@calmom I am being tongue in cheek. My wife got her degrees in Chemistry and Biology and teaches high school Chemistry. But I can dream…
@SwimmingDad Wow, that high school is what I call a “Little Ivy”.
https://www.gafutures.org/hope-state-aid-programs/hope-zell-miller-scholarships/zell-miller-scholarship/eligibility/
Zell Miller qualifications – my niece got this as a salutatorian.
LIttle Ivies are actually a bunch of schools like Tufts, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams,a few others.
I can see that the OP and daughter are happy. But for others it is important to know that some of the meet-full-need schools like HYP or Amherst and others, can be cheaper than state schools for those with incomes under $150k.
@ucbalumnus A shrinking majority of the families don’t care. We send our kids to BU, UConn, the “lower Ivies” (who the hell ever came up with that phrase?), UMass, Oberlin, UCs, UVM, Northeastern, CMU, and a wide range of other schools. But when I look at the increasing numbers taking classes like AP Physics it is clear the pressure at the high school will only get worse. In the end, it’s the kids who get hurt.
@SwimmingDad I’m skeptical that the number or proportion of kids taking any version of AP Physics is indicative of how many might be applying to HYPSM or schools at an Ivy level or indicative of admissions pressure in general. What connection do you see between AP physics and admissions pressure?
@evergreen5 It was a connection that was drawn by a town organization that is looking at the youth mental health issues. Data is from our annual youth risk survey.
Is there something special about AP physics at your high school (i.e. that it historically has been only taken by the most academically-elite students)? Number of AP exams taken in 2017 from https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2017/Program-Summary-Report-2017.pdf :
254270 biology
170447 physics 1
159578 environmental science
158931 chemistry
054862 physics C mechanics
024985 physics 2
024249 physics C E&M
274543 all physics combined
316099 calculus AB
212840 statistics
132514 calculus BC
060519 computer science A
044330 computer science principles
To me, the statistic on how many kids take AP Physics is a marker of the town’s affluence/socio-economic status. Not how many kids are shooting for Cal Tech.
There are lots of HS’s in the US that don’t offer AP Physics. The last teacher retired 5 years ago and they haven’t been able to replace him/her; the payscale for HS teachers maxes out at a level which makes teaching HS Physics at a high level impossible. For school systems that pay the Physics teachers the same as the phys ed teachers, or the 9th grade English teachers (a glut of these in some parts of the country), it’s no wonder that the school can’t fill the spot and the kids get cheated.
Is it better to ''gatekeep" the kids who get to take AP classes? A couple of studies suggest that school systems which gatekeep have fewer kids of color in AP’s, fewer first gen college bound kids, and fewer kids who have had accommodations along the way (even if the issues have been resolved). So maybe a school system with an abundant number of kids taking the hardest AP classes is just a sign of a very progressive educational environment?
I would stop listening to “other people”. They can have their opinions, but if DD and her parents are happy with her list, then just let it go in one ear and out the other. Grandparents ALWAYS have something to say, but they don’t always know best.
Why? My offspring attended a high school which is, based on your post, more “competitive” than the one you are describing. Every year, the school publishes the equivalent of Naviance data, so the kids know the odds. They also know that the top schools give better financial aid and more opportunities.
A fair number of kids end up at SUNYs and CUNYs, but a lot of kids also end up at schools like WUSTL, UChicago, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd,Bard, etc.–excellent schools which a lot of parents, especially Asian immigrant parents, had never heard of when their kids entered high school.
I don’t think it’s “unhealthy” at all.
Those are wonderful schools that will launch your daughter anywhere she wants to go. I would not second guess her choices at this point. There is always grad school.
@jjjoanne I am at peace with my daughter’s choices. My daughter talked to the grandparent about schools this week and I think everyone is now on board (I think grandparent figured out this was a no-win situation and probably also backed off because the Ivy’s are now done taking applications).
UPDATE: She will visit Georgia Tech (if she gets in), UGA, NC&AT, Hampton and will overnight at Tulane and Howard (if she makes it through competive scholarship process) in the next 3 months and will compare financial aid packages and make a final decision. This has been more of a marathon than I expected but at least the end is now in sight and my 10th grader has been along for almost the entire ride.
I don’t know why anyone would think it is any of their business? Some people! I assume people have done the homework looking at different settings, academics, and financial options and apply to options that work for their student and their whole family. Those are all good schools.
I just saw a parent on another board lamenting about her daughter applying to a highly competitive school she has decent chance to be accepted to but it was clear the finances won’t work at all for their family. Why waste the time and money? Just a set up for disappointment.
Sounds like a great kid did a lot of due diligence and made a solid list. There will be a variety of good options this spring, so just stay the course and try to keep everyone at your house comfortable with that.
As far as your parent goes, there’s probably a certain level of pride that wants to know the very height of what your DD could have done. When talking about grandkids (or, ahem, some people’s own kids) “She was accepted at Duke/Stanford/etc but really liked GT better” is better than just “She felt comfortable at GT.” That little vanity of making it but not choosing it can make any choice palatable in the end, but if it isn’t nagging at your daughter then she doesn’t really need to put it to rest. All the best.
Our high school only offers AP Physics 1 and regular (not honors) physics. I’m sure there are plenty of kids who really belong in honors not AP that take AP Physics. I think many take because they have been told they need physics, chemistry, and biology to get into whatever school they want. and because they worry taking anything below honors (and sometimes even honors) will lower their gpa.
@ChangeTheGame Kudos to your daughter, as well as you and your wife!! Do you mind sharing your high school? I have a Georgia STEM D with close stats in the 11th grade. Leaning toward CS or Math, though. Unfortunately, she is not doing a great job picking her list. Outside of the school’s where she attended summer programs, I’ve had to drag her to info sessions.
@peachActuary73 I can say that my daughter is in Gwinnett County Schools in one of Georgia’s largest schools with a diverse student body. My daughter has fought parts of the college process, but we made some things non-negotiable, including a class once a month during her junior year on the entire college process which has helped her understand the importance of things she previously did not care about at all. The class my daughter took had the students look at what they were looking for in a college (size, location, academics, extracurriculars,) and things her parents worried about (academics, cost, and fit) too. They actually visited a few college campuses and learned about terms like FAFSA, ED, EA, and RD. She finished up all of her applications by October 15th and worked to get application fee waivers because she actually understood what was at stake. I made a deal with her years ago that if there is anything left in her college fund (not very large but a lot of money to her) when she graduates from college, she gets half. It is amazing how motivated she is to get that money. You know what makes your own daughter tick and she will figure all out with your help.
@ChangeTheGame Thanks so much, and we are in Gwinnett as well, so maybe I had a sixth sense. That sounds like a wonderful class. We’ve lost a lot of our days off this winter/spring that were meant for school visits, but still have an ambitious goal to hit 7 schools before summer. Hopefully, this will jump start serious ownership of the process. I found this site a few months ago, and hadn’t realized how much had changed in the process. But since financially, our guidelines are merit or non-CSS Profile (with my alma mater as a possible exception), my initial list, and a few I picked up from this site, is what we’re working on for the visit plan.
@peachActuary73 You are bringing back a massive flashback of Junior year when we visited 7 schools during Spring Break in the Southeast. We had a goal just to see different types of schools (public, private, small, medium, large, HBCUs, and PWIs). It sounds like you have a great plan and your daughter will come around.