Interesting conversation about dream schools vs non dream schools. I knew from the minute I set foot on campus as a high school freshman that I wanted to go to UCLA, worked my behind off to get in, and loved most of my 4 years there. I toured other schools but never got that same feeling about any other school. My husband had a similar experience visiting his older brother at his eventual college.
So we expected that our daughter would eventually get the same feeling when going on college visits. Except she didn’t.
She had no idea where to apply. She thought she wanted to go to college in Colorado, because it’s beautiful there and she loves it (the state generally, not CU Boulder specifically.)
It looks like she may end up at the college I talked her in to applying to. She argued against it, thought she didn’t want to go there, but they have a free application so she eventually said “why not?” But she ended up loving it when we visited, against all of her expectations and instincts.
I’d base this on what AP Gov is worth to him at the college he plans to attend. If it would give him credit or fulfill a distribution requirement, missing one half of an internship day is a small price to pay.
If, otoh, he’s going somewhere where even a good score isn’t getting him much of anything, no harm in skipping.
Thanks for the explanation. I believe this doesn’t work this way at D19’s school, so I guess it’s something to check. That said, I am assuming in general where it does matter, that only one more or less AP exam likely would not make the difference?
I think you’re smart to hear him out and see what he thinks. With his intended major, I would expect the AP Chem test would be more important than the AP Gov test. So skipping the AP Gov…eh, that wouldn’t be the worst outcome.
Unless he’s been tanking in the class leading up to this time, and even if that is the case, well…he’s gotten what he’s needed out of the material and can come back to it in grad school should he so choose.
I would hate for him to miss the senior experience, given the rest of the crap he’s had to deal with in terms of what you’ve shared about his sports.
I’m pulling for skipping the AP Gov exam, but I’ll be interested to hear the final verdict. Good luck!!
Yeah, one doesn’t make much of a difference. Unless it’s The One that would get you to a semester ahead status, then not really a big deal. For my kid, his program is relatively small, and the participation is capped so that there is sufficient room in required classes, so I don’t think it will make a difference for class registration. It might make a difference for housing selection, but the likelihood of him living on campus after freshman year at any of the schools he’s looking at is very very slim.
It seems all of his options have been explained to him. I think your idea to hear his thoughts and let him make the decision is perfect for helping him to make these decisions in the future.
My child insists on going out of state. So I told them that they will have to pay the difference of cost themselves. That forces them to really think about the cost-benefit analysis and how much going out of state means to them. We are making a huge financial investment in them and they should be looking at it in those terms.
The college should be able to tell you. It just might be a matter of finding the right person to talk to about it. Where I work, if it’s your first year you register with the first years even if you have 6 APs. Sophomores register with sophomores and so on. Transfers are different, but our college doesn’t consider APs the same as if a student attended college. This is very different from where I attended. I always got to register ahead of my friends because the exact number of credits you had determined your registration time. It’s definitely worth learning more about how it works where your son will be. If that one class won’t make a big difference, let it go. Some things are more important.
D25 had never even heard of the school she committed to when I first dragged her there. It was a school I had heard mentioned here I believe that had no oos tuition. I had added it to my schools to look into and they happened to have a special open house on a weekend she was actually off from work and activities. It went from totally unknown to her recognizing it checked all her boxes.
This is fascinating I never would have seen this as an issue
Seems unfair to kids with no AP options etc etc .—I’d imagine that group is more likely from
Rural poorer schools too (or rather fancy public and private schools that don’t have APs either lol;)
For my S22, attending an in-state public, the AP exams he got 3 or above on counted as general ed credits. So, he ends up being counted as “the next year” for spring quarter each year. However, that makes it so he can register for either “higher level” stuff or else he gets his registration opened earlier than the class he really belongs to. There is a drawback where spring quarter his freshman year, he still needed to take a “freshmen required” class for something, and his computer was all “you’re a sophomore, you don’t get the freshman classes listed”, and he ended up having to go see someone on campus to get into a class. And there may have been a waiting list scenario, but the teacher signed the form to let him in without even really blinking, so it all worked out just fine.
skkm0906 may have a different story, from a different place.
On the subject of the AP Gov test quandary – I’d lean towards skipping the AP Gov test. This year in particular. C25 is also in AP Gov, and it seems like they’re mostly discussing the curriculum as if the current administration weren’t equipped with a chainsaw. So, even folks who get a 5 on that test/curriculum, may not have a lot of value/credit granted in college as the federal government evolves.
It’s nice that your kid will still get the 0.5 boost to their GPA. Our school doesn’t give any GPA boost for Honors/AP/IB type classes. They only produce a straight GPA with a 4.0 basis.
I think it just goes to show that frequently, parents really do know their child best.
Our teen students can so easily be influenced by location, prestige, perceived glamour, and so forth. None of that necessarily makes for a successful college experience or career. For the last 3 years, fit and cost have been the main things I’ve focused on.
I am not surprised at all that my daughter loves the school she didn’t think she would like. I always knew that it would be ideal for her. Even my husband had to acknowledge that “this school is perfect for her.”
I suppose that I still had enough instinct left to help her figure it out, even when she couldn’t figure it out for herself.
Many public colleges & universities that give course credit for AP scores will also give course credit for CLEP exam scores. And students can take courses for that for free online through Modern States’ Freshman Year For Free program. Whether or not the college the student ends up attending gives you credit for that CLEP or AP exam is based on the policies at that specific college, so be sure to check that college’s website to confirm what courses one would get credit for.
When you complete the Modern States course and pass the online practice exam, they give you a voucher to use which allows you to register for the CLEP exam in that subject for free…there is a testing center fee on top of that, which you could request financial assistance with if the student is low income.
The Modern States program is available regardless of what high school one attends. So a student in a rural or lower resources school could utilize that as an additional way to complete some courses instead of AP if AP classes aren’t available at their high school.
S25 has had a frustrating week. He and one of his best friends were starting the badminton season as the top-ranked men’s doubles team and then out of nowhere the two best men’s singles players decided to challenge them for the top seed and won. (This decimated their singles team but the coaches seemed to allow it.) Less than a week later…S25 and his partner won their game yesterday but he personally missed a bunch of serves (he told me that he got the yips after missing the first one and it was hard to recover). Today the coach informed him that he’s splitting them up and matching up his friend with a different/better player. No one is apparently happy about this – he and his friend started badminton together and have played together for three seasons now. He likes the guy he was repartnered with – in fact, it’s another close friend. But they are definitely not as strong a team and don’t have much experience playing together. It was two sequential blows to the ego, with the UC Davis rejection coming in the middle.
But just now…
He came out of his boy-lair to tell me, grinning, that he got into UW-Seattle for undeclared engineering. This is, per his ranking on our dartboard, one of his top three semi-realistic choices. Has he been there? no. Does he know anything about the program? also no! But the idea of Seattle is very appealing. So we will go visit.
Mostly I’m just happy that he got a little wind in his sails. And annoyed with his badminton coach (but I’m not, not, NOT going to interfere.)
Congratulations!! So exciting- I’m happy your son got this great news!
My son just got in too! He is over the moon. He loves this campus (it’s beautiful btw).
