@Luanne AP Lang exam isn’t hard if she’s solid in English in the past. The class isn’t bad, either. Does your daughter plan to study linguistics or humanities in college? Wondering why she’s taking two foreign language classes vs another elective or class? She must really like foreign language class, which is great, too. Just make sure she doesn’t feel like she has to take both for any reason other than for the joy of it.
If she plans to take calculus, she may want a pre-Calc or whatever the prereq class is before Calc.
She loves languages so added Spanish this year. Chinese is required through 10th grade. She’d add French and Japanese if she could. I don’t know what she’ll do in college but something with languages wouldn’t surprise me.
And she is planning on IB math next year and in 12th. Neither require precalculus and she hates repeating math concepts so decided she’d try a different math with statistics instead. If she decides against AP she might regret her decision this year but I think she’ll be fine.
AP Lang is the harder decision. She’s in English 2 now so could take English 3 next year. She’s not a big fan of the curriculum they use and her brother had some great things to say about the AP class. I think this will be the most work but I think she’ll be fine overall.
What resources do folks recommend for identifying tips like this to proactively prepare for the college admissions process now, while students are still freshmen?
I really like The College Essay Guy blog. He has an Instagram handle and he breaks things out in chunks. You can search for specific topics or just browse. I come from a business world so all of the steps make sense to me, as well as the writing portion. He just happens to overlay everything with the admission officer lens on.
Also; I really like the Yale Admissions podcast. Their hosts are actual Yale AO. It doesn’t mean your kid have to go to an Ivy League, but they’re insightful to help you be open minded and ready to help your kids when they need help.
My S is a freshman at a private online high school. We opted for an OLS because DS wanted more consistency (and so did I!) during the pandemic, and because OLS allows him to participate fully in a year-round sport. He loves his sport and is dedicated to it even though he is not an Olympic hopeful- just an excellent amateur. He wants to study science, engineering, and/or math in college. He’s very open to suggestion on where to go, but would prefer to be near the water and a day’s drive from home. Hello Parents24!
D24 will be my last one, so this thread will be bitter sweet. We’ve selected classes, and it’s basically what her older siblings took. I’m trying to get her to find a unique passion/hobby. I know you’re all going to laugh, but I’m pushing taking a welding class at the VoTech high school as her elective. She’s very hands on and loves to build things, so it fits her personality. She’s not destined to be a welder, but it could be developed into an interesting EC and essay.
Joining in. D24 is our oldest and attends a small-ish charter school (there are something like 45 kids in her grade…the local public high school has a 9th grade class in the range of 800 students), so this is our first year diving into high school. It’s been a mixed bag this school year of in person vs online instruction. We’ve learned that she performs better and learns certain subjects better when it’s in person instruction. So when the school gave us an option to switch from online to in person, we took that opportunity. Right now, D24 has a whole 7 students in her classes, including her. The rest of them are still doing online instruction.
A couple of weeks ago, D24 had to turn in elective and science class preferences for 10th grade. She asked for the Vex Robotics class, with AP Computer Science A being a 2nd choice. The Robotics class is small and seems to be luck of the draw as to whether you get into the class or not, so if she can’t take it next year, she’ll take it in 11th grade.
It looks like her other classes for next year will include French, AP English Language, AP European History, PreCalc B, AP Bio, and Honors Chemistry.
The school had all of the 9th graders take the PSAT exam last October. She scored in the 50th percentile, so not great. But she has a tendency to kind of blow off standardized tests like this that “don’t count.” I think that we will end up having SAT/ACT test prep in our future for this kid!
She’s not in any clubs this year…all of the clubs at school right now are online and pretty much not doing anything.
The school counselor has a college info session for 9th graders & their parents later this month that we’ll be attending online. During the 11th grade year, the school counselor has a once a week class with 11th graders to help them sort through getting ready to apply for college, how to select colleges, etc. Then in the 1st half of 12th grade, the school counselor has a class with those students Mon-Fri…that class ends in early February of the 12th grade year.
One thing I found interesting this past week is that 1 of D24’s english classes (9th grade takes Honors English Language and Honors English Literature) had an assignment which the teacher said is meant to mimic college essay short answer prompts. I thought that was pretty cool.
Just wanted to add that I’ll post info from D24’s school counselor’s ‘Here’s what to be looking at/focusing on going into 10th grade & planning for college’ info session after the session happens the week after next. Figured it might help some parents whose high school counselor might not necessarily provide that sort of information!
The school counselor had the “College Planning for 9/10 Grade Families” presentation this evening (online). I took notes! Here’s what was covered (it’s a lot, so I’ll post it in >1 post here).
General Info:
Explained that in the college process, not everything will fit every person. It’s sort of like getting a pattern to sew a shirt…you cut out the pattern, fit it together, and then you have to adjust it so it fits the person the right way.
She explained the college counseling workshop/class for seniors, which occurs Aug-Feb Mon-Fri. Apparently this isn’t offered at other schools in our area.
Said that in 9-10th grade, the school counselor meetings w/students are in groups, whereas in junior & senior year, meetings are more individual.
Explained college visits, where the admissions rep comes TO the school.
Course Selections in high school:
need to consider breadth, rigor, & performance and balance the 3.
rigor = difficulty vs ability to get a high grade. Meeting the minimum isn’t necessarily the best way to prepare for college.
performance - enabling the student to succeed. Don’t sign up for the hardest classes all the time if you won’t be able to handle the work (i.e., fail the class).
know how much you can handle as a student.
don’t ever skip a year of math (i.e., not take math for a year)
don’t go through the math classes to quickly (i.e., go from Pre-Calculus B to AP Calculus BC if you didn’t do well in Pre-Calculus B).
think about your interests
ask teachers/counselor if you’re not sure what to take
What to do now in terms of classes:
review your course sign ups for next year
consider what story you are building for 12th grade & applying to college
consider independent learning on your own over the summer (i.e., if you want to learn a new computer language and school doesn’t offer it, consider learning it online for example)
keep track of awards, honors, papers, & projects. You’ll need this info in the fall of 12th grade.
Extracurriculars:
extracurricular = anything outside of school
gives insight to a college of what your interests are
colleges want to see if you have any involvement as a community member. This is so they can figure out if you’re going to engage in the campus community or if you’re just going to go to class.
extracurriculars can help demonstrate your capacity for commitment to something you’re interested in. They’re also a good way to try out something new to see if you’d like it.
important to balance academics with non-academic activities. In other words, if your grades are terrible, then you need to drop some extracurriculars and focus on bringing your schoolwork up.
You need a long list of activities. This is not true. Students applying to college do NOT need a long laundry list of extracurriculars.
Leadership titles matter. The opposite is true…colleges don’t care much about leadership titles like how you were the president of the dish washing club. What matters is the leadership you demonstrate in your after school activities. For example, maybe you always stay late to help clean up for every time Club X meets or whatever.
Summer activities need to be grand and costly in order for colleges to pay attention and take notice, and going to Harvard summer school will help you get into Harvard. This is not true. You should do SOMETHING with your summer, but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. For example, local volunteer work in something you’re interested in, a summer part time job, etc. all have equal impact to a super expensive summer school program at an expensive private university or college.
How are activities reported on college applications:
on the Activity List on the Common App - this has only 10 lines. So 10 activities with a max of 150 characters per activity to describe each one.
resume - not all colleges will allow you to submit one though.
Essays - essays are a good place to talk about activities which you couldn’t fit into the 10-line limit on the Common App.
Letters of recommendation - the school counselor can include discussion of your other activities if you run out of room.
What to do now in terms of extracurricular activities:
complete an ‘activities resume’
consider other things you can do this summer other than sit on the couch and watch TV or Youtube or play video games
organize your summer plans
keep track of activities, your responsibilities doing that activity, hours spent on it, and dates. Put this in a log of some sort. You’ll need it fall of 12th grade when applying for college.
Most kids don’t know what they’ll want to major in. This is normal. Parents shouldn’t panic if their 14-16 or even 17 year old has no idea what to major in for college.
It’s ok to apply to college as Undeclared.
80% of college students switch their major at least once. Parents shouldn’t panic when this happens.
Personality match - think about what matters to you most
interests/skills - What comes easily to you & what is harder?
What are/were your favorite courses so far in high school?
Then you can make a simple chart with 3 columns:
Column #1 - interests & talents
Column #2 - related activities
Column #3 - possible majors and/or colleges (this will probably come later though)
then the counselor talked about Naviance, which I’ll include in the next post…
Naviance:
At our school, 10th graders were given their Naviance logins this week. 9th graders will have login access later this week. Parents will be given their own separate logins. Counselor recommended to not have the parent login with the student’s account or vice versa.
Naviance is used for:
college searches - you can put in all sorts of search criteria
application history for all students at this school who applied to various colleges, plus stats of those students who got accepted.
colleges visits at the high school - Naviance is how the student is to sign up to attend one of these. College admissions reps come to the school in the fall, mainly between August & October. Admissions reps mostly are there to meet with seniors who are applying that fall, but other students are welcome to schedule time to meet w/the admissions rep when he/she is on campus at the high school. The meeting occurs during class time, so you need permission from your teacher & need to make arrangements w/your teacher to make up anything you missed in class (the school has student hours once/week after school for every class in every subject).
Career Search information (more on that in a moment)
Assessments available in Naviance:
Naviance has some “assessments” available which students can take. These are designed to help a student figure out what majors & professions they might be interested in. The assessments which the counselor talked about were:
Do What You Are - this is very similar to the Myers-Briggs inventory
MI Advantage - an assessment based on “Multiple Intelligence Theory.” I didn’t quite catch what this tells you.
Strengths Explorer
Career Cluster Finder
What to do now in Naviance:
Login
Complete the career assessments. Each takes about 30-40 min to complete.
Watch a Road Map video. These are short videos where Naviance has interviewed people in various professions (an economist, for example) and they talk about what it’s like to work in that field, in that job, etc.
Keep track of your ideas, career options, and goals.
College Research
Parents should NOT PANIC if your 9th-10th grader is not interested in looking at any colleges yet. this is normal and ok. Focus should primarily be on academics (get good grades) and figuring out/exploring/participating in extracurriculars. But here are some options to consider in terms of college research if you want to do it now:
Go to college fairs - NACAC, local, or college-specific. Lots of this is still online due to COVID.
Mail - don’t immediately throw out the flyer or mailer from College A, B, or C. Read it first because it might have useful info about admission requirements, financial aid, scholarships, deadlines.
On campus college visits - in 9-10th grade, if you DO want your kid to take an on campus tour, keep it general…don’t forget your in state schools. And pick maybe ONE big state university and ONE liberal arts college. Go with the intention of seeing if the student prefers one type over another. Resist the temptation to take the student to an Ivy League campus tour at this stage.
high school alumni - No one is more honest about what it’s like to go to a particular college than a student who attends that specific school. The counselor offered to connect high school students to an alumnus if the HS kid wants to know more about what it’s REALLY like to go to College X. If you do this, be sure to ask about positives AND negatives.
virtual resources - online tours, Youtube videos, social media accounts
In 10th grade, students should begin to narrow down their extracurricular commitments. In other words, don’t overextend yourself and don’t sign up for everything under the sun. But you need to be involved in SOMETHING. Also, meet w/the counselor in 10th grade to make sure you’re on track.
That’s it! It was a lot of material she covered in 45 minutes!
That’s great info!! We are just getting notifications for S21. We are still awaiting Ivy Day but we live in CA and my son goes to a fairly competitive public school. I’ve also helped about 8 kids in reviewing their essays. My kiddos have gotten into UCLA, UC Berkeley MET w/ regents, UCLA with regents, several rejected from MIT, and a few more to Ivy League where we are awaiting decisions. I have seen a gamut of the kids.
Course rigor is 100% important if you’re going to be going to a T30 schools. I expanded it to T30, not just T20. The reality is, there are going to be so many kids who can handle 4-5 AP classes a year. I don’t know if UCs will be test blind and who knows about tests but in the absence of tests, GPA and course rigor is key.
Valedictorian with 4.0 UW/4.67 Weighted got into the same schools as my son at the UC, waitlisted like my son at UCLA and we will find out about Berkeley tomorrow. In addition, he didn’t get into all the majors he wanted. Undeclared at one. Second ranked kid same story in terms of getting into the same schools as my son so far. These kids have absolute rigor in their schedule. Community college classes. They killed it academically and I know they can handle any college course. However, they only had a handful of activities. Quality, but only a handful. S21 has 3.88 UW/4.54 W but got in the same colleges and direct admit to his major (capped major, too). I think it’s due to the breadth AND depth of his ECs. We will see how he does with the private schools next week since they will be able to see his 36 ACT.
Now, the kiddo with perfect scores, 4.6 GPA but with breadth and depth and thematic activities. He was all over robotics, CS, volunteer, national comp, he got the coveted 40 spot Berkeley MET acceptance. You have to have a similar portfolio like his to realistically get into Ivy, Berkeley, I feel. The kiddo who got into UCLA didn’t have the depth but had the stats AND the depth of leadership activities.
Essays. Essays. Essays. I felt that my son and the UCLA and Berkeley MET kids had the better essays that pulled out their insights and passion.
I think you can include ECs in the essay but only if it amplifies the insights you’re trying to bring across about your kids.
Like @MommaLue I have one going through the process right now.
I think the advice above is really good, but it’s not that simple. As parents I think the first thing we need to do is understand the costs and what we are willing to pay. Take an hour and fill out the net price calculator (NPC) at a schools you think your child might be interested in. They can vary wildly. For example my D21 can go to MIT for $32k but Northwestern in $70k. Look at merit scholarships too because some schools are very generous for certain kids. Start working towards a budget for your child. We tell our kids they can spend the cost of our instate flagship for example.
As for academics, ask your HS counselor what it takes to be classified as “most rigorous course load” on the Common Application. If your child can get to that level it helps.
With ECs there is no easy answer. Schools generally like to see ones that have been done for years instead of added at the last minute, and they know what is easy (NHS) and what is hard (International Math Awards). I like for my kids to have one leadership position, one sport or physical activity, and one volunteering because I do think there is some “check the box” going on for admissions or competitive scholarships.
There isn’t a lot of space on the application to explain things, so it can be tough to show depth. I’ll use my kid’s swimming as an example:
HS swimming- shows participation
HS swimming with letter- shows you did more work.
HS swimming qualified for state and lettered all 4 years- shows you were committed and good at it.
HS swimming Captain- shows leadership
HS & year around swimming 20 hours per week qualified for JR Nationals - Shows you were very good and it was a massive commitment.
It’s ok to have some things that are just participation, but you also want somethings that pop. There is only so much time in the day/week/year, so you can’t be spending a lot of time on everything.
Finally the stuff your kid is truly passionate about is what they are willing to spend the time on. Don’t push them into stuff that they hate just for a college app.
@AlwaysMoving is right on w/ the calculator. I didn’t even think to mention that. A lot of times, we would see the brochure and they’ll say, “50% of our students get financial aid or pay similar pricing as in-state school.” Unless your family is making less than $80k-$100k and have no assets or unless your kid is phenomenal where they can get merit, you’re likely paying full cost of attendance. The smaller LACs may give more or maybe the tier 2-3 private colleges will give more to make them competitive, but if your kid is applying to Top 20 private, it’s not realistic to expect that. They get plenty of people who want to attend their school.
One other thing, ask your high school counselor if they can show you this year’s school report. It’ll show the profile of the students at the school, which top schools the students have been accepted to, how many honors and AP courses your school offers. The colleges review these. At our school, there are 28 total honors and AP. S21 took about 12/18 APs (he’s not interested in art, etc) and 4/10 honors. There are pre-req’s before they can take some of the classes. Counselor reco and report will share with the school how your kid’s course rigor looks vs. the top and average kids at the school. Ours shared that with us.
I totally think I’m coming across overwhelming, but if things don’t change in the next few years and the chase for elite colleges continues, if you have a 3.85UW and test scores that run w/in the school profile range, and average “amazing student” EC’s, there will be a slim chance your kid will get into a Top 20-30. I will share back in May if I’m wrong. So far w/o Ivies and waitlist movements, this is what I’m observing. My S21 is an average “amazing student” and would be a standard case study with Ivies on 4/6
Our school counselor mentioned in a previous parent meeting the importance of having an honest talk w/your kid about what your family can afford…AND to use the Net Price Calculator on colleges’ websites when you’re trying to figure out what your out of pocket per year price would likely be. Because there’s nothing worse than a HS kid getting his/her heart set on a school, getting accepted to the school, and only finding out afterwards that he/she can’t afford to go there.
Yeah, I’m watching a lot of my D’s friends have really awkward discussions about money now that all of the apps are in and nothing can be done. In hindsight those parents set their kid up by not giving them a hard budget.
We wouldn’t tell them to go out and find a car that makes their heart sing and let us know when it’s time to write the check, so we shouldn’t do that for colleges.
