Realist - Is it possible?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I am a parent of a HS junior. When she signed up for AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP US History as a sophomore last year, I was ecstatic and not only supportive but very encouraging. What I did not realize at the time, was AP Chem required advance level math understanding which she did not have. She passed with A & A in APUSH, B & A in AP Bio, and B & C in AP Chem in 1st and 2nd semesters respectively ... and with 4,4,3 in AP exams. She struggled in AP Chem throughout the year.</p>

<p>As a junior this year she is taking AP English Language, AP Spanish 5, AP US Gov, HP PreCalc/Calc A andn HP Marine Bio ... she is taking classes for AP Economics but is not officially enrolled in that class (hence, no school grade) since there was some mixup upon enrollment and after 2 weeks of school she was disenrolled to accomodate a senior wanting to take that class which was otherwise full. She requested her teacher the permission to sit in the class for no grade which her treacher granted. She plans to take the AP Econ exam in May.</p>

<p>In her senior year she is scheduled to take AP English Literature, AP Calc BC, AP Psychology, AP Physics, an ROP class and either yoga, dance or PE (she has to have one more year of PE as high school graduation requirement)</p>

<p>My questions are:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Should she also enroll in AP Econ next year to get school credit (GPA) for the course? She loves the subject and is getting all As in the class. Having taken this class all year as a junior already, she won't have to study much for it in senior year.</p></li>
<li><p>Should she retake AP Chem exams to hopefully boost her 3 to 4 or 5? (which will be extremely difficult since she took the course last year)</p></li>
<li><p>With ROP and yoga/dance, will her senior year course load look less rigorous? (every body says that senior year rigor was important)</p></li>
<li><p>She aspires to attend either UCLA or Stanford as undergrad or UCSD as BS/MD student. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>She has not taken SAT yet. SAT II taken as soph last year stands Bio 680, Chem 640, and APUSH 690</p>

<p>I still regret not talking her out of taking AP Chemistry last year.</p>

<p>Can anyone comment on her current standing and her ambitions? Are her plans realistic/achievable?</p>

<p>Her current HS GPA is 3.7 with likeliness of going up a notch at the end of 2nd semester 11th grade.</p>

2

<p>based on what my D experienced this year with applications, I would say UCLA maybe, Stanford unlikely and UCSD likely. My D didn’t apply to any of those schools BUT we did visit them all and researched them. Your D’s stats seem similar to mine and the above assessment is based on what I think would have happened if my D applied to those.</p>

3

<ol>
<li><p>I see no point in taking Econ unless she does poorly on the AP exam, which shouldn’t happen if she has been getting A’s.</p></li>
<li><p>AP Chem - probably not, since there is no guarantee she will do better this time around.</p></li>
<li><p>Schedule looks challenging enough now. Focus on getting high SAT/ACT scores.</p></li>
</ol>

4

<p>Was the Econ class AP MacroEcon or AP MicroEcon or both? I would contact her school and see if they will allow her credit toward HS graduation for passing the AP exam, even though she wasn’t enrolled in the class. Are you in CA? If so, she needs a semester of Econ credit in order to graduate. If the HS will not allow her credit for passing the AP exam, consider taking a community college class instead of just repeating the HS class. Just make absolutely sure that she fulfills whatever credit requirement she needs toward HS graduation!</p>

<p>Colleges understand that kids need to take certain classes (PE, non-college-level health) as HS graduation requirements, and do not penalize the kids for having a lighter schedule because of that. My D2012 left her second PE class for senior year because she wanted to have a non homework class just for fun, and that has worked out great. She’s in a Total Fitness class with a bunch of her friends and they use the gym machines together, or run together around the track, and it’s a fun social hour and stress-reliever for them.</p>

<p>UCLA and Stanford have both gotten incredibly difficult for admissions – up there in crap shoot territory, even for very good students. The UCSD BA/MD program is even more selective. All are admirable goals, but make sure she has likely-admissions colleges that she likes, too.</p>

5

<ol>
<li><p>It sounds to me like she could be bored silly and it’d only be to somewhat game the system GPA-wise. It seems that her time would be better spent on another course. I guess it’s too late now but they should have ‘made room’ for your D in the econ course. Edited after seeing the above post - good advice - maybe there’s an AP econ related course that’d suit her better. Maybe she has some online options through the school if they don’t have the actual course (not as good but something to consider). Taking the AP econ test is still a good idea though since it may count for some credits in college and get her out of a lower level course.</p></li>
<li><p>No. There’s nothing wrong with a 3 - that’s still passing the test. Depending on where she attends and what her major is either the 3 will be adequate for getting out of a chem course in college or they might not let her skip any regardless of the score if that’s her major.</p></li>
<li><p>It may look less rigorous. I don’t know what effect it’d have though other than possibly on her GPA if she’s taking it instead of another AP. I don’t think these colleges necessarily expect 100% APs senior year (although admittedly, that’s what mine had).</p></li>
<li><p>It’s hard to say how it’ll go with the colleges you mentioned since it comes down to GPA, SAT/ACT, and ECs. Make sure when you calculate the GPA for the UCs you do it according to the ‘UC GPA’ formula which doesn’t include certain courses, like PE, and allows a maximum of only so many AP courses for the extra points. Your D’s UC GPA may be higher than the 3.7 you mentioned. You should consider Stanford as one of those unpredictable colleges for admissions, much like the ivies. UCLA and UCSD aren’t totally predictable either and aren’t that easy to get into. If she can make it into UCLA then she likely has about an equal shot at UCB if she’s interested. The stats of the admitted students to UCLA and UCB are almost the same. The stats for students admitted to UCSD isn’t far behind. Make sure she includes some matches and safeties in her college apps as well.</p></li>
</ol>

6

<ol>
<li>Was the AP Econ micro, macro, or both? If it was micro or macro, can she self-study for the other? If it was both, she will probably be very bored taking the course again, and doesn’t seem like it would give her much benefit.</li>
<li>I think it’s not a good gamble taking the AP Chem exam again- to get higher than a 3, she’d have to do a great deal of review, taking away from review time for her other 3 AP’s this year, plus you’ll be paying an extra $85 for something she likely won’t achieve. </li>
<li>Good schedule, but would be a tad better if she added another class. Question, what is ROP? Consider adding another AP- stats, world history, euro, comparative government, environmental, etc. Or maybe an elective science? Some schools offer anatomy or sports and exercise science.</li>
</ol>

7

<p>Four APs senior year would be sufficiently challenging for most selective universities. Her ultimate GPA and rank (if your school ranks) will also be important. Places like Stanford are so selective there is no way to predict who will get in and who won’t.</p>

8

<p>If she wants to go the pre-med route she will need to be able to do the chemistry eventually. Her AP score won’t matter because she can’t avoid taking it again for pre-reqs but she will actually need to be able to understand the content the next time around.</p>

9

<p>My son had wonderful admissions results with a 2 in AP lLatin which he Trojan as a junior. He got a 3 as a senior (different class) but that result came in after acceptances. Don’t worry too much about AP’s.</p>

10

<p>ROP stands for Regional Occupational Program.</p>

<p>During last 3 summers, among some camps etc, she took community college courses in 2 summers (Bio in 8th grade summer and World History in 9th grade summer) and took couple of arts and photography courses (letter graded and transferable … although she does not intend to do arts as under grad) at an accredited degree granting arts institute.</p>

<p>ECs, from parental perpective, are strong … but may be just average from admission officer’s perspective. Couple of elected positions, bunch of leadership and volunteer activities with local non profits and hospitals going back 3-4 years.</p>

11

<p>AP Econ, at her school, is a combo of both macro and micro, hence students will be taking both macro and micro AP exams next month.</p>

12

<p>Thank you guys for responding. Despite of how much I dread playing this “admission game” -and it is indeed a game-, as a parent I can’t afford to not be fully informaed about how system works.</p>