Our math track started for 6th grade. It’s obnoxious. Along the way we have definitely made choices that align with our family values that may have had college consequences. I guess at the end of the day where our D21 winds up at school will be a reflection of our values and choices, so she will wind up exactly where she needs to be! The waiting and not knowing has been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever endured as a parent, and it has taken me by total surprise. I hope I can use my d21 experience to better serve my next two children, and myself. (Covid made it a million times worse in my opinion) I’m so ready to by the sweatshirt already 
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Congrats for UCLA. My DD is now a junior there and absolutely loves it!
@tinafchan - So true. It’s really amazing how middle school math locks kids in at such an early age, especially considering that different kids mature at varying ages and a one year swing in age is incredibly material. It reminds me of the lessons learned from the Outliers novel.
We have kids in our school that finish all High School math classes by their sophomore year (and our school goes through second year college calculus). Some of them have gone on to take community college courses and finish all their lower division math before entering college. From stories shared with me, I can attest to this being an awful idea.
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The lack of advising on everything really does all students a disadvantage. We are fortunate enough to have been able to figure out a solution - not every family can or could afford having their child take an extra online class. Another example was that we didn’t know that 9th grade marks wouldn’t count toward UC GPA/eligibility, and my son chose to take two APs that year (against our advice) that would have been much better for him to take as a 10th grader from a GPA standpoint.
In the end, it all works out the way it’s meant to, but it’s frustrating when you realize “wow, if only we had known X, we would have done Y.”
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Our middle school didn’t offer advanced math, most in our town do not. I had no idea it was an option to start a year ahead in the honors track math in high school until it came up with some parents mid way through freshman year. The few kids in our high school school who went to a junior high with the advanced math do seem to be the ones having more favorable decisions this year so far.
We did get the 5th year math though by adding in Stats, a few years I had called Cal Poly admissions and they assured me that counted as an extra year of advanced math.
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Oh, totally agree- I have one more kid to deal with this in about 7 years. Hopefully I won’t forget by then! The schools that have accepted him have been schools we feel would be a good fit for him. Sad about the ones that didn’t accept or waitlisted. COVID made the entire process so confusing, chaotic, and unfair for everyone around. And yes to the sweatshirt- sweatshirt, banner, car sticker, water bottle, etc. I can’t wait to sport them and be proud of my kid’s accomplishments.
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My kid would never have survived that level of drive (and pressure). I was one of those kids who had the so-called tiger mom- just pushed pushed pushed- to what end? Still didn’t get into an Ivy even though that was the “end goal.” Happy where I ended up and what I did with my life after I shed that mindset, and was sure as hell I didn’t raise my kids the same way.
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Definitely true about learning from first kid. Three years ago, my son who is now in third year at Cal Poly got rejected from every UC except UC Merced. After having learned more, I now think it is because he inadvertently only took four academic classes his junior year. Most students take five or six; I think anything below five is viewed as bad. He had taken four AP classes plus Journalism plus PE. At the time, that sounded ok to me, but I now know that Journalism is not considered an academic subject. I fault his high school advisor for not having advised him well. He could have taken something like art or choir which would have been easy A’s and would have had less homework than Journalism and probably would have gotten him into UC’s. Live and learn. My D21 is benefited from the experience. She took PE during summer and enrolled in six academic subjects her junior year. She just got accepted to UCSC, where my son was waitlisted even though there was less competition back then and he had about the same WGPA, slightly over 4.0, as her, and also had 1360 SAT. He thought it was a safety school and it probably would have been with better counseling.
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I would also like to hear more about what a-g courses are more likely to get someone into SLO or any CA school for that matter. My son, first born, hasn’t heard anything from SLO yet and we’re feeling discouraged for sure. Don’t remember what his exact stats are/were but his GPA is over 4.0 and he took three years of language, four math, four English, four social studies, several AP’s, a couple honors and played a time demanding sport, worked some and has his own photography business and website. Just found out he got waitlisted at UCSC so not feeling confident about any other UC’s he applied to. I know he could have taken 5 years of math but his 8th grade math teacher was so awful he didn’t feel comfortable moving on with the math accelerated pathway in 9th. And with his other activities he wanted to balance having a life with school a little bit. It’s so frustrating living in California and having such a hard time getting into California schools. Something is definitely broken in the system. I have one daughter going into 9th and one going into 7th and would love to know what we should have done differently so we can strategize for them. This is going to be a tough week.
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Yes- the schools don’t really push college advising, at least here in NY, until Junior year. By then, it’s too late for some schools. I hear that many of the guidance counselors are really mostly focused on getting kids into the state schools, so the SUNYs for us. They are a FAR cry from the UCs and the CSUs, unfortunately. Now I know better for my second kid. The poor first kid syndrome.
I think it depends on major - but it also depends not just on # but on rigor. For STEM majors, I assume they like to see more than 4 math classes, however you can get there. S21 had 6 because he added the geometry, then took both Stats/CalcAB junior year and BC his senior year. There’s also the question of whether the child takes the most difficult course available - are they taking regular English or Honors/AP type?
The whole process leaves very little room for fun electives. Or fun, period. I begged my kid not to take 6 APs his junior year because I wanted him to have balance. Maybe in hindsight, he was right, since it feels like every last thing helps this crazy year.
And keep in mind that scads of students are WL or rejected who figured out that game, took the right AP classes in the right years, great stats, lots of everything. This is a crapshoot and there’s very little students seem to be able to do to affect the outcome.
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I’m going to be honest with you, I think quantity matters more than quality in terms of a-g courses, especially when they’re AP. I think I took 3x the required science load and to this day I’m certain that’s what got me into SLO. Even at the cost of GPA it seems like it was worth it for SLO. I can’t say the same about the UCs since I just got waitlisted at UCSC and rejected at UCI. I think the pattern is that SLO prefers students with higher AP STEM a-g loads while UCs prefer more balance between course load and GPA.
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We went on an Engineering tour sometime in 2018 and or tour guide (engineering major of some sort) said they didn’t take a single AP class and didn’t have a perfect gpa. Times have changed rapidly. And we don’t even know that they are using the MCA.
Just looking at all the UC/CSU decisions rolling and and wondering where all these high stats kids are coming from this year that are being wait listed and denied?
This year admissions is a whole other beast compared to years prior. Now it seems pretty arbitrary especially for other applicants who have 4.0+ GPAs and stellar test scores that seem to count for nil. But in all fairness there really was no truly fair way to analyze applicants. We can debate all we want but I’m sure the AOs of various schools have had the same debate and this was the best they could come up with. All we can really do now is just sit tight and hope for the best
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I think that the fact that Cal Poly uses freshman year in the GPA calc is a contributing factor too. My daughter’s GPA was over 4.0 in 9th grade, and so her Cal Poly GPA is higher than her UC and SDSU GPA.
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Yeah I think that helped me a lot too. I really wish these schools could be a bit more forthcoming with their decisions criteria…
This is a real possibility for Engineering and CS majors at SLO. My S was admitted he took every stem AP that was offered with regular English and History type classes. Seems like a lot of kids had incredibly high stats, but it does seem to be a possibility that stem rigor really mattered this year at SLO.
My son got 2 Bs in 9th grade so his Cal Poly GPA is lower and he got accepted at Cal Poly and just got waitlisted at UCSC.
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@242466 Well we know that UCLA is not 100% until we get the official decision but she is feeling better about it. I think UCLA would be a good fit for her. CPSLO is not her top choice but it would be nice to know it was an option. This year is so weird with decisions everywhere. I am seeing posts all over from UCI, UCSC, SLO, etc. of kids getting waitlisted or denied with amazing stats. Poor kids are being caught off guard in this crazy pandemic admissions year. However, I truly believe most kids end up in a place that they can thrive if they put in the work and make the most of it. This process is so different from my son’s college app journey. He had one acceptance to a top school in November of his senior year and CPSLO was his second decision in February. It took so much pressure off waiting for all the other decisions, especially since SLO was one top 2 schools on his list. My daughter has not heard from any of her top schools so the nail-bitiing continues.