Ok these are the APs my daughter has on her list for jr year:
AB Calc
Earth Science
USH
Spanish
English(literature??)
She can do Physics instead of Earth Science, I think it is quite a bit harder?
She will also take theology (catholic school) and an elective.
She is interested in Finance.
Thoughts? Keep Earth Science? I am more concerned about USH as I think it’s lots of reading and writing and that’s not her strong suit.
@annegp I don’t think there is an AP Earth Science. Could it by AP Environmental Science. If so DS15 took that class as his science senior year. It was a fun and interesting class, not a lot of work. Which AP physics are available at her school? And would she take physics senior year otherwise?
What was the counselor’s advice (since he knows the school) and what does your daughter want to do? Is she fine with English reading and writing, just not SS or will both courses be a challenge. DS13 couldn’t do English to save his life but loved SS reading and writing.
Sorry about that, still learning— environmental science. It is physics c. He current pre cal teacher said it would be good to take the same time she is doing Calc or she can wait. It is a lot of work so I think waiting may be better. Talking to counselor tomorrow as well as connecting with her English teacher. She really needs to learn how to write- that is not something she has gotten much support for yet which really concerns me. I want to figure out which English class/AP would provide that. She is a slow reader so I am concerned about her being loaded up with too many of those classes. Is USH in that camp? That could be great though because I am guessing a paper is included? My D is in an IN program and there is loads of writing which is why she likes it, that would not be good for D23.
In terms of APUSH, yes, it is a lot of reading. My S21 struggled with that workload as he has slow processing speed. The writing in that class for him was mostly DBQs (document based questions) - they get asked a question, are presented with several excerpts from primary sources related to the topic which they need to be able to interpret and understand in context, and then have to write an essay that basically hits a rubric (in the way that the AP exam will be scored if they take the exam)…the essay has to give context, state a clear thesis, and back up the thesis with evidence which is based on the excerpts (documents) they’ve been provided along with other information they know about the topic/period (which they will have learned through the class and reading). They are very focused essays with a formula to them…generally about 2 pages, I guess ?
My D23, like yours, is in pre-calc now and taking AP Calc AB next year. She’s opting for AP Physics 1 instead of C. She’s not particularly interested in STEM and wants to balance her workload. My understanding is that Physics 1 instead of C should be easier. I don’t know if your daughter has an option to go with Physics 1 instead (and if she would be open to that if she’s trying to balance her workload)? I don’t think she’d need Physics C with an interest in finance?
For context, I’m including the courses below that D23 is going next year - she is good at time management, reads and writes quickly, is a really organized kid… but is quite slow with math, and doesn’t love math and science. This year she has three APs - AP World which is going great, AP Seminar which is going great, and AP Chem which has been her most challenging course and which she’s eeking out an A in but will be glad to be done with.
Junior Year Plan -
AP Lang (English is a strength)
AP Calc AB (She’s never planning to do BC. Will do AP Stats in 12th)
AP Physics 1 (not particularly interested but it’s her only option. Will do AP Env Sci in 12th)
APUSH (Social Studies is a strength)
AP Psych (strong interest and loves the teacher)
AP Research (committed to it when she took AP Seminar this year. This will be a heavy workload and is the one I worry about the most, but hopefully she can pick a topic that really interests her, and I think the skills she’ll work on are quite valuable)
and a 7th class that is not AP (Japanese 2. She did French 4 this year and isn’t continuing).
My concern about her workload is mostly because of AP Research. I’m glad she was able to opt for Calc AB and Physics 1 rather than BC and Physics C…that should help. Everything else is a strength or a strong interest. Hopefully you can your D’s guidance counselor and English teacher can put together a schedule that works well for her. 
Thank you! Your D23 sounds like my D21! D23 is very different- not great time management and slow processing speed makes things more challenging, couple that with her stubbornness and need to compete with her sister and you’ve got lots of potential for struggle. And stress, on my end! We did talk last night and she is thinking about dropping APUSH.
My next task is getting her a tutor for chemistry. This remote science stuff stinks! She was asking me what she would even do in a chemistry lab and when I described it to her she seemed bummed.
Merit is a different beast altogether. Most merit scholarships are at lesser schools and kids that take 10 APs are not typically interested in those. If a very high stat kid wants to go to say Alabama, he/she can attract significant merit. If the same kid now wants to go to Hopkins, chances are pickings will be slim unless the kid is A+++. Someone posted a list of ECs and how they rank on the parents forum under the thread “Are posts exaggerated??” or some such. Worth a read and 100% true.
ahem
No, I don’t think that this is true at all—lots of high-stats kids (and families!) out there who are all about chasing the merit aid, not about getting into an “elite” college.
{insert “Show me the money!” meme here}
Lesser schools? “Lesser” is in the eye of the beholder. You may want to rethink your statement. There are plenty of kids who take 10 APs who are not interested in going into debt to go to Hopkins or any other similarly ranked school. Rankings don’t mean much to a lot of people but that is a discussion for another thread.
Yes, those kids take their AP credit and the merit to graduate debt free with both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s in 4 years.
Actually, merit was one of the reasons my daughter took all those APs. We are full pay any where we look and we’ve always told her that she and her sister could have 4 years anywhere they wanted, but after that, it was on them. My D19 worked hard and was awarded almost 50% tuition via merit at Tulane (which I consider a very good school and not a lesser one). She then negotiated 1 additional year of grad school out of us because of it. Tulane has several 3+2/4+1 programs and she will most likely pursue the 4+1 to get her Masters in Psychology there.
Always a good reminder not to loose sight of the complete journey as you are focused on the next steps. The expectations for education and for a number of careers a Masters degree is the new bachelors. I’m surprised by how often I hear parents say “We’ll support tuition for your undergrad, but you are on your own for graduate school”. If you were going to Law school do you think you would be better doing your bachelors at Harvard and your law degree at State U? or the inverse and invest in the better graduate school? I’m not suggesting that you should compromise and think only about the money, just think about all the paths in your educational journey and when you are looking at alternatives for undergrad look for the data around the outcomes that manage to you. Your daughter wants to go to Law School? Then who cares about the average starting salary for the university, what’s their placement rate in tier 1 law schools. A teacher? What’s the pass rate for certification?
You are probably correct but I don’t know many of them personally. The ones I know from Wake County, NC are all about HYPSM-T30 schools and get very little money as standard strong candidates. YMMV.
Very true. If you are one of those kids/parents then you are very smart. As I said earlier, most kids of that ilk that I know of are all about status. And if rankings did not mean anything then schools would not get caught trying to cheat to get their rankings up and that include “elite” schools like a flagship in CA. I posted a NY Times article on aid and policies, which was posted by another parent about admissions at Trinity College.
I’m playing financial aid roulette and not pushing the APs. If a school is going to decline my kid solely based on the fact he took some regular classes instead of all AP’s, its likely not the right environment for my child.
We wont get need based aid most likely if they take into account my ex’s (dads) salary. And with my son sitting at a 3.4 right now with the 3 “advanced” classes he is taking (they are “accelerated”, not AP), I don’t think forcing him into AP’s next year is going to help his GPA. So merit based aid will be limited as the likelihood of him being a 4.0 student for the next 5 semesters before graduation is slim to none.
My kids will be FACHEX and Tuition Exchange eligible. This could mean 4 years of free or practically free tuition. It seems many of those schools focus more on GPA and not always overall rigor of courses. I have friends with kids with lower grades than mine and they all had a handful of full tuition offers. Sure the school choices may be more limited and maybe not my kid’s first choices but money will talk.
I know my kids situation is a bit different but just sharing as it seems high stats kids are more the norm on this forum.
That gets to one of the issues on this site—not only, as alluded to by @2plustrio, is there a fairly narrow slice of academic achievement here (e.g., a 3.5 HS GPA is considered weak!?!), there is also a very strong geographic bias toward those areas of the country, largely concentrated on the coasts and especially the east coast, where there is a tradition of targeting highly selective colleges.
Most college-going HS graduates don’t ever even consider applying to an Ivy-prestigiosity institution not because they couldn’t get in, but because (whether they could get in or not) why would one even do that? The CC fora, however, tend to attract people for whom that’s a target.
2plustrio, have you looked at the 2021 3.4gpa thread? I don’t know if there is one yet for the 2023 parents, but it is an excellent resource. I can’t remember if I have seen you there.
FWIW, my 3.4gpa S21 kid, who hasn’t taken a single AP class and only a couple of honors classes, has gotten significant merit from the schools he applied to. In his case, we targeted TO schools b/c he has an LD that makes long, standardized tests difficult. We were shocked he even got any merit. At one school he applied to that my D17 also applied to four years ago, he got more merit than she did and she had multiple APs (all As) and a 4.0 gpa. I think schools were more generous this year trying to attract kids. We fully expected having to pay more for him to go to college. He hasn’t made a decision yet which school he’s attending, but we will most likely only be paying about $5K more than if he want to an in-state public.
Agreed this forum is pretty coast heavy. All 3 of my degrees are from colleges I have never even seen discussed on any forum (and even doing a search brings up practically zero hits on any of them). Even the schools on the tentative list I started for my son have many that are not really actively talked about on this forum.
My son dreams of California schools but I dont think it will be financially possible. And I dont want him going that far but thats just mom anxiety talking.
But alas, I am still here. Happily in my “midwest nice” (as someone called it). I find these forums very useful even if it’s to give me an idea of what my kids likely will not want (like approaching NE schools with caution).
Yes, I started that thread for our '23s because I have found it so helpful for my '21: Parents of the HS Class of 2023 3.0-3.4.
@4kids4us, was your S21 looking at big schools or LACs, or something in between?
Congratulations to the whole family. That is a great achievement. However, 50% off at Tulane is still ~$35K/year, which is a lot more than most parents can afford. This brings up the politics of aid. I posted an article that was in NY Times about this. Most schools like Tulane target rich parents that can afford to pay close to full fare and sweeten the pot with some scholarship money. They know this results in a much higher yield. More academically competitive schools are less inclined to do that because they have probably just as many high stats kids and parents with open checkbooks.
I do not know where else your kid is applying but I suspect the story might play out differently for T20 schools.
That’s great. If you can beat the EFC of that school by let’s say 25% then you have done well. Look at what folks in your income bracket is paying there through ipeds or google. If you are paying about the same then it is basically a deal to get your kid in.
FYI, my DD was “awarded” an automatic scholarship to a local women’s college even before applying and it was substantial, bringing her cost to something like $27K. Still more than what she will be paying to attend a flagship state school here. And for what it is worth, she is vary average by Wake county tryhard standards. She also got academic $$ offers from 2 smaller state schools for getting into their honors programs. Those were in the $4-$6K range (COA ~$23K). I knew those were more legit than the one offered to her by the women’s college.