IT is not the number of APs as much as the quality or coursework: she should take 5 core courses at the highest level available to her: math , sci, world lang, English, humaties–that last one especially because of her interests, and a 6th one only if wants to (unless 6 core courses is expected for top seniors at her school).
If this year with her 5 (presumably rigorous )APs, she is doing well handling it all, then have her try to maintain a similar level of rigor --maybe have a conversation with the counselor regarding what that means at her school .
For example: 3 APs such as AP Chem, APCalc and AP Spanish plus an honors humanities elective and an honors English to me is the same or more rigor than Regular Calc, APES, APpsych, APspanish, APSeminar, and another-easier-AP–even though there are “more” APs in the second scenario.
My son dropped down to ‘regular’ English his senior year instead of Honors/AP which he had been for the rest. His acceptances landed exactly where we thought they would land, based on GPA and test scores. Now, he wasn’t applying to elites or T20s except for his major reach, Georgetown, for which he was denied, and I’m sure it wasn’t because of senior year class selection. I think general rigor is what you should think about, and your daughter clearly has it with 8 Aps as an upperclassman. But this advice may not apply to the super elite/competitive admissions world.
I have dark humor so I’m laughing at this. Counselors? Yeah. Could say more but I won’t. I’m going to be gracious during this pandemic time and assume they’re earning their salaries helping kids in other ways.
I appreciate your helpful thought process though.
Presumably rigorous? Well. Since one of her AP’s is Seminar and you’ve already said it’s not, I guess her courses are… not.
She’s in Pre-calc right now and her school doesn’t offer regular Calc. It’s AP Calc or AP Stats or Dual Credit College math. With a social science major, I think we’re going to tell her to take AP Stats.
She’s in AP Physics this year and similarly, I think we’re done with AP science. For a social science major, it just doesn’t make sense to keep piling up stress for useless credits. She dropped her foreign language after she learned NADA during the last Covid year. Sucks cause she’s going to need it in college, but at that point, restarting at Spanish I is probably the best anyway.
At our school upperclass “honors” is AP so I guess we’re looking at AP Lit, AP Research, AP Stats and AP Gov. Less rigorous but hopefully the AOs will see 12 APs total (3 from underclass years) and see she can handle college level work.
I think it’s still etam if he goes to Galveston exclusively. Regardless, he’s really a landlubber. Hence looking at Missouri - may be adding Arkansas. Colorado is too $$$.
It’s a struggle because he knocks down my suggestions. He’s very particular about doing things by himself. So I’m going to sit back on this one - betting he lets it go and doesn’t apply.
Wooster: we visited and liked it a lot. Student body seemed kind, accepting, with a definite flair of alternative and quirky. They have a football team, but it’s not a typical big football school kind of place - they open the games with bagpipers. (short video here will give you some sense of what it’s like: Defining Wooster Moment: Bagpipers Lead Football Team Onto The Field - YouTube )
They had a great career center (APEX). They do have a pretty serious required independent study/research project all of senior year and a mini-one junior year in preparation for that. We were told their philosophy is “prepare for, not weed out” and our conversations with multiple professors and administrators gave us the impression that this truly is the culture of the school. That said, in the end, my S21 didn’t choose it, in part, because that project didn’t seem like it was quite a match for him in terms of that level of academic rigor and also because the distributive requirements were fairly extensive.
The campus was quite pretty, and it felt a bit bigger/more substantial than it needed to be for the size of the student body. There is a nearby area of town that has both some independent shops/restaurants/coffee shops (and a bit further flung there are big box stores). It definitely felt like a community, and my son struggled with the decision to let it go.
Salve Regina: I haven’t visited officially, but I did walk by it on the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI last summer. The part we could see was, indeed, beautiful and right by the ocean. I think I’ve heard that the insides of some of the buildings aren’t as well maintained as some would have liked (not sure what their endowment is like). It’s not walkable, easily, to downtown Newport though it’s not super far, and I think there may be a bus that can get you there?..Newport is expensive, though, so it may be a rough place to live, in that regard, for a college student ?
Funny, my D felt similarly about the students at Amherst (a school that I loved). She described them as “basic” – the kiss of death to my artsy, thrift shopping, social justice-oriented D. OTOH, I thought she would fall in love with Wesleyan, but I think she felt like everyone was trying too hard to be edgy. (She had enough of that in HS.) Kids
Endowment: $63.2M
Unrestricted net assets: $111.6M
Temporarily restricted net assets: $7.2M
Bond liabilities: $39.8M
Cashflow: -$0.6M
(2019 numbers except that the endowment is from 2020, but they’re the most recent I could find—and I figure pre-pandemic numbers are useful anyway. Also, cashflow can vary massively year to year, so take that value with a grain of salt.)
@2plustrio re:Salve Regina, I think @ububumble and @CTCape might each have visited it and/or know a bit more about it if either is available to chime in.
@2plustrio I’ve visited Salve Regina a number of times with both ds20 and ds22. The campus is gorgeous and Newport is a quaint very small city with shops, restaurants, the cliffwalk, ocean views, beaches, etc. The school is small (approx 2k students), and they are known for certain programs—nursing, historic preservation, and business seem to be the 3 standouts. In terms of your ds’s particular interests, I know very little about their music program, but I know they have a recording studio because ds22 was very interested in it when we toured. It strikes me as a fairly moderate place politically. It is Catholic, but In a community service-oriented way. In terms of cost, without significant merit it’s definitely not in the 25k range. My ds20 received an offer 25k merit per year and a spot in the honors program and it still would have been closer to 35k all in. I think it’s a hidden gem, but I’m not sure it fits the criteria you’ve laid out for your ds.
Financially it could fit as they have been more open with tuition remission through my employer throughout the pandemic. I worry more about its smaller size.
@2plustrio we have experience with Xavier, Salve and Roanoke on your list.
Completely agree with the take on Salve above. In addition a friend’s son plays on the football team there and really enjoys his time.
Xavier is a school S21 loved. Never toured live but really dug in to understand, applied and was accepted. Around 5k students with a decent level of diversity. In but not a part of Cincinnati so access to the city but a defined campus. Big East environment which means a level of school spirit that if really fun if you’re into that sort of thing. My S21 with lower stats got a decent merit assignment and so you may well get to your number there. Additionally all books are covered.
Roanoke is where he ended up. Smaller, just over 2k. No football team. Just did a tuition reset and so hard to predict merit at this point but with reset and tuition remition you may be in really good shape. Wonderful campus right next to a small town. Suburban for sure. Happy to share more detail if you need.
Actually looked harder at Tulsa - dropped that from the list and added OK State instead. Tulsa not too generous for their $60k price tag (no diff between in/out state); OK State more reasonable. We will see.
Vassar, Williams, Middlebury, Kenyon, Oberlin, and Bates were her favorites among the schools we toured. I still don’t understand why she didn’t like Wesleyan or Amherst!
Interesting. We had a similar list for my oldest (class of 21). In fact all those same schools except Williams. In the end it came down to Oberlin or Bates and after visiting both, they chose Oberlin. Very happy there so far.
Happy Monday!!! - As you and your S&Ds are pulling together college lists, and planning visits I wanted to throw out some alternate sources of information to provide some additional insights into specific colleges.
Student newspaper - Good source to get a flavor on campus events and culture. On top of the news section look though the editorial/opinion section. Lots of insights here regarding the schools approach to COVD.
Strategic Plan - Most are posted somewhere on their college website or can be found with a simple google search. Lots of insights into programs that are important to the school. How they are investing in the students, etc.
Local Newspapers. Depending on location, sometime the local town newspaper can provide some additional insights on Local Crime, the schools relationship with the community, etc.
A caveot that I suffer from Analysis Paralysis and LOVE going down the rabbit hole looking for additional information, but have found some utility in these examples!!! Happy Hunting!
Hence looking at Missouri - may be adding Arkansas. Colorado is too $$$.
