If the high school is not well known already to admissions officers at a particular college, they would look to the school profile. Some school profiles are better than others, but should give some idea of the rigor available. There is also a letter from the high school counselor that can discuss the level of rigor the student tackled in the context of that high school.
Eligibility for NHS and CSF (California) memberships start sophomore year where we are. I’m still not sure who is in charge of waiving the volunteer requirements for last term. Someone told me it was their high school but I haven’t confirmed.
What does your school profile say? Ours doesn’t mention anything about APs largely being available only to upperclassman, but just the number of APs the school offers, which is more than is possible to take in 2 years. Thank you!
Thank you guys! I just got a disturbing text from my son who is frustrated because he found out that another sophomore is taking AP physics this year because they doubled up on science last year. We were told that this was impossible, so he’s understandable upset.
Ours says that all AP’s are available for Juniors and Seniors. Our school does not limit the AP’s per say but many AP’s have a pre-req so Majority of the school does not do AP’s in 9th grade but do about at least 1 AP’s in 10th grade. Most kids in Juniors have 3 or more AP’s. We are in a highly competitive school and the rigor some of these kids is very high. Like some one said earlier as part of the common app the GC also states the rigor of each student compared to the graduating class ( I learnt this only after I started reading CC)
It doesn’t say anything. Just lists the APs offered (20 available). Most “top” kids take 7 or 8 APs. That is realistically all they can fit in considering you can’t take them before junior year in most cases (occasionally an exception is made). The lack of AP courses in the lower HS grades doesn’t seem to have hurt college acceptances any.
School profiles are public documents on the web. Yes, some school profiles are more detailed than others, especially with AP info. My S21’s small private school says they offer 13 APs. However, they don’t explain that not all of those courses are offered every year due to staffing and demand. Also, they required 4 years of religion so its super difficult to squeeze them in and to avoid conflicts. My S had to take significant community college summer classes to get what he wanted. On his application, we had a quick note about that in the additional information section (removed for the two religious colleges) and his counselor mentioned it in her letter. My D24’s big public school just says they offer 30 APs and details the scoring. If you are gunning for a top 50, it’s good if your counselor can say you had highest rigor for the school context.
Our school doesn’t focus on AP’s (there might be two), but does everything to enable dual enrollment classes at the local community college. They have a blanket statement saying you can not take classes until your junior year. It took some digging, but eventually I found out that is the community college’s stance, and it wasn’t all that hard to petition it. With a bit of legwork D24 was able to enroll in and is taking ASL. I wish I would have figured this out for S21.
@Thorsmom66, that’s the same situation at our high school (<200 students per grade, public, CT.) Only juniors and seniors are permitted to take AP classes; the only exception is AP Music Theory, which is only offered every other year and is open to sophomores. And yet, every year multiple students are accepted to Ivies and T20 schools (only Stanford seems to be elusive.) I believe that when AOs say that they evaluate an applicant within the context of what is available at their high school, they are telling the truth.
I have some insecurity because at D24’s high school only the students meet with the counselor once a year and we don’t know too many families at the high school so we don’t have our finger on the pulse of what’s typical for honors track kids. My D is pointy with performing arts so it doesn’t leave much room in play anyway. She has refused to take summer classes so far and needs more down time than S21. She will need to knock out a bunch of volunteer hours this summer.
Anyone seen a break down of by region or top 100 colleges enrollment data? I’m curious to see which ones saw enrollment declines. We are privileged in that living in CA, our public school systems were pretty healthy, if not too healthy in terms of # of apps. I think many of the CSUs likely saw app # declined.
Interesting data. It is sad to see the admits rates go down in some colleges especially the Community college numbers. We are also in CA and The LA times article did say application soared for UC’s but dropped by 5% for CSU’s. UC numbers soar, CSU's drop as pandemic upends college application season
I wonder what the denominator was in calculating accepted rate back in 1989. I would look at # of students they’ve accepted since 1989 and look at that trend. They could be accepting the same number of students +/- a few % but the applicant pull has increased.
It’s just so much easier to apply to more colleges now. 30 years ago (yikes, thought I was just making up a number, but’s actually it’s been 31 years) when I was applying, I had to actually write out the application. No way I was applying to many schools. I did the UC application, checked two boxes and was done (at the last minute if I remember correctly). If I was applying today, and I could use the common app and autofill applications on the computer, I would do what my S21 did and add a few colleges to my list. For the tippy top colleges, this makes their acceptance rate fall through the floor, since they get such high matriculation and a similar number of spots. Possibly the opposite effect for the middle schools and below.
@parentkeith LOL. I used a typewriter. I swear up and down the UW did not have an essay. Maybe three sentences of writing outside of the form. You couldn’t type on the Stanford app because it was part of this BIG brochure they send you and i swear it had 17 pages and after going through two brochures with the eraseable pen smudging, I gave up on that app. To this day I’m not sure if Stanford had 17 pages of brochure booklet or 17 essays.
Seems like quite the catch 22, no? You have to apply to more schools to make sure you get in somewhere you want to be because other people are doing the same…
I just joined the forum while starting to research college admission. so much has changed!
My older one is in 10th grade. Does it make sense to start SAT prep - either 1:1 tutor, small group, or small class?
Welcome! My opinion is it is too early. Did they take the Psat ? Does the school do a practice ACT in 10th? Having scores on both(unprepped!) can give you a great idea of baseline strengths. You can then look up concordance tables and see which test is better, and think about test prep summer after 10th then take a fall junior SAT and again in the spring if needed. . If you target a reasonable goal(a similar percentile score on the SAT as the percentile score on the unprepped Psat 10th), prep does not take more than a few hours a week for a few weeks (if that). This timing makes the most sense if Precalculus will be taken in 10th or 11th.
As far as group prep vs tutor , one knowledgeable poster on here strongly recommends tutors. Our HS recommends class ifthe class is taught toward their goal range(many classes are aimed at getting 1200-1350.), tutors (2-6 sessions is the common range around here) for everyone higher or if there is a very specific goal or specific need.
I agree w/2devils, a bit too early. We are waiting until summer at the soonest, aiming for the August 2022 test date most likely, or some time that fall. He’s got a psat10 in spring 2022, so we’ll see how that turns out, though he tends to be a high scorer and is on an especially accelerated math track. My plan is to follow what worked for my older kids: a couple months, at most, of weekly prep with one-on-one local tutor, one of those people we were really lucky to come across. Two birds/one stone, as that same prep should carry him through to the PSAT/NMSQT in Oct, though NM isn’t crucial for him.
My Son took the PSAT also in October and before that he has done a couple of SAT papers and he has gotten about 1450 and 1500. The reading/Writing is where he needs improvement. We do plan to finish the testing by August/Oct Junior year. He will have a busy Junior year so we do not want to add SAT as something to it. We are not planning on any classes or Tutors at this point. I have read that for the reading the best thing is to keep reading and he reads quite a bit but planning to encourage him to diversify his reading material.