It’s amazing that your school offers physics! (ours does not, except as an AP). I seem to recall from my own high school experience that Physics is easier once you’ve gotten to pre-Calc, so I would see what her math curriculum is, and consider waiting until Junior year for physics.
As far as the Bs, I would have her take an honest look at where those grades came from: did she not understand the material? Understand it, but not meet the teacher’s expectations for A work in other ways? Something else? Once she knows, she can take steps to address it, like attending the teacher’s office hours or looking for alternative study materials to help her understand concepts. She can’t change the grades she already has, but she can use them to learn how to do better in the future.
( I say this as if I don’t have a kid who got a B first semester and who didn’t do any of what I just advised. Consider this wishful advice).
If your student is interested in STEM but doesn’t know exactly what field, they might look into Cal Poly SLO’s EPIC summer program. It is a weeklong program and is a great exposure to different types of engineering.
The application for summer 2024 engineering camp program will be available at epic.calpoly.edu starting February 1, 2024
Application closes March 31 AT 5:00 pm (PST)
Introduction post! S27 is our third and final ‘rodeo’ though first boy and remains to be seen where he slots on the average-excellent’ student scale. The potential is there based on test scores his whole life and HSPT but the transition to put in the work for high school has been more of a struggle than I expected for sure. He goes to a lower performing private high school (I say that because most people equate ‘private’ with ‘elite’ but we chose it for the faith component). They have a mandatory study hall which I don’t love (though is nice for scheduling appts he needs to miss school for) but ultimately that means he has one less class per year than his peers at other schools so we need to choose his courses a little more intentionally than we did his sisters’ at their school.
Welcome to the thread! I’m not sure what HSPT is but I hear you 100% on the rest of this - we are in the same spot with my son. He could do really well in high school but whether he’s willing to do the work remains to be seen.
First semester down, and I am very proud of my kiddo. Well, mostly proud. He got A’s in everything except English, Which is the result of several big fat zeros from not submitting things properly. He loves submitting things! Unfortunately he also loves being blasé and Nonchalant so his response to me freaking out was basically, “the Apps don’t always work so stuff doesn’t get submitted. Whatcha Gonna do?”
Checking in to say hi. We are on the cusp of course selection, but not all recommendations are in. D27 is going back and forth whether to take AP Physics. The school is on a block schedule and she doesn’t know if she wants to take more than one AP per year. But doesn’t want to wait until her senior year and take a 3 APs then. The AP classes are 3 terms, where honor courses are complete in a semester. Her current GPA is 3.95 UW and she doesn’t want that to drop either. Weighing pros and cons. Sticking with honors, she could keep a high GPA and have room to take academic electives she has interest in. If she takes AP, that wouldn’t leave room for exploration of classes and her GPA may drop. It was honestly easier with my CP student and they got into all the schools they applied to.
The Kid submitted their course requests for sophomore year:
American Literary & Language Arts Honors
French 1
AP Precalculus
Dance Technique 2
Chemistry in the Earth
AP Human Geography
Guitar 2
Technical Theater
Kiddo has made his selections, but there are some contingencies:
Jazz band.
World history
German 2(He’s hoping to make it to 3 Or even honors 3 Studying independently over the summer with his teacher, but I’m not sure)
Honors math 3/pre-Calc
AP Physics(if Chemistry goes off without a hitch this summer)
PE
Marching band if he can take PE asynchronously
This application season was pretty stressful… and we’re not really done yet, because we still don’t have FAFSA form submitted! Although we had submitted 1/3/2024, apparently S24 didn’t sign the FAFSA form and he has not been able to submit digital signature since we were notified on 3/15/2024!!!
With respect to the Enrollment Cliff, this cliff doesn’t help those of us in California. See map in the link in that thread.
Hi and welcome! My D27 is also an entirely different kid from C24. She’s a total vault – tells me nothing, where C24 tells me everything (too much, sometimes!). D was cast in the drama club production last week, and literally forgot to tell me – I heard about it from C. I anticipate that getting D27 to express what she wants in a school is going to be a challenge.
Hello to this group! My daughter just did her course requests for next year.
Chemistry
Critical Reading & Analytical Writing
Advanced French Language & Culture
Advanced PreCalc (she’ll take AP Calc BC if the school allows self-studying over the summer)
AP World History
Art History + Intro to Programming
If she gets her overload approved, she’ll also take AP Music Theory
Hi! I have a D22 and an S25, and then S27 is next in line with one more following (who I guess would be S30? Wow!).
S27 is taking next year:
Honors English 10
Honors Chemistry
Honors Pre-Calc
AP US History
German II w/ Honors option
Health/Art II (one semester each)
Six classes is pretty much the norm at his school - 7 would be possible, but it seems to be difficult to convince a counselor to allow it, other than for music ensembles. My S25 did it, but he is a very persuasive guy who can handle a heavy load!
S27 is probably heading toward something STEM related, but is also interested in exploring fields like Industrial Design that might blend some of his artistic interests with his STEM interests. He has been “dragged along” to several campus visits with S25 this year, but has shown very little indication as to his preferences so far!
Hello all. I’ve been on CC mostly for S23 & S24. I also have an S27. He is definitely not the standard CC student. He has cerebral palsy, and until this year it was unclear whether he would be able to graduate with a “real” diploma. It is looking like he will be able to meet the requirements, which is a big win for him in itself. Now we are thinking about the future for him, and whether some type of college would be the best next step, or what his other options are. If he does go to college it won’t be a competitive, or I would guess standard 4-year, program.
He is very young emotionally for his age. Ironically for a kid with quadriplegia, his life’s passion is sports. Right now he says he wants to have some job associated with sports. We aren’t sure what sports jobs he will be capable (physically or intellectually) of doing, so we are continuing to look for opportunities for him and challenging him to develop as much independence and as many skills as possible.
Next year he is taking:
Honors English 2
Honors American History 2
College Prep Chemistry
College Prep Geometry (Not sure he’ll be able to pass this. He has Cortical Visual Impairment which, combined with his other issues, makes visualizing anything abstract practically impossible. In the past he has gotten 100% of the Geometry questions wrong on the MCAS.)
Spanish 1 (he has been exempted from foreign language, but wants to try it anyway)
Sophomore Health/Adaptive PE (one quarter each)
Sports Management (one semester)
Support Center (combination study hall and time set aside to receive therapy services: PT, OT, speech, and Orientation & Mobility. )
The Spouse and I attended the Kid’s spring concert. Before the show, the teachers introduced each of the seniors and announced where there were going to college, if they had committed already. It appears that more of the seniors will be attending out-of-state schools than in-state schools. The only California schools mentioned were our local UC, Berkeley, and our local Cal State. The out-of-state schools included University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State, University of Washington, NYU, Parsons School of Design, and Vanderbilt.
Do most of the students at your schools choose in-state colleges? Are there particular out-of-state colleges that are popular for kids from your area?
My daughter goes to a prep school in the South. Most of the graduating seniors go to college out of state but in the general region such as Emory and Vanderbilt. There’s also a pretty sizable group that goes to Boston (BC, Wellesley, MIT) each year though.
I think this varies a lot state to state (and school to school) and ties to local norms and income…
Without doing a ton of digging I’d guesstimate from LPS:
~10% go to state flagship campus (and it has been increasing in recent years)
~ 15-20% go to other in-state public institutions
~ 10-15% to out of state public institutions. A bunch go to other state schools in surrounding states (I am in new England, so many area close!) and a few go to farther afield ones like UC-Boulder, UMich, UCs, UIUC, etc.
Also, not sure about your area, but our LPS (and many surrounding) have instagram pages where many kids post their decisions so you can see that too!
I have another kid in very rigorous private HS and virtually all go to private universities…maybe 5% go to a public school (of any state!) and maybe 0-1 a year to in-state flagship.
They approved all of his courses and he’s really happy about it, but I think that it might be too hard.
He’s got a ton of ECs and he has a research internship with a local professor set up that we hope he will continue throughout college, and I feel like his courseload might be too much. Despite his assurances that he’s seen the work from some upperclassmen and that he would be bored if he did anything short of it.
How do I explain that too him that I don’t approve and that I think that it would be best to stick with a schedule that is a little less hard?
For reference:
Summer 2024:
H. English 10
H. US History
(Both Virtual)
2024-2025 School Year:
H. Pre-Calc/Trig
AP Bio
AP Physics 1
AP Music Theory
H. Band
DE. Speech
DE. Crim Just
V. Span 2
V. Health
V. H. Intro to CS
)