Yes both the kids moved from Bio to CS from the letters and sciences after they met the GPA and the pre req course requirements. It was not to the college of engineering. Looks like in Cal you can do CS via letters and sciences.
Agree it may not be easy to get into pre-reqs if you are not in the major. This was a few years (one of the is done with college now so thing have only gotten harder.)
Ah ok. That makes sense. If they love something they will be ok.
@RadM I think Cal is changing the CS admission. I am not 100% but I think it’s not just L&S anymore. I know S21’s friend, one is in CEES/MET at Cal and one is in L&S hoping to go into CS. There three core class they require them to take in order to apply to CS and I believe you have to get a B+ average in those three classes or you can’t apply to Cal CS. CS seems really hard anywhere, even if it’s within a college like Letters&Sci.
Ah ok did not know about the upcoming changes. one of the friends kid who did this and now has completed his 4+1 masters was able to get the GPA but agree its not easy for everyone and many people may not be able to make it.
I don’t know if it’s official, but the kids at Cal have talked about this. I would assume maybe not by this fall, but for certain something will change by the time 2024’s enter. My kids have expressed no interest in CS so I am a little relieved because it seems to be such a competitive major at any college based on what I saw last year.
Yes this is one of the fields son has shown some interest so have to prepare for multiple options if he goes this route.
Re: college tours -
We aren’t going to take D24 on any college tours until 11th grade. She’s just not interested right now, so I think it’s wise for us to wait. We live in the Phoenix area, so touring ASU will be easy. Will take her out of school on a Mon or Fri to head to Tucson to tour around UofA.
Probably in spring break of 11th grade, we’re going to go on a Texas & Alabama college tour. And over a long weekend (missing 2 days of school), we’ll hit up Univ of New Mexico & NMSU.
All of the UC schools are way out of our price range, so we aren’t even considering any of those. I went to UCSB for college (it’s an awesome school and yes, we all studied on the beach on a regular basis, and it’s always had a reputation for being a party school, but you get a truly excellent education there) and would love for my kids to go there, too, but it’s not in the financial or academic application cards.
Any top 25 schools are also out because of price tag + I don’t think she’ll be as competitive of an applicant as other students who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. 
to be honest, my DH wants both kids to live at home for all of college and go to ASU…so he can “see them every week.” LOL! Oh, DH, you absolutely will not be just dropping by on our kids in college…we aren’t going to put them through that torture. Haha! He’s having some difficulty with the idea that ODD will be off to college in a couple of years.
Re: AP credits - I’ve looked out of curiosity at a couple of schools and what sort of credits they give for AP. There’s some interesting variation out there for sure!
@RadM Some private schools that are just as reputable have more flexibility for CS bound kids than public ones. S21’s friends said that if they knew, they’d apply to Brown (insert any other school that is similar). Apparently, S21 says the students have plenty of intern oppty and job oppty. And anyone can take CS and decide to major in CS. Honestly, no pre-req other than take those CS concentration class req’s to graduate and get a C or above. Same with Engr.
11 grade spring makes sense if the schedule works. UC schools are very expensive for OOS so for OOS there are many options that may work better.
At your husband wanting to visit kids every week. I keep telling S24 I will may be move there just to see his reaction.
Wow thats great. I will for sure look into having Some privates on the list.
At your husband wanting to visit kids every week. I keep telling S24 I will may be move there just to see his reaction.
Yeah, I laughed at that, too!
D24 & D26 have their 1st VEX Robotics competition tomorrow. Everybody on the team is brand new to it this year, our kids included. DH & I don’t even care if they win at all. Our kids have been talking about doing this since D24 was in 7th grade. We are just excited that they both want to participate in something that traditionally doesn’t have much representation when it comes to girls. There’s another competition the week after next. 1 of D24’s BFFs is on the team, too. The school had Robotics last year, too, but the club was all online and they were building ‘virtual’ robots, which my kids went “BLEH! If it’s not the real thing, we don’t want to do it!”
Hope everybody has a great weekend!
Good luck to your D24 and D26.
I think we are going to try the same. DS24 is saying “anything NOT in the Northeast” (we are in MA) and he seems to be really attracted to the idea of heading South. I am thinking of taking him to see some schools in VA in April during vacation and visiting family at the same time. Maybe he will like or dislike those and can decide what he thinks about them. Maybe doing some more in the summer even though I know visiting the South in the Summer will likely be miserable. I just want him to get a feel for what those big, Southern schools are like b/c if he really doesn’t like them at all, he will have plenty of time to start thinking about actually considering some schools in the NE which is what we hope 
D24 loved going on tours with her older sister (D20), and can’t wait to start going on tours. We will start this Spring to get an idea of type/size of campus she prefers, but wait until Junior year to start a list. Hard to believe Junior year will be here before we know it!
@coastal2024 That is so funny how some kids want to leave their region. S21 wanted to go as far as possible and out of the West (not because of the West but away from us). He’s 2618 miles away now. But jokes on him because if his sister gets into an east coast school, I have an assignment already lined up in the same city as his school. 
1st ever VEX Robotics competition is done! D24’s team scored terribly, but everybody on the team is brand new to it (including the faculty advisors), so everybody is learning as they go. They had software problems with their robot all day which results in them not scoring at all in the autonomous mode rounds all day except for in the very last match.
BUT what was great was that after each match, they’d all put their heads together, troubleshoot, try something else out for the next match, etc. Their coach made sure that everybody had a turn being the driver. There’s another competition in 2 weeks. It was a long day, but fun.
Tips for parents planning on doing college tours. If you think you will be arriving when older students are moving in to campus, family weekend, or spring time when students have their admission decisions and plan on touring campus…I recommend booking a refundable place and also refundable car rental.
I’m not saying it will happen again, but last year during move in, so many parents at our college had problems finding lodging near campus or car rental prices were crazy high. I just booked car rental and hotel for Fall move-in for my son.
We talked this at length with my S21 parent group but if you’ve have decent credit and are responsible with credit card management, consider looking at some sign on bonuses credit card companies are offering. I swear I have them all but I just signed up for Cap One Venture X and with the 100k bonus they are giving out and the other incentives, the $395 annual fee is pretty much down to zero fees since I know we will use the sign up bonus points as well as other credits they are offering.
I would recommend scheduling tours using your student’s name and his/her college email account.
Hello everyone,
I have popped in before but I forget to check. As I did with my older ones, I will pop in more as it gets closer.
Right now, we are just in cruise mode. We are moving all of the colleges emails to a folder to look back on when it’s more appropriate. He is opening his snail mail but shredding it. He is not replying to any. He went on all the college tour of his siblings so he knows about private vs public. Large vs small. This summer we will make a tentative list and start making trips.
Currently AP Bio is kicking his bottom. This is his first class he needs to “study” and it’s been challenging. It doesn’t help that the teacher is horrible. He still wants to be a doctor so he knows this is just the start. LOL
Hopefully I will remember to check more often.