My kiddo took AP precalc and AP psych yesterday. Reported both were “pretty easy,” but I guess we shall see! She’s perhaps not in the same category as many kids represented here on CC, as they are her first AP tests (none in 9th or 10th grade – will graduate with “only” 5 total even though her school offers a million bajillion of them). But, I figured why hold back. Better to have wider representation here than more narrow!
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“only” 5… Expectations are so crazy. And hey, psych is the one my kid decided to skip, in part because she found it, for some reason, harder for her mathy brain to memorize all the “random dudes” theories than to do Physics C E and M (her best test).
I don’t know if it was because of the proctoring snafu, but the school district has said this is the last year they’ll proctor tests in my community at all, so my D28 will be stuck with the expensive travel if she wants to take any.
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That was listed as “most rigorous” on college forms for my 25s HS. They offered many, but almost none offered for 9 and 10. And you were not really supposed to take more than 2 in 11 and 3 in 12. Some kids did, but not a ton. At some point you needed principal permission (I think more than 4 a year and it was big HS so that was an actual psychological barrier!)
All very different school to school (and really an AP at one school is very different than at another). Like at some HS everyone gets a 5, and some a 3 is good…shows rigor of class…etc etc.
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Yes, it really is school-dependent. Our 27’s school only offers ten AP classes (they are steadily reducing the APs offered), but has their own college-level courses they offer. And even students who take the AP class don’t necessarily take the test because the school doesn’t really focus too hard on the test. My 27 will graduate with five AP classes and a college-level class and I’m pretty sure they will also be listed as “most rigorous” on the counselor form. And they will likely only take one AP test (Lang this year).
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true, but in some ways not SO new
I took 6 AP exams 30+ years ago (all in 11th and 12th)… I also went to a “pay to play” program at a university where I took 2 college classes for credit (6) at a top 20 one summer and applied somewhere ED as it was easier to get in:)
It was just rarer, and more regional and fewer HS contexts that was common..
My father even took APs in the 60s (!)
At least we don’t have SAT IIs anymore!!
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You’re not wrong! Our high school is nuts. My child has a weighted GPA of 4.09 and is 189th in a class of 339. They offer 32 AP courses there and kids start loading up in 9th.
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That is a ton of APs offered
And I totally ageee grade inflation is new
My HS and college put median grade for each course on transcript. I’m curious why that hasn’t caught back on at minimum. (If class was tiny it was blank.).
Was nice if teacher was a super hard grader!
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I’ll poke my toe in here for S27; I’ve sort of been in denial that he needs to really start making a real list as opposed to “maybe this school, maybe that one”, for next year. I’m still waiting for S27 to call to tell me he’s done with the AP Physics C exam. This is exam #4 this year, with one more left to go on Friday. Assuming he gets the classes he’s requested, we’re looking at him taking another 3-5 next year; his school doesn’t offer AP for gov/econ, but a number of his friends say they are planning on studying for it anyway. I say stick with three; he’ll still have ten total, and that feels like more than enough to show rigor, right?
S27 is ready to be done with this year. His summer looks busier than I’d hoped, but I think he’s excited about most of the things (an internship, summer camp, an engineering camp, PE classes to finish, and vacation as a family). We’ll see.
My D27 just finished her final project/class for her last online class, so now is only left with flexible at-home classes the rest of the year, pretty much all in subjects she likes. My D28 will be in that position tomorrow after AP Art History. So things are about to get much calmer here, even though there’s still another week or two of school.
I took AP when I was in school, but only 2 classes (and mine was a pretty academic high school).
As homeschoolers, there’s no one to compare to really, which probably cuts both ways in admissions. On the one hand, my kid isn’t competing directly with peers. On the other hand, I theoretically could offer all of the AP classes.
D27 decided to go all in on STEM rigor with pretty standard classes otherwise. So her 5 APs will be Calc BC, Bio, Chem, and the Physics Cs (and Psych without the score), and post-AP science and math. She’d probably have liked AP econ (liked the intro econ she ended up taking on a whim this semester), but probably won’t make time for it next year. This means she’s probably done with AP, since the only one left that’s at all relevant is CSA – she knows the content already so the class would be pointless, but she might consider taking the test next year if the school she enrolls at accepts it to place out of intro
really, truly, he probably doesn’t need to have a real list until August if you aren’t majorly stressing about summer visits or demonstrated interest..…. Supplements aren’t final until 8/1, so not starting until then isn’t problematic….can do big essay and start everything else now if they are ready…
I don’t think my 27s final, final list will be done until early fall. they have some “definites” (5?) but a lot of maybes still and suspect many will stay that way for a bit.
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Our school offers a ton of APs but no one takes all of them. Although S27 loaded up with 5 APs this year, he only took 1 sophomore year and none freshman year. I was very skeptical (and not particularly supportive) of the big increase in rigor that he took on this year, but he’s seems to have made it through. I think his grades this semester are definitely reflective of that increase in rigor, though! It sounds like except maybe for Physics-C Mech, he seemed pretty happy with the results of the actual AP tests though.
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woo-hoo 27 finally has summer plans confirmed 
. Not an exact schedule, but they have SOMETHING to do! thank goodness. AND My 25 decided to take some classes (and skip a job) to get ahead in gen-eds at their school, which is fine with us, actually, as they can do some cheap CC and online courses which may save us a semester of tuition down the road, and let them have later semesters with fewer classes when their really hard major classes, which I think is good…Those also hit when they will need to apply for jobs/co-ops, which is like job in itself!
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My kiddo just completed a 3-day “aspiring teachers” conference at NC State. But, she’s decided not to do any “extra” stuff this summer. She will still have her part-time job and help manage aspects of an online community. But, along with drafting application essays, she decided that’ll be enough for her.
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Summer! I had put that entirely out of my mind, but it is coming fast–one more week of school after this one. First offer of a pre-read for S27 so he needs to get moving on some essays for that already (even though school isn’t out yet). I suspect that prepping those is going to take a lot of his free time this summer. He’s doing a low key online general education course to take care of a graduation requirement. He’s got 1 week coaching youth XC camp and training (hopefully) for the state track meet, 1 week at Scout camp, 1 week at XC team camp, and a week+ at an engineering camp this summer. We only have 8 weeks of summer vacation here, so by the time all of that is up, there isn’t much time for anything else. He might need to squeeze any new college visits in during his first week of school at this point if he wants to get any in before the fall season starts.
that plus essays and managing an online community (which can be a real time commitment/ EC at times!) seems like plenty
27s thing will probably be like 9-3 for like 4-6 weeks, is my guess, and they are taking 1 (asynchronous) class and essays. The essays shouldn’t be too terrible, I don’t think… their school gets them off to a good start on the big one, and I think their list will be of reasonable length, and I don’t think they will have problems with “why major” or “why school” ones. They can geek out there, which is their forte.
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The online community absolutely is a time commitment. It’s her main EC, in fact. The platform has 1.2 million members. It’s wild.
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My S27’s main activity all year (Robotics) is finally winding down – they had their technically-off-season State Championship last weekend, now the shop needs to be cleaned up and organized. But then they start prep for the summer camp they run, and have another summer project in mind. So it’s kind of a year round activity (but should be much lighter for the summer!).
S27 really needs to get a summer job. We provide a “teen driver car” that all our teens have used so far and we pay the insurance. But he was involved in a minor parking lot incident in the car, and my husband decided S27 needed to pay half of the damage – fair enough. But between that and gas $$ his bank account is dropping quickly, so he needs to get a job! He’s had a few interviews and has a few more coming up (and has had a couple “no’s” already). I think it’s tough that he can work a lot this summer, but has limited availability in the fall.
holy moly that is HUGE
That is huge!
My kid has a fairly chill first month of summer, probably working on her independent projects (coding/science stuff) and finishing up statistics. Then she has a week to visit grandparents and learn scuba diving.
Then most of the rest of the summer will be volunteer wilderness trail building. My family are leaders of a decade long volunteer project to build a 50 mile wilderness hiking trail in our community, with, at this point only 6-8 miles remaining. So that’ll be several stints of week long campout, scouting, planning, building efforts.
Side note, does anyone know how kids are supposed to do activities hours on an application for all day/overnight activities?
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That is so cool!
I swear I read once the answer to your question about overnight type activities, and I don’t remember. argh. I think you don’t count sleeping, eating, showering, socializing (since you do that no matter what), but anything “working” or actively part of contributing to activity? I am thinking, say, on Monday, you have a chore of doing dishes for an hour after the group dinner that counts. However, cleaning your own laundry doesn’t? not sure! I am curious about others thoughts..