@Parentof2014grad Thank you. That’s very helpful and exactly what I suspected. If S19 ends up with solid SAT math score, why would he need a SAT 2 Math 2 score? If it’s not required, I don’t really see a reason to take it. Same goes for English, French, and the sciences…if his grades are good, I don’t see the point of SAT 2. Just don’t want to miss some boat that everyone else is taking.
I’ve also heard that advice about APs. We aren’t looking for him to pass out of any college classes with APs (unless they really stray from his major - like maybe a science credit if he decides to be a history major). AP credit stuff can be decided later, though, after admission.
ECs pretty solid
XC/Track (15 hours week year round)
Private art classes weekly and AP Art at school - will have portfolio and enter competitions starting next yr
Yearbook photographer (possibly head of photographers senior year- he'd like to do that)
Peer Leadership leader for next year and senior yr (sees freshman group through their first year of high school)
Community House Junior Board (local volunteering)
Soccer ref for work experience (6-10 hours a week during spring and fall seasons)
I think that’s about all he can handle with his class load!
@homerdog he loves Honors Chem. The reason he would prefer Physics is that the AP Chem is at the other HS, so logistically a pain, only a few kids take it and according to the honors Chem teacher, he won’t learn all that much that is new. The honors chem teacher basically went off on the AP curriculum and it definitely went down on the interest scale as a result. He did put it down as an alternate if he can’t get into AP Physics for whatever reason (I can’t imagine it being an issue with his schedule though). I have a feeling he will have to tweak his schedule anyway. He registered for leadership, but if he doesn’t win the election on friday no need for that so then he wants AP CS or AP Macro/Micro. Hopefully they will auto adjust it for him but I’ll likely have him follow up before the year is out to make sure it’s adjusted.
@eh1234 - theater tech is indeed way time-consuming. In the musical season, they start in December and by January it’s every day; by February it’s weekends too and the last two weeks, it’s until 8 at night, every night.
D19 had a tough choice to make last year as she was in her first year on tech crew and had decided she wanted to dump lax (three years in middle school, all-star goalie, etc) to concentrate solely on tech, but then she went to the first day of lax practice and remember how much she loved it. She’s compromised by only doing the musical, in which the last performance is the day before lax season starts. But it means she won’t rise to a leadership role in tech crew, as she completely bypasses the drama play, which is during lax season.
@Gatormama I hate that kids can barely do two ECs these days! If one plays a sport it’s almost always year round and time consuming and leaves little time for anything else. Sounds like theater tech could be the same way and I know ballet is as well. Our XC coaches wouldn’t even let our son join yearbook because it meets once a week after school. He could have run on his own on that day. Luckily, the yearbook teacher agreed to let him join yearbook without going to (most) meetings next year. Not sure how that will work but I appreciate her being flexible!
I don’t get it when I see kids on CC listing a bazillion ECs. That never works at our high school.
ME EITHER @homerdog!! Where are they finding the time?? Plus running those cold fusion experiments on the side?!
Plus, I think I’ve mentioned, D’s school is far away and she spends an hour each way commuting.
I think if you do some ECs, you can do a bunch, but you have to really check the commitments in advance.
@homerdog – about your question re: SAT II in a language class – I seem to recall some schools use the SAT II score for placement for foreign language classes in college. (I know that’s the case for James Madison University, for example.)
@MichiganGeorgia - learn something new everyday. Thank you for the information on credit for SAT II tests. I have not seen that, but also waiting to look closely at things like AP/SAT credit until S17 decides on a school.
My kids are fortunate that their EC’s meet directly after school for an hour, and sports usuallly start 1 hour after dismissal. So they do an EC/Club and then go to their sport. it worked pretty well for son17. My son19 does Robotics and that meets at night and on weekends, so that works out well too. Many kids miss some extra curricular days due to sports, doctors, work, sick etc., but as long as you are consistent it seems to work out.
Son 19 is maxed out time wise with his ECs right now with soccer, club soccer, robotics, Model UN, Math team, Track., soccer referee for work, and he volunteers once in a while at night. Busy! I don’t think he needs to be so busy, but he wants to do it all so we let him.
@RightCoaster love the idea of sports starting an hour after school. I don’t think that could work here…at least on game/meet days. Our son played soccer on the high school team and games started an hour after dismissal but they had to get suited up and warm up and, of course, go on the bus for away games. XC and track meets start an hour after dismissal as well…
I wish more activities met in the mornings. We don’t start school until 8:00 so morning meetings at 7:15 are doable. The “specialty” bands meet at that time (jazz, etc) and the varsity swimmers and runners do doubles so they work out at 7:15 and then again after school. A few clubs meet at 7:15 but I wish there were more. Maybe the teachers who sponsor these groups just don’t want to come in early!
We’ve been semi lucky in scheduling on the EC side. Jazz is before school, sports are right after school and theater tech is most often a delayed evening start and weekends, scouts and music lessons are evening and weekends. Clubs are generally during school. That said, theater tech and track definitely conflicted and so S19 has never done tech and seems to have passed the window of interest.
@RightCoaster that’s impressive your S can fit in track as well as club soccer. We’ve known kids that have done it but it’s hard at the HS level to manage it all (and stay injury free).
@MA2012 Yes, look at AP/SAT2 credit/placements after S17 decides on a school.
I remember seeing something like, Tufts waiving the foreign language requirement if AP/SAT2 scores were high enough.
UT Austin will waive History requirement if APUSH/SAT2 scores were high enough 3/620 (?) S17 could potentially get plenty of credits from SAT2/AP’s.
In May, as S17 will take 4 AP tests, we will use the One free report to send all his AP scores to his school of choice (hopefully decided by then!) whether this year’s scores are good or not.
I half joked that if S17’s school requires a foreign language and will waive it based on AP/SAT2, he can take Spanish SAT2 in June (after his graduation. ha!)
Since we were (are) looking at a few selective schools and honors programs in Science (Engineering) for S17 (S19), I am having them take the SAT2 tests. They are not much effort compared to any ECs. S17 is a cold test taker, so for him, the effort was one hour of one (early) Saturday morning per subject. For S19, we spent about an hour a day for a week on the week of the physics test. S19 will take Chemistry test this May on the week of his AP Chem test and Math2 in June (after precalculus.)
All of the schools that DS16 applied to offered credits for DE or AP classes with a 3 or higher on the exams. Some have increased credits for scores of 4 or 5 on AP classes. We have never seen credits offered for SAT II tests .
@eandesmom@homerdog At S19’s school Honors Chem and AP Chem are almost the same (probably because the teachers aren’t great and can’t differentiate between the two levels). D16 took honors and her teacher even finished the curriculum in early May! (She barely scraped by with a C and says her current college chemistry class is easier!) Knowing this, I suggested S19 take regular Chem as an intro before taking AP Chem (which I guess he might take senior year).
He and the GC settled on AP Physics and AP Psych for next year, with four honors classes and orchestra. Hopefully that “light” course load doesn’t ruin his chances of getting into our third-best in-state public, but things are so nuts, it might be him out of the running.
@eandesmom I’m in VA - VA Tech seems like the natural in-state fit for S19, but admissions from this part of the state are surprisingly tough (even though the overall acceptance rate there is high). 50 or 60 kids with very good stats get rejected every year.
Is it purely stats based or influenced by ranking? We have a similar situation with our top regional school, which ties with another state school for “2nd” best. Overall acceptance is high but our HS acceptance rate is more in the mid 50’s. I always wonder if that’s just due to more kids applying than really have a shot but have no idea as the scattergram numbers never really seem to match up.
This year they offered EA for the first time, and it sounds like many of those kids were deferred to RD and RD apps are up over previous years so despite it being rolling admissions, most kids still haven’t heard. It will be interesting to see what the end result is and if their admission rate goes down as a result, I hate the way they changed Naviance as you cannot see the stats at the level of depth you used to.
Most kids from our, and the neighboring HSs take SATIIs. The kids targeting selective majors like engineering, economics, business, etc take 2-4 SATIIs. I am amazed how much they cram in their 24 hours, keep on doing it month after month! It is a relief to know that some colleges actually admit students who do not take additional tests!
@payn4ward, @OrangeFish, and others do you know if the institutes give credit for just SATIIs or the kids need to take APs with SATIIs? I have heard of CLEP but not SATIIs alone.
@collegeandi I started looking through the schools on our list and the only one I saw so far that gives credit for SAT IIs is Lehigh. And I’m not even really sure it’s on our list…it’s on a very long version of our list :))
…I’ve got a “most likely to apply” list with ten schools and then a list of “other” schools that might interest S19 too. That list is pretty long. Some of those schools could be crossed out quite quickly if S19 eliminates certain parts of the country.
