So, where do kids with this profile end up?
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Anonymous
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Just for fun, I'd love to hear where people's kids with similar profiles have ended up. If my 9th grader continues on his current path, this is likely where he'll be at the end of 12th. If your kid was like this, or you know kids like this, where did they end up?
School: An MCPS high school in Bethesda Classes: 5 years of foreign language, Math through AP stats. AP or IB English and History classes. 4 years of choral music. About the middle as far as level of rigor. Grades/GPA: Mostly A's in the arts, and B's everything else. An occasional C. GPA is 3.7 weighted/3.3 unweighted. SATs: 1740 total, English higher than Math (Note: this is a total guess, that his SATs will be average for the school, given that his grades and MSAs seem to be) Extracurriculars: A nice variety, but nothing that stands out. Plays a varsity sport, but not a starter, involved in the arts but never the star of the show, does some volunteer work but in a support role, not out saving the world. Has worked at jobs that involve some responsibility (e.g. refereeing kids sporting events, lifeguarding . . . ) Other: Really nice kid. The kind that teachers kind of smile and say "Oh, James, he's such a great kid!" but also tell you they wish he'd speak up more because he's so quiet. Has a few core friends but not super popular, not the kind of kid that gets bullied. So, basically a really good kid, average to above average across the board (except maybe personality, he's really super sweet!), no stand out weaknesses or strengths, but with the advantages of a top high school. Where do kids like this end up? If you wanted to push a kid like this a little to strengthen their application chances, what would you push. Try and bring those B's to A's? Push for AP Calc, or AP sciences? Develop strength in an extracurricular? |
Anonymous
| How do his SAT section scores break down? I think I may have your son exactly but in FCPS. |
Anonymous
| Whirl of the helicopter. |
Anonymous
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MCPS high school teacher here. This is going to sound pretty harsh: if he is getting B's and an occasional C now in 9th grade it is going to be increasingly difficult to maintain a 3.7 weighted without dropping down to honors (instead of AP/IB). Also, I find the SAT score prediction suspect because B's and MSA scores aren't a particularly good indicator of successful outcome (and I've seen hundreds of scores and GPAs).
He's good in art, so what does HE want to do? |
Anonymous
| I just sent this kid off to college. She was happy/lucky to get into decent out of state U (similar to Penn State). |
Anonymous
True, if you're kid is still in pre-school. |
Anonymous
The "you're" was an auto-correct. I swear. |
Anonymous
Sorry, I meant that as he'll likely take English and Social Science through AP, but not Science, not that he's taking them now in 9th. I am imagining him finishing high school with a couple of APs in Social Sciences and English (History, Government, since those are his strengths, but not the 10 or 12 APs I hear of some kids taking. Right now he's in honors for Science, Social Studies, and English, but not for math, and too early for it for Spanish (he's in II, honors starts in III). At this point, he's gotten 1 C (out of 28 grades) each year in middle school, in various subjects, and had one C (in math) second quarter of 9th. Everything else has been an A (arts, PE, and some of his English/Social Studies classes) and B's (science, Spanish, math, and some English/Social Science). The SAT scores are totally made up. I am basing them totally on the fact that his scores tend to put him at or somewhat about the 50th %ile for his high school for Math, and slightly above for English, and somewhat higher than that for MCPS as a whole. So I took the average total SAT for his school, and added the part about math being slightly lower than English. It's a total guess. As far as what he wants to do he's been interested in social science kinds of things for ever -- has talked about criminal justice, anthropology, political science, and history as things he'd like to study, and says he wants to work for the government. He's expressed a lot of interest in law enforcement on a federal level -- Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security? He's also expressed interested in jobs that involve international travel. Of course he's also young, I know I changed my mind a million times before I settled on a career. He likes the arts, but isn't interested in an arts career. I think he's more interested in the camaraderie of being in the chorus and the stage crew than loving the art. Same thing for sports, he likes being part of a team and being physically active, but wouldn't want to play at a college level, even if that turned out to be an option. |
Anonymous
OP here, that sounds good to me. |
Anonymous
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If he's still in 9th, I would try to get him to focus on a single interest instead of playing second fiddle in a number of things. Let him shine in something that really interests him.
If he likes to travel, let him. A boy in my SIL's neighborhood just left on a semester-long trek through South America. |
Anonymous
| One of the Georges? Probably GMU? |
Anonymous
OP here, the only way I could imagine him really focusing on a single extracurricular would be if I put some pressure on him, and if I had to do that it wouldn't be something that "really interests him". He's always been that way, happy to dabble in a variety of things but not interested in pursuing one thing intensively. Some of that is his personality, he's kind of shy and happy to be in the background. I don't think he'd actually want to sing that solo, or take that starring role, or deal with the pressure of being starting quarterback. I'd love for him to be able to travel. Our budget is a little tight to allow for semester-long treks for the whole family, and at 14 he's a little young to head off on his own, but we're definitely exploring more affordable ways for him to travel in high school. I can absolutely imagine him studying abroad, taking a gap year to work in another country, or doing something like peace corps. I can also imagine him choosing a career because it let him travel. |
Anonymous
I could see him happy with a GMU type school, although if we're going to pay for out of state tuition, I imagine he'd choose to go somewhere farther away, for a change of experience and a little independent. What other Georges are there? Are you thinking of GW? I imagine we'd see the same issue there -- too close to home. |
Anonymous
| sorry, "a little more independence" not "a little independent". |
Anonymous
| In prison or strung out on coke. |