11th and be fresh for physics C in 12th
I don’t understand how is would be anymore difficult to take chem IS and APUSH as 10th grader than 11th with AP CHEM and APUSH instead.
I feel like the school is just giving me a run around.
Advice please.
Anecdote here:
D took APUSH in 10th grade; her first AP class. It was brutal. It may just have been her school, or her teacher, but she was more stressed out with one AP class (APUSH) in 10th grade than she was last year with five APs. Older friends from her school have also said that APUSH was their most difficult/stressful class in high school. I think part of it is getting over that first AP hump, learning the format and expectations.
AP Chem is supposed to be very stressful as well. I’d be cautious about letting her take on too much, too soon.
@ShrimpBurrito , thank you