My son hated high school. I was his school counselor so I could understand his frustrations as many times, our AP teachers are picked to remove them from classes with state mandated testing (which affects state scoring). So they weren’t always the best at the subject. And our school doesn’t have a lot of high achievers so most AP teachers are one class options only.
He went into our county’s full time dual enrollment program and has THRIVED. He loves it, he’s super happy, he has a friend group of 5 like minded kids and they are like this little high achieving nerding it up group that I am so happy he has.
BUT I don’t know how his DE is going to play out for his long term goals. So if you can, I would stick with AP and only go DE if you have to because options are not good (like my kiddo’s). Even with how it helped him adjust after we moved, sometimes he wonders if he should have stuck it out at the high school.
@Rob2439, I would suggest to pick AP classes in school as your first option. If choices are limited in school then go out for dual enrollment or college courses. My D has tried all of these options and I can say that AP courses taught in school are much more engaging, challenging and a learning experience.
Cousin’s son is on the path to take Latin 4 and AP Spanish 5 Senior Year, but he could switch Latin and take another science course. Which one would seem better, as I know some Colleges like to see commitment throughout HS?
IMO, if your cousin’s son is planning to apply to BSMD and has not taken any of the science AP courses (Physics, Chemistry, Biology ) then, he should take these instead.
For showing commitment, 4 years of Spanish including the AP Spanish during senior year is good.
Does his HS require him to take 2 years of mandatory Latin? If this is a requirement, he must complete this. Otherwise, BSMDs do want to see students taking the highest level of science & math courses available at his HS (or beyond).
If he has completed highest possible science courses and wants to take Latin 4 for fun, by all means he can take it!
@Smilescreen, my D has asked this question to a TCNJ counselor via email and the counselor has said No. Did some other TCNJ counselor told you that they need it?
I have competitive standardized test scores, but my sat subject scores and ap scores are not great. My extracurriculars are also fine for bsmd. If I don’t report sat subject scores or ap scores, will it look bad? My grades are 4.0 uw
@sdsdsdf, dilemma to report or not report scores is a major pain point during this cycle. You can read some previous comments in this thread about what people think is competitive or not so competitive scores to report. People have suggested to send SAT Subject scores if they are >= 760 and AP scores if they are >=4. At the end it is upto you - if you think the scores are fair representation of your academics, send them otherwise leave them out.
@sdsdsdf, you can send/report all/some/none scores (and list them in your common app) that you are comfortable with. You don’t have to send/report all your scores. Same goes for AP scores. Below 760 score will hurt (or at least will not add any value) is the general advice here. My D has taken 3 SAT subject test and we are only reporting ones that she has >=760 scores. For APs, we are reporting that have >=4.
@grtd2010 . Yes, my ACT complements my 4.0, but my sat2 tests were taken in a bad time for me and I was not able to retake them because of the pandemic. I know that’s a bad excuse
@mom2boys1999, did you son applied to both FAU and FAU Wilkes Honors College (and hence got 2 acceptances)? We saw FAU and FAU Wilkes as 2 seperate colleges in CommonApp and just applied to Wilkes College via CommonApp.