Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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@jmek15 While I’m sure all will be just fine, I would totally be stressing out with a schedule like that, too! Have you checked that Calc is not a requirement for schools on his list, if he has one? If not, then no worries!

We (why do I say we?) get out June 3, the day before her Math 2 test. D is sticking around this summer, with an internship at a nearby children’s hospital…but only half-time. We’ll take our annual week off at the end of June to go to Appalachia to work on homes in desperate need of repair. D has learned her way around power tools on these trips. When we return she will be in all-out college app essay-writing mode, in addition to her internship. We have a couple college open houses/weekend programs to go to over the summer, but no regular visits.

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Wow! Pages and pages to read to catch up. This thread was really hopping today.

I commiserate with everyone about grueling testing schedules and the horrible testing situation CB thrust upon the class of 17. Our GC said that we have more students registered to take subject tests than SAT I for the May test date, so it appears that many are sitting out the SAT this year.

Son is immersed in APUSH studying. Appears completely unconcerned about BC Calc and Physics C, in that sequence, I believe. One Thurs morning, then one Fri and one on Monday. I think the USH subject test studying will all take place Friday night.

Our school allows the students to go home after their AP exam, but I think my son will stay in school for at least part of the day. Juniors are not allowed to drive to school, and many need to be there for sports practice after school, so I don’t know how many depart.

Last day of school is June 15th or 16th. (I should look that up.) Son’s Calc & Physics classes have more Seniors than Juniors, and the Seniors will all depart for their internships as soon as they finish their APs, so I do not know what will take place in those classes with only eight or ten students.

We do not have any DE or college classes, although I think students can pay some additional amount of money (less than $200) to earn U Conn credit for the Physics class taught at the HS by the HS teacher. An extra exam perhaps. Very few bother as the credit is only valid at U Conn, AFAIK.

GPA—amazed at the range. Our Val’s GPA is usually 4.35 or so. Honors & AP courses are given a .5 bump, starting in sophomore year, so there aren’t a ton of students above 4.0 (5% of the class).

Prep books…the only thing I will say is that the lenient curves of the AP exams do not seem to exist for the subject tests. Rumor always had it that one could score an 800 on Math II even after having five or six incorrect. I never understood how anyone knew this to be true, since the score report never revealed anything. An 800 on Math II is the 81st percentile, meaning that 19% of test takers scored 800. So, I do think it is worth taking a look at a subject test book, at least for a couple of hours.

My son seems to think that his physics and calc teachers have prepped him adequately for the AP exams, but he plans to self-study for the physics subject test in June and he is spending many hours prepping for APUSH, b/c the teacher isn’t doing anything until this Wednesday.

I am sure I have forgotten a subject addressed today, and more messages have probably emerged while I was typing this. Onward!

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Post Script…for anyone who has not yet ordered the Fiske guide, I think the updated version comes out July 1st. The book does not change much from year to year, other than to update the stats, which anyone can verify on the CDS. Since colleges update the CDS in October, the 2017 Fiske guide published July 2016 includes 6th semester enrollment data for the class that entered Fall 2015. Confused?

I recently tossed my 2014 Fiske and have not felt the need to buy one for this son. It is a wonderful resource for the first time through, but I don’t find I need it this time.

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I agree with the Fiske Guide…I really delved into it when I first purchased it…D not so much except the pages I copied for her to look at on our spring break trip. I don’t seem to look at it much anymore. Great resource to quickly look something up, though.

D was asked to write a ‘reflection’ essay for her BC Calc class, which she did tonight. In it she reminded the teacher that she would like a recommendation letter from him. That, in turn, reminded me that he sent out a 9 page ‘recommendation information form’ he would like kids to fill out, like, 3 months ago. I’m guessing we not only have to ask him for a LOR, but provide this to him before the end of the year. I’m guessing we ‘should’ to do this for the GC and her other teacher (so they have the option to work on it over summer). Another thing to get cracking on…

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Wow, so many messages today while I was flying home from disappointing Science Bowl nationals.

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I found out some less than thrilling news today.

The school moved the kids test site from a district facility to our back gym. My initial reaction was that it was great as no busses to deal with.

Turns out they did it so kids wouldn’t skip class before or after the test. The principal actually confirmed that was the reason. I get it and in concept support it, however the building is open, next to the main gym where apparently some kids ran in screaming today during the psych test and there are some other activities in the building going on. S is beside himself as it will not be an ideal test environment (he liked the district site a lot). Not good for my adhd squirrel. He also thinks all kids have earned the right to skip on testing days. I didn’t agree with that point!

@jmek15 you deserve that wine! I’d check admission requirements for schools on your list, check if they are direct engineering admit or pre-engineering and if that major has specific requirements. I just ran into this for my S17 today. One of his top picks requires Chem and Physics to apply to the school of engineering. He will not have Chem as he is taking APES. S is debating between energy engineering, environmental engineering or energy/environmental studies/science so APES is key. I will have to see what his options would be if he applies into one of those but then wants to move to engineering if he takes that Chem class. We may need to revisit his schedule though next year if he does get a PE waiver. That’s not how he wants to spend that waiver but it would be best. Not sure if I can convince him, I will wait till late summer when we really see what the application list looks like and majors/colleges reqs.

It also means I’ve got to go back and look more closely at requirements for everything on his list. I will say that MechE is a very popular and competitive major, it has come up as having higher requirements at some schools than others for stats. I don’t know that I’ve seen calc as a requirement, usually 4 years both science and math and it may include precalc.

I also found my first 3 year FL requires school so very glad I made S take year 3.

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@HiToWaMom I’m shocked we aren’t on the same test schedule. Kind of funny really, I just realized if the tests were at the district facilities and not at the HS’s, our kids would be taking the test together lol. We’ve got physics tomorrow and Lang next weds.

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Kids kept me up late tonight as we all tried to figure out “What IS that darn song stuck in S’s head?” (He could only hum it but D and I recognized it – just couldn’t remember from where). Case closed after much research, so I guess I can sleep after all!

I was wondering the same thing about others as far as weighting on concurrent enrollment classes. D will take 4 semesters next year. From what I could see in the guide, they will not be weighted. Well, too bad. Still worth it just to see what college classes are like and get the whole experience for part of the day. Here, the classes are all on campus. Scheduling can be difficult and classes can run out of space, so it seems like she needs to present them with a million options.

Perusing the guide, I also noted that our school district doesn’t do ranking, vals or sals. Instead kids can graduate Summa, Magna or Cum Laude. I doubt D will be eligible for one of these. I’m guessing it will be kids who are doing the full IB as well as engineering. At least this has the rep as the toughest track. Could also be tons of AP’s plus engineering.

@srk2017
Sorry the science bowl didn’t work out great, but at least your kid made nationals! My S18 got the flu during FBLA state and is really bummed he won’t be able to go to nationals. He could have gone last summer, but a bit low on the $$.

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@CA1543

Thanks for the essay book recommendation. How did you decide on this one? There are so many to choose from, I have no idea which to choose. Bummer that it is only available for Kindle.

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@snoozn So, what was the song!? I’m gonna guess “Smoke on the Water?”

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Good luck to the Comp Sci and Spanish APers!

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@srk2017 sorry nationals didn’t go your way

@snoozn what’s the song? I’m currently spending my day at jury duty so give me something to hum to pass the time away. I am always singing, so much so that my family makes fun of me. I even make up songs to go with my activity of the moment. I don’t even realize it. Hopefully I’ll keep quiet in the courthouse

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@nw2this – re the book I recommended for essays - yes only on Kindle for now - I really appreciated the guidance about how students can/should peel through the superficial layers, avoid bragging or writing a resume type essay etc. and actually tell something revealing about themselves and make it compelling to schools. So for me it was the examples of the thought process, finding the important nuggets in students many experiences, observations, personality traits and then harnessing those nuggets or even just one to convey something truly unique and special about the student in a way that no one else really can - and that sends a positive message about what kind of a person they are. I have 4-5 other college essay books too – if anything really strikes me positive as I read them, I’ll report back.

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Has anyone read “The Gatekeepers?” It is an admissions book written from the perspective of a few admissions counselors. A few spectacular admissions essays are highlighted in the book

They were wonderful stories that were so deeply personal and literally painted a picture from the inside out of what these students really “were” at the core.

These essays are entirely different from the type of essay I always assumed the schools wanted. I don’t even remember writing an essay so I had no idea!

@CA1543 … I will download that book! I think it is SUCH a gear change for these kids to go from ACT/SAT essay writing to admissions essay writing… All within a few months.

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I did get them out of the library because I wanted to see if they could be helpful, but I then bought them because I want D to mark them up and put tabs and other things next to them like “maybe” “yes” “heck no”.

Younger D is taking the AP Comp Sci today-she’s getting a C in that class and doesn’t love it, but she’s been studying diligently and we’re hoping for a 3 so at least she shows she knows it. Since she’s not going to major or minor in comp sci (sigh) it’s not super important that she crush it, but competency would be good.

I’m supposed to be playing tennis in 15 minutes (playoffs) but we got rained out, so instead I’ll be dragging towels across the courts with my team mates in 30 minutes in an attempt to dry out the courts enough to play at 10:30. Which means that I won’t be able to pick up D2 from the AP test today. Luckily H is working from home and he can go get her on his lunchbreak. I was freaking out.

D1 has one AP test onsite thurs morning and then one IB test offsite thurs afternoon (like someone else on here, I just remembered that happened!) She was freaking out over walking to her car and getting over to the second test on time (her car is very far from the school) and I said I’d pick her up with some lunch ready to go and get her over there on time. She was so relieved. I"m glad to have this break from school so I can be back on mom duty for a bit.

I did pull myself out of the playoffs for that day but it’s a no brainer that the kids come first over tennis. I’m lucky that H can get D2 today or I’d have to forfeit the line, which makes your team mates hate you.

@srk2017 I’m sorry about the disappointing results for the Science Bowl :(.

@carachel2 I did read that book a few years ago, but I don’t remember much about it. It’s buried in the blizzard of memories associated with the ludicrous amount of college books I’ve already read. What a gamut from useless to priceless…

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For those students interested in pursuing careers in medicine, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH offers a course in Mechanisms of Human Health and Disease. The course is held in evening hours two days in a week over a 6 weeks period in summer. This year’s selections may be complete already, and I am told it’s quite competitive to get in.

http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/mechanisms-of-human-health-and-disease

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@carachel2 re: The Gatekeepers, D is reading this in AP Lit now. It’s given given her perspective of this whole process. She just summarized it saying that you either get in to some schools because a) you know someone, or b) because you get lucky. She gave the example of two candidates being considered, one with poorer grades. This one was accepted over the “more qualified” candidate b/c he played handball, as did one of the AOs. I think we call this “holistic” now. I call it a crapshoot.

Is U Delaware on anyone’s list? I was monitoring the admit thread, and their rolling admit process seems quite screwed up. Kids waiting 18 weeks for a decision! It’s come off our list for other reasons, but that sucks for those kids who really want to go there.

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D has AP Physics 1 today and state history exam. She says she feels ready. She had private tutoring all semester for physics, which surprisingly was hard for her. Turns out it’s because she wasn’t paying attention in class. She says the teacher was bad. I hope she does well. She felt good about Chem and Psych. Good luck to all the kiddos today.

There’s been a delay with results for the summer programs D applied to. They said applications were way up. Hopefully they are released by Friday so that she can get to work on setting up community service schedule and I can schedule her for a week of camp. I felt bad for her for all the essay writing she’ll be doing this summer (torture for her) so I’m treating her to a week at water-skiing camp.

@MotherOfDragons Do you play USTA?

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@2muchquan UDel is on D’s list for now. 18 weeks…wow! Any other info on the school?

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Thanks for the words of encouragement!! We’ll take it one step at a time - my cc rant (& a nice glass of cabernet) really helped. I’ll have to double check the schools on his list for their specific requirements. If they require calc it will be an excuse to cross one off the list. DD15 experienced that when she discovered that a school required SAT Math 2 and she had taken Math 1 so she wasn’t eligible to apply. It was an Ivy/reach anyway, but I think she was disappointed she couldn’t try “just to see.”

It’s hard to find the right balance between supporting and pushing. I try to lay out the facts, give my opinion (admittedly more than once), then let him weigh the options. While I see the benefit of taking summer pre-calc in the college app “game” he is only young once and the camp counselor position is extremely competitive so it was an honor to be asked. I support his choice 100%, just wish I had a do-over for freshman year where I would have made sure he was on a calc track. Hindsight…

Overall, DS stays calm and sort of listens. He tries to keep things balanced with friends, sports & school and I really admire how he handles all this pressure.

@greeny8, how about humming “I Will Survive” or - since you are on jury duty - anything by Johnny Cash.