@MurphyBrown, forgot to add his other schools: he was accepted to UVM, Middlebury as a Feb admit, bowdoin, Tufts, Brandeis, Cornell, Hamilton, JHU, Case Western. He was rejected by Georgetown and Columbia.
Also, he had 2 SAT2s that ranged from 730-740.
@RenaissanceMom I love stories like this. Just wondering if he was full pay, and if so do you think that helped? Thanks!
Being full pay wouldnt have helped (unlike many colleges, their endowment is such they truly don’t care.)
You said she will attend Stuy and is strong in the humanities, especially writing.
Class rank won’t matter. (Don’t believe people who tell you it’s top ten or bust - this is ONLY true for students at lower performing schools.) At most high schools, top 10% matters. At Stuy, all students are automatically top 5% in a city of millions. The academic preparation for ALL students is considered among the most rigorous available. Relax and forget ranking.
(Also, because ranking is gamed, unless the students attend a lower performing school, rank is of little consequence - for elite college admits, about half the high schools don’t even rank. Adcoms don’t have time to figure out if the ranking was achieved through gaming the system, unless it’s apparent and thus goes against the student for caring about trinkets rather than learning itself. They want evidence the student is a top student who lives learning, is kind and ethical, and will make classes better for being in them.)
If she can take geometry this year, good. But if she doesn’t, she shouldn’t double up on math to take calculus and use up a needed period or a summer for that purpose. She should play to her strengths - humanities. It will also be a bit different from most, and that’s good.
BTW, a poster named cobrat often tells his story of being bottom 10% at stuy and getting into Oberlin. 
I had to retake Algebra in a community college after getting a 76 on the regents.
Some observations: “that worries me…I would prefer not having this problem…I am pushing for geometry.” How does SHE feel about the issue? I guarantee she will get into Wesleyan without calc. She will end up taking an AP class that another kid didn’t take. There will not be a situation at a committee table where they will say, “let’s take this kid over her, because this kid has calc, and she doesn’t.”
My D is leaving for college this weekend. I wish I could have her home for another year. I wish I could give her back all those hours she wasted on homework, I wish I could give her back that Christmas vacation in 9th grade when she spent so much time doing homework that we didn’t even get to drive around looking at the lights. I know she is nearly an adult now, and that she has to grow up, but if there was some way I could take away some of that stress and pressure she had in high school, I would do it in a heartbeat. Let your D keep as many hours of unstressed freedom and childhood intact as she can. She will go to a great college, but you can’t get back those wasted hours. Once kids are in high school, literally every free hour is precious. Anyway, you will make your choices, but let your D be part of them.
@lindagaf this almost made me cry. i can only imagine what it’s like to send your D off to college. exciting and sad at the same time. Hugs!
Don’t think lindagaf meant guarantee a Wesleyan admit. Rather, she could get in without calc. Absolutely.
I went to a killer high school, eons ago. Never regretted that journey. Yes, help her find the right balance. Best wishes.
@lookingforward yes, I won’t rest on anecdotes. Good advice
If a 9th grader is spending so much time doing homework that they don’t have time for a simple family activity even over xmas break, then yes, you should be very concerned. There are too many kids knocking themselves out trying to make themselves into something they just aren’t. In making this decision, OP should consider how hard her daughter had to work to get the 90 in algebra1.
@MYOS1634 I can’t imagine her being in top ten percent at Stuy. I don’t see her as quite that. But she could absolutely be in top 25 percent. If she continues the way she has. They don’t weight so there is no advantage to any kid. No gaming I guess. But I can’t see her getting 99’s in all her classes and never getting a B or a C in there.
@Lindagaf
She feels like she does not want to retake Algebra. The school let us know that the placement test mattered more than grade or regents score. She read the info from the school. In the end she was resigned to it and didn’t want to let it upset her. She knows nothing about calculus and the track to college. She doesn’t have that kind of information.
How specifically would you have done it differently? My daughter is going to be doing homework for four years and I hate that she won’t have freedom. She’s a musician and a creator. How will she have time to create anything? Do you think you could have given your daughter more free hours? Is it possible? Or is it that it’s a good idea to watch over the hours that are free and make sure she uses them to not be stressed? This is a huge concern! My D gave up five sunny fall weekends to prep for SHSAT. She didn’t leave the apartment. I still feel bad about that! And good luck to your daughter going off to college and good luck to you sending her! It’s exciting, but must be hard!
@mathyone
She didn’t work hard at all. She got a 98 last marking period and had 97 average in algebra. The 90 was on the regents test. The 90 on regents test should mean she learned algebra, but she didn’t feel she did well at all on the schools placement test. If she worked harder she would have really learned it. The teacher was a problem and my D just did the homework and got good grades. Homework was never graded. Tests weren’t hard. Interestingly, many kids got 100 in class and in 60’s on regents test.
A kid can knock themselves out just based on the amount of work they get. I don’t think there are kids in difficult classes who aren’t giving up vacation time or that there are many kids stretching to be something they’re not. I don’t think it’s a sign of not being up to it. I think what happened to @Lindagaf daughter is common. I’d like to find a way to protect my daughters hours as @Lindagaf suggested.
Fair questions. The fact is, the more rigorous the courses load, the more home work. At least that is true at our HS. I admit complicity in pushing her to take all honors classes as a freshman. I didn’t force her to, but it was clear that I wanted her to, as she was always one of the “smart” kids. But I confess that back then, I was concerned that she take rigorous classes to be ready for, and let’s face it, appear more impressive to colleges. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle the material, but there was a TON of work. In fact, there was a big brouhaha in our district about the excessive homework during that Xmas break, but that is a different story. (Our district did listen, and the following year they brought in a “no homework” policy over Tgiving break, which was at least something.)
So how could I have helped lessen her load? I could have said tough patooties about that Xmas homework, and we should have just gone to see the lights. I could have not suggested she watch videos explaining mitosis when she was already getting 92 in bio, (instead of the 95 I thought she could get.) I could have let her skip some music practice. (It doesn’t matter, she will never play at Carnegie Hall.) I could have told her to skip a few homework assignments. (Think how many hours she might have had free if she had not done just two assignments per quarter, per class. Homework counts for a minuscule percentage of a grade.) And she pushed herself too. She didn’t need to spend hours perfecting the English essay, which was probably already great. She over-studied for tests when she knew the content like the back of her hand. I should have insisted she go outside and get some fresh air, or even veg in front of the TV.
When you read “it’s a balancing act”, you might wonder what exactly do people mean by that. Well, now I know. By the time she was a junior, I did back off a lot. With the whole college thing, (and some posters here know my story well), I might have been asking about a million different ways she could improve her app, etc…but she still did it her way for the most part, and I tried very hard not to push. I did make sure she was very informed about things. The thing is, kids want to please us too, even when they don’t really want to do something. So the balancing act also means balancing the wants and needs of the kid with those of the parent. As they get older, believe me, your wants and needs will start taking a back seat to theirs. But it helps the kid a lot if they know their parent will not mind if they skip music practice or the occasional homework assignment. I think if I had encouraged and facilitated those extra free hours, she wouldn’t have been any less qualified as an excellent college candidate. Yeah, it would have been super useful to know back in 2012 that she would get into 9 colleges, haha!
@Lindagaf
Thank you. This is so so helpful. It’s giving me an actual picture of what it is. My daughter strongly wants to please me. I’ll watch out for opportunities to skip things. We killed ourselves to get into high school - SHSAT essays interviews auditions - and she got in to All her top schools. I too think she would have gotten in if we did a little less.
My daughter is the one who wants this, but as soon as she wants something I end up pushing. Even if it’s only by being there I’m pushing. I’ve already had her watch bio videos to prepare! It’s fine because it was down time in summer, but I want to strike a careful balance.
Her school is starting this year with a homework contract with teachers. Hopefully the school will actually be a little less intense now.
I guess I’m getting nervous! She won’t be in honors math (placement test too hard) or bio (only for kids from g&t) but probably advanced social studies, though we opted not to ask for AP human geo. So her freshman year isn’t so bad.
9 colleges!! Congratulations to your daughter.
" My daughter is going to be doing homework for four years and I hate that she won’t have freedom. She’s a musician and a creator. How will she have time to create anything?"
She needs to take on what she can take on comfortably. My kid is a writer and spent nearly her entire summer on her literary activities. Last year she had 3 AP classes, no study halls, and edited two litmags, submitted to various writing contests/journals, did a hs sport and was on two other school teams. Yes, she had to drop 2 sports that she had done as a freshman (but picked up the 2 other teams), and also dropped art, which was just too time consuming with everything else she wanted to do. No, they can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do anything. This year, she’s got I don’t know how many more litmags and 5 APs. She learned something about time management last fall, but I’m still a little concerned. We’ll see how that goes.
Not sure what might be in the homework contract but it’s probably not worth anything. My kids laughed when I told them the limits our school board supposedly enacted on homework.
@mathyone fascinating! The homework contract might not mean anything! I didn’t even consider that. I bet it will not be enforced.
My D will also spend summers on her writing and her music and she’ll do lit mag and newspaper and more during the year. So it will keep going. But it’ll be rushed! Especially since she wants to join a dozen clubs.
@MurphyBrown
Your son sounds like me. I spent 12 years in a school where I lost my intellectual interests. I was in an ordinary Catholic school. But in my 20’s when I met more educated people who had developed their interests and tastes in better schools it all came back to me. And that was after college for me. It’s still in him.
Fingers crossed for your daughter! The studying should pay off. It did for my D who probably gave up more sun than she needed to but in the end she did feel like she worked for her score which is nice going into high school.
I’ll make friends at her school. I’ll make sure I meet older kids parents too. And of course I have many friends at other schools - my d’s friends got in all over the city. She’s the only one going to her school though!
College takes up resources, such as time and money. It is preferable if your child can take general educational AP courses at high school. General education AP classes like history, Precalculus and/ or Calculus, English, and Foreign language. If your child lives in NYC, then your child can use the MTA system to their advantage. For example community colleges all over NYC may offer college level general educational courses to high school students
Honestly, you have many foreign students from Africa, Asia, and Europe attempting to attend the same college or colleges that your child is applying to, this makes college admissions heavily selective. You can’t rely on grades alone, you can’t just have book smarts, but a talent to pull you over the edge of applicants that have 3.0 to 4.0 GPA. Having a 4.0 GPA may be great, but if a high GPA is all that you have to show for yourself then that may pose a problem. If there’s a high school student who worked at the Dept of Finance, has real experience in his major of choice, and has a 3.0 - 3.5 gpa, a top college may pick that 3.5 high school applicant over the 4.0 high school applicant. You want a student with an interesting story, not a boring one. Remember this is not to let your child do numerous of extra curricular activities or internships, but to try one or two after school activities to develop an interesting story for your child. (Remember let your child make their own choices, let your child’s interest be the guide)
This may seem to be a lot to think about for you and your child. However, your child should try to get a city internship. (mayor office, newspaper program, or whatever program interests your child) If you live in NYC , then you have many business opportunities there! Take advantage of NYC’s abundance of job opportunities and student programs. Politicians would love for your child to join a government program that may suit that child’s interest, because that is another story for those politicians to tell!
Here is a link to some High School Internship programs:
http://schools.nyc.gov/ui/cms/sites/empoweringboys/docs/takeaction/Real_World/High%20School%20Internships%20and%20Scholarships.pdf
Also, for whatever reason your child can’t go to the school of their choice. Just go to a cheap public school, get your general educational credits, and credits of your preferred major that are transferable. Then let your child transfer to other colleges of their choice, this may actually be better because you would save money in the long run if you don’t have a full scholarship.(if your child goes to a community college, do your best to stay away from A.A.S. degrees, majority of credits probably won’t transfer)
Hmmm, @TheSphere , that is a very bookish response. And has nothing to do with OP’s question. Tell me, are you writing a book, or do you work on behalf of the mayor’s office? Something suddenly smells fishy…
The OP’s daughter will NOT be going to community college. One thing you did say that was true is that NYC has a wealth of opportunities. There is nothing you can’t do here. @TheSphere
@Lindagaf
This is bridgygo first post in quotes below.
“My daughter will start high school in September. She thinks she wants to go to an elite college. Will she need Calculus? Is AP bio enough as far as advanced science courses go? I’m mostly curious at this point. She’s going to a math and science heavy NYC public school but she’s more a humanities kid.”
bridgygo said " She’s going to a math and science heavy NYC public school but she’s more a humanities kid."".
I only recommended some general education AP courses that college tend to be interested in. These are also college courses that are easy to knock out during high school. Also, bridgygo said “She thinks she wants to go to an elite college.” If that’s the case, no matter how high the GPA, it’s good to build a resume of what your child did during their high school years beside studying. What has your child done? That’s why I recommended getting internships. Why did I mention government internships? Government internships seem to provide more opportunities than internships from a private institution in my opinion.
We do not know what bridgygo’s child high school career will be like. Could bridgygo’s child have a great GPA, and SAT? Possibly, but if bridgygo’s child doesn’t get the school that they like, then community college would save money and give another chance to bridgygo’s child by transfering to the preferred academic institution. I don’t know bridgygo’s economic situation, so I only mentioned community college as a way to minimize cost for the first year or two and then transfer. During this time at a community college in NYC, bridgygo’s child can do internships to add to her experience
Haha, I’m not trying to trick anyone, but rather provide a backup option.
@Lindagaf
Also, I mentioned Mayor’s office before because that’s great on a resume! Dept of Transportation, Federal Reserve, or etc are all impressive to have on a resume. Those internships also open many doors for students that work there and you meet(emphasis) lots of influential people. I’m not only talking about NYC, I mean generally any governmental internship, you should apply for. I’m only using NYC, because bridgygo’s child will attend high school in NYC.