<p>The summer AP workload varies by school, from none to a lot. You have to find out for your school. AP US History here they have to read and take notes on the first 5 chapters of the book, and write some essays. There are several books for AP Lang, but less summer work for science and math AP’s.</p>
<p>At our HS, it is true the top kids take a lot of AP’s. Your child’s anticipated schedule sounds fine to me, unless he is vying to be in the top 10 graduating in his class. Your first story about the girl in the nail salon says he should be fine getting into good colleges. Our students all have to make tough choices when they schedule. My D knows taking an elective she loves will keep her from being val, because it is not weighted, but she enjoys the class.</p>
<p>From the research my D13 did, AP Lang and APUSH at her school have the SAME kind of time commitments - reading lots of books. She figured she could do one or the other, so picked English. </p>
<p>All this talk about visiting colleges on this forum made me decide to ask her whether she would visit one college during spring break. She said yes, just one. Off we go!</p>
<p>BerneseMtn: Have fun on the visits. I went alone on them with my D and it was such a great bonding experience. I’m glad my S is receptive because, now that D is mostly out of the house (at college), I’m getting to know him better and our one trip so far has been so much fun. He likes the same music I like! I didn’t know that before! He’s going to teach me all the words to We Didn’t Light the Fire during our college road trips. But no Rocky Horror; he thinks it’s wierd (while D loved singing that with me!).</p>
<p>APUSH and Junior Year schedules - My son is in crash mode write now. No way could he handle that many APs.</p>
<p>SUMMER - The only AP at my son’s school with summer work are the English (Lang and Lit). All English courses have summer reading (3 books) with writing projects (2) at our school. The APs simply have more books and poems and written assignments (3 plus journal). </p>
<p>LINYMOM – Does your son multitask and organize well? This may be the key.
Is he a fast reader? APUSH covers quite a bit of material and in our school much writing. He will also have the heavy reading/writing in APLang. </p>
<p>For our school, asking individual teachers wouldn’t get me an accurate answer. I think the focus should not be if your son can do the work, but instead if he can do THAT amount/level of work across 5 subjects. For our family, my son could academically handle the depth, but he cannot time manage the amount of home assignments.</p>
<p>What is your/his final goal?<br>
To get AP credit transfer? Be aware a number of LACs I’ve looked at limit the number or AP credits given. Alternatively, he could self study the material.
To get the “Most Rig” bos checked by counselor? Ask the GC directly.</p>
<h1>To get into a top school? Lurking on this forum I’ve seen kids with only AP/IB courses and kids with only 2 or 3 APs by graduation getting acceptances at the same colleges. I believe a kid taking 3 APs plus college level language with 5 core academic courses in the same year would not be hurt or helped by 1 AP. Just my opinion.</h1>
<p>Interested to know – What is the number of classes your kids take? Of those what is the number of core academics?</p>
<p>I want my son to reduce his academic courses next year to 5. Does that sound resonable?<br>
This quarter he has 7 and it is far too much.<br>
He has to take an art course and ethics before HS grad and I think it may be better to do it junior year. My thoughts are to protect his GPA and reduce his homework to a level he can handle without sacrificing sleep. He is worried it looks like he is slacking. If taking 5 academic courses, he’ll have 2 APs (APUSH and Lang), 3 Honors (Latin, Physics, Calc), plus complete all required electives. If he takes 6 academic courses, it will be 3 APs, 3 honors and 2 required electives (semester each). Thoughts?</p>
<p>In life there are few opportunities to truly savor. If she is interested in the music theory and not so much in writing, I vote for the Music Theory.
Many of our local districts have done away with music, so I see it is a privilege to receive an education in music theory.</p>
<p>Yes, he multitasks and organizes well. Does not procrastinate. He is NOT a fast reader (much to the surprise of his English teacher because he does so well). Thanks for asking this question because that is EXACTLY my concern. All that reading would bog him down - not the work, not the writing, not the studying.</p>
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<p>Yes! That is the question! Adding it to the list I am bringing with me tomorrow (so I don’t forget any of my questions).</p>
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<p>First of all, I need to have this conversation with him today. I want to know what HIS goal is, which should really drive this. My goal is that he gets into the schools he wants (show rigorous schedule) and has a chance at merit aid. He’s going to want to go to a top school (Lehigh, Hopkins, Brandeis) and that will be expensive. I will have to find schools where is at the top of admittance so he might get merit $. Good luck with that, right? He is motivated to study for SATs so that will help because those numbers will be important. I would love for him to finish in top 10 of his class (approx 450), but I have to see if that is important to him. (My D was in the top 40 out of 470 and wasn’t nearly the student he is, so I think it’s do-able for him.) The credit for college isn’t really on my radar.</p>
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<p>Now to answer your question. This year, S has full year: math 12, global history, spanish, english, chemistry, band. Half year are genetics (honors - I got him into this extra science elective even though it’s not for sophs) and a required half-year health course. Since this is my second time around, I do not think it’s the number of courses, but rather the student’s work ethic. My D was big-time procrastinator. Your S’ courseload looks good with the core courses. Let him take a fun elective - something that he’s interested in. I know our HS has a lot of interesting courses - from sports marketing and forensics to intro to stocks and bonds - just not a lot of time to take them!</p>
<p>My older son’s APs, although they did not count toward GE’s like my daughters did, did get him out of a freshmen writing class and satisfied the “constitution” requirement (APUSH + AP GOV). Which gives him some wiggle-room at college to explore other things, plus they gave him sophomore standing as a freshman. He is a math/science guy and the majority of kids in his college classes had AP Chem and AP Calculus BC, neither of which our high school offers, and he feels inadequately prepared compared to them. I would definitely agree that, at least for my kids, APUSH was easier than AP World (or maybe just more interesting to them).</p>
<p>Wow, I need to stay on top of this thread. It’s starting to move along.</p>
<p>Longhaul, our kids take eight classes on a block schedule. Most take the four cores, plus a language. Electives are wide-ranging – AP Euro to sports to music/art classes. Five classes at our school would definitely be slacking, but that’s our school. You’re only allowed to not take a full load as a senior, and even then I don’t think you could take as few as five classes – well, I guess one could be an office aide, one an independent study and then take an off period. You’re only allowed one off period as a senior.</p>
<p>Linymom, the graduate is happy where she is and has the advantage of hindsight. The junior boy is in the throes of competition with his classmates. Not surprising that they have different opinions. You have good questions for the GC. Maybe one more is the ask the number of APs other top students take. Does your ds know where he wants to apply? If so, it would be good to know how she thinks he/his schedule measure up.</p>
<p>Also, you may have said this – Does he attend a public school or private? I guess I’m wondering how knowledgable this GC might actually be …</p>
<p>x-posted with linymom – got distracted by phone calls and a salad!</p>
<p>I am usually hanging out on the Parents of Class of 2014 (highschool 2010), but have also been trying to keep up with this thread for D2.</p>
<p>Question. I swear I saw recently some postings about review book recommendations for AP World. If that was on this thread, can someone tell me approximately which post to look at?</p>
<p>Unfortunately D2’s teacher is the pits. D1 had a fabulous teacher and loved the class. D2 dreads the class and i fear is learning very little. To make a long story short, the regular college prep sections seem to be doing fine, but the AP sections are having a lot of issues. D1 had the Princeton Review book (although I doubt that she used it very much) and did well on the AP exam. </p>
<p>It makes me sad that D2 hates history.</p>
<p>Next year she is looking at taking AP Chem, AP Lang, APUSH, Spanish 2, Honors/Accelerated Math III (new integrated math curriculum, but is pre-cursor to calc), Modern Dance IV, and mandatory PE class.</p>
<p>My D is finally finished with her semester exams that started before winter break. I just wanted to report that there is hope for all of you whose children have been working so hard in AP World with less than stellar results. My D finally got the A that she has been killing herself for on the exam! I don’t think she’ll stop smiling for a week.:)</p>
<p>PSAT results are also being delivered this evening at D’s school.</p>
<p>Sorry - Had to jump on a conference call in the middle of this great conversation here!</p>
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<p>Since he’s only a soph, we’ve just started looking. He didn’t like Penn (city), but loved Lehigh. Wants to do the Honors IBE program there (integrated business and engineering). Going to Hopkins over spring break; if the weather cooperates, we will try to check out RPI during mid-term week, when he’s done with his tests. I will talk to GC about his courses vis a vis acceptance to this level of school</p>
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<p>Public school - about 450 or so per class. Lots go to SUNYs. Lots stay local. Some (not a lot) go to top privates: Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, NYU, BU, BC, UChicago. Only a few Ivies from last year’s class (Cornell). This year’s val got accepted ED to Brown (son of a friend of my H), but I don’t know about others. GC is ok. Very nice, but I feel the urgency more than she does. I think she is more worried about the kids at the bottom than the kids at the top. Let’s see how she reacts to me tomorrow.</p>
<p>“Question. I swear I saw recently some postings about review book recommendations for AP World. If that was on this thread, can someone tell me approximately which post to look at?”</p>
<p>Our AP World teacher suggested Barron’s, which we got, however I also got Cliff’s because it has questions at the end of each section which was helpful for studying for class tests. I also got him the notecards which my son seems to like.</p>
<p>PSAT results are being handed out an evening next week (with Princeton Review there to “explain the results”. Next year my son will be taking APUSH, AP English, AP Biology, Spanish 3, Trig/Precalculus, athletics and an elective,(maybe Journalism or French 1). At our school AP Bio is very tough.</p>
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<li><p>He wants to be as high in his class as possible.</p></li>
<li><p>He wants to get away from the goofballs (and specified about the goofballs in his global history class!)</p></li>
<li><p>He wants to go to a top college.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Junior year is notoriously the toughest year for all the kids from what I gather. My S has no choices to make - his schedule was set when he was accepted into his magnet program freshman year. He will be taking: AP English Lang, AP US History, AP Physics, Precalc (regular), Directing for the Stage (2 periods/2 credits), Theatre Production, Varsity Choir and Show Choir. He will be at school from 8-5 everyday. Not a fun year, but at least he will have his drivers license so he won’t have to take public transportation (or mooch rides like he does this year).</p>
<p>Happy New year to all!!!
Haven’t been here for a while
Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, I wanted to add something about AP Music - do not have your kids attempt it if they have not played an instrument for a while. It is quite a challenging class!</p>
<p>Update: Meeting with the GC went well. Thanks to all of you and CC, I was ahead of her on several fronts! She thought that the 3 APs, college language and the honors US History was a very rigorous schedule, she pointed out that “all” the top kids take all APs. Then, she backed off to say “most” had all APs except for maybe in one subject. Unless S comes home and tells me he wants to shoot for the tippy top, I’m good with the honors US history. </p>
<p>Regarding summer HW, yes, of course for all APs. But the GC said that’s not a reason not to take any of them and that the teachers could work with us. I will try to get the assignments after Memorial Day (school doesn’t end till end of June).</p>
<p>She copied a few pages for us from a college search book called Rugg’s (I had never heard of it) - she copied for us the most selective and very selective colleges for engineering (which is what S is interested in). Very useful.</p>
<p>GC is the one who nominated S for some leadership awards. It’s good to stay on her radar so she continues to think of him when these opportunities arise.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your insights and good perspectives.</p>
<p>LI: Rugg’s is a great resource, although when I mentioned that once here on CC I was told all the reason’s why it wasn’t. Just shared it with friends who were visiting for New Year’s. It’s another resource in the collection but I thought it really helped to focus things when you’re looking at specific majors. The newest edition is only available in electronic pdf form; no more printed books :(</p>
<p>Just set up a college visit over Spring Break. U of Richmond.</p>
<p>It is on the afternoon of Good Friday. I expect the campus will be emptying out, but as it is not far off our travel route for vacation so we’re stopping. </p>
<p>YDS - My son would love block scheduling! It would provide the variety he wants in time schedule he could manage.<br>
Just wanted to clarify, he WILL be taking 7 classes, but I want him to restrict the core academics to 5 and fill the 6th/7th with Art, Ethics, and other “required” to graduate electives instead of filling the 6th/7th with APs. His school does not permit any “open” or study hall periods, except for fall senior year where there is some elective cleverly named and is basically a period for working on college/scholarship apps.</p>
<p>Ours is also a block schedule, and we all love it!
Classes for next year? Not sure about all of them, but AP Chemistry, AP English, most likely AP/IB Spanish, math at college, AP Euro, TV Production , maybe AP Economics, maybe AP Computer Science. His school is very, very competitive, something I did not realize till a few months back. There were some kids there taking APUSH as freshman. It also looks like the top kids at his school take all the “necessary for graduation classes” like health, computer literacy etc. online.</p>
<p>I have one problem that I have no idea how to deal with. I am a little shy to talk very openly with the GC, I am afraid that I will make an impression of a very pushy, overly controlling mom with huge ambitions for her kid. I feel deep inside that DS has a decent shot at the very top schools but I am having problems expressing this to the GC. I would have a problem asking her for example how DS compares to other top kids, from his grade and from previous years. Any suggestions on how to deal with it? I do not look or act like a shy person, she would probably never believe that I am having problems with this issue ;)</p>
You have good questions for the GC. Maybe one more is the ask the number of APs other top students take. Does your ds know where he wants to apply? If so, it would be good to know how she thinks he/his schedule measure up.</p>