Ideas for summer activities? We just finished school and DS 20 needs to be home July 25 to July 28th for soccer camp and again August 15th on for freshman soccer camp. Not much time to any 2, 3 weeks camps. Good ideas on what to do? I am only aware of Duke writing camp which he can’t do due to our vacation and his soccer camps. Any other writing camps?
I think that was aimed at @3scoutsmom
A lot of schools have kids take AP language in 11th and AP Lit in 12th. That is how my S16’s high school program was built. He got into all 3 UCs he applied to (UCB, UCLA, UCI) but honestly, I don’t think taking on extra AP really means much. The important thing to remember is that the extra point in the GPA must be from APs and honors in 10th and 11th grade when calculating GPA for the UCs and CSUs. There is no extra AP point in GPA for a 12th grade class.
We assumed that my S16 would want to go to a UC but even with acceptances to three (one with a regents scholarship) he ended up at a small liberal arts college. USC gives merit but don’t discount the other schools just yet. For a very strong student a place like Oxy in LA would give strong aid. There are also other good schools on the West Coast… CA is only 1 of 3 states along the West Coast 
, and many give merit. (We are partial to the colleges that Change Lives list as you know.)
Oh and S16 just passed by and looked at my post, and said, “tell her to take AP Latin. Neither of the AP English classes are special.” So you heard it here first!
For CSU and UC remember the weight caps at 8 semesters so more than that doesn’t help those at all.
DD20 is quirky. She did Sci Oly in MS and went to states where she did very well. She’s dropping that first hs and going to make varsity cross country in the fall and swim in the spring. She’s a competitive trail runner who goes out and runs our local hills, the only reason I don’t worry about her more is she’s likely to be able to outrun any bad guys.
She’s awesome at math and truly horrible at writing. She be in precalc freshman year and hoping she gets Bs in language arts. Bs would be a gift.
@VickiSoCal, you mention 8 points cap on AP and Honor weighted courses, does this only limited on 10 & 11th grades? Does taking more APs in senior year also help with UCs admission?
We visited UCSD and UCSB this summer, DD’18 really likes campus near ocean to see sunrise and sunset. However, I worry her stats are not good enough and didn’t want to get her hopes up. She currently only has around 3.78 weighted GPA, 3.54 non-weighed. She will be taking 4 AP courses 11th grade to help boost up her grades but I know UCSD and UCSB are pretty competitive now and not sure if she is shooting too high. We are good with any UCs, including UCR and UCM. But hoping for UCSD and UCSB (ocean views) or UCD and UCSC (mountain views). Not sure what kind of stats can be considered for those universities?
@jjkmom The weight only applies to 10th and 11th. Senior year matters because the UCs still want to see a strong program but they won’t average the grades into the GPA.
To see the typical stats for each school you can look here. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/index.html
If you click on the individual school then you will have access to the Freshman profiles and can see GPA and test scores. Remember that the UCs are holistic so they will look at more than just GPA, but GPA is a good predictor of college success so they do look carefully.
The nice thing about applying to the UCs is they have only one application so your daughter only has to apply one time and then you just have to decide how much money you are willing to pay. Last year it was $70 a campus if I remember correctly. My son applied to 3. (He got into all 3, then ended up not going to any of them and choose Reed. Go figure.)
Also don’t fall into the CA only trap. There are great schools outside of CA and we are part of the Western Undergraduate Exchange, WUE, which gives a tuition exchange option with 16 states. Why not do some tours and see if she likes other types of schools (liberal arts schools, for example.) There are a lot of choices.
Does anyone else have a kid who wants to do it all regarding EC’s? Practice for one started before the school year even ended (and continues all summer long) and she wants to start a 2nd that isn’t school related. Unfortunately the 2nd is something she absolutely loves, and I’d love to give her the opportunity, but she’ would potentially be busy 6-7 days a week (for a few months). yes, there would be homework time after school (all activities are evening), but it just sounds like a tough first semester at HS. My older ones did what they loved and were busy 7 days a week, and some EC’s do keep you busy 7 days a week for a while (robots anyone?) but my big kids didn’t start that until January of freshman year, and my 2020 wants to start in October. That’s not a lot of ramp up to time. Any thoughts? I am really conflicted. I think part of the issue is that I had no idea what I was getting into with my big kids, it just kind of happened. With my littlest D, my eyes are wide open and its more a planning thing than a reacting thing.
@jjkmom UCD is pretty darn flat. It is a beautiful campus but not really “mountain views.” Stats are a bit easier than UCSD and a bit more difficult than UCSB depending on your major. UCSC - huge beautiful redwood trees probably block views of most sunrises and sunsets. Stats are lower at UCSC than the others (other than UCR and UCM). That said, for every ocean sunset at both UCSB and UCSD you’re going to have a sunrise over land/city to the east. My guess is that your daughter probably won’t be awake for many sunrises. 
UCSB, UCSC, UCSD and UCD are four very different schools so maybe take a second look at the structure of schools and colleges at UCSD and UCSC and compare that to UCSB and UCD. Read up on the social reputations of the students at the schools and see if there is more of a fit at one vs the other.
Finally, UCs include any classes from summer school after 9th to summer school after 11th. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/calculating-gpa/
@VickiSoCal has your daughter looked into teen triathlons?
She is interested in triathlons but we just dont have time for anything else. I meant to type above that she’s going to TRY to make varsity cross country and swim. She had her first cc practice yesterday and afterwards was the only non-returner placed in the fastest group for next week’s runs, so she’s happy.
Big thanks to @LKnomad and @lkg4answers! I realized that I posted this question in the wrong forum, I should post in parents for class 2018, was surprised to get great answers! So that questions regarding UCs and views were for my DD’18, for my DD’20, she is only interested in universities that could give her scholarship for basketball, doesn’t matter whether it’s D1 or D2, D3, she wants to play college basketball and study in sports medicine (for now).
@LKnomad, thanks for your information on Western Undergraduate Exchange, WUE. I didn’t know about this! My DD’18 would like to try out of state but she also wants to save us money, that’s why she was focusing on UCs and CSUs, I need to looking into this WIE option more when time comes!
My son is currently taking a summer French course at the local college. Then he’ll be taking a SAT prep course at UCSD (Ethan took the March SAT and scored 1120). He is currently training to join the high school cross country team. But he’s a better track runner, i.e., 800 meters. Ethan has been practicing taekwondo since he was 3. He is now a 3rd degree black belt and is working toward his 4th degree. We plan to send him to South Korea in a couple of years and receive the 4th degree promotion. Ethan also enjoys bike racing, especially criteriums. While he has been an honors/accelerated student, we plan to ease into the high school curriculum (no honors or AP classes the first year). Instead, we plan to have him take 6 AP classes while in high school aiming to become a AP Scholar with Distinction. His dream school is Stanford.
This is the WUE website
http://wiche.edu/wue
Thank you @LKnomad ! This will be very handy looking for alternative schools!! Don’t want to pay OOS to some state flag schools for undergraduate. Just too expensive!
@jjkmom I have one in '17 and one in '20 so have visited many CA schools. I am happy to give my insight but it is just my opinion so take that for what it is worth. 
We have visited
UCM
UCD
UCB
Stanford
UCSC
Cal Poly SLO
UCSB
Chapman
UCSD
USD
SDSU
Santa Clara
Cal Poly Pomona
Claremont Colleges
We need to visit UCLA, UCI and CSULB. They are all close to home and we have been on their campuses many times for other things but have not taken prospective student tours.
@demonsamurai Welcome! Just a word of caution, this site is called college confidential for a reason. People generally don’t post personally identifying information like real names and photos.
Any particular reason he took the SAT in March of 8th grade? My kids don’t take the SAT until March of 10th grade and most people think that’s on the early side. How many times is he planning on taking the SAT?
@lkg4answers, we visited many CA schools for my DD’18 too, but because DD’18 doesn’t know what she wants to major back then, we just focused on campus atmosphere, library, cafeteria and student unions etc. what do you look at when you visit the campus? Do you join the tour? We just walk around without tour and normally spent less than an hour there since my DD’18 was not interested in anything back then (we started campus visiting since 8th grade, maybe too early).
She (DD’18) really likes UCLA, UCSD and UCB. Of course she also loves Stanford, USC and Pepperdine. I’m not sure based on her current stats, she will almost have no chance to be considered for UCB, UCLA and Stanford! I don’t want to discourage her and hope she will do good in 11th grade.
We visited all UCs except UCM and UCR; she visited Claremont colleges with her friends, we also visited some CSUs due to basketball tournaments, CSUF, CSULB, CSUDH and visited CAL POLY SLO few weeks ago. Since she just decided on pursuing major in computer graphics (wants to do Arts with technology and Business) we need to look into each school to see if they provide such major. Sorry that I posted here by mistake at the first time for my DD’18’s situation but so glad I can still get some very insightful feedback!!!
My S’20 took SAT in 7th grade. Part of the reason was a school program that asked the kids to take SAT as part of the program experience. Part of the reason was to use it for CTY summer program. He took the old SAT and got a pretty good score. D’17 did the same thing, but her timing was 8th grade. I think there are kids who take a couple of more times to get more practice in before HS starts (when records are permanent).
Thanks for the warning. I prefer some level of familiarity. Ethan is a great kid and I love to show him off. Proud father.
I had Ethan take both the ACT and (new) SAT to compare and contrast these tests. He liked the new SAT better than the ACT. Therefore, we are going to concentrate on the SAT (no more ACT focus). Which is great because, as I understand it, the PSAT is just a watered down version of the SAT. Ethan will take a different summer SAT prep course each summer, i.e., UCSD, Kaplan, Princeton & Prep Expert. The plan is to take the PSAT in October 2016, 2017 & 2018. He will take the SAT again his junior and senior years. The junior year is the backup, but I hope he kills it in 2019.
Ethan is a member of Mensa and math is his favorite subject. He took Geometry in 7th grade and Algebra I in 8th grade. Ethan has maintained a 4.0 the last 2 years. We moved in the middle of 6th grade, so it affected his grades a bit.
Ethan’s freshman schedule looks like this:
Microsoft IT MOS-Productivity (CTE)
Algebra II §
English 9 §
Medical Biology §
French I §
General Physical Education
Ethan’s College List:
Stanford
Princeton
Harvard
MIT
Yale
UCSD
Caltech
UC Berkeley
UCLA
USC
Harvey Mudd
If he gets into a really expensive school and does not get a sufficient financial aid award, our backup plan is the Army ROTC Scholarship program.