I agree with @carolinamom2boys. What has changed is the expectation that people go to college. Now, it’s expected that people go to college. Some theorize that this de facto requirement is causing a bubble that will eventually collapse. While that may be true in the long run, for 2019 grads, it’s likely that the expectation that 18 year olds go to college will remain.
Which is a shame because not everyone is ready to go to college. Those who end up not being ready to go to college end up wasting a lot of their own money (in the form of loans) and their parent’s money pursuing the college dream.
Trust me, @homerdog, as the father of four girls, I can attest that the difference in a well-kept and poorly-kept (if kept at all) planner does not simply come down to a difference between boys and girls…
@mom23travelers - we go through that same cycle, over and over again, with D19. She is all confident - “I got this” - and in the first marking period, we pretty much leave her alone. Her modus operandi is to do her best work in this period, while she’s analyzing just what she can get away with before the hammer comes down. Then the decline begins. She slacks off just enough to avoid detection.
That’s when we have to ramp up our vigilance. She starts blowing off studying, missing assignments, etc. We first make her do her homework at the dining room table. Then we start checking work. Then we start taking away privileges. It sometimes works - by the time we twigged last year that Biology was a problem, it was too late. I hope not to make that mistake again…
I can’t complain about my kids staying on top of their work. Honestly, they are infinitely better at it that I ever was. I was such a procrastinator. And I remember well the big plans for organization that lasted for maybe the first month. I still have bad dreams about it occasionally.
We are also in VA but I seriously doubt my D’19 will be applying to UVA. They have a history of only taking students in the top 10 at our high school and D’19 won’t be in that group. I’m thinking W&M, W&L or URichmond (although she hates spiders) for instate options. I like the smaller schools for her. Out of state privates will be in the mix too, I’m sure.
@eh1234 VATech is a good school but not really all that hard to get into outside of engineering majors. They admit about 70% of students that apply.
@Dragonflygarden – Naviance at our school shows the accepted average GPA as 4.29 for UVA and a 4.1 average GPA for Virginia Tech. There’s no way my D19 will have a 4.29 GPA.
I would advise people that it is too early to determine acceptance rates at schools , even instate schools, this far out. I’ve seen how much things can change in 2 short years , especially as schools become popular with OOS students . Clemson is a great example.
I agree, @carolinamom2boys – with UVA and VT, at least at our high school, the accepted average GPAs have stayed the same over the past six years. Of course the acceptances are self-reported, too. (And I have no idea about Clemson, as the school is not under consideration by our family.)
@OrangeFish We are in the midwest and the average gpa for accepted students to UVA is a 5.75 on a 5.0 scale. That means almost all honors and APs with maybe one or two Bs along the way. Most likely 10 to 12 AP classes. VERY difficult. Maybe top 20 kids out of 700 in a class have that GPA. Average ACT is 34. Of course, UVA only accepts a very small percentage of their class from OOS so I guess that’s to be expected.
I agree with @carolinamom2boys. Many experienced parents have mentioned on this wonderful forum that they found huge changes in admission statistics in 2 years time frame. Also, many kids develop better study habits, work habits as they grow up. The teen brain is still in developmental stage. I would give D19 some more time to find out about the actual GPA, SAT/ACT scores, any changes in interest/achievements and most importantly, which colleges will work for her given stats at that time.
The only trend I’m seeing for our best in-state publics is that they have gotten more competitive over the last 6 years or so. But, it’s not the end of the world if S19 leaves the state. He doesn’t know what he wants to do, but so far, he has been bored/disinterested in everything in school except for math and orchestra.
S19 won’t use a planner because he will “forget to look at it.” So far, he is continuing his lifelong pattern of rushing through homework at school, not taking many notes and not studying for tests and quizzes. He’s gotten through the first 10 days unscathed!
It occurs to me: How much of the rise in admissions standards is an actual change in admissions standards of themselves, and how much of it is the improving economy? If there’s more demand for college seats (in the form of more families who feel financially secure enough to encourage their kids to go to college), then you’d expect a tightening in the admissions marketplace. (Not to mention that the demographic slump in high school graduates ends, in many states, with this coming year.)
@OrangeFish We don’t have Naviance. I have to rely on observation and interrogation of the seniors I know each year
@carolinamom2boys I already know the admission rates at our in state schools because of my older 2 going through the process. UVA is one of the top public schools in the country ~ admission isn’t going to get any easier.
@Dragonflygarden My point exactly . Admission has not gotten any easier here. In 2 short years, we’ve seen kids getting shut out of the instate schools that their older siblings with lower stats were admitted to just 2 years earlier. Many schools are getting so competitive .
“We” have had a very rough start to the year. Her new EC proved to be a difficult situation. I’ve never met with the school or teachers since mandatory elementary teacher conferences. But I have now. It’s been a shock and she’s digging herself out of a very deep hole grade wise.
Our Naviance doesn’t even have data for UVA. Or for many of the top schools. It’s pretty shocking how few students apply vs get accepted for OOS .
@2019hope - Deep breaths. I’ve been there and I’m sure I’ll be there again (I guess I mean, “we”
In terms of grades, my kids disappoint me more than they surprise me. I try to remind myself that grades aren’t as important as becoming a good, happy person. Sometimes I do better at that than at other times.
3 weeks into school and S19 seems to be holding his own. Hard to tell as I can only go by what he tells me. This year he decided to participate in some clubs that meet over lunch; he took a break from lunch clubs last year. He went to the ‘Gender Equity’ club yesterday. As he reported, ‘20 girls…and me’. Thankfully 4 other boys showed up late. He also does robotics club, which is 10:1 the other way…
D16 is 2 weeks into college and reports “I now have friends! I have found the ‘nerd herd’! The leaves are turning red and campus is very beautiful.”
@2019hope, this coming year is the end of the decline in the number of high school graduates nationally. (Important caveat: The curves vary widely between states.) 2019 is projected to be slightly higher, but not as high as the record, in 2009.
Of course, the proportion of high school graduates going on to college varies and has been slowly climbing lately, so this doesn’t give precisely what the college application marketplace looks like, but it’s a good starting point: [NACAC summary of historical and projected high school graduates](http://www.nacacnet.org/media-center/Projections/Pages/summary.aspx).
My S has been anti planner and writing down assignment averse as well. It has bit him more than once. He has “resolved” to be better about it this year but has also been given a new tool by the school. We have switched to a system called Canvas and it is vastly superior in terms of showing what is due when, grades in the class as well as wonderful data on the mean and average scores on everything they do!
My only beef with it is twofold. One, I haven’t been able to set up a parent account correctly (it let me make one but doesn’t show my kids and i can’t figure out who to call at the school to fix it). That is less of an issue as I can log into my kids accounts. But for the kids, it shows all grades as percentages. No GPA shown or even what the total percentage is as it converts to letter grades. Within the courses themselves you can see the detail but zero cumulative info which is driving me nuts! It is only 2 weeks but ugh.
It did illustrate that his habit has “bit” him already. He did poorly on an english assignment as part of the directions were given in class but not shown in the online assignment at all. He explained what he hadn’t done and why and I asked him what the take-away was.
His response?
Write down everything she says, she is a flake who doesn’t explain well and may not provide all the instructions at once and in the same place.
Hopefully he can remember that!
So far the grades overall are very livable but Chemistry hasn’t uploaded a thing and I’ll feel a LOT better once it does.
