Super! You’ve hit it on the head: so many of Oxford students feel same way. Good luck to him. Btw, drop in to the international/UK forum if you have any practical questions- there are lot regular posters who have experience…
I will. Thanks.
Has he been evaluated for executive function issues, or ADHD? A good neuropsych. evaluation would uncover learning disabilities, ADHD is usually diagnosed from a questionnaire, believe it or not. I am not trying to pathologize here. Many gifts students have these challenges, but that doesn’t mean that an evaluation won’t be helpful.
One of mine has ADHD and some other learning challenges. I thought she would love a creative, flexible curriculum but once in college it became clear that she likes classes and curricula that are very well-defined and organized. Online classes are her favorite: everything is right there for you, assignments, discussions, materials.
You might want to consider an accredited online high school, combined with community college classes. Your son sound similar to my 10th grader. My son switched last year, and is currently taking the following classes at community college this semester: Stats online, Oceanography, Earth & Space, and he is taking World History through his online high school. He’ll breeze through stats and world hist, and then he will enroll in additional classes. There is no concern about handing in work, since it is done online, and automatically uploaded. When assignments are mandatory, he can’t skip an assignment and move on; it just isn’t possible.
So even with the issues you mentioned in the OP, which presumable impacted his grades enough that he wasn’t recognized as a top student, he got into super elite colleges. Good for him! Has he gotten better about turning stuff in?
The post I wrote seems a bit misplaced, and I was confused when I looked at the thread, until I looked back at the beginning. Congratulations. It’s great you came back to post so people can see how admissions really does sometimes get it right, and is indeed “holistic.” If there are organizational or attention issues, I am sure they are being looked at but main message is congrats!
Our quirky stem guy caught fire in his junior year and he’s doing well at college. The sophomore year was disorganized. Summer classes at the community college I think were a help. Probably less to roll his eyes about or face palm about there. Also some of the subjects were actually difficult and he had to dig deeper and self organize to succeed.
I think our son was able to get into good colleges, because these colleges were able to see his passion for Stem subjects, teacher recs which show how much he participate in class, and some how could see his heart through a genuine essay. Oxbridge looks at a kids problem solving ability using what he learnt at school, in which he was very good. He was not organized but knew his subject very well. His poor organization did’t cost him much in Jr/sr year, as he was able to choose his favorite subjects and finished his work before even coming home.
I have one of these as well 
following the suggestions with interest for my gifted freshman who is getting a D in French due to not turning in assignments.
We are going to try a homework planning app to keep him accountable. He would rather spend time on homework that interests him than that which does not and it falls away, gets forgotten and we end up where we are now. Not at all due to ability, just organizational and prioritize ruin challenges. We will see if it helps.
Cambridge is his dream school so interesting to see it mentioned more than once here!
My S19 is like this (I wouldn’t say he’s brilliant at anything, but hey, he’s never asked me for help with a math problem!)
He gets mostly As without studying - I think he is doing most of his written HW, but he usually does it at the last second, sometimes forgets about it, sometimes loses it, and will sometimes have a few assignments missing. He only likes math and orchestra. French is probably his worst subject and he’ll stop after the 3rd year (he squeaks out Bs)
Our solution for now is to keep him out of advanced classes in subjects he doesn’t like (English/Social Studies), and that way his laziness/disorganization doesn’t really hurt him that much. If he was having to write essay after essay on topics in which he has no interest, things would probably get ugly. I don’t want to medicate him twice a day for his ADHD, so there has to be a balance and he simply cannot do 4 or 5 hours of homework per night. ( Although he will happily complete an entire unit of honors Geometry HW in one night).
This is a kid with no dream school and little idea what he would want to study, so there’s not a lot of pressure to strive for straight As in the hardest subjects. If things continue like this, I expect him to have an A-/B+ average and probably high test scores. I’m sure someone will take him
eh1234, eandesmom, Both your kids are so much like my like son. He read a lot and talk about history, but cannot get a decent essay on humanities. Foreign language was great until they start to study grammar. So he did the minimum in foreign language, but it brought his GPA down a lot in 10th grade. In Junior year he took level History and English with challenging math/science. Same for senior year. I think the teacher recs may have helped him. He chose a science teacher, whose class he had the opportunity to help other kids. The teachers knew he was good, but never thought much of him, until he got the admission. He knew he was good and frustrated with teachers. Kids these days are really good at playing the game. He would not, but had the last laugh. If you PM me I can help you out with some college suggestions. My heart goes out to you. These kids will do extremely well if they are in the right place.
@bleadingheart thanks. For S19 I really think it’s premature to look at schools. He did not end up with a D in French but there was some triage involved! And while the gpa is I suppose livable for a freshman year, it was not remotely what he is capable of. He has an incredibly difficult course load this year and a busy EC schedule. He has also started ADHD meds and much as we would all have preferred that that wasn’t an issue, they seem to truly help him although it is really too early to say. The school has also instituted a new planner program for grades/assignments and homework that will help him be accountable…assuming teachers adopt it well. They seem to be so far. PSAT will also give an indicator as to where we go with things.
Foreign Language really killed my S17’s GPA but I think that will be pretty clear on his transcripts and hopefully not penalize him too much with his apps. I think we’ve found a solid mix for his brand of quirkiness but we will see how it plays out.
Popping in to add, I do think colleges are more likely to forgive lower grades in foreign languages than other subjects. My youngest was a mostly A- student with the exception of Latin where he never got above a B. He got into some schools we considered real reaches.