D20 is most likely taking…
AP Calc AB
AP Lit
AP Spanish
AP Chemistry (double block)
Honors Marketing
Honors Accounting 2
Tutoring ESL kids
Currently taking…
AP English Language
APUSH
AP Government
Honors Marketing
Honors Accounting 1
Honors Precalc
Honors Forensics
Honors Spanish 4
We are struggling with math and science choices for next year.
Right now she is planning on
AP Lit
AP Studio Art 2D
AP Econ/Gov
AP Psychology
She doesn’t want to take any more than 4 AP classes, but she’s currently taking AP Calc AB, so her only math choices are AP Calc BC and AP Stats. I told her to talk to her counselor. We’ll see what they work out.
NJIT has well defined, compact urban campus. It’s pretty much contained within a few blocks of the University Heights neighborhood of Newark. There’s not a ton of green space because it’s an urban campus, but there is more a sense of campus than Drexel, which you also mentioned. It’s also a younger school, so most of the buildings are newer.
NJIT is a bit of a suitcase school. The OOS kids mentioned that the campus becomes noticeably emptier on the weekends, which was the case when we visited twice (once on a Sunday open house, once for the Fri>Sat athletic recruitment event). It wasn’t a ghost town, but didn’t have the same buzz as Drexel or Temple in downtown Philadelphia on the weekend. All of that aside, my D17 really liked NJIT. Their honors college, if your 2020 grad qualifies, is top-notch, and their dedicated honors dorm was literally the nicest dorm of any my D17 saw in the dozen or so schools which she visited/applied. D17 told my D20 she should visit and apply, which is why we’re going back again. Merit aid for higher stats students is really good. My D17 would have gone there nearly free.
It’s hard to discuss NJIT without mentioning Newark. Newark admittedly isn’t everybody’s cup of tea – it’s urban and some neighborhoods are better than others, as is the case with many urban campuses. The University Heights neighborhood where NJIT, Rutgers-Newark, and Rutgers Medical School are located is improving, in part due to the schools. There are some beautiful brownstones in the neighborhood.
Stevens has a more traditional campus on a hill high above the Hudson River in Hoboken. Stevens, even though it’s private, has a pretty high percentage of NJ students as well. I also know two people that currently go there because they recruit actively for fencing, my D17s sport. The Stevens dorms we saw were honestly pretty run down, but the dining hall had floor to ceiling windows with a Manhattan skyline view – it was really impressive. Stevens was a close runner-up for my D17. Stevens, before aid, is one of the most expensive schools in the country though. Stevens has limited dorm space and many upperclassmen move off-campus into Hoboken, Weehawken, or Jersey City. Hoboken is really nice – the main drag with shops and restaurants is only three blocks from campus.
Unfortunately I don’t know about CivE at either, my D was looking and BiomedicalE when applying.
@thingamajig saw you mentioned Buffalo and Temple. My D17 goes to Temple if you have questions. We’re in-state in NY but haven’t spent a lot of time on the Buffalo campus, but my D20 will likely apply. What made Buffalo stand out for you? We’ll probably visit Buffalo later this spring. I grew up near Buffalo so I’m familiar with the Amherst area where it’s located, but not so much the school itself.
@chb088 those are some cool classes: accounting and marketing. D’s public high school doesn’t even offer those. She had to take a marketing/media class at UCSD over the summer to get that experience and exposure.
Seems like her HS in CA caters towards the “a-g” core course requirements for admission to the UCs?
@stencils what are your thoughts about safety at Temple? Dd thought about applying but is hesitant because of safety issues. We live in a semi-rural safe area (many Amish here) and she said she doesn’t want to worry about safety all the time. She’d be leaving campus regularly to go to circus classes, which is what we’re mostly concerned about. Also, how is their merit aid?
DD is planning for senior year:
Three dual enrollment classes - English, Public Speaking, and Intro to Humanities
AP Spanish
AP US Government
AP Environmental Science
Choir
Not sure about the math class yet.
This year:
AP Paychology
AP US History
AP English Lit
Honors Chemistry
Honors Algebra 2
Spanish 3
Choir
@socaldad2002 they have a ton of marketing classes at her school. She does them so she can be in DECA. Her school has one of the top 5 DECA chapters in the state.
@SoccaMomma yes here AP Spanish comes after Honors Spanish 4.
@ebh87 My daughter really, really loves Temple and loves living in Philly. I’ll be honest and say it’s probably not for everyone though. There are all sorts of discussions about “the neighborhood,” even on the Temple parents Facebook group. It’s typical this time of year to see posts like “My son/daughter is considering renting a house in the xxx block of Y street next year, how is that area?” The area south of campus for the two miles between Temple and Philly City Hall along Broad Street is improving rapidly, with new, upscale restaurants and housing. The area north of campus is still a poorer area, and there are crime/poverty issues so students need to use common sense.
The Temple campus itself is really safe, and it’s a pretty big campus. It’s lit up like a Christmas tree – they joke that you could walk from one end of campus to the other in the middle of the night reading a book because it’s so brightly lit. All the buildings and dorms have security. You need ID to get in. Temple’s campus police is really visible as well, and their patrol area extends well outside of the campus proper for several blocks in every direction – most of the housing within two or three blocks are student rentals. My daughter lives in an on-campus apartment, and has never felt unsafe. She goes into center city Philly with friends fairly often – to eat out or go to events / festivals. Center City Philly is wonderful, and it’s only three subway stops from Temple’s campus. There’s a subway stop right on campus.
Temple’s Honors program is excellent with great benefits. There are dedicated dorms, guaranteed on-campus housing for all four years for those that want it, and priority class registration – a huge benefit in a big school. The quality of the students in the honors program is really high – the average ACT for the honors students is in the 32 range. Many of the typical freshman/sophomore classes (such as gen eds, calc, physics, bio, chem) have dedicated honors sections which have small class sizes (20-30) instead of large lecture halls, and the profs assigned to honors sections are usually the best.
Merit aid can extend all the way up to full tuition. I think you need about a 34+ ACT to get the full tuition President’s Scholarship.
Thanks so much for the feedback on the AP Spanish course! Very helpful. DS probably won’t have room in his schedule anyway but he was thinking of trying. I’ll encourage him to just concentrate on his other courses.
Has anyone got any experience with Binghamton SUNY? I saw it characterized as a Public Ivy somewhere. It does fit a lot of DS’s criteria. Are there research opportunities? It has an R1 classification but it’s not in a major metropolitan area. How’s the music program?
We have Spanish 1, Spanish 2, Spanish 3H, Spanish 4AP (Lang) and Spanish 5 AP(Lit).
Senior year social studies is a semester of Gov and a semester of Econ. Most take Euro in 10th grade.
As far as California schools, my first heard from SDSU in December and UCI and UCSB in Feb. Didn’t apply to Cal but the tippy top kids hear from Cal in Feb.
@SoccaMomma Binghamton is the most selective of the 20ish SUNY 4 year schools. SUNY Stony Brook is #2. It definitely has some smart kids there. Binghamton is a small city, but there’s still some remnants of tech there from the glory days of IBM, mostly aerospace and defense I believe.
D’s plan for next year is
AP Calc BC
AP Composition/Language
AP Gov/Econ
AP Comparative Gov/IR
AP Capstone research
AP Bio
plus she still wants to take a second DE English class to complete UC’s GE requirement - a part of me almost hopes she’s rejected from all the summer programs so she could take that English class in the summer instead of the fall. Will be an interesting year…
@stencils Thank you so much for the information about Temple! I will pass this on to my dd. I’m glad your dd loves it.
Trying to decide about classes here. I am going to look at each school she is considering to see if AP credit is limited before the final decision is made. Will be taking AP Psych, AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Stats and Anatomy & Physiology. Not sure about which English class yet. Even if she wants AP Lit it may not all work within a schedule.
@stencils thank you for sharing your impressions!
D20 is working on her schedule now. She’ll definitely be taking Multivariable Calc and AP Physics C. Considering AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, Macroeconomics (Not AP, but she loves the teacher and it fulfills her social studies requirement). Not sure about English.
She’s starting to lean toward a major in Engineering or Cognitive Science, since her GC suggested it. She’s not one of these kids who just lived science her whole life. It was only in high school that she realized that she’s really good at it. She’s in AP Physics 1 now, but if she wants to do engineering, then she should take C (vs. 2), right?
@momzilla2D My D17 went to Michigan Engineering. They don’t accept credit for AP Physics 1 and 2, but do for Physics C. You can be placed out of both Physics classes if you score 5 on the 2 AP tests. D17 had a A+ in the Physics C class but only choose to take the Mechanics AP test. She thought she was not as strong in E&M and wanted to take it again in college. Then she learned Michigan Physics department is notoriously hard. She regretted not taking the other test:).
Next year, D20 will be taking AP Physics 1, AP Calc BC, Advanced Band, and Jazz Band at the high school. She’s taking Econ 1A and Poli Sci 1 - classes that seniors normally take here - this semester at the community college. She’ll probably take her English and foreign language class at the community college next year, too.