Part of the attraction of doing a summer course for us is so that kid has a taste of dorm life. Getting off campus accommodation defeats that purpose. If they don’t get into SLO will relook at other options. It is probably harder to get into than UCLA but if no dorm accommodation I’d rather have them commuting to the Cal program from home than commuting in LA.
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I agree. Hopefully SLO works out. It is a great program. Did you look at the UC Davis Summer Pre-College Program? Davis also has a Young Scholars Program that is residential. I assume it is more competitive.
No architecture programs at Davis as far as I know /can see
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D26 is trying to figure out summer plans. She was really hoping to do a YCC (Youth Conservstion Corp) program, and had already submitted an application for one of them. But it seems that the new administration is putting a freeze on any National Parks seasonal hiring. She’s pretty bummed about that.
She did also submit an application to a local environmental science museum, to work in their summer educational programs, and has an interview for that next week. 
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Your kids have such impressive lists of classes!
My kid is taking
Statistics
Psychology
Physics
Two semester long English classes
Two half credit “zero period” music ensembles
He has space for two more classes and would like choir and music theory, but is wondering if it would look better to double up on science. One of the schools he might apply to suggests 4 years of science for his major so he is wondering if other schools prefer it to.
But his heart is with the music classes. I am leaving it up to him.
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Does he not need to do a history or social science in senior year? Or has he already completed those requirements?
Our school sets it up so that students do world history in freshman year, nothing required sophomore year, US history in junior year and economics/government in senior year. This meets the minimum 3 requirements of many colleges. Of course, many students (including D19 but not C26) also do a history in sophomore year.
What major is he planning to take? Many of the schools we have looked at seem to say require 3 recommend 4 sciences. (CC likes to have you think recommended is really required, which we found out with D19 was not exactly the case, but it really depends on the school and major as well I think.)
Depends on:
- what type of major(s) he’s thinking of applying with in his college apps
- is the school he’s thinking of applying to a harder or easier admit?
- if the school you’re referring to is higher up on your son’s current priority list and if he really likes the school and major and thinks that he really might want to attend there, then yeah…he should do 4 yr of science.
- look at the admissions course requirements at the colleges your son is thinking of applying to. Do they require 2, 3, or 4 yr of science classes? How many yr of history/social sciences & do they consider Psychology as filling such a requirement?
My D24 took AP Music Theory senior year and really enjoyed the class.
We only have 2 kids but going through all this again is exhausting. Not sure how people with 4 kids do it.
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D26 just chose her senior schedule, and while it’s fairly similar to D22’s senior year and makes logical sense for her track, it looks daunting to me on paper:
AP Eng Lit
AP Calc AB
AP Gov/AP Econ
AP Chem
Latin
AP Music Theory
Choir
Study Hall
The natural language progression would have been AP French 4, but so few kids sign up that they generally just sit in the back of a French 3 class and do extra writing assignments. D26 just wasn’t up for that - there were a few of those kids in her French 3 class this year, and they seemed miserable. She could have had a second off-period/study hall, but she knows (thanks to her admissions-aware father 
) that avoiding a 4th year of language study isn’t the best plan for students looking at competitive schools, which she is. So she’s switching to Latin, which reputedly has an excellent teacher and generous grading scale. It’s not ideal admissions-wise to switch before exhausting the offerings in your primary language, but the schedule is tough enough as it is, so I definitely understand wanting to pull back from yet another AP class (especially one with minimal teacher interaction).
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His school requires 3 years each of social studies, science, foreign language and math and 4 years of English. He needs 1 more science and English to graduate.
He wants to be an occupational therapist and do a direct entry BS/MSOT or BS/OTD program at a small school. Most of those are at schools which are probably likely for him for general admission, but the combined degree programs are more selective. One, I think Sacred Heart, wants 4 years of both science and math, whereas most of the others want either 3 and 3 or 7 total, leaving up to the student to divide them. His thought is that he will take statistics for the 7th STEM class so that he is prepared for college stats. If they had A&P he would take they but they don’t.
I feel as though taking 2 sciences and doing well would help his application, but I worry that if he’s overloaded it will bring his grades down and hurt his chances. Sacred Heart seems like a good fit but so do a lot of other schools.
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Your D26’s senior schedule is pretty similar to my D22’s schedule, but she dropped French and didn’t pick anything else up. She had 6 classes her senior year (AP Lit, AP Calc AB, AP Econ/Gov, AP Art History, AP Chem, Adv. Journalism). It worked well for her, though I think that her lack of a 4th year of language study dinged her in some of her applications, so I think Latin will help smooth that over for your D26.
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Hi everyone. D26 (youngest) will select her senior year courses next month, but is planning to take:
AP Lit
AP Bio
AP German
AP Calc AB
Honors Choir
1 half-year business course (grad requirement)
1 half-year PE course (grad requirement)
By senior year, she will have already taken four social studies courses (Honors Western Civ, AP World, AP Psych, APUSH) but may add AP Comp Gov because it’s a fun class. She is planning to pursue either psychology (easier path) or neuroscience (harder path) in college.
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Curious how much you thought the lack of a 4th year of language hurt her? Was she applying to super competitive schools, or pursuing a humanities degree?
My D26 is currently not planning on taking AP Spanish next year which means she would only have 3 years of language. This would open up an extra period for Anatomy/Physiology, which we assumed would be the better choice given her interest in nursing. Now I am second guessing!
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Yes, to both. She was a very high stats student with 12 APs, high test scores, great ECs, etc. She was selecting Political Science mostly, or civics or PPE as a major. The rejections from the Ivies were expected (UPenn, Yale, Columbia). But Tufts, BU, USC, Wesleyan, Middlebury were as little more of a surprise as she was above their average threshold. That said, she did get into many excellent schools and is very happy at UCLA. While of course we will never know if the language tipped the scale toward a “no” it is something I wonder about. When I look at the CDS data for those schools, many of them say 4 years of foreign language is “recommended” and maybe in a sea of excellent students it does become more “required.”
Regardless, I think kids who are stem oriented and applying to a range of places are going to have a great shot with 3 years. My S26 is likely to be one of them as he’s tired of Japanese after 3 years. Of course I’m a little nervous about it but he feels quite strongly!
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My D19 dropped AP Spanish for senior year. Still got into NYU (stated major on application was international relations ). Withdrew other apps so not sure if it would have affected elsewhere (other than the withdrawal didn’t work for Fordham which also accepted her). Just fyi. You’d think languages would matter more for IR.
(She ended up changing her major later, as many do )
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Something positive + something to whine about:
Something positive:
I think this little corner of CC we hang out here is great. Supportive, helpful, everybody cheers on everybody else’s kids, mourns their set backs, etc. It makes navigating the confusing world of college admissions a little easier.
Something to whine about:
I wish sometimes that people in real life & elsewhere would think a little more before they blurt something out. I can see why HS students get so anxious and worked up over college admissions because between their own peers saying stuff off the cuff & the adults they know doing the same, it’s a minefield sometimes to walk through.
For example:
- When we moved to our current location 6 yr ago, I got all kinds of ridiculous lip from neighbors I’d just met, who demanded to know why we had chosen to enroll our kids in a charter school instead of the local public school. One mom epically said to me, “Well, THAT’S certainly nice of you to let your child dictate where they go to school.” No, lady, you totally missed the mark. Smile & nod.
- A parent at school asks about GPA & test scores. Not thinking, I shared that info. Parent then said, “Huh, good luck getting into a good school with THAT test score.” Thanks for playing. Have a nice day. Smile & nod.
- Classmate of D24’s was Miss Brag-a-thon all of senior year. Talked everybody’s ear off with elitist stuff like “I’m ONLY applying to GOOD schools. You know, all of the Top 20. THOSE are the ONLY colleges worth going to. And besides, if I don’t get in to any of those, I’d be too embarrassed to go anywhere but Local_U.” Counselors tried to talk her out of it. She insisted, got rejected from all Top 20, now attends Local_U.
- A parent asks on CC for college recommendations that meet certain criteria. For example, budget of $X, major Y, in Northeastern US (or wherever). Parent gets some great feedback, but then there’s those who say “Oh, have you looked at School_on_West_Coast?” (for the NE US person). Thanks for the suggestion, but why would somebody who says they’re looking for schools within X hours’ drive of “NE US city” be looking in CA?
- Or my favorite - ‘Your budget isn’t big enough. You should take on parent loans of $100k so your kid goes to a ‘good’ school.’ Define “good” school. It’s a fluid definition that changes depending on the student and their family.
- Or how about this oldie but goodie from back when all of our kids were babies? “Oh, MY child is only 7 months old and has started walking, potty training, and doing algebra problems.”
Good for them! - Or (paraphrasing) “With test score X, I’m not sure that your kid can hack it at college major.” Do you live with that kid? Do you see their work ethic, their executive functioning & organizational skills? No. Thanks for your input, but we’re going to just ignore that ridiculous commentary.
If YOUR family is satisfied & happy with whatever place your kid ends up at college, THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!
</end soapbox>
Thank you for that therapy session. 
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It’s always so interesting to see how different the college culture is in different parts of the country. In my neck of the woods there is zero pressure to go to a good school (as in private, expensive, nationally known), actually just the opposite. Here the state flagship rules. You have to justify why you would choose another school. D22 got many odd looks when she turned down LSU to to go Tulane and I got disparaging comments from parents about it. People can perceive you as arrogant when you turn down LSU. It’s crazy but on the flipside it makes for more relaxing high school years with none of the pressures we read about here so much. I am very appreciative of that!
I’m having good discussions with S26 about college. He is stressed because he doesn’t know what he wants to do after college, so he doesn’t really know what to major in. He is usually pretty laid back, so I was surprised to hear it. We have the ACT coming up in March and I’m looking to enroll him in some kind of prep course or tutoring. I know he won’t study enough if it’s just on his own. After that I will work on some occupational exploration with him.
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I think it’s totally normal and ok to not know what you want to major in. Heck, if a student has, like, ONE thing they know they do NOT want to major in, that’s a good start!
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Very similar vibe in our corner of DFW. Even the very top students tend to go to UT or A&M, with those a bit lower in the class heading for OOS flagships. The few students who apply to elite private schools generally keep pretty quiet about it, not wanting to be perceived as arrogant. And aside from the most famous Ivies, schools that don’t play sports on TV are completely off the radar, so there’s no point in talking about Pomona or Williams or wherever.
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There may be a few super-competitive places that want to see a 4th year of language for nursing students, but I think there will be plenty that are perfectly fine with 3 years. My kids have all been humanities-oriented so far (we’ll see about D29), so language is a little more central to their applications - but even then, D22 turned down the chance to take Spanish 5 as a senior and took a blowoff elective instead, and that didn’t seem to affect her outcomes at all.
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