Thanks for the advice. I’ll do an NPC for a couple of schools on S25’s list and see what happens.
S22 is at a CSS school. I’ll reach out to them. Thanks.
Well, that seems like a horrible change in the FAFSA, that having 2 kids in college no longer reduces the $$ a family is expected to be able to pay. That’ll be an interesting lean year, in this household, I guess. sigh
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Would you mind sharing what you learn? We’re in the same boat, D23 starting in the fall and the S25 coming up.
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Anyone else’s DC taking the May 1 APGov exam? What are they doing to study for it? This will be D25’s first AP exam and I’m not really sure the best strategy.
My D and her friend attended an open house at Rowan yesterday. It’s her first official college visit. She already likes the school and has been to it a number of times which is why I thought it would be a great first visit. I had to work and my husband wasn’t up for it so the 2 of them were on their own. She has nothing to say about the school except the freshman dorms are terrible and they spent most of the time in the music building. They did the full tour, my husband picked them up and they got a late lunch before heading home. I asked if her friend got to check out the majors he’s interested in and she said no because rowan doesn’t have literature as a major 
Luckily they’re both sophomores and have plenty of time to go back.
She is looking forward to seeing TCNJ next week and when I mentioned that after that at some point in the future we’ll head to PA to check out a couple schools. She asked why she would go so far away as PA???!? I calmly explained that many schools in PA are closer than most schools in NJ are to us. She seemed shocked, even though she’s been to Hershey, Lancaster, Poconos etc a bunch of times. Philadelphia and it’s suburbs are even closer than TCNJ lol.
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Mine has a couple AP exams (not APGov, though), and to be honest, they’re not studying for it beyond what they cover in the class.
Ultimately, we’re taking the same approach with C25’s AP exams as we took with their older siblings: Getting credit from them would be a nice bonus, but it isn’t worth adding to the already full plate of anxieties that come around as the semester ends to add cramming for an exam to the mix.
(Of course, if this is a self-study exam you can’t take that approach, nor can you if your kid’s school is one of those that treats—wrongly, I would strongly suggest—the AP exam as the final for the class and factors it into the transcripted grade.)
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Thankfully, her school does not use the AP exam as the final. However, the one class (biomed) that is dual enrollment does count as the final. That is stressful for her but she did it last year so knows what’s coming.
I’ll be glad when APGov is over because they basically just do fun stuff for the whole month of May after the exam and then they have their class final during finals week in June (I think).
Next year will be a lot tougher as she’ll have 4 Ap level classes. Hopefully, she does ok.
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D25 is taking AP Euro test on 5/5. First AP class, too. Their teacher has structured practice tests throughout the year, so they should know how to answer the questions. Knowing the content? We’ll see, but only 22 out of 138 kids who took the test last year at her high school got a 2 and none got scores of 1, so hopefully I’m not jinxing it by looking up the stats.
She’s signed up to tour UC Davis this month through school (it is like 1.5 hours from us). She says the kids have 3 to dorm though. I said that’s a good question to ask about on the tour. I would win the lottery if she can get into Davis and wants to go.
I’m the crazy parent with a list of schools she likes, but we won’t travel to visit until she gets in. I also read the parents of 2023 kids and have cut some big names from the list that are just too much work to write essays just to most likely hear no.
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D25 isn’t taking the AP Gov, but she’ll be taking AP World. I think she’ll be doing most of her studying via the Ultimate Review Packet, but that’s at least partially bc the program she’s using for the class is awful. (She’s in a charter school and we had two equally bad options.) This will be her second AP test (AP Spanish last year). I think the key point is to understand what the format expectations are for the answers. For example, on the AP World test she understands the rubric for how LEQs, SEQs, and DBQs are graded. Whether or not she knows the info well enough from her course? Different question. She is actually very much not looking forward to this test. It’s really a testament to how a teacher can affect a class; she was super well prepared for the Spanish test and ultimately felt like it was way easier than she anticipated. (I feel obligated to say that it’s not just the teacher, I am well aware. My kid has struggled with the entirely asynchronous format and no feedback on any assignments. But she also just needs to spend more time with the book.)
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what is the Ultimate Review Packet? DD’s teacher has been having them right DBQ’s all year so hopefully it’s good practice. I think my daughter will be well prepared content wise it’s just not knowing how they grade it all (she might know but I have no clue).
It’s this: https://www.ultimatereviewpacket.com/courses/world-history
If I can’t put this link here, my apologies. If you google ultimate revew packet AP world it comes up in case the link needs to be edited out.
I don’t know that this is better than anything else; we just needed something to give rubrics, etc. The man who wrote it has a lot of free material on youtube as well in case you don’t want to spend the $.
I’m the opposite. I’m making her go visit most of the colleges before she applies. We’re chasing merit but also just going to be applying to slac’s. I think the hardest for her to get into will be Hillsdale as their admission rate has really gotten low (I think they said somewhere under 15% last year). I believe the rest of them are mostly rolling admission type schools with over 70% admit rate.
D25 has visited ASU, Baldwin Wallace (OH), Jacksonville U (FL), Stetson (FL), and Loyola New Orleans with big brother thus far. It has really helped her to cue into things she does and does not like about certain schools.
What she likes: Suburban preferred. Could do urban if it is a defined campus where she can feel safe. Prefers more modern buildings or updated historic. She likes a “pretty campus.” Likes some open/green space on campus. She feels strongly that she prefers diversity on campus (she is Hispanic). Religious is fine as she is more Christian than I am. Tuition Exchange possibilities preferred. Says she wants criminal justice degree but in talking to her she just wants to help people in a non-healthcare related field. I can see her more in social work working with foster kids for example but I am letting her find her own way. Possibility of being on a dance team or taking dance classes/minoring is a must right now.
I signed her up for a few college mailers. According to her, right now she has said no to Valparaiso because she would “never wear yellow and brown together” and those are Valpo’s school colors.
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Rowan where my D just visited is yellow and brown too! 
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Check out Hope. They have a pretty good dance program as well as social sciences. I think their colors are white, orange and navy. lol
We looked at Dordt college and the colors are also brown/yellow.
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I wish someone would revive the “Stupidest Reasons My Child Won’t Look at a College” thread. I cried I was laughing so hard at some of the reasons. (The brown and yellow comment reminded me of this.)
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Though really, if selective colleges are going to reject applicants based on nonsubstantive grounds (do we want an oboe player or a tuba player? let’s go with tuba!), then students should have just as much right to do it, too.
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Absolutely. You have to winnow colleges somehow, and I don’t care the reason. But it does sometimes make me laugh, too. 
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Oh, PLEASE don’t mention that to U.S. News - they’re always looking for a new obscure factor to shuffle the top colleges around. Color combos seems like something they might really go for, with an 7.83% weight.
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