@redfraggle Having limited finances and not qualifying for enough need-based aid makes for a very different application season, regardless of stats. It is a completely different application strategy. We still have 3 kids at home (our youngest is only in 3rd grade, but we are expecting our 5th grandchild in Oct!) My 2014 and 2017 grads were incredibly strong applicants and both earned full or close to full scholarships. The 2014 grad is now a grad student. My next 2 at home are very different kids. They are the exact opposite of those 2 in what they want from life. (One wants to be a baker; far cry from physicist.)
Anyway, just wanted to reassure you that top schools are far from the only path to successful careers. Our oldest ds went to a small tech university that was not highly ranked. He is a chemE who had great UG research opportunities, co-oped for 12 months, and now has a great career. No one cares where he went to school.
@hgtvaddict Wow your comment gave me the chills: āwith parents literally raising their childās own hand for them when the presenter asked simple questions.ā Ooof.
My D20 is the second kid, and also going about the whole process completely differently from her big sister (D17). While she was not racing out the door to visit colleges this year, we did make it to Bryn Mawr and Barnard last spring, and then a Midwest trip of Grinnell, Macalester, St. Olaf, Carleton and UW-Madison in July, and just did a quick sprint to Smith, Mount Holyoke and Bennington this week as part of a family vacation. I really appreciate how quick and emphatic she is about knowing whether a school is a fit (Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mac, Mount Holyoke, Bennington) or not (Carleton, Grinnell, St. Olaf, Smith, UW-Madison). Sheās doing a beautiful job resisting my over-involvement, list making, etc. Sheās going to chart her own path!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek My d20 is considering chemE as a major. I was wondering if you would mind sharing the name of the school that your ds attended? I think my daughter might like a small school.
@janiemiranda Iāll send you a PM. His younger siblings Iāve posted about since they were in high school. Since he is an established adult, posting his private info seems far more invasive.
Got back last night from moving DD back to her apartment near OU and DS into freshman dorms at UT Dallas. Now DS20 gets all of my attention;-)
He got his scheduled yesterday with all the classes and all the teachers he wanted!
1st Chinese 3 Pre AP
2nd AP Comp Sci Principles
3rd AP Physic C
4th Lunch
5th AP CAL
6th Comp Sci independent study 1
7th AP English 3 (composition)
8th AP Stats
He starts school on Wednesday 8/22, heās registered for a proctored practice SAT test on 8/15, the real SAT on 10/6 and the real PSAT on 10/10. Heās starts his American History class on line at our local CC on 8/27. Now to figure out when he can take his driving testā¦
@3scoutsmom
Wow, impressive schedule and with NO study hall!! DS would need his study hall this year, we might have to try that in senior year, hopefully by then it is not as stressful as this junior year.
@redfraggle, it must be such a relief that your child is in a better place re: depression. Having kids who have experienced mental health challenges myself, I think going through that really puts things in perspective. Thanks for sharing.
@makemesmart our school doesnāt have a study hall period. I have heard of a few kids that had some really problematic schedules and they were assigned āoffice aidā to fill a period. Juniors and seniors that take DE classes have the option of not taking classes 7th and 8th period but they are required to leave school grounds if they arenāt in a class. Lunch is a full period so many treat it as a study hall, though some kids opt to take 8 classes and skip lunch like at @Nicki20 's school. Itās a very competitive school and in TX rank is a big deal so kids take as many classes (perferably weighted classes) as they can. DSās goal is to stay in the top 5% of his class so that heāll be an auto admit to UT and competitive for merit at UTD - his first choice school.
Our school requires students to take four non weighted classes (at least three must be before senior year) to graduate. Senior year, DS will take a just for fun class, likely digital arts 2 or game design. Our school makes the kids do a āfour year planā every year. DE classes arenāt figured into GPA for rank but do open spaces for kids to more AP classes in their regular schedual.
12th grade he hopes to take
Summer DE American Government, Texas Government
Fall DE Intro to Art
AP Chinese 4
Multi/linear
AP English 4 (lit)
Advanced Stats
AP Ecco Micro/ AP Ecco Macro
Comp Sci Independent Study 2
Fun non weighted class
Iām the mean mom and wonāt let my kids opt out of lunch.
The auto-admin to those great UT schools are so wonderful, wish we had something like this. @3scoutsmom and for those kids who use lunch period for a class, do they just skip lunch or they could eat in class? Canāt believe parents or school would let them do that?
D is going the IB route. Not much choice since the school is moving towards becoming a full IB school. (No APās) Her schedule includes a zero period class and after school sports. This will be a challenging year.
Good luck to all the JUNIORS! Canāt believe Iām saying that.
Yes, itās going to be an exhausting yearā¦ D has only 6 classes plus 1 DE:
AP CalcBC
AP Spanish
AP Seminar
APUSH
Physics
English H (no English APs until senior year at her school)
She likes most of her teachers, so thatās good. I am just worried a bit about Spanish AP - apparently, many native speakers are taking that class instead of Spanish 4 for native speakers in order to get their GPA boost. But I know it will work out in the end.
@makemesmart I think it depends on the class. At our school teachers pretty much set all rules. Some classes no food or drink, others itās fine. The teacher that DS has for AP CAL has an expresso machine and snack bar in her class room and asks for voluntary donations to stock it! Chinese class has tea available during class time and often has food, orchestra and lab sciences food and drink usually arenāt allowed.
@typiCAmom we have the same issue with native Chinese speakers, it really makes it more difficult for the non native speakers. Our school just recently opened Spanish and Chinese level 5 classes geared more to native speakers because of this. These classes focus much more on literature and written language than spoken language and culture.
He had to drop down in math last year due to so many missed days, but in the long run I think it was good. He is really learning the concepts and will still hit Calc next year. Heās pondering dropping PLTW for Micro/Macroeconomics APā¦I am leaving it up to him.
First week of school is over. most dramatic thing is we have to get a mat for yoga class. Three kids already dropped the AP physics 1 class after two days. She knew a boy who dropped and asked why. He said it looked too hard and went to regular physics. I read the syllabus and it said you will have a lot of homework and the class is very difficult, I can kind of see why he dropped the class.
Depends, are you thinking of doing AP Chem after regular chem? Our school will not allow online chem as prerequiste for AP Chem. I think your best bet would be to go with a DE in class chem class
My d2ās schedule is: APUSH, AP Chem, APLang, AP Seminar, Spanish 3 honors, PreCal Honors, and theology. Definitely going to be her toughest year. I think with good time management it will be doable. The hard part will be spring quarter when she is playing her school sport and trying to get ready for those AP tests! Fingers crossed that everything holds together!
About to send S17 back to college, but S20 doesnāt start until after Labor Day. He will be taking 3 DE classes (math,Bio and Spanish) along with English and US History at his HS. Everyone at his small
school takes 2-3 college classes in 11th. He has his college classes assigned but doesnāt get his HS ones until a week before school.
He is thinking about engineering vs math/science for college. College lists have some overlap but if math/science then some non-engineering LAC might be of interest. No official visits this summer but he goes to HS at an urban university and has spent time on other campuses for summer/weekend programs.
Planning a testing schedule for next year (SAT and probably ACT) and working around an anticipated robotics schedule.
@3scoutsmom DS just had one semester of chemistry honor and he would need to have one year of chemistry. We will look to see whether a local cc will offer summer course. Thank you.
