My son needs 1 LOR and GC letter for all schools on his list. He asked his AP World teacher to write his LOR. S19 had this teacher for AP World and another class his freshman year. Some teachers at our HS agree to write only a certain number of LORs and turned down students that asked too late.
Also did a double check. Only one required a every school except Syracuse which requires 2.
@firstwavemom we have the same problem with teachers limiting LORs at our high school. D16 had friends who had difficulty getting LORs from the teachers they wanted because they waited too long to ask and the teachers had reached their limit. At our high school getting one LOR is the norm, which is one of the reasons this discussion here surprised me so much. S did have another option. His english teacher actually asked him if he needed a LOR and said heād be willing to do it but S had already asked his history teacher so turned down the offer. Reading these posts had me wondering if he should contact the teacher over the summer to see if he still would be willing to do it but he could have reached his limit by now. which is why I was so worried.
@me29034 I had to hound my S19 for about 6 weeks to ask his teacher to write his LOR. And, I think he waited until the second to last day of the school year. D17 asked her Calc teacher in April of her junior year as that teacher is very popular and has a reputation for writing very good LORs (which I think she did for my D). S17 has a good relationship with his Anatomy teacher (who is also the head coach of the swim and dive team ā my son has been on the team for 3 years and will be captain senior year) so D19 is thinking of him as a backup, if need be.
Iād love to talk to some AOs ad find out what really matters in a LOR. Making these teachers write them is a bummer for them if itās just busy work and the AOs donāt really get a lot of value out of them. If they only read a few every year that are so spectacular that they make a difference, then for most of the teachers itās kind of a waste of time. I know the teachers who are writing S19ās recs are spending a good amount of time on writing them. I just hope they actually say something that pushes him over the top at a few schools.
Our town is actually on work-to-rule and if their contract is not signed soon, all of the class of 2019 with be SOL!
I was nagging my son from April onwards about LORs. He finally asked in the last weeks of school, he says. Although I suspect he might not actually have asked. He was somewhat evasive when I brought it up this morning, which is unusual.
I dont think my son will be able to get a great LOR from any teachers. Yes, he has relationships with some, but he doesnt stand out. He spends so much time in the media center ,and people there love him, so I am wondering if that might not be a better LOR. My D17 had a great LOR from her professor in her DE class, that made her stand out. Also used a teacher from her Junior HS year semester abroad. This problem of getting a good LOR for my S19 might be an issue. I am hoping it doesnt make/break him. Will have to look at the schools and see what the rules and such are.
For those of us with younger kids, itās probably a good idea to put a little bird in their ear at the very beginning of junior year for them to start working on some relationships with teachersā¦especially if we think they might need two teachers recs. They need to go in early to ask questions if they have them, participate in class, try to get to know the teachers as best as they can. The ball is then in studentās court and they have a whole year to stand out. Even for kids who are more shy in class, they can still get to know a teacher before/after school.
I tried so hard to get D to get to know her teachers this year. Told her at the very start she needed to find a few who she could connect with so she could have some future LOR writers. She is just not that kind of kid who can force herself to be outgoing so it never happened. Who knows how her letters will be - she only talked to one teacher about it and still isn;t 100% sure on the second one. She doesnāt have a list yet but out of curiosity I looked up a few we have visited or will visit. Most of them said 1 letter and up to 3.
On another note - are your kids taking a full class load next year? A full load at our school is 7 classes. D is thinking she wants to take 6 and take āsenior privilegeā which you can get if you have good grades. Her other classes would be 5 AP classes (Env. Science, Gov., Eng. Lit. & Psych online) and one dual enrollment class/seminar type class that is new but you get HS credit for it. She was considering adding DE photography at the local state college but she is nervous it will be hard and too much work with her other classes. It is a B&W photography class where you have to take 72 photos a week and develop at their darkroom both in class and on your own time. I told her it is only a semester long class and if she wants to drop to 6 she could do that after Christmas. Iām not sure if I am going to push her on it though as it is only an elective anyway.
@momtogkc my son was going to take a study hall as he was worried that he was going to be overworked with little time for homework/studying during soccer season, but he decided to take an elective he was really interested in. He talked with the wood shop teacher and expressed his concerns, and the teacher knows my son and what a crazy schedule he has. He suggested that he take the class and if he needed extra study time during the day of his class he could study and then complete the course work later after school or over the weekends. The teacher is involved with a few clubs so is always around and lets the kids use the shop whenever. So my son was happy as he really wants to learn to use more tools and get better skilled in other areas. I think heās really going to like that class.
My son will have 3 APās ( all Stem related) with the rest honors level, and then wood shop as an elective.
My son is taking 5 core classes (4 APs - LIt, Physics, Comp. Govāt, Stats and Honors Forensics) plus a Dual Enrollment class elective (double period) first semester. Second semester he will intern at NIST instead of a DE course.
@momtogkc yeah. Unfortunately full class load.
Multivariable Calc Honors
Writing Seminar Honors (instead of AP Litā¦but I think itās actually MORE work!)
AP French
AP Physics 1
AP Gov/AP Macroecon (each a semester)
Philosophy Honors/Portfolio H (each a semester)
PE (required all four years. ugh)
I really hope S19 is enjoying summer because this class load is a bear. I keep asking him if heās appreciating being out of school. Every day, I feel like Iām pointing out how great it is that heās free from four hours of homework. The little bit of time heās spending on apps doesnāt come close, of course, to being in school all day, doing homework, and studying for tests.
Even yesterday, when he had an art class from 8-4, he took a break and went to into the Art Institute (of Chicagoā¦thatās where the class is) and had lunch in the beautiful atrium and, after class, came home to go out with friends for dinner and play a round of disc golf. He then spent an hour cleaning up one more draft of an essay about extra-curriculars and sent it off to his teacher who is helping him this summer. It was a nice day!
Our high school has 7 periods. S is taking equivalent of 6 classes, so he will have a free period every day all year. He will have AP Stats, regular level precalc, 3 honors level history electives, 2 english electives (one honors, one regular), honors Econ, gym, and video production. All but stats and precalc are half year courses.
I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do here.
Regarding road trips. I second @EastGrad , if you get a chance to take a one on one with a kid thatās already left home jump on it. I did one with my heading into final year of college kid and it was great. So much meaningful conversation.
Our most epic family road trip was from Boston to LA in three weeks with visits to family and national parks along the way. It was a trifle ambitious.
Regarding LORs, my oldest did do an extra letter of recommendation for one school, Georgetown. It was from her Sunday School teacher who just happened to be a Georgetown prof. It was his idea and he said that he would write specifically about how her interaction in Sunday School class showed how well she would fit in and and what an excellent addition to the student body she would be. And no, despite the extra letter she did not get in but Iām pretty sure the letter didnāt hurt.
The kid is taking a full class schedule although he isnāt taking the most rigorous possible. He is (was) taking two online community college classes this summer which would, if he had passed, give him a free period or a chance to take an elective.
Unfortunately heās having to drop the one class. He didnāt look very closely at the syllabus at the beginning of the year and he sort of forgot that he was supposed to be working on the class. I looked at his interim grades and we realized that it would take perfect marks on the rest of the assignments to get above a C-, so we just got back from withdrawing. Today was the last day to withdraw with an incomplete. Iām disappointed, but on the other hand this is his first real failure in an academic setting. Now he knows a few more things about himself, and a few things about how college courses are paced and that you have to keep up with deadlines because professors will not remind you.
Heās gotten a bit more serious about the process. Heās been watching youtube videos from the various colleges on the list, and he made a couple of decisions that have narrowed the list down to lucky 13. Five of those are admissions safeties. We had a great conversation about what heās looking for academically and how heās refining his criteria for a good school.
Heās taking the reins and starting to steer. Maybe it took that little wakeup call to get him on track.
Seniors have relatively little flexibility at D19ās school, but, yeah, sheās taking a full course load. Of course, there are only 2 APs she could possibly take senior year (she took the other 3 this past year) and one of them, Statistics, conflicts with (non-AP) Calc BC, so sheās only taking an AP Government course that she doesnāt really need as a STEM person. My sense is that senior year will be easier academically than junior year.
we are very conflicted with the schedule. S19 will have 2 periods of internship out of 6. so this leaves 4 classes. We have AP micro/Macro, AP physics C, and then comes the issue. he took Calc AB this year and wants to go into comp sci. So they put him in BC, but he also wanted to take AP stats . so we may put him in both. But is that pushing it. If not, we could do AP lang, or believe it or not, home Economics. For kid with EF issues, and concerns about being self sufficient in the future, this might not be a bad idea. so my thoughts are the two math classes, but if he has to choose 1, which to choose. i would assume for CS major at least getting into stats would b ea good idea.
DS19 is taking a full load next year as well. All classes are year long classes . AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Calculus, Honors Physics, Honors English 4, Intro to Coding and Animation .
In theory S19 has a full load. In practicality he needs only 3 units classes to graduate.
It will be interesting to see what the load ends up looking like. He wants
AP Lit
Senior Lifetime Fitness/Senior Civics
AP Micro/Macro
AP Calc BC
APES
Jazz
Wind Ensemble
However the above requires a waiver of a full year of PE. Which he forgot to turn in. Or more accurately, upon probing, didnāt forget but didnāt know āhowā to turn in. Thought he had to schedule a meeting with the GC, couldnāt get one and soā¦didnāt do anything. He still had it, filled out and ready so we took it to the school this week as the office is open through today. His GC goes on maternity leave starting tomorrow. Whether the waiver makes it in or notā¦is any ones guess. Heās lucky I asked her about it and she is aware it is there but he well could end up with random PE classes instead of AP Micro?Macro.