Hello! This is my first time posting…mom of three teen boys (younger two are twins! in 8th grade). My eldest is S21…he finished 9th grade with a weighted 3.97 GPA…Only AP class he had was World Human Geo (got a 3 on the test) and the rest were all PreAp…he’s also in Marching Band (tuba/Sousa)and just received his induction invite for National Honor Society. He will try out for a leadership position in band during spring auditions. No other EC’e other than on and off service hours at various city events or for non profits that I serve on.
Our school district doesn’t release class rank until Jan of Sophmore year…we’ll find out Jan 11th. He finished this past semester with 3 B’s and 1 A (we do accelerated block schedules for high school…only 4 classes a term!). He’s not very happy with himself and knows he’s going to have to really apply himself in the spring term to bring up his GPA to clinch himself top 10%. His only AP class next term will be AP World History…the other three will be PreAp Chem, Pre AP Algebra II and Band. Going into Junior year, we’ll probably be adding some Dual Credit classes.
Here’s our issue: he is NOT a good test taker…especially standardized tests. The highest PSAT score he’s gotten so far is 1080 (he’s taken in in 8th, 9th and 10th). He’s starting private SAT/ACT prep tutoring in January and will take the SAT in October. I’m trying not to freak him out more but I don’t have hopes for him scoring high on the SAT (and I’m perfectly ok with that!). So far Texas A&M is his #1 choice, and he probably will try for UT, and take CAP if offered…and he hasn’t thought much further than that lol, other than he wants to stay in state. No idea of what he want to major in either, other than it won’t be Math or Science related.
Can anyone else relate to all this lol. Is it too early to be worrying about him?!
It really boils down to his major. Business, engineering and computer science are highly sought after majors and the competition is more fierce. CAP students at UT or only promised admission to the college of liberal arts. My son was also a poor test taker but is now a senior in college. Getting into the top 10% and getting as high of SAT/ACT should be his focus right now. The higher those scores the more opportunities he will have. You did not say anything about finances but it is an important component. I would advised the consider some out of state schools. Many of them recruit Texas who not top 5% but in the 5-15% range. They offer financial packages that some often cheaper than A&M or UT. Schools like Ole Miss, Arkansas and OU are will known for this. Many of these schools are closer to home than the instate options. Going into his JR year is a good time to take him on some informal campus visit. He will get a better idea as to what kind of college campus that appeals to him. Best of luck to you.
I am not sure that I have fully understood your post. Am I correct that you have a kid who is not a good test taker, who will be taking the SAT in October as a junior?
In my experience our high school students are under an insane amount of stress. Stress makes it harder to learn. I think that you should think about reducing your son’s stress. I am not convinced that students should take any AP classes until Junior or even Senior year.
I also wouldn’t worry about ECs. I think that your son’t ECs are fine for Texas A&M and any other very good university at that level. I don’t think that you should think about dual credit courses either.
Regarding the SAT, we started with an SAT prep course at the local community center. One daughter then had a few sessions with a tutor that were very helpful. They started with giving her a practice test, which allowed them to quickly focus in on the areas where she could use the most help. The tutor was also quite good at test strategies, timing, and concepts. It only took very few sessions to get her to the point that she was ready for the test. We used a very small local outfit – I think that the entire company had a total of three employees. There is likely to be something similar in your area.
Thank you for the insight. Finances wise we’ll be okay…we’re not by any means with unlimited coffers lol so any merit scholarships or financial aid offered would be ideal. I know my kids won’t qualify for any need based grants though due to our household income. Ideally I’d like him to stay within 4-5 hours driving distance of Dallas, so OU, OSU & Arkansas are possibilities.
@DadTwoGirls Yes…you got it right lol…not a good test taker, and will be a junior in fall of 2019, planning to take SAT in October 2019. I found him a tutor who will start with him in January with one and one sessions one day a week. The tutor is a retired teacher from our high school who was the teacher for the PSAT team. She’s going to be doing the same…Strategies, concepts and timing.
About the AP classes, it just seems like everyone around us is racking up AP classes so my son is convinced he needs to do the same. I’m beginning to think that dual credit would be more beneficial to him though and less stressful.
I was never a good test taker either- i got a 1000 in sophomore year (practice test) but i just took the SAT as a current junior and got a 1440. My main tip is do Khan Academy especially for math. I spent hours doing problems i had weaknesses on and after consistently scoring a 650+ on the math section, i used the PWN book to raise it to a 740. For reading and writing, i used the erica meltzer books and they were super helpful!! i highly recommend them.
as for ap classes, everyone is different. after senior year, i will have taken a total of 13 ap classes. personally, i like the ap curriculum. dual credit is not helpful at all for obtaining college credits since it only works for community colleges. i highly recommend ap classes such as world history, us history, ap lang, and biology. everyone struggles in ap classes but my biggest tip is to talk to the teacher and attend tutoring sessions after school. make sure you ask lots of questions and the teacher will know how to really help you if you tell her what you’re struggling with. if ap classes really aren’t an option, then dual credit is better. don’t stress yourself out over ap classes- take a few in the subjects you can do well in and take dual credit for the rest! good luck and message me if you have any other questions!
Class rank was released today…S21 is 295 out of 1161…made the top 25% but not going to lie, I was hoping for a closer to 15%…he slacked off last semester and he knows it lol. This semester he has PreAp Chem, PreAp Alg 2, AP World History and Band (our school district does accelerated block scheduling so only 4 classes a term). If he stays within top 25% and meets Texas A&M’s SAT/ACT requirements he’ll be an auto admit, so that’s where our focus will be…mainting and improving class rank to stay in that top quartile and aiming for at least 1300 on SAT…He’s a smart kid and we’re incredibly blessed…we’ll be proud of him either way!
@Momof3B To be an academic admit to A&M, he must be in the top 25.0% at the end of Jr year AND score a 1360 SAT with minumum sub scores of 620 math and 660 ebrw or 30 ACT and 27 sub scores in both math and English. Right now, your son is 25.4% which is second quarter.
When you read the data of several of the DARS reports, of the 10,097 students enrolls for fall 2018, 1000 came from the 2nd quarter and 202 from the 3rd quarter.
For fall 2017, Review admits (Not auto to 10% or academic admits) had a 13% chance of receiving full admission to the university. 2400 students offered Blinn Team from 27,000 review admit applications.
If he falls into being a review admit, A&M will take into consideration what rigor was offered at his school and what rigor he chose to take. Competitiveness of a schools doesn’t matter. They want to see how a student performs against their peers.
Dual Credit must be transferred to the college he attends. Take only DC classes that will satisfy the Texas Core Curriculum. Classes that don’t satisfy the core curriculum or a specific class on a major course sheet will be counted towards their available electives. Too many Dual Credit hours (40) make a student ineligible for Blinn Team or Gateway to Success admissions decisions.
Thank you for the details! I think he’ll be able to clinch himself into 25%. He’s right on the cusp and he’s a smart kid…just needs to sharpen up his time management and discipline himself a little more. I’m a little worried about his SAT potential but like I mentioned he’s started tutoring and we will buckle down this summer to get him there!
I will definitely plan his DC classes carefully, and if he does get offered Blinn Team I think we would probably take it.
“He’s not very happy with himself and knows he’s going to have to really apply himself in the spring term to bring up his GPA to clinch himself top 10%”
Why is he going to have to bring his GPA to clinch top 10%? Why does he have to clinch the top 10%? Wouldn’t it be better for him to be very happy with himself and not feel pressure to clinch himself?
@lostaccount I’ve never pressured any of my children to be anything they’re not. All we expect is for them to do the best they can an apply themselves. He knows I know that the 3 B’s he got last term should have been A’s but weren’t, not because he couldn’t master the material but because he procrastinated at turning in assignments on time. That is a life lesson I want all my kids to learn…being punctual.
If 2 years from now he tells me wants to go the community college route and transfer somewhere later I’ll be happy if he is happy. I don’t gauge my children’s worth by their GPA’s…never have and never will.
@socaldad2002 yes, that will be an option we explore…either through Blinn or a community college in our own area if he doesn’t gain admission through auto or review admit.
A couple of things to consider. If he really wants to be an Aggie, and doesn’t get full admission to his major of choice or Blinn Team or Gateway to Success (is a summer provisional admission program that gives students a unique chance to gain full admission to the university the following fall semester. Approximately 530 students were given the opportunity to participate in Gateway) there is a pathway to being an Aggie called PTA or Program for Transfer Admission. He can attend any community college of his choice. It requires a signed participation form and one upon completion and is guaranteed into the major. Many majors participate but not all. http://admissions.tamu.edu/PTA
Again, be mindful of Dual Credit if you go this route. If you take an AP class, you don’t have to take the AP test or if you do, you do not have to claim the credit. You do have to transfer DC hours and I don’t know how that might impact PTA.
If you do not go the PTA route and attend anywhere, CC or a 4 year, you need to follow a transfer course sheet of whatever school he wants to apply to transfer to. For transfer to competitive universities, just taking two years of classes at a CC is not sufficient if the requirements for the major are not met. Here is the transfer sheet all majors for A&M. Know that Mays and Dwight Look are space conscious as well as competitiveness for transfer and are very difficult for transfer. http://admissions.tamu.edu/transfer/majors
@Momof3B My son is a sophomore now as well and is in band. I didn’t read all the comments left but was wondering what your son is interested in majoring in? My son wants to major in music, UT Austin is first on his list. Like your son he is taking a few AP and Pre AP classes, his last PSAT was a 1050 and he is also in the top 25% of his class. My son also has issues with turning in assignments late or never lol. So yes I can relate!!!
@amottmers my son is still undecided on majors/career path lol. He’s leaning towards Econ/Urban Planning/ possibly law School or something in Public Policy. We took a trip down to CSTAT for Aggieland Saturday last weekend so that he could talk with advisors in the Depts of Econ & UP, that helped him. He’s applying to an Urban Planning summer camp at A&M. He hasn’t shown much interest in going OOS, so we will be concentrating on all in state schools, public and private. He’s not going to make Auto Accept at UT, but if offered CAP, he’d consider taking it since he’s considering mostly COLA majors, but A&M seems to be #1 on the list. We’re going to schedule visits at UTSA & Trinity in San Antonio as well…and then of course UTD & UNT which are local for us. OU may make the tour list as well considering it’s closer to our Denton County location then A&M or Austin are lol. He’s shown interest in continuing marching band in college, depending on where he ends up (A definite NO! at A&M though since he doesn’t want to do Corp lol).
We just finished 11th grade scheduling and here’s what he’s taking:
AP Environmental Science
PreAp Pre Calc
Dual Credit US History
Dual Credit Eng
(The DC courses are considered a Humanities Block for 3 total credits)
Debate
Marching Band
We’ve started SAT tutoring as of January and will continue through the summer. I pleased to say that this term he seem to have flipped a switch overnight and gotten serious about GPA…he’s pulling all A’s right now even in Alg 2! Our goal is to take the SAT in August to establish baseline then again in November after marching season winds down. His GC and Principal asked him to reconsider and take the PSAT instead in October but I’m just not sure how important the possible NMS chances are for him…He’s got a fair amount of test anxiety as it is. From what I can gather on CC, A&M and UT aren’t real big on merit aid/awards anyway so is taking the PSAT junior year really that important? Thoughts?
I’m thinking the same as you regarding the SAT over the PSAT, I asked my son when he would first take the SAT his junior year, his reply was that he would be taking the PSAT again first. I asked why, I don’t see the point to that either. I wish I could tell you my son has flipped a switch when it comes to school but he hasn’t. He talks about wanting to be in the top 5 or 6 percent to be auto admit into UT Austin but still doesn’t do all he can ( which is actually turn in ALL assignments and turn them in on time). UNT is on his radar too, I think it will probably be the school he goes to. They have a really good Music school there. Next year he will be taking PreAP Pre Cal., AP US History, either AP Physics or Dual Credit through UT, English 3 (he has decided not to take AP - one class he really doesn’t like), Marching Band, AP Music Theory, German 2 and one other music class. I think I will look into SAT tutoring for him, if he really wants a chance for UT he needs to pull his score way up. My daughter will be graduating from UT Austin in May, you are right about not being big on much aid/awards. She was lucky to be auto admit, her major wasn’t very competitive as well. We were lucky not to have had to pay for her to live on campus, we live about 20 mins. away.