<p>It works! Welcome college4many :)</p>
<p>Oh, fabulous! </p>
<p>A bit of info: My Class of 2014 child is a typical good student with possibly too much on her plate. She just went through course registration for 11th grade and is questioning if she is stretching herself too thin for next year. She knows she will need some time to prepare for the PSAT/SAT/ACT along with AP exams. Her school is extremely competitive in the top quartile. She doesnāt want to lose too much ground in class rank(20ish of about 510ish) by not taking a fully weighted/AP schedule but she wants to make sure she has enough time to continue to do some things she enjoys tooā¦clubs, sports, orchestra(outside of school), tutor, etcā¦ </p>
<p>Iām looking forward to hanging out at CC over the next year or two as we get ready to send our first child out into this great big world!</p>
<p>I have been catching up on the 1,142 posts since the summer of 2010 when this thread started and wanted to say āTHANK YOUā to all of you great parents! We have learned a lot over the past few weeks and figured it was time to officially sign-up for CC.</p>
<p>Our DD is 16, 3.65 GPA, 183 (90%) PSAT test & 29-33 PLAN test (99%), and already getting tons of emails from it seems every college in the US ā thankfully she is smarter than mom & dad!</p>
<p>We are looking forward to the next chapter and will be checking back frequently to see what everyone else is up to.</p>
<p>Welcome SuburbanChicago - sounds like another great kid!</p>
<p>College4many - your DD sounds like a really smart kid with a lot of interests. The balancing act is maybe the toughest part of junior year. She should look closely at the teachers who are teaching the AP courses she is interested in. If the teacher has the rep for being really difficult with a lot of time consuming homework, then maybe donāt take that class. But, if the AP teacher is someone she really likes, it may be worth it to take the class anyway and not worry too much about the extra work. Some kids to better when they are busy if the teacher is really motivating.</p>
<p>āI donāt think colleges are looking so much for the well rounded kid as the carefully selected class of students. It makes sense for a student to stand out in the way that is best for him.ā</p>
<p>I think this is true.</p>
<p>Hi Clarinetmom! I lurked too for about a year, and just started posting last week. My S2013 is a musician, and when I posted on that parent thread, members kindly pointed me to the music majorās thread at:</p>
<p><a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/255424-musicians-parents-introduce-yourself-55.html#post13843272[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/255424-musicians-parents-introduce-yourself-55.html#post13843272</a></p>
<p>If I didnāt cut and paste that right, just search threads for āmusic major.ā</p>
<p>Ordinarylives and Novamom, thank you for your comments. I am going to look at course offerings tonight. S2014 announced today that he wants to take the following courses next year in addition to playing a varsity sport in Fall and Spring:</p>
<p>Calc. B/C
AP Statistics
Honors English
Honors Physics
APUSH
Either AP Latin or AP Psych
Personal Fitness</p>
<p>The AP math and Honors Physics make sense. Heās a math whiz, and likes it. The rest Iām unsure about. As a one-time Latin major myself, I canāt believe I may have to discourage him from taking AP Latin, but Iāve heard it is very time-consuming, as is APUSH. He hasnāt expressed any interest in history before, so Iām puzzled. I think he realizes he is near the top of his class, if not at the top, and heās trying to position himself to stay there. Mr. Competitive. Iām going to look at his schoolās course offerings for a sports marketing class or something like that, which would be perfect for him. He turned his nose up at home ec. Iāll have to make it seem interesting to get him in there.</p>
<p>ClarinetMom, I forgot to mention, for what itās worth ā¦ we allowed our S2013 musician to drop AP Chemistry last semester to take Personal Fitness. Chemistry was his most demanding class, and he was in danger of failing it, even though he had an A in Honors Chemistry the year before. We were troubled because at the time he was thinking he might want to go pre-med (dad is a dentist), and failing Chemistry would hurt those chances. So dropping chemistry solved lots of problems. It freed him up to pursue additional music opportunities, it helped keep his GPA up, and heās looking more buff every day! The downside is that in order to graduate with an advanced diploma, he has to take two sciences next year. He wonāt be taking an AP science again!</p>
<p>dpr2college Thanks for the link. Iāll check it out later and introduce myself when I have a bit more time. S and I discussed taking weight lifting/body building for his next two PE classes. His band director and instructor told him to firm up his stomach muscles because it will help him have better control when playing his instrument.</p>
<p>Hello, Iām fairly new to this site and this is my first time on this thread. I look forward to going through this process with all of you! S1 is already on his way, in his 3rd year of college. S2 graduates HS in 2014. He loves math and science, martial arts, and boy scouts. His PSAT scores were stellar and he received (and continues to receive) a huge number of messages from colleges via snail mail and email. </p>
<p>I do have a question for all of you regarding AP classes. My son attends a highly rigorous private school. He is currently in Algebra2/Trig Honors and basically carries a perfect score in the class. Yet when he asked the teacher which math he should sign up for next year, the teacher told him Math Analysis/Calculus Honors. I was wondering why not AP Calculus? </p>
<p>Also, he is in Chemistry Honors this year. Would he go into AP Physics, or Honors Physics?</p>
<p>He is less comfortable in English and History, so would not take AP classes there. I am worried that he might not have any AP classes when it seems like so many other students from other schools (not his, necessarily) take loads of AP classes. Isnāt the senior year too late to have the AP classes count?</p>
<p>S1 was never that into academics, so this whole AP/ Honors world is new to me. Thank you for any feedback you may have.</p>
<p>Hi and welcome calla1,</p>
<p>Usually there is a class between Honors Algebra2/Trig and AP Calculus. In our school it is called Honors Precalculus. It sounds like the Math Analysis/Calculus class might fill the same role in your S2ās school. It really just depends what your schoolās usual progression is. Same with the science classes. In our school AP physics has precalculus as a prerequisite and AP Calculus as a co-requisite, so he wouldnāt take AP Physics yet at our school. He might be eligible for AP Chemistry or AP Biology. Here kids interested in the AP Sciences end up taking more than one at a time junior or senior year. See if you can find out what the ātypicalā math and science progressions are for AP/honors kids in your Sās high school. Our āmost advancedā science progression is usually Honors Unified Science, Honors Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics and/or AP Chemistry. </p>
<p>AP classes ācountā even if taken in senior year, in terms of getting credit/placement when he gets to college. The schools he is applying to will also see that he enrolled in them for senior year, in terms of appreciating the rigor of his program. The only thing he wouldnāt have if he doesnāt take any until senior year would be any scores to show how well he handled the AP classes.</p>
<p>Welcome Aboard to all of our followers / new posters. Glad to have some additional parents along for a very interesting roller coaster ride over the next two plus years. I say this as a parent of a college freshman and a HS 2014 D. We get to catch our breath from last yearās ordeal and start the process all over again beginning this year. </p>
<p>For those of you beginning this journey for the first time, please feel free to ask questions. We will either have an answer, a suggestion, or we may have to point you in the general direction for the answer you are seeking if we donāt know. There are many of us from the HS Class of 2011 as well as parents of kids from other recent HS classes here to offer their support, encouragement and suggestions.</p>
<p>dpr2college: The nice thing about a class like sports marketing or some of the tech classes (intro to engineering or AutoCAD) at my sonās school is there is no homework. Students need the computer software only installed at the school to do projects, etc. So sports marketing was the ābreakā class that my son could enjoy. Heās not a fan of English, but he does plan to take AP his junior and senior years, because he would like to avoid taking it in college (with the exception of a lit class).</p>
<p>The other good thing about these type of electives is that they can spark an interest in a possible career.</p>
<p>calla1 - Your student will not be judged by how many APs kids in the neighboring schools took. They will be judged on how many APs they took based on how many were available to them at their school, and to a lessor extent what other kids at their school were doing. If your student takes 5 APs while 6 are offered that looks much better then the student at a neighboring school who took 7 APs while 17 were offered. It is very hard not to compare, but you canāt without context.</p>
<p>Iām also going to echo what mmvt said regarding the math and science next steps. There is almost always a step in between Alg2/Trig and Calc. We also have a co-req of AP Clac for AP Physics. Our kids move from Hon Chem in 10th to AP Chem or Physics, on to AP Physics. Some add AP Bio also Sr. Year.</p>
<p>Our hs is the IT magnet so space in the schedule is usually very limited for these kids. It is a real balancing act to stay well rounded while taking advantage of all the great classes available to them. S3 is finding this a very big struggle. He is going away from his original plan and moving more to a rounded AP schedule, keeping FL all four years. We support this based on his goals. He does not want to go into engineering so he will be evaluated with kids going into humanities. He has to take that into consideration and try to stay competitive himself within that group. His schedule is planned as AP Comp, Hon Pre Calc, AP Chem, APUSH, Spanish 4, IT elective.</p>
<p>Interesting to see schools that rank. Our school system does not rank kids so I have no clear idea where my DS falls, although I have a general sense. Whatās more interesting to me is the data our school provides on where kids like my son (GPA, test scores) applied and got accepted (anonymized of course). </p>
<p>I share blueiguanaās concern about the lack of wiggle room in the schedule. My son too goes to a science & tech magnet school (wonder if our kids are in the same school since I note that blueiguana is also in No Va!) and the courses required for the magnet school diploma eat up a lot of slots. He is also required to do a senior research lab, each of which has very specific prerequisites, so he needs to make sure that he gets those in by junior year.</p>
<p>Many kids take courses over the summer so they can fit in the required elements and still have room to take electives like band or orchestra. My son took a world history course over the summer to free up room in his regular school year schedule since he is required to have 4 years of history but did not have one as a freshman, since they have to take a design & tech class instead. So he opted to take one over the summer so he could be sure to have room to take ācoolā classes like prototyping and CAD and also get his research lab prerequisites in.</p>
<p>Our school has class rank available for viewing 24/7. Because it is a large school, class size changes often. It is not uncommon for rank to change on a weekly, or even daily, basis. For kids at the top or near the top, the change doesnāt happen often but as the overall class size varies, the percentile of the rank changes. It is very easy for kids to obsess about their rank which I do not view as a healthy thing.</p>
<p>Welcome calla, honestly if your kid goes to āa highly rigorous private schoolā your GC ought to have the best advice. That said, in our school everyone takes Pre-calc after Algebra 2 and before either AB or BC Calc. My older son says itās dumb since thereās really only about a semesterās worth of material. My younger sonās Pre-calc teacher got through the pre-calc curriculum in January and through the AB Calc curriculum by June (too late for the AP test, but still! So that might be very similar to the course they are recommending for your son. Both my kids took a physics course before taking AP Physics C, however in our school we now offer AP Physics B instead of honors physics. Physics C requires calculus. Whatever your student does, generally the minimum science for students aiming at top schools is a year of each core science (Bio, Chem, and Physics) and as many AP science courses after that as the student wants to take. Younger son took 2, older son took 3, both had had a high school level biology course in 8th grade on their transcript.</p>
<p>JH Clarinetmom, not sure how the science teacher has the power to determine a schedule anyway. Iām more concerned about the lack of foreign language since many schools expect to see at least three years in high school.</p>
<p>My younger son was able to get out of our states government requirement by taking a test and volunteering 10 hours at something community related, and writing a paper about what he learned. I think he did something similar for economics. Most students take AP Gov/Economics which basically does a month of Economics after the AP test, or AP Econ/Gov which does a month of gov after the AP test. Iād suggest working with the school sooner rather than later to find out if there are creative ways to deal with requirements like this.</p>
<p>BTW, I donāt post regularly here, my kid in 2014 college not high school, but Iām always clicking here by mistake. :)</p>
<p>Calla- In S school they have to take intro-to-calc and pre-calc before they can take AP calc.</p>
<p>mathmom- All of S teachers have to sign his course selection paper with the class they recommend he take next year. S and I spent a week deciding which classes and electives he wanted to take. We had a tough enough time deciding which ones he would take next year and which ones had to wait until senior year. His science teacher took it upon herself to sign/recommend two science classes which threw off his entire schedule. Because of this, he has to cross something off of the list (which will be the extra science class that she signed). S is taking a FL. He has and will take them all four years.</p>
<p>2014novamom - From the descriptors you have given of the school, Iām going to guess it isnāt the same. NoVa spans many counties and several of those counties have STEM and IT magnet hsās. Then thereās is the grandaddy STEM magnet for all of NoVaā¦S3 is not at that school, although we know a few students there/that have gone there and were pleased with the experience. It is unique and comes with itās own challenges.</p>
<p>Ah, just thought maybe the world had gotten smaller, thatās all. I know there are a number of magnet schools in NoVA, but since DSās school draws from several there was a decent chance they could be at the same school.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I510 using CC</p>