@PhilaSkiMom Unlike HS there is no GPA boost for honors level classes and my daughter (one who took ochem at
honors level frosh yr after placing out with APs) said while she liked prof and smaller class size, it was a bear on top of all the other core sciences classes - and she wasn’t prepared for ochem2. They spent extra time in depth on certain areas and just never caught up. My dd is planning to apply for phd programs and so that gpa is key. I think as a HS parent your mindset is honors or AP provides your
high-achieving kid with the proper
level of challenge. I just believe that engineering on it’s own is an intense challenge for most of our kids. Adding honors level to that because of how HS is, could be more than they can handle. If they fail courses, they can retake, but that starts eating into an already full timeline. (Fwiw, my dd had a 4.6 hs gpa, top 2%, sat math 800, 7 APs, placed out of chem 1/2, calc 1/2, currently has a 3.78 qpa). And they will tell you at orientation that average qpa of frosh engineers is around 2.8 - and those are kids like yours who have 4.+ hs gpas and 700+ on math sat…it’s just that hard and I think you have to factor in adjusting to college where they must take responsibility for everything - it’s alot. My son struggled freshman year - he just didnt have time mgt skills he should have had. Never really apparent in HS. Anyway, your mileage may vary!!!