Parents of the HS Class of 2017 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parent Cafe
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Hey @eandesmom - things move fast, but I’m so glad for your son that he was able to drop calc – that lost, anxious feeling is completely non-productive. Plus - what a great way to model what to do if he gets that feeling in college - way better to withdraw from a class than struggle on and wind up with an F. (Spoken from personal experience :-S. No wonder I have patience for forgotten assignments and missed deadlines. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!)

 I'm so glad he's already feeling relieved and like he has time to concentrate on his better fit AP classes.  

  On the mid-year reports, only one college has sent a reminder -- but since CoyoteSon's school will provide the report through the common app - I expect it will go to all of his schools, so that's the easy part.  

    Hopefully I'm still in a discussion with his school on the transcript -- CoyoteSon took an economics class from U Maryland over the summer for credit, and earned an A- (yay!). The high school did add to his transcript for junior year - and since I discovered that they inadvertently left off the Honors designation for both 11th and 12th grade English - I asked them to move the Maryland course to senior year (in hopes of improving the "optics" of his senior year, to have two academic classes with A's to balance the B's in the other 4 classes.  It has no affect on the cumulative GPA, and a basically negligible impact on the hundredths place for his Jr and Sr year GPAs  - I think it just "looks" better.

     Grrr - the administrative person had already moved the class to senior year, but the guidance counselor is embarrassed to have to explain the change for this course placement, even though he already has to explain how the school missed the Honors for English for two years! (Note that they sent the transcripts back in November without giving to parents to review -- I'm the one that discovered Honors was missing when I asked to see the transcript for the midyear report because I wanted this "optics" move for the economics class).   Not sure where the class will wind up, or if I'm just crazy to think it might make a difference to getting him into the schools we're still waiting on.  And I am trying to not think about waiting.

Here's hoping that trips to see colleges now as an accepted student turn out to be both fun and productive for all of our Sons and Daughters!  CoyoteSon and I are headed to Beloit for President's Day!!
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@CoyoteMom would love to hear your impressions of Beloit if you are able to share after your visit. We are trying to figure out a visit but logistics are a little challenging.

@eandesmom yay for having the decision over with. “AP study hall” sounds like a great option.

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@CoyoteMom, I hope you and son enjoy your visit to Beloit. There’s supposed to be a heat wave this weekend; high of low 60s on Monday! But maybe rain, so pack an umbrella.

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@rosered55: Ha ha on the heat wave! Though I’ve no doubt that 60s in Feb is indeed a heat wave for Wisconsin (60s is warm even for VA in Feb). We will definitely pack our rain gear.

@93pilots - I will be happy to report our impressions of Beloit when we get back. I hope everyone else posts about their trips also - I am definitely looking for distractions from the seemingly endless wait for March 31st news!

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LOL to “I’ve got this!” comments. Get that in this house. ALL THE TIME.

@endesmom Sorry to hear your son is having problems with Calc. Glad he was able to drop it if it was giving him such a stressful time. Hope it doesn’t affect his acceptances. I guess it all depends on how rigorous his other classes are and what he’s trying to major in? And I’m glad he is feeling relieved.

My D had to drop Latin 3 about 3 week into the fall semester. Thankfully we decided she was over her head before the drop date. The blank in her schedule was WAY better than a F. It meant she only had 2 years of a language but she still got into many schools without it.

I was surprised my son wasn’t the same way for physics and just melted down. He really can’t drop since he is only taking 4 academic courses as it is. He only ended up with a C+ last semester. :frowning: But it’s not that he doesn’t understand it, it’s just that he has been swamped with physics homework. Around 3+ hours a night sometimes. The class just goes super fast & had a ton of homework since it does AP Physics I && II the same year. And it’s homework you HAVE to do. So far he’s doing much better this semester. (crossing fingers) It’s not that he can’t do it, just that he is buried in work. But he is determined to finish it AND take both AP exams. And he is likely to get a 4-5, we have over a 90% pass rate at our school. He figured he put so much work into it, he might as well get the credits for college. I was told it was one of the schools hardest classes and I didn’t believe it.

@CoyoteeMom Sorry your S’s transcript got messed up. Hopefully you have it all sorted out. But I know many of my S’s schools (CA states schools) don’t even look at transcripts until you get admitted and then the better look exactly like what you self-reported.

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My S’s school automatically sends mid-year updates to all schools applied to that are shown in Naviance.

His school also requires that every student who takes an AP class must also take the AP exam. The school doesn’t weight classes at all, so it’s not tied to that.
@eandesmom --glad the calc struggle is behind your son (and you!). Given where he was in his head, I would agree that dropping it was the best call. So often the answer isn’t clear–you just have to trust your gut and sounds like you did.

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@eandesmom We didn’t tell the schools. None of them are super selective. D’s major won’t be math related. D had steady C’s in math sophomore and juniors years, so I doubt schools would expect much in math senior year.

Meanwhile D is doing well in 3 APs and a dual entry. I’m fine with a study hall. D gets a lot done in study hall

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@CoyoteMom , was the UMD course through the Young Scholars Program? TacoSon did YSP the summer before junior year, also took a business course and got an A. School informed us that since the course was taken prior to junior year, it would not be weighted as DE. It was taken one month before junior year! I wish TacoSchool had been more flexible about it as CoyoteSchool was. (Incidentally, he HATED YSP and UMD ruined big schools for him forever, despite his success in the course.)

Did you have UMD send official transcripts to CoyoteSon’s schools? Our private counselor strongly suggested we do that. It was another $8 or so per application to do so but I’m glad we did it.

@eandesmom , so glad you are all feeling the relief of no more calculus. After your news yesterday I had a good convo with TacoSon about Spanish and he feels he can stick it out, but a first-period study hall sounds SO nice, honestly. For him it is both the content and the teacher, who is really unpleasant. It’s too bad this one class will probably turn him off of foreign languages for the long run.

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First of all, thanks all for the support! It was a drama filled day and in many ways largely unexpected (at that level to be sure, though he did mention this about 2-3 weeks ago) but I do think we made the right call. Yes, we could have forced a tutor and stick it out but I really think all that would have done is add to the drama, the stress, the mental breaking point and really…not help our relationship with our S. We know he can fight through tough things and isn’t a quitter. I believe knowing your breaking point and taking action is a mark of strength and not weakness and I think supporting him was the right call.

And, on a positive note, our last result is in today. S is accepted to the University of Puget Sound. 7 for 7 :slight_smile: Or the blessing of no reaches. Which I hope helps with the calc drop scenario lol. He doesn’t know as he’s not bothered to check the portal or ask me. We will see if he does! I am keeping my mouth shut, he likes finding out by packet.

I will confess. I had bad dreams all night about it (knowing the portal was updating today). First that he was denied. then deferred adn then the persistent one was accepted but it said some other kids name

I feel better now about overnighting that theater tech scholarship app yesterday lol! And the drive down for the audition and full day there on Sat. No word on merit on the portal (WAH!) guess that comes with the mailed packet. Kind of bummed as at last weekends audition they implied merit awards would show on the portal but oh well. I don’t know if I updated here on the audition itself, it was a LONG day. They had to be there at 11 for a mandatory info session and concert. The concert was lovely but string heavy, we’d have liked some jazz tossed in there. Although there was a seriously amazing junior bass clarinet soloist. Wow! But I did learn the potential music money is a larger amount than I realized. We will not hear on that till mid/late march though on that, and no clue on the theater one. Still The day was definitely geared towards music majors. Mandatory session from 11-12. S’s audition wasn’t until 3:15! We walked the campus which was eerily empty if you ask me, but really pretty as always and then S worked on the theater app so that part was helpful. He was super cranky the whole day but…magically less so once the actual audition was over. LOL! I do admit to feeling a bit validated by his earning the Allegheny music monies…there is some talent there and it was likely worth trying for it at UPS as well.

I hope the packet (with merit) gets here before he heads to NY on Sunday as it would be nice to have all base offers in at least. It should if they mail them today.

My H and I are in agreement though. He and I chatted last night as I leave on my trip tomorrow. If S is going to go the environmental route then pushing the budget for UVM may make sense. But for anything else at UVM…we don’t see it. Either way he does need to move his major slightly there as he was accepted to Environmental Science and it needs to be moved to Environmental Studies. I’ve reached out to clarify (as it’s within the same college) to see if he needs to formally do that now or if it’s something that could be done at orientation if he enrolls. While he could go down the Environmental Policy route via the Arts and Sciences college (instead of the Environmental Resources one) we do not feel it gives him the same internship and research advantage that being in the envs college would and thus, doesn’t justify the price.

@CoyoteMom it is better to drop first in college (I did it 3 times lol). It made for 3 painful 18 credit quarters but I managed to graduate on time.

We will definitely be digging into curricula while on our trip and honestly, not having calc is going to free up time and mind space to really look at it. I do not like that he will only have 3 academic courses (plus 2 music and a PE) but the PE is required and there really isn’t anything to replace the open period with. I love the idea of AP study hall. At the moment S just wants to nap but I think next weeks break and then our trip should have him raring to go and he will make largely good use of the time. I met with our poor GC twice this week (never really in all 4 years…some emails with the previous one last year over Spanish). First on French 4 for S19 (he did not drop) and then this. Oy! But pleased with her overall. Still zero word from the calc teacher. I do like your idea (on the other thread) about taking it as a summer CC solo option…I think that has a lot of value and potential. We need to really dig into each schools requirements. I have but he’s not really gone there yet and at present our 8 hour train ride = 3 scholarship apps + curricula review. LOL!

Thank goodness you looked at the transcript. I’ve not seen the newest one yet but I did get a copy last spring and then in the fall to make sure there were no errors. Our schools do not give them to parents to review before sending but kids can request them at any time. In the fall S kept not getting the one he requested (GC says he didn’t, he says he did yada yada) so I gently nagged and they emailed me an unofficial one.

I did have his UW transcript sent directly to 3 schools and will do the same for his WWU class, depending on where he ends up. For his UW credit I wanted to see if it would count. 2 schools gave credit and the other won’t evaluate until they matriculate (but I suspect they will give credit). I didn’t send to a 4th that I know will count it and the others absolutely will not. On his WWU class…it’s only a 1 credit class. So doesn’t make a huge difference in $ the way a 3-4 credit class would. Hence the waiting.

@Hankster1361 thanks. He really hates it (that he felt he had to drop) but it was self preservation and I do think the right call. It was a gut thing and he knows he may “pay” for it later in other ways but it does seem like the right thing.

@brindlegreyhound I suspect the S1 B- will tell them what they need to know and am hopeful it is a non issue but I do think we have to let them know and preferably before they get the mid year report. Not sure we will bother telling Ithaca though since it’s off the list. And honestly, Ursinus should be off as far as I am concerned. I know S is just trying to get a peek at Philly by keeping it on. And really, I can’t blame him.

@tacocat333 I hear you on Spanish, we went through that last year with S17 with Spanish 3 and have issues in French 4 with S19. S19’s issues are totally different though than S17’s were. It will be VERY interesting to see if S17 ends up choosing a LAC that requires language, and most do. It wasn’t a deal killer for him at application time but I wonder how that will really play out when it comes to decision time! I am glad to see tacoson thinks he can survive spanish, that was definitely our mantra last year. I think sometimes the challenge really is that they are struggling so much in one class, it does hurt effort elsewhere. For S17 I think that the time spent on Spanish just to survive and get a B likely ate into AP Physics study time and contributed to the lackluster test score (but decent class grade).

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@eandesmom So glad you were able to drop it, AP Study Hall sounds great :slight_smile: and like you said, with his course load, I’m sure it’s fine! That sucks he’s stressing out about having to know NOW what he wants to do. 80% of college kids change their majors at least once. Here’s an article that might make him feel better:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-its-okay-to-change-your-major-in-college

Here’s an article about changing careers. I’ve personally jumped jobs a few times for the significant salary bump (and I’m not a millennial!)
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/12/news/economy/millennials-change-jobs-frequently/

@curiositycat333 We’re in your boat with the Physics, 2+ hours of hw a night and can’t drop it. Hopefully colleges realize it’s tough!

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@Fishnlines29 I think he’s largely stressing as one of his favorite schools could be hard to change majors at. Not so much hard to actually change…just hard to change and graduate on time (or perhaps impossible).

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@enndesmom Congrats about Puget Sound. I wondered if Puget Sound was the school of the live audition. :slight_smile: I hope all goes well with merit there.

I did tell you that when I tried to get my son interesting in Puget Sound. He really like how it had a ‘music term’ in his name. I really shouldn’t have corrected him. It’s one of the schools I wish I had pushed S17 harder to apply. They have a good CS program, nice music program. I have a good friend who’s D attends. But nope… too suburban and too private liberal arts school.

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@eandesmom Yes, I get that, it does seem to be an issue - my latest theory is that a lot of common core classes can be taken first and go toward any change in major. I’m hoping anyway! Oh and I see he got in at #7! That’s awesome, let us know when he discovers it!

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@eandesmom yay for Puget! It’s such a nice place. Son applied too and should hear today but who knows when he will check his email…fingers crossed.

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@eandesmom congrats to your son on perfect streak. Impressive!

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@curiositycat333 yep. I was very impressed that they offered him a free pre-audition lesson with the trombone artist. Not sure if that is common for this artist or just because he lived literally 10 min from our house. He will be reviewing the audition so hopefully that’s a bit of an “in”. S17 really liked the guy a lot which is a nice connection to have and the personal touch was impressive I thought (S was less impressed lol). It is interesting as UPS was the first (and only so far) LAC he has toured and it made such a strong impression on him that he filled a lot of the rest of his list with trying to “match” UPS but on the other side of the country. It will be interesting to see how those schools compare once we tour.

Your son really seems to want that feel of the bigger state school, football, marching band and all (even if he doesn’t march) and UPS definitely isn’t that. As for the suburban piece, Tacoma is not a small town and there is plenty close by and of course Seattle is only an hour away.

@Fishnlines29 it really depends on the school. At all of the LAC’s it’s a non issue and at his regional state school, also a non issue (and they don’t declare until sophomore year). However, at UVM it is. Perhaps less so depending on what the change would be but it’s definitely a concern. That said, unless he wants environmental it’s likely off the table anyway (though he doesn’t know that yet). I really truly think though there is such depth and breadth within their program itself that it is a really good fit. It is likely to come down to an apples and oranges decision between mid sized research uni and LAC and where he will fit and thrive best.

@93 pilots. Well, S did get the email and texted me in a panic not knowing how to log in. However he’s not responded back since I sent him the log in info. Good luck! Merit is either not up yet or links aren’t enabled. I hope it comes in the mail soon. It would be nice to know before the trip although we won’t hear on music/theater for a month and that could make a huge difference cost wise.

@RightCoaster thanks. In some ways S wishes it wasn’t a perfect streak as it would make things easier but I am glad for him. It also shows what skipping reach schools and targeting well can do lol.

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@endesmom I agree that my son seems to want that large school. It’s why I didn’t push. Honestly, I have thought he’d be happier at a a larger state school since he was younger. That he would be happy is larger classes, where he can be more anonymous in class.

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Reporting another Puget Sound acceptance (glad he looked at his email). Son is very happy about it! He couldn’t tell anything about the money piece of things from whatever he was looking at, though.

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Puget Sound was another one that got away (even though I was mixed about sending D17 across the country–was sorry to see it come off the list during the culling period). Congrats to t@eandesmom 'sand @93pilots 's sons!

@eandesmom sorry about all the calculus stress–glad you were able to resolve it and move away from the drama. i am in total agreement with your cost/benefit analysis. I would think your S’s rigor is just fine (and I’m really glad my D cut her losses after pre-calc–as it is, AP Stats is turning out to be a struggle for her). So now, with a perfect record, what does your S’s short list look like?

Speaking of short lists, here’s ours (nothing else to report while in wait mode, so what the heck, right?):

UVM
Denison
Lawrence
UMass-Amherst
Allegheny

That’s more or less in order–Denison, Lawrence, and UMass are still TBD. If she gets accepted and gets enough money, Denison and Lawrence could leapfrog over UVM. UMass will likely be the best financially. She’s going to accepted students’ day at UVM at the end of next week–I will be interested to hear what she thinks then, but until she gets decisions and info on $$, I don’t expect much to change.

Any others with short lists?

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@klinska

So far admittance into
IU
Elon
CofC
Which all run about the same $ wise. No additional scholarship from Elon and UI gave 2K/yr. Heard that unless Honors CofC wont really give. Given that list, CofC and Elon , she goes back and forth wait.
Waiting for
Holy cow I will play the lottery if she gets in
GA Tech for the Ivan School of Liberal arts.
Emory
Also Need to hear from
the two 60K + “reach” schools of American and GW. With them, it will all depend on $. We might get some financial aid, if she even gets in. Highly doubt any merit. Thinking is that they will be too expensive if she even gets in, so we are back to CofC or Elon (she decided Indiana is third)

I cannot under any circumstance get my child right now to go to accepted students days. She refuses go and then make a decision, will only go after she makes a decision to solidify… UGH. She is driving me crazy!