I really wish we had Naviance. So far the research is all mine, an no indication of the types of schools kids apply and get in to other than word of mouth that DD hears around school. I’m just going by CDS data. She has course rigor, grades, scores still need to go up (trying ACT in Feb), and outstanding ECs. Only 59% are 4 year college bound, and pretty much everyone stays in state, so we probably wouldn’t get a whole lot of useful info anyway.
I’m in VA, and last spring break we took easy day trip tours- Shenandoah, Richmond, W&M, W&L. This year we are headed south to see Davidson, and Furman, and I think we’ll stop by Wofford. DD likes smaller schools, and W&L is at the top of her list right now. I need to have D’22 look at some schools more suited to her too, but I’m not sure where to go. Ugh. She’s completely undecided on interest/major, but knows from tagging along on tours that she does NOT want a small school. She has a 4.0+ GPA (for now), PSAT was average, and nothing special with ECs (varisty Field Hockey as a sophomore, and a few clubs and Art honor society). They are completely different kids and the schools D’21 is looking at will not be the same at all for D’22. We have a relatively low EFC, so are focused on meets needs schools or those with good merit, but D’22 won’t be competitive (or a good fit) at those same schools. I’m thinking we might just travel a bit further south and see USC in Columbia, maybe Coastal Carolina. She has no interest in VT (where everyone goes). Maybe I’ll take her to James Madison and Christopher Newport later in the spring.
D’21 has been talking with her counselor for senior year classes. Foreign language has been a conundrum. She took Spanish 5AP as a sophomore and 6 AP is not offered, so this year they put her in 5 Honors. The department chair finally figured out how to make it officially 6 honors on her transcript, and changed it in December. There is no option at all for Spanish 7 in our county, nor a qualified teacher for Dual Enrollment (not needed due to her AP score anyway), so they have decided to change her back to 5 honors this year and then 6 honors next year. It’s all basically independent study in with the 5AP class anyway. So classes should be:
Spanish 6H
AP Lit
AP Gov
AP Bio
AP Calc AB
AP Stats
Anatomy Honors
@H0llyw00d, I agree with @inthegarden. Our D has gone through the normal course progression, and there is no such thing as something like a Spanish 5 class, only AP. The other issue is that D’s school offers mostly Honors or AP courses with only a handful of regular track. So when colleges say they look at rigor in the context of a particular school, it may seem unusual that she’s not taking more (or “the right”) APs, even though she’ll have completed 7 or 8 APs, plus one dual enrollment course. For reference, she has no interest in the Ivies (or whatever the next “level,” is called), but she is looking at a few fairly selective LACs, and it’s tough to tell just how rigorous is rigorous enough.
Honors classes mostly stop after sophomore year so honors type kids have no choice but to take AP versions of classes. We don’t have honors physics or honors Calc so those are AP no matter what. Most college bound kids at our school take all five subjects - math, science, social studies, English, and foreign language all four years and take the AP versions starting junior year (except for foreign Lang which is almost always senior year). It’s just the way it goes. Our school offers something like 35 (?) AP classes and the top decile probably take somewhere between 8-12 APs. These would be kids shooting for T20 schools as well as kids looking at harder to get into state schools OOS like Michigan, Texas, Virginia, UCs. For our school, that’s maybe the top 80 kids.
Half of the class (out of 700) take the two most popular APs - Lang and APUSH. Many do not get As but there’s a push by the GCs for kids who can handle those classes at all to take them.
We’re another with just not a lot of non AP/IB options. My S21 actually looked pretty hard for an alternative to AP Lit as most of the schools he’s looking at won’t give credit for it and AP Lang which he’s taking this year. The only other English class he could take is regular non-honors English 12 which is significantly less rigorous than even his honors/pre-IB English classes in 9th and 10th. The majority of kids in that class will not be attending a 4 year college.
yes, @Darcy123, so much of it is about the peer group.
My D is no snob and is compassionate and understanding about kids coming from all backgrounds and why they do what they do. I’m a former social worker and we talk about it. But the students not in the honors/AP track at our school (I know it can vary greatly in different school districts) tend to be those much rougher in behavior and motivation, many of whom regularly engage in risk-taking stuff that she can’t relate to. Some of that going on with some honors kids, too, but less. She honestly feels less anxiety slogging it out with difficult classes with peers she trusts than being in classes without any of her friends.
DS school is on a trimester schedule and I think will be picking classes soon but will not pick for next year until probably early May. They use Naviance but they changed the weighting for courses to comply with state requirements so it is no longer possible to make much use of Naviance as kids from two years ago had GPAs that are no longer possible. It is a shame as Naviance seems like a useful tool.
Second trimester finishes in a few weeks and hopefully he will finish up the semester strong…lots going on and many of the academic competitions he likes are going on too…
D21 doesn’t pick classes until next month, but her likely schedule is:
Health Science Practicum (magnet school, 2 periods)
AP Eng Lit
AP Calc BC
AP Bio
AP gov/AP Econ
PE
Orchestra (or if they don’t have a conductor, AP psych)
We’re the same as others, there are only regular and AP classes, so D takes the AP version.
@inthegarden I get it. It is so fascinating to read how different high schools are, and because of that difference, how challenging the admissions process is.
@kbm770 My daughter is in the same boat, just about completed with the typical course progression, and after Spanish 4, there is college or AP Spanish. I also think we are on the same track in terms of school selection, and I think many of my daughter’s target schools will be many of her friend’s safety schools. The bar keeps getting raised on who gets admitted, so I’m questioning the number of target vs. safety schools she applies to.
My daughter met with her GC to discuss senior year classes. There are a number of AP or college course she can take, but she feels strongly about not taking anything she’s not interested in, or that will be so challenging that she’ll be miserable. I wonder how taking minimal AP’s will position her for consideration among so many students who are taking a full load of AP classes. This whole process is so overwhelming and an unsolvable puzzle to me. This is my second child going through the process, and in this case, ignorance is bliss!!!
I wish all of the kids (and the parents) much success and limited stress!
To have a shot at top 10% of the class you have to take a full AP or Dual Credit schedule. My friends son is a senior with straight As all of HS, but only 2 AP classes and he is around around 30-35%.
@Aguadecoco Same here. We don’t rank but, at graduation, the top 2% sit in the front row, the top 10% wear a certain color sash, and the second decile of kids where a second color sash. The school uses weighted GPA for those distinctions. I’m pretty sure they use GPA from the very end of the year since seniors don’t take finals and grades can be finalized a week before graduation.
@Aguadecoco exact same with us…we’re in a suburb of Dallas…in this district, if you’re not in all AP, DC or PreAp classes, forget any chance of placing in top 10%…or even anywhere in 1Q
AP Lit
AP Gov/Macro
AP Physics C M and E/M
IB HL Math (we don’t have multivariate calculus)
AP Stats
Comp Sci 4
Cybersecurity
Accounting/Business/Excel
@TVBingeWatcher2 Holy Cow. Two AP Physics classes? Two math classes? So that’s 8 full year classes and then AP Gov and Macro Econ which are each a semester? 9 classes? Has she always taken that many classes? Sorry so many question marks. Lol. I’m amazed at her schedule. Do you think she needs to take all of that? Is she trying to pass out of lots of classes with AP credits? Maybe that’s why…
Fairly productive weekend for us. Got our first spring break tour committal out of our son. We spent some time look at the Oberlin physics department site and he’s very intrigued so it’s on the list. Btw, the Oberlin physics site is really fantastic and loaded with info. Some other schools (ahem, Denison) don’t have nearly as much information available.
Play performance was this weekend and now that he’s done with that he will have more time available. The Saturday show was cancelled due to snow and ice so he spent the newly found free time teaching himself Physics 2 and is thinking of taking that AP exam. The class isn’t offered at our school so if he pursues it we’ll need to figure out how to take the test.
@homerdog AP physic C is paced like college physics classes , Calc based Mechanics in first semester and and calc based Electricity and Magnetism in 2nd semester. Yes there are 2 AP exams for the class. And yes, she is trying to get all the AP credit she can. AP stats will not count. because engineering requires calculus based stats. But it will give her a foundation. Our school has 8 periods. The big thing is she is not planning on doing Academic Decathlon (which I must admit is already giving her anxiety), this will free up so much time for physics studying.
I forgot D21 had her first SAT tutoring session Saturday. While the payment is painful, I’m cautiously optimistic. In several of the problems he gave her to see how she works, she got the tougher ones right and the easier ones wrong. As we all know, the SAT likes trickery…Most of D’s mistakes were misreading the question. The good news is - hopefully an easy fix. Like she confused product and sum on a question. Now that it was pointed out, she’s conscious of it and hopefully it won’t happen again. Fingers crossed!
Have you looked into either taking online college courses or college courses at a local CC? Colleges will try to accept the CC credit and in many cases will apply towards student’s major or electives. Students will enter in advanced standing and this will possibly decrease courses needed for college, early graduation, preferred standing in rooming, or time in college to double major, study abroad or do an internship or research. This is an alternative for taking AP credit courses.
I wouldn’t take any college courses with intent for them to count when you go off to college. Or, at the very least, check with the colleges that your child might attend and get their policy on that. I think you’re most likely to have success transferring those types of credits to state schools. Many private schools (and definitely elite schools and LACs) don’t take any CC course credit and many don’t even take AP credit.