DS16 took 5AP classes in Sr year, had only had 3 before. AP Physics was his hardest class. He took AP Gov , AP Econ, AP Lang, AP Physics and AP Calc BC.
Are sure itās not Physics C thatās killing people?
Weāll see what he gets on the exam! His teacher said 2 or 3 people passed it last year (so at least a 3?) but mentioned that they were changing the test somewhat this year (probably because it has a dismal pass rate).
So heās breezing through it pretty well (A- first semester by haphazardly doing homework and not studying for tests), but struggling to get a low B in honors precalc. I have no idea why he can do the math in physics but not in math.
@eh1234 Nope AP Physics 1. Both teachers have PhDs and they are awful teachers. Basically the kids have to teach themselves. Parents complain like you would not believe. They assign over-the-weekend group projects that are impossible to schedule with kidsā ECs. One notorious one took kids something like 15 hours over two weekends and then it was only worth 10 points. LOL.
S19 needs to take physics so heās taking it next year. Heās in good spirits about it. I am not.
So I glanced at the forecast for our tour tripā¦ surely it will change? Rain, rain, and ice-and-rain. No idea what to wear - rain boots or some other waterproof footwear, perhaps.
Iāve been loosely following some of the decision discussions. Maybe itās my imagination, but it seems like there are a lot of waitlists, noticeably for Chicago. Could it be that the increase in app numbers has led not only to an increase in uncertainty for applicants but for collegesā yield predictions as well? I was under the impression that students accepted off the waitlist do not figure into the admissions stats for rankings - true or false?
@evergreen5 I donāt know the answer to your question but, yes, lots of waitlists. Thatās a bummer. Plus, I saw a crazy stat that 50% of Williams accepted students are students of color from the US (Asian, African American, or Native American). Wow. Thatās a large percentage and not good for boring S19 from the 'burbs. I donāt know if I should keep looking at these acceptance threads!
My S19 is slated to take AP Physics, AP Stats, AP Calc, and AP Lit. Lit only if his current English Comp teacher Has his section. The other teacher, and even the sound of her name (Burgmeyer), is super hard. No thanks for an engineering kid. Heās not had any AP classes yet.
@homerdog, not sure why you would consider 50% minority accepted students āa crazy stat.ā The post-millenial generation (age 0-17) is 48.5% minority. And it would appear Williams has a lower yield among minority students, since their acceptance rate for American minorities has been at that level for at least the last few years, but their enrollment is only 40%.
@Curiosa I guess I just never did the math. Itās something we have to consider when deciding if we would ever ED since S19 is unhooked. At small schools with a large percentage of athletes, thereās even less chance for a spot in RD. If a student is not a minority and not an athlete, his chances seem extremely low - way lower than the overall acceptance rate.
I tend to agree after seeing the students who go from my daughterās boarding school on to Williams. Hooked athletes and/or underrepresented students. Sometimes they fit both categories.
First official visit is done. It was damp, windy, and 30s. At least the rain stopped for the walking tour and fortunately we got home before the ice started. DD started with the attitude that she was not interested, but after she talked to the Geography professor she decided it would be an alright place. She did buy a sweatshirt ($7 on clearance and with the visit day coupon), but she likes college clothes in general :). Distance is not bad, church affiliation is perfect, list of majors is great. Cost is the issue here. Our trip organizers did tell us about a scholarship that our church district offers that might make it work, but I donāt have the details. So right now itās a definite maybe if she gets money beyond the auto meritā¦
Glad we went, if for nothing else than the people we met in our group.
Next college visit in exactly one month.
Registration is done here as well, AP Calc BC, AP Micro/Macro, AP Lit, APES, Sr civics/PE, jazz and wind ensemble.
Heād probably rather TA AP CS than do the AP micro/macro but that would negate the PE waiver lol.
Iāll admit, I hadnāt really pondered the kind of Catch-22 that faces the suburban white kid who values diversity. The more desirable a school would be to that kid in terms of ethnic diversity, the fewer spots there may be for him/her. Over in the āpackagingā thread thereās an interesting post from a mom whose kid framed his application/essays to show one school that he genuinely appreciated the diverse community it had created, and that he would contribute to the exchange of ideas and understanding it was intended to promote. He made the extra effort to show why heād be a good fit for that school and its values, in other words.
Anyway, for everybody out there who thinks they might not be able to get into a school because itās too diverse, there are plenty of us ruling out otherwise attractive options because theyāre not diverse enough. Options abound, theyāll all find their place.
@Curiosa our neighborhood talks about it a lot. Our kids have no edge at all - white suburban student from affluent towns are a dime a dozen and many of them have high stats because of the opportinities afforded to them. Starting to think S19 should try to get his mile under 4:40 so he can maybe get the athlete edge! Heās already bemoaning that lesser students at our school are talking to recruiters at the Ivies. Kills him when heās doing so much better in school than these kids and a few of them are just plain lazy when it comes to school work. (I can say this because Iāve known these kids since preschool.) One of them is talking to MIT for track and I cannot even imagine how he would get through the academics there.
Talking to and being offered an acceptance and scholarship are very different things .
The only complaint that my D16 has about her school (land grant university out west) is that there are ātoo many white people.ā In elementary school, she was one of a handful white kids in her grade, high school was not THAT diverse, but quite diverse compared to where she is now. I donāt think she realized how much she valued it until she lived in that environment for awhile.
@homerdog As the parent of a lazy student, I take offense, lol. He wonāt be taking anyoneās spot at an Ivy though - I can barely get him to move much less excel at a sport.
So yesterday, S19 told me that his senior friend was accepted at UCLA. Then he asked me what āUCLAā is. I just canāt with this kid sometimes. I think he has heard of maybe 25-30 colleges and he is theoretically applying to colleges this year. Ack!
@eh1234 You crack me up!
@carolinamom2boys I hear you. I feel like this particular boy may get into MIT though. His race times are amazing and Iām pretty sure he has very high test scores. His GPA is decent. Itās just that S19 knows him well and he spends most time not running playing video games and is always poo-pooing school and learning in general. Heās inherently bright, though, and heāll be full pay and a fast runner. That may be enough. Time will tell.
S19 is not savvy to how this all works yet. I really need to sit down and have a talk with him about the realities of acceptance to even his āmatchā schools and he will have to get over that some kids will be recruited. I do not want him being all worked up about it. He needs it all laid out for him so that he goes into next year with realistic expectations. I donāt want to ever listen to him saying something isnāt fair. Heās got a good life and he will find the right place for him. As my husband would say - No whining on the yacht!
Registration not for another month at S19ās school, so he has awhile to plan. However, his school doesnāt offer AP classes. Actually in our city, AP is a public school thing and not something the private schools do. S will take the AP Calc BC and AP Spanish exams this year. Decided against AP Bio since friends told him it takes too much outside prep to get at 3+. Next year I think heāll do 1-2 of the AP Physics exams after he takes 2-yr physics (calc based) at school. Heāll still have to prep separately for the AP material since it is different, so lots of self-study.
Re getting into schools. Iām still a bit chastened by D17s experience. Waitlisted at all the reaches (reach <= 25%admit). Admitted to 1 match, 1 safety (= everyone who applies from her HS gets in) and auto-safety (publics with auto-admit for certain GPAs/stats). On the flip side, I also now know that it doesnāt really matter. D and Dās classmates are doing great at all sorts of different schools.
Re Williams (a school D17 was waitlisted at), S19 would like to visit and it seems a good fit for Mr. academic/uber-sporty/outdoorsy. But he wonāt be recruited since the sport that he is elite at is not a college sport. So weāll visit while on the east coast, but more with the eye of figuring out what he wants. Getting in seems remote, which is fine. If he wants that kind of school, he can get into Whitman (based on looking at our schoolās naviance) and its more economical.
@RightCoaster We will definitely consider UVM. DH worked in Burlington many years ago and loved it.
@payn4ward Thanks for all your suggestions! I was actually looking for a school that offers EA because I was thinking of how hard the wait will be next year, and with my D19ās personality, I think having an acceptance in her pocket would really help her enjoy her senior year. With that said, although D had no initial interest in a womenās college, I got her to visit Bryn Mawr and she liked it. (I loved it, but Iām trying not to let on!) Glad to hear of your friendās positive experienceāI think D will want graduate education.
@liska21 that seems to be a theme for the 2022 crowd as well. Tons of waitlist at reaches and some dissapontments at matches too. Thereās no good answer. Donāt fall in love with a school is the only thing I feel like I can tell S19. And I try to stay very even keel myself when we go on school visits. Even if I love it, I keep it to myself. I just know he will want to cast a wide net in hopes that he will find schools that appreciate him enough to offer him a spot.
He mentioned last night that his friends think his list of schools is random (meaning theyāve never heard of these LACs). He said it doesnāt bother him but I think it does a bit. He just needs to keep looking forward and be honest with himself and try not to look side to side at his peers at school.
@homerdog āNo whining on the yacht.ā Love it. I guess the issue with these tiny LACās (i.e. Williams) is the whole world is applying for 500 spotsāyikes. Luckily, there are tons of great LACās and thanks in part to CC, we keep discovering more. My question is how many does D have to apply to to get good odds? Iām not sure she has the determination and energy to āshow the loveā to more than three or four schools . . . She is hookless, unless you can count ED, which she is considering. However, we are lucky to have this problem and I need to remember that she could thrive at a ton of different places and whether sheās happy/fulfilled will mostly be up to her!