<p>Well, I'm so glad they did, and I am sure he was highly qualified. I am not trying to say our high school is better. I am just reporting on what is available, and of course, kids are judged in that context, which is why at our high school it's so important to "follow the rules" and take all these AP's. As I said earlier, his GC was queasy (as were his science teachers) that he followed AP Bio with AP Environmental and not AP Chem. That was the extent of his "rebellion." But the Environmental teacher was new, not his beloved AP Bio teacher and a bit of a martinet. He would have been better off with the AP chem though he did well enough in the class.</p>
<p>I agree it is amazing, even within our county, the hs are different. One does not allow NHS until Jr. year, ours was available to sophomores. Our hs ranks with uw, the other school ranks with w. Ours offers 9 APs, theirs are unlimited b/c they allow self study AP. Now imagine our state univ. trying to determine off of that (UNC Chapel Hill) is even very selective for IS.</p>
<p>What I have learned from the whole process is that the admissions looks at the school profile along side with the transcript, which may attest to why some kids with lower gpa's can get in due to the course load thay take. At our hs, kids state their uw (since rank is based that way) and only 7 miles away at the other hs, they go by their w. It is not uncommon to hear someone say I have a 5.6, and we look at them like they are crazy, but quickly realize that is their weighted gpa.</p>
<p>As for a whole our town has jump start, many of the kids that do it go off to 4 yr, usually in state. I think my DS is the only one of his friends that will be going out of state, he never even apply for any IS colleges.</p>
<p>There are other differences between high schools, too. At our high school, they are not too strict about who can take APs, although you must be recommended by the previous teacher in that subject. But, unlike most other schools, AP students are absolutely required to take the AP test for that subject, whether or not they need the score for college credit. I think the idea behind it is to make sure the students take the classes seriously, but it really doesn't make sense and it is very expensive. For example, my son already scored 5 in his junior AP English class and that earned him the highest possible placement for freshman Writing at his college, so he had no need to take the second AP English test as a senior. But he was required to by our school and we had to pay the $70 or $80 or whatever the fee was at that time. The same situation was true for several of the other AP tests my kids took.</p>
<p>^^J'adoube
The link you provided in post #243, with the deliberations of the Admissions Committee at the University of Chicago, is very interesting. Thanks!</p>
<p>I have a few comments on this link, for anyone else who looks it up:</p>
<p>1) There is internal dissension in the Admissions Committee. Probably no surprise to most readers of this forum, but TRUE, TRUE, TRUE. Can't be emphasized enough. Generally speaking, for private schools, a few applicants are totally clear admits, a few more are clear rejects, but most are cases for discussion.
2) The average age of the Admissions Committee members is 35. Among the readers of this thread who are older than that, is there anyone who hasn't learned quite a lot since that age?
3) If you've raised a child in a suburban area, was the experience what you expected going into it? Did you find your child's friends to be a fairly homogeneous group? (I did not.)</p>
<p>But most importantly, I think if you read this link, you will get the sense that part of the discussion in an Admissions Committee is like a Rorschach test with no inkblots.</p>
<p>I don't mean to suggest that they are a "bunch of maroons," as curmudgeon joked about a different group, on another thread. Furthermore, since this is the University of Chicago, the intellectual level of the discussions is probably "higher than some." But within the constraints of the process, decisions will inevitably be made on partial information--not the applicant's fault, not the recommenders' fault, and not the committee members' either. No more than one year can be spent on decisions, per admitted class.</p>
<p>Uncontrollable, random elements operate. To give a hypothetical example, curmudgeon and I are both (I think?) old fans of the Monkees. So if we were assessing a file from an applicant who had developed a Monkees website, we'd probably think the person had a good sense of humor. And if we were on the committee, trying to persuade other people, we might be tempted to throw around the term "post-modern sensibility" (at least I would--curm might be more straighforward). But someone else might think this was just maroonic.</p>
<p>So, I stand by my comment in #239. The rejection might have been just a mistake--not in the sense of putting the applicant's name on the wrong list, but just misinterpreting the application.</p>
<p>The beauty of the IB Programme (their spelling, not mine) is the standardization of their core classes, so that it puts the different high schools on equal footing.</p>
<p>I think colleges expect you to take the AP test and do well, not necessarily to give you credit, but to check for grade inflation. More money for College Board, though.</p>
<p>There's a lot of politics involved in small schools and as you can see, the students that attend AP schools but are not able to take the classes (not enough room) have not taken the most rigorous course of studies in a school that offers them. Very selective colleges frown on that.</p>
<p>re point #2, post 264:</p>
<p>QuantMech, the average age of 35 is actually somewhat misleading. From what I have seen of admissions committees, there are generally a couple of middle-aged people and the rest are only a couple of years out of college, or even brand-new graduates. Admissions offices think the fresh perspective of a recent student is helpful.</p>
<p>I'm with you, though, in that I do believe a more adult, experienced perspective outweighs "freshness". But, alas, no one has asked my opinion.</p>
<p>Good point, midmo, the age distribution is probably bimodal, and the committee did seem to give a lot of weight to the opinion of a more experienced member, in one of the cases discussed.</p>
<p>J'Adoube - My complaint about the required AP tests relates to the senior year. By that time, kids have already been admitted to college. My son had to take 5 AP tests as a senior, when only 2 of them were needed for college placement or credit. My daughter took 4, and again only 2 were needed. It is a waste of money, and, for those tests, my kids didn't really even care about the scores, although then ended up doing well on them.</p>
<p>You know, articles like that one on the UofC admissions committee ought to be handed out to every senior around this time. </p>
<p>It does a lot to explain certain "Huh? I don't get it" admissions decisions because these are decisions by committee and one vote off can sink an application. The people on the committees are human and they're going to have favorites and push them over equally deserving candidates who don't have anything "wrong" with their app, they just don't have an advocate saying the right things. </p>
<p>The book The Gatekeepers about admissions a few years back at Wesleyan is the same kind of eye-opener. The bend-over-backwards favoritism towards applicants from certain feeder high schools was the most telling detail for me.</p>
<p>QuantMech</p>
<p>Amusing post. My son's essays were quirky enough that they could have been misinterpreted by more mainstream schools. But he only applied to quirky places and they seemed to "get it".</p>
<p>Reading the article makes me wonder what admissions committees were saying about my kid.</p>
<p>We want him. He's awesome! (bethie's son.)</p>
<p>Reading the article makes me sad DS didn't attend UofC since he certainly was heavily vetted there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
When my son got his--thankfully--one and only rejection letter, signed by the well-known admissions dean, I jokingly suggested he put it somewhere safe so he could mail it back to her some day explaining why he was making a large alum. donation to <em>some other</em> school. That plan was ruined when she got fired--oops, make that resigned--a couple of weeks later. Curm's words say it all
[/quote]
Heh, I felt such schadenfreude when she left. :)</p>
<p>OK, reading that Chicago article made me feel better... :) Fit, fit, fit.</p>
<p>We have to pay for AP tests in February, which is early than most kids know where they are attending college - unless you attend one of those high schools where the majority apply ED.</p>