<p>Certainly I know that if you cannot score > 700 on a SAT II then it will hurt.
If you look at my other posts I did mention this as a reason to drop the idea for my daughter to take SAT II spanish lanuage.</p>
<p>But She will have to have SAT II history and will have to do good on it if she wants to apply to top schools (specially Ivies). There is not going to be any comporomises their.</p>
<p>ParentofIvyHope -- sounds like you have a good plan for your daughter. Did the school really only suggest 2 years of any social science? or just history? That sounds awfully light on the social sciences -- but that is my kid's strength. I will caution you that an extra year of AP Euro History isn't going to make you d that competitive against kids who really shine in humanities -- my son will have more than 12 high level social science classes on his transcript -- including classes taken at community college, Harvard and another top LAC plus his ECs. That is really his area. Now in science and math, I am sure your daughter would have a similiar story. That is what I mean by not being able to be at that level in all areas -- there just isn't time.</p>
<p>hudsonValley51: I think you misunderstood my posts. </p>
<p>The question is whom will top schools take.</p>
<p>Student A : SAT II MATH IIC, SAT II Chem, SAT II History</p>
<p>Student B: SAT II History, SATII Spanish, SAT II Language</p>
<p>Student C: SAT II MATH IIC, SAT II Chem, SAT II Physics</p>
<p>Suppose all three students have similar score and other stats.</p>
<p>As far as my analysis go Student A comes out to be winner.
Take your guess.</p>
<p>Parent... -- (your name just gets too long to type!) -- what SAT II tests is your d planning on taking? Will she also take the AP class/test for that subject?</p>
<p>My son's science quandry is that in the IB diploma program you pick your classes going into 11th grade -- and then you take them for 2 years. He can take 3 HL classes and 4 SL classes. He has to take one math and one science (of course) but the rest will be humanities and social sciences. he really wants to take enviro studies -- so hopefully he isn't making a bad choice. He has decided that he will pursue the studies that interest him and then apply to colleges where he fits.</p>
<p>also -- has your d taken AP World History? if not -- I have heard that kids who take AP Euro and feel that they have a good grasp of the knowledge can do a little more studying and take the AP World History test and do very well.</p>
<p>Parent -- as to who would top schools pick, I think they would pick the student who shows a clear passion -- whether that is science or humanities. If that student had ECs to back up their interest (and I mean good EC, not just a club) I think the passionate student would be selected over the balanced student.</p>
<p>hsmomstef: No my daughter plans to take AP Phychology, AP Macro/Micro Economics at school.
She doesn't have any plans to take courses during the summer or at community college as her school pretty much offer all the possible courses that I could think of.</p>
<p>Her present Sophomore Schedule is
Hons. English II , Spanish III
AP Euro
AP Chem
AP Calc BC
AP Comp Sc
She already took SAT MATH IIC (didn't score 800 but close), She will take SATII Chem in June (she hopes to score > 750).
Next Year
AP Stat
AP US History
AP Bio
AP Physics C
AP Environ Sci
AP Language
The school doesn't offer AP Enviro Sc in 10th grade so we are still discussing it and AP lanuage is not taken as class but Hons. English III at her school is considered sufficient to take AP Language.
She will take SAT II History, Bio, Physics next year.</p>
<p>She has not decided about her senior year yet.</p>
<p>We are still debating as the course load is too much. If she doesn't do well on her 4 APs this year we may ask her to cut down APs for the next year.</p>
<p>If she does well this year, we will let her go with her plan for next year.</p>
<p>From Parent......</p>
<p>"The question is whom will top schools take.</p>
<p>Student A : SAT II MATH IIC, SAT II Chem, SAT II History</p>
<p>Student B: SAT II History, SATII Spanish, SAT II Language</p>
<p>Student C: SAT II MATH IIC, SAT II Chem, SAT II Physics</p>
<p>Suppose all three students have similar score and other stats.</p>
<p>As far as my analysis go Student A comes out to be winner.
Take your guess. "</p>
<p>This is a good illustration of where I think that you are getting some bad information. The first and most important factor is that the student score well on the SAT IIs. Assuming good scores on all, each of these students would do absolutely fine relative to one another. Student A has nice breadth. Student B has obvious talent for the humanities/social sciences and Student C is a math/science fiend. Each one of these students is impressive and each would be equally well-regarded. SAT IIs are just one, relatively small, part of the pie (Chicago doesn't even require them)--they support the bigger picture. And yes--parents are crazy overthinkers! People ought to relax a little. We're gonna drive our kids bonkers.</p>
<p>nimby58: Can you suggest a better combination for my daughter for her Junior year. I listed her present course schedule.</p>
<p>Do you think she need to change it? Her interests is Science and she wants to go into medicine but is interested in Comp science too.</p>
<p>My take is for her to do undergraduate in Comp Science with minor in Pre med and then do medicine if she is still interested.</p>
<p>Hsmomstef - my son was accepted to H and P this year with 3 SAT II -MathII, Literature, History. Don't overthink it - let him take the ones he will get the best score on.</p>
<p>ParentOIH--it looks to me as if your D is taking a very rigorous courseload--which is very important for her college aspirations. The only thing that you might consider is the 4th level of a foreign language. But to evaluate this better, you might go to the College Board website and search out the schools in which she might be interested and look at what they list as their preferred preparation. Some examples--Harvard and Princeton like to see 4 units of a foreign language, Stanford is okay with 3, MIT says 2 and Cal Tech doesn't even list it. (The CB site can be a little off, so you could compare this with the school's own site). </p>
<p>It might be that your D will not deviate from her career aspirations and may look for a program that is mostly concerned with math/science preparations. But it is not uncommon for students to shift direction and, if she decides to look at schools that value foreign language as part of their distribution requirements for liberal arts, they really like to see that 4th level of preparation.</p>
<p>nimby58: My daighter and I are aware of the 4th year of FL (spanish).
She was suppose to take AP Spanish in her Junior as per her planning but she moved to Hons. Spanish II in her 9th grade after just 8th grad eof spanish(her first spanish class) which is only equivalent to 0.5 of Spanish I.
She had hard time maintaining an A-. But she still enrolled into an Hons. Spanish III during the Sophomore year but soon realize that Spanish III Hons. at her school is very tough so She changed it to regular Spanish III.
If she had done well on Spanish III Hons., she would have gone for AP Spanish in her Junior year.
Now she cannot take AP Spanish and she is afraid to take even 4th level Spanish (regular) next year.
We are trying to persuade her to at least take Spanish IV in her senior year.</p>
<p>As far as her schedule -- it looks good. tough, but good -- she is clearly a math and science person.</p>
<p>I would also push for the 4th year of language -- I have read some posts by kids that didn't do a 4th year and wondered if that was the reasons they didn't get into whatever college they were trying for.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about having her take AP Enviro Sci. I have heard that the class tends to be a ton of work -- and the AP test is suppposed to be one of the easier ones. Plus -- most schools do not consider the AP Enviro Sci on the same level as the other, tougher APs and many schools that give credit for AP classes will not grant credit for it.</p>
<p>I don't know where she goes to school -- but if she were my child, I would see if there were other courses that would highlight her interests rather than just taking all the AP classes. Does the school offer any further courses in the medical or computer science area? or any other science she might be interested in? I am thinking of classes like anatomy, Marine biology, etc. I think those would better reflect her interests than AP Enviro Sci on her transcript (unless she is really into ES, like my son).</p>
<p>As far as Spanish -- have you considered a Spanish program in the summer? Even a short time of immersion makes a really big difference when learning a language -- and it can really motivate a student to continue on.</p>
<p>School does offer Human Anatomy and Physiology(1 year), which she is hoping to take. She may take Organic Chemistry (1 sem). but she would like to strengthen her self in Humanities so she is planning AP Psychology and Economics (Macro/Micro).</p>
<p>What other Humanities courses your Son has taken? </p>
<p>Do you suggest that she should go more deep into sciences in her Senior years? She is planning to take a research course in her Junior year if she won't take Env. Sciences.</p>
<p>I think I should shut off mu computer my daughter is leaning over to read posts and not concentrating on her AP Calc Exams tomorrow.
I took day off as my wife couldn't but my daughter is not concentrating. Maybe tomorrow I post more.</p>
<p>Parent -- I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone -- I think my son has picked the right SAT II tests for him, he is sticking with those three.</p>
<p>you do not need more than 3. there is also no magic formula for which SAT IIs to take...I have friends who did math and then 2 humanities, or math and two sciences...and it really didn't make a difference. The point is to play up his strengths, so go with that!</p>
<p>Here is a link to a definitive listing of how many SAT II's various colleges require/ suggest. None require more than 3.
<a href="http://www.compassprep.com/admissions_req_subjects.aspx?sort=requirements%5B/url%5D">http://www.compassprep.com/admissions_req_subjects.aspx?sort=requirements</a></p>
<p>great link, menloparkmom -- just what I was looking for. It looks like 3 will do the trick!</p>
<p>I have to chime in with those who counsel against over-thinking. my S was accepted to Columbia without a science SAT 2, and he had indicated he was thinking of an astronomy major!</p>
<p>He ultimately took 4, because of score issues, and in the end, he only had 2 over 700.</p>
<p>I really don't think that SAT 2's play a major role in college acceptance. I think there is a lot of danger in getting caught up in a testing arms race which really shouldn't be the focus for a student, at least in my eyes.</p>
<p>In fact, I think pressuring him to take them if he doesn't want to does more damage.</p>
<p>Edit: And my S only had three years of HS language, too.</p>
<p>garland -- thanks for the info.</p>
<p>the score is one of the things I was wondering about -- if the rest of his application is very strong, what kind of scores are they looking for?</p>
<p>He is shooting for 3 tests with scores of 700 or higher and that seems reasonable to me, if a couple of tests are at the 680/690 range I still think it won't be an issue -- but I just don't know.</p>
<p>Of course, I know what the advice will be -- the higher the scores the better, but he hates the pressure and hopes the best he can do will be good enough. He is willing to do some review and some test prep -- but he refuses to spend weeks prepping for a standardized test.</p>
<p>I gave him the option to wait on taking the English Lit test -- I was thinking another year of English lit (he is taking IB English HL, first year -- next year in school) would probably help -- so he is probably just going to be taking the SAT II US History test. One thing going for him -- he memorized facts and figures easily, so I think he should do well -- and a good score would give him more confidence in future tests.</p>