I think it’s not just highly selective schools that don’t accept CLEP. Some in state schools and flagships also don’t. Some do only particular courses so it is good for the student to check and make sure that it will be accepted. The hard thing is that most don’t know where they want to apply or what course.
Hello, all. I took a needed break for a few months as DS22 finished up his last semester and was doing all the whirlwind signups and registration for college. I was also super busy with a class of my own that was summing up the first year of a program with a major presentation.
I haven’t read all of the various threads I missed, but I did see the question about SAT prep. My daughter isn’t going to do it. She’ll only apply to CA schools which have gone blind. She doesn’t need it for English placement since she just finished AP English Lang and will be taking IB HL English this year and next. And she won’t need it for math because she will be doing a humanities degree that will probably only require stats. BUT, I wanted to put out a plug for Khan Academy’s SAT prep. It’s free and it’s really good. You can link your kid’s College Board account to their Khan Academy account and it will pull in their results. Those results aren’t just their score - it includes how they did on the questions which allows KA to know what they’ve already shown proficiency in and what they need to work on. KA gives them a plan that works through the stuff they still need to learn. KA also has full-length practice tests that will reset their plan of what they need to work on. So it’s a massive win-win-win. I had my son doing it until his #1 college finally went test blind and CB kept cancelling his test dates due to Covid. But it was having a really great impact on PSAT scores and his practice test scores. KA’s program isn’t an “8-week course”. It’s more of a long-term program. You set up a schedule for your kid that includes a set number of hours a week and they just add it to their schedule like a little extra homework. And did I mention it’s all FREE? I had just set up my daughter to do it when the CSUs went test blind and I stopped (she hates standardized tests and doesn’t do well on them. So making her go through the process would have been torture. But it’s still a great program. It would be worth a lot of money if they charged. I donated some money to KA because I found it so worthwhile.
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Hit a couple of milestones this week. D24 turned 16 on Sunday. And today, she submitted a couple of job applications for a part time job. Going on a tour of ASU at the end of the month.
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Your DS22 has decide to go to Cal Poly Slo correct? Our S24 is there for the EPIC program. When we dropped him there on Sunday he said he was not impressed with the college but when I talked to him yesterday night he said the campus was great. So it seems to be growing on him. I hope S24 can get into a good college in CA as it would make things easier. Cal poly slo was 3 hours from our house and feel some 2 to 6 hours drive from home is a good option if he can get in as that way he gets to be away from home but still not that far off.
If your Daughter is only looking for California makes sense not to do SAT/ACT. One less thing to worry.
This is what my daughter is doing at the suggestion of my DS22. He said it was great prep and he got a 1550 so my daughter is going that route for now. Bonus: it’s free.
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@RadM - Yes, DS22 is going to go to CP. I only found out about the Epic program this week. I wish I’d known about it before because DS probably would have loved it. I kind of love that your son wasn’t impressed by the school but that it’s growing on him. Was he hoping for more of an urban setting or just cooler looking buildings? DS is seriously looking forward to mountain biking in the hills around campus and the sea kayaking. Also the tennis courts. But all schools have those. When I asked him what his top priorities were for a school he said 1) tennis courts, 2) small classes where he can get to know the professors, 3) somewhere he can get to know the other students. I assured him that every college he was applying to had tennis courts so let’s just look at the other two criteria. LOL!
And yes, DD24 will only be applying to California colleges, so I see no need to torture her with SAT prep.
Are you Nor Cal or So Cal?
@boo1 - Yeah… great program. I provide informal college counseling to some disadvantaged kids in my area. I recommend it to anyone who needs to improve their SAT or ACT scores. Khan Academy is so awesome. One of these days when I’ve got time I plan on doing their physics series since I never took it in school.
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So S is at a short music program at Oberlin this week and loves the look and feel of a rural LAC, woohoo! My checkbook is not excited but I am thrilled that he has found what he likes!
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We are making D24 read Suze Orman’s book, “The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke.” You’d think that we were asking her to climb Mt Everest. So much push back. LOL. “But WHY? WHY do I have to read during the summer? Why are you giving me homework? Summer is supposed to be a BREAK from school!”
Why? Because, kiddo, learning this topic is good for you, it’s important for your future adult self to know this stuff, and neither your high school nor your college is going to teach you this. This is practical adulting information that OUR parents didn’t teach US (your parents).
I assign her so many pages per day. Weekends off. You’d think that I was torturing her or something from the way she’s carrying on. Haha!
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I love Suze Orman, but I doubt my kids would read that book either. They love to read and read a lot during the Summer. We’ve been able to teach them the most about spending and money from having them work part time jobs in the Summer. It’s amazing how fast it all falls into place when kids are earning and spending their own money. Both are savers who like splurges.
We’re pretty frugal so they’ve always heard us talking about money in an open manner. I do think kids need to go through learning about money. I wish we had given them an allowance from an early age. We tried and gave up several times. I think it would have helped them see how money works.
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By the time we picked him from EPIC he said “I would be totally good to go to college here” So he did like it much better than when he first saw it. going into it he wanted a college that is is more urban setting I think. I think he still would like that but seems to be more open now which is a good thing. He enjoyed the week there.
We are in the Nor Cal.
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Great experience in many ways. He lived in the dorms and got an idea of what college life is like. That’s much better than any website, brochure or single day campus tour. What he didn’t like is just as important as what he did. If he didn’t like the size of campus, location, majors, etc., that will help narrow his searches going forward. It will also give him a basis of comparison when he looks at what other schools offer.
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Completely Agree. It was a valuable experience and he can now tell what he liked about it and what he would have liked better. It will help in future. He also made a couple of friends while there and that will also help if they stay in touch. It helps to get perspective from others who are not in your school or your “bubble”.
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That’s awesome! The cool thing about CA is how many options there are. There’s no question my son needed a Cal Poly, so we we were absolutely thrilled when he got into both of them (Humboldt wasn’t a Cal Poly, so I’m not counting that when I say “both”). But DD24 could be happy in a lot of different settings so I’m going to take her on a bunch of college visits in the next year to show her some of the different options.
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How is Cal Poly Humboldt compared to Pomona for Computer Science? I asked my son to consider it when he starts applying.
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D24 & I went to half day event this morning at ASU (Tempe campus). Felt like Epcot hot, and that’s saying something because we live in AZ and we’re used to AZ heat. Haha!
This was D24’s 1st college tour. Overall, she gave it a big thumbs down. She emphatically said on the way home, “I am NOT going to ASU!”
Why? It’s too big. It’s huge. Truly enormous in terms of the physical size of the Tempe campus. She pretty much hated the campus because of how big it was. Some other highlights:
- hated the confusing mix of “ok to bike” and ‘walk your bike’ walkways. D24 thought it was really annoying…you could bike for a short bit and then half to get off your bike and walk it.
- D24 learned of a major she didn’t realize they had, was interested in it…until she learned that it’s only at the downtown Phoenix campus.
- dorm assignments outside of the honors dorms are done based on what college your major is in. So all of the freshman business majors end up in the same dorm. D24 said, ‘I don’t want to live with only Medical/Health Sciences people. I want to get to know all kinds of different people.’
- honors college dorms were great. Separate dining hall only usable by honors college students. Huge thumbs down that all of the dorms (not just the honors ones) are way the heck away from everything else.
- tour guide talked about this on campus Uber golf cart sort of service as a handy way to get from 1 part of campus to another. D24 thought that if you needed something like that, then it’s probably way too big.
- lots of perks to being in the honors college. Costs an extra $2k/yr.
My DH is disappointed & sad that D24 said “Heck no!” to ASU, which is closest geographically to where we live. He not so secretly wants her to live at home and commute. But that commute would be 45 min to the parking garage, then a 15-20 min walk. And with 63,000 undergrads at ASU, it would be very easy for D24 to get lost in the crowd.
So ASU is a big no.
But the day wasn’t a total loss. D24 is definitely way more excited now about going to college. She learned about what she DOESN’T want and even said, “I could probably see myself at a place like U of A,” which will make my sister very happy since she lives in Tucson. And it’s not like U of A is in outer Mongolia. But if you ask my DH, it is. He’s going to have a hard time when D24 leaves home. He’s going to miss his baby. 
So we will plan on doing a U of A day some day this fall. I’ll take D24 out of school for the day for that, preferably on a day where we can attend biology & honors college info sessions.
Hope everybody has a great 4th of July weekend!
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Hi there! Checking back in after an introductory post for D24 at the start of high school now that we are starting to think about colleges seriously.
D24 is currently thinking she will be a pre-med track, so one thing I want to do different this time around (she is our second round of the college search & selection process) is look more into this “undergraduate teaching metric” for schools she will consider. She really has no strong likes or dislikes yet on type/size/etc so we’ve got to start there I think. Actually that’s not entirely true, she has said no to women’s schools for now, she goes to an all girls high school and feels she’s maxed out on the benefits of that learning environment.
She is a strong student, 4.2 UW (collegeboard UW would be a 4.0 though, but her school still gives above a 4.0 for A+) with a mixture of HN/AP/DE classes. She is currently in the top few percent of her class though not sure that will hold through to applications because her schedule next year is a little scary to me. Also I learned with D21 that their school’s profile is rather unimpressive so despite how much work I see her putting into those grades (her two hardest classes last year were self taught, and not by choice), I don’t think they will offer much boost come application time (that is to say, her grades will be seen as those which would be expected from a strong student in an average school). She has not taken SAT or ACT yet, though her school had her take the PSAT last year as a trial run for the ‘real thing’ this year, she was in the 97th percentile and she says she would like to get that up for NM potential, but has yet to put any effort behind it so my hunch is she’ll remain right outside of consideration. But we’ll see, she will then take the SAT in October and maybe in December if she thinks wants to try and raise it, then we’ll make a plan from there (with D21 we switched to ACT at that point, and never looked back as that was better suited to her. I do suspect D24 is better suited to SAT though so I’ll be curious how it turns out).
She’s a varsity athlete and plays the same sport year round at the club level, she is on the planning team for a local but impactful charity fundraiser, and is in the standard slew of honor societies at school. But she doesn’t have anything unique to really set her apart. I’m sure she would love to take part in a summer studies program geared toward medicine next summer but that is not in our budget for now and she wouldn’t qualify for needs based programs (while not a true donut hole family, catholic grade school tuition, private high school tuition, and college tuition for our three has been our priority). No hooks otherwise, in short she’s I believe what the board defines as the ‘average excellent’ applicant in this college madness, but we’re still very proud of her nonetheless! She’s just a great human with a big heart, and is a humble and hard worker!
Anyway, not sure why I laid that all out there, maybe for future reference?? But I’m taking notes on the colleges you all are looking at and gearing up for the second half of high school! Thanks for letting me join you on this ride, I welcome any and all suggestions if you’ve read this far and anything jumps out at you as something D24 should pursue!
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So with your story and a potential career in medicine I would look at many of the main threads and look for full rides if she is up for a big school. Medical school is becoming increasingly expensive and competitive and kids are expected to spend several gap years doing things that make absolutely no sense to me (a doctor). I would make sure that she and you have zero debt when she graduates from college.
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Why is she thinking pre-med? I would spend the next year doing as much as you can to make sure she wants to go down that path and that she understands what it will entail. If she is interested in healthcare, she might also think about allied health professions such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician’s assistant, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, etc.
Have you looked into volunteer opportunities at your local hospital? Retirement and assisted living communities often have volunteer opportunities for high school students as well.
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My daughter joined the local volunteer ambulance squad once in high school. They had a great mentorship and Junior program where she could ride shifts.
Then she took a very intense multiweek EMT summer class at the county, paid for by the squad.
Benefits: lots of anatomy, patient rights, state reporting, legal/procedural staff that represent the reality of the profession and tests one’s commitment to the field.
The other huge benefit: By the time she graduated college she had risen to officer rank, supervising training, conducting CPR/AED classes, and had already had thousands of (serious) hours of patient contact, which can be crucial for moving on!
Finding summer gigs as an EMT is a breeze.
The worst outcome, your daughter finds out early-on that it’s not for her.
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Wow never released ASU had 63,000 under grads. I thought UCs were big. I can see how it easier to get lost in such huge campus. I do hear good things about the honors college if you can get into it and it cam make it seem smaller.