<p>@arisamp my son is also considering U of R as a safety. I think they offer some nice programs, and are competitive but not overly so.</p>
<p>He took his first two AP’s of the year yesterday. Said Spanish was very hard and Stats had material on it that the teacher hadn’t reviewed.</p>
<p>At our school the teacher generally gives them a practice test as an early final exam. We’ll see if the “real” score is anywhere near what my D got on those (did pretty well - but she’s ready for a full number lower on each real AP).</p>
<p>I agree it depends on what school you’re using them for - less academically intense schools will give you gen ed credits for 3s, but more selective schools want 5’s. A 4 starts to resemble a silver medal at the Olympics (one person once called it “the medal that means you lost”, meaning that in team sports the silver medalists just got knocked out in a game, but the gold AND bronze just won).</p>
<p>Anyway, she’s taking the tests because she has enough stomach and pride, and because she has a good shot at at least a 3, which could mean a lot in the long run. If she gets a 5 on something, fine. </p>
<p>I agree about not using them to place out of tough college classes, especially if it’s your major. My D1 laughs when she compares AP Bio with her Bio foundations course, just no comparison. But for a humanities major who can place out of a distribution requirement it’s pretty attractive.</p>
<p>Signed D up for SAT 2s AND the ACT again in June. Someone suggested she leave one of them for the fall, but she wants to get her apps in early, and is following her GCs advice to have the scores in hand. He says taking additional tests where the new info rolls in just doesn’t seem to work as well. So she’ll have a couple of weeks of h**l but then probably can be done. If she wants to do ACT one more time for some reason, that’s up to her.</p>
<p>One does feel that one is paying someone’s whole salary with these fees, though! Man.</p>
<p>Good luck to all kids taking AP exams. We have tried not to make a big deal about them, thinking our son has enough pressure right now. He has and A in one, and and B/B+ in the other (Chem lecture/lab). He is only worried about AP Chem. His teacher is very, very hard, but I do think she’s good and knows what she’s doing. I think he’ll be surprised that he may be better prepared than he thinks. He has studied well for this class all year, outlining chapters, etc. If he tests out, we may consider letting him not take it in college. I know he has to take Chem in engineering…don’t know how vital it is to aero. If it’s going to be a building block for a 200 level class he will need it again anyway. Three years is a long time to retain information.</p>
<p>That bathroom is sparkling!! I’ve never seen anyone use Q-tips to clean in hard to reach areas around a toilet seat… I was waiting for him to just unbolt the lid and make the process easier. lol 
I debated sending a note to the girlfriend, but thought better of it. I really do like her. Having her at a different school…different county even… works for both of them. They are both very busy and don’t have time for someone grabbing for attention during the week, and many weekends. Because they are both committed to studying and have a couple of busy EC’s, they are understanding of the other’s commitments. What would totally drive others apart, is what works for them. As parents, we certainly like not having the distraction on the home field! Thank goodness for unlimited texting!! lol</p>
<p>For us prom is Jr & Sr. (both schools). We bought a black suit instead of renting a tux twice. We bought him a vest and tie from the tuxedo rental co. It’s a nice silver that he likes. Gf’s dress is short for both I think. There is a mix of short and long. Usually at homecoming and prom it’s the underclassmen that wear the longer dresses because they are excited for their first formals. Whey they get older they don’t care as much and just want a cute party dress they can move in. Kids here get limos (never heard of anyone getting party buses that goodness!), but his ‘group’ (16) went through a great deal of discussion about this due to finances. They ended up with an ‘executive van’ so they could all ride together… who knows? Our prom is about 1/2hr away and some of the kids are still not driving or can not have other kids in their cars. This was a compromise. Parents stayed out of it, but since I’m paying I was glad to see that stretch limo go out the door! They also nixed the expensive restaurant some wanted (did they really want mahi-mahi or duck?) for the club here in our community. Those on a budget could get a burger or soup and salad, those who wanted steak could break the bank. One parent observed that naval carriers are sent to war with less discussion, negotiation, and planning! lol</p>
<p>I feel so sorry for D. She’s hardly had a moment to study for APUSH because her Pre-Calc and pre-AP Physics teachers have given so much work. In the grand scheme of things, it’s more imporant to keep the GPA up than to ace AP exams. But she’s mad-stressed.</p>
<p>Last night I got out the vinyl CSNY album to play Ohio and afterwards she just wanted to lay on the couch while I acted as her DJ. I played a few more tunes off of vinyl, then set her to studying again.</p>
<p>S has APUSH on Friday, and two next week - but he has been home sick all week. He is annoyed that he is missing practice tests in school this week, but it looks like the fever is finally subsiding. He took his girlfriend to her Jr/Sr Prom last Saturday and had a great time. This is a kid that I thought would never notice that girls even exist! I guess they do grow up.</p>
<p>D2 took her AP Spanish test yesterday, Calc today and APUSH on Fri.</p>
<p>WARNING: Our HS pushed the kids to indicate a school to have their AP score sent to, told them they should do it now because otherwise they’d have to pay for it later. So D1 marked down one of her potential schools. I called the CB this morning and apparently she can go back to the test coordinator at her school, request her student pack and on the back of it mark that she wants to delete the name of the school. I had never imagined that the HS would tell them to mark down a school, and while I know that official scores aren’t needed for the application process, my D doesn’t understand that. Just wanted to say something as it never crossed my mind that I had to tell her not to have scores sent immediately.</p>
<p>blueiguana - love the story about the bathroom cleaning!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments on U of Richmond. I will look into it some more today and then suggest it to D if everything looks ok. </p>
<p>D has APUSH on Friday and AP Bio/Psych on Mon and Tuesday. She is under a great deal of stress - apparently the AP Bio teacher scheduled a quiz for today and a final project due next Wed. D was mad that there really is no time for them to work on the project - at least in her case, she could pull it off if she pulled an all-nighter Tuesday night - but there are other kids in the class who still have other AP tests to take after Tuesday. Why, oh why would you schedule something like a final project for the same week as the AP tests?</p>
<p>My d’s honors English teacher scheduled their major project to be due Monday (same day as Ap physics). All the kids in the class are taking assorted APs. They protested, and she thankfully gave them sn additional week. Thank goodness or I have no idea how it would have gotten done!</p>
<p>holliesue - the kids are protesting, but so far, no luck. D did say that another kid in class (a senior) was going to talk to the dean. I would love to see her give the kids another week to complete the project.</p>
<p>Logged onto Naviance to check out U Richmond - and darn it, we don’t have enough data. For us, Naviance is really new - so there’s not a whole lot of data. Especially for schools out of our state(MA). I remember there was a link about guest access to Naviances…could someone please post that link again? Thanks in advance…</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up entomom…</p>
<p>we havent sent any scores yet–while we realize its a waste of “free reports”, wanted to see everything first, ACTs, SATs, SAT2s, APs etc and then choose.</p>
<p>We know a student who only used ACT and not SAT–got in to some great places–was a good strategy.</p>
<p>I will be sure to ask our student…
we also did not send them to the hs</p>
<p>My D will be in the same boat next year that some of you are in this year: only one AP class this year (APUSH), but 5 next year. Since she does not yet know where she will be applying, I had her take the SAT subject test for US History last Saturday, and she’ll take the regular SAT in June. She took the April ACT and did well enough so she’s “one and done” - a big relief. I’m also a little annoyed that the kids were told they HAD to list schools for these tests; D didn’t realize that she could opt not to and only send scores to the schools she was interested in after she received her score. Oh well.
I’m with you on the sleep thing; I have no idea how so many of our kids have so much going on and are able to catch any sleep time at all. I remember all nighters from college - in high school, not so much.</p>
<p>Well, I was scheduling campus visits - I was 5 down, one to go…then the last one has orientation the whole week except for Monday, so now I’m going to have to reschedule every one of them and cut out one school (because they only have visits on MWF and we would be there on a Tuesday.)</p>
<p>Here is the link to the Naviance thread</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/245650-naviance-4.html?highlight=naviance[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/245650-naviance-4.html?highlight=naviance</a></p>
<p>Cooker- I never pulled an all nighter in HS, college or even law school!!! My d already has had a few by 11th grade. It is ridiculous!</p>
<p>D1 was a night owl and procrastinator, D2 goes to bed at 1030 except on a few occasions where she’s stayed up until midnight. Thank goodness, I don’t think I could take it twice!</p>
<p>I pulled all nighters in UG, but by grad school was too old and tired ;).</p>
<p>keylimepie - thanks for that link to Naviance - but most of the accounts mentioned on there are old and the webpages are no longer valid. I know there was a newer thread discussing this - will have to find it. I know I should have bookmarked it when I saw it.</p>
<p>D is meeting with her GC tomorrow. Will ask her to see if he can give her a feel for where she stands with the other students that applied to URichmond, without breaking any confidentiality rules.</p>
<p>since our student is balancing heavy academics and heavy athletics–I am against all-nighters–
one–our student could not function the next day in class, let alone at practice
two-- i have concerns about health and mental/emotional stability when kids routinely stay up all night…
thats just what works for us…your mileage may vary :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I have said–rather see the B in that AP and for our student to sleep for 6 hrs than an A and 2-3 hrs sleep…
It may be “short sighted” - however I hope it develops balance…instead of bad habits
kwim?</p>
<p>this was in the news today</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10050503-short-sleep-increases-risk-death-over-long-sleep-can-indicate-serious-illness[/url]”>http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=10050503-short-sleep-increases-risk-death-over-long-sleep-can-indicate-serious-illness</a></p>
<p>arisamp, I just took a peek at the URichmond data from LuckyBoy’s school. The avg stat for accepted students over the past five years are:</p>
<p>4.06 GPA (out of 4.0—honors receive extra .2, .3 or .4 depending on level)
2070 SAT</p>
<p>or
4.01 GPA
29 ACT</p>
<p>MidAtlantic private boys’ school btw. Only 24 applicants, so small sample compared to other schools.</p>
<p>fogfog-I completely agree with you. However, I can’t stay up all night to ensure she goes to sleep. She knows we disapprove and I have explained to her why. At some point I think she has to make her own decisions about how she handles things. It certainly isn’t what I would choose or what I think is wise and I have let her know. I too would rather see a lower grade and a healthy child!</p>
<p>fogfog posted:
Here, here</p>
<p>blueiguana posted:
My S’s teacher has been hard too, but I think fair. He will need chem for aero. He will need to remember molecules lining up in substances in Material Science, which most engineers must take - or something very similar.</p>
<p>I also never really worried about what scores my S may have gotten. I figure anythign truly needed for his major should be taken at college. Some of the electives, like history would be nice, but he’s not taking those, they conflict with his MUN classes, which combine MUN with whatever history/social studies is required for the year, but not AP - they decided that was too much for students. I’m actually OK with that, the MUN classes are honors classes.</p>