@TimEnchanter unfortunately our finances and leave balances mean that touring SoCal colleges is pretty much out of the question, so we’re going to have to rely on other people’s impressions if kiddo really wants to go there. I like your description of Chapman, except for the living off-campus for non-freshmen thing. Will pitch that one to the kid when we next talk about California colleges. Pomona also popped up as a mid-reach so I’m looking at that. The 5 colleges sound like an interesting collection of campuses.
One other thing on situations like the one @homerdog describes: Even if it was just ID numbers and no names, that’d still be a FERPA violation. Basically, the general advice to K–17 educators is to never post grades, ever. The most you can do is provide students with descriptive statistics for the class as a whole, and you shouldn’t even do that if there are only a few students in it.
Popping in from the 2018 thread. :-h
Regarding overlapping science/math classes, my historically humanities-oriented D18 is currently taking AP Physics, AP Calc AB, and AP Chem. She claims that there is lots of overlap, and she feels it’s easier to be working on similar concepts in three classes than if she’d just taken one of them. Her work in one class confirms her work in another, and she’s able to better see the application across disciplines. YMMV, of course.
At our public school the kids must take honors Physics first, usually Jr year, then if they get an A- or better they can opt to make AP Physics as seniors.
I’m always amazed when I read on CC about kids taking 12 AP courses through high school. I think our school offers more Honors level courses than some schools, and in order to get recommend into the AP classes the kids must perform at a high level first.
I would say the average excellent student probably takes 2-6 AP classes max grades 11-12. I don’t think the kids can even take AP as sophomores, maybe if you are a super genius kid.
@RightCoaster, my D will have 11. She took one sophomore year, then five jr and sr year. Her school does not have that many honors courses, so often it’s the on-level option or AP. Think about the full IB diploma kids though–they are doing even more intensive work.
We have nonhonors, honors and AP and dual enrollment in most classes. Of the 8 full year courses d19 is taking this year, 4 are AP, 1 is honors with DE, 2 are DE and the last 1 is gym class. The only subject she isn’t taking the hardest offered classes is in spanish. She took 2 APs as a sophomore. Because of prerequisites, there aren’t any that could be taken as a freshman. She will probably have 8ish by graduation. She will also have a number of other credits that may or may not transfer in Spanish, Optics, Tech, calc 3
This year is the first year my kid is taking AP - Calc AB, English and Psychology. Kid could have taken AP courses the last two years - human geography and economics - but they never fit the schedule. The kid is in a magnet program for art and theater, technically that might be considered AP?
He was in the gifted and talented sessions of what he did take the last two years, but none counted as AP. Last year he got pushed into a regular level history class due to scheduling not working out for anything else, and it was the most miserable class he’s ever attended. He wanted to hear the teacher, the rest of the class were a bunch of loud screwups.
Hopefully the colleges will look at the AP courses he takes this year and next and don’t count freshman/sophomore years wasted.
@TimEnchanter we may just walk through campus. We have the saturday available and of course, no tours then. Some schools do but Chapman does not. Price wise they will come in at our EFC which is barely livable with 2 in school but then would jump up for the last 2 years. Depending on the merit offer it might be livable, it might not. It’s an easy one to at least walk around but I’m not sure that will show in a thing.
@RightCoaster our kids can take a few AP’s as a sophomore but not much. Most of the honors classes though are taken freshman and sophomore and not a lot offered after that. Kids can do honors chem/bio/physics or, in the case of chem and physics, go straight into AP. It’s self selecting. Math, English, FL and History tracks are much more restrictive with the years they are offered and pre-reqs. All other AP’s though (music, art, psych, CS etc) are open to anyone at any grade though practically speaking there is no room in their schedules until 10th grade at the earliest to add in.
@ninakatarina most kids don’t take AP before junior year or if they do, it’s 1-2 tops. I’d not consider anything wasted and clearly he’s on the higher math track. I wouldn’t worry about a thing in that regards.
In my kids’ school there are lots of APs but the only one most 10th graders take is World History. No 9th graders take APs. There is a mix on how many 11th and 12th graders take the AP classes and some may not take the class but still take the AP. I don’t know how many. I think my d and her friends are at the higher end of how many APs are being taken by 11th graders at their school with 4. I tried to convince her to take more like 3 but it didn’t happen.
From everything I’ve read, admissions take into account context for the high schools when evaluating the kids, kids aren’t punished for what their school’s don’t offer or allow, and self studying for APs isn’t rewarded. So it sounds like you don’t need to worry.
For many kids in our school, AP World History is the only one that’s feasible before junior year. Kids who actually have an elective (no band, orchestra, art, etc.) can probably take AP Stats, AP CS Principles or AP music theory prior to junior year. I guess the foreign language APs can be taken earlier for immersion students and native speakers.
Plus there is the contingent who take summer online chemistry so they can start AP sciences in 10th grade, kids who manage to get to Calc by 10th grade, and those who take summer PE to make space for an elective.
My S19 should graduate with 11 or 12 honors classes, 5 or 6 APs, and several “regular” classes. This should place him in a “moderate rigor” category and make him a long shot for our best in-state public schools no matter what his GPA and test scores are. Oh well! There are a lot of schools out there.
For some colleges, GC’s are asked to submit the student’s rigor at the high school. I’ve asked our GC what constitutes “most rigorous” just out of curiosity since I think most of the kids who S19 would be competing against at his school would be in that category. There are many ways to be in that category. It’s not a flat out number of APs but taking APs in all subjects definitely helps. S19 will have eleven.
AP Comp Sci A (soph),
APUSH AP Lang AP Calc BC (junior),
AP Physics 1 AP Lit AP Stats AP Environmental Studies AP French AP Studio Art AP Macro Econ (senior).
Ugh.
No freshmen can take APs. Very limited availability for soph APs. Many honors options go away for junior and senior year and are replaced by APs. I don’t love the lack of options for those years. I’d much rather fewer APs and more honors classes. I think the honors classes tend to be more interesting and the AP classes need to teach to the test.
D19 took two AP classes as a sophomore: AP World History and AP Psychology (which is a one semester class). She got a 3 on the history test, but a 5 on Psychology.
Her school’s AP US History teacher is notoriously bad. So bad that D19 and many of her classmates took it online over the summer instead. That was an absolute ton of work. A 36 week class compressed into 8 weeks will do that for you.
This year, she’s taking AP Chem, AP Language, and AP Physics. Surprisingly, this school allows you to go directly to AP Physics without taking regular physics first–she had to take regular chemistry before taking AP Chem…
I believe there are two AP Physics courses. One often has a physics prerequisite while the other does not. At least that was my understanding when our school switched which one they were teaching.
I didn’t even ask our counselors what constitutes course rigor. I figure either d had it or she doesn’t but she can’t mentally or emotionally do any more than she is doing so if they were to say it isn’t high rigor I might hurt someone
Haha it dropped my cute emoticon when I posted. The emoticon to make sure you all know I wouldn’t really hurt someone. I would just think uncharitable thoughts
our GC’s will not share what constitutes rigor. I suspect that S19 will get the “most rigorous” box check and S17 had the “rigorous” (or however it’s actually listed/broken out) but I really have no idea. They may have noted S17 as “most” as well for all I know.
That said, schools submit a profile with the GC letter and it will also, in varying degrees, show the rigor available with total numbers of Honors, AP’s etc. Some schools share a lot (how many kids took the AP’s, score distribution etc) and others just the basics.
This allows colleges to put it all in context.
Our high school’s profile has a TON of info on it. How many kids took each AP. How many took each SAT II. The breakout of SAT and ACT scores (how many kids got between a 34-36, 30-33, etc etc). The weighted and unweighted GPA per decile. Honors and AP sequences for each department. It also has percentage of college bound kids (98.2%) out of the total (755). It goes on and on about the school’s sports and extracurriculars. The school broke the state record for capturing a record state championships last year with athletics and activities combined.
Basically, this high school gives the students every opportunity to be involved at the highest level. Downside is that, if you don’t perform at the highest level, then you don’t make the teams. Hence, there are very few multi-sports athletes (really, I don’t know any) and most activities are year-round and time consuming.
Since the school does not rank, an AO can look at decile. Also, they could look at how the student performed on standardized tests in light of the rest of the kids at the high school. 25% of the kids who took the ACT last year got a 34+. Kind of nuts. In the end, even though everyone would say that a student is competing against ALL candidates for a college spot, they are indeed competing with each other from our high school. A student with a good chance of getting accepted to X school might get turned down because a handful of other kids from our school might also apply and have even higher scores. Luckily, S19 is interested in LACs and they don’t get a ton of attention from the kids at our school.
Good luck to tomorrow’s SAT test takers!
S19 hasn’t looked at the materials since last weekend, did three practice tests in 3 months, and maybe 90 minutes of prep total. (I imagined a summer where he would do 30 minutes of prep every day LOL)
At least he’s not stressed about it!
Thanks @eh1234 Son takes the SAT (no essay) for the first time tomorrow. He hasn’t looked at SAT material since Monday. I hope he does well, but I already scheduled for him to retake it (with essay) in December. And he doesn’t seem to be stressing about anything. He’s currently laying on the floor watching Gotham & playing on his phone…