All done with AP exams here. She is pretty much done with all schoolwork even though she goes until May 30.
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D25 thought one of the AP lang essays was really strange so doesn’t think she’ll get any points for that one. Ah well. At least she’s done. Not too much homework left for the year and she’ll only have 2 finals.
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@chicagoshannon - S25 was vague about today’s exam as well. He just said that unlike yesterday, he was able to answer everything. 
He thinks he did fine.
So a while back, we took a look at his transcript, and all of his SAT scores were on there. Given that he may apply TO to some places (undecided), he went to see his counselor today to ask her to take his scores off the transcript. She didn’t understand why he would do that? I mean, he told her he might apply TO to some places, so wouldn’t it make no sense to have his scores on there if he’s applying TO? Am I missing something? His top score (until this week) has been a 1240. But on the plus side, she also had access to his most recent score (took it in mid-April, score comes to him officially this week I guess), and it looks like he went up to 1370, so he’s quite pleased with himself, but still would like to decide for himself if he’s submitting his scores instead of having them front and center on his transcript.
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Please post in the Paying for College Forum. There are several people (ex. @thumper1) with a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to aid.
Please please post your query in the linked page above. I’ll give my two cents worth, and I’m sure other will chime in with helpful information too.
Yes…there have been and are plenty of folks in your position where need based aid is not likely, but full cost of attendance is not realistic either. There are lots of merit aid options…but folks will need a lot more info from you to be helpful.
@BearsHunter
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Any other Physics C takers today? That was rough, especially coming off of lang right before
S24 took it, so no double (triple?). That’s a heck of a long day. D25 took Lang.
Writing Essay or Multiple Choice?
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Dang—I’m gone for a long weekend, and y’all put me under an avalanche of 93 posts? So thoughts on a few of them, all together:
Current status: SAT/ACT both one and done, mediumlist set, touring candidate colleges starting tomorrow. (Just arrived in NYC—several hours delayed, but we’re here!—and meeting up with a friend of C23 who goes to Hofstra tomorrow for an unofficial tour from a student’s perspective.)
Teacher recommendations: C25 has done a “soft” approach to a couple teachers to gauge willingness, and will ask them officially at the beginning of the fall. I think it’s worth at least checking before the summer, because if a particular teacher knows they won’t be able to for whatever reason, it’s good to have time to figure out an alternative.
Colleges centered on campus socialization: This would be pretty much any college that’s largely residential or where most “commuters” live very, very near campus, and is (a) in a geographically isolated location and (b) not in a solid “college town”. (That is, urban colleges are going to mostly be out. The University of Oregon is pretty isolated, sure, but Eugene is as college town as anything that side of Athens, Georgia could be.)
Flipped classrooms: They’re really good if they’re done right, but they’re really amazingly hard to do right, and it takes so much more time and effort (for which teachers are almost certainly not compensated) and training (which teachers are usually not given, or they aren’t given the right kind) that the odds of it working are low. It’s often turned into an empty educational buzzword by now, in many cases. (And all this holds precisely equally for both K–12 and college, BTW.)
Merit aid: One of the big differences between when I first did this with C17 and now that I’m going through it with C25? Back in 2016 there were a lot more colleges that had clear merit aid matrices (i.e., you get this ACT score and this GPA, you get this much merit aid). The necessity of going test-optional during covid resulted in lots of those tables going away, and most of them never came back, allowing more colleges to turn merit aid into a black box. It’s much worse than frustrating.
Merit aid, part 2: Another thing that changes? Lots more colleges, it seems to me, have their “generous” top merit offers capped at half tuition. Sorry, y’all, but if you’re charging $60k tuition plus room and board and everything else, half tuition is nowhere near generous.
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D25 took AP Lang today and thought it went better than she thought it would be. She told me about the essay questions and really liked the selfie question. I hope she passed, but the best thing to come out of this test is independent growth: she told me at dinner she researched how much credit two schools provide to various AP scores.
Folks, I’ve been waiting 16.5 years for her to plan ahead. Today is the day!
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It was the rhetorical analysis writing essay. She couldn’t figure out what they were actually asking or something. I think she’s moved past it now. Can’t really dwell on it since it’s over and scores don’t come out until July.
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Definitely not worth dwelling on. I was just curious. D25 guessed it was the RA essay. I don’t think it’s something that is really taught. Our school did a “all class” training info session on it a couple of weeks ago so they new what to expect. Still, it’s hard to say how well you did on these essays. Her line is “I hope?” Like you, we are just waiting for the score.
Homework has wound down and they have lots of fun end of year activities to look forward to over the next two weeks. I really can’t say where this year went!
Are there different versions of the test? I don’t think D25 has that one.
I think there are different versions for international and online exams. My kid took a paper test. The kids on Reddit are talking about the selfie question, so I think that questions was on the domestic paper test version.
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That makes sense. My daughter’s test was online.
APLang … went. My guy has extended time for his learning disabilities but didn’t need it for the test. But you aren’t allowed to leave early. He told me he stopped and took a short nap before doing the last essay because he had SO much time. I suspect this “extra time” does not bode particularly well for him, but whatever, it’s done. This was the test he was the most up in the air on re: how to prepare, how he might do etc so we’ll just go with we’re all glad it’s over. He’s got Physics 1 on Friday.
@Longview43 - I had both my kids take their scores off their transcripts, and both had good scores. If a college needs it, then it generally needs to be submitted officially. So why put it on the transcript? I’d rather it by our affirmative choice to send it and share it. I think it’s totally normal to take the score off (heck, my high school has a whole form for removing scores, it’s that common) and that it’s a little odd that the counselor that it was odd.
Last night was the leadership and awards night for juniors. It was very bittersweet realizing how fast time has flown by. S25 won two awards–Outstanding Performance in Physics and the Rochester Institute of Technology Computing Award, which comes with a $19K a year scholarship if he attends RIT. I don’t think he’ll be heading up that way, but he was proud of his achievements. Today is the last full day of 11th grade and then just the AP Physics on Friday.
He ended up asking his Physics/Pre-Calc teacher and computer science teacher to write his letters of recommendation. Both agreed, so he’ll send something to them this summer. So ready for him (and our family!) to have a break!
Hope exams go well for all the kids!
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Mine thought rhetorical was off too..didn’t really explain why they thought that - were tired after long day..figured no point it digging in (was curious) as what is done is done.
My D25 recently visited UDel with her school and really liked it, she said the vibe was good and the music department was really nice. Now she wants an official visit. This is great because it’s really easy to get to and has the potential to be affordable. She’s aware she needs really good merit to get in budget. What is different is that she’s only liked small schools until now. Rowan is acceptable because it’s a known entity that she’s comfortable with but UD has a nicer campus and I half thought she could like it but was reluctant because of the size. Now that she’s interested I’m thinking of adding West Chester which is pretty popular with NJ kids as well. This really opens up more possibilities than just the small private schools that are much farther from budget.
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Yay for a good visit that opens up some more possibilities, particularly when those possibilities might fit budget better!
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