@traveler98 Congratulations, hitting that acceptance button is a big deal!
Our school progresses math as Trish02’s school. Although last January DD had an opportunity to attend after school Calc AB tutorials (She was in Honors Pre Calc at the time) She could have attend and taken a placement test at the end to be placed in AP Calc BC this fall. Unfortunately that was in the middle of her sport competition season so she could not attend. As a non Stem major she is unlikely to need the Calc BC anyway. She will definitely need the stats though for Psychology. Wish I had been able to talk her into the AP Stats this year…
Here is the weird AP thing at our HS this year…DD is taking AP English Lit. There was no summer reading (which is a departure from when DD2016 took it) The teacher is only making them all read Frankenstein, which they are doing now. After that it is free read, books of your choice from a rather extensive list. They will then break down into small groups based on which book you are reading at a given time to discuss. So if you decide to read “The Things We Carry” you are in a group together until you choose the next book. If you pick Wuthering Heights same, etc, etc, etc. I will be interested to see how this works out. Fortunately DD is not heavily dependant on the AP test for this class for college credit having already scored what she needed on AP Eng Comp. The teacher said what is important is being able to critically review literature, not the specific book. Will be an interesting experiment. I am.going to guess it is meant to encourage kids to read instead of forcing them.
@traveler98 sorry your S got caught in the school’s transitioning of it’s math system. At least this is in his senior year and he’s already been accepted to where he wants to go. It sounds like your S will be disappointed that he’s missing the knowledge, but I’m sure there are plenty of other things for him to spend his time on!
Interesting approach to AP Lit, @labegg. Doesn’t the AP test want them to analyze different styles of literature, though? I know my D would like to be able to read whatever she wanted, but the scope would probably be pretty narrow. She’s NOT enjoying Faulkner right now, and she’s kinda dreading the poetry section, but I’m pretty sure there’s a poetry analysis essay on the AP test.
For the record, she really enjoyed Stephen King’s * On Writing.*
@labegg how your English teacher is handling the AP reading is so interesting. I’d be really interested to hear more in a couple of months as to how your D thinks this is working.
@trish02 , I’m not sure why they’re making the change. Nothing was proactively communicated to the students or parents. I can see the pros and cons of both teaching models, it’s just this transition year that’s going to be strange.
@labegg, that way of teaching AP lit sounds like a wonderful idea to me! I wonder how well it will turn out, but the thought of giving the students some control over their reading lists seems like a step in the right direction.
My D’s school offers separate AB and BC classes. But they also offer a 19-day summer AB course (from 8-Noon) during the month of June so that some kids that want to finish with MV Calc their senior year can if they choose. So my D took AB as a rising junior, BC as a junior and MV Calc now. She also took Pre Calc and AP Stat in her sophomore year.
Sad how my kids’ school changed from MV senior year for top students to BC senior year for top students. Yet they still allow “special kids” to take whatever math they want by studying in the summer under public HS teachers, for free.
Any thoughts on special needs kids and college? We are starting to worry because it seems my S18 will need extra help in applying to college. He is autism spectrum, but think that mental illness is part of it. He is high-achieving but seems tired of schoolwork.
I am not sure if she is making them choose one book for each genre/category? That would make the most sense…but this is the only information that I received during a brief howdy at the open house when I asked about the no summer reading and DD hasn’t said much.
@rhandco I can speak to LD and college experiences, if that helps. My S18 has Dyslexia. We had to request for him to get accommodations for the SAT and ACT for extra time to complete the test. We worked with his school’s GC for help picking colleges that will meet his needs and she helped him with the application process (such as requesting transcripts and reference letters early, making sure ACT and SAT scores were sent, and encouraging him on class selection, major choice, etc.). I had to step in a few times with the GC to keep things moving, but overall she reached out to him. We also worked with an outside advisor to help with the actual completing of the application, especially the essays. The cost (a few hundred dollars) was well worth it for us to get him involved in the process. It was a big step for my kiddo because he never uses his accommodations in classes and hates (absolutely hates) bringing any attention to his dyslexia. It’s a process. My son is like yours, high-achieving but has hurdles to overcome. He applied, and was accepted, to Texas A&M. It was his only choice, and only application, because we learned about the services they provide for students with LD and special needs. I would really research the services offered at your son’s college choices. I was happily surprised with services available… I guess our next hurdle will be to make sure our kiddo uses those resources. Best wishes during this stressful time.
Thank you. We are looking at Drexel, which has specific autism services, as well as a few more local colleges.
We are of course lucky enough to have a new guidance counselor, and the old one basically gave two weeks beginning of June to say “hey, I’m leaving” and “hey, you need to get all the stuff you thought you could do over the summer done NOW”. Not good for his situation, so now we are behind.
@rhandco My oldest had accommodations for college. She has CAPD but also some speed issues relating to coordination, something you might be familiar with as a mom with a kid on the spectrum. She had notetaker until the school switched to recording devices. She also had extra time in tests, which she only used a few times in her college career and that’s when a professor who knew of her accommodations recommended she use it for certain very time consuming tests. Thank goodness for her small school and the personalized attention.
I will say, the accommodations seemed less necessary as she progressed out of required core classes.
She also got better and better at recognizing when she was tripped up and advocating for herself. You know, it’s sometimes a big hurdle for kids with processing issues to even realize when they are having a problem.
We did not seek accommodations for standardized testing because we got this figured out so late in the game, and we were told her achievement scores were too high and she probably would not qualify.
My D also took advantage of counseling services for anxiety related to a medical condition.
She was willing to use all of these services but I had to lay some groundwork and get her started, especially when she was stuck. Because of FERPA and HIPA, it can get tricky. But I knew I could call disability services when an issue came up. Even if they can’t tell me anything, I could ask them to reach out to her or give some them info that might help. We started with them for LD related issues but when scary medical stuff came up, I was grateful the relationship was already established. So I’m always in favor of setting things up with disability services even if you aren’t sure the services will be used.
I’m happy because I think D has decided to continue an EC she was going to stop. She is overloaded but my feeling about ECs is that it is worthwhile to stick with what you enjoy and what might continue to be an enjoyable pastime throughout life. I’d rather her cut back on the other stuff that she’s doing out of obligation and won’t last. But, of course, I am keeping my mouth shut and will support her decision, whatever it is.
So the guidance counselors had a senior meeting today.
My DD didn’t go, and neither did anyone in her CCP Physics class. Topic was graduation credits, and how to apply to college. For these kids, that’s old news. They stayed in physics and worked on their lab; the physics teacher was cool with it and pretty much told them it was not worth going to.
I appreciate the effort for kids who don’t have enough support/information at home, but that probably means the guidance counselor is even further behind on doing anything for the kids who already are waiting on her. Sigh.
Question: My daughter is applying to a school that asks you to list up to 10 ways you “learned about the school.” You select items from a dropdown menu. Two of the items are campus visit and interview. If you choose these, it asks for the date you did them.
She is planning to apply EA to this school and then, about a week after that deadline, she has a visit and interview scheduled. Should she list these as ways she “learned about the school?” They are in the future, of course, but it seems like a good idea to have the fact that she visited and interviewed listed on the official application.
Last week (after I experienced my parent application fatigue crisis) I suggested to my D that maybe we could schedule some time on Sunday mornings to catch-up and talk about anything college related & she loved the idea. The ground rules though are that she must show appreciation and respect the fact that I’m spending my time trying to help her reach her goals.
All week long, on the way to school or after school, I didn’t bring-up a thing about college & I noticed that the level of stress that was just hanging in the air before all but dissipated. I also noticed that she has started doing some college research on her own!!
When we met for the first time this past Sunday, she opened out little meeting by saying that she wanted to thank me for spending my time with her & that she really appreciated all I’ve done for her - Yea!!!
We then spent a productive 2 1/2 hours going over this and that & she submitted her first application to UTD & we also submitted another application for an outside scholarship!
Thanks to other CC parents who have shared similar “deals” they’ve made with their kids, because I kind of tailored our little plan based on what I’ve read from you all !!
Congrats @LMHS73 !! It think it’s time for a plan like this our house. I’m feeling a bit beat up so perhaps this will help us get back on track. The daily monotony of non-stop college talk is getting to us all. sigh
@LMHS73 and others…so I saw that Wash U is picking up LMHS73’s D at the airport. Is this for a special fly-in weekend for a select group of kids, or is this a generalized preview day? Is that something special to Wash U, or do other schools do that too?
I guess I’m just wondering if I’m out of the loop, because I’ve never heard of a school doing that or really anything else for prospectives unless they are athletes or URMs, or maybe attending accepted students day. Well, I should revise that slightly because my neighbor’s kid gets a lot of free stuff from Duke based on a perfect SAT score in 7th grade. And my D did receive the Rice app fee waiver. But am I hearing about overnights and other things (beside official preview days) for prospectives before an admit decision?
@melvin123 College of Wooster took my DD2016 back to the airport after a prospective student visit. she was by no means a special candidate. I contacted the admissions rep on a whim to see if it was possible. They had a lot of things to offer; rides, overnights, meals etc., once I initiated the contact. Sometimes you just have to ask.
The smaller LACs sometimes really roll out the red carpet. We had an outstanding visit at Baldwin Wallace too. IMO every kid should have this VIP treatment at least once during this crazy process. DD2016 experienced the VIP treatment at her High Point U visit this summer, again not a special candidate by any means.
