The chancing engine does allow you to input how many AP/IB the high school offered - I did just try to put in 10 courses taken out of 10 and it still said Strong rather than Excellent.
This engine will have many flaws (as does the admissions process, lol) so needs to be used at a higher level. That said, it has the most variables I have seen in any engine.
Yes, I agree. Also it depends on when a student can start taking them. Our HS offers a good number of AP courses (maybe 20/25) but since students canât take them until junior year, they are limited in terms of how many would fit in their schedule.
Same situation at our HS. 22 or so APs offered, but since they canât be taken until junior year, most kids end up in the 4-6 category. 8-10 is less common. Kids still get into top schools. Itâs just hard to compare this setup to other ârigorousâ programs at other high schools. Many AOs know the high school and understand the issue.
@Rivet2000 It is. Admissions know what the school offers. Counselors send the school report that has all the info and some admissions officers know youâre not going to take because a kid who is interested in STEM isnât going to take AP Art whatever, etc. AOs want to see course rigor but they know what schools offer and I think the app with 3 AP courses a year with a compelling EC is better than a kid spending time doing nothing but study for 5-6 AP classes.
I would like to hear more about this!
Just got back from visiting 7 colleges over 8 days, driving over 3,000 miles. No students were on campus yet, and each of the schools allowing tours wanted proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. Hereâs our report:
Vanderbilt- We just missed in person tours, but we were able to download an interactive map with narration so got a decent look at the place. Weâd been there before with older kids. Beautiful campus with nice mix of older and new buildings. There are some nice new upperclassmen dorms that were being built last time we were there. S22 really liked how the freshmen all lived together in a dorm complex that had its own dining and activity center. Nashville is a fun and vibrant city while still feeling safe.
UGA- Only one parent allowed on tour, and itâs a far cry from the tour we went on a few years ago with cheerleaders streaming onto the bus to lead a UGA cheer. Our tour guide was of a different academic background than S22, so could not speak much to the things he was interested in, such as the honors program. Itâs a nice big school campus, though navigating it requires a bus ride. Could not go into any of the buildings. We did get to walk into the football stadium, which was cool. Athens is a funky, interesting town that has a great downtown area right across from the university.
W&L- By far the most informative tour. We had a student tour guide who was very knowledgeable and a great ambassador for the university. We went into a lot of buildings, including a dorm room. We got to check out a variety of classrooms and the library. The sciences center stood out, especially an âIdeas Labâ with a 3d printer and other cool tech toys that the students could use for free for a project, even if non-school related. The town itself had transformed since the last time I saw it 10-15 years ago, and now is filled with high end stores and restaurants. Spouse and I want to go back to college there. S22 wants a bigger school.
UVA-Only one parent allowed again (booo) so I sat this one out. S22 really likes UVA though, due to its size and academics. Charlottesville is nice, and the brewery I hung out in while waiting for them to finish the tour was top notch.
Villanova- Campus is striking, with lots of stone late 19th-early 20th century buildings. We had a student tour guide, but could not go into many buildings. Campus is 200 or so acres and feels compact. It is VERY suburban. Not much the students can walk to in terms of town life.
Lehigh-The surprise of the trip. We had almost cancelled, because it was over an hour away from where we were staying in Philadelphia. But gosh what a beautiful place. It looks just like youâd image a school built by 19th century steel money. The old library was one of the most beautiful Iâd ever seen, and the tech and science facilities for a mid sized school were truly impressive. We had an in person tour led by an energetic engineering student, who was excellent at detailing all the quirky, fun traditions of the school (bed frame races, anyone?). Only downside is some of the classes can get large, 100-300; and they do utilize TAâs more than Iâd like to see at that price point. But overall, S22 was impressed. Bethlehem seems a city on the rise again. Nice downtown area steps from the university. The old Bethlehem Steel facility has been turned into an arts district with a high line and concert venue. Pretty cool place.
UPenn- No tours. Not even a decent interactive map or Youtube tour. Just a paper map in a box on the locked admissions door. Expected more, honestly. But Ivies donât really have to try very hard, do they. Iâd forgotten how urban the campus is. But was still fun to walk around some, though we did not learn much. The freshman dorm complex is amazing, in terms of its ancient building and tradition.
S22, D24, wife and I toured Texas A&M last week. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and they ainât kidding. Weather was awesome. Days in the 80âs in Texas in August are to be spent outdoors. We had a two hour walking tour. NowâŠit should be said that we clocked our day walking six miles around A&M, but during the âofficialâ tour, we did not see the Presidential Library, engineering department, business school, nursing school, or a dorm (all that came later). That tells you a bit about HOW massive this campus is. They are expecting 70,000 undergraduates and graduate students this academic year. WOW. The campus is beautiful (okayâŠnot Iowa State beautiful, but I do like live oaks with Spanish moss). It has a bike ride share (S22 and D24 made use of this both nights we were in College Station riding around on campus). We did the engineering tour at Zachry (you should watch the tour on Youtube). OkayâŠa 60,000 sq.ft. maker space is unreal. This building, one of SIX in the engineering area, just oozes money. Kyle Field is huge. The Memorial Student Union is quite nice (I loved the Flag Room). The dormsâŠehâŠthey are dorms. We stayed at the Universityâs hotel. Of course, they were putting on a short-class for the east Texas ranchers (henceforth known in our family as âBeefConâ). So, the scores of people walking around in ten-gallon hats, massive belt buckles, and boots lent a distinctive flair (I learned all I wanted to about steel ranch fencing from one vendor!). It is now S22âs favoriteâŠthere is that minor issue of the price tag. So, hereâs hoping he makes NMF. His application was submitted last night.
CollegeVine does ask how many are offered. I wasnât interest enough to change that number and see how the cutoffs changed.
While itâs better than most, CV, and any âchance calculatorâ, must be used appropriately and with some thought. University of Washingtonâs <3% OOS acceptance rate for CS doesnât make it a Safety, no matter what the calculator says, and I know that. Same with UIUC/Safety and CMU/Match.
Writing the essay is so hard! He is really struggling to even get started.
Yup, same with S22 here. Figuring out an introspective, illuminating topic for the essay is not an easy thing at all.
One benefit of the long college touring road trip we just took: S22 spent a lot of the driving time working on his essays and Common App.
The College Essay Guy has some easy exercises to get started. I like the one where he asks kids to put objects in a box as a launching point. For S22, it helped to have a little structure to get the wheels turning. Iâm sure other kids can just sit down and let the words flow, but in the beginning, I think it helps to warm up with a few stretches 
Essays can be so hard. S22 really struggled with writing his 2nd draft, trying to connect different ideas/paragraphs into one coherent piece. Now when he has the proper structure, things are much easier. I hope he will wrap it up by the end of this week.
The link posted on Aug 5 is really useful when it comes to brainstorming about essays.
D22 has half of a first draft that was started a week before our vacation. She is going back to it today. Will be curious if she keeps the topic or ditches it and starts over.
D22 is a great writer but really does not even want to look at doing the essay (first of several probably, but Iâm trying not to go there). At least she wants to do her AP Psych summer work.
My S22âs GPA is currently listed on his transcript as 3.766. For the Common App, do we enter it exactly as listed or should we round to the first tenth and enter it as 3.8?
3.77
Iâd go with 3.77 as well. I wouldnât round up to 3.8. I think rounding to the 2d tenth is Ok but not the 1st.
Thanks on the GPA advice!
Okay, then for grades, what is a B+ and a B? Common App asks to enter them as GPAâs like 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 etc. Is a B+ a 3.9 and a B a 3.5?
And then for the 2019-2020 school year, we had a full first semester, then the second semester was broken into two quarters, basically pre-covid with grades and post-covid as Pass/Fail? Should S22 just choose Quarters for that year and split the first semester grades in half? Like if he got an A in English for the first semester, should he list it as two Aâs in English for 0.25 credits each âquarterâ even though technically they werenât quarters yet? Because if he donât choose quarters for that year, then he canât list the two quarters that the second half of the year was broken into. So confusing!!!
Iâm guessing a lot of kids are going to have these weird broken up years from 2019-20.
A standard, unweighted 4.0 scale typically goes like this:
A=4.0
A-=3.7
B+=3.3
B=3.0
B-=2.7
C+=2.3
C=2.0
C-=1.7