Interested in opinions on the subject of “rigor” (ie AP/Honors classes) and especially kids with ADD/LD. My daughter has been in all on-level courses throughout high school. She is predominately an A student. Has not moved to honors/AP due to the incredible amount of time she already puts into her classes to achieve these As. Looking at colleges, everyone talks about “rigor”. Well everyone is not in AP/honors, (if that was the case, most high schools would ONLY offer these classes) and yet the majority seem to go to college. Am I missing something with this whole “rigor” thing? It seems that other parents/teens look down up on the others who do not take all/any honors/AP and think they are less “intelligent” than their high achieving honors/ap teens.Thoughts on this and how to continue to not let this affect my teen?
Yes, I think there is pressure to earn high grades in the most difficult (or rigorous) classes for students, especially those seeking admission to elite schools. Parents and students on CC do seem to focus the number of AP classes and grades in those classes in each term particular term as well as potentially earning college credit for rigorous classes. There are clearly schools with very competive admissions and, considering the posts listing schools that these students apply, they seem to be applying to the same schools. Let admissions departments sort that all out. Students with good grades in honors classes seeking admissions in elite schools, located primarily in the Northeast, is only a portion of college applicants. People often need bragging rights which doesn’t make them bad as much as frustrating to parents of great kids who weren’t all APed.
You are the mother of a great, hard-working kid who earns very good grades. There are specific ideas or steps to transition your daughter into a successful, rewarding college experience.
After the elite schools as taken off the table, the US is full of excellent schools that prepare college students. Some students take the first two years of classes at community colleges and transfer into an institution in a state’s university system. Other students enroll in state schools right after high school. There are many private college around the country that provide great education. There are far more options than limits!
Your daughter may not be admitted into a state’s flagship school or maybe she will. Much depends on her academics such as GPA, class rank, class selection, and so on as well as whether she has fulfilled admissions requirements. The odds of her not being admitted to a state institution when she has very good grades seems miniscule to me. I am referring to state schools because many students attend a state school and receive an excellent education. Further, high schools are more attuned to the admissions requirements of state schools.
I sugest avoiding the need to take remedial classes in college to make up for missing requirements. These classes cost tuition, but don’t count toward college graduation. They may also extend the amount of time needed to graduate.
A large percentage of students enter college under-prepared and assigned to remedial sections, but that can be avoided by class selection in high school. For example, rather than taking a class in business math, she should take algebra. Business math may count toward the number of math classes required, but not cover required content. She wants both the number of classes in an area and the expected content. Your daughter could tackle these more difficult classes in summer school when she won’t have her time involved in multiple classes. She should probably speak with her high school counselor to make sure she is taking the appropriate classes for admissions into state schools without the need for remedial classes.
Look at the breakdown of admits to a particular college by gpa, class rank and test scores. It makes sense for your daughter to enroll in a school where she has a pretty typical profile compared to other students. She is a hard worker but doesn’t need the pressure of taking classes with students who are somewhat better prepared. She needs to be comfortable and challenged, but not feel like school is too hard or time consuming.
Be sure to request accommodations, if your daughter uses them at school for the ACT/SAT. Requests for accommodations are evaluated individually on the basis of documentation so there will be a time component. However, there is no difference in the cost of the testing and scores are not flagged. While you are gathering information to support your daughter’s request for accommodated testing, understand the same documentation requirements are used by college disability services office. Get the paperwork and other information completed while your daughter is in the last two years of high school. That way she can enroll with the disability services, if she chooses, immediately in the first year of college.
There are also some tuition-bearing programs at colleges that help first-year students with LD learn to transition inot college courses. For example, Southern Illinois in Carbondale has such a program. Other schools such as the University of Arizona (SALT program), Southern Methodist (see Altschuler (spelling) Learning Center for good resources), UConn and other schools for more intensive, and fee-bearing, services for students with LD. Loras, a private school in beautiful Dubuque, Iowa has a program for LD students. The University of New England in Portland, Me may still have a program for students with LD. Schools that offer extra tutoring, counseling and all sorts of services, but are often private and expensive and charge extra for unique services. All schools that receive federal monies have disability services offices which is all most kids with LD need.
Hope your daughter finds an excellent school. She is doing well and need not question her likelihood of enrolling in and succeeding in college. Graduates of none-elite schools do very well in this world because they have earned a good education elsewhere.
I am currently a student at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. I have struggled with ADD my entire life and it caused me so much hardship in high school that I didn’t go to college for 4.5 years. Now I am a student ambassador, I have a 4.0, I am an Honors student and PTK member, and I go to the #1 two-year college in the nation. Not to mention, SF has an incredible relationship with UF (80% of Santa Fe AA degree seeking students get accepted into UF) so I am on well on my way to going to one of the best universities in the nation.
I hope she never feels like she is any less capable of accomplishing her goals because of ADD or ADHD. I know that feeling all too well, and when I finally abandoned that thought, I realized my potential. She is already doing so incredibly well and has nothing to worry about. If she keeps working as hard as she does, there is no limit. I am rooting for her and I have 100% faith in her ability to absolutely kill it at any school.
My son is a college soph. He took mostly advanced level college prep classes but not honors or AP. He’s works incredibly hard to get the grades that he does. He went to an excellent high school with many high achieving students. It took a while but DS finally understood that his strengths (art) were different than many of his peers and that it’s pointless to compare himself to them. He’s now in a college where he’s surrounded by students much more like him and he’s very happy. As for the parents of his hs peers - yes, I have gotten looks of pity from some over the years. I sometimes have to remind myself what I’ve told my son all these years.
@handlmom DD is a college freshman with multiple LDs. At her rigorous high school, she took 2 AP’s and decided the amount of time she needed to put into them (much more time than kids without LDs) was not worth it, even though she scored well. She took 5 honors classes, mostly because they were in subjects that were easier for her, and her friends were in them.
Her SAT score was the number one predictor of where she would get into college–she needed merit money, so she applied only to schools where she was in the top 25% of SAT scores (private tutoring with a tutor who understood LDs brought up her scores 200+ points on the old SAT). She had 1 1/2 time on all her College Board tests–including AP, SAT, PSAT, plus use of a computer, because of her LDs. Everywhere she applied used only her “unweighted” GPA for admittance, just coincidentally.
All that said, in her major at a large public university her classes are mostly 4 and 5 unit courses that feel like AP courses, but she is OK so far putting in the hours because she wants the major–for now. She also buffers it with non-major courses that are 1-3 units, and are fairly easy for her, to fulfill her general ed requirements.
There are so many ways to play the college entrance game, and so many ways to get a degree, that you just need to find the right way for your daughter, and not worry about what everyone says you should do. In our case, DD led the way and did what she felt was right for her, regardless of the college chatter around her.
Best of luck.