<p>I was just checking my emails from my school and as it turns out my S best friend and another girl he worked with all year in Calculus got 5’s on the AP test. Another girl who is his friend and is also going for Valedictorian got a 3 also. </p>
<p>All this talk about AP’s is like a foreign language to me. Our kids’ high school offers very few AP’s, and it is rare for the kids to take an AP course prior to their senior year. </p>
<p>I understood @fflmaster’s question about AP’s vis-a-vis selective schools to be more about admissions than about getting credit. All high schools send a ‘school profile’ along with the applicant’s transcript. It lists the AP courses that are offered at that school, and their policies regarding AP courses. Colleges basically are interested in kids who are challenging themselves to the extent that these courses are offered at their high schools. If a kid is taking a rigorous curriculum at their school, it doesn’t matter how that compares to the number of AP’s taken by other applicants from other schools. Proverbial apples and oranges. Our kids’ fancy-pants private high school sends a lot of kids (who’ve not taken a single AP class at the time of their application) to all sorts of elite/selective schools.</p>
<p>That said, I do think that my older son who’s heading off to college next month is at a relative disadvantage having taken only two AP courses, but (risking repetition) I don’t think it affected his applications/admissions.</p>
<p>Asleep, that would be my general understanding as well. As long as your child has challenged him/herself instead of just skating along with an easy schedule, that’s the priority.
Our school offers either 14 or 15 AP courses, none to freshmen. Other high schools in our area offer more (notably Calc BC, Capstone and the languages). So presumably, my kids wouldn’t be penalised so much for not taking as many or as wide a variety of APs as the kid next town over, assuming they didn’t stop at…say, five instead of twelve.</p>
<p>It all comes down to what the counselor flags the rigor of your schedule to be. I assume if a school offers 15 APs and some kids take 10 some take 2, they won’t have the same flag on the counselor rec.</p>
<p><a href=“https://recsupport.commonapp.org/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=33014&questionID=794&task=knowledge”>https://recsupport.commonapp.org/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=33014&questionID=794&task=knowledge</a></p>
<p>Check out the school report and the flags the counselor will be using on page 2 of the school report in terms very demanding, demanding etc and the other questions they are required to answer.</p>
<p>I couldn’t resist posting the link below. My kids’ school doesn’t do a valedictorian thing (not that either of them would be close), but I have been really impressed with the craziness (described in this and other threads) regarding juicing one’s GPA to be #1. Thought that some of you might find this piece entertaining:</p>
<p><a href=“http://tbo.com/plant-city/plant-city-highs-valedictorian-sets-record-with-her-grade-point-average-20140528/”>http://tbo.com/plant-city/plant-city-highs-valedictorian-sets-record-with-her-grade-point-average-20140528/</a></p>
<p>How the heck do you even calculate a 10.02? Even weighting an extra point for IB, for honors, DE, AP, whatever…if your base is 4 points, what else can you tack on? Attendance? Penmanship?
S16 is, I think (not sure, we’ll see) pretty much out of the running for V/S. He’s still in the top 5, but it’s now at the point where the top kids are slugging it out hard and he won’t change much without an insane amount of effort (extra online classes, etc) that I don’t really support him making. (He has to sleep sometime, and possibly, just possibly, have a life.)<br>
And…well, band. Two periods a day without quality points is pretty much sinking that ship before it even sails. Kind of silly when they give quality points for second year hairdressing (seriously, they do), but there it is.</p>
<p>@petrichor11, you get an extra point for Honors and AP classes. So it can actually be out of 5. I didn’t read the article but I have no idea how to get a 10.22.</p>
<p>Here is my dilemma for next year, my son is taking 4 AP classes, that is going to cost me $360. Again, I could have him go to the local CC and pay somewhere between $12-$16 for all the classes. I guess the price of books eats up any savings.</p>
<p>In my area the elementary district started a foundation a few years ago so that anyone who went through their district and then graduated from a local high school with good grades and no discipline problems could attend 2 years at the local CC and they (the elementary district) would pay for it. I have always thought it is a good option.</p>
<p>@Mysonsdad you can rent the books. I’m doing it for D16. It’s ranged from 25 to 65. I did it on amazon </p>
<p>You know what, why didn’t I think of that? I am currently finishing up a Masters Degree and I rented my books. Big Duuuuhhh on my part.</p>
<p>I rented from <a href=“http://campusbookrentals.com/”>http://campusbookrentals.com/</a> this summer. D taking 3 classes at our local cc this summer. We paid just $1 total tuition and rented 2 books $11 and $18 each.</p>
<p>Texaspg, the concern I have is when our high school is sending the profile with say 13 AP classes and my son’s transcripts don’t show him taking as many, I believe that would hurt his acceptances. </p>
<p>He wants and is qualified to take the AP classes, however his guidance counselor is saying the times the AP classes are offered conflict with his required high school graduation classes. Like Spanish 4 and Chemistry. </p>
<p>So the guidance counselor is saying he can only take what is available (less rigor classes offered at more periods). </p>
<p>As I said, my concern is when applying his rigor will not show as challenging only because our school doesn’t have the available times. They want to say we have all these AP classes, but only one teacher per class. </p>
<p>My DS does not yet have his class schedule but I am concerned that he may have a similar issue. He still needs to fulfill an art requirement and has a very short list of what classes (2) he has any interest in taking to do that. He has requested an art class for this year but may have to choose between it and an AP. He also has an interest in taking Chinese which will be offered for the first time this year. He has suggested dropping computer programming 3 (AP was last year) but I think that looks better on his transcript than the Chinese since he already has 3 years of Latin. We will wait to see his class list in August and then have to decide within a few days. I am also hesitant to have him take Chinese since the teacher is a complete unknown. Why risk the GPA and class rank on an unnecessary class? TBH computer programming 3 may fit that category as well but I can see him doing CS if engineering does not work out, also those programming skills will likely be useful later. Recruiter at our most recent college visit encouraged APs but not AP stats for an engineer BTW. Said Chinese was a better use of his time. </p>
<p>I really don’t chime in here much because I’m knee deep in the college process with '15; I will not be chasing the golden ring for '16 even though he is quite capable.</p>
<p>I’m now in the court that teen agers need a chance to grow…</p>
<p>Both have shown a maturity about discovering what they would like to pursue and it did not come from checking a box.</p>
<p>I have seen with my own eyes the anxiety and stress we are placing on these kid’s shoulder and I refuse to partake.<br>
Yes, the process (college admission) is different but the results should be the same: developing self sufficient adults.</p>
<p>I completely agree Hoosier96! I am encouraging my DS to pursue those colleges that fit him best. He will not be applying to any Ivies. However, I am also encouraging him to live up to his abilities by challenging himself in HS. His real attraction to APs is getting his college and HS basic requirements in 1class. He LOVES the idea of taking no English or history in college :-). My concern about GPA and class rank is more about scholarships than admissions. There are high quality OOS programs that meet his “wish list” of requirements and that become financial matches if he maintains his current stats and achieves the mid-range of his projected ACT/SAT. Test prep this summer will be very targeted and low pressure. More brushing up on math he is well past than anything else. </p>
<p>@Hoosier96 I agree with what you are saying, I have been telling myself I need to back off. It is just so frustrating when I see my kids just not trying. Although my S has said he wants to be Valedictorian and that is his own doing. Trying to get him to study for SAT’s is just so frustrating.</p>
<p>I also have have a D11 who is just not interested in getting her life started. She always struggled in school, got in with the wrong crowd and is more interested in partying than finishing her education. She does work as an EMT in an emergency room and she wants to be a nurse which is awesome, especially because the hospital she works at has already told her she has a nursing job when she finishes. The downside is she just failed an anatomy class (missed the drop date) at our local CC and is moving at a snails pace. The LA Fire Department is hiring and I keep trying to tell her to apply she needs to study for the test but there is just no motivation. She took the test last year and failed it because, even though she went to their test training sessions they never told her to study gears and pulleys, so when it got to that section of the test she had no clue to what she is doing. </p>
<p>fflmaster, we ran into the same problem this year. AP calc and AP world were offered the same period, which messed up S16’s schedule. It was also the only time we could fit the 4th year language class into D16’s schedule. “Oh well you can self-study,” we were told-- and they did that, right up until we were told at registration time that the testing fee (which is covered for AP class students) had become our responsibility.
For another AP class, I might have paid it. World is kind of pointless, really, it’s not a requirement and the best it’s useful for is getting a general category out of the way. So we didn’t bother. But yeah, I sympathise with your situation completely.</p>
<p>And the other attraction to APs (as a parent and for the kids) is that, really, the honors classes are often pretty dumbed down here. Lots of Cornell notes and “read the chapter and color this picture”. Seriously. Coloring. </p>
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<p>It should be easy enough for the guidance counselor to answer how they mark the school letter based on classes taken. If he/she is advising you to not take the AP, it is important to find out what they will say on the letter.</p>
<p>In our school there are 25+ AP classes offered. However, someone taking PreAP or AP gets the same extra point and so one could theoretically take no APs but still be ranked very high in a class by the time of graduation. It will work out fine applying in state where top 10% have to be given admission. However, it would be hard to apply to elite colleges and be taken seriously if 25 students are submitting applications with 10 or more APs at the time of graduation while our kid has only 5. </p>
<p>Celebrating a bit because DS did well enough on AP Euro and AP Comp Prog to get credit at the schools he is currently interested in. It feels so good to know those first college credits have been earned!</p>
<p>@hoosier96 I hear you about the goal of developing “self-sufficient adults.” My S16’s academic performance has been below his potential (for example, he got a 5 on AP US Gov, a class he failed fourth quarter). Unless he really changes his habits in junior year, most elite colleges won’t even consider him. But he just got back from a service trip where, according to the chaperones, he worked hard all day without complaining (painting houses, mostly) and then came back to spend a few hours writing his novel, because that was his personal goal. I’m so proud. </p>
<p>We are still getting S14 off to college and so he’s getting more attention right now, but once he’s gone we can address how to help get S16 through high school with less angst than we’ve had so far and headed in a good direction. He now knows he <em>can</em> work hard when he wants to.</p>
<p>@mysonsdad I am sorry for your frustrations. Getting into the wrong crowd is something we know could derail our S16. Nursing is a great field. Fortunately these seem to be opportunities she can keep trying for and maybe she’ll bloom eventually. Is she living at home? Does she pay rent?</p>
<p>Hello, I posted way back on the first couple pages and then only lurked. Older s just graduated and we will move him 9 hours away the end of August. I think our biggest misconception with him, is that the large merit scholarships were easily awarded to many. He applied to 5 schools, all in different categories, he was leaving doors open knowing that October applications are not equal to April maturity and wisdom. We set the budget at “state school cost” and he ended up with a full tuition award at 44,000 a year. </p>
<p>Others have commented to take baseline tests early- to get an idea of scores. I think IF it is worth paying 60 dollars for- it is worth a timed practice test in a quiet place without the cell phone. It helps calm the jitters and familiarity = less stress. right now, s’16 is taking practice SAT tests and will take oct SAT right before the PSAT. PSAT/NMS has big money potential for families that will not qualify for any need based aid. </p>