@BingeWatcher
If it’s not too personal to ask, has your D tried medication for anxiety? My D takes medication for both ADHD and anxiety. Her anxiety medication wasn’t working well so we opted for the genesight profile which tells you which medications are most effective per your genetic profile. It eliminates much of the trial and error inherent in finding the right medication. I found that when my D wasn’t on the right meds, her anxiety impacted every area of her life, including being out of sorts as you mentioned above. In addition, my D’s anxiety prevented her from reaching her potential because she was so anxiety-ridden that it literally took away her confidence and her voice. I think it’s especially challenging to deal with anxiety during the crux of fluctuating teenage hormones. Hopefully your D’s anxiety will improve before she goes off to college. So many of the orientation programs are aimed at fostering friendships among new students which should increase the odds that your D will be able to make friends.
So glad ya’ll were able to find what works for your D @GoldPenn. D has not been diagnosed with anxiety, life long introvert. I will keep a close eye on her. I am hoping this is situational anxiety related to going away to camp.
So… now that AP results are out and SAT results are coming next week, has college spam begun in your household? 
@BingeWatcher and @yearstogo - congrats!!! That is wonderful! Go celebrate!
My daughter gets her scores tomorrow morning while she is with her dad, so I guess I’ll know tomorrow afternoon when she comes home. She took AP Chem (and expects a 4, she got an A- for the class through ChemAdvantage/PA Homeschoolers) and AP Comp Sci A (she codes regularly and felt good about the test so she expects at least a 4, she took the course through PA Homeschoolers).
Wow @mamaedefamilia nope no AP class nor SAT for my freshman. Next school year she will take her first AP class and the PSAT for practice before 11th grade when it matters the most. She will probably take the SAT for the first time next school year.
@EGHopeful My daughter will also be taking her first AP class next year as well as PSAT.
I have been impressed by the number of people on this thread who have children who already have AP courses and SAT scores.
We’re still waiting for D21’s final schedule. She’s on the cusp, grade wise for AP Seminar, her overall English grade makes the cut, but don’t know the sub score for writing. The final schedule will (hopefully) be;
Honors French 3
Pre Calc
World history/ pre APUSH (our school divides APUSH over 3 semesters)
AP Seminar
Honors Chem
Intro to keyboard (FA requirement)
No Sat or AP as a frosh, but her weighted GPA was a 4.24 which made us all happy! She had a great year and is enjoying working for me once a week, volunteering once per week, cross country training a few mornings a week and her best sloth impression the rest of the time! S18 moves into college 8/21,so we’re all getting used to that!
My D21 finished her freshman year a few weeks ago. It’s so interesting to see the difference in courses in other schools/states!! D21 is in a very competitive public where there are no APs allowed freshman year, and very few sophomore year. She only had 1 honors class freshman year, despite qualifying for more. She did honors history and Spanish 2- but dropped it almost immediately for Latin 1.
Sophomore year she will have honors history, English and Latin. She qualified for honors algebra 2 and chemistry, but isn’t a math/science kid so we didn’t want to overwhelm her, she also does competitive cheer, 15 hours a week with extensive travel during 2nd/3rd marking periods.
Despite being a cheerleader, she is pretty introverted, prefers Sims games on her computer, Netflix and reading to partying. She attends this school as an out of district student (her dad teaches there so is allowed to attend), so makes socializing a little tougher. Plus most are extremely wealthy (which we aren’t) so she can’t attend some of the camps and other things they do.
Glad I found this page! My son just finished freshman year in college, but they are completely different both in grades and personality, so I feels like this search is a whole new ballgame!
Got the AP scores back and are now waiting for the SAT2 score, which should be out in a few days. D21 got a 4 on her AP Chemistry exam, which she expected and is thrilled to receive as that class and the exam kicked her butt (in a very good way). Unfortunately, she got a 3 on the AP Comp Sci exam, which was a surprise. She’s been coding for a while and she walked out of the test feeling confident about the FRQs and slightly-but-not-too-worried about the MCs. She thought she was going to get at least a 4 (as she had been getting on her practice tests). I don’t think this score will hurt her college applications as long as she doesn’t get a giant string of 3s in the future. As a homeschooler, her standardized test grades are important in the application process, so it is best if she can report as many high scores as possible. (She is considered a homeschooler even though she takes classes from different sources…her grades in her core courses come from certified teachers or professors).
The good thing is that taking those two AP courses appears to have narrowed her focus in regard to what she wants to study. She has always been a STEM kid, and for a while she has been unsure whether she wanted to focus on computer science or a specialty within environmental science. She unexpectedly fell in love with that AP Chemistry class…it was the first class she had ever taken that made her fear for her grade every single week (she ended the year with an A-), and she loved that (in a strange way, lol), and she really enjoyed having to know the material at a deeper level than she ever had to know anything before. She now has a great appreciation for all things chemistry and looks forward to her other AP Science classes (she will take AP Bio next year).
She liked AP Comp Sci and got an A+ in the class, but I noticed her interest in coding seemed to wane during the AP class last year. She is a type-A and naturally competitive (within herself) kid, and yet she wasn’t that upset about the 3 on that AP exam and actually seemed to look at it as the opportunity to tell me she thought she was far more interested in chemistry/bio/physics (she took honors bio through our public charter while she was in middle school and she had an in-person extracurricular (not for credit) course in physics while also in middle school). Given her outside interests, finding a hard science specialty within environmental science seems like the right plan for her, and she’ll keep her coding skills going but most likely not pursue a major in it. At least, that’s the plan for right now, according to her, and of course that plan may change once or thrice given her age…but for right now, that all sounds fine with me.
@GoldPenn Welcome to the thread! I agree with what others stated above – your daughter sounds wonderful.
As for comparing course loads – I’d be cautious of that. The kids represented in this thread go to all different kinds of schools (or no specific school, like my case), and those schools have different policies and rules. College admissions folks will compare your kid to the other kids within her school, and they won’t penalize a kid for not taking what the kid’s school doesn’t offer. I think it’s rare that a school will allow 9th graders to take AP courses, so keep in mind that parents who post here tend to have kids who are especially academically focused and aren’t representative of the general parent-population-at-large.
Hello All,
Last time I was on these boards was on these boards was for my oldest who is now in college. My youngest is graduating 2021. I am happy to have found this thread. My D21 loves, loves school. He ended his freshman year as 1/436. He just took his first AP test (APUSH) and got a 5. He is eccstatic. He is secretary of his student government and is heavily involved with FBLA. He also does the school drama and musical. He doesn’t do any sports. Do any of you think that not doing sports will hurt him in anyway as far as applying to private colleges? Anyway, I look forward to reading through this thread.
@sparkleybarkley I don’t think so at all. Athletics are just an EC, unless you’re being recruited.
Rejoining the thread, can’t believe freshman year is already over!
D21 is finishing up accelerated Algebra 2 in summer school (1 year of class in 6 weeks) and so our summer can finally start after this week! Freshman year went well. She’s got two weeks of down time that sandwich a few weeks of internship at our local zoo, followed by a family trip to Universal and Disney!!
Next year’s schedule:
Pre-AP English 10
Pre-AP Spanish 3
Pre-AP Chemistry
Pre-AP PreCalculus
AP World History
Orchestra
Health Science (magnet school)
Communication Applications/SAT Prep (required)
It will be D21’s first AP experience. I am not too worried about this year, but this all prepares her to potentially have 5 AP classes next year. I am trying to convince her to take APs in moderation, but I think the “most rigorous schedule” comments have made her think she has to take ALL the APs offered in her school if possible.
We have casually looked at two colleges while visiting the areas but went on our first real college tour and info session last weekend. She loved the school! (and I did too!) Time to start clipping coupons to be able to afford it!
@mm5678 while there is no doubt that rigor is very important at the tippy top schools when by DD18 was looking even at some of those schools they said it was better to make an A in honors class than make a C in AP class.
Also before her senior year my daughter has signed up for 6AP classes including AP BC Calc. She knew she was not going to to an STEM type of college major so in the first week of classes at my urging reason prevailed and she was able to switch into honors Calc. She admitted to me that was the best move she could have made. She got and A in honors Calc and made A’s in all the AP classes so it worked out well for her.
Welcome to the new posters! D21 left for camp this weekend - 3 weeks living on a boat, snorkeling, diving and exploring the Leeward Islands, we wanted to go with her! She brought her required summer reading book- Mythology - but is not looking forward to reading it at all. She packed her pleasure reading book in her carry on and Mythology was buried way down in her giant duffel bag. :))
Our school allows APs freshman year (in fact they push them which is frustrating) as well as AICE classes which is another advanced program like AP and IB. For many classes they make you take two periods of a class (for example if you want to take AP Bio you have to also take a second period of AICE Bio) which makes planning a schedule with even one elective hard. On top of that if you want to get the AICE diploma you have to finish a certain amount of credits by the end of junior year so that also cuts in to your elective time. Because of this we don’t know her exact schedule yet but we know most of it.
AICE English
AP Capstone Research
AP World History
Algebra 2 Honors
Spanish 2
Newspaper
This gives her one open spot - she wants to take the advanced Biology class but that would have to be a two period block and she doesn’t have room for that. She could drop newspaper but she applied for that and got accepted and is very excited about it so that is staying. The school does usually offer one stand alone AP Bio class but they only let kids who they consider to have a very good reason they cant take the block take that class. To the school that means kids in ROTC and kids in the leadership class. I understand the ROTC has a very tight schedule, but I don’t understand why they think leadership is a more important elective than newspaper, band, theater or any other elective.
@momtogkc What an AMAZING opportunity for your D! I am sure she will have the time of her life! Welcome all to our growing board…All the kiddos sound wonderful.
Freshman also don’t take AP at our competitive public high school in the NYC area. I’m glad because my D21 is an outlier in that she loved her middle school and was very resistant to transition to HS. She actually hated the first few months–it’s a bigger school and she felt so anonymous. Having all these much older kids in theater (her main EC) was daunting and she really needed time to adjust. Honors classes were challenging enough!
I’m sure many kids can manage a highly rigorous schedule from middle school on with no problem, but I want to be careful not to overwhelm my particular kids. Very intellectual D19, who always loved school and excelled, started to burn out her second quarter of Junior year. Not the time you want to be procrastinating or running out of steam! She had always been so self-motivated, and suddenly she was balking at spending so much time sitting at a desk. She wanted to explore new activities and spend more time with friends. After a lot of stress, she pulled off an excellent fourth quarter and brought things back up, but yikes, I don’t want to go through that again.
@3SailAway I agree with you. D21 high school is notoriously high stress and I’m very concerned with making sure she has a balance and doesn’t burn out! Not to say anything against others on this thread - but I know MY kid, and I could totally see her stressing herself right into a burn out!
@momtogkc I agree with Bingewatcher - wow, what a cool experience! That sounds amazing! I would love to live on a boat and snorkel and dive for three weeks. I am sure your daughter is having a blast.
@NJWrestlingmom I worry about the burn out too, I hate that the school pushes the advanced classes so much. D can be hard on herself and stress herself out so I am glad she is agreeing with me to stick with newspaper instead of the double science block. At least I know she will have a little fun during the day! She will be the newspaper photographer, she will have to write some articles as well but her main responsibility will be the pictures which she loves doing.
@BingeWatcher and @JanieWalker - It is a such a cool experience - she went with the same camp last year on the trip to the BVI’s where she got Scuba certified. This year she doesn’t have to do any classes or certifications so it is a more laid back trip where the kids can help choose what they do each day. We got to talk to her on the second day and she is already having fun - they had done three dives and helped clean up a beach that was covered in seaweed.