@VikkiG5 Vandy’s CDS says interest is not considered.
@johnny523 thanks! Have asked D21 to research that site this summer
Took a CC break for a bit while we came down from the process with S19.
Really happy to catch up with everyone and your amazing kiddos! S21 has had a great year. Yeah, the academics are going great. He survived the PSAT. But even more exciting has been seeing him evolve as a person. Thanks to his older bro dragging him into cross country and now track, he has discovered a passion for running. He has endured a couple of heartbreaks but keeps putting himself out there. And he will (fingers crossed), get his learner’s permit when he turns 16 next month.
And tonight, he initiated a bit a college talk. Because junior year will be so busy, he’d like to check out Pitt this summer. We are PA residents and he already knows that Pitt, Penn State, Temple, and the PASSHE schools are within budget with no scholarships or aid needed.
He tagged along on most of the visits for S19. Of those already visited, Penn State, Saint Joseph’s, Loyola Maryland (Mr. InfiniteWaves and I are alums), and West Chester U resonated. Tonight, he expressed an interest in checking out Temple and Drexel as well. We will probably wait until next spring for those as both can be done in one day. Pitt is the furthest away and requires an overnight. As such, the summer visit makes sense.
So, I have one who is gearing up for high school graduation and preparing for Penn State University Park and one starting to think a little bit more about his future plans.
Seriously, they were both in preschool, like, yesterday. 
Hello all. Glad every thing is going well. Bump in the road and all.
D is on her way home (5 hour drive) from the State Academic Octathlon. Our school won first place again this year in the medium school class and D got 2nd place over all. So proud of her tireless efforts she puts so many hours for many months studying for this EC. Now she can start prepping for AP exam for APUSH.
In other news, her boyfriend’s grandmother came to visit from Brazil and brought D a Brazil Soccer Jersey…So sweet the grandma had been looking forward to meet D.
D has started getting interested in colleges. She has ask if she can go tour BAMA and University of Alabama at Huntsville this summer.
Can’t believe how fast this school year has flown by. D is crawling to the finish line.
D21 is not finishing the year as strong as she started, still up in the air where she will net out but GPA taking a hit this year for sure. Still need to decide if we rework her schedule for next year (its not super easy to do) but the more I learn the more I am seeing she should probably be taking AP Physics senior year instead of HN Physics next year for the degrees she is interested in. Annoyed (again) with her totally checked out (she is leaving) GC for not even giving her the advice during scheduling knowing the schools and programs she is interested in, but we’ll get it sorted. She is starting to really look at colleges, and is narrowing in on the size I always assumed she would be most comfortable with (around 10K) but unfortunately with what she wants to do (STEM fields) a lot of the schools who have intriguing programs she has found thus far are schools like Vandy & WashU & Notre Dame…and we don’t have the money saved for her to go to those schools even if she could get in (I see her as probably a wait list spot, she’ll probably have above average grades, test scores, and EC’s but no “hook” to really set her apart from all the other above average kids applying). Our goal this summer is to find similar size schools more financially feasible (there seem to be more LACs that fit that bill that don’t have a quality neuroscience program), any recommendations welcomed! She would love to play soccer in college, but I think that ship sailed many years ago when we didn’t play the politics game of getting her in the right clubs in our area to make recruitment a fruitful endeavor. That was a hard realization for her to come to, I think we’re getting there though. She also has grown up in a spirited Alumni household and wants a school she can cheer on in sports on tv, which tends to be more of a large school thing so she has some reconciling to do with exactly how important that is to her.
Mr. Hokie and I have come to some hard realizations of our own. Apparently our dreams of future Hokies will not be realized, as we’ve learned our alma mater (Virginia Tech) has priced itself out because we are out of state, and it seems they are one of the most disproportionate in out of state vs. in state costs (and its only going to get worse because this year they have a 0% tuition increase for in state) , and one of the least giving schools for any type of merit aid to out of state students as well. So double legacy or not, her Hokie fandom days are numbered (she’s even wearing a Virginia Tech logo in her OH driver’s license pic!).
Peace and love to all those who have teens taking AP exams this year. They start next week!
D21 has four. (She is homeschooled and takes online classes, though she will start dual enrollment in-person next year). Her online AP Spanish class, while being excellent for learning Spanish, did not prepare her for the format of the exam, so she has been going to the local private school and sitting in on their AP Spanish exam prep days (thank you so much, private school!). I am bombarding her with practice tests at home and raiding bookstores this weekend for even more prep books.
The following week, she has Bio, AP Calc, and English - those online classes seem to have prepared her well, according to the practice exams she takes. Scores solidly in the 4 range on the MCs, and sometimes gets very high 4s/almost 5s - I can’t grade the free response practice exams but she feels really good about them.
Can’t wait for these next two weeks to be over. She’s going to take the SAT2 Spanish and the SAT2 Bio in June, and next year she will take AP Calc BC, so at least there is a back-up of sorts if she happens to crash and burn on these tests during these next two weeks.
I hate all this testing and will be happy when it’s all over. D21 enjoys the challenge, but she’s starting to look fairly haggard.
S21 has a practice test for AP World History this Saturday! He’s exempt from all his EOC/Final Exams for his core classes so he’ll be able to concentrate on the AP exam only…only 18 more days left in the school year (and then he goes straight into AP Psych over the summer along with a couple of summer camps and marching band stuff)!
S21 has his first AP test (only one this year) on Monday for US Government. He doesn’t seem stressed but he’s also not the most communicative kid!
@hokiemama24 We have the same issue with S21 who’d love to go to my alma mater but it’s OOS and too expensive. But we’re in VA and there’s a good chance he’ll end up at VA Tech! He liked it best of the VA schools we looked at recently.
@JESmom I’ll live vicariously through you, I just love all things orange and maroon and so would have loved to wear the Hokie Mom shirt I once bought my mom for a gift LOL! Your S21 will have a bit bigger of a Virginia Tech (and Blacksburg) than we experienced but I can’t imagine him loving it any less, its really a special special place (and the fandom runs deep ;)!
DS had registered to take three SAT subj tests in June but was fortunate enough to make ARML so he had to move the SAT date to tomorrow.Tthey do not offer World History so he will only take two. He is glad that he will only do 2 exams but not sure if he will ever try to pick up WH or not.
Good luck to everyone, including ours, on the tests tomorrow!!!
@hokiemama24 Take a look at WPI, RPI, U of Rochester, and Case Western, all of which offer merit scholarships. WPI gets a fair amount of buzz on CC for its hands-on, project-based approach, if memory serves.
We have two AP exams coming up mid month and then two SAT subject tests in early June and hopefully she will be done with subject tests.
Good luck to everybody on the home stretch!
@yearstogo Congrats to your son!
Great catching up! Another Virginia family here. We toured a few schools over Spring Break. DD prefers smaller schools. We looked at W&M (my Alma mater), Richmond, and Washington & Lee. She could see herself easily at any of them, but really liked Richmond. W&M is almost too comfortable for her (grandparents are 5 min away, she’s been there very often and it’s like a second home) so she thinks she wants a totally new location. Vandy is high on her list and I like the phrase someone else used- DDs stats should be such that she can “throw the dice” and see there. We went to the traveling SEC info tour, talked with the Vandy rep and got a lot of info from U of SC honors college. It’s very impressive and admissions are going to be revamped next year making it more holistic, but they only took ridiculously high stats students this year into the honors college. They do offer a very good amount of $$, so it’s on our list, as is Alabama (for generous out of state $$ and honors).
DD’s stress level is high as the year wraps up. AP Spanish exam is Tuesday and she’s the only sophomore in the class, only 5 are taking the exam and the teacher has been rather average, at best. She feels totally unprepared. She’ll also take AP World, but feels good with that class. She has to do 180 hours of a mentorship over the next two years with her magnet Governor’s School program, so she’s applying this weekend for her top choice placement. I think she’ll have no issue getting an interview. We’d love to get a bunch of hours in this summer, so fingers crossed!
Hi @Rue4, my D21 is also taking the AP Spanish Language test on Tuesday. Her teacher was great as far as teaching Spanish, but not that great as far as preparing the teens for this specific test. I’ve been having D21 do practice exams from Princeton Review and Barrons with me reading the proctor script (available from the College Board website) so she knows exactly how that pesky second part with the audio and the recorded responses will be timed. She’s also getting better with her timing with the MC part one questions. I know the practice tests are helping her; maybe something to consider for your daughter this weekend if you aren’t already? Good luck.
DS and a few friends will be taking advanced classes in math (eg., MultiVariable, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, etc.) and computer science during their last two years in high school and I was wondering if anyone had experience or can explain the pros/cons of obtaining college credit for these classes and/or testing out of them.
We understand if State U gives you XX hours of credit for a math class you have taken in HS, these credits might not go towards your math major, instead you would just end up taking higher level math classes offered by State U to obtain the math major/minor as they will want to ensure you took enough courses from their U?
One of DS friends indicated he plans to major in CS and will either get a minor or double major in math. Instead of trying to get college credit for the advanced math courses he took in high school he plans to retake them in college. For instance, he will take 18 or 19 hours a few semesters but this will include a course he has already taken so he reckons it will not take much of his time since he knows the material already. Does this make sense?
In our experience, there are two potential advantages to taking the advanced math classes. If you retake the classes in college, you should be able to ace them which helps your GPA. Alternatively, if your college recognizes the classes (even though you don’t get college credit), you can go right into upper level classes, which require the advanced math as a prerequisite.
We haven’t sent one to college yet, but I recently attended a talk by a math professor at W&M who said she strongly recommended not retaking calculus in college if you took it in HS and got the AP score to satisfy the credit. She said she regularly saw kids retaking it and they tended to then not take the class seriously, making it their bottom priority since it was supposed to be an easy A. It ends up then not being an easy A. And, if you are going to be a math major, it’s a concern that it gets you off on a wrong foot with the math faculty to be seen to be blowing off their class.
S21, who wants to major in math, was debating taking Calc BC in 11th and then a higher math option in 12th but has opted to do Calc AB in 11th / Calc BC in 12th (the most common advanced math sequence at our school). We feel that will send him off to college with a very solid calculus foundation so he can feel confident skipping calc and going on to higher level math freshman year.
Thanks @HMom16 In this case, the individual is really after a CS major but figures he can forego getting any college credit for his advanced math classes. Instead he will retake them but load up on hours a few semesters. As you say, he thinks he can ace the retaken classes and not have to spend too much time on them. By doing this, he will have a degree to support or add credentials to his math knowledge.
He is not really after going deeper in math so does not want to have to take the advanced math courses to get the major.
Another reason NOT to retake Calc in college is sometimes Calc 1 and 2 are weeder classes for pre-med, etc.
My D18 took Calc BC as a junior in HS but didn’t do multi-variable the next year b/c she was ready for a Calc break and was taking high level science instead. Despite the break she took Calc 3 first semester of freshman year b/c her advisor said Calc 2 was known to be a tougher class. She’d gotten a 4 on the BC exam so the advisor said take credit and run. Anyway, she worked really hard in Calc 3 and visited the prof a lot – was super happy to get an A- and is now thinking about minoring in math!
Oomph. I don’t know about passing out of math. Back in the dark ages, I got a 5 on BC and skipped two semesters of Calc. I just about died in Calc 3. Maybe it was because NU is on quarters and the pace is super fast. I should have retaken Calc 2. S19 got a 5 on BC junior year and As in MV this year but Bowdoin suggests all kids take a placement test for math. Since he’s considering it as a major, that’s his plan. I don’t want him over his head.