<p>StanfordMan, I would guess that there isn’t a noticeable difference in overall applicant quality from one year to the next, and certainly nothing you’d be able to discern from a few data points here on CC.</p>
<p>But since you asked, my S didn’t take any APs freshman or sophomore year. For Junior year he’ll have English Language, Calc AB and Physics C Mechanics. For Senior year, Chemistry, Biology, Calc BC and most likely one of English Lit, French or Psychology. (he’s planning to study engineering). This is pretty close to the realistic max at our HS, though not particularly impressive compared to many kids here on CC. He will probably come close to (or succeed at) qualifying for USAMO which would be his primary “hook” for his reach schools.</p>
<p>I didn’t take any APs first two years either. As a junior my cores will be:</p>
<p>AP Junior English
AP Calculus AB
AP Biology (I will have to take AP Chem as a senior since it was cancelled this year)
AP Spanish (skipping 4)
Normal US history</p>
<p>I wanted to take AP Euro as a junior and APUSH as a senior, but with football and track I don’t think I could handle 5 APs let alone 4, so I will have 3 free periods spread throughout the year. Is that excessive? I need them to get my homework done since football practice goes very late.</p>
<p>I am currently interning at two separate companies here in Jakarta, Indonesia. Also while here, I’m in the process of getting funding for launching an original academic/social website. I will return to Colorado at the end of this week. Needless to say, I want to attend Stanford and I also am a legacy. Are international internships considered just interesting or am i just doing something unique here?</p>
<p>Stanfordmom- anything more than 2 ap classes is unusual at sons hs. He took APUSH last year- got a 5 and a A- so he feels good.
He has 3 and lots of summer homework
Ap stats
Ap euro
Ap Lang.</p>
<p>Also has physics, honors pre-calc and Econ (school requirement) and a 3d art class
He is serious about school and already formed a study group for euro. His friends’ moms love him for this.</p>
<p>As to whether the free periods are excessive, it’s really hard for anyone here to tell because we don’t know what’s normal at your HS. At my kids’ HS no one is allowed any free periods, so it sounds like a lot to me. The thing to do if you’re concerned about how it will look to colleges is to ask your guidance counselor how the rigor of your schedule stands up to that of others in your HS. Your GC will be asked:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s reasonable to ask your GC if you don’t know how they’d answer that question wrt your schedule.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the international internships will be viewed. It may depend on what you’re doing there, but it sounds like a great experience for you in any case!</p>
<p>Yea mspearl! I’m hoping the second time around will be easier just because everything isn’t an unknown and new. Still, since it’s a different kid, I’m sure there will be different issues. Just when you think you have things figured out, BAM! The come up with a whole new set of problems that kid 1 never thought of!</p>
<p>I’m having a really hard time helping kid #2 come up with a list of schools to check out. Well, I think we have some reaches picked out, but after that, I’m not so sure. In particular we’re having a really hard time finding a financial safety (in large part because he doesn’t want to go far from home, and our in-state public U is not a financial safety unless he is a national merit finalist, which he might be but we certainly can’t count on it!)</p>
<p>We haven’t narrowed it down to big/small city/country, etc. yet either. So much to figure out…</p>
<p>mathmomvt: At this stage I think that is fine. He is starting to think about it so that is awesome. My youngest and I were looking at schools and like my oldest - believes going out of state to be the best thing ever.(She ended up instate) She has attached herself to Whittier in California (this isn’t going to happen unless we fall into a pile of money) but I didn’t shatter that dream tonight.</p>
<p>I think as we visit schools during her Jr year she will become more realistic and I will also just slowly introduce her to the reality of the situation. I am just excited she was LOOKING and thinking about school today. A more realistic option for her grades that she is interested in is Guilford so that may actually earn a visit. But we will start in Ohio and expend out I guess.</p>
<p>Yes, it is easier this time around because I am more familiar with the schools but she presents a challenge because her GPA is not a 4.0 like sisters. Right now she is 3.3. She did awesome on her standardized graduation tests so I am hoping that is a good sign for the act… And I told her tonight that this is the year to work her butt off and get that GPA UP UP UP!!</p>
<p>Excited for the school year to begin because for the first time she seems interested in college and realizes she has some work to do.</p>
<p>I shatter the money dreams up front. I wouldn’t tell them not to <em>apply</em> to a school unless it is clearly impossible to pay for (doesn’t offer merit aid and/or need-based aid for our income bracket). But I counsel strongly against getting their hearts set on anything until we know how the $$$ is going to work out (with offers in hand). That almost worked too well on my first, who didn’t get excited about anything college-related. It was nice because he took the rejections and schools we eliminated for bad financial packages in stride (and almost as a relief for simplifying his choices), but I worried that he would have trouble choosing in the end since he’d been holding all the schools at arm’s length. But in the end he found a school that felt right on the post-acceptance visits and got “excited enough” though honestly I sometimes still feel like he is doing what he feels he “should” rather than really being “into it”.</p>
<p>Us too. D2 already knows what I can pay a year, and we’ve asked her to have 2 schools on her list that come in below that. She’s got a reach (not admission, but definitely financial). She’s really hesitant to do much more looking. I’m pushing. She’s resisting because she wants the reach. We’ll hope she becomes more realistic as the year progresses.</p>
<p>Mspearl… I was thinking that S14 and I need to have that “UP UP UP” conversation too. We’re going on vacation next week. After that, we will have this chat. He will nod his head agreeably, and then ignore me, so we will probably have it many many times.
Blueiguana and pacnwmom, my D13 is a huge Pooh fan too. Funny how that Bear of Very Little Brain so captivates people. She has an iPhone case with Pooh on it. Took me ages to find for her at Christmas but I think it was her favorite gift, though to my mind the silliest.
Love all the chatter building here… I’ve got a split focus between my '13 and '14 kids. New Naviance data is up showing the class of 2012 so I’ve been investigating that. Hoping a nice upward trend is pleasing to adcom people… and that S14 manages to do it again this year. Junior year is just so important… I hope he really “gets” it.</p>
<p>89W - When I dropped S2 off in C’ville last August I left a card under his pillow that said:</p>
<p>“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.”
― A.A. Milne</p>
<p>He tacked it on his cork board over his desk, inside out, so he could see the inscription. :)</p>
<p>S14’s grades are good, so that’s not an issue. I think there <em>is</em> an issue with impressing a humanities teacher enough to get a nice recommendation out of one. He ended up with an A- in honors English last semester, but his grades were very spotty (including some failed reading checks) and his teacher clearly believes that he was lazy in his readings for class, etc. He hates history, so a history teacher is unlikely to be a good bet, and he says he no longer likes his French teacher (sigh) so I don’t know what’s going on there.</p>
<p>What I really want to push is studying for the PSAT. If he can make NMSF, that greatly increases the range of financial safety schools available to him within a reasonable drive from home.</p>
<p>He wants to take an expensive trip to Israel next summer with his friends from camp. We told him he has to earn $1000 toward it. But my DH suggested maybe we should make studying for the PSAT and other similar goals his “job” this year, and let him earn the trip by meeting certain goals (PSAT/SAT/ACT scores, improved consistency in English grades, math competition goals, etc.) On the one hand I don’t mind him not getting a job and spending more time concentrating on the “Junior Year stuff” needed for college, but OTOH, effectively paying him for doing these things he should be doing on his own motivation for the benefit of his own future feels a bit wrong…</p>
<p>Glad to see more activity here, too! I hope to learn a lot from those of you with older kids that you are either shipping off soon or filling out applications soon!!</p>
<p>Our first official college visit was today! Washington University in St. Louis. They were having an “engineering day” today. I don’t know if every tour is as busy as it was today, but there were a lot of people there! I’m guessing 300 in the information session. We had about 20 on our walking tour.</p>
<p>The campus was beautiful! I’m afraid it may spoil me for future visits at other universities. Lots of green area and old English style buildings – even the new ones! Brand new engineering buildings, too. The area of St. Louis that the campus is in is really nice. I was really impressed with the campus.</p>
<p>We also did a drive by of Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, MO. It looked like they had some brand new dorms. The campus itself seemed small. An interesting thing on that campus was the different examples of energy sources that I imagined the engineering students worked with - old fashioned stacks (coal power??), electric substation, solar panels, windmills. </p>
<p>We’re making lists for reaches, matches and safeties. Trying to decide where to go next … and when we’ll have a chance to take another trip!</p>
<p>We are back on the grid after a week plus vacation. We spent a couple of days touring colleges in North Carolina for D-14. S-11 was beyond bored as he toured a copule of the same schools two years ago. This was the first set of real campus tours for D. We saw Wake Forest, Elon, Duke and Davidson.</p>
<p>We then hit the beach for a week in Hilton Head. Soaked up some sun, ate too much, D played tennis every day, S and I played some golf and AvonMom relaxed and worked on her shoulder rehab. Got back into the office this Tuesday and have been there 15 hours per day or so it seems. S is back to work and has come to appreciate what 70 to 80 hours per pay period looks like in his paycheck. </p>
<p>D-14 is off to Chicago tomorrow where she will spend a week at the national HOBY leadership conference. She is beyond excited to go. It will be her first time flying by herself but she should be fine as its a non-stop into Midway and there will be group greeters there to meet her and other attendees and shuttle them to the Loyola Chicago campus where they will spend their week.</p>
<p>mspearl - Your Ohio list is off to a good start. I will suggest other Ohio schools including Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Dennison, Xavier and Miami. If you have any questions about John Carroll you can PM me as our daughter-in-law was on the admissions staff at JCU for about 5 years. She left early last year when our second grandson was born.</p>
<p>Greetings from balmy Chicago, where I just dropped D14 off at Loyola for the HOBY World Congress. They are expecting over 430 students from all over the globe. D14 is extremely excited and they were greeted enthusiastically. We just spent the week on a whirlwind mid-west tour: Macalester and Carleton on Monday; Wash U St. Louis for Academic Options Day on Tuesday; Northwestern on Thursday and Univ. of Chicago on Friday. D has now ruled out smaller liberal arts schools in favor of a larger university setting. Every tour was so different. Mac doesn’t sell bottled water on campus so even though it was over 100 degrees outside, they didn’t provide any water! Carleton gave us bottles as we walked in the door! Wash U provided a buffet breakfast, lunch and frozen custard plus a very comprehensive tour and smaller group interaction with the deans of each school. Our tour guide at NU was a theatre major and was so enthusiastic, it was contagious. Univ. of Chicago was by far the most beautiful campus and we had a very informative tour guide. Gave D a lot of food for thought (I already have my favorite…) We met some really interesting kids also touring. Reinforces how competitive this process is going to be in a year. D was grateful we got a head start. She felt bad for the rising seniors who have some serious decisions to make in the coming months. Hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine!</p>
<p>Nice to hear about the college visits you are enjoying. I’m hoping to take my D14 on some visits in our area in late August. Beadymom, How did you hear about the engineering day at Wash Univ in St Louis? I would like to take my daughter to a tour like that if close to home. We live outside of Philadelphia. Thanks.</p>
<p>PennMom - Actually, a friend found it for me! There was a visit calendar on their website and tours were available everyday, but some days were for specific topics (like PDXSuzanne’s Academic Exploration Day a few days before the Engineering Day). You may just try googling the school’s name and “engineering day” and see what comes up. </p>
<p>PDXSuzanne - How did Univ of Chicago compare to WashU? We’ve been on Northwestern’s campus before and it is really nice, too.</p>
<p>Thanks Avondad! Wooster is definitely OFF her list because it is very close to where we live (like 20 minutes away) I wish it was on her list-wonderful underrated school. My D12 was admitted and almost went to Kenyon but I don’t think D14 has the gpa and probably not the test scores. :(</p>
<p>Both girls hate Denison because they go there every year for cheer camp - i know silly reason but they refused to even consider it. I never thought about xavier- I will have to look into that one. And Miami has such a beautiful campus I think we will definitely visit that one with D. I think we are waiting on test scores to add Ohio Wesleyan -that was D12’s #3 and they give amazing merit scholarships to about everyone.</p>
<p>One thing I have learned on here the past year or so is that it is easy to feel intimidated and believe your kids cannot compete with others. I think that really hampered my D12’s college application adventure. Kenyon was the only reach school she applied to and ended up with a prestigious writing scholarship, accolades (and a personal gift and letter) from a national book award winner and the largest grant. (They meet 100% need) </p>
<p>It is my fault too- she wanted to apply to Swarthmore and Bucknell but I dissuaded her and I feel really bad about it now. I think she would have had a chance with her writing ability. </p>
<p>So that is my 0.02 cents about this process. Don’t limit yourself and if your kid wants to apply to more than one reach school let them! You know your kid better than people on this site.</p>
<p>Back to the topic of delivery of AP scores - I hope everyone has received theirs by now. I was surprised to learn over the weekend that even though D14 received her scores in the mail on July 11, her friend (same high school, same AP class, same town…) didn’t receive hers until July 16! The only difference between the girls is that D14 was already in the system, having taken an AP test last year.</p>
<p>mspearl - I don’t know what your daughter is looking for in an Ohio school, but we have friends who rave about Ohio Northern.</p>
In particular we’re having a really hard time finding a financial safety (in large part because he doesn’t want to go far from home, and our in-state public U is not a financial safety unless he is a national merit finalist, which he might be but we certainly can’t count on it!)</p>