UVA Admission and "other electives"

[Anonymous]

That UVA rep was just in a zoom for junior parents. What people are saying about core is what she said. I think the exact words were "cover your core" and then use any elective spots to pursue interests.

She also said that there are a lot of people who say they are experts on UVA admission but who don't give good advice.

[Anonymous]

Does taking AP Spanish as a junior count as taking a foreign language all four years? AP Spanish Literature is not offered at DD’s school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does taking AP Spanish as a junior count as taking a foreign language all four years? AP Spanish Literature is not offered at DD’s school

yes for sure

[Anonymous]

I was frustrated that a UVA rep told my son he had to/should strongly consider taking AP Lit senior year even for Engineering. He is taking AP Lang now and has taken an extra English elective in the past. Plenty of humanities electives as well. Even a college DE course seemed like it wouldn’t be looked upon as favorably as AP Lit. He’s not going to take AP Lit and will roll the dice to see if they find his other 12 APs, national awards and other credentials worthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was frustrated that a UVA rep told my son he had to/should strongly consider taking AP Lit senior year even for Engineering. He is taking AP Lang now and has taken an extra English elective in the past. Plenty of humanities electives as well. Even a college DE course seemed like it wouldn’t be looked upon as favorably as AP Lit. He’s not going to take AP Lit and will roll the dice to see if they find his other 12 APs, national awards and other credentials worthy.

I started the thread about AP classes and I’ve heard this about UVA from people who’ve met with admissions staff. What’s not clear to me is whether this is really a UVA specific thing or a position taken by a lot of schools. My kid doesn’t want to go to UVA but everyone is so UVA focused I feel like that gets spread around as gospel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was frustrated that a UVA rep told my son he had to/should strongly consider taking AP Lit senior year even for Engineering. He is taking AP Lang now and has taken an extra English elective in the past. Plenty of humanities electives as well. Even a college DE course seemed like it wouldn’t be looked upon as favorably as AP Lit. He’s not going to take AP Lit and will roll the dice to see if they find his other 12 APs, national awards and other credentials worthy.

If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same for my humanities focused kid - she is excited to take ap lang and lit, all the ap social studies classes, and even ap calculus bc, but she hates hard science and doesnt want to take an ap lab science, but all the advice she has gotten is that she “should” to remain in consideration for competitive (not even ivy league!) colleges. It is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was frustrated that a UVA rep told my son he had to/should strongly consider taking AP Lit senior year even for Engineering. He is taking AP Lang now and has taken an extra English elective in the past. Plenty of humanities electives as well. Even a college DE course seemed like it wouldn’t be looked upon as favorably as AP Lit. He’s not going to take AP Lit and will roll the dice to see if they find his other 12 APs, national awards and other credentials worthy.

You're frustrated that they told you what is competitive in their progress?

Are you really just frustrated that their pool has gotten this competitive? Because I see how frank they are as a good thing in the long run. So many reps tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That UVA rep was just in a zoom for junior parents. What people are saying about core is what she said. I think the exact words were "cover your core" and then use any elective spots to pursue interests.

She also said that there are a lot of people who say they are experts on UVA admission but who don't give good advice.

I was an earlier poster and the rep I talked to was from the Admission Liaison Program. It was a one on one with my DC and she reviewed the transcript and school profile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was frustrated that a UVA rep told my son he had to/should strongly consider taking AP Lit senior year even for Engineering. He is taking AP Lang now and has taken an extra English elective in the past. Plenty of humanities electives as well. Even a college DE course seemed like it wouldn’t be looked upon as favorably as AP Lit. He’s not going to take AP Lit and will roll the dice to see if they find his other 12 APs, national awards and other credentials worthy.

12 is a great # of APs to take. My kid got in last Feb. EA with that many and high test scores. My kid also had two different languages.
IMO, it really comes down to your transcript vs. your classmates' transcripts. It makes for an unpleasant sense of competition, but these kids do seem to be very aware of their positions in the pool.

[Anonymous]

I wake up every day and work a job I hate because it pays me a lot of money. I am not proud of this fact. It is just a fact. I think HS is too early to do things because you need to pay bills or get that promotion or whatever. If my child is a STEM kid and doesn't want to take APUSH then we just cross UVA right off the list (and whatever school). And likewise, the other way if they're strong in the humanities but AP Calc is not for them. These kids are riddled with anxiety at younger and younger ages. HS should be spent taking the hardest classes they can be successful in the subjects they enjoy and they will find the right college. You can do all the things and still not get in where you apply so why bother? Things like taking a 4th year of language is a no-brainer. You already took 3 what is another one? But squeezing a STEM kid into a humanities hole or vice versa doesn't seem worth it to me. Focus on your child enjoying their youth and getting an well rounded education (4 years of core subjects) but they don't all have to be AP classes. Honors is ok and you will find a college who says so.

[Anonymous]

I understand that "more" is always better. However, I also can clearly see that based on the last 10 years of Naviance history at my kids public VA high school, a certain GPA with a decent SAT gets kids admitted, even if kids take different combinations of classes to get to that GPA.

My kid took two languages in high school which hurt his GPA since that meant he was not taking as many AP classes as some of his classmates, but he was still admitted. I know other neighborhood kids who didn't take a language junior/senior years or who took AB calc or AP stats, and were still admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand that "more" is always better. However, I also can clearly see that based on the last 10 years of Naviance history at my kids public VA high school, a certain GPA with a decent SAT gets kids admitted, even if kids take different combinations of classes to get to that GPA.

My kid took two languages in high school which hurt his GPA since that meant he was not taking as many AP classes as some of his classmates, but he was still admitted. I know other neighborhood kids who didn't take a language junior/senior years or who took AB calc or AP stats, and were still admitted.

This is what I have been trying to say as well, my kids did not take a specific slate of classes to get into UVA. They took what they wanted, which was diverse set of APs, music, language and a free period... and still got in because they had the GPA needed and scores that were acceptable. There's not much more science to it with UVA. Its about GPA/class rank and having everything else in good measure as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wake up every day and work a job I hate because it pays me a lot of money. I am not proud of this fact. It is just a fact. I think HS is too early to do things because you need to pay bills or get that promotion or whatever. If my child is a STEM kid and doesn't want to take APUSH then we just cross UVA right off the list (and whatever school). And likewise, the other way if they're strong in the humanities but AP Calc is not for them. These kids are riddled with anxiety at younger and younger ages. HS should be spent taking the hardest classes they can be successful in the subjects they enjoy and they will find the right college. You can do all the things and still not get in where you apply so why bother? Things like taking a 4th year of language is a no-brainer. You already took 3 what is another one? But squeezing a STEM kid into a humanities hole or vice versa doesn't seem worth it to me. Focus on your child enjoying their youth and getting an well rounded education (4 years of core subjects) but they don't all have to be AP classes. Honors is ok and you will find a college who says so.

Completely agree!! I have a humanities kid, so Stats was as far as she went in math. However, she took five years of French, to the AP level, and all AP humanities classes. Did not get into UVA. Oh well. At least she didn't give herself an ulcer trying to master calculus for absolutely no reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand that "more" is always better. However, I also can clearly see that based on the last 10 years of Naviance history at my kids public VA high school, a certain GPA with a decent SAT gets kids admitted, even if kids take different combinations of classes to get to that GPA.

My kid took two languages in high school which hurt his GPA since that meant he was not taking as many AP classes as some of his classmates, but he was still admitted. I know other neighborhood kids who didn't take a language junior/senior years or who took AB calc or AP stats, and were still admitted.

This is what I have been trying to say as well, my kids did not take a specific slate of classes to get into UVA. They took what they wanted, which was diverse set of APs, music, language and a free period... and still got in because they had the GPA needed and scores that were acceptable. There's not much more science to it with UVA. Its about GPA/class rank and having everything else in good measure as well.

Agree. I think things like language classes only matter in marginal cases. You can see on Naviance everyone with 4.5 GPA and high enough SAT gets admitted to UVA. Doubt everyone of them took 4 years of language. You can see not everyone with 4.3 GPA gets admitted so things like years of language may become a differentiator. Also if you overload yourself and take classes you hate you may end up with a lower GPA, which probably hurts your chances more than anything else

[Anonymous]

What is the unweighted for a 4.5 GPA?