Yes, my S25 has time to enjoy life before considering college admissions. No, I am not having any discussions with him about where to apply.
But, I’m trying to get a sense of where students apply and end up who don’t take a lot of AP classes in HS. He’s at a religious, private college prep HS. 99% plus of last year’s graduating class attended college. They don’t calculate or report rank so I have no idea where he stands related to peers. They offer Honors and AP’s but limit the number students can take, less than other local private and public HS’s. He’s bright and doing well in his college prep level classes but it’s not entirely smooth sailing.
Looking ahead to his junior and senior year classes, he might mature, sure. But if this is where he falls, which is a curriculum that is still pushing him but isn’t majority honors or AP, where does that leave him? I keep reading about rigor rigor rigor, but when I consider acceptance percentages of schools, will schools with a 60-70% plus acceptance rate truly not consider a student who has only taken 1 AP class?
As far as I’m aware, our school doesn’t use Naviance or Scoir - they use Maia. So I don’t have any data on previous students profiles and acceptance rates.
Such colleges probably are not that selective and are likely to accept students who meet their GPA and course benchmarks even if all courses are regular college prep level (not honors or AP or whatever). Note that when colleges list high school course work requirements, they typically do not specify AP or other advanced courses as being required.
Some of those colleges may be ones that admit by formula, so it can be easy to see whether the student will be admitted.
Of course, the college search may be more difficult if there are other constraints like cost, religious affiliation, or uncommon desired major.
Don’t fret. There are plenty of schools out there where he will be welcome and can thrive. It sounds like he will be adequately prepared. When the time comes, you can match his interests, his preferred way of learning, his social desires, geographic preferences, etc to a place that will launch him successfully.
Thank you. I’ve been noting coursework requirements on either the CDS or admissions sections of websites. You’re right, I don’t see specifics for AP or advanced courses but do note when “very important” is checked in the rigor column of the CDS. But, I’ll see that for a school with an 30% acceptance rate, and then again in a school with a 78% acceptance rate. Reported GPA’s and SAT/ACT scores are different though. So perhaps that speaks to what you noted above about meeting the benchmarks.
Thankfully, cost isn’t a concern and the Jesuit education he’s had so far in HS really fits his personality so we might lean into that when developing his list. Major is a bit undecided right now so we’re not at a point of considering that yet.
If the high school offers AP classes but your child did not take any, then the really top ranked schools such as Harvard or MIT are probably out of reach. Maybe top 20 would most likely be out of reach and maybe something like top 50 would be a reach (with grades and other issues also being important, of course). However, this still leaves a huge number of very good universities and colleges that are in reach.
If the high school does not offer any AP classes, then the universities will not penalize your child for not taking a class that does not exist. Similarly if the high school only offers a small number of APs, they will not penalize your child for only taking a small number of APs.
One daughter went to a small high school that did not offer any AP classes. She was still 5 for 5 on acceptances to the universities that she applied to with merit aid from most of them. She then showed up at university and found that she was very well prepared to do well, even without having taken any AP classes at all.
Our other daughter attended a very competitive larger high school that did offer lots of APs. Most of her friends were taking quite a few. One friend took no AP classes at all. She got a decent merit scholarship from a university that is probably ranked in the 100 to 200 range, had a very marketable major, and got a good job very quickly after graduating from university. Given that there are thousands of colleges and universities in the US, something ranked between 100 and 200 is still a very good university with many strong programs.
Exactly.
Our high school students in the US are under way too much stress. Each student should do what is right for them including taking the classes that are right for them. If they are then headed for college or university, they should find a school that is a good fit for them. There are a very large number of very good ones to choose from.
[quote=“Luvpretzels, post:1, topic:3621176”]
hey don’t calculate or report rank so I have no idea where he stands related to peers[/quote]
No idea? I find that hard to believe. I believe you don’t know if he’s in the 49th or 50th percentile, but you should have a pretty good idea what quintile he is in. Is he bringing home A’s? Or is he bringing home warning letters?
And “He’s only taken one AP class as a sophomore! He’ll never recover!” just isn’t the case. And wouldn’t it be better anyway for him to thrive at, say, Creighton than be unsuccessful at, say, Harvard?
Many private schools have limited AP offerings. Your student will be evaluated in the context of what is offered at your HS. You may want to see if you can google that name of the school + school profile and see what comes up. The profile is what the guidance counselor will send along with transcripts to colleges.
You can also ask to speak to the GC and ask them what types of schools your child should be aiming for. They will know where they stand in the class, even if they don’t officially disclose rank.
Everywhere - UC’s, Ivies, T20/50/100/200, state flagships, SLACs, etc.
No idea? I find that hard to believe.
Should I? I really honestly don’t. And he doesn’t either. He doesn’t ask and I certainly don’t ask other parents or his peers. To disclose, out of 14 grades last year reported for two semesters, he had 10 A’s and 4 B’s, all unweighted. But some peers freshman year were in weighted classes. They don’t use +/-'s. There are students who are taking more honors and AP’s than he is this year and probably will for junior and senior. So taking into account weighted classes, I truly have NO idea.
And, without quoting your last paragraph, that’s exactly what I’m going for. I want him to thrive now AND later. But, when I constantly see students or parents on these online forums posting they took 8/10/12 plus AP’s in HS and I’m considering my own child’s mental and emotional bandwidth with his current courseload, I want to understand the options or trajectories for students who don’t take that path.
I learned of the profile recently and it does state the limitations to honors and AP opportunities both in number offered and opportunity to take. But I hadn’t considered discussing anything with the counselors. We’ll have our first meeting at the end of this year so I’ll keep that question about standing in mind. Thank you.
Most Jesuit HS’s do an exceptional job educating their students. period, full stop.
The rest of it will “emerge”. Your kid’s counselor will know where kids like him have ended up and done well. Your kid will figure out if he wants something big after a private HS, or enjoys the more intimate size of his HS.
The most pressing task for you right now is to do a detailed analysis of your financial picture- and I mean every detail. Every credit card bill, every bank and brokerage account.
Figure out what you can realistically spend per month for college. No cheating. If last year you were cash strapped because the muffler died the same month as the refrigerator so you had to put replacements on a credit card, don’t wave your magic wand and decide that was a one-time thing. Stuff falls apart while your kid is in college!
If you decide that 2K per month is doable- fantastic. Start tonight. Put that 2K in your son’s 529 plan ASAP, and keep doing it. If you can’t do it, then you’re gonna need Plan B.
You may have friends tell you that having college savings is bad because it penalizes your kid. You may have friends tell you that colleges will fight to pay your son to attend. You may have friends who tell you that by moving the title of your house over to your deadbeat brother-in-law, you’ll get more financial aid.
You have time now to learn what’s true, what’s urban legend, what’s a really dumb idea, well in time to help your son craft a list of fantastic and affordable options.
My S22 & D20 had similar grades. Both graduated with GPA’s of around 3.7. They both took 2 or 3 AP’s and a couple honors in their high school careers. They did not have a lot of EC’s (jobs and sports mostly). They attended a pretty well ranked public HS. They got into schools ranked anywhere from 60-150 in US NEWS and both got into every school they applied to. Some of their acceptances were Clemson, Univ of Dayton, Elon, American Univ, Fordham, Gettysburg, Catholic Univ, Miami OH, Xavier, Loyola Marymount, Univ of San Francisco and several others. And most gave them merit money. If you’re looking at Jesuit schools, your S probably won’t get into BC without much higher rigor but there are lots of Catholic and Jesuit schools he will get into.
These are just a sample of schools but once you get out of the top 75, there are lots of great schools out there. This site can make you feel like everyone in the US has a 4.0 and 27 AP classes. The majority of kids don’t.
Many schools that are like the one you described have dedicated college counselors that are different than the normal guidance counselor. Does your school have them? Often they don’t start working with them until Junior year.
My kids each took exactly two AP courses. And one took one dual credit one too. They both got accepted to the colleges of their choice. No issue at all.
There are 3000 colleges in this country…or so. There are plenty of options. If your son is currently attending a Jesuit high school, he might want to look at their colleges. Some give small scholarships to graduates of Jesuit high schools.
There is absolutely no question that your school guidance folks know where past students attended college. No, they don’t have to share the specific students who attended wherever with you, but they can tell you if your kid is in the same mix as those previously accepted. Your son should discuss this all with his school GC.
There are thousands upon thousands of college kids who have never taken an AP course and they still went to college.
Yes, a dedicated team which will start the process Junior year. My mistake was jumping ahead and paying someone for access to a monthly FB group. While some advice was worthwhile, there was a lot of advice offered in that landscape that didn’t apply to my child or our high school environment. I quickly left the group and stopped paying.
I think you need to meet with the counselor, definitely before the end of the year–BEFORE the classes for next year are picked. For a private HS that sends 99% to college, first step is to look at the “less heard of” colleges and “lowest” ranked ones(of course rank is not everything)/“easiest” in-state publics kids go to from the HS, and see if those are ok with your family. Then, find out where he ranks(even quartile is good enough), and find out if he has had standardized testing in the past couple of years (OR: did he do a 10th grade PSAT? results will be out in Dec). If he ranks in the bottom quartile of the class and his standardized testing is in line with that bottom quarter, then it sounds like he is right where he should be, and just carry on and make sure to keep him on track to take the rigor that is right for him and keeps him in this range. IF however his testing indicates he is in the top 1/3 yet his GPA and rigor are bottom 1/3, then there is a mismatch and he is not pushing himself for some reason, or there could be a learning/EF issue, etc: you need to dig further with school and find out what is going on.
Real Example from my area:
The private school states kids are “discouraged” from taking more than 3ish honors/AP per year. However, in reality, 3 per year is just below average. The top 25% of the class takes 5-6 or more honors/AP, so the wording is misleading. The only way parents know is to ask, though teachers usually encourage the top kids to take this many.
Top quartile is >1430 SAT, bottom quartile is <1220, so the bottom quartile correlates to 75th%ile or below on standardized tests. The schools the bottom quartile gets into easily include many great schools: out of state U of South Carolina, Alabama, Sewanee, Syracuse, in-state CNU, JMU (but not in-state UVa, Tech, WM&Mary: all of these are out of reach for the bottom 25%, barring a hook). FYI at this school, the bottom quartile usually has a mix of A and B, but mostly regular classes, so the GPA weighted and unweighted are very similar to each other, 3.6-3.7 and under, depending on year(there is a long tail as it gets to the bottom decile)
So if a kid had scores under 1220(or predicted scores based on prior testing) and was taking rigor correlating to this group(About 1-3 honor/AP per yr in 11&12), then all would be well: the kid’s path matches the kid, and all a parent has to do is help them find good fits that are in the tier of schools that accept that quartile.
That’s just my two cents on how I would approach this if I were you.
Then he’s near the top, but not at the top. Unless there is serious grade inflation, probably in the second quintile. That should help you focus on likely schools: good schools, but maybe not all super-selective. Your school’s guidance department can help your son winnow the list.