This is great to hear. Kudos to you and your daughter!
I agree with the gist of the criticisms here, but from a different perspective. College admission isn’t all about GPA and test scores (whatever the curriculum that was followed).
It’s also about the persona of the applicant: her proven talents (academic and otherwise, e.g., music, art, athletics), her extracurricular achievements – what she does outside of class, what she does in summers, has she won non-school-based awards or recognition, has she led or created things. Loading up on courses at the expense of developing a more general persona is a risky strategy for admission to the most selective colleges.
We are aware that extracurriculars are incredibly important. D is involving herself in challenging extracurriculars and out of school activities. She goes to a non-competitive school that lacks the competition she wants, so she wants to at least be challenged and interested in her courses at school.
@grapevine20 In that case, your daughter may well know the answer to the question, “How many hours are there in a week?” Start with 168 (24 x 7).
Subtract sleeping, meals, grooming. Subtract recreation in and outside school. Maybe church. Minimize time on non-productive hobbies. (Reading can be mainly productive.)
Don’t get sick!
Good luck to her!!
I once wondered what my kid’s gpa would have been if his HS weighted grades. Retired to Florida and wonder how val/sals can get 8.+ gpa’s at some schools in the county while others have only a 5.+. Obviously some schools offer more honors/AP/IB classes. It would be interesting to see unweighted gpa’s to see how well the students did in those classes. Oh, and after the first three semesters of HS my son’s perfect gpa went down- gotta love those boys’ teen years.
I have noticed that most parents on CC have bright kids but few are parenting truly gifted kids. These kids ARE different, as quoted by a known in the GT world person years ago. So, what works for most top students is not what works for the top one (or even greater) percent. It is difficult to find others with similar parenting experiences. But- we do exist here on CC and support every child allowed to maximize his/her potential. You cannot let majority opinions guide you in your special case.
Each high school may use different weighting systems. So an honors or AP course may be +0.5 at one high school, but +2.0 at some other high school.
Even when states have some sort of standardization (e.g. South Carolina ( https://ed.sc.gov/scdoe/assets/File/districts-schools/state-accountability/NEWUniformGrading.pdf ), or the UC and CSU HS GPA calculations in California ( https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ )), the different states have different methods.
But that means that when students or parents ask about chances of admission or what colleges will be realistic to apply to but only give a weighted GPA with unspecified weighting, others cannot give good responses.
This type of “competition” is the reason many schools are going away from ranking. Great it got her into Stanford, but re-read your post. Why was it sooooo important that she be valedictorian and take classes just to “win” that? It’s not a game or a race. She will figure that out one day.
It is nice to see that somebody on CC admits their kid or them self doesn’t go to a “competitive” school. It seems most students on this site claim or blame their GPA or ranking on their competitive school. I don’t see anything wrong with her taking the AP classes as long as you know your daughter and watch for the signs of burnout. Some kids just want to be pushed.
At my son’s public school, no freshmen would have time for that after doing the ordinary required classes and perhaps knocking off their arts requirement. (Standard is Eng 9 Honors, Bio Honors, AP World, Math Honors at whatever point they are, an arts elective, a foreign language at the right level, and there’s just one more space since gym is done. What would your kid be giving up?)
I don’t think it sounds “suspicious” whatever that might mean, but it does sound weird.
If those are the courses she chose, then I think you are good and don’t need to worry about how her freshman year transcript will appear to colleges. Personally, I think a broad spectrum of courses like she chose is a good starting point for freshman year and she can adjust from there. I don’t think colleges will think twice about her freshman year choices.
My son always took the max AP courses he could (after knocking out required courses) bc he enjoyed learning and liked being surrounded by top kids. FF to college at an ivy and he still does this.
I’d follow her lead, and then adjust if you notice a problem.
That’s not necessarily true. One can earn an IB diploma and not take a VPA class. The “CAS” part of the IB diploma does not fulfill the VPA requirements at many schools.
Watch carefully: is she getting 9 hours of sleep? seeing friends? does she spend a lot of time on hw? does she have time to unwind? does she sound stressed?
8 courses including 4 Aps is A LOT .
If she’s gifted (top 1% or higher) it may be just fine. But for 99% kids it’d be a recipe for disaster to have that many classes.
If she seems fine (enough sleep, socialization, fun activities) then all is well.
If she needs to cut down, I’d keep AP Human Geography because it’s a typical freshman “gateway to AP” course.
Out of AP Psychology, APES, and AP CS Principles, I’d remove APES until she’s taken biology and chemistry (ie., as an elective for junior year or senior year) and I’d pick AP CS Principles because it’s in another area of academic interest than Psychology (which is a social science, like Human Geography).
She does seem a little stressed, but that’s to be expected. She definitely doesn’t have as much free time as she used to, but she still sees friends and unwinds. And she is gifted. Thank you for the advice!
Two things that I have learned by watching very gifted children (including a small number that are obviously in the top 1%): Just because they can do it, does not mean that they can do it without a lot of stress. Also, kids can reach a breaking point.
I don’t see any reason to take four AP classes as a freshman, or even to take any AP classes as a freshman. I have attended highly ranked universities and have known many students at highly ranked universities. Each of them needed to find the right level to push themselves. However, they got to attend highly ranked schools by doing whatever they did very well, not my pushing themselves to the point of collapse.
It is not easy to find the right point where a gifted child is pushed the right amount. I definitely would watch my child carefully, and let her know that she does not need to push herself this hard.
I likewise do not see any reason to NOT take … One size does not fit all. One does not PUSH gifted kids, we do not hold them back. Compare it to forcing a gifted runner to only run at the same pace as the rest of the class- why force a kid to underachieve, learn nothing because they already know it…?
Not sure what you are implying here.
But to answer your question. Why? Because there were financial implications that most of the folks here at CC simply don’t understand. We have sacrificed a lot due to family medical issues, including those that prevented me from regularly working. My pups understood this, and understood that getting the val/sal designation meant they’d qualify for an automatic full tuition scholarship at Flagship State. While they certainly hoped for better (and graduating from Columbia and Stanford without loans certainly was), this was their goal when they started high school. As everyone knows, admission at schools that provide full needs-based financial aid is very competitive, and there is no guarantee. There is nothing wrong with wanting an affordable situation. It wasn’t hard to figure out that weighted GPA used for the val ranking could be bumped by taking AP courses.
As parents, neither DH nor I pressured them to take that many AP’s, but this was their call. We were not able to save much for their college because of our family situation, and we were up front with them about it because we knew they’d be able to understand. Lots of families have to have discussions about not being able to afford different options, etc. We were more fortunate than many families, but certainly not as well off as most here at CC.
It worked out well for them. I am happy that they went to the schools that were the right choices for them.
I agree that HS, or life in general, is not a race or a game. Calling it a game is just an analogy that makes it easier to talk about it. In our situation, we were not dealt the best hand, but we were invited to the table.
I initially replied to let OP know that I think it is okay, if not admirable, to think about the future implications of course selection, because in all of the admissions information sessions I attended at the elite schools, they made it clear they were looking for a variety of kids, but they want kids who do their very best, with what options they have available. These elite schools do know a lot about the high schools, they won’t penalize a kid who has no APs if the school doesn’t offer them, nor will taking 16+ give someone an automatic acceptance. When they say everything matters, they mean it.
I am more proud of my pups for the great caring, compassionate people they have always been, than anything they’ve achieved academically. I still worry about them, and know they will be like their parents in the sense that they will make their own share of mistakes along the way. And they have a sense of humor that will help them find their way in the world. They know their farts still stink and their room is (probably) still messy.