<p>First semester is completed at our high school and report cards come out next week. </p>
<p>With regard to her final semester of high school, I suggested that she focus primarily on getting prepared for her AP exams, and not worry about taking a few Bs. A few B's would lower her final GPA, but her school's class rank status excludes the final term, and I haven't heard of any school rescinding an offer for getting some B's. </p>
<p>Is that reasonable advice? Is there any potential future cost to this strategy later that I am not aware of?</p>
<p>To me, it sounds like you’re advising her to slack off in her non-AP courses in favor of concentrating only on the AP courses. But the material she is learning in her non-AP courses may be important to her success in college.</p>
<p>For example, if she is taking precalculus – a non-AP course – this year and will take calculus as a college freshman, she will not be as well prepared to succeed in the calculus class if she doesn’t do her best in precalculus during her final semester of high school.</p>
<p>Some colleges will rescind admission offers if the senior year grades are significantly lower than previous grades. These are usually detail in the conditions attached to admission offers. Some are known to have specific thresholds of GPA or grades, but others vaguely say something like your senior year performance has to be consistent with your past performance.</p>
<p>If in doubt, check the college-specific forums to ask if anyone knows what the college’s typical conditions are. Also, check each college’s AP credit chart to see what AP tests are actually worth studying for (although if an AP course is worth anything, the student should be ready for the test just from doing well in the course). In any case, doing well in senior year courses will help in preparation for any college courses which assume the high school senior courses as prerequisite knowledge.</p>
<p>Our public does not calculate senior scholars until spring. I really don’t think there is anytime to “let down” really. College is more difficult than high school and high school seniors need to learn senior material. This is one of the reasons I really am not a fan of the current “program” of having kids focus on the college process for an entire year. I’d love to see colleges move the admittance cycle to spring (no early decisions etc., applications due from mid-January to mid-February etc.)</p>
<p>To reduce the chance that seniors slack off much, DDs counselor sent redacted copies of about a dozen rescind admission letters that he has received from colleges in the past to all of his seniors and their parents. Lol</p>
You’re contemplating advising your daughter not to give “full effort” academically in her non-AP classes. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Competent AP teachers should be preparing students adequately for the May AP tests. Students who are unfortunate enough to have poor AP teachers can always supplement their study with AP prep books.</p>
<p>Reading between the lines…it sounds like your daughter is having issues with time management and/or motivation. She should really try to fix these things prior to college. She shouldn’t have to make any compromises in terms of focusing on AP or non-AP classes.</p>
<p>Perhaps she should change her focus from “working for the grade” to “working for the sake of learning.” A conscientious high school student with moderate ability will find that trying his/her “best” is almost always good enough to earn an “A.”</p>
<p>She manages time very well, but at the moment she is a little exhausted and less motivated than usual. She is in the top 3 or 4 students out of 700 at a top high school. A conscientious student with moderate ability will not get many A’s at this school in AP or Honors classes. In many of them, an A is significantly harder to get than a 5 on the AP exam. I am just trying to relieve some of her self-imposed pressure.</p>
<p>College applications are in, first semester is done, and it seems to me that if she gets a couple of B’s, it would not be too harmful. When I say B’s I really just mean that if she has a 90%, she should no stress out about it. If she ended up at 88 or 89% it just does not matter. She is very competitive and it can be hard to convince her of that.</p>
<p>My gifted son became a slacker his final senior semester/year. He also got B’s in AP statistics because while he got 100%s on tests he got zeroes on homework, which counted. He also got a C in AP chemistry but a 5 on the AP exam taken a month before school ended. It didn’t matter what we parents thought.</p>
<p>She should NOT do as my son did. She should try to learn as much as she can to have the best foundation for her college classes. She should have good study habits. Use this year for honing time management skills- useful with the heavier college loads. There can be just as much to learn in regular as in AP courses.</p>
<p>I understand your desire for her to not stress out about getting perfect grades. This is different than slacking off. Perhaps a talk about goals- getting good grades is not a goal but a consequence of learning the material and doing the work. Remind her that once she starts college her HS record will be ancient history. Remind her this is her last semester as a child and to be sure to enjoy all of it, not only the academics. Unless she gets really bad grades she should do things she will remember and can’t do later. Go to the event instead of studying more for an exam or rewriting a paper…</p>
<p>It seems like sound advice to me. I too am a second semester senior, and have 6 AP classes right now. I finished the first semester with a 4.0, and this semester I am lightening up a bit on myself. I have a few goals to meet, and a 4.0 isn’t one of them. I just want to pass all of my AP exams, lead my mock trial team to nationals (this might be the toughie) and just have fun enjoying senior year. </p>
<p>Honestly, I slacked off my senior year (probably more Bs than As) and went on to have a 3.8+ in undergrad.
I don’t think you should encourage her to solely focus on AP exams, I think you should encourage her to enjoy her senior year. If that means a few Bs, so be it. Otherwise, sound advice </p>
<p>I think that it’s fine to ease off the gas a little. The only negative about your plan is if your kid ever wants to transfer colleges. Even if your kid as a senior thinks that he/she would never want to transfer in the future, sometimes they change their minds once they get to college. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that almost all offers of admissions and scholarships are conditional. Minimally, you must graduate high school. At some schools there is an expectation that you receive the same range of grades that you received when you were admitted (yes, every year at my high school there is someone who lost an admission/scholarship due to a downward trend).</p>
<p>At our high school the selection for senior awards (and monies attached to those awards) are made a few weeks before graduation (we we do eliminate students from some awards who have made a slide since the mid year grades)</p>
<p>Most importantly, as whoopdeedo stated, in the event that your child may want to transfer, she will need that high school transcript in addition to the college transcript. Also your daughter may be seeking other scholarships that require the high school transcript. </p>
<p>At USoCal orientation, they told the kids not to get Cs, and all would be OK. Our S did focus on his APs and got 5s on all an didn’t have to attend classes once he finished all his exams. He got his significant merit award as well from USC. Don’t know if any of your kiddo’s Us are stricter. </p>
<p>Does she have an acceptance she is happy with yet? D1 was deferred from her ED then was WL at many of her top choices during RD. When she was deferred, I told her to keep up her grades and she was lucky she did. Her GC sent in her spring semester interim grades (her best grades yet) to her WL schools. D1 got off both of those WL schools. I am always one for having a Plan B and C. I told D1 that if she didn’t get into her top choices then she would need her high school grades for transfer.</p>
<p>D2 was 1 and done with her ED school, but she kept up her grades because she didn’t want to her ranking at her school, and also that’s how she rolled.</p>
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