Parents of the HS Class of 2024

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
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Hello all, I dipped my toe in the match me arena and peeked in here and realized I needed to be in here too.

Why? Because I have a D23 and a D24. I know. I’m going mad already.

As we strategize D23’s applications for next fall, I feel like I’m silently doing the prep work for D24. They’re very different kids (aren’t they always?) but every time I learn something new for D23’s search, I think of something we need to do or research for D24.

Like being wiser about picking junior year classes, which I see everyone here is talking about.

For those thinking about it, my D23 is currently taking AP Physics as her first physics class. I thought if the school allowed it, they must have developed the class so that first time physics students could handle it. I’m not so sure anymore… :grimacing: So. Lessons learned for D24. Feel free to borrow our traumatic tale.

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oh no! Yeah, it is an interesting thing when we must let our older ones teach us for the younger

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Welcome @LaFinalista . Planning for 2 kids with only 1 year difference can be stressful but at he same time you forget what you learn from D23 :slight_smile:

Yes many schools do allow AP physics 1 with out other physics course and I have seen similar feedback from some friends.

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Yikes! Back to back. At least I will have had 3 years break! What I did learn was to have D24 build her activities list. That was a PITA to sit and watch S21 put his list together. I shared his google doc with D24 and told her to use it as a template.

Our school has AP Physics 1 as a class with no pre-req other than maybe a certain math level? They just can’t take it til junior year. I’m having D24 take it senior year. For us it’s teachers she likes and the LOR she would ask of them. We only know this because she either had the teacher or S21 had classes with them. This influenced her junior year schedule. She has a 50/50 chance of getting her math teacher again for stat class and S21 thought AP Bio exam was easier than AP Physics. Her senior year she has AP classes that I am going to advise her not to take AP exams for so she took that into account, too.

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Welcome. I’ve got a S22 and D24. I’m definitely taking the lessons we’re learning this year and applying them to D24. But my kids are taking very different classes. DS is math-, computer-, and engineering-focused. D24 is English- and Spanish-focused. But she wants the option to go to school where he does. I had done a lot of research on S22’s #1 school early on, but was still learning as he went through HS. So there are some minor gaps in his record. If he gets in, I can work with D24’s schedule to make sure she has what she needs. And if he doesn’t get in, we have time to back off on some of the more difficult math requirements she just won’t need as an English major.

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Not sure how true that would be.

AP classes have to cover the precise material for the AP exam in the spring (which will be earlier than the regular end of school). It’s cramming a lot of material into a shorter number of weeks.

So my sense is, that there might not be much room for “designing” the class to fit any additional considerations.

On the other hand, if the school does not have any formal entry requirement, then a parent (and student) would certainly hope that their recommendations for a particular AP class would be based on the school’s assessment of a student.

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There are 3 different AP physics classes - 1/2/C. As long as the student is proficient in required math, they should do ok without previous physics class. In my son’s school, chem and trig/pre-cal are prereqs for AP Physics 1 .

Success in physics class is determined by how comfortable you are with the required math.

That’s why S24 is doing AP physics 1 in the senior year.

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Having taken physics in college (never took it in high school), the most important pre-req is having take pre-calculus and for sure algebra. You honestly don’t need any other prerequisite. I would say Chem and Bio don’t need any other prerequisite other than can you function in lab/lab safety? Our school requires bio (reg) first but it is a total joke because nothing explains Chem without you actually taking chem. It’s like another language.

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Totally agree. Took 4 years of physics between high school and graduate school.

The most important thing is you need to get the math right. Don’t take AP physics 1 unless you are done with trig/pre-calc or you feel very comfortable with math.

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Yeah, Being in Pre-Calc was the pre-req for Physics 1 at our school. We only have the 3 AP physics classes, so Physics 1 is the entry-level for us. S22 took it last year (junior year) and was struggling at first but changed his study habits and ended up loving it. He got As both semesters, but at the end of the first semester, he was begging me to let him drop it. By the end of second semester he was grateful he hadn’t. But I think part of why he hated it so much was that first semester was entirely online and second semester started online. All their labs were computer simulations until they could go in person again. I think that made a big difference. He still talks about how much he learned and how grateful he is that he changed his habits and hung in there.

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AP Physics1 as the first physics seems very common, though many schools have other options such as regular physics, and the placement would normally be based on math level &/or the student’s performance in previous honors science classes. It is hard many places and has a very low pass rate nationally, but for kids aiming for top 30 schools who want the most rigorous curriculum they have to take it at our school, and they have to work to get an A.

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Some good news to report. D24 has regained about half of the use of her thumb since the car accident a week ago. So we’re holding off on seeing a hand specialist. Continuing to use the hand brace & ibuprofen since that seems to be working well!

D24 just came up for air from HW for a bit and talked about college stuff briefly. Still wants to major in biology. Said no way to engineering. Doesn’t know what she wants to do yet with biology, but that’s ok…it’s only 10th grade! There’s lots of time to figure that out.

D24 also said:

  • “I don’t want to go to college in a really big city downtown like NYC.”
  • “I also don’t want to go to the Northwest” (aka Pacific Northwest). “You know, like Washington state.”
  • “And I don’t want to go somewhere where it’s in the middle of nowhere with just the college there and nothing to do. You know, like Wyoming. There’s nothing in Wyoming.” Ok, so that rules out a few states right there. :slight_smile:
  • “I want to go somewhere where there’s stuff close by to do and it’s not totally boring on the weekends.” Translation: a school where there’s a town/retail-restaurant area that you can walk or bike to from campus.
  • “The Southwest would be fine. Or anywhere in the South. Or maybe the Northeast, but not Maine. Maine is like the tippy top of the country and it’s really far away.”
  • “Somewhere where it snows would be ok. I could handle the cold. I just don’t want to go somewhere it’ll be boring.”

Ok, so there was a lot that she blurted out there in a 2 minute conversation! I think that she & her BFFs have been talking about it. Based on this, I told her that we’ll rule out New Mexico Tech (aka NM Institute of Mining & Technology) because it’s in a town of ~8000 people, has 1 Walmart, a couple of restaurants, no movie theater (you have to drive an hour to get to a movie theater). Besides, it’s mostly an engineering & computer science college.

This does kind of confirm, though, that I’m sort of on the right track with regards to some of the schools that I think we should tour in 11th grade. We’ll be chasing merit scholarships and will have a target price tag of ~$30k/yr.

first, there’s our 3 in state universities:

  • NAU - ~ 3 hr drive from where we live (i.e., 3 hr drive w/no traffic or weather problems). Car is pretty much only way to get there. NAU is not close to anything. I’m not thrilled about the concept of having to drive through ice & snow to pick her up at the end of fall semester. LOL.
  • ASU
  • University of Arizona

Because of WUE + NM in-state tuition is cheaper than AZ in-state tuition, the following 2 would be cheaper than attending in state:

  • University of New Mexico - ~ 1 hr plane ride from PHX to ABQ or 6.5 hr drive from home.
  • NMSU - ~ 1 hr plane ride from PHX to El Paso airport or ~ 5 hr drive from home. NMSU is ~ 1 hr drive west of El Paso.

There’s a couple of options in Alabama:

  • Univ of Alabama-Huntsville - if she gets a 3.5 GPA & 1200 on SAT (or 25-27 on ACT), then cost would be ~$18,945 (for tuition, room, board).
  • Univ. of Alabama - COA ~$10k-$28k based on GPA & test scores

There’s 2 LACs in Texas that we will probably go tour:

  • Austin College - about an hour’s drive from Dallas
  • Southwestern University - in Georgetown, TX (near Austin)
  • Trinity University in San Antonio - a possibility, but she’d have to qualify for a big merit scholarship and I’ve heard these have become competitive in recent years.

In Mississippi, I think that D24 would probably like the town of Oxford, MS. We’ll probably tour Ole Miss, too.

Totally avoiding all schools in CA. Same for most of the Midwest states.

D24 is one of those ‘average excellent’ students. Doesn’t have a hook. Isn’t going to get 1600 on the SAT (she’s not great at standardized tests…this has been the case since elementary school). Isn’t in a sport. Isn’t an UMR. Her high school, in terms of total # of students, is small. Isn’t going to cure cancer before she graduates high school, etc., etc. Does she want to go to a small LAC or a big university? We don’t know yet…that’s what the 11th grade college tours will be for. Heck, ASU alone is bigger than some of the towns that some colleges are in. :joy:

Anyways, just wanted to share my thoughts so far. Am considering all ideas since this is our 1st rodeo. Ideas, input from you veterans out there is welcome! :slight_smile:

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@sbinaz Praying no hand specialist will be needed. Poor kiddo. Going thru the trauma of what happened and then pretending all is a regular weekend with a crap ton of homework.

Can I say major clap here for a kid with surgical opinions about locations?! That’s half of the battle!! Location and their opinions on them is so key.

D24 here says no to Cal, but I’m sure I will make her check the box on the UC app. She doesn’t like the area of Berkeley and I think she would prefer UC Davis among the two close UC campuses. All in for UCs south of here. No to PNW here because she likes to not always have to deal with rain. She wants to attempt intramural or club soccer (“no offense to your UW, mom.”). No offense taken here. UW and UC are both great systems so I’ll take the in-state tuition. We ruled out red states. That’s a hard limit for us.

I keep asking if she really wants to go to the East Coast. Is it because big brother is there or does she really want to go there? And is Rory Gilmore really that influential?! She said she is good with snow and far away although she never had this stance where she had to get away from us ASAP like S21.

I shared this on the 2022 parents page but after dealing with flight cancellations (not us), delays, and how I stalk S21 on his way back to Brown with four flight apps, I definitely will discourage D24 from applying to places where there is more than 45 min to get to campus after all day flying to get to the destination airport. And as much as we love Meredith Grey and that she went to Dartmouth, I saw the transit and said, “Hell, no.” No to Cornell, too. But that’s arrogant assuming we would even have a shot. :joy:

I know how I get separation anxiety from my kids and it is absolutely worse with my daughter because we are Gilmore-Girls close. I couldn’t handle thinking about how many buses she would have to find post airport arrival to get to campus in the middle of the night. I actually booked move in tickets for S21 for sophomore move in even though he prob doesn’t need me at all. Just going to fly in, see his new dorm, get last min stuff we don’t want to bring from CA and then visit my friends in the area. Move in last Fall was much easier on my momma heart than seeing him off in Jan back to school. Difference was I didn’t get to go with him on Jan :).

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Glad your daughters thumb is starting to feel better. Hopefully you can avoid the Hand specialist.

In regards to college it great that she has started to talk about it. When I talked to S24 he said similar things on location like don’t want to be in place where there is nothing to do and wants easy access to activities other than on campus. He also said no to very small college like less than 5000 (high school size is around 2000 kids so wants college to be larger feel). He wants something urban or Suburban.
He is a CA kid and says its ok if it snows but we will see how he feels.
On top of this I want a direct flight from with no connections so we will see how this pans out. I would hate to deal with flight cancellations especially in the winter months.

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Its great that you are so close to your D24. I agree with you on the winter flight cancellations and you bring up a good point on the distance from college to the airports. Some of these colleges don’t have easy access to airports especially if I want direct flights.

I am dreading the college drop off and selfishly would like to keep him closer if possible so I can see him more frequently. Have a friend whose kid is UCLA and she has seen the daughter every other month and friends who have kids in the east coast who see the kids once every semester.

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My older on is a 90 minute flight and 10 hour drive from us. We see him for breaks and honestly it is perfect. We text most days and speak a few times a week. This has allowed him to totally emerse himself in school and not be able to leave and come home whenever he wants. It is really the perfect distance and if he was closer I don’t know if it would be good for any of us.

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@helpingthekid73 there’s less stress with my son not being too close by. I am candidly glad he’s in a college bubble on the east coast. I know when he was home over break there’s too much distraction with high school friends around.l despite the fact they also were in school (remote).

I don’t think I would check in on my kid that often. I’m good with breaks only, although for us this means no Thanksgiving and Spring Break home visits. Too long of a commute and too pricey.

I’m hopeful for a potential new assignment at work that will have me traveling to the east coast more, so might be fun to pop in and take S21 to dinner and then fly home. I wouldn’t want him to come home on the regular but wouldn’t mind seeing him a couple more times during the year.

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(Removed post that had been intended from parents of class of 2022.)

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D24 says she doesn’t want to be further from home than her sister (D20) is which is 3.5-4 hour drive. We will see if she changes her mind on distance as we move further along, but I have to admit I won’t be upset to have her relatively close to home. :wink:

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D24 wants to go anywhere close to urban but not urban somewhat like @sbinaz’s D mentioned. :slight_smile: My D24 did 3 years of spanish but for some reason she doesn’t want to take AP Spanish. I think it’s mostly because she was not that confident, last year being online. so she took ASL1 this year and want to do all 4 ASL courses by senior year. Is this anyway recognized by colleges? I don’t know if she still ends up taking Foreign language in college but she is OK with that.