Starting the thread …
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Thanks, I’m in!!! D21 is last of 3 kids going to college. Sons graduated college in 2015 and 2016. CC was helpful then and is again now. S15 played baseball at State school for 4 years and S16 graduated Fordham. We looked at Fairfield and Marist thus far with D21 (left reviews on CampusVibe) Have a few more to look at in coming weeks and then will focus on SAT-ACT prep over summer.
Looking forward to this thread being a helpful resource.
Thanks for starting this thread for me @Turquoise52
As mom of an S19, I found the Class of 2019 3.0-3.4 thread very useful. I’ve asked the OP of that thread if I could borrow her initial posts and she gladly agreed for me to share them.
To give her credit, this was originally posted by eandesmom to get the 2019 page started:
And a few links eandesmom provided that might be useful even though this are from previous classes:
The final outcome list for the class of 2017 can be found here. They rocked it!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20605533/#Comment_20605533
Current 2018 thread may be found here
Current 2019 3.0-3.4 thread where people are still making decisions and posting outcomes.
I believe Eandesmom is going to recreate a final outcome list (like linked above for 2017) for the class of 2019 so you can see where many of our kids applied, what their stats are and what their outcomes are.
Thank you so much for starting this thread! I have learned so much following the equivalent one from 2019. I have a D17 in Honors at Tulane and an equally smart S21 who is just not the great test-taker/study 4-5 hours a night kid his sister is. Glad there are many options for every type of student. Looking forward to following this thread for the next two years!
Thank you for starting this thread
Thanks so much for starting this thread! My D21 is above the GPA for it right now, but she is not taking the level of rigor I generally see on CC. She’s a kid who needs balance and moderation to be happy. She prioritizes spending time with friends, family, and extended family. Plus, she needs downtime for reading, dogs, music. Her main EC is theater which is wonderful but a major time/effort commitment.
Her favorite academic subject has always been history, but she’s in AP European History right now, and it has really deflated her confidence. There is an incredible amount of memorization of names, dates and terms. She actually does well on the essay questions and analytical papers, but multiple choice questions with so many details are her downfall.
She has to study hard in all her other classes, especially Latin and Geometry. I’m concerned about next year because I think math will be harder, and Chemistry is much more “mathy” than Bio (which she loved). Does anyone have any thoughts on dropping world language? She will have had the equivalent of 3 high school years, but I know four looks better . . . Since D21 is dyslexic, Latin is such a challenge. (But I don’t think she would qualify for a waver because she is able to compensate and still do well as long as she devotes a lot of hours.
@3sailaway D21 is dropping French next year. She started in 7th and is currently in year 3 (7th and 8th grade combined for year 1). Her GC didn’t seem concerned. She dropped it to add Physics on top of college level chem. In my opinion if they drop it for a substantial class then it should be ok.
I agree. My S21 is stopping after Spanish 3 (he took Spanish 1 in 8th grade). I found a website collegetransitions that lists colleges and how many years of HS language they require and/or recommend. I think there are many colleges to choose from that don’t require beyond a third year. My son was so happy when I told him he could replace it with something he likes (more science).
There are very very few colleges that request/require 4 years of a foreign language, and those tend to be at the HYP level. For the vast majority, completing level 3 is fine, particularly if replacing with an academic course.
Now, should she choose to attend a college that requires FL to graduate, she and you may want to assess options. But cross that bridge when you get to it.
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@momandslp that website is great! Thank you for mentioning it.
@AndreaLynn You’re welcome! It looks like there are some other interesting lists to consider too, like how many years of a lab science or years of math are required (vs recommended) by particular colleges. Of course, a student’s intended major/area of interest should be taken into consideration.
@AndreaLynn and @momandslp thanks—nice to hear that she’s not the only one . She is already taking an extra academic class (social science research), so if she decides to drop Latin, she would replace it with AP Art, which would make her really happy.
I actually started looking at the schools on D21’s tentative list, and so far they all have a world language requirement for graduation. You can pass out with AP, SAT2 or the college’s own evaluation, but I doubt D21 could score high enough without significant tutoring/prep. She has too much trouble retaining third and fourth declensions etc. So, probably better to cross that bridge when we come to it. Maybe she’ll get excited about study abroad and that could count, or maybe sign language . . .
Dickinson College explicitly states that students who qualify for a world language waver in High School (due to learning disabilities) are not waved at Dickinson. I would have been absolutely on board with that until I had a kid with dyslexia. I hope they have conversational options—D21 might do better if she didn’t have to worry about perfection in the spelling/writing aspect.
Dickinson is not unique. While some colleges may waive, most require that the student attempt before any discussion of waiver or alternative is started. But like I said, you’ve got a couple of years before you 2 need to worry about that. But in case I’m not here in 2 years, I’d suggest ASL if the college offers.
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My S21 is in a specialized program for kids with LDs within the high school that he goes to. He’s in regular classes but has accommodations for testing as well as a counselor that is with him all four years. Most of the kids in the program do not take foreign language but they are required to take a some sort of foreign culture class. I remember at one point S21’s counselor within the program gave us a list of colleges that accept the waiver/class. However, we asked for S21 to be placed in Spanish 1 this year b/c we did not want to limit what will already be a smaller pool of colleges as he is probably going to have to apply to test optional schools. I will see if I can get that list of schools from his counselor after Spring Break and post it here, at least as a starting point. So far, S21 is doing well in Spanish 1 but he took basic Spanish all through grammar school. The plan is for him to take Spanish 2 next year and if he doesn’t bomb it, then we will evaluate based on his teacher recommendation whether to move on to Spanish 3. He does not have dyslexia though - most of his issues are with processing speed and memory.
@4kids4us Good for your son for tackling Spanish, and I hope he continues to do well! I think a list of schools that accept a foreign language waiver would be helpful for many people reading this thread. We didn’t try to get a waiver for D19 since her dyslexia is not severe, and we were hoping she would be able to handle Latin. So far, she has succeeded with a ton of work, and because she shines in Roman history/mythology. However, the level of translation difficulty and grammatical detail keeps going up, and she has to devote so many hours to drilling that it’s taking away from core classes.
I also have an S24 with severe dyslexia and he qualified for a language waiver after attempting but failing Spanish for one quarter in 6th grade and one quarter in 7th. We have a high school kid tutoring him in Spanish to hopefully get him to the point where he can take it in high school and pass. I’d love to see more research into how to teach foreign language to kids with LD’s.
Thanks for starting this thread! I’m buckled up for this wild ride!
Much like @3SailAway, my D21 falls a bit in-between the two parent threads, she has a higher GPA for now but its gone down each semester she’s been in HS as the classes get harder and I don’t see that changing next year so she will probably end up in the 3.5-3.75 range. Her practice test scores are all over the place so not sure where to predict her, and her course rigor and EC’s are above average but not in that Ivy/low admit %/Top 20s range. Or actually I should say she is probably hit or miss to be admitted but won’t get merit aid at those places, which means she couldn’t go anyway because we are not likely to get need based aid. Plus in general I would just prefer to see her at a place where she feels like she has some freedom to find her footing and spread her wings a little as she comes into her adulthood and independence. So I think I’ll probably lurk/post on both until senior year when we know more!
D21 will take Latin 3 next year but will not carry it through to senior year to add some more science, but she will take the AP test anyway just to see what she gets. If she doesn’t do well she doesn’t have to send the scores, but I am hopeful she can still knock out a 3 and get even just a semester of college credit.
D21 also will fall in between, she has maintained a 96-101 average so far all quarters of HS, but I just don’t know if I can see her getting into a school that is so competitive and I don’t know that I want her coming out of school with so much debt, we do not qualify for financial aid, so it will all be merit, scholarships and loans. We talk a lot about all the great schools there are that are not as popular and hard to get into.
S21 also has a decent GPA but no APs or honors at his small private school so no weighting (IMO colleges look at UW mostly anyway, combined with rigor). I’m most concerned about standardized scores. I think he will do some SAT prep this summer as there will be less stress then. I feel like he will so better on SAT since score is 50% math and math is his strength. I know more schools are going test-optional, but I think they might take fewer applicants that way. Let me know if anyone has heard otherwise, or has other opinion about ACT vs SAT for student very average in English and very strong in math. (I know he could take a sample ACT for comparisin purposes).