@ebh87 I thought you were talking about your D considering Temple as a Safety. As in: Safety/Match/Reach. :))
What are the circus acts your D performs? Is this like Cirque-circus or Barnum-circus, and do all the schools she is looking at have a local circus school? That’s a cool EC.
@whataboutcollege Thanks for that information. TBH, I hadn’t even realized there were 2 C exams, lol. Sounds like it’s worth it to do both. She can always decide to take the class in college anyway, but getting the exam just gives her an option. Michigan would be amazing!! I looked at Ohio State (where D19 was just admitted, yay!), and they’ll take 3+, so I guess there’s a range. And by the time D20 takes the AP exams, end of senior year, she’ll know where she’s going. (D19 did regular non-AP Physics, not heading toward engineering; very different students.)
@momzilla2D my three sons all graduated from Ohio State. 
All engineering majors.
@bigmacbeth LOL about Temple being a safety school - I didn’t even think about that when I was asking! Dd’s passion is aerial silks, but she also does hand balance, tumbling, some juggling, and some trapeze. We are only looking at colleges that have good circus schools (Cirque-like) or aerial silks studios nearby. It’s frustrating because that criteria rules out a lot of good opportunities for her.
@ebh87 Yes, that seems like it would be rather limiting. What is she interested in studying?
@stencils thanks for informing us 2020 parents about Temple. We are in PA but don’t know Philly we’ll saw Temple briefly when school was not in session but I liked what I saw. Kid liked Drexel a lot but couldn’t form an impression of Temple. The fact that no one at school is talking about Temple (they all still think they’re getting into Dartmouth) doesn’t help but our kid might be able to get honors/scholarship so I insist on considering it. Besides the Tyler school looks awesome! Any info about Tyler would be welcome…
as far as SUNY Buffalo we toured the school of architecture on the south campus and the professor and student that took us around were very charming. Kid connected with the student and asked many many questions. Also everyone else there in the city was really nice but that wasn’t a surprise to me I grew up in W N Y. We just drove by the main campus in Amherst but were pleased to see intercampus busses running all the time and a wegmans very near the campus.
At the architecture building (original admin building of the university of buffalo) everything was brand new state of the art the students were like busy ants doing all kinds of things, and there were two other buildings they use as well including a shop with all the laser and robotic construction toys (can you tell I am not in construction from that description?) As a parent I liked it that the professor described a clear strong and specific mission for the school… impressive and they are trying to build and innovate. If we were instate in NY this would be a strong contender but the OOS tuition makes it slightly more than in state PSU and Temple so it’s lower on the list.h t h you and others looking…
@bigmacbeth Unfortunately, she’s not really interested in studying anything. She just wants to do circus. It’s complicated and frustrating for all of us. She thinks she’ll major in CS but that’s only because she thinks it’s a good fit for her personality. She’s taking a CS course now so we’ll see how that goes.
Just wondering, do your kids plan to take AP exams for all the AP classes senior year? So far, D is sure about Calculus and English and might take Bio if USC becomes a strong contender. Colleges won’t rescind acceptances if you don’t take all the exams that you took AP classes for, right?
Just found out we’ll be traveling to LA mid-March for a summer program interview. Will be a little strange going just the two of us without our guys, but I’m looking forward to it
@typiCAmom College won’t rescind acceptances if a student doesn’t take AP exams. My older kids took most but not all. Some they knew wouldn’t go towards their degrees so they didn’t bother and others they didn’t feel confident about. D20 is full time dual enrollment so she doesn’t have AP classes.
Our HS gives an extra 1.0 GPA bump for AP, but only .5 bump if you don’t take the exam.
@thingamajig Thanks for the info on SUNY Buffalo. I didn’t know which programs were at the old Main St. (South) campus, sounds like architecture is one of them. Many decades ago, there was a night club across from the campus called the 2001 that had “over and under nights” and it was the hot place to go in late high school and summers off from college as the drinking age has just moved to 21. I guess that dates me…
I’m pretty sure Tyler has a solid reputation, but it’s a bit out of my zone of experience since my D is in the engineering school. There are girls on her team that are Tyler students and I’ll ask her later; I don’t know if any are specifically architecture. I know she has good friends in Boyer (Theater/Music) and Klein (Media/Communications). Merit at Temple is mostly stat based I believe, which is good if you’ve got the stats, and even better if you’re in state (we’re not – we live in NY, so Buffalo is in state for us).
We visited Drexel last spring with D20, and she liked it too, but Temple when in session has more of the big school vibe going on, and also has a more defined campus. Drexel reminded me of Case Western in Cleveland. There’s a couple of quads but the campus sort of flows with the neighborhood as opposed to having a real sense of “I’m on campus now.”
That would really bug me. We had one teacher bully students (including S13) into taking the exam. It was AP statistics and the credit didn’t count towards degree requirements so we didn’t see the need to take the test. But the teacher wanted a high pass rate so he bullied the students into taking the test. S13 earned a 5 on the exam but it was a complete waste of time and money.
Our school district requires taking the AP exam or students lose all of the weighted grade. The district doesn’t pay for the tests but I think there is help with fees for those that need it. For the most part it has not felt like an imposition on S20 or S19.
DS 14 took all his tests, but DD 20 did not.
DS had 65 hours of credit available going into freshman year, but he didn’t use them all as he briefly considered pre-med.
DD knew where she was going by test registration time and her school limits transfer credit to 32 hours, so she didn’t take all the tests. At one school under consideration she might have had 70+ hours of credit if she had taken all the tests.
DS 20 wont have as many credits so I assume he will take all the tests. Even though the fees are outrageous, (will it be $100 per test this year?) it is probably cheaper than the equivalent tuition.
This is just a long ramble saying it is tough to predict now if the fees are cost effective. School choice and major choice determine what is usable. I like to think of the test fees as prepaid insurance for major changes and sophomore slumps.
Hi guys! I have been around CC for a while but just discovered these “Class of” communities. I have a junior as well, so I look forward to hanging with you all as we navigate this process.
Trying to narrow down which schools to visit, as it has just occurred to us that we probably won’t have the time to visit all of the schools on her preliminary list. So far have visited FSU and UF and will look at some OOS schools now. I think we will be hitting Massachusetts for spring break and seeing what we can fit in.
I don’t know if any of you feel this way, but I feel like we’ve quickly gone from “we have plenty of time to think about this” to “it’s getting real”.
Our district doesn’t weight grades so that couldn’t be used against students. A neighboring district requires students at the beginning of the school year to commit to taking the tests but I believe the district pays for the tests. I just hate that College Board gets so much $$.
Our district does the same. Not only do you lose the weighted grade but you lose the AP distinction on your transcript so the UCs and CSUs won’t weight the class either. There are means for those who need financial assistance paying for the tests.
Wow, this is shocking to me and seems so unfair!
Just plain school policy here: You take the class, you take the AP exam. (No weighted grades for anything.)
I have mixed feelings about gpa weightings. When my kids first started high school, our (Private) school didn’t weight. When I heard another nearby Private did weight, I was very frustrated that our school did not. Then, the next year, our school decided to start weighting, but they only give .3 points for both honors and AP classes. Still frustrated. And then, D20 is advanced in math, so she doesn’t get any extra gpa boost from being a year ahead, and next year, Multivariable Calc is neither honors nor AP, so not even a .3 bump. I mean, I know colleges look at rigor, so that helps, but with all the variations in gpa weightings, they almost seem meaningless.
@momzilla2D - for the most part they are meaningless and many schools do their own calculation. Schools know that GPA’s are all over the place based on variance in weighting, etc. That being said, some schools take whatever the highest GPA is on the transcript for merit purposes and that can be a problem. For example - Alabama takes highest listed on transcript. For their presidential elite scholarship you need a 36/1600 and a 4.0+. If the transcript isn’t with a weighted GPA, a single B would take the scholarship away.