My son is well into his second week. He is at an IB high school, so the math and English curriculum is integrated and geared towards the HL/SL final product. This year he is taking:
Math 10 HL
English 10
Chemistry HL
Physics HL
Spanish III SL
World History
Product Design
As if that were not enough, on the side, he applied to and was accepted into the Early College at the University of Alabama and is concurrently taking its College Readiness course for university credit. Plus, he got a job, working six hours a week as an assistant at his Kumon center. Suffice to say, he will either learn critical time management skills this semester or it will be an exceedingly painful few months.
@Peruna1998 When I hear stuff like âthe Early Collegeâ I worry about impact on future scholarships that are available for new students only. Be aware that certain programs that provide credit can affect the status of your high-schooler. If he gets has a target college or two already ( that are not Bama), then might check to see what activities would make him a transfer student vs a true freshman - just in case.
@professionaldad I understand your concern. That being said, the program is separate from the University. It does offer the potential for college credit, assuming the college accepts it, much like the IB, AP, or Modern States classes for that matter. That being said, were a University to deny a student a scholarship because they enrolled in an early college program, I would not want such student to attend that university. Why? Universities repeatedly tell you that they want the students to take a rigorous academic schedule. Here is a student recognizing that he should be challenged more. SoâŠyou are going to penalize him for doing what you say you want? Really? If that is the case, then I would want no part of your University because you are not living up to your expectations while the student is living up to the expectations that you are setting for him.
@Peruna1998 It might be harder than you think to tell Super Duper U that you wonât send your kid there with Sophomore standing based on principle. Many would love to transfer to a top U after a year elsewhere. Anyway, in our case, Sâs top U was fine with classes from another uni, provided they were included on the HS transcript. S received 0 credits upon enrollment at top U. He would have been a second-semester Sophomore if he had gone to the state flagship.
@professionaldad I think you misunderstand me. If a university wants to play admission games, saying on the one hand we want academic rigor but on the other hand penalizing a kid for pursuing an academically rigorous schedule, then my kids simply wonât go to that university nor would they want to. Between me and âSuper Duper Uâ, I hold all of the cards there. Now, are there many lined up after me? Sure, but that is not my issue. Having served on scholarship review committees at my alma mater, I know that universities donât do pull the sort of games you are suggesting. Regarding credit hours, who cares? The issue isnât credit hours. The issue is the education being earned. If my son gets credit hour, that would be great. If not, so what, at least he had a useful experience and learned something. None of the classes he is taking are in his intended field of study, so it is better that he take the classes now and become a more well-rounded individual. Too often, we focus on credit hours and ways to cut costs. I am certainly attuned to costs and value in a university degree. But, the ultimate goal is to learn something and prepare yourself for life, whatever the next step will be.
@sfSTEM Weâre planning for n a couple visits this year. Not schools he is interested in (he only wants warm weather OOS schools), but a mixture of local schools to see whether he is interested in big, small, urban, rural, etc. Just a way to narrow down the list before starting to look in earnest during junior year.
@Lovetogolf , thatâs a good way to introduce your kid to the college selection process. We took the same approach with S18. Problem was: he liked all of them!
I think our final college visit count with S19 was 22 schools. Poor D22 will have to rely on her memories unless she falls âvirtuallyâ in love with one via the web. Here is a list of the schools we visited from a previous post on another board:
âŠOver the past 2 years, weâve spent a lot of time in the mini-van. We attended campus tours or visitation days at over 20 schools. The list was based on schools that meet most/all demonstrated need, have automatic scholarships for test scores/GPA, or were near one of them. Really, if the NPC said less than a certain $$ amount, it was in the running. The ones I can remember visiting as I am typing this are Tulane, William and Mary, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Emory, Wake Forrest, Duke, UNC, UVA, Northwestern, Georgetown, Haverford, Brown, Tufts, Penn, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Brandeis, Boston College, Cornell, and Columbia. I think I am missing a fewâŠ
Our S19 ended up winning what I like to call a lottery slot at Brown University. If you have questions about any of the ones I listed, I can give you one Dadâs opinion.
@professionaldad - we have visited almost half the schools you listed. Havenât been able to make it to Tulane and have a D applying there this fall. Wondering your thoughts on Tulane vs some of the others you have toured?
S22 is interested in architecture, for now, but hasnât really thought deeply about particular colleges of interest. Fortunately, living in the Boston area, we can visit a huge variety of schools without really traveling. We drive through Boston Collegeâs campus most weekends on our way to play golf. MIT is great for architecture, but it might be a little too nerdy for our sporty guy (if he could even get in, of course). Does feel like we have plenty of time.
S22 has been on the college campuses of his siblings many times: USC and FSU. The first visit for him will probably be next summer when we go to UVA for his momâs college reunion. While there, we will also try to scoot down to my alma mater for a quick visit: W&L. I donât think either will be the right fit for him, but youâve got to start somewhere.
@vistajay Hey, good to see a fellow Wahoo mentioned. My reunion at UVA is also next summer. Not planning to attend though, from out here in San Francisco.
@sfSTEM , my wife has never made it to a UVA reunion, but some of her old college buddies started talking it up and so we plan to go. Our eldest was admitted to UVA and would love for our youngest to attend, but that whole âbalancing the budget on the backs of OOS studentsâ thing is hard to overcome.
We visited a lot of schools with our first two students, not as many with No. 3 - she got into a good one and we had to scramble to go visit it after the admissions letter. We like to plug in some campus visits as we do other vacations. Some of these schoolâs admission numbers are so crazy, Iâm like - âif you get in, weâll go visit!â
@HalfMoon22
Tulane was one of our first tours, and we really liked it. The location is pretty incredible. Itâs away from downtown in a quiet area, with Audubon Park literally across the street. Whatâs more, the St. Charles trolley line stops right in front of campus and goes to the French Quarter with no transfers. Because of all the great food in New Orleans, instead of the âFreshman 15â, they call it the âTulane 20â.
The pitch was well put-together, and we discovered that Freshman housing was determined by interests and a detailed questionnaire. Like, based on your answers you might be in a dorm or floor that was decidedly musical, or âscienceyâ, or really liked video games, etc.
I think the down side for S was cost, and the fact that we visited early. He saw so many others after, that I think he knew more about what he wanted, so was able to filter the later ones with more direction.
Hello everyone. Just checking in as I havenât been on CC much since the big format changes. D22 is doing fine with her 10th grade schedule. Slightly annoyed with the amount of APWH and English work. She has a different APWH than d19 did, and unfortunately this one gives a lot of busy work. The English teacher was annoyed the district didnât allow her to assign a book for summer reading and is determined that it just means that the kids have more to do during the school year. I had expected her to be a little overwhelmed with science and math since she doubled up on them, but sheâs enjoying those. With the APWH and English workloads, it just serves to make her dislike this subjects even more. Sheâs probably not the only one since quite a few kids are dropping APWH, she said there were 3 more kids yesterday. Itâll be interesting to see if the teacher reevaluates things.
Me either, though I did just notice there is a quote feature that I had to try out! That is positive!
My soph daughter only has one AP, and it is World History too. She does seem to have more homework this year, but I thought she had shockingly little last year, so I guess it is okay.
Theyâve finished about a month and a half of school here, and so far so good. I had to be out of town for about 3 weeks with my college aged daughter, who is having health issues, and she always goes a touch feral when that happens. But things are getting back to normal.
Cross country running season ended, and thereâs a month or so until ski season. I told her she needed to fill the time with some other organized athletic activity or her volunteer work, and she chose the volunteer work. She enjoys it (working with elementary aged children), but there wasnât time with the after school practice schedule. So this is a nice change of pace.
Re: college visits, my D22 has visited very few, and only one formally (Univ of Puget Sound, part of a school band trip last year.) She has been to the campuses of both her older sistersâ colleges (UW and Princeton), but not sure she came away from those visits inspired, lol. We live in a geographically isolated area, so visits are tough. My olders did not do much visiting until acceptances were in.
@GoodGrief16 , S22 is taking the PSAT in Oct. First time taking the full PSAT as he took the 8/9 version last year. This score will help us decide how much formal prep he will need for junior year.
Our cross country season still has a month to go, and we havenât have a race below 90 degrees yet. Times are dropping slowly.
That is positive!