Our school is considered competitive. Our school has a large number of AP classes (basically all except for Italian and Japanese and something else I don’t recall). BUT I don’t think the school is competitive because it offers a large number of APs. The school is competitive because of various socioeconomic factors, alumni who like to donate, and a principal who is amazing in both educational and disciplinary matters. We are fortunate to be able to offer a large number of AP classes because the school is large enough to accommodate the demand for them and they have been able to find certified teachers to teach the classes. If they could find someone to teach the two languages that aren’t offered, the school would offer those as well. Also, our school requires foreign language each year (middle school doesn’t count toward the four years), which increases the demand for AP languages since a lot of kids start language in 7th or 8th grade. We also have a lot of kids lying about their addresses to get in.
@hs2020dad You’re welcome. We’ve found that interviews depend on the school. DS did an overnight at Reed and had one. When he signed up for the Mudd tour, it was offered but not required. One other student on our tour did it.
Caltech, on the other hand, doesn’t even offer them. Show your stats and love for stem w/o any of the holistic nonsense. We did Pomona earlier and it wasn’t mentioned. Our Mudder guide said he applied ED, did a stay over, and interviewed.
Hi,
Speaking of interviews, S20 has one lined up for Wake Forest at the end of the month, but now he’s not sure he wants to look at it. He keeps remembering something the adcom said as we toured UIUC, that he should think about what he likes, and only go to schools that have it. Even if everyone raves about a school, if it doesn’t have what you like, it’s not a good fit. Which I do think is a valid point. S20 has always wanted a big school with game day spirit, and Wake doesn’t really fit that since it is smaller. He’s also not sure he’d be comfortable in the South. We’ll see what he decides to do. He’s still in school for 3 more weeks! Also, this SAT takes forever to score!
@NYC2018nyc regarding ‘if a school doesn’t have what you like, its not a good fit’. I’m not sure that I agree. We only know what we know. My older D really wanted a traditional school, steeped in traditions, a huge football or basketball team to stand behind, lots of school spirit. Its what she saw and she knew she loved it. Fast forward a few years, and she’s at a school that is roughly 12 years old with a total population of 350. No, that’s not a typo, 350 students in the whole school. The only sport is intramural Ultimate Frisbee. She is thriving there and loves every moment more than the one before. Sometimes being open to something different isn’t a bad fit, its just different. I’m certainly not saying don’t follow what you believe. I’m saying he needs to follow his gut. I would highly recommend the interview and some time spent on campus. If he hasn’t experienced the south, how can he tell he won’t thrive there. If he has and he knows it won’t make him happy, that’s entirely different. For us, overnight visits and shadowing students were critical to finding a good fit. And honestly, in the end, my D struggled deciding between a traditional school and the school she’s in. It came down to her gut feel. He doesn’t have to make a decision until May 1st. Best of luck.
I’ve heard of elite private HS’s dropping AP Classes - from those schools 
- I take a dim view of this, because the AP can give more objective feedback about variable national curriculum, and because my own oldest son just saved us tens of thousands of dollars in tuition via AP credits at a HYPSM.
@fretfulmother I mostly agree with you, except sometimes AP limits the teacher to not expanding beyond that curriculum. In my son’s school, the highest physics class is beyond AP so is not listed as an AP. He still took both physics AP tests this year. I am glad to hear that HYPSM gives credits for AP. I thought that they tended instead to give placement in advanced classes rather than credit.
@WasIDremin and @ShrimpBurrito USC and UGA both seem compact and walkable compared to NCSU! It’s definitely all relative. Tons of kids here go to USC. It’s a nice school and my S18 liked it. It’s been raining a LOT here this week. It rained on our Georgetown tour but my D20 still loved it.
@NYC2018nyc I mostly agree with @MuggleMom, with one caveat. How did Wake get on your son’s list? Was it him? If so, then I would go visit and do the interview if it’s convenient and affordable. If it was a parent pick, and he is balking, I’d leave it alone.
Yes. I agree it is USC is walkable especially when compared to Alabama. I think since we didn’t get the actual tour her sense of direction was off. Of the schools we have visited she likes the UK campus best. It’s the closest drive of the major universities in our budget, and I think the nursing tour guide did the best selling their program. I personally think the honors program at USC is reason enough to go there as it seems the student can replace a lot of large lecture classes with much smaller honors courses. Oh well other than money it’s not really my choice.
@bigmacbeth other than the link that was shared above I didn’t get more information since I was unable to do a nursing tour. But it seems like if you get into honors you are automatically accepted to the smart start program in nursing.
@WasIDremin Mizzou has a similar program through their honors college, but the ‘progression requirement’ was a GPA of 3.7 at the time of application to the upper division of nursing. That’s a bit too much pressure IMO. USC mentions a progression requirement, but don’t specify what it is…I was just curious.
DId you see the simulation lab at UK? I don’t remember them being direct admit, but I loved the campus when I toured with D17.
I am scratching my head a bit at a high school with enough demand for post AP Physics C physics classes. 99% of college students don’t even take physics past the first year.
@VickiSoCal And it even has more than one section of it! This is a very stem-oriented high-school.
@VickiSoCal Welcome to the high school my ds20 attends (2018-2019 senior class size 634 students, only public high school in the district). They offer all AP subjects except of Japaneses and Italian.
Physics C is very popular. We have 8 physics teachers. There is one teacher that only teaches Physics C but the other physics teachers will teach a class or two if they need to add more classes to meet demand. My two older kids were both required to have physics as part of their degree plan, one meteorology and the other comp sci, at different schools in different states and they both were able to use their AP Physics C scores for credit for those required college physics courses.
So they took both physics C classes as juniors and post calculus based physics classes as seniors?
AP Physics 1 and 2 are taught as one course at our school. My DS20 took AP Physics 1/2 as a sophomore and Physics C as a junior.
For math sequence all my kids took:
9th grade pre-AP Algebra 2
10th grade pre-AP Pre Cal
11th grade AP CAL BC
12th grade Linear Algebra/ Multi Variable Calculus
DS18 also took AP Stats and DS20 took AP stats this year and will take Beyond AP Stats senior year
We don’t even have Physics C as an option here. It’s either AP Physics 1 or IB Physics HL - neither of which is Calc based.
Same here @Darcy123 not enough demand. My daughter will be taking physics at a university next year for that reason.
I am wondering what post cal based physics would be offered at a high school. As I said above, even at university it.isnrare for any students outside of physics majors to take such a class.
Speaking of physics, I found out today that D20 cannot take physics at all next year. Her high school reduced their physics offering to just one non-honors class - for a school of 1800 kids - and that single class conflicts with a class that is mandatory (for graduation) for my daughter. I checked with our community college, and there are no physics classes that she can take. My D is interested in nursing, but also other STEM majors. D would like to apply to a few selective colleges, but I’m concerned that the lack of any physics will make her a weaker applicant, even with an explanation from her guidance counselor.
Our large public HS offers Physics 1, 2 and C. We have several sections of Physics 1 and a 2-3 of Physics 2 and/or C in any given year. Some kids take 1 and C but don’t take 2.
We have over 30 AP courses including 5 APs in VAPA and 7 APs in foreign languages.
@hgtvaddict Bummer about Physics. My D20 is also thinking nursing. Her #1 choice right now requires a year physics in order to apply to the direct entry program. She’s lucky, because prior to nursing she was set on engineering, and didn’t switch gears until recently. She took physics in her sophomore year. I think this is requirement pretty unusual, though. Can she, or has she, taken Anatomy & Physiology?