Thanks for this. On the one hand it’s good to know a B+ is still considered a decent grade (sometimes, I wonder). On the other hand, it makes us dependent on son’s guidance counselors to explain their restrictive AP policies to colleges.
At son’s school, the AP test itself has no impact on his grade. He has to take the test, but whether he bombs or does well doesn’t affect his final grade. I guess that’s good?
At D24’s school they can only take AP classes if they are recommended by their teachers, and only one AP can be taken in sophomore year. This policy is stated on the school profile that gets sent to colleges.
Our school is the same. S24 will never have taken an AP class upon graduation. However he is not looking at competitive schools. Does your school have Naviance or Scoir? That may help compare where your student is and college matches on your high school terms. Look at your school profile also. Don’t stress, it all works out.
Our private does not allow AP’s before junior year, and only if recommended by teachers. It’s highly unusual to move from a regular
Class to honors or AP, as juniors, even with A grades. The pass rate (3 or above) is at 90% on the AP’s kids take though. The school
Profile shows this, along with how many kids took AP’s from a list of around 25. Works out to an average of 1-2 per kid per year for junior and senior year.
It’s hard not to compare but each school is truly different.
We don’t get access to Naviance until this summer/early fall. We are at a mid-size private where nearly all the students attend a “competitive” school of some sort. Based on grades and ACT, I assumed we’d have a shot at the GW/Syracuse/Miami category if DS applied early. (DS really likes UC Boulder, so my thought was that it would be one of his “likely” schools).
Hopefully, this is all still true, but I do think it puts more pressure on DS to do well when he retakes the ACT. (He did fine the first time, but definitely wants to retake).
Our school is not too different. DS had a really tough 9th grade year - adjusting to a new school, during Covid, and managing a learning disability (dysgraphia) while instruction was 70-80% online. He has improved immensely each year. This year, he took two AP classes and did very well (A- and A-) in both of them.
I’m just venting but it frustrates me that it is so difficult to break out of one’s place in the academic hierarchy. He isn’t asking for BC Calc. He just wants to take APES!
That is very frustrating! And I love CC because it is a good place to vent about these things!
Frogger73: Don’t stress, it all works out.
Yes, I’ve seen that first-hand many times as an interview coordinator. Regarding the understandable AP-related hand-wringing that’s going on here, I’ve mentioned (perhaps elsewhere) about one year when 40 students applied to Brown from a local big-deal suburban HS – probably chock full of accomplished APers – and none were admitted. At the same time, all of the applicants (two) from a nondescript public HS on the fringe of my metro area were admitted. Siblings, in fact. Brown figured out who they wanted, and that’s who they went for. No formula, and no set rules.
spoonful1: It’s hard not to compare but each school is truly different.
One could even think of all the admissions processes at the various schools your child applies to as a helpful sorting process (“Either way, thank you Admissions Office!”), rather than a negative “gatekeeper” role. They look at everyone’s applications, and collectively figure out which students will have their best success at which schools. Had I applied to CalTech (no interest) and been admitted, that might have seemed like great news to me but in fact would have been a failure on the part of the CalTech AO.
So the students have their jobs (study hard & achieve whatever whatevers), the AO’s have theirs, and as a great mind once said “it all works out”.
My son needed a waiver to sign up for APES because he hasn’t taken chemistry. From what I’ve observed and from studying the curriculum, from a concepts point of view, APES is easier than what they teach in regents chemistry at our high school. My D21, who took both classes, agrees. S24 is much more interested in the history of environmental science and its interaction with public policy, government and law, than he is in balancing chemical equations.
We were able to get a waiver after he went and saw his guidance counselor twice. I had to sign something basically promising not to make a fuss if he doesn’t do well. @Auntlydia are you sure they won’t allow a waiver? In your situation, I would contact the guidance counselor and ask if there is a way to make an exception. Since he succeeded with two AP classes this year, I don’t see why he couldn’t go for three next year. Why do they care if kids get Bs? Or are they worried about the AP scores reflecting poorly on the school? If we had that issue, they would never allow anyone to take AP Latin as no one from our school ever gets higher than a 3 and usually lower!
We have spoken to the grade dean, and to the head science teacher. The answer is a firm “no.” The dean of the grade tells me that my son isn’t the only one - but it still feels awful. And it’s frustrating because my son’s current Physics teacher thinks he can handle it.
I think the private school wants to keep its class sizes small and they also want to maintain high AP scores overall. I’m sure they will put something on their college profile sheet, but it still leaves DS with a sour taste in his mouth - just as he’s nearing the end of junior year.
In any event, son is going to prep more for the ACT retake in June. If only for the boost of confidence, I’d love to see him move up a bit.
I really do not think either APES or APHG will make any difference in your child’s admits. Applying early would help a lot if you can do it; he has a solid record for the schools you like
I agree. I also don’t think schools should keep capable students from taking classes they are interested in. Wouldn’t it be positive for kids to struggle a little in high school in order to develop better study skills, and learn how to seek help? (Not that I think Auntlydia’s son is going to struggle in APES or HUG.)
Insisting that students avoid challenges is not good modeling for them going forward, either. When I encouraged both of my college kids to take classes outside their comfort zones, they hesitated because they didn’t want to risk getting a B. They learned that attitude from their high school. Due to liberal arts curriculums, they both eventually had to branch out, which has been so good for them.
I had a look at 2023 matriculation for out “AP’s only in junior and senior year, recommendation only” private. GW, Syracuse and UVA all had 5+ admits each (no athletes/hooks etc). Class is about 100 kids with around the top third going Ivy/SLAC so whilst hard to say, as school doesn’t rank or provide range of GPA’s- I’d say your course load and grades are quite fine for the schools you mention assuming no impacted majors.
My kid is doing 2 AP’s and 2 honors classes next year as a junior and he’s been cautioned that it is considered a heavy load. So, things are done a little differently but the outcomes will be fine I would imagine, for your DC as well.
S24 had a minor breakdown with tears on Saturday saying “too much pressure” after my husband was giving multiple reminders about things that need to be done for Scouts. This is the kid who is very unsure of life after high school. I am thankful for the conversation here about jobs because kid 2 has nothing planned for the summer.
Oh it was that my husband wanted S24 to practice driving and take him to the gas station to get gas for the lawnmower. Ended up looking like a power struggle. That and my husband has been hounding him on Scouts, which does require a bit of hounding.
I took him to the tailor Sunday for his suit jacket for prom. We bought shoes and had some nice time together.
Kid does not have a school list. One day at a time. He has decided to take AP Lit next year and I am excited for him for that (he took AP Lang this year).
We have the same dynamic in my house! Husband wants S24 to practice driving, S24 finds it very stressful and wants to avoid it, husband constantly harangues S24 to drive, causing S24 to shut down and try to avoid it always… 
I keep advocating a more “carrot” centric approach: “why don’t you drive us to get ice cream/buy those shoes you want?” Husband thinks I’m too soft. 
I think S24 will decide one day that he wants to drive and then he will just do it. 
That may not happen. S22 hate driving. We had to finally put our foot down and require that he get his driver’s license. He still hates driving. D24 loves driving. We bought her a car. She loves it. Now that D24 has a car, S22 has said he wants one, too. Fair enough, I said, prove to me you would actually drive it…still haven’t had to buy him a car. I would gladly do so. The money is set aside. He just refuses to do it. I won’t waste the money.
Totally understand where you’re coming from. My D24 is often wired in a similar way to what you described about your S24. For example:
Driving:
This is still an ongoing battle in our household and D24 has her driver’s license. DH now complains regularly (and loudly) about how much extra per month her insurance is costing us. D24 HATES driving. It didn’t help that about 3 weeks after she got her driver’s permit, she got into an accident (DH was the ‘instructor’ that day). She had PTSD from it for quite awhile afterwards. NONE of the incentives of “How about we go out for ice cream and you drive?” work on her. Earlier in the battle, we told her that having your license is a required adult skill in order to be able to function as an adult here in the US…and you WILL be getting your license. So now she’s sort of resigned to it.
About being overwhelmed:
Somebody here or in another thread a few months ago had suggested that I consider picking 1 time a week to talk to D24 about college stuff. Just for about 15 min. We’ve been doing that for maybe 2-3 months now and it’s worked out REALLY REALLY well. Has helped a lot with D24 not feeling so overwhelmed by the massive and monumental decision that she’ll need to make less than a year from now.
Some other stuff to consider:
Didn’t do our normal Sunday evening “15 min talk about college” thing yesterday w/D24. Figured I’d give her a break since she just finished all of her final exams last Friday. She has a grocery store clerk interview this evening. Leaves this coming Saturday for 9-day school trip. Hasn’t completed the remaining stuff left in her 3 Modern States courses online (Calculus, US History II, French) and I’m pressuring her to complete as much of that as possible so she can take the CLEP exams for those after she’s back from the trip.
Don’t want to wait for AP exam results (in early July) to have her take these 3 CLEP exams. D24 agreed that it would be a good idea to get those out of the way in June. At many of the public universities she’ll be applying to, course credit is only given for 4’s or 5’s on AP exams. So while the original intent of using Modern States was to beef up her understanding of these 3 subjects in preparation for AP exams, since most of those schools ALSO give college credit for passing scores on CLEP exams, it only makes sense to take the CLEP exams since we can basically do it for only $25/test (because of the free voucher w/Modern States, all we have to pay is the test center fee at the local community college).
Because of our school’s grading policy w/AP courses, we won’t really know what her grades will be for 11th grade until some time in July, maybe early August.
End-of-year choir concert was great on Saturday. My baby looks very grown up now and I’m JUST NOT READY FOR ALL OF THIS! 
End of year choir banquet is later this week. D24 still needs 1 more pair of pants for the school trip, so need to find time to do that this week before she boards the plane next Saturday morning.
I’m chomping at the bit here wanting to dive into the deep end of the pool w/my kid right now about college essays, and having her look up some more info about Centre College in Kentucky, etc., etc., but I know that right NOW, D24 is a little burned out. And tired. So I’m going to cool my jets for 2-3 weeks.
That’s interesting to hear because, in our state, one of the criteria that figures into school rankings is how many kids take AP courses. It is seen as an equity and access issue.
I don’t think I mentioned this on this thread yet, but believe I talked about it on the 2023 thread.
S23 has great college counseling at his school. When they first started (jr. year), they had the kids do general research rather than make a list of schools they were interested in. It was a great way to open up the discussion as we were just talking about big, general possibilities rather than there being any pressure to find a school yet. It seemed like a good way to ease them into what their future could look like without being so narrow that they would feel like they had to choose a specific path or feel like a failure if it a specific school didn’t work out. I know they did at least 5 schools .
Topics included things like:
housing (was it guaranteed? If so, for how long? What other options were there? )
clubs
majors
academic supports
curriculum requirements
COA and what was factored in
This got them very familiar with how to navigate the websites as well as things to look for. It opened their eyes to the number of clubs and majors available and how different schools handled academic support. It kind of took the pressure off of finding the perfect school and just exposed them to different possibilities.
I think this really helped when we began doing visits as DS knew what to look for and what questions to ask.
Later in the process, they talked about admission requirements, financial aid, etc to then helped kids take the big picture of what they wanted and match it to schools that were also academic and financial matches. I think kids were able to be pretty flexible knowing that what they wanted was available in more than one school.