So we’re in D26’s annual screwed-up course selection process for next year. Hers is, of course, more complicated because she wanted to take an accelerated pre-calc class to take calc this year so she could take a DE calc-based physics class next year. Her school, which nominally says it offers DE, has what seems like almost no way of telling her if she can actually take the class she wants because it’s during the school day and they have to figure out what happens if she misses one of her other classes, which will likely happen.
On top of that, they’re also requiring her to take another full year of math even though she technically has four years already with the accelerated pre-calc class. But now they’re calling it “an acceleration” instead of a full class. She was going to take Calc 2 through DE as well, but apparently one semester of DE won’t count as a year of math because… unknown reasons.
And, finally, all this has to be figured out by tomorrow since they’re given exactly 48 hours to get their signed schedule in. LOL - guess we’ll see what happens!
It’s legit. The only con is that the student will be spammed with hundreds of emails from colleges after entering their information to receive the award.
I have always wondered if these College Board awards help with college applications?
(Of course I do not think all awards and honors need to be tied to admissions. All of these students should be proud of their accomplishments even (and especially) when not tied to college applications!!!)
Just trying to understand if there is a tie in that can be leveraged .
Don’t the admission people see all the information when you submit what AP tests (or other scores/test) you have taken? How does/can the award help? (Should these be included in the Honors and awards section of applications?)
My 2-cents based on nothing other than opinion, is that these College Board awards are a dime a dozen. My kid also was invited to apply for the National Recognition thing. I think it is good filler for a kid that doesn’t otherwise have a lot of awards to list (like my kids lol) but will not move the needle in terms of admissions. (Of course, an exception is National Merit, which is separately run and has a high bar/limited recipients.)
Yeah, same with my kid Although the school recognition one does mean top 10% of PSAT scores within the school, and D26’s school is ranked #8 in our (large, southern CA) county, so it’s better than a poke in the eye! Can’t hurt to list it.
I think these ones help showcase people who perform well in their context but may fall short in absolute terms of national /commended or state/SF cutoffs. Colleges will know the latter two but not necessarily say that x child was a top student in their school/district.
Judging by the number of people who got commended /SF in prior years i would have assumed C26 would be in top 10% at school, but we haven’t got anything? They will be commended though (but not semifinalist… second guessing the idea to do psat with no prep but what’s done is done!!)
Also, C26 managed to get an award (vocab!) at state Latin convention despite not having done any Latin for almost a year lol. I really wish there was space in the schedule for another year of Latin … years of LOTE is definitely a weaker spot on the college application.
My kid didn’t receive a College Board award. I don’t think they’re a dime a dozen. If your kid received one, put it on their list of awards in their applications!
My D chose to skip AP Latin for next year and add another elective (in her case a 2nd science class, honors anatomy). She also decided not to take AP Lit, and instead signed up for a non-honors creative writing class that is supposed to have a good teacher. She’s not really optimizing her schedule for the most impressive college application… but I think her college list isn’t going to be extremely aggressive either, so we can hope it will work out!
Speaking of screwed-up course selection … D still needs one semester of PE credit, which normally could be fulfilled in a variety of ways outside of the school day (and that was the plan), but our HS got in trouble with the district about this, I guess. The official statements have been very unclear (and frequently changing from week to week) about which things will count for PE credit for next year and whether seniors will have to sacrifice a class period to make up any credit. D will be upset if she has to drop her elective!!
Yeah, c26’s issue is different- the school makes IEP kids take a learning skills class, which squeezes out an elective, AND there is 2.5 years of PE/health required to graduate. To be fair, the IEP has been of tremendous value - and after freshman year we were resigned to CC as the most likely option, so this really is a different outcome! Still, lost 2 years of electives to that. Also not really looking for competitive but I still worry that everywhere seems to be more so these days …
Not possible, she already asked, and they said the only possibility is “summer school” (class every day on HS campus) which is not going to be possible with the summer program she is doing.
In previous years it was possible to get summer credit by doing an external class at community college or a sponsored program through the YMCA, but it seems this year they are cutting off all of those possibilities except the official HS “summer school.”
I have another kid who needs PE for senior year. She had started yoga 2 this year, but dropped it after one class because she really wanted the study Hall. I think she might regret that next year though when she’s down a study hall.
Her 12+ years of competitive dance apparently count for nothing when it comes to PE.
The annoying thing with C26’s is it’s 1 semester, so there’s 1 semester hanging. They’ll probably do peer tutoring in it- there aren’t any academic one semester courses to fill it with.
Just one semester here also! I think she’ll try to keep that open for the other semester as a study hall. I told her to try to fit it in so that the study hall is in the first half of the year when she’s completing college applications. Second half of the year hopefully she’ll already have any completed and she’ll have the time to take a PE class.
I’ve also tried to encourage her to not completely load up on only AP classes. When she gets stressed, we all suffer lol. I don’t think any college is going to care if she takes computer science or if she takes a less intense elective. She wants to go to college for humanities so I cannot imagine it’s going to make a difference one way or the other.
What is up with the colleges that are emailing students and encouraging applications in the summer(May)for the Class of 26? It has only been a couple but I just find it odd🤷♀️. I am sure it is the norm just one of the many things I find surprising not being American and going through this process with my D26.
I assume these are the rolling admissions schools? It’s always nice to get some of those in early (well…not this early, you will need junior year grades even for those schools you don’t need essays and/or a letter of recommendation for) and get an admit or two so you know you have something in hand.
Interesting! I haven’t seen this yet for D26. I wonder if this is when kids are being told to get their Common App stuff ready and adding schools to it, etc.
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