@sccaflagger74 Does he have mostly smaller schools on his radar? I need to get D out to some schools but the closest one I really want to show her is a six hour drive and I’m too lazy. Ha! I have a spring break plan but that will only show her some match schools, no safeties. It’s so hard to spend money on visiting schools until we have an ACT score that’s more final.
@homerdog, he also has shown interest in bigger schools when he’s met them at college fairs, but those that he’s liked are too far for a quick visit (Miami of OH, Ohio, South Carolina). Since those are all out of state publics we’d be very reliant on merit to make it work and until he takes the SAT next month we’re not even ready to think more deeply about it. He does like the undergraduate-only idea where he’s not fighting with grad students for research opportunities and he knows he’d lose that at a big school.
I suspect we’ll do tours of Temple, West Chester, and Delaware, even if he doesn’t apply, simply to get the larger school feel before booking overnights at schools farther away. Each of those are less than an hour drive for us.
I’m trying to get D21 to visit West Chester. Something on the website made her think it looks like a high school - what??? I’ve always heard it’s a great campus! It’s close enough for a day trip, so I’ll get her there at some point.
I was also debating Lafayette - though might be too close to home. She also said, after falling in love with Syracuse, she doesn’t want to visit anymore financial reaches! That cuts out a lot!! LOL
We did go to the TCNJ open house. Such a nice school! Great academics, good size (about 6500 students), maybe a tad too close to home…then they took us into the freshman dorm! I had my best poker face on, but D21 was ready to go at that point. I believe the exact quote was, “I’d rather be water boarded than live there for a year”. I tried to explain it builds character, but she wasn’t having it!
@sccaflagger74 @NJWrestlingmom As someone who went to Lafayette College many years ago, I can tell you it is a great place. Great location, beautiful campus, small classes, professors that care, good mix of STEM and liberal arts. I don’t know your financial situations but I do believe they are meeting 100% of need. Not sure that they give much merit money to full paying folks. As such the 70k a year sticker price could be problematic.
My D21 is not interested as it is too small for her. But if the school could be affordable for your kids it is a great place to spend 4 years …
@sccaflagger74 Have been to Miami of Ohio…beautiful campus, they give lots of merit money and they keep the tutition the same amount as it was when your student goes in as a freshman. My D21 felt that it was a little too in the middle of no where.
Also love Delaware. Again beautiful campus they give good merit money. Great location short distance to beach, Philly DC and NYC.
And of course from my avatar I would highly recommend a visit to Clemson where my D18 currently attends. Beautiful campus, nice weather, they give good merit money and they accept lots of AP credits. My D18 went in basically as a sophomore as she had 35 AP credits accepted. That allows her to have a double major and can be done in 3 years which also is a great savings that will help with graduate school. It is a bit isolated.
Where are my AP Chem parents at?
Needing to commiserate with someone. Boy the struggle continues. At least no more tears with her 58 on the quiz today. Thankfully they are allowed to correct to an 80. But boy is this class a butt kicker!
@BingeWatcher , so sorry your D is struggling with AP Chem.
My daughter actually really likes it. If you asked her 6 months ago she would have said her favorite subject was Biology, but she recently told me she may major in Chemistry because she’s really loving the subject. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. She doesn’t have a crazy high grade (straddling an A and a B depending upon the day) because the class is a tough one, but she loves the labs and the material.
I’m impressed with being able to correct to an 80. That would be unheard of in our high school. If the department lets your correct, you can only earn two additional points, and the max corrected score is 70%.
@BingeWatcher D is in Syracuse University Chem. Kids can either take the AP exam or pay for the 8 credits from Syracuse University. This class is certainly going to bring her GPA down. We are waiting on report cards now, she was hovering at an Unweighted 78 or so. I just hope it doesn’t destroy her gpa too much. She is currently safely in the top 10%, closer to top 5% actually. She is hoping to at least stay where she is.
D21 is our youngest and we started the school search this past summer. We started with some local colleges to get her acclimated to how the tours work and what questions. likes, dislikes etc…to expect. She has narrowed down her search to about 3 hours of Northern NJ. We have looked at Marist, Fairfield, Seton Hall, Monmouth, Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac, Manhattan and Fordham. (youngest son is Fordham grad)
UCONN will be a future visit. PA Schools are off the list, UDel is not of interest.
We have visited a few of these schools twice. It is imperative to visit a school while kids are on campus. Can’t emphasize this enough. The vibe, diversity (or lack of) student body, dorms, dining areas, employees can not be compared from summer to a school year weekday.
@BmacNJ just curious why no PA schools? My own d just doesn’t like the idea of PA. Lol We’re so close she’s going to see a couple anyway!
Haha, 2 main reasons, my oldest son played College baseball and played a ton of games in PA. Our daughter was dragged along to weekend doubleheaders to remote campuses in the middle of nowhere, hence as she got older was determined not to go to school in PA. Secondly, we are NY Sports Fans, the thought of going to school in the Philly area is repulsive, lol
Side note, youngest son had choice of Villanova or Fordham. In his words, “there was no choice”
One of his closest friends at Fordham turned out to be Villanova basketball coaches son who also attended Fordham.
I hear ya @AndreaLynn , I hope D’s rank does not slide, and @3kids2dogs D likes the class and teacher too, it is just so hard, She has no plans to major in chemistry but is learning a ton.
@BingeWatcher , AP Chem is crazy difficult according to both my daughters. D21 took it in 9th as she had already had Honors Chem during middle school. This was the first class that knocked her over in terms of having to study like mad all the time and really stress over tests. She barely scraped by with an A-. The teacher was nice and raised it to an A after she did well on both the AP exam and the chem SAT2.
Her sister, D23, is in that class now (ChemAdvantage, which is the best and most organized online course I’ve ever seen, with a highly interactive teacher and group of TAs). D23 has a solid B right now. First B she’s ever had in her life. She has been tested for Davidson’s and CTY SET and is “profoundly gifted,” she is in AP Calculus as well, and she did a ton of difficult high school courses already as a middle school student…she’s the kind of kid that only needs to hear something once and then she has it. Got in the 1400s as a 6th grader on her SAT without studying at all when testing for CTY. Got a 700 on the SAT2 bio exam when she was 11 (took it to place into a high level online course). Etc. But AP Chem? It’s kicking her patootie. She loves it for this very reason though (after I assured her that it will be 100% fine if she ends up with a B in this class - her college chances will not be ruined with a B in AP Chem at 9th grade).
D21 still thinks AP Chem was the most difficult class she’s ever had. She’s now also had AP Bio, AP English Language, AP Spanish, AP Calculus, AP Comp Sci, and AP Environmental Science, and she’s taking three college courses this semester on top of two AP courses (AP Environ Science and AP Calc BC) - and she still thinks AP Chem was far more difficult than anything she’s since taken.
So chin up to your daughter and may the force be with her.
@sccaflagger74 Re: U of SC - they offer generous merit aid to OOS (like in-state tuition) for very good students. My S19 is there, and he says about 1/3 of his honors dorm is OOS.
Every time I read this thread, I’m blown away by how bright some of the kids are. Word of warning to parents though. Our S19 is one of those and he’s telling us he’s never met kids as smart as the ones he’s meeting in college. He’s got high school friends at Ivies, etc, and still says he’s a little freaked out at how bright so many of his classmates are. So, I guess my point is that as smart as any student seems in the context of their high school experience they should be ready to not feel like top of the class in college. Kids with all As and high scores as young kids are out there in droves.
@SammoJ I’ve heard that as well…thanks for the confirmation! His GPA isn’t quite there for the top merit most places and has only taken PSAT. SAT and ACT are being taken this winter and will help narrow the focus I’m sure.
Okay, based on this AP Chem discussion, I’ve got a question for those of you who have had kids take both AP Chem and AP Bio already. A little background first - My S21 won’t be taking any AP science courses (he’s only going to do 2-3 AP classes total as his ADHD and processing speed challenges would make anything else too much at this stage, and his interests are in the social sciences and in Latin, so he’s focusing his AP selections there). But my D23 will take more APs - probably 3 her sophomore year. D23 is not taking any APs her freshman year (which is now), but she taking pre-AP Chem this semester (block schedule so she’ll finish it this semester) and then pre-AP Bio next semester. Then she is to choose one of those to continue next year.
She is not super into math. She does pretty well in it, but she is definitely not among the strongest math students in her grade. She tends to get the concepts but is a bit slow to do actual math problems (and relies way too much on a calculator…she homeschooled for a few years and could do quite a lot of calculation in her head as we focused on number sense, but when she went back to school in 7th grade, the calculator became an integral part of her math class, and now she wants to use it for the simplest of math facts calculations…it kills me). 
Her current math class is a combination of the end of geometry (since she started geometry second semester of 8th grade) with Algebra II, and she has a high A at this point. Next year she’ll be in “Accelerated Pre-Calc.” She’ll take Calculus at some point - probably junior year - but probably AB not BC and then she’ll likely just do AP Statistics for her remaining math class as she doesn’t have a real math talent or math interest to go into higher level math. (I say this as it’s my sense that the AP science classes rely on some math).
She loves her science teacher and is doing well in pre-AP Chem (has a high A in there now) who will also be her teacher for pre-AP Bio, but science isn’t her main love either. Her preferred subjects revolve around reading, writing, and foreign language. So she feels she needs to do a few AP science classes to have a shot at selective schools, but she is not planning to pursue a STEM major. So…which would you recommend as the first AP science course (as a 10th grader with no AP class experience yet)? AP Bio or AP Chem ? She had planned on AP Chem, as I think we’d read (though I could be remembering things wrong) that AP Chem is helpful as a precursor to AP Bio…but now all this talk about how hard AP Chem is has me worried. Do you think AP Bio first would be a better choice ? Her schedule next year will certainly be her toughest yet…French IV, Accelerated PreCalc, AP Seminar (which will include her English class), Japanese I, AP World History, Graphic Design, and whichever AP science class she does…the French, precalc, and World History will be a heavy lift for her, I’m guessing, so I’m wondering which AP science would be wisest to do at the same time. Anyone have thoughts/lessons learned about this sequence ? Thanks !
@SammoJ my D’s frontrunner is UofSC (we are OOS). She loved it when she visited. We’re going back at Spring Break to see several other schools and will stop by (on a weekend though since she’s already toured and we want to hit the others during the week), but it’ll be tough to beat.
@nichols51 I would take a step back and decide if your D really needs an AP science. Our S19 is a solid student in all subjects but the only AP science class he took was AP Physics 1. He took Bio Honors, Chem Honors, and Earth Science Honors before that. He’s pretty advanced in math (took BC Calc as a junior and Multivaritable as a senior) and APs in English, History, and French…but not AP Bio or Chem. Had a very successful college application experience getting into five top-15 liberal arts schools as well as a handful of top private unis.
Your D has a rigorous schedule already. You shouldn’t feel like taking an AP science will make any difference in admissions (unless she was applying somewhere as an engineer which she is not).
Lastly, S19 chose to wait to take AP Physics until senior year because junior year was AP heavy with other subjects. It was a strategic move that paid off. If he had taken physics junior year, I’m not sure his grades would have been as good as they were because that choice allowed him to have time to do the work well in his other classes. Now, he was still up past midnight most weeknights but adding AP Physics to that would have been an issue.
Dumb question: junior taking AP Physics 1 and calc. Potentially applying for CS within engineering programs. For the purpose of being better prepared for college physics, I’m guessing Physics C would the better choice over AP Chem for senior year science - is this correct?
@evergreen5 Yes. I would think so. Kids at our high school would make the choice to take Physics C over Chem if they are applying to engineering programs. S19 only took Physics 1. Didn’t take the actual AP but was placed into second semester physics after a placement test. He’s doing just fine in there but I think it’s also because he’s got the math background. Some kids in there took Physics C in high school. I would say it would look better for engineering apps and ensure he’s prepared for physics in college. It’s hard!