@payn4ward A couple different views on the research uni vs. LAC:
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-colleges-where-phds-get-their-start/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2015/04/10/why-small-colleges-are-great-for-science-students/#519c53297bb9
But I tend to think the way you do, too, although I have not yet ruled out LACs.
Different areas are different in terms of APs. My S16 has 12 plus 4 dual enrollment classes. My D17 hasnāt finisihed her schedule yet but will have around the same. Our system is pretty successful with these classes and enough is taught in school that my kids havenāt even really had to study for the AP tests outside of school and are routinely done with homework by 9. They both do sports and have lots of time on the weekends for messing around. I do insist that they not take APs in areas they have no interest after both suffered through APUSH just because āeveryoneā was taking it. Our school doesnāt do ranking though which I think helps a lot with competitiveness and pressure.
Thanks @dcplanner we definitely plan to visit, just a little later than planned. Thanks for sharing your experiences about your visit. What do you mean about the diversity? My daughter is mixed (African American and Caucasian) and is used to a pretty diverse setting, though she usually fits in regardless of the situation.
@2muchquan I know. The second article is the reason why I asked DS to attend the college session when Union College came to our school and it is on our list.
The key is * to know your child * as @mtrosemom said.
Our current list is a mix of huge (50,000+) and tiny schools (~1,000) and everything in between.
DS is so immature that it is hard to tell what would work best.
Physics would be a good major for him. We could become a family of all physics majors.
I looked at the physics department websites of LACs and am not impressed. However, it could work for DS.
For @Ynotgo son, however, just like he ran out of high school classes, he could easily run out of physics/engineering classes to take at LAC. By the time I went to graduate school, I had taken three semesters of graduate level classes. Independent study can be lonely.
College of Wooster AO came to our school and said that one undergrad is doing physics research at CERN (Switzerland.) That is nice and dandy but I wonder what other opportunities are there as well. What if an undergrad wants to run an STM or STEM or MOCVD or FRET (each machine costing millions of dollars) or analyze Hubble data.
@greeny8 My DD is applying for a 3 week Social Justice program at UPenn through our school district. We have a program called Ivy League Connection and it is a full scholarship if you are accepted. They pay for everything related to the trip and even give each kid a college sweatshirt. It is a wonderful program and Iām hoping she gets it. She is also interested in doing an internship at a local law center, but that may depend on whether she gets into the UPenn program.
Yeah, if thereās a threat of running out of classes, that program is WAY too small I guess. Itās not high school, though. Iād think youād be good. My fear is more of whether the sequencing is ok to graduate in 4 years at a LAC in a STEM field.
One of Dās concerns is running out of Arabic. She needs a school that has at least six classes above Advanced 1 and 2------and not just repeating āspecial topicsā or culture classes.
Summer for my D= a 3 week combo language/learning/fun trip to Germany; continuing to work her part-time job and then applications when they open up in August. I want her to rest, enjoy summer with her friends and read all she wants and sleep til noon on the days she has nothing to do. We also have a week up north with family and then about four days for a southern college tour. Iām sure her resume would benefit from weeks of research or something similar but with the Germany trip she just does not have time and selfishlyā¦I want her to enjoy being a teenager in the summer.
Wow this thread goes so fast. Iām a ludicrously fast reader, and Iām like, 50 more posts today! Gah! Good stuff though.
Kids have to take AP Calc AB then BC the next year-no skipping to BC allowed (unless youāre a super uber kid like an 11 year old we have in the school at the moment-he self studied the AB over the summer).
My junior has IB Bio HL, IB Comp Sci SL (no hl offered) IB Physics SL (itās kicking her ass), AP Lang, AP Calc AB, visual arts, and her ābreatherā class is US History. Itās way too much for her, and sheās exhausted and getting Bās. I feel so, so bad I pushed her to take Physics. It was a huge mistake, the teacher is terrible and the other students are all seniors on the IB track who resent her there, and if she gets a C in it itās pretty much going to doom any chance she has of NMF. Iām in the running for bad parent award of the year for that and paying for a weekly private tutor to help get her through it.
Next year sheās taking IB Bio HL (year 2), AP Calc BC, AP Lit, gov/econ (not accel), Sculpture 1, and an app programming class. It should be a lot easier for her, and she completely picked it without me saying a word other than ālooks good, are you happy with itā?
We took our sophomore D off the AP track for next year because sheās struggling with all the APās she has this year. Next year is almost all on-level classes because the honors classes give nearly as much work as the AP without the weighted 5 gpa scale, and we want her to have a shot at a decent GPA, and they seem to care much more about the unweighted than the weighted one.
ā¦going back to read more and try and keep upā¦
eta: Summer stuff-D15 will be at her last year of Duke TiP, D17 is waiting to hear about a summer program, and has a backup programming internship if that doesnāt work out.
Summer plans: either NSLI or a summer college program for both sessions (session 1 will be a language intensive, session 2 will be a securities studies class and either micro econ or US politics). Weāll just have to pay for flights and extra food/activities because of her ACT scores.
Mom2aphysicsgeek, sheāll be studying the language in the department of that prof who caused your dd to hold her tongue 
D knows the story yet still wants to go.
I had hoped to squeeze in drivers ed this summer. In our state, drivers ed is free for all sophomores as part of the graduated license. Those homeschooled or who attend a small school with not enough sophomores for an instructor can take the class in the summer after sophomore year, also for free. I have a place held for dd in the first classroom session and in the last driving session of the summer. Those dates might work if she gets NSLI. Sheād miss the classroom week if she goes south for the summer. In that case, D will have to take drivers ed two nights a week for four consecutive weeks during the academic year at a Y 45+ minutes away. Yay. She cannot receive her license before 18 without going through a state-approved program (sheāll be 17 when she leaves for college).
@MSHopeful Columbia was reasonably ethnically diverse. The issues we saw personally were more in terms of religious diversity among the Jewish population. My kids felt like they might not be able to find a niche and being in a tiny minority in HS they looked forward to finding a larger religious group to fit into easily.
@MotherOfDragons From what I understand of the process (and the NMSC is guarded about letting people know the exact requirements from moving from NMSF to NMF), having a C isnāt necessarily fatal. Of the 1,000 or so kids who do not make SF, word is most either didnāt fill out the paperwork (for whatever reason ā for some kids, making finalist isnāt really important) or have discipline issues. So there is still hope. And even if she doesnāt make finalist, that may be make a big difference depending on her college plans.
The concern for running out of UG classes is very valid. (It was one of my reasons for negating schools on clarinetdad16ās thread.) Being able to take grad level classes was one of dsās requirements. He has now made the decision to earn his masters while earning his bachelors. Finding a university in our price range with enough Russian classes for our dd has not been easy. Now that it looks like she will make NMF, it is getting easier.
(and, oh my word, @whereismykindle , I have to hear how that goes. 
Yikestersā¦my dd could not get out of that dept fast enough!!)
I donāt get the boast about an REU at CERN. It is really not a selling point. Any student at any university can apply for one of their REUs.
@WhereIsMyKindle , can you share which camp is it for Econ and Politics, if you can? DD is also interested in those topics. It might be too lateā¦ Well, well
@MotherOfDragons , we do our best as parents. We need to stop feeling guilty and let them be accountable.
On the other hand, I am happy to report that I signed up my DS20, upcoming freshman his first AP classā¦ Computer Science
@MotherofDragons Seconding @SincererLoveās comment. Hindsight is 20-20 and we parent forward blind to the future. If I let the guilt of all our poor 20-20 hindsight decisions, I would be paralyzed by the failures. We make the best educated decisions we can at the time. We donāt know the outcome of the decisions until the past. Move forwardā¦move on. (Pretty much our lifeās motto.)
D applied to three selective summer programs. She is probably not going to apply to anymore. For now, just anxiously waiting for notifications.
Thanks everyone-Iām privately (and on here) beating myself up about it, but with her Iām like, well, letās just tough it out and get through it the best you can, and let me know what you need to be successful with it. She asked for and got a good tutor, and heās been a huge help.
@2muchquan Thanks for the S Carolina suggestion. Unfortunately they do not have enough Arabic 
Last night I checked the Arabic offerings at 16 major universities. 4 may have enough (Pittās class schedule didnāt match with the departmentās page)āPitt, Emory, Ohio State (which is on lists for top IR), and Indiana.
I have 15 more schools to check today.
And then I have to check their International Relations info and the all-important merit aid and OOS COA.
@SincererLove Itās Ole Miss Summer College:
http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/schs/index.html
I learned about it on a homeschooling high school board I frequent.
Ole Miss is one of ddās top choices (havenāt visited yet, though) because of its Arabic program, the Croft School of International Studies, and the minor in Intelligence and Security Studies. The low cost and generous merit aid for OOS students helps, too 