I think where DE takes place is what matters. Most admissions officers think CC when discussing DE. Our kids DE at the local university, not a CC. However, I have been told that some of the CA CCs are outstanding. (Not ours.)
I agree that robotics is a step down from Chinese 5, but I wonder if it would really make that much of difference since it beyond 4 yrs. (I think between 3 and 4 the answer is yes. I’m not so sure about 4and 5.) That is a question a student could call admissions and ask themself. I personally don’t think for an EE/CS major that a 5th yr of language is going to make that big of a difference. But when in doubt, ask.
@CA1543 my kids love robotics, so my vote is there. It’s collaborative and it’s maker-oriented (I’m a maker of things so I’m happy when my kids are making stuff). I’m also not a fan of foreign languages as taught by schools, so the minute the girls hit their minimum requirements (D17 finished Span 3 last year and was so happy to be done with it), I’m fine with them stopping. D15 actually loves Latin and wants to keep going, and I’m fine with that, too.
@crazym0m Thanks for the feedback from your UVA trip. Appreciate that. Colleges do love rigor over many other things. I am going to see if we can ask a few college admin’s about these questions - my nephew went to a STEM high school - did not take AP English or AP US History - lots of math & science at high levels though - got into GA Tech & MIT.
@MotherOfDragons – Yes - my son is a “Maker” and very into tech, CS, using rasp pi’s, Arduino and other things - robotics has been interesting and challenging - the group does the FTC competition - pretty new to our school but actually rather rigorous and requires lots of problem-solving, collaboration and the ability to learn from experience and also to make good judgments.
@ca1543 I am with @crazym0m if your DS wants to go to a selective school, then they take rigor into account. They would rather you take AP over dual enrollment etc. My sister-in-law works at a selective school and she said they don’t look to kindly on taking it easy senior year. I personally would have my kids take the AP lit (which my D16 currently is and my D17 will next year)
@disshar same advice, try to take something rigorous if your DS is aiming for a selective school
@payn4ward I was just talking to my DD about what the prompts may be this year and if they are going to use the same ones again for the 3rd year in a row. Thanks for answering our question! I am sure that she doesn’t want to think about her essay yet, but I am happy she can make an account now, unlike in previous years you had to wait until August.
@snoozn It definitely has to be the counselor or admin BUT if there is someone who won’t be writing a letter of rec who knows her well you should have them send a note to counselor and they can choose to include part of that in their letter. Our counselor gives the kids a huge packet to fill out over the summer to be sure they have all the info before they write the rec. They also ask for a favorite teacher who is not writing a rec for them that they can touch base with if they need more personal info since counselors don’t always know students well. Since a lot of the schools my kids applied to required a math/science teacher and a LA/SS teacher that leaves out input from some teachers that may have had kids for a much longer period of time like foreign language or music. It’s a great time of year to request an appt with the GC to talk about college and be sure they are getting to know them and their aspirations.
@dcplanner great, thanks for the info! One more question – does an engineering teacher count as math/science? I’ve been assuming so but I could be wrong on that too! I’m going to be bummed if not. If he does count, then it looks like it’s just a matter of seeing the GC (which we really should do anyway). There are a couple of other teachers I think could give excellent input as well, so good to know about that option.
@CA1543 - FTC gives good experience for those interested in technology. My son did FTC for two years (team retired) and learned a lot. Only issue is takes up lot of times and it is highly competitive in big states. Only issue I had was tournaments became chaotic last couple of years with lot of bad calls.
S is in the midst of FRC. His team is in it’s 2nd year, so they are still newbies. He loves it and I am glad that the frenzy is basically AFTER college apps are due. That may be a good lever to hold over him… No FRC unless all of your college apps and scholarship apps (that he can do) are submitted.
Ha @mtrosemom my D participates in Science Olympiad. She said after the state competition last weekend that she’d like to max out with 5 events next year, just like she did in 8th before moving up in divisions. I said I would let her as long as her apps are all done by Christmas!
Another question, Has anyone toured UT Dallas? If S qualifies for National Merit, I am thinking that might be a good school for him to consider. He wants to major in computer science, mainly programming/software development (at least at this moment). Thanks for the input.
@WhereIsMyKindle - Which state are you from? My S is doing Science Olympiad this year and they just had regional last weekend and their state (NorCal) is in April. What events did your D do? in My S’s school no one does more than 4 events.
@srk2017 – it does take a lot of time - this year as a club experience - my son often stayed 3 hrs after school
and then of course had much regular homework to do. Maybe having it as a class would help the team make more progress sooner and be able test things out more - but I imagine many kids will have scheduling conflicts and most of the effort will remain after school. It overall though is a pretty good experience.
@srk2017 We live in a tiny mid-Atlantic state (you should be able to figure that out). We only have invitationals and States here. D did Astronomy, Green Generation (should rotate out to Ecology next year), and Geologic Mapping. We have a small team, only 12 this year. Some kids only do one or two events, so other kids can pick up as many as they want to the max of 5.
She loves doing the balsa events (tower, bridge, boomilever) but didn’t feel like she had enough time this year to do Bridge justice this year. Hopefully it won’t be in schedule-conflict with her other favorite events next year. She’s really bummed that Rocks and Minerals won’t return until after she graduates.
@snoozn It depends on the engineering school. My son was mostly applying to the upper tier ones like MIT, GA Tech, etc and they all wanted math/science not engineering. Engineering would work better for my daughter too because she has had that teacher for 4 years but no math or science teachers for more than a year. Oh well! You can request more than the normal 2 teachers through the common app but then the system is very glitchy trying to get the right recs to the right schools. Some schools will accept an extra rec too but not that many. I made a chart to keep track of what schools wanted what and when mostly for me for the financial aid deadlines as my son was very good about keeping up with the rest. But for my D17 I’ll need to watch the dates more closely because she is a big procrastinator.
@mtrosemom , @3scoutsmom and her S18 did tour it and were really impressed. I hope they still have a great NMF scholarship when D21 (assuming she gets NMF in TX) graduates because that will be our first choice!
@mtrosemom We are hoping to tour UTD in May. S will probably focus more on business than engineering but I’ll share info after we go in the tour. We are visiting UT Austin in March.
@3scoutsmom Thanks for the info. UTD is definitely on the list now.