Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 1)

Question - D21 is in the middle of course selection and she is torn between taking Biotech & AP Bio. She has already taken Bio/Chem/Physics (currently in) all at the honors level. FYI at her school These are PreReqs before any AP level can be taken and has to be applied for and teacher/board approved. Yeah NOT easy getting into honors/AP at her school and 3 is the max one can take to be labeled Most Rigor on transcript.

She REALLY wants Biotech because of the labs and what the course teaches. But she wants to apply for JHU and Georgetown and possibly go for BME/BioChem (PreMed)

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

She will also be taking
AP Calc
AP Gov
AP Art Studio (more of a fun class so would be approved a 4th AP as this class is taught after school)

@EGHopeful Iā€™d have her take the class that she wants to take.

@EGHopeful I agree with @3kids2dogs, Iā€™d go with the class she has a lot of enthusiasm for.

I struggled a bit with this with S21 with his math selection ā€“ heā€™s in AP Calc AB this year and originally planned on AB Calc BC + AP Stats since he thinks he wants to major in statistics. But then he also wanted to take IB Biology and IB Economics and this cool dual-enrollment class on Geospatial data analysis. Looking at everything, he decided to not take the next level of calculus and just Stats as his math. I think heā€™d be in a better position for math in college if he keeps up the calculus but he doesnā€™t want to add that to everything else. I made my case once, he disagreed and he signed up for what heā€™s interested in and I let it go. Oh well, I donā€™t think it will matter in his college apps (heā€™s not aiming for tippy top schools or applying to engineering programs) and if he needs a tutor to get back on track w/ calculus in college heā€™ll just deal with that.

LoveandHonor - I have been on probably 50 college campuses for my work and I would put Oxford up against most of them for beauty. Miami students are by and large very friendly and the faculty is really focuses on undergrad relationships.

@inthegarden - I am crossing my fingers that S21 gets into Boys State, bc itā€™s held at Miami. We have not had a chance to tour the campus yet - heā€™s pretty stubborn about wanting to go OOS.

Anyone else concerned about their spring break trips to see schools? I donā€™t want to cancel! We have another month so Iā€™m not doing anything right now but itā€™s not looking good for travel.

Trying to think of a plan B. I guess I could take D out of school later this spring if things settle down with the virus but most colleges are done by early May and I wouldnā€™t want to go during finals. Plus, D will have to miss school but I guess we would just trim any extra time off of our trip and try to get it down to three or four days instead of seven.

Summer not a great idea since I want kids on campus and, gosh, I hate to wait until fall. Sheā€™ll have poms and football games and yearbook will be insanely busy for her too.

S21ā€™s HS baseball team is traveling to Phoenix for a tourney on spring break. They leave Mar 22 which is just a little over 2 weeks from todayā€¦so far it is still on.

I hope the tourney doesnā€™t get cancelled as he is really looking forward to it. In terms of college visits, we will have to go in the summer and/or early fall.

No - full steam ahead here and getting very excited. Though rental car rates are through the roof; not sure if itā€™s related or just the one way drop off fees, but itā€™s annoying.

I also have been checking the flights since there is some consolidation going on. So far only our return home trip has been changed - we leave for the airport at 8:00am instead of noon, but thatā€™s fine.

Yes, Iā€™ve wondered about this too. I think our fallback would be to visit some schools in August when they first start up. Or, possibly this May after AP testing but thatā€™s when colleges are wrapping up semesters.

Itā€™s possible all our kids will be applying to schools they havenā€™t visited and then hitting the road Spring of 2021ā€¦

@3kids2dogs Do you feel like thereā€™s any chance that the colleges will stop having visitors to campus? S19 gets home today for spring break. Bowdoin is preparing for kids to take classes remotely in the very unlikely case they donā€™t bring students back from spring break.

We are definitely going to visit schools if they allow us to come!

Iā€™ve been reading that some Admitted Student days have been cancelled (MIT).

@AlmostThere2018 whatā€™s up at Davidson? Kids are back from break this weekend, right? Howā€™s your D feeling about the virus there?

I definitely think some more admitted student days may be at risk this spring. Not sure about just regular visit days, it will be interesting to see how things play out.

S21 would like to play baseball in college, so not sure what will happen with summer tourneys, showcases, etc., either. Lots of uncertainty.

Could be fewer international students applying for the 21/22 school year as well.

@Mwfan1921 right. Maybe admitted student days more at risk of being cancelled then just random visit days for prospective students since admitted student days bring a ton of kids at once. Thatā€™s a good point.

I donā€™t know how a campus could keep families from walking around campus to visit but I suppose they could cancel tours. Thatā€™s going to be a hard call for colleges who want to attract students.

Not a fan of uncertainty or going with the flow. ugh.

We booked on SW and that and everything else can be cancelled with no costs other than the time it took to plan the visits in the first place. I hope it all works out.

@mamaedefamilia Us too. Iā€™m not worried about the cost of cancelling. Iā€™m worried about D not getting her feet on these campuses before she applies and she has to see them in person with kids on campus to consider ED.

Our high school starts school August 10th, way before colleges start, so Iā€™d have to pull her out to see schools. Plus, she really needs to write her essays this summer and needs to see campuses before that.

We are scheduled to fly out a week from tomorrow. Havenā€™t cancelled anything yet but went from 90/10 probability to 50/50 yesterday when DH got anxious and my employer banned international work-related travel. I looked at driving but itā€™s 17 hours! 12 is about my limit. Weā€™d be out $$ for one hotel stay (nonrefundable when I booked, maybe thatā€™s changed) and maybe the Jeep tour in Sedona I paid for already. Sigh. We are still planning on going to the Northeast in June but havenā€™t booked anything yet.

@homerdog Iā€™m with you on the scheduling. This is also our only real chance to see a number of schools with students present until Spring 2021. Many schools of interest require booking a flight or two and much of a day spent traveling just to get there. Fingers crossed!

Weā€™re going via car, and itā€™s driveable (6 hours), so I donā€™t feel like weā€™ll be cancelling unless something really horrific happens with Covid19. Itā€™ll be important to S21 to see these schools, and there are three more we plan to see at the end of May, but those are much further away.

@carlson2 i am just worried schools will stop letting visitors come.

My sonā€™s university is not allowing students to have guests in residential areas, effective earlier this week and through the end of their spring break (their break starts a week from today). While they arenā€™t preventing visitors on campus yet, depending on how things progress, I could see that as a future possibility but hopefully it wonā€™t come to that. They are not too far removed from the NYC outbreak.

His university sent their students from their Italy campus home earlier this week and have barred them from campus until that have finished a self-quarantine for 14 days (at which point it will be spring break anyway). And like most universities, they have canceled any university-related travel to affected areas for the foreseeable future.