I’ve commented a few times here but never introduced myself. I live in central NJ and have an S24 who attends Connecticut College and a D26. She applied ED to Dartmouth and EA to four small LACs. If she doesn’t get into Dartmouth she will put in a bunch of RD apps, all to other small LACs. She’s an amazing kid and strong candidate, so I’m sure she’ll have some great choices no matter what happens.
16 Likes
My D26’s school also limits APs – to six total, and it’s structured so that kids typically take one sophomore year (usually APUSH), two junior year and three senior year. A few tippy top students successfully petition to take more, but it’s not too common.
It’s a rigorous school, but not crazy rigorous, IMHO. It’s definitely not a pipeline school for any prestigious colleges. Still, my D22 came out very prepared for the grind of her T20 college.
Ironically, our state flagship (UGA) values number of APs pretty highly in their EA in-state admissions. The middle 50% of in-state students admitted EA take between 10 and 16 AP/IB/DE classes. It’s a giant sticking point every year when decisions are released.
3 Likes
D26 goes to one of the most highly regarded public schools in our area. It helps her in that even though her GPA is not at the top, it’s considered pretty good based on the academic rigor of the school. However, where it hurts her is that she did not avail herself of the majority of the AP classes available to her so her personal rigor is not as high.
Her weighted GPA is listed on her transcript on a 100 point scale but her unweighted is also on there on a 4.0 scale. The one college that lists a GPA range for merit awards that she has received so far puts her in the weighted GPA range (although they probably recalculated based on their formula).
2 Likes
I noticed that a bunch of the southern schools weight APs heavily and students seem to take a lot of them.
The only ones our school even offers (other than CompSci and Music Theory) are the core subject ones - foreign languages, English Lit, Bio/Chem/Physics (can only take one because they are only offered in 12th and have double labs), Calc and Stats, And APUSH and Gov.
The school sends a bunch of kids to the New England Liberal Arts colleges (Tufts, Bates, Bowdoin, Middlebury, etc) as well as schools like BC and some of the Ivies.
3 Likes
Same here. We are in New England and most APs are limited to 11th/12th. My senior has taken AP: Stats (5), BC Calc (5), French (4), Lang (5). Senior year courses include Physics C (double block), Lit, Gov. So she technically only has 8 APs (physics C is two). But she’s also in Multivariable calc, physiology and post AP French. She just interviewed with Yale. I do think it can be quality over quantity. She doesn’t have physics 1 or 2 but has C. She doesn’t have precalc or AB bc she has calc BC. Anyway, their school also sends about a dozen to ivies and many more to T20. Southern schools seem to want to see DE, AP and class rank.
D26 HS is huge and offers all the APs and no limits on how many to take each year. It stinks when you don’t want your kid to feel they have to take 12+ APs but the counselor tells them that if they don’t then they won’t be competitive for State Uni X because their peers are taking 5, 6, 7 AP (plus DE). The kids accepted to T20 schools are taking 15+ and DE since freshman year etc. at our school. Time will tell if D26 is prepared for college, but we feel she is and have always tried to focus on the learning more than the grade. This is the school we had the option for and where she wanted to attend. I suppose all of the differences mentioned above are why colleges evaluate them within the context of their school.
Yes, 100%. Pros and cons and there’s no one right answer. The class rank stress would be rough. My D25 ended up at Wisconsin Madison and sometimes feels behind bc UW takes so many AP and DE and so many of her friends are already Junior status. At some point I wish this race would end. But it doesn’t. She’s business and already in freshman year it’s internships, special classes, intensives etc. Taking a totally different approach with my D29 and my son who is 7 - who the heck knows what this landscape will look like in 10 years!
3 Likes
Yesterday D26 woke up feeling crummy and tested positive for Covid. When we found out, S23 was at the airport boarding his flight to come home- he decided to risk coming home vs. staying at school. So we’ve had to cancel our family Thanksgiving and we’re trying to include our daughter as much as possible while she’s sequestered in the spare room. Last night we all watched the same TV show from different rooms and we had a big group chat going. It’s such a bummer, because she was looking forward to hanging out with her brother and knocking out the rest of her apps. She’s feeling better tonight, so hopefully she’s on the mend!
16 Likes
I spent a Christmas one year sequestered from the family in a room with Covid for 7-8 days. It sucked. Watched family open presents on an iPad. And had my Christmas dinner left by the door for me on a tray. I feel for your daughter.
4 Likes
this happened to S26 five years ago during the first Covid winter. He tested positive right before Christmas. He was 12 at the time, so we did not just want to have him sequestered in his room. We all masked (or double masked) kept our distance (we ate at dinner table, he sat at the breakfast bar across the room, etc.) but were in the same room. It worked out well, nobody else got sick. I hope you still enjoy your holiday!!
1 Like
The rat race never ends - especially for business majors. You probably already know - it’s extremely difficult for freshmen (even sophmore) business majors to get a business internship.
You really have to work your network to help them. Ideally they can help themselves but it’s impossible to stand out.
D24 did an internship with a Fortune 100 company last year and her supervisor asked her if she wanted to come back. Her boss told her she’s received 1,000 applications for this role so she needs to know by end of December.
1 Like
I feel you on this.
Makes you wonder who is winning here? Of course we would do anything to make our kids happy!
we can all come back here while we eat ramen noodles the next 4 years and share our kids living their best lives!
2 Likes
Nongshim Ramen noodles are the best.
Splurge for the good stuff even if it’s a crazy, hyper expensive 75 cents a bag!
5 Likes
Wow!! Yes. Does not seem like a whole lot out there for freshman which makes sense. She has had two internships so far one with Fidelity in high school. They won’t let her apply again until sophomore year (she previously did a high school internship). She did get into Girls Who Invest so she has that which is enough for right now. But it’s clear that it’s very competitive out there. Her dad and I started out in IB and we told her to focus on good grades for now and we can help connect her later. My husband works for an MBB so we will see. It’s a lot. Congrats to yours for having something lined up!!
1 Like
Congrats 
1 Like
So far, season 5 of Stranger Things is awesome.
5 Likes
I’m with you – the Shin Black are our absolute favorite. My kids would happily eat these with an egg on top every day. Even if we’re wimpy and only use 3/4 tsp of the chili packet, lol. But they’re $2.50 a package at our local grocery store!
My husband had COVID one Christmas, too. We let him come down for gift opening (masked and across the room next to an open window), but it certainly was a bummer – especially since he is the chef in the house! The good news was that nobody else got sick.
4 Likes
I lurk on the Parents of 2025 thread and see that some aren’t able to make it home for Thanksgiving. Once I went to college, I never went home for Thanksgiving. No direct flights and it was expensive. So I am trying to especially enjoy this one with D26, just in case. She is currently conked out after dinner LOL. She stayed up late with friends watching Stranger Things.
I can feel the end of the semester near and so excited because she has done well enough if deferred anywhere and next semester has 1 less class (plus no college applications!) so I am hoping for a calm end of the year (wishful thinking?).
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
7 Likes
Happy thanksgiving!
5 Likes