Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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I fell a bit behind other than a few quick posts – work…

Re: AP tests
DS is taking AP Spanish today. He was pretty stressed about this one. I think/hope he’ll do better than he expects. Besides not being great at Spanish, he’s getting over a cold that DH brought back from a business trip, and is worried he’ll sneeze/cough in the recording sections.

Our AP tests are all on our HS campus, and they are supposed to attend class when they aren’t in the test. They may hold them in the room until a break between classes if they don’t finish at lunch. DS may skip part of a day next week to study for the online multivariable final. He also has to skip 1/2 day to take the final.

Re: APs when I was a kid
My high school didn’t have any APs, and the science classes weren’t even enough to do well on the SAT Subject Tests. It was a really poor school academically (religious, but not Catholic). My parents were clueless about colleges and financial aid. They let me apply to places there was no chance we could afford. I guess not having the Internet, there wasn’t much way to know. Luckily, I was NMSF and got a full-ride out of the blue that I hadn’t applied for. Otherwise, I think the plan was to try to attend UC Berkeley by commuting 40 miles one way on BART.

Re: AP frenzy
I think it’s really unfortunate when the school puts kids who could get an A or B in regular history or English in the equivalent AP class, and some kids end up getting a D, which prevents them from being eligible for the UC system and make the Cal State system difficult to access. All for the sake of showing equity in the subgroups taking AP classes. I’ve never seen our overall AP pass rate, and I’ve looked.

Re: Prep Books
I have secret plans to make DS clean his room after APs or end of school (June 8) and donate all the unused prep books. I only bought an AP Spanish book this time, and he actually used it. Maybe I’m learning.

Re: Dual Enrollment
@dfbdfb wrote: “…my oldest will be taking (instead of AP English Language) a dual-enrollment first-semester composition class located in her school…”

Our school does this too. They say it’s because most colleges don’t give any extra credit for AP English Lit if you already have a good score for AP English Language. Taking a different dual-enrollment class can let kids end up with more credits (at CA colleges).

Re: Colleges that require Calculus
@jmek15 Somewhere I read that it’s basically only Caltech that officially requires HS calculus. Other schools, some of the kids in calculus will have taken it once already and others won’t. I think most STEM kids retake calculus anyway at a lot of schools to be solid in it.

Re: Misc
Congrats on that score @NoVADad99 !!
Congrats on all As @MotherOfDragons !!
@srk2017 Sorry about Science Bowl nationals, but it’s really great that he got to go and participate!

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@MotherOfDragons During AP tests, if it’s a kid with jail bars, they probably posted something about the content of a test they just finished.

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@Ynotgo - DS did have good trip for nationals. His school being a powerhouse in Science Bowl, kids were disappointed that they performed below their own expectations. Next us is Science Olympiad nationals. Hopefully they will bounce back.

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@MotherOfDragons the bars mean you have been put on probation for a violation of cc for posting something they deem inappropriate.

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Re: Essays

I was thinking of making a thread about this, but haven’t yet.

Something I don’t understand about essays is the “slice of life” essays that are published as great examples of college essays. I mean, a lot of them are really well written, but what does it tell a college about a kid that they found the meaning of life in a butterfly cocoon or by talking to a wise grocery store clerk? Even reading the ones labeled “good” my eyes glaze over.

Maybe it’s that the UC system specifically discourages “dramatic writing” and instead asks students (until this coming year) to provide a personal statement that is more like a conversation with an interviewer about why they are qualified.

In contrast, the Common App prompts seem to encourage “a day in the life” type essays. Though, knowing DS, I’m guessing he will quickly gravitate toward, “Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve.”

The essays that DS wrote for his summer programs had pretty specific prompts like “What do you hope to learn at this program?” “Describe a favorite math or science topic and its effect on you.” “What is your experience in computer programming?” “What do you do for fun?”

OK, they also had prompts on “Describe a challenge you faced.” “Describe a leadership role you took.” and "Describe your personal ‘world’ ", but his essays for those still seemed very concrete in a way that the examples I’ve seen aren’t.

Personal narrative certainly isn’t a style of writing they’ve been taught in English classes since elementary school, what with all the emphasis on analysis and synthesis.

Thoughts?

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The first rule of CC, we don’t talk about the “bars”. The second rule of CC is, you DO NOT talk about the “bars”. Third rule of CC, you never read the “chance me” postings!. We had a fourth rule, but I keep forgetting it and end up getting slapped with the “bars”…

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I found this site that can organize all the essay prompts from colleges.
http://collegeessayorganizer.com/

Well for me, I already started the google docs but will try the free service part.

It seems that we will have to wait for August 1st for most of the supplemental prompts.

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I feel like D has had a couple of assignments that seem more of the “personal narrative” style this year, but I guess I haven’t really thought about it. With less reliance on the Writing/Essay sections of the ACT/SAT, I think a big part of what colleges are looking for is the ability to write a coherent sentence (although unfortunately it’s difficult to guarantee that the applicant is the actual author). The other thing I feel like they look for is a ‘pulse’…some level of original thought. At least I hope they look for this, because D is looking forward to these dang essays for some reason.

Personally, I have enjoyed reading through some of the past and present prompts from UChicago (I may have posted before, sorry for the dup):

  • []Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story.
    [    ]Rerhceseras say it’s siltl plisbsoe to raed txet wtih olny the frist and lsat ltteres in palce. This is beaucse the hamun mnid can fnid oderr in dorsdier. Give us your best example of finding order in disorder.
    []Were pH an expression of personality, what would be your pH and why? (Feel free to respond acidly! Do not be neutral, for that is base!)
    [    ]The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain.
    Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu
    What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing?
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I wonder if mantis shrimp can also raed tihs giebrbsih LoL

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@Ynotgo: My one essay that I sent to every college of the five I applied to (one or two required a second one, as I recall) was from a creative writing class where I got eaten by a monster (that turned out to be my bus to school). Somewhat formulaic and all, sure, but I ran across a copy of it a couple years ago and at least I can say it wasn’t the same as everything that’s supposed to count for a “good” application essay these days!

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Although I typed my graduate school application with a real typewriter (not a word processor,) I vaguely remember writing in college application. I had to mail a postcard to request the application form, that was in thick paper, or stop by at the university to pick up the applicaiton form. And then, I filled the form using a black ink pen.

Good old times

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When I applied in the '80s, I recall that I had to submit 2 poems I’d written to MIT. That surprised me!

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I haven’t read any of the supposedly “good” essays. I’m not sure what my D will write about. She is not looking forward to the essays at all. The Chicago prompts elicited a puking sound. lol I can hopefully help her make her essays interesting. I would like to think that I have a pretty good idea as to what makes for a good admissions essay, but we shall see.

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@itsgettingreal17 …no i have not gotten that email. Or let me put it another way. My S has not let me in on the email. Please send me it in a message if you can. I would greatly appreciate it.

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That would be my son’s reaction to Chicago’s prompts also @itsgettingreal17. He said he was writing about his FRC experiences for his common app essay. I haven’t read it, but his counselor has done a look over the draft.

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@mtrosemom, DD requested ACT writing rescoring but it didn’t change. So :-h $50!

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I am thinking that it isn’t worth it to ask for a rescore since it won’t affect his overall score. Now I am banking on the new SAT in June for the bump I hope he gets (please study this time . [-O< )

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my DS’s friend also tried ACT essay re-scoring which resulted in no change. She wrote ACT again and went from 35 to 36C and waiting for essay score.

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@payn4ward I love that essay organizer link! No supplemental updated yet here either but it does help get a handle on overall volume

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I laughed when I read this JHU essay. I think my kids can definitely relate to a lot of it! https://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays-that-worked/#essay1