JMO but I wouldn’t worry about the college part if he is taking AB.
It sounds like as long as he knows clearly what the choices mean as far as stress and time management, then he should be fine either way. I would let him decide and then support that decision.
@dfbdfb I totally agree. For any subject, including band! That’s what is so frustrating about it. The kid practices daily, is in 4 school bands with a performance of some sort weekly, takes private lessons, participates in a private ensemble, is participating in a solo/ensemble competition this weekend, has arranged an entire piece for the top band at the HS and…
can’t be bothered to record major scales and upload them.
Apply that to any class and that’s my kid.
Sigh.
Reporting in on my D19. She has struggled with ADHD/depression/anxiety, school refusal, threats of self harm etc, since 7th grade so it has been a rocky several years. She has had to drop classes and lose credit due to missing school in the second semester of freshman year so she is still catching up. But she has miraculously managed to get B’s in most of her core classes and A’s in classes like art and theater. She has 504 accommodations but her issues are a complicated mixture of LD’s and behavioral/emotional issues and sometimes it’s hard to separate them out. But I feel like things are getting a little better. For next year she has signed up for AP Studio Art, AP Calculus AB, Anatomy/Physiology Honors, AP Language & Composition, Criminology, and the 6th class will either be US History or Latin 2 depending on which one she does in this summer. She hates the foreign language classes and feels very aggrieved to have to waste her time (in her view) taking a foreign language. I’ll feel relieved when she finishes Latin 2 because that’s enough to get her into our state universities and some colleges, although obviously not highly selective ones.
In the meanwhile, my D15 is feeling very stressed out by her classes (she signed up for too many hard classes) and her search for a summer internship. I’ve told her she needs to drop something but we’ll see what happens there. The parenting anxiety never ends!
I look back on my sophomore year, when I was doing everything bad, getting Ds in PE, for goodness’ sake, getting suspended for smoking, aiyee. Sounds like she’s getting great support at home and those are not frou-frou classes, so I’m really impressed!
Thanks @Gatormama. The junior year class I’m most unsure about is the AP Lang/Comp class because she really struggles with reading and writing. Her psych ed evaluation says she has mild dyslexia but she also tests as reading at grade level. She has gotten by over the years with audio books and basically just not doing the reading, but that is catching up to her. I want her to use a speech-to-text program like Dragonspeak to help her write reports/essays but she is extremely stubborn. Her therapist reminds me that D19 is an “experiential learner” and has to figure this stuff out on her own and also experience the consequences of her decisions. But the best news is that she is motivated by a desire to go to medical school so despite all the recriminations about the unfair system and the boring classes and the lame teachers (her words) she is managing mostly B’s.
@eh1234 What’s the reputation of the Calc BC class/teacher at your school? Both my math whiz girls took H pre-calc then BC (one while taking 5 AP’s total and acting in the school play) and had no trouble with it at all. Got A’s and scored highly on the AP exam, went on to higher math, and one is in engineering. A friend’s kid at another school in a nearby district, who is also great at math, nearly failed BC, as did most of his class that didn’t drop in frustration. The teacher is terrible at his school. He is now studying engineering in college and has had no trouble with more advanced math. It was just the particular class/teacher at his school-brutal. I’d ask a few questions–do the kids who take BC do well? Do many drop back to AB? Do they do well on the exam? See if you can get a feel for things.
@Parent2014grad - I think you might have misdirected those AP Calc questions. I have one of the 2019 kids who will take AP Calc as a senior. I have no idea who the teachers are because my D16 took PreCalc as a senior and is now taking it again in college in the hopes of some day being able to take the one semester of dumbed down calculus required for her major, haha.
@Parentof2014grad Thanks. I think that Calc comment was meant for me! And, yes, the teacher matters. BC very tough at our school. Definitely good advice to ask around and find out more about the class from those who know.
2nd quarter report cards came out. Grades are all great. She has decided she is avoiding her current English teacher in the future if at all possible. Not the worst teacher d19 has ever had, but by this point the good parts of her teaching style are being outweighed by the annoying and petty parts. Our fingers are crossed that this teacher doesn’t get the AP Lang classes next year. (Teacher said she wants them but only if she gets all sections and there are other teachers who want to teach sections)
The only other annoying thing about the grades was that the AP Stats teacher never graded a test from a day in November when d19 was out sick and then made the test up. He had assured her multiple times that he didn’t lose it and would grade it but he never did. We don’t know if the grade would have hurt, helped or not even made a difference and with a 95% in the class it’s probably fine. It’s just annoying and feels like she wasted time and effort in even taking the test.
Hello all. Is it too early to start at “Parents of HS 2019 3.0-3.4 GPA” thread? My DD’s 3.6 is down to a 3.4 and I’m trying not to panic, but I want to be proactive with our admission strategy. I love learning from this group, but I find myself lurking in the 2017 and 2018 3.0-3.4 GPA discussions. I’d love to connect with 2017 parents with the same concerns!
@DeltaMom2019 Do not worry yet. There will be many fluctuations in GPAs between now and time for applications. The college application process can be maddening and stressful. It doesn’t have to be. There is a school for your daughter that she will thrive in. Don’t sweat it yet. And as an aside , there are no guarantees in college acceptances. Many extremely high stat kids are being waitlisted, rejected and deferred .
@carolinamom2boys Thanks for the reminder! Intellectually, this all makes sense and I absolutely know better, but it’s amazing how crazy it all becomes when it’s my actual kid and not posts I’m reading! I agree that there are great schools out there for her and it will all work out. This process is maddening…challenging for high stats kids, mid-stats kids, LD kids. We are visiting our state flagship on Monday, which has a avg. freshman GPA of 4.3 or something equally ridiculous. sigh
You are not alone @DeltaMom2019 – we’re in a similar (but lower GPA) place. We are starting to investigate community college options.
Our state flagship has similar stats and just had over 24,000 applicants this year. I feel your pain @DeltaMom2019 . This school will most likely fall off our list. My son has the GPA , but tests and rank will most likely lock him out.
My D’s UW GPA right now is 3.5, but she tends to get B’s in her core classes and A’s in classes like art or theatre. Next year she wants to take AP Lang, AP Calc AB, Anatomy/Physiology Honors, US History (regular), AP Studio Art, and Criminology. I’m glad she wants to challenge herself but I foresee a lot more B’s in her future. Maybe I should be grateful that here in AZ we don’t really have a state “flagship” since we only have 3 state universities. As long as she keeps up a B average and can manage to finish the “core competencies” (including her hated foreign language requirement), she’s guaranteed admission. The harder question will be whether she could get into the honors colleges at ASU and the U of Arizona. And I can see her being a candidate for CTCL colleges. I just did a post on another thread about how in 3 weeks we’re going to tour the U of Arizona SALT center for students with LD’s. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20323581/#Comment_20323581
@DeltaMom2019 Our state flagship is the same, with the other top 2 schools also requiring over a 4.0 from our county. S19 will apply to the “third best” school, but the others are not an option and he probably won’t get into the 'third best" either.
My D16 gradated with a weighted 3.46 and was accepted at every school she applied to, so I have a zen-like calm about S19s chances at finding the right school. (He has a 3.67 that should improve this year, and will have better test scores than D16). The worst part of the process for him will probably be the teacher and counselor recommendations because he is an introverted, late bloomer type who likes playing his instrument and is not interested in leadership opportunities and doing additional ECs for the sake of having ECs. He’ll definitely be looking at some schools that don’t use the Common App to take some of that stress off.
S19’s second quarter report card was the usual combination of one A/ A- and B+ grades. I think the A minuses won out this time and there was just one A and one B+. He still can’t decide what classes to take next year, but like @Corinthian’s D, is thinking about taking 3 APs. I have no idea how he will react to actually having to do a significant amount of homework or actually studying.
DS19 is not in a position to greatly improve his rank. Currently around 11% . His WGPA was approx 4.4 at the end of last year. It should be higher this year. He doesn’t perform well on standardized tests . He has quite a few ECs including Youth in Government, academic team , science team and club and BETA club. He is taking all honors except his AP World History, art class and SAT prep classes. Because he doesn’t test well on standardized tests and is not in a position to greatly improve his rank, his strategy that he came up with ( which I support) is taking APUSH, English III honors, chemistry honors, pre calculus honors, Spanish IV honors and art 2 .He is undecided regarding his 2 electives. We both believe that this strategy may give him the opportunity to achieve the grades to increase his rank into the top 10% and not overload or stress him out. It actually much easier than my DS16 who was ranked 4/452 going into his senior year. He ended up with 5 AP classes his senior year. He did well and enjoyed the challenges the AP classes brought, but he is very different than his brother.
A bunch of posts here (like yours above, @carolinamom2boys) are stressing me out. My senior is already in her ED school, so now I’m beginning to worry about my sophomore. I need some advice but I’m not sure this is the right board for it. She’s not so straightforward as my D17. Ugh.
D19 is struggling this year so we’re working with medical folks to get meds tweaked and supports in place. She has chosen her courses for junior year in playing to her strengths (AP Art 2D Design, AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, US History Honors, Probability & Statistics, English 11, and Theatre Arts 3) in the hopes of raising her GPA. She does test well so planning on taking the ACT in September, with the PSAT in October. Just have to get through the next two quarters (currently at 3.0 uw/3.4 w).
@JenJenJenJen Don’t stress out. My DS19 is very different than my high stats DS16. My sophomore will never be highly ranked with an extremely high GPA . He just won’t . For that reason , he is choosing to honors classes other APUSH because he likes the challenge of an honors class over a college prep class. He is taking APUSH because history is his strongest subject and he wants to be challenged. He would like to see if he can move into the 10th percentile of his class because he is so close and it may make him more competitive for admissions to some of our state schools . He is not targeting OOS or superselective schools. He is not interested in loading up on APs.
Some may choose that path. It’s not what he wants to do. There is no one right answer for every student . My son has been recommended for AP classes in the past and English 1 in middle school. We made the decision not to go that route because we felt that it wasn’t in his best interest . That’s what people need to do . Evaluate your options and determine what is best for their child. If you look at the classes my son is taking , they are actually less rigorous than many other posters and that is OK. It’s what’s best for him.