@rbc1999 Congratulations! How nice that the waitlist admit came now instead of in the middle of the summer!
I’m enjoying reading about all the lock-in parties. Neither my HS in Colo. nor D17’s HS did/does them. It sounds like a great, fun idea!
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Congratulations @rbc1999!! I’ve visited UW many times, due to friends and family living in Madison. It’s my fav of the big schools up here in the upper Midwest! ISU is great too, but you can’t beat the views from Union Terrace, on Lake Mendota! I’m sure your daughter will do well there! Our large HS in the Twin Cities send about 75 kids to UW each year, second only to the U of MN!
And everybody - Do not be fooled by Bucky Badger’s cute and quaint appearance. He is a fearsome creature!
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/08/the-worlds-most-fearless-creature-is-the-honey-badger/
@rbc1999 Five more tests in 3 week yikes. That’s a lot of test for the last week of school. Was this not an AP test? Does the AP not count for placement?
My son has decided in a way to go backwards. He took AP Calc AB last year and did well. His choice for the fall is to jump right into the second Calc class, or take honors. He does need to finish second semester Calc for his major. He doesn’t feel comfortable jumping into the second semester of Calc because he hasn’t seen it in a year so instead he’s planning on trying to sign up for the honor Calc sequence. It means he has to take another quarter of Calc, but it’s a subject he enjoys.
As for Physics defiantly have her take the Physics with Calc. And finish Calc before she does. I honestly think that if you understand Calculus it’s the easier way to go.
@curiositycat333, all students are required to take the UW math placement exam prior to registering for classes.
The Calc AB AP exam counts for college calc credit, but only if she gets a 4 or 5. I think that my D’s teacher is trying to get them more prepared for that placement exam. If she doesn’t place into Calc BC then she may or may not re-take Calc AB. It is not necessary for her major. I totally agree with you about Calc and Physics. She said to me just the other day that she would have done much better in Physics last year if she had known Calc. I told her that it would be the same as last year if she took the non-Calc Physics class because they would be trying to explain the science with the wrong mathematical tools. I don’t this she needs Calc BC for introductory Physics.
Your son is very smart to retake Calc if he needs it for his major! I don’t think my D will make it to Physics for at least a year since she also needs to take 2 semesters of Chem and 2 semesters of Bio plus one sem of Physics in her first 4 semesters. She needs them to apply to her major in January of her sophomore year. I wonder if she can take a refresher course right before she takes Physics or if it’ll start out slow enough on the the math.
In my Daughter’s Cal I class, more than half had had calc AB or BC in high school. She had not. She got an A and many of them did not because they considered they were retaking it and thought it would be easy. Nope.
Interesting morning here for E1.
Attended a local scholarship breakfast where he was awarded a 1K scholarship. It is for students from his HS, a total of 10 kids received the same award. Grad class is about 300. Mind you, I’ve no clue how many applied but know is twas more than 10 lol.
Every single other student was a 3.8 and above (yes, they read the gpa’s lol) and I believe only one 3.8. The rest were 3.9-4.
They spent a decent amount of time on each kid reading their accomplishments, in some cases a bit from their essay or the LOR submitted. It really was nice to see that outside of the gpa itself, his rigor definitely matched the rest and his EC’s and service at least equalled and in some ways exceeded. It was, in theory, a service based scholarship and it was nice that a non traditional kid without the top gpa was recognized for being exactly who he is.
I’ll take the LOR excerpt praising him for his civic participation and servant leadership over the one that mentioned the person being in the top 2% of math students they’d ever encountered. Not that that isn’t super impressive mind you! Nice group of kids, several we’ve known since K but as a rule, academic superstars which S17 definitely is not
Bottom line is there’s a lot of hope for the 3.0-3.4 kid and raising good, well rounded kids…still matters.
@rbc1999 My son’s plan is a CS major. While it is required for the major, it’s not really something you HAVE to know how to program. Honestly Linear Algebra & Discrete Math are more important. By the way it’s confusing but AB is 2/3 of the BC material. So if you really have AB solid then the next class should include some review.
The honors calc is mostly intended for math majors, but CS majors take it as well. You have to have a 3 or better on the BC or or 4 or better on the AB, or get a very high score on their internal placement to take it. Oddly can’t get credit for Honors A and Regular B. It’s a proof based approach that my son will enjoy. I already know my son has a 5 on the AB test so he doesn’t need to take the placement test.
Not sure if my son will take Physics again. He has been talking Physics (without calc since our H.S. won’t offer the calculus version). If he wants the BS vs. BA version of his major he will need to take Physics will Calculus. I have suggested he not take that till he has Calculus & Multivariable behind him. (Although Multivariable isn’t a requirement.) He would not get to that till sophomore year.
UCSC is on a quarter system (3 quarters make up a full year) and they only take 3 classes (for 5 credits) plus labs full time. He also needs to take Linear Algebra and Discrete Math. I’m suggesting he take 1 GE class a quarter, 1 CS class a quarter, and 1 Math class a quarter till he is done with his math & GE requirments. So by that plan there isn’t room for Physics till the math is complete. (Probably winter/spring sophomore year.) Of course that means it again will be a year between taking calculus and using it for physics. Maybe he can double up & put off some GE classes for later.
Congrats on the recognition and on the money. It is nice to know that kids other than supergeniuses and grinds can be recognized (words from a self-confessed grind).
We just got an email that Techson17 is getting departmental honors. In his case, that probably means an award for auto tech or maybe a theater award, although it’s not technically a department in our school. Generally, no money for these awards but he is still hopeful for some community ones.
At our school, there is a departmental awards night, sports awards night (which only my D ever was invited to) and community scholarship night. There is also senior supper, where they get their yearbooks, and senior breakfast.
Congrats to your civic-minded S, @eandesmom!
@eandesmom - wow, congrats to E1 for being recognized for his service, (so glad that the GPA didn’t hold him back from getting the award).
Thanks for sharing - makes my day!
Just waving hello to my peeps here! Been so very busy at work I haven’t had time to keep up with this thread! Hooray for all the good news, and a cup of soothing tea for all who are dealing with end of year craziness–classes, senior activities, theatre/musicals/recitals, summer jobs, internships, etc.
^^^ me too! busy at work that is.
I still plan to do one more giant update.
Happy Friday! I hope all are well. We are definitely still in slammed mode around here. S17 was loaded up big time on tests, projects and homework this week. Which means it remains to be seen just how strong he finishes. It will definitely be fine but will it be enough to hit that magic 3.5 cumulative?
Too close to call but my gut it he is going to fall just a tad short and end up with a 3.49. Which really kinda bites! I suspect the chances for more money even if he does hit are slim, but darn it, it would be cool if he could get the honor cord. Not that they’ve gotten back to me on how that would work given the timing of cord sales and uploading final grades. I figure I’ll wait till we are a lot closer to ask again about it.
Our school uses Canvas and all of a sudden yesterday, it is showing up half in arabic.
Makes it a bit hard to read.
LOL!
@curiositycat333, I have a degree in Computer Sciences from the UW and I had to take Calc AB and BC plus two more classes that presuppose Calc. I was, sadly, math stupid and started my college career in pre-college algebra. I made it through though! I’m so glad that my D17 has her dad’s math smarts.
@eandesmom congratulations on the scholarship, and I am more impressed by your son’s civic participation and service leadership, too!
Today was senior skip day. D17 was on her way back from the State Park where all the seniors spent the day when she saw my car parked at a garden store and pulled over to see why I was there. Perfect timing, as I was ordering the flowers for her grad party and picking out a wrought iron trellis to rent to make a photo display for her grad party. She has strong opinions about these things, so I was glad she showed up and was able to chime in!
@CoyoteMom, I thought about you and your son yesterday when I drove to O’Hare and passed the Beloit exit on the highway. I hope he has a great time at BC!
@endesmom LOL Half in arabic. Make it a bit hard to read.
I am watching my kids GPA with 8 more days of real classes left. My son is sitting at a 98.9 in his CS class. Never seen him with such high grades in anything. And C+ in 3 of his classes. I’m fairly certain that at least ONE of those he can pull up to a B-. And fairly certain unless he doesn’t show up for his finals, he will get the required C in all his classes to keep his spot at university.
On math placement… Way back when, my high school didn’t have calculus, but I was considered a math whiz in what was offered–the advanced math was basically turbo-charged pre-calc, trig, and linear algebra. I aced the college math placement exam, and because I was in the honors college, they placed me into honors calc. It was ALL proofs and theory when I hadn’t even seen any of the nuts and bolts calculus yet. I studied like crazy for the 1st exam and got a C-, very sobering… But a light bulb went off when the prof asked (on the day he handed that exam back) how many in the class had taken calculus before, and all but 2 of us raised their hands. While I could’ve limped along, that day I dropped to regular calc. And started that class on the day they had their 1st exam–without specifically studying for it, I got a B+, and got a 3.5 in that class, so it was definitely the right move for me–especially since I needed more of the calculus applications instead of the theory for chemical engineering.
So, I’m encouraging S17 to be careful with his math placement–he’s basically a political science/international relations major, so he doesn’t NEED calculus, but there’s a good chance that his math placement score will place him there. He also will likely not place out of math–he’d need a 4 on the AP Calc exam or a rock star math placement score, so I’m hoping he and his advisor choose wisely for him. I’m guessing upper level algebra, and then he’ll probably need some stats for his major.
@eandesmom Congrats on E’ s award, it’s awesome that they recognize his,service and character! Good luck to him on the 3.5 GPA. I’m fairly sure that S17 will keep his >95 high honors, so he’s happy about that.
@techmom99 Congrats too your S on departmental honors. We just got invited to our school’s ceremony for that, too. I’m thinking it’s for S17 having over 90% average on his Regents exams, but it could also be a history dept award since all the tippy-top GPA kids are STEM kids. We’ll see…
S17 is so relieved to be done with IB testing. Last night, I could visibly see the weight lifted from him as he was so much more relaxed and joking around with his brother. He won’t have any final exams, and only has 1 final presentation for English as substantive work left. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that as it’s a presentation on who he is now, what he’s doing next year, and what his plans for the future are. Otherwise, I have no idea what he’s doing for the 4 weeks until graduation.
S15 got his spring semester college grades yesterday. Fall semester was really rough for him, so I was nervous. His academic transition to college has not been smooth, so I was happy with a B average for the semester, and he pulled his cumulative GPA into the B- range. His college transition has me a little nervous about S17 keeping his scholarships, but they’re different kids, and I can’t hold S17 back because of S15. And S15 is so much more than his grades, so we we focus on his strengths and are pushing him to plan out some career/future goals so that he has an idea what he’s working toward after graduation in 2 years–Eeeks!
@MSU88CHEng Sorry you got placed in the wrong math class. You might have liked it if you had the correct background. But it sounds like switching the the regular Calc was a win.
What do you mean placing in upper level algebra? Why if he has already taken Calc. Sounds like he just needs a Calc based Stats and depending on how he did on the AP. He might be good to take that class. Most universities have more than one level of Calc. There is the Calc needed for business/econ majors, Calc for math & science majors and honors for Math or others who want the theoretically side of things.
@techmom99 Congrats on the departmental honors. It’s very nice to see these kids honored. My son got an invitation to the Honors Ceremony. Not sure what he’s getting my I’m curious. I’m hoping it’s more than just acknowledgement that he was Commended for NM.
@MSU88CHEng - Congrats to you as well. I believe that Techson17 squeaked out a 90.5 average on the basic regents so he will get the honors diploma, NOT the advanced diploma because he didn’t take alg 2/trig. However, although our school notes it in the graduation program, there is no separate honors ceremony for it.
@curiositycat333 - Thank you. It is nice, but it’s Hell Week for the second production he is teching this month and I told him I want him to go to the ceremony, but he isn’t sure if the director will let him - she is apparently missing it herself.