@NYC2018nyc 2 teacher recs here too… D20 also chose 1 English & 1 Math. Last year, D19 chose 1 English & 1 Comp Sci. Guidance counselor writes the school report.
About half of the colleges in my D’s list want one letter of recommendation from a teacher and the other half want two. It seems that most want the gc letter. From the colleges that want only one letter some have strong language and others are more vague. For example one college states that a second letter is not encouraged but another college says one letter is required but says nothing if a second letter would be ok. I am not sure what my D will do. At her school letters go out through Naviance which allows to send specific letters to specific colleges. However I heard from last year that there were some mess ups with that so there is the thought to send two letters to all and risk annoying that one college but making sure all letters are there on time.
@NYC2018nyc
DS has two teachers (one science one language) for LOR, but since music is a huge part of his life, he also asked his music teacher. I thought GC’s letter is a given? Every college would require that one?
@Darcy123
Are the college calls real people or robocalls? I am guessing they are the latter and that would be rather counter-productive in my camp too. We do receive an onslaught of emails and snail mails.
@am9799
DS’ school does not have Naviance and I am guessing the GC will use CA to send the letters? Need to find out. DS has just waived his right to view these letters.
AFAIK, D20 has no right to view the letters. Do other schools give students the right to view the letters?
This is a general statement but what we have come across is public schools just want 1 teacher and one counselor and private want 2 teachers and a counselor.
And some colleges don’t want any LOR at all.
ACT here again, too. S has a really good score, but one more point could make a huge difference in merit money.
@makemesmart They’re actually real people. I can’t believe it’s an effective strategy as I think she’s like 99% of teenagers who hate to talk to people on the phone. She took the first couple, but has made it clear that she does not want to be home for any others unless it’s a school on her list and even then she’s not sure she wants to talk to them.
DS16 actually received a call within 10 minutes of submitting application! Be prepared for that or it might creep you out.
DS is only applying to University of Minnesota, Iowa State, St. Thomas, Huntsville and a couple of state schools and from what I can seen none require letters of recommendation.
@momzilla2D
I have to ask DS20, he said the waive of reading the LORs is on CA, there is a tab there for you to do that (waive or not). At one of our college info sessions at DS’ school, the GC told us waiving the right to read the LORs makes the LORs more “valuable” to the college AOs as the AOs would think the letters are more truthful.
@Darcy123
Wow, real people! Thank you for the heads up.
At AP time she had straight As in all 5 AP classes. Two have now dropped to B’s as she is blowing off stupid post AP assignments like reviewing a movie they watched in APUSH. In her mind she is done, she did well on the AP’s, why does she need to keep doing these BS assignments.
Somewhat different issue with grades for DS20 - he took the AP Calculus course - teacher almost stopped teaching much from early April (with only practice AP tests during the class) - he did well on all practice tests and the real test. She was initially expected to use the practice tests for grades but later declared that she changed mind and not going to use those scores and instead will have a new test and project. In the new test she gave, it had just 4 questions and DS messed up one of the question with incorrect calculation (he knows the concept but rushed thru a calculation and result messed up later part of the question) - it dropped his overall course grade from A+ to B (imo its harsh to have that much weightage to a single test that too with just 4 questions for a year long calculus course). anyway, he is now banking on the project. He was earlier thinking that its a useless project but now tensed up because of dropped grade. sigh.
5990 and #5991. I see this both ways depending on when school ends. At ours school final exams were the 22, 23, and 24 so it made little sense to even have finals in her AP's. She had finals before the AP's. It seems very silly to me why high schools go past memorial day. In APUSH they were watching movies and my daughter brought in Korean Wars pictures to class. As for AP calculus last year the practice test before AP counted for their final.
D20 had her last final today, so she is done!
No finals in D20’s AP classes. After AP exams, I believe they started looking at next year’s material. In Calc BC, they started Linear Algebra; in Physics 1, they started Mechanics(?). Seniors were already done (last day was March 15th), so they weren’t around post-APs. I guess theoretically there may have been some kids who aren’t planning to take Linear Algebra or Physics C, don’t know what they did.
I have never heard of moving on to the next course. I know at my daughter’s girls most wouldn’t be taking Physics C. At our school it’s a different teacher who would be teaching BC and whatever they call the next math class.
Calc AB has moved on.
Physics 1 is the last physics class at her school, so is Chemistry.
I don’t know what APUSH would move on to. They are now doing group presentations on various topics.
Lang I am not sure what they are doing but she’s not turning the work in.
@Nicki20 I don’t think they’re actually starting the next course. More like starting to learn some concepts from the next course. I suspect there will be different teachers in the fall, especially for physics, since the Physics 1 teacher is leaving. But D19 finds it more interesting to learn new material, rather than do another project or something.
DS’ AP calculus AB teacher started the BC part once they were done with the exam, even though next year is a different teacher. I guess it is an easy “moving on” as there are so many overlaps between the two. IB English was watching movies. But then again, we ended the school before Memorial Day.
@Nicki20 I agree with you all hs (that do APs) should end before Memorial Day. But then all these HS would have to start school before Labor Day, which is kind of sacrilegious in some part of my city (certain districts tried but failed when facing fierce resistance from some parents).
The problem in our area is that K-8 teachers and parents don’t want to start early and end early. Plus non AP classes kind of stall for 2-3 weeks during AP season. Those teachers use the weeks after APs to actually teach.
We only had a couple weeks left after IB and AP Exams. The science teachers all used the time for labs that the couldn’t fit in prior to the exams. I think most social studies had some type of project to wrap things up. The math classes really didn’t do much after the AP Exams. About half still had finals during finals week, the other half had them prior to the AP/IB exam.