<p>Thanks for the suggestion! I think she is planning AP Enviro for her Senior Science since she wants to avoid physics 
It is good to know she will probably enjoy it.</p>
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Our schoolās official policy is 3 days, but we were told off the record that they could really have more as long as they were keeping up with their school work. Seems like our school is more flexible about many things than they want to let on in writing.</p>
<p>Hi All, </p>
<p>Checking in and will go back and read through the last several pages.
The first semester grades were better than the first year which was terrific. Across the board exams were better.
Am planning a first college tours tripā¦the āthis is what a college can be/look likeā ie small, large, rural, urban, private, stateā¦A little less formal that when I took kiddo1 during soph yearāwhere we covered a lot more schoolsā¦
This will be to expand the mind, nothing more.
In other news, the winter dance is this week so kiddo was looking forward to that.</p>
<p>Hope all are well.</p>
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<p>Thanks Captain. Good to see you! Be sure to stay on the ship until all passengers have safely arrived in their designated ports of call :)</p>
<p>I have complained on cc a few times about the kids at our highschool not taking challenging classes. I know that we should only worry about our own kid but many honors and AP classes are only offered 1 section. (DS made a audition choir but had to turn it down this year because of schedule conflict)</p>
<p>Anyway- The class of 2014 is the first year on the 90%-92% is an A- and 87%-89% is a B+.
Past years everything above 90% was a A etc. It will make a big difference in ranking and val. and sal status. DS got report card and rank was on it. He is 2 out of 368 students and he has a smidge under 4.0. Only his APUSH class is weighted and only about 30 kids took that. </p>
<p>The downside- he has already realized that this may be hard to maintain. He is already competitive but I donāt want him to be obnoxious.</p>
<p>D is struggling with time management and hence has dropped her gpa after 1st semester sophomere year. ā¦She has taken fairly rigourous classesā¦
Good luck to all parentsā¦ I sure appreciate my folks now more than ever. Sureā¦ Kids donāt come with a manual .</p>
<p>Our DSā14 was inducted into the NHS tonight! And, he just turned in his class schedule for next year. I canāt believe how time is flying by!</p>
<p>Hello! Just thought Iād introduce myself. Just joined CC. I am a mom of 3:S graduated HS last year and has been working as a āmanny.ā He has also turned me into the grandmother of a now one year old. D is sophomore (more on her the next few years). Also D in kindergarten. My D is meeting her counselor today to pick her classes next year. She is taking the best classes she can, as far as honors and AP, but it is scary how those are the last classes colleges will be looking at before decision time. Anyway, looking forward to getting to know you all!</p>
<p>Welcome jessmom3! You certainly have a wonderfully full plate! Iām sure youāll be able to add some gracious perspective to our board. It is rather anxiety laden to be choosing those Jr year classes, however schools will also see the rigor chosen for Sr. year when evaluating students. They just wonāt have first semester grades when they get the first glance at them. First quarter/semester Sr. year is very important as well!</p>
<p>Thanks blueiguana! So, colleges see the senior classes you picked during their admission process? She will have a lot more APās senior year.</p>
<p>Yes, your students GC sends a transcript that will show classes being taken Sr year, and depending on when sent first quarter grades. An updated transcript showing first semester grades will be required as well when available. Colleges donāt want to see rigor of classes slacking off Sr year (or grades slipping).</p>
<p>Yes, my son is choosing classes for Junior year as well and what heās picked looks challenging!</p>
<p>AP Lang, AP Calculus, AP Government, honors chemistry, honors economics, and then 4 credits of computer science at the local technical school. </p>
<p>Iāl keep my fingers crossed for him as this year he is going back and forth between Bs and As and Iād rather he hold a steady A average than take all these AP classes and get Bs.</p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>My oldest pushed, pushed pushed herself through high school. Sheās doing the same thing in college. She entered just one credit short of sophomore standing and will be a senior in terms of credits by this time next year. I really, really wished she could have learned the value of moderation, or slowing down, of relaxing. But I have no idea how that might have happened.</p>
<p>In other words, if your ds really wants all those APs, you wonāt be able to stop him. So what if he gets Bs in them.</p>
<p>He is taking good classes. Where is his English class? Does the cs classes at the technical school count toward his gpa? My belief is that a B in an honors or AP is better than an A in regular. Are these the course levels recommended by his current teachers? As long as his teachers say he can handle those levels, he should be good. </p>
<p>My d is taking: American Lit A/AP Language & Comp, CAT A, Am Hist A, AP Government, Spanish 7-8, Physics, and an accounting class.</p>
<p>Summer Plans for a Scholar Athlete with Little Apparent Intellectual Curiousity?
New to this thread, and just started posting on cc this week, though Iāve lurked for a while. S1 is 2013, a bright and sometimes motivated musician, is our primary focus at the moment, and Iāve posted about him on the 2013/2017 and music major threads. S2 is class of 2014. Iām puzzled about helping S2014 have a meaningful summer. Heās super-competitive, so far securing perfect grades in all honors, but his only real passions are baseball and football. Academically, he most likes math. He doesnāt want to do any extracurriculars except sports, at which he trains very hard. He probably has D1 aspirations, but D3 with academics a priority seem more realistic. May be a battle looming if heās D1 recruited (how do you predict?). He isnāt interested in looking at summer programs to enhance his education or explore something special. Even though he likes math, and is very competitive by nature, heās not interested in math competitions. I think he just likes the problem-solving aspect of math, and heās not sure whether heās interested in engineering or finance. Heās only mildly interested in considering his college options at this point, which is fine, but I feel like he needs an intellectual or other nonathletic pursuit this summer to go along with the baseball and football. Any ideas? Maybe I should just put together a nice reading list for the time between games and workouts? In addition to wanting to help him find a passion which isnāt dependent on being injury-free, Iām concerned that if he decides down the road that he wants the Iveys to consider him, heāll be missing the extras heāll need to standout. Heās such a good kid, and he works so hard that Iām tempted to just let him do his own thing, but Iām afraid heāll regret it later.</p>
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<p>Glido - congrats on the NHS. If possible, push him to consider running for an officer positon in NHS. Our S '11 was president of NHS his senior year and the leadership role helped him quite a bit in his interviews and on his EC area of his resume. NHS seems to be one of those EC organizations that has value and meaning to the college adcons.</p>
<p>Welcome to the new members and posters. Get ready for a very interesting ride over the next two years! Just remember that while the senior year is very important, the junior year is the critical year for academics, ECās, and most sports. By the time you are a senior, you are applying and the colleges want to see a continuation of course rigor and EC / leadership participation from your junior year. Your GPA is from the first three years of HS. Your grades may not count for EA or ED as those decisions are made early in the school year. For RD applications, the first semester will count and could help your GPA a bit if you are uptrending.</p>
<p>dpr2-Iāve never had a kid do anything academically meaningful during the summer, unless you count driverās ed. (True, I often wonder if I belong on a lower echelon college parents forum.) I push the kids to get a job over the summer, and I wonāt take ābad economyā as an excuse for not working somewhere doing something. Thereās always a detasseling crew. Yes, I am a big meanie. But you know what? It hasnāt seemed to put the kids at any sort of disadvantage. I donāt think youāll regret it if you let your s do his own thing.</p>
<p>Cruisnfamily and jessmom3, do your schools have any limits or restrictions on how many AP/honors classes your student can take? I had a lengthy conversation with our college counselor who said that itās important to keep in mind that in addition to their course load, they will have to take the standardized tests and extracurriculars. She suggested no more than three (and at the most four) of the accelerated classes. Our school doesnāt offer AP until junior year and we have to āsign offā on more than 3 accelerated classes. Itās a pretty rigorous college prep school; most graduates will tell you that high school is more difficult than college! Weāre looking at not just forecasting for junior year, but senior year so that we can also take into account the time required for college applications. Itās so different than when we were in school, isnāt it? I just showed up at my SAT test with my sharpened pencil!</p>
<p>At some high schools, there isnāt much choice. You either take a bunch of APs from a pretty young age or you end up in classes where no one cares and have to put up with unruly kids. My 2014 son is already taking AP lang, AP Spanish, AP stats, and AP econ/U.S. govt along with physics, online beginning Chinese and band. These arenāt typical sophomore choices but he started high school courses in middle school and the alternatives arenāt very good. I am a little worried about him finding time to study for the AP exams, though. It does take more than a decent grade in an AP class to score well. Heās on speech team and percussion team and doing a leadership program that involves 8 hours of training and 20 hours of service a month. He wonāt really get a chance to veg out until July.</p>
<p>My DS 2014 is selecting courses for junior year. After junior year he will have taken 7 AP courses. If he were to take one more, he might be eligible for recognition as a National AP Scholar. My own thinking is that would overkill, 7 is close enough to 8. </p>
<p>Any opinions / experience?</p>
<p>As I remember it, to get the AP award they also have to have the corresponding test scores. So you have to consider your students ability to carry that many courses AND do well in them (not kill their GPA) AND pass the AP test. If they take the class, compromise their other classes, and donāt pass the AP test, they are no further along, and possibly worse off then if they took one less class but did better in them. Only you know your student and can help them make this decision.</p>
<p>Our students are restricted to no APās freshman year, and one sophomore year, so it is very rare for them to hit AP Scholar by their Jr year.</p>