Congratulations to your son, @carolinamom2boys!!!
Congrats, @carolinamom2boys !
Congratulations @carolinamom2boys
Thank you @Ranipetgirl
@carolinamom2boys Awesome!!
Hard to really say at present, the impact of the AP scores. It is certainly possible they will count for quite a lot, potentially resulting in sophomore status and satisfying some gen ed and core classes. That may or may not mean time saved, it may or may not mean a BS/MS is an option at no extra time or fee. What it will mean, is some buffer and flexiblity, no matter what the outcome of this years slate. And those are good things. It means less stress if you donât get a class thatâs only offered once a year or the ability to drop a class early for a lighter load if needed or the ability to more easily add a minor without adding time. He currently has a semesters worth of credit from previous tests.
I donât know if S19âs BC version was a harder one than elsewhere (like last year) but his entire class felt they bombed. We are a district that requires AB first and still has a high attrition rate in BC as itâs a hard class. 10 kids took the test, all of whom likely got 5âs in AB last year.
It will be interesting to see how he does, it is probably with the âmostâ in S19âs mind as it could get him out of Calc entirely, it would go straight to discrete math and linear algebra.
2 more to go. Iâll be very glad when he is done. 2/3 of the way there!
@eandesmom Your S19 sound like a CS major - no love for Calc, but canât wait for discrete math! Calc is beloved by life scientists and statisticians, but many mathematicians do not like it. Overall, mathematicians have distinct preferences. I would not be surprised in your S did a lot better on more challenging Discrete math courses than on Calc BC. Of course, they may not have bombed the AP at all. To get a 5, they really only need to get about 63% on the exam. A 63% would be a D or an F on a final exam, so that could feel like bombing the test.
First off yay @carolinamom2boys, summa is an amazing accomoplishment! Congrats to your DS!
Second, in regards to AP tests/placement/skipping college sequencesâwe have been closely considering this as my D has taken AP Physics 1 and AP Calc BC. It is a bit more complicated for her though being an aspiring physician as it seems many med schools do not favorably view retake of any classes in which students have already received AP credit. My D feels very good about calc (having taken the BC class this year in the manner described by @homerdog a page back) and feels that placing out of calc and going on to stats would be best for her with her current career path. (Most med schools only require through Calc 2 and stats for admission).
Physics however is another story. Thankfully she needs a 5 to place out at Binghamton University (where she is happily committed 
and she is pretty sure that this did not happen. So she expects to be retaking physics in college which she agrees is for the best.
Just wanted to alert those considering med school to research about the effect of retaking classes in college if you have already been granted AP credit. I know I was not aware of this before this year.
Today is D19âs last day of school. Theyâre having a senior breakfast, thenâŠsomething, idk, maybe a couple of classes?..then off to Dave and Busters, for school-sponsored senior skip day. They have a senior project to work on over the next couple of weeks. Dâs chosen topic is Yoga and Ayurvedic Healing, which sheâs doing with a friend. So sheâs going to a yoga class every day. They found a club that offers 30 days for $30, with plenty of classes and itâs all drop-in, so they just go when they can. They donât know that much about yoga (her friend has never done yoga before) and donât know enough to know which classes to choose. Last nightâs was a heated power yoga, so was quite intense. :lol: Theyâll have to do a report and presentation in a couple of weeks.
Re: AP tests, D19 had her Calc AB test yesterday. When I asked her how it was, she said horrible! All the windows in the room were left open, and with temps in the 40âs yesterday, everyone was freezing. She said she couldnât concentrate. I asked why someone didnât ask to have them closed and she said they couldnât because it was a test and they arenât supposed to talk. Sigh. Someone did ask at the break and they closed them. ButâŠwhatever. She struggled thru the year, so if she needs Calc, she should retake in college anyway. But sheâs a criminal justice major, so may not need Calc.
BTW, I was a math major and I loved calculus! Definitely a favorite, next to differential equations.
@momzilla2D I also have a Math degree, and loved Calculus :). I liked all my math classes, with the exception of Number Theory, I preferred the applied math over theory.
Our awards night was also last night. DD is Summa Cum Laude and Valedictorian. She also received five local scholarships that were a surprise to us, in addition to the ones she had already been notified of. Sheâs gotten nearly half of her first year COA covered with outside or competitive scholarships. There was also a slideshow of baby/middle school/senior pictures for each kid that was cute.
Last night a lot of them camped out in a classmateâs yard. It must have gone okay since she stayed all night. (If kids brought alcohol DD was going to leave.) This morning is breakfast at school and graduation rehearsal.
Our awards night is next Thursday. The last day of classes is next Friday. I just got a schedule of all the practices and farewell assembly and departmental awards events and I am NOT READY FOR THIS.
Kiddo knows he is getting a scholarship of some sort and heâs in the top 20. The school colors are red, white and blue. Most kids get a white gown or blue gown (they get to pick) but the top 20 get red gowns. Kiddo gets to sit on stage at the awards night, weâre told. Not sure how many kids are getting that honor.
Weâre not expecting much if anything; there isnât a lot of scholarship money in our neighborhood. Still, any money is nice. Maybe itâll pay for one half of a textbook.
Congratulations @carolinamom2boys and @bjscheel !
@ninakatarina LOVE the profile pic.
We donât have Summa Cum Laud or anything like that. We donât rank throughout the year and colleges are only told decile rank starting at top 10%, then top 25%, etc. BUT, at graduation, the top two percent have different tassels. Itâs determined by weighted GPA. Thatâs 15 kids with special tassels. S19 not one of them and didnât expect to be. One had to be taking all honors and AP since freshman year and he had chose two non-honors classes freshman year because we werenât sure yet how overwhelming all honors would be. Of course, itâs all well and good and those top 15 are stellar students and awesome kids. Happy for them. S19 probably ended up something like 30/750.
@ninakatarina - same here - small amount of awards for such a large school. We seem to have had more in my tiny little hometown. Oh well.
Yeah, since kiddoâs current commitment is to Gettysburg I wanted something Gettysburgian, but I think their color combination is hideous - a particularly unlovely pairing of dark blue and orange. Why couldnât they have gone with blue and grey?
Congrats to all the kids getting awards and honors!
Dâs school has a âwith highest academic honorsâ but it seems to be only a couple of kids each year who get it - D19 is definitely nowhere near the running for that one! She will be getting a CSF lifetime award which was basically for making the honor roll every semester of eligibility (one of those by the skin of her teeth), and Iâm sure a good number of students at her school get that, but thatâs all afaik.
D19 got notified yesterday that she received a local scholarship. They give out two a year (usually one boy & one girl but the gender mix isnât required), and weâd already heard which boy was the recipient a couple weeks ago so figured D didnât get it. Turns out there was a mix up about who was contacting her with everyone thinking someone else already did. It is a small amount, but it is the thought that counts. The boy who got it really deserves it as he has done a lot for this group. We werenât sure if the people picking would pick a well-connected/popular girl over D who has been involved but whom isnât from one of the local royalty. (Small town politics!) Glad involvement/volunteering won out over popularity!
Next Friday is last school day. Dâs graduation party isnât until June. Lots of people will be out of town by then, but that is what worked.
Big weekend as my D21âs non-profit has their kickoff meeting, we find out if any of her designs were picked for a community sculpture exhibit, and we have both a dance recital (D21 & I are helping) and a graduation party for a family friend. May is flying by.
@ninakatarina - Lol! Hobartâs colors are purple and orange. Bright purple and orange, and I couldnât be happier. My collegeâs colors were buff and blue, and our high school colors are blue and white (with a little gray thrown in). Iâm bored! Iâve been teasing S19 that he will need a purple blazer if heâs going to be a Hobart man.
@homerdog - we didnât allow S19 to take all the APs he could freshman and sophomore years either. It dinged him rank-wise, and in retrospect, he would have been able to handle the load no problem, but it is what it is. He loaded up on the APs the last 2 years and thinks he probably has now taken about the same number of APs as the rest of the kids. (Our school technically doesnât rank either, but they will give you your rank if you go in and sign a paper requesting it. They do report to the colleges the weighted gpa numbers for top 5%, top 10% and so on.