Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 1)

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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S19 said that during a presentation they had the college counselor at the high school said there is no reason any of you should not know what you want to do if you’ve been paying attention to the career guidance things we do and to your classes. So I guess if you want to be an astronomer, actuary or areospace engineer you are out of luck, because they don’t cover that in HS. I’m guessing if I go deeper into the alphabet than A I could name more careers and majors they don’t cover.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do until I was 30, and frankly there are days I still question my choice. Not one kid in the country in my HS class wanted to design apps for smartphones, because they hadn’t been invented yet.

That’s just a dumb thing to say to a HS kid, or frankly to a college sophomore either.

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@Aguadecoco Do you think they would make them wear masks? I know that sounds miserable, but we moved D18 back to UCF and spent a day a Disney. 95 degree heat and humidity for hours with a mask on. It wasn’t great but until it started to get cooler at night it was hard to tell the difference between mask on and off with the humidity!

Our football was moved to Spring, but XC starts early November.

D21 has theatre this semester- it’s a lot of fun listening to this class and all the crazy stuff they do!

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@dadof4kids I totally agree. I didn’t declare my major until second semester of my sophomore year in college! S21 think he wants engineering, simply because he excels at math and physics and it seems like a logical path. He feels pressure though to figure out what type of engineering to study and he has no idea. He just wants to use his abilities to create/invent/discover something that would help people. Most kids haven’t been exposed yet to the careers they’ll eventually go into. They are still young, and college is a time when they can explore their interests.

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If a student is truly undecided on major when they leave for college, they should choose a school that lets them explore and declare major later. There are a LOT of schools like that. S19 was very undecided. Even though he’s a math/science kid, he also loves to write and likes history. He wasn’t ready to pull the lever on engineering because he wasn’t sure and most engineering programs don’t have space for much other than math and science.

After one year of college, he is leaning towards math or physics or both as majors but will still have plenty of space to take other types of classes. He’s already taken two writing classes, an art history class, and an African history class in addition to his math and physics classes. That pattern could continue for all four years and he would still be able to double major.

This was important to him. He may soon be discovering that he does indeed want an engineering degree. He’s got an internship this fall (he’s deferring this semester) and this job could possibly lead to an interest that would require an engineering degree. Is this a problem? No. We feel that he will be better prepared long term by learning how to write and communicate and learn about the broader world at his LAC. He can get a masters in engineering if that’s what he decides he wants.

D21 is also undecided so we look for schools where she can declare later and where career services has a lot of support to help students learn about different career paths and has a track record of supporting students well in their internship search. Something like 70% of kids change their major even if they declare it freshman year. For students at universities with impacted majors, that could be a problem. Can’t always switch into a comp sci major if you didn’t start as one. All of that needs to be considered when choosing a college.

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@jeneric I think the kids will be required to wear a mask while they are not running.

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@dadof4kids I’m with you. That’s part of the problem I have with these new tech programs that are becoming big in high school. The science/math classes take up every elective for these kids all 4 years. I get STEM is important, but I think history and psych and geography are important, too.

We used to joke when I was younger, in a job that required us to ask a person’s occupation. We would often see “independently wealthy” put down; I knew immediately that was what I wanted to do! Alas, they haven’t been hiring!

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Our HS sports are on, which means that S21 has his job back as a production assistant. Yay!

DE is normally taught at our HS, and is still considered easier compared to our AP classes, and the teachers were usually adjunct faculty from local CCs. They are a way to get college credit and paid for by the state, and good for kids who plan on going to our instate colleges. My D16 stuck with all APs, and S21 is doing the same.

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@AlmostThere2018 congrats on your son’s first interview!

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We avoided DE at first because D21 doesn’t want to go in state to school, but we were pleasantly surprised that several of her OOS would take the credits.

We have been struggling with D21’s spring schedule. The only core class is AP Stat, and the other 3 are electives that if they were right now, can’t happen because of Covid. She tried to swap one for a science and the science is only being offered to Virtual Kids. She was also told she doesn’t need another science to graduate so she can’t get a science- ummm she doesn’t need anything but English, but you make her take a full schedule! We could add a DE, but school wants to control what class she drops and it will be one she wants to take if things improve. She has the ability to graduate early- I’m tempted to let her. School wants an answer by next week. Just ugh.

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@flyawayx2, I have a bit of a fascination for how people combine their different interests into a career/life path, so after reading your post about your son this morning I looked back to your comment on this thread where you wrote that your son loved bugs, animals and nature growing up. Maybe he would like to use his creative problem-solving as an environmental engineer…Wikipedia says that env. engineers use scientific and engineering principles to protect ecosystems and human health…among other things they address problems ranging from acid rain, climate change, ozone depletion, air and water pollution, etc. What do you think her would think of that?

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@Aguadecoco and @jeneric Our school has started preseason XC training and per state requirements, must practice in a mask. They meet early in the day, so not too hot, but nutty, imo. I’ve been urging him to run alone from home, where no one cares if he’s masked or not.

I assume meets will be fully masked when the season starts in mid September, but I hope not.

@homerdog I’m one of those cautiously optimistic people
talking about “waiting a few more weeks”. Our state has started meeting all gating criteria this past week, cases are down, and I think my kids will be f2f in two weeks. But most fall sports have already been shifted to spring.

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DE is normally taught at our HS, and is still considered easier compared to our AP classes, and the teachers were usually adjunct faculty from local CCs. They are a way to get college credit and paid for by the state, and good for kids who plan on going to our instate colleges. My D16 stuck with all APs, and S21 is doing the same.

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same at ours. no DE all AP/one IB

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XC kids not running with masks on in Illinois but, when they aren’t running, should have them on or be socially distanced outside. I drove by school yesterday and saw some athletes having a meeting, maybe girls tennis. No masks but they were all six feet away from each other.

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@dadof4kids I don’t think that anyone expects young kids to have a concrete idea of their future career. I recall a commencement speaker at our HS graduation saying, make a plan and also make yourself flexible to adapt your plans as opportunities arise. Life without any plan is not going to end well. We expect kids in high school to start picking classes by interest and rigor (aptitude) and of course to make sure they meet their graduation requirements. So being informed of which courses weigh more heavily is good information for kids to start hearing about as they approach their high school years. Your transcript is your academic resume and having some thought in how it is crafted is important. Once you are in college the same principles apply. You may not know what you want to ultimately make your living in but you know what you are good at and what interests you and need to make your academic resume a representation thereof. Thinking a 20 year old can’t be expected to make these informed decisions is short changing our young adults. In previous generations many people by this age had fought in a war, married and had families and were providing for them. Make your plan and be nimble in spirit to change your plans as needed I think is pretty sound advice. Just my 2 cents.

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Just to clarify. For D and her HS friends, it was a summer course they took at UCLA and it was a Physics class for credit. D got the standard 4 years of a sciences w/lab completed which many colleges like to see. So her transcript showed Honors Bio, Honors Chem, Physics (UCLA), and AP Environmental Science. The bottom line is that as long as you have other strong rigor in other classes it is fine to take a few DE courses. I think D ended up with “only” 8 AP classes, none were in STEM (other than APES which is not really a core science class).

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S21 has discovered a silver lining to all on-line classes. He had to choose between two he was excited about that were offered at the same time. But since the classes are all recorded, he registered for one and got permission to “audit” the other (basically he’s just been added to the class list so he can watch the recordings later in the day). He even recruited a buddy to do the same thing; hopefully that makes it more likely they’ll both stick with it. I told him he reminds me of Hermione in “Harry Potter” with her time turner (although D19 pointed out this doesn’t actually add hours to his day).

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Just wanted to mention an interesting email I received today. Six liberal arts schools have committed to join forces and “leave their rivalries on the sidelines”, offering group presentations on academics, campus life, applications, etc. Participating colleges are Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, Swarthmore and Williams. First presentation is being given by the Deans of all of the schools.

six colleges.org

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@Solstice155 That looks great.

Here’s another group of SLACs that are presenting together:
Claremont McKenna College, Colorado College, Connecticut College, Grinnell College, Haverford College, Kenyon College, Macalester College, and Sarah Lawrence College.
We attended this event in person last year and found it quite helpful since we couldn’t visit all of these schools in person.

Students can register for the virtual presentations here:
https://8ofthebestcolleges.org/student-programs/

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Unfortunately I was unable to attend the live event in early August, but found a recording. Grown and Flown Facebook webinar re applying to college during covid with panel including Jeff Selingo. Straight off the top discussing nitty gritty of TO and a really timely discussion. CC would not let me post the link. There are four episodes, with two more still to come in case anyone is interested.

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@NateandAllisMom I watched the Grown and Flown presentation about test optional schools and found it incredibly helpful. I think they are posting the recording somewhere.

I took notes and here are the most important things I learned:

Before submitting a test, a student should ask themselves, “Is this score reflective of what the student has achieved?”

They know that scores usually improve from junior year to senior year. As such, if you submit a score from pre-Covid, they know you would likely have a higher score later.

DO NOT RISK YOUR HEALTH TO TAKE A TEST.

DO NOT TRAVEL TO ANOTHER STATE TO TAKE A TEST!

Test optional MEANS test optional! They will NOT count it against a student if they do not submit a test. They are fully aware of the challenges the students have had to try to take a test and all of the cancellations.

They repeated it over and over to not stress about the test anymore. Focus on the things you CAN control. Let the test go!

Schools may vary how they look at test optional but the panel was reflective of different types of schools; WashU (highly selective), Indiana (large state school) and Worcester Polytec (test optional).

The high school transcript is still the most important part of an application.

Colleges are looking at their institutional goals and what they need. I interpret this as a casting call. They are looking to fill their class with their needs for different departments, etc…

They are aware it may be more difficult for students to receive a teacher recommendation. They won’t count it against students if teachers don’t submit them on time.

The more you can tell about yourself on the application the better. They will look closely at character.

Some schools won’t know how many students will be taking a gap year until September when some schools start classes.

They are aware of the impact of gap year students for class of 2024. They are doing everything they can to make sure it doesn’t negatively impact class of 2025.

Do not ED for a boost unless you are familiar with the school and have visited, etc…

Feel free to ask me more questions! I found the presentation invaluable. It answered a lot of the questions we have been discussing on this forum.