Our district has a College Fair every October. They have the bar code through the StriveScan app. The Fair usually has reps from 150+ colleges. We are in Illinois so we get all the Big Ten(12) schools and most all of other Illinois schools though last year we had vanderbilt , Hofstra and a few non area schools. The bar code is helpful getting info out to prospective schools.
Weāve been working with S20 and GC on kidās Jr Yr classes this week. ***and i have a question on a certain tactic we are taking.
heās block schedule; 4 classes per day. Taking 5 AP classes (he will take test for 4 of them. the AP Physics test credits wont count for his major choices at our state flagship). Those 5 AP classes will be tough. Heās going to take a study hall and a PE class, and then another class like stagecraft or engineering. NO LANGUAGE. and thatās our question.
in college heās thinking engineering or CS. If he likes AP CS, then he can take a 4th yr of foreign language as a senior even though that will be tough being away from it for a year. . . . . Our flagship wants 4 yrs of FL for CS. (OR, if kid doesnt have 4 yrs then kiddo has to take it in college)
So, by not having FL as a jr, he can: 1) focus on grades in his APs and the study hall will help. Foreign Language is HARD for him (partly due to his speech issues) 2) he can take FL as a senior if need be, where grades arent looked at as much; right?
**thatās the question: how hard will it be to go a year without FL, and how important are grades senior year when it comes to early admissions in the fall?
@bgbg4us
I am not experienced so it is just my thinking aloud, why not drop one AP course and do the FL instead? I was told four-year of FL is pretty important for most schools. Five APs are a lot imho.
@Grad2020n23x2 we didnāt go last year as I thought it might be too early to go as a freshman!
Does anyone have experience with Princeton Review SAT prep? We just got back scores from PSAT 10 and a practice SAT. She did well but would like to bump up 50-100 in each if possible. I wonder how effective the classes are for strong students? Is there a better option? I know Khan is supposed to be great but I think an in person class is needed to keep her focused and make sure she is doing the prep and practice. Thanks!
Our school just sent notice for a free SAT/ACT combo sample test offered by Kaplan. Probably a selling tactic by Kaplan? But we will take it 
Yes a selling tactic but not a hard to turn down one. DS16 took it and it was clear which test he should focus on. It even predicted his actual test score pretty well. I will encourage DD20 to take it in the fall when it is typically offered here. Good luck to you DC!
@makemesmart , thatās a great idea. D20ās GC gave her the save advice. She also gave us a copy of The Compass Guide to College Admission Testing (Iām assuming itās a free guide), via compass prep.com. I havenāt gone on the site yet, but the guide itself is full of information about SAT vs ACT, prep, schedules, AP, etc. I donāt think weāll use the program, but the guide itself seems very helpful.
First ACT done! She thought it went ok. If nothing else it will help her see what she needs to work on. Her entire class takes one spring of junior year. She originally wanted to do the next test date but will be out of town on an EC trip, so today it had to be.
@GMC2918 the bar code was done at a really large college fair which I think was sponsored by the National Association of College Admission Counselors if I remember correctly.
@bgbg4us my experience and the advice I get from a college coach who was an admissions officer at a UPenn and then dean of admissions at another college is four years of the core five: math, science, English, history and foreign language. Also if a college ārecommendsā 4 years but only ārequiresā 3 you really need to the recommended amount.
Other pointers I have learnedā¦rigor is important, so is increasing it each year and GPA is huge. I think it would be much better if he did 3 or 4 APs next year and the foreign language. If you think his GPA will suffer with foreign language than maybe 3 APs, and Honors class he will do well in and the foreign language. Colleges will not be impressed with 4 or 5 APs in junior year if the grades are not great.
Has he taken any APS so far? If he took 2 this year 3 or 4 is an increase. If he took none this year 5 is way too many.
Also as far as your question about senior year grades they are EXTREMELY important. Colleges look very closely at the first semester ( or in the case of EA/ED) first quarter grades. If missing a year of FL might put those grades in jeopardy I definitely would not skip.
I assume he is going to apply to more schools than the flagship in your state and if that is the case I would definitely make sure to have all five cores in next years curriculum.
I agree with @MinnieFan that 5 APs is a lot for junior year. DS16 did that senior year. Did both AP chem and AP physics. Both were very helpful to him in freshman engineering so he was glad they were recent. I would encourage your DS to get the FL out of the way junior year and do one less AP.
I disagree slightly on senior year grades. They are important but not as much as junior year grades and showing increasing rigorāunless you are targeting tippy top schools. Not sure what selectivity of engineering program you are targeting (yes, engineering will be different than the college overall), but DS got in to all 6 he applied to (Purdue and OSU being his most selective) with not doing 5 APs until senior year. He did have 3 years Latin and 1 year Mandarin. His senior year grades were good but not all 6 colleges even wanted them mid-year.
Not what you asked about, but one change in requirements for entry that I have seen over last 4 years, is some colleges are strongly recommending some HS CS for all. It is good that he has already planned for that.
Given that my daughter is struggling to maintain a C in Japanese Three Iām pretty sure that any grade she gets in Japanese Four would look worse than not getting that 4th year of language at all.
@makemesmart DS is taking 5 APs next year and putting off his 3rd year of FL until Senior Year. I believe he wants to maximize his GPA Junior year so it is slightly higher when he applies to schools. He likes to say he doesnāt pander or play the GPA game, but I think his perspective changed when class ranking came out this year. He also says that FL would be more time consuming than a second math class. He works hard in school, is very independent and since heās the one doing the work; I let him make the final choice. Heās also planning on majoring in Engineering or CS.
Class rankings are a bit of a dinosaur in our area. I personally would never give my kid final choice on class decisions unless they were going to be paying their own college tuition.
We donāt see our kidsā choices until the school year starts and we have access to online grades. Iāve heard of parents not knowing their kid dropped IB for a long time and then flipping out. But they donāt need sign off or anything to get their initial schedule or drop or change a class during the year.
We donāt see the choices either. But I think seeing and knowing our two different things.i do see your point though about some parents. Daughter had a classmate whose mother asked me how to access the portal. The kid knew. Knowing the kid the mother really did need to know how to access the portal.
At s20ās school, parents need to sign the initial class schedule request sheet. If jumping a level, both recommending teacher and parents need to sign. That is when I talked s20 out of going directly for Spanish 4 by skipping 3. D17ās school does not do the same thing. I think I only got a paper to sign for her junior year because she signed up for 5 hard core aps and they wanted to make sure we are ok with it ( she only had 1 before that). I donāt think I got the same paper for senior year even when she signed up 6 aps. I am not sure about dropping a class yet.
My wife and I know exactly what classes D will take as she mapped out a tentative class schedule for sophomore, junior and senior years when she was a freshman and she/we refine it as needed.
Since my kid is dropping IB her plan from freshman year is blown out of the water.
We too made a plan freshman year, but that too got erased by reality. Didnāt realize that journalism electives are available only to kids in Media Arts track, which D did not choose because of other track nuances, so sheāll be taking AP psych instead. I know itās an easy class, but it adds on to APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, and advanced English. I am actually more worried for the first semester which coincides with PSAT and many summer programs applications (probably a good test run on the intensity of college apps season in a year and a half), but I know other kids have handled similar loadā¦
For what itās worth, D will study for PSAT this summer as part of her college program at UCSD. She will take ACT in the fall as well. Feel really bad for these kids, it was never this competitive when we went to high school : (