<p>I recently attended a talk by an admissions counselor from a an extremely highly regarded school. She made a quick side comment about 9 APs being “rather insane”. She definitely didn’t regard that many APs as adding to the application. (This was not the main point of the talk so she didn’t elaborate further.)</p>
<p>Your daughter is planning on 10 total. I really think it’s okay to ease up on her schedule a bit. She needs to be a person, rather than an academic machine.</p>
<p>I am a junior and am in a very similar situation. I decided to quit my spring varsity sport for at least this year since I got so little sleep (like 3-4 hrs/day) during my fall season. Your daughter sounds like a great student and should have a shot at any school anyway. She should quit the sport if she’s only doing it for college. Colleges don’t want that and speaking from my own experience playing my spring sport last year only for college, she could be miserable for those few months. It’s just not worth it. Having 5 APs is much more fulfilling (at least to me) than playing a sport just for college. It all depends on her situation and what she wants to do but don’t let her make any decisions just for college.</p>
<p>Since she’s said she doesn’t love the sport, is there something else truly of interest to her that she would do with an extra 20 hours a week? Sometimes imagining what you would be going TO rather than contemplating the act of quitting can be a good exercise. Is there something she could start this spring/summer and continue on a limited basis into the fall? Is a there a career interest she could shadow or actually get a job doing? </p>
<p>I’m not speaking of gratuitious volunteering, but rather an interest area that has been completely shut out because of this sport and academic schedule. Sometimes junior/seniors finally reach a maturity and capability to really do something they’ve been curious about when they are freed from the burden of a sport they don’t really love. Don’t get me wrong- one of my kids is a DI athlete so I know what that drive is, but the others are not, and each pursued some very fringe interest areas and have done things I never would have imagined. (Legal, productive things!) </p>
<p>Freeing up a bunch of hours might lead to a surprising adventure. And dare I say, the kid who is allowed to follow her heart has a much more interesting story to tell than one who is following a template.</p>
<p>Op,
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is so personal and specific, that really, only she, her GC, and her parents can really decide the answer to this. </p>
<p>But some thoughts of mine:
<p>Answering more questions…thank you to all who have posted. We are having some great conversations here!</p>
<p>Kat–she has had Honors Chem, and she got As fairly easily. </p>
<p>The five APs are Calc AB, Chem, Lit, Gov, and Latin. She’s taken U.S. History (780) and will take Bio and Math II in the spring. She is good at both STEM and at humanities-type courses…probably enjoys humanities more, but wants to keep her options open. The sport is swimming. </p>
<p>Compmom–you’re exactly right. She is in a culture where the kids are vying for “most rigorous.” And I definitely don’t want her to miss out on the fun of high school in pursuit of the “best” college. </p>
<p>Lafalum–thank you for the links…very helpful!</p>
<p>One more thing - what are other students in her school taking? At my school, 6-7 APs is fairly typical for competitive kids senior year, but it varies widely.</p>
<p>Right now, I would say that her schedule next year sounds reasonable without dropping anything. Physics C and Calc BC are the really brutal APs. Is the typical courseload 6 classes?</p>
<p>As someone who hospitalized her child with mono mid November of senior year, my advice is to balance the schedule so that a lack of sleep is not the norm. Between the fatigue and the pain meds it was months before she was able to focus for any length of time. She ended up dropping APcalc and getting Bs in classes she normally wouldn’t. College applications, especially to those lottery schools will take time and energy. If she is stresed as a junior, take that as an indication that she may be underestimating the difficulty of senior year.</p>
<p>Balance the schedule. Balance her life. I’m a high school senior. I am fairly similar to your daughter in terms of course rigor and ECs. My parents demanded that I take an easier schedule senior year. Like her, I wasn’t depressed or anxious, just tired and stressed. I had a similar reaction and was worried that my years of work would be ruined by an easier schedule (in an adcom’s eyes).</p>
<p>At their insistence, I dropped an AP class and have early release this year (I am taking 4 APs - my school sounds very similar to your daughter’s and I think my schedule was on the easier end of the kids vying for ivies at my school this year). I was accepted to Stanford SCEA. Now, I am able to focus more on the classes I enjoy, and I have more free time than I am used to having. It’s great, and I feel more creative than I have since probably sophomore year. One AP is not the end of the world (and I think less important than a sport). I guess parents * are * right sometimes (ugh).</p>
<p>The nice thing is talking about all this. You’ll get it all figured out just because of that.</p>
<p>What is BWRK? And what is a “lottery school”?</p>
<p>BWRK - Bright Well Rounded Kid
Lottery School - A school that’s a crapshoot for everyone, including the top students in the land</p>
<p>Parents used to be proud of their BWRKs, but these days common knowledge is that colleges want “lopsided” kids who have discovered a galaxy, mediated a peace talk or invented an antibiotic.</p>
<p>Lottery schools used to be known as reaches, but now nobody, not even the pole-vaulting valedictorian who founded an orphanage, can consider certain schools within reach.</p>
<p>Bright Well Rounded Kid</p>
<p>And “lottery school” is another name for the most highly selective schools that seem to attract five to ten times as many qualified applicants as they can accept. The feeling is that you can apply but it’s somewhat of a lottery both in terms of your chances of winning, and the feeling that the outcome isn’t really under your control. In terms of financial aid, if you have a low EFC it can also mean a lot of money if it’s a meet need school. Hence, another appropriate use of the word lottery!</p>
<p>crosspost with neurotic :)</p>
<p>My daughter took five her senior year. After it was all over, she said that she would have taken an English elective rather than AP Lit. Lit was an intense course at her school with weekly 3-page papers plus other assignments. She finally told her teacher, whom she loved, that she could work her rear end off for an A or with much less effort, get a B, and that she was going for the B. Then when she went to college, her university only gave credit for one AP English, which she earned junior year.</p>
<p>IMHO, the AP sciences are also among the least likely to earn college credits. Either the school does not accept the science OR the student does not want to skip to the higher level of the toughest science classes.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds like a great kid. The college app season dials up the stress.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking BWRK might stand for “Brainiac White Rich Kid” but then I figured that couldn’t possibly be the case. :)</p>
<p>I think the 5 APs are reasonable. Most of them are no more than a regular class. Adding Honors Physics isn’t. As a matter of fact, I think taking Honors physics is more important than AP Chem. I would go with 4 APs (AB Calc, Gov, Lit, Latin), and honors physics. Then take something artsy like music, art or theater. That’s plenty hard and a nice schedule.</p>
<p>In the public schools around here, kids can take 7 APs and do to jack up their GPAs. At my daughter’s school, they had to be recommended for any AP classes and needed permission to take more than three. Not all APs are created equally.</p>
<p>My d took 7 AP’s her senior year against my advice, including AP physics AB and BC. She coped - learned some great time management skills. She debated which is a time demanding EC. She had a couple of very stressful weeks, but she is the type that rose to the challenge. My younger d would crumple with the pressure. You know your child, I second the suggestions of talking it through with a counselor.</p>
<p>The stress she experienced in her senior year- prepared her well for college. While some of her freshman friends who coasted in senior year where falling apart, she already had developed coping skills.</p>
<p>Congrats on her test scores- she is going to have some great opportunities!</p>
<p>More info is always good. I asked about the sport and the AP classes because the specifics do matter. My kiddos were 3 season varsity athletes and one was a D1 athlete for swimming and diving. She swam and dove year round as well. And her injuries were much less than when she was competing as an elite-level gymnast. (more injuries occur when you are tired and sleep-deprived) Her swim season in high school especially senior year was one she remembers with great fondness. She went on to compete in college in her sports D1 and graduated magna cum laude with a classics major, Latin minor as a pre-med.</p>
<p>I would be hesitant pressuring her to give up swimming at this date. As far as the APs again it is specific to her school and those specific classes. In some high schools there can be a particular AP and teacher who is known to have a grueling class regardless of the subject matter. is that true for any of the APs she is taking? Calc AB is much less than BC. What level Latin? Younger son (DS#2) also a varisty athlete completed 17 APs by senior year and several college level classes including def eq, Spanish 5 and other blah, blah…</p>
<p>So do I think 5 is difficult, depends again on the kiddo. Son was able to score 5’s on his exams but his matriculating uni only allowed so many. He didn’t really utilize them initially but years down the road they came into play again (another story).</p>
<p>But as many parents of scholar athletes know the kids do better (time management-wise) when their sport is in season. They just function better and more efficiently when they are forced to due to practices and meets.</p>
<p>Same son went on to walk-on to his college’s varsity squad freshman year, didn’t want his sport to determine where he went to school…or which sport. He wanted to chose based on academics and then figure out which ECs he wanted to pursue in college after the fact. Opposite of his sister whose decision was based heavily on who was coaching her sport.</p>
<p>have her talk to some current seniors and see what is up with the different teachers she is thinking of taking next year at this time (winter sport). Is the workload ridiculous or within her grasp? Does she want to take those classes or is it just a chore for 1 of them? I was one who advised mine to keep the AP Lit…he wrote the best letters of rec for my kiddos. Or at least that is what the adcomm from MIT (EA) and CalTech said! Helped balance out the STEM recs.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>She does not need 5 APs to be competitive for the top schools. Keep the sport, drop one of the APs. Best of luck.</p>
<p>My son had a similar schedule because it’s what floated his boat. If your daughter wants the AP classes and the sport, and she’s not depressed/anxious, then I say let her go for it. DS ended up with 9 AP classes and 55 transfer credits to the University of Maryland by the time he graduated high school, and he LOVED his AP classes. He was able to handle a schedule that would have overwhelmed many (including his twin sister), but it worked for him. It might also work for your daughter.</p>
<p>His junior year AP courses were AP Calc BC, AP World History, AP Physics B, AP Chem, and AP Latin. His senior year AP courses were AP CompSci, AP Lit, and AP Physics C, and he also took Calc. 3/Diff. Eq. through Catholic University and did a morning internship at the University of Maryland all year for his research practicum.</p>
<p>He was totally chill for the most part and had a blast, but he happens to be a kid who thrives on a ton of challenges and genuinely wanted everything on his own. Even now, he signs up for more than you could imagine, but he’s very calm and content.</p>
<p>I guess I’m just trying to say that you know your daughter. It’s not IMO about what she needs for college but what she wants for her senior year of high school.</p>
<p>And as the parent of two daughters who were varsity HS athletes, senior year is a big one for them in terms of being captain, getting recognition, and generally reaping the benefits of the years of sweat and tears. We loved our senior nights!</p>