I’m not sure what your budget is but there are a lot of hotels in the Copley area and it puts you right on the T to get to BU, etc. I would go on Trip Advisor and put in “Copley” for your area and search hotels.
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D24 took a mock APUSH exam at school this a.m. Said that she thinks she did ok. Will know some time over the next month as the teacher grades them and then sits down 1 on 1 w/each student to review results, make studying recommendations for the actual exam in May. Mock AP’s for AP French & Music Theory are in 2 wk, then again on March 4th for Calculus.
Thurs of next week, there’s a 1.5 hr online parents-students-senior college counselor meeting to go over everything about applying to college. Am interested in what counselor has to say.
Trimester 2 ended yesterday. 2/3 of the year is now done. Holy cow.
Seniors had their last in person class yesterday. They also did their walk through the halls wearing their caps & gowns. D24 said there was lots of shouting & cheering, she thought it was fun. 1 kid apparently going to NYU (kid had a hook, he’s a swimmer, going to swim @ NYU). Another senior going to Pomona College, also a swimmer. Our HS is not competitive at a state level for HS swimming, but I suspect these particular students are pretty active in year-round club swimming (which is pretty big here in AZ). Hard to believe that in a year, that’ll be my kid attending her last high school class.
D24 got rejected this wk from the UofA KEYS summer research internship program. They only accepted 15% of applicants to go to round #2 (interview round). so it was pretty darn competitive. That’s ok, though. 1st rejection of the college season. She’ll do something else this summer, like get a job, which will make DH very happy…he won’t stop talking about D24 getting a job. 
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We are heading to Minnesota to tour St. Olaf, Gustavus and Macalester next weekend. Any tips on places to eat in Northfield or St. Paul? We have tickets to Minnesota Wild game on Sunday! Planning on taking public transportation to game. First time we will be in Minnesota. Bringing cold weather attire!
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We visited St. Olaf and Macalester last April - we had good meals here:
Northfield:
The Ole Store (dinner)
The Hideaway Coffeehouse and Winebar (casual breakfast and coffee)
Tandem Bagels (takeaway breakfast bagels the morning we were leaving)
You can ask to have lunch at St. Olaf dining commons as part of your tour - I recommend it! It’s a terrific way to get a feel for the school, and one thing I really loved about the experience is that the students leave all of their bags outside the dining area, and chat with one another during meals. We loved Olaf, we’re from the PNW and if Olaf had been any closer to us it would have been very hard to choose between Whitman (where he ED’d this fall) and St. Olaf.
Macalester is a quick drive from the airport, and on the route between the airport and college we had some great focaccia sandwiches from due focacceria (you can pre-order online and run in and pick them up which is great for tight timetables).
Have a great trip!
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Thank you so much!!!
S24 wants to take 4 rigorous APs next year in his competitive HS. Tried convicing him not to since he has a Spring competitive sport as well. He does well in school work at his tough grading HS, but has not yet given standardized tests a proper try. This has become a worry. I am not sure if going test optional, but with lots of HS rigor will be enough but it has crossed my mind now since we are in Feb already.
It’s hard finding the right balance! D24 has a lot of AP’s this year and she has a fair amount of HW because of it.
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DS2022 took 4 APs (because 1 of the AP didn’t fit in his Junior year), with a Winter sport.
He was able to rockstar 1st semester, while writing many many application supplemental essays.
Once he secured 1st semester grades and all aps were submitted, he crashed and could only focus on his sport.
Every grade dropped a level (from A+ to A, from A- to B+) as seniorities hit. But no college required 3rd quarter grade, so he was fine.
So I think your son should be fine to focus on Spring sport, as he coasts in the APs.
February break:
- take at home: 1 SAT and 1 ACT.
Depending on which he likes/performs better, do intensive week of prepping for that exam.
register for the next SAT or ACT.
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S24 is also taking 4 APs, he decided on Stats instead of a second science. He does a precollege music performance program so similar to a year round sport. It took me time to come around but my thought was this would give him a better idea of what a rigorous college schedule would look like. Also, final grades are not as important next year as they are this year.
If he has time over the summer to prep for the exam why not do that? One score is certainly worth getting because if he does well it will add to his application. If he does not do well then he doesn’t have to submit.
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S24 is my youngest, so we are done after his admission cycle.
I remember stressing about high school course registration with D20 (our oldest) and worrying about each class she selected, and how her AP choices would be considered by the schools she would apply to ultimately. She then preceded to attend a SLAC that didn’t accept her 5s on AP tests, except for general credit (not helpful towards the majors she chose, nor for any specific GenEd classes she needed to take) and/or advanced course placement (which she did take advantage of). She going to graduate college with a ton of extra course credits which helped her not one iota in completing her degree.
When D23 decided to take fewer APs than her older sister, I was therefor completely blasé about it. When she decided she didn’t want to take some of her end-of-year AP tests, I raised my glass to her self-advocacy and self care. She, too, was looking at SLACs so besides the tip of more rigor in her course load, I couldn’t see a reason for her to stress about tests if she didn’t want to try for advanced placement in college course selection.
S24 just chose his courses. He let me know several days after course selection had come and gone what he decided:
Advanced Creative Composition (turned down AP Lit rec which broke his AP Lang teacher’s heart a bit)
AP Stats (turned down AP Calc B/C rec)
AP Environmental Studies (turned down AP Physics 1&2 rec)
AP German
Phys Ed
He’s taking Gov/Econ during summer school to relax his school year schedule. He’ll get an early dismissal with this schedule and be in control of more of his time.
Unlike D20, he is really excited about all the classes he will be taking. He really likes the teachers who teach those classes and he doesn’t care that he is taking the ‘lesser APs’.
After being through the cycle twice before, I’m happy to have him take ownership of his academic choices, be excited and I know that there will be lots of schools excited to see his application. I wish I could have been this relaxed with D20 as I think I gave her extra stress above and beyond the stress she put on herself. I did better with D23, but S24 is definitely getting the benefit of the two recent cycles/results his sisters experienced and will hopefully have a much better senior year because of it.
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S24 also has signed up for 4 AP’s in 12th grade. It is going to be tough especially if he is going to play soccer which run from october to Feb and when college apps are still in progress in october and november. His counsellor at school said if we finds it tough he can drop one of the courses in october and then take an equivalent course in Community college in January after the college apps are done.
He will be taking:
AP Stats (doing AP calc BC in 11th so debating if he should do this or do Multi variable cal in community college. Some kids in our school do this.)
AP French
AP US Gov.
AP Physics C.
Creative writing class (not AP or honors)
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Many kids at our school do AP Stats after calculus, gives them a little break in the schedule senior year and they pick up the math in college if they need it.
S24 is taking
AP Calc BC
AP Stats
AP Physics C
AP Lit
Honors Italian (may take the AP test but since it is only year 4 unlikely to get credit so if continues in college would just take a placement test)
Honors History class (required in our school all 4 years)
Orchestra
This is his most rigorous class schedule yet but it was his choice.
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With the Spring sport strarting in March, he wont be able to take the SAT or ACT till Summer.
That would give him once chance in the summer. Not sure if taking it again in Sept/Oct would be feasible. I am hoping that one time test taking would be enough but lets see.
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Seniors do take the SAT in October, it is possible if needed.
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I ran into a weird situation. I am little concerned. My C24 wants to drop out of AP CALC AB in the 2nd semester to a regular class. The school counselor told her that the transcript shows AP in the 1st semester but shows regular in the 2nd. I think it impacted all her other classes too in the 1st semester. I am worried how the admissions look at this if she can get A in all other subjects this semester?
I have a very good tutor too but it’s probably overwhelming for her as it was an online 3rd party provided recorded classes during covid and unfortunately that’s the year she doubled up in Math. In addition to this, she had a bad teacher for precalc, he only provided slides. I think she’s missing lots of fundamentals and it’s hard to cover everything while working on the ap class. Also the amount of time she ends up spending is impacting other classes too.
yes, BU is known for Tufts syndrome
I don’t know the answer for this but a C or D in an AP class is not going to look good and she should not be suffering through a class she can’t handle. What math class will she take next year if she moves to the regular class?
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Not sure what classes S24 is planning for next year. He is considering: AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Bio, AP Physics C or M, AP Environmental and AP Psychology – plus honors Latin (he is taking AP Spanish this year so he’ll have exhausted the Spanish offerings at his school). He is shooting to take 4 AP (max allowed) but isn’t too nervous about it. He doesn’t do a fall sport (just science team and his job) so that helps.
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I would hope that the college counselor at school can write something about this situation and many colleges give you an opportunity to write something if there was a situation that is reflected on your transcript.
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