Parent of Junior here - Is this year extra bad or is this how it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will ypur kid have 5 total classes with flex period or 6? If 6 total and 5 APs, I wouldn't sweat it. I don't think the flex period will show up (I'm in MCPS, so may be different for you). I do think fewer tha 6 classes total might be noticeable.

My senior has 7 (no flex), but 2 classes are light classes. 3 AP + MVC & DE. It's been fine. Jr. year classes were harder. Admitted early to everywhere they applied, including Ivy.

My '22 took a study hall spring semester of sr year. Should have taken one fall, it was too stressful with 8 classes (different magnet school), sport and college apps. Worked out with great college choices, though. I don't think the amount of classes made a difference, but some of the ones they might have dropped did help "tell the story" for this kid.

There are 7 periods in APS, but AP Science is 2 periods. So, that leaves one elective. I'm not saying AP Gov would put my kid over the top, but I'm just wondering if it makes a difference or if taking regular gov actually puts a non-gov major at a disadvantage. THe advice seems to be to take APs that interest them, but it doesn't seem anyone actually follows that. The norm, at least what I'm hearing form DC's fellow overachieving friends, is take all the APs you can fit in your schedule (who cares about sleep). For sure, the flex period is out. I hate that it's this way for our kids.

Hm. Since he already has a double period, I wouldn't do the flex. That would give him only 5 classes (the double is essentially a class plus flex). If he had a choice between AP Gov and something that really interested him, I'd say go for the latter. He doesn't need 5 APs for AP 's sake (caveat, that I am in MD, so don't know fine print of UVA). But, if the choice is AP Gov or regular Gov, I'd say just do the AP. It's not a hard class in the scheme of things, and the test performance won't matter in terms of admissions. Any other AP he could swap out for something more interesting to him?

This is good advice. I know a lot of kids who substitute AP Stats, AP Psychology, AP Comps Sci, AP Environmental,or AP Macro/Micro Economics for AP Gov

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to realize that your kid looks like a million other kids from the outside. A gazillion kids are taking 5 APs, etc. They. All. Look. The. Same.

So what makes your kid different from the rest? What makes him tick as a human being? What's his thing? Who is he? And you can't mention any numbers, or stats.

X1000 there’s absolutely nothing on a transcript that will make your kid stand out unless they are graduating 3 years ahead of time. Nothing.

The standout items are the things not on a transcript - life lessons, commitment to something, initiative not related to class assignments, etc.

So is this an argument NOT to take all AP classes? Or, do you still need 5 APs to even get a chance to show you stand out?

Depends on your peer group/high school

And your child. My sister decided to limit her daughter’s APs to two a year due to challenges with stress/anxiety, which is below her peer group AP load. Great grades, otherwise average student for activities. She still got into her top school choices and decided on UMiami. Studying accounting and landed great internships.

Can you share other schools that she considered with U Miami? I'm thinking private schools might yield better results that all the big flagships.

I’d suggest ED/EA where you can:

Wake
Northeastern
GW
Syracuse
Santa Clara
Brandeis
Villanova
Tulane
Wake
Pepperdine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to realize that your kid looks like a million other kids from the outside. A gazillion kids are taking 5 APs, etc. They. All. Look. The. Same.

So what makes your kid different from the rest? What makes him tick as a human being? What's his thing? Who is he? And you can't mention any numbers, or stats.

X1000 there’s absolutely nothing on a transcript that will make your kid stand out unless they are graduating 3 years ahead of time. Nothing.

The standout items are the things not on a transcript - life lessons, commitment to something, initiative not related to class assignments, etc.

So is this an argument NOT to take all AP classes? Or, do you still need 5 APs to even get a chance to show you stand out?

Depends on your peer group/high school

And your child. My sister decided to limit her daughter’s APs to two a year due to challenges with stress/anxiety, which is below her peer group AP load. Great grades, otherwise average student for activities. She still got into her top school choices and decided on UMiami. Studying accounting and landed great internships.

Can you share other schools that she considered with U Miami? I'm thinking private schools might yield better results that all the big flagships.

I’d suggest ED/EA where you can:

Wake
Northeastern
GW
Syracuse
Santa Clara
Brandeis
Villanova
Tulane
Wake
Pepperdine

If full pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to realize that your kid looks like a million other kids from the outside. A gazillion kids are taking 5 APs, etc. They. All. Look. The. Same.

So what makes your kid different from the rest? What makes him tick as a human being? What's his thing? Who is he? And you can't mention any numbers, or stats.

X1000 there’s absolutely nothing on a transcript that will make your kid stand out unless they are graduating 3 years ahead of time. Nothing.

The standout items are the things not on a transcript - life lessons, commitment to something, initiative not related to class assignments, etc.

So is this an argument NOT to take all AP classes? Or, do you still need 5 APs to even get a chance to show you stand out?

Depends on your peer group/high school

And your child. My sister decided to limit her daughter’s APs to two a year due to challenges with stress/anxiety, which is below her peer group AP load. Great grades, otherwise average student for activities. She still got into her top school choices and decided on UMiami. Studying accounting and landed great internships.

Can you share other schools that she considered with U Miami? I'm thinking private schools might yield better results that all the big flagships.

I’d suggest ED/EA where you can:

Wake
Northeastern
GW
Syracuse
Santa Clara
Brandeis
Villanova
Tulane
Wake
Pepperdine

Wake is a significantly harder admit than Miami, so weird that you listed it twice. So is NE unless you apply ED1. The rest are probably accurate.

[Anonymous]

it was bad last year too.

Your kid should take the classes they want because they are interested in them. My 2023 kid took 13 AP and 2 college math classes. Perfect grades and near perfect ACT. They were WL and rejected from what I am sure you are considering "top" schools. They enjoyed their HS classes and have no regrets. At a great school for their major and taking full advantage of all the opportunities there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it was bad last year too.

Your kid should take the classes they want because they are interested in them. My 2023 kid took 13 AP and 2 college math classes. Perfect grades and near perfect ACT. They were WL and rejected from what I am sure you are considering "top" schools. They enjoyed their HS classes and have no regrets. At a great school for their major and taking full advantage of all the opportunities there.

Can you name where they landed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to realize that your kid looks like a million other kids from the outside. A gazillion kids are taking 5 APs, etc. They. All. Look. The. Same.

So what makes your kid different from the rest? What makes him tick as a human being? What's his thing? Who is he? And you can't mention any numbers, or stats.

But does 4 APs vs. 5 APs make a difference? If they only take 4, are they not even invited to the table? Or, do they still look the same, but one of them just had more stress senior year?

It doesn't matter. Mine took 6 and didn't crack the top 40.

[Anonymous]

Agree with those who say to take AP Gov. Ultimately, your kid will be assessed against kids in their own school, so what our MCPS kids did isn't very relevant. But AP Gov is easy, it's a core subject, and so in my school at least everyone takes it (you'd look odd if you didn't).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would def opt for 4 APs over 5 in one year and spend the extra time on an interesting ECs. My kids are in MCPS though and I acknowledge that we don’t have that same UVA admissions pressure that tortures Nova kids.
Admissions so far this year at private colleges (largely ED) look really good at our high school. Preliminary data shows UMD admits were way down. I think we’re seeing a continuing thread of state flagships and similar becoming increasingly competitive. I’m guessing the sub top 20 private colleges may be becoming even more interested in full pay DMV kids in anticipation of the cliff.

Let me fix this for you, replace “ful pay DMV kids” with “full pay international,” because need blind schools, which is all of the T20, aren’t allowed to consider full pay status for domestic kids, but are allowed to for international students.

Can we put the cliff nonsense to bed? After several years, the decrease will be a total of 15 percent.

You are wrong. First, by sub t20, I mean lower/“worse” ranked schools. Second, although I wasn’t discussing T20, some of those ARE need blind for international students as well. Eg, Dartmouth, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale. Brown will be starting next year. A couple SLACs as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would def opt for 4 APs over 5 in one year and spend the extra time on an interesting ECs. My kids are in MCPS though and I acknowledge that we don’t have that same UVA admissions pressure that tortures Nova kids.
Admissions so far this year at private colleges (largely ED) look really good at our high school. Preliminary data shows UMD admits were way down. I think we’re seeing a continuing thread of state flagships and similar becoming increasingly competitive. I’m guessing the sub top 20 private colleges may be becoming even more interested in full pay DMV kids in anticipation of the cliff.

Let me fix this for you, replace “ful pay DMV kids” with “full pay international,” because need blind schools, which is all of the T20, aren’t allowed to consider full pay status for domestic kids, but are allowed to for international students.

Can we put the cliff nonsense to bed? After several years, the decrease will be a total of 15 percent.

You are wrong. First, by sub t20, I mean lower/“worse” ranked schools. Second, although I wasn’t discussing T20, some of those ARE need blind for international students as well. Eg, Dartmouth, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale. Brown will be starting next year. A couple SLACs as well.

How exactly am I wrong? It’s widely predicted than any decline in domestic applications at T20 schools will easily be made up in international applications, and somehow even those that offer aid to international students have large percentages of full pay internationals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would def opt for 4 APs over 5 in one year and spend the extra time on an interesting ECs. My kids are in MCPS though and I acknowledge that we don’t have that same UVA admissions pressure that tortures Nova kids.
Admissions so far this year at private colleges (largely ED) look really good at our high school. Preliminary data shows UMD admits were way down. I think we’re seeing a continuing thread of state flagships and similar becoming increasingly competitive. I’m guessing the sub top 20 private colleges may be becoming even more interested in full pay DMV kids in anticipation of the cliff.

Let me fix this for you, replace “ful pay DMV kids” with “full pay international,” because need blind schools, which is all of the T20, aren’t allowed to consider full pay status for domestic kids, but are allowed to for international students.

Can we put the cliff nonsense to bed? After several years, the decrease will be a total of 15 percent.

You are wrong. First, by sub t20, I mean lower/“worse” ranked schools. Second, although I wasn’t discussing T20, some of those ARE need blind for international students as well. Eg, Dartmouth, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale. Brown will be starting next year. A couple SLACs as well.

How exactly am I wrong? It’s widely predicted than any decline in domestic applications at T20 schools will easily be made up in international applications, and somehow even those that offer aid to international students have large percentages of full pay internationals.

How are you wrong? You wrote, “need blind schools, which is all of the T20, aren’t allowed to consider full pay status for domestic kids, but are allowed to for international students.” As explained, you were unaware of the top schools that are need blind for international students as well.
Further, increasing full pay international and full pay DMV kids are not mutually exclusive, though most schools seem to have an idea of what percentage of international students they desire, though they are free to change that. I don’t disagree that many schools will simply increase that percentage of international students, as some already have. If you read the long range plans for the colleges, especially the SLACs, you can sometimes already see how they plan to address the cliff, including increasing higher paying domestic students now. Even for need blind schools. Just because they are need blind, doesn’t mean they can’t adjust their recruitment priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to realize that your kid looks like a million other kids from the outside. A gazillion kids are taking 5 APs, etc. They. All. Look. The. Same.

So what makes your kid different from the rest? What makes him tick as a human being? What's his thing? Who is he? And you can't mention any numbers, or stats.

But does 4 APs vs. 5 APs make a difference? If they only take 4, are they not even invited to the table? Or, do they still look the same, but one of them just had more stress senior year?

It doesn't matter. Mine took 6 and didn't crack the top 40.

Uw Gpa?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Next year is supposed to be a population cliff so it should be easier but who knows? I think the question is will your kid be burnt out or can he handle one more ap class? Probably best to compromise- don’t do flex but also don’t do another ap just to have it especially if he’s not into the subject. is there a class he’s more interested in like at a community college if he’s allowed to cross enroll?

This is incorrect, next year is peak. The decrease won’t start until 2026, and it isn’t really a cliff, more like a very gentle

Knowable information

https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would def opt for 4 APs over 5 in one year and spend the extra time on an interesting ECs. My kids are in MCPS though and I acknowledge that we don’t have that same UVA admissions pressure that tortures Nova kids.
Admissions so far this year at private colleges (largely ED) look really good at our high school. Preliminary data shows UMD admits were way down. I think we’re seeing a continuing thread of state flagships and similar becoming increasingly competitive. I’m guessing the sub top 20 private colleges may be becoming even more interested in full pay DMV kids in anticipation of the cliff.

Let me fix this for you, replace “ful pay DMV kids” with “full pay international,” because need blind schools, which is all of the T20, aren’t allowed to consider full pay status for domestic kids, but are allowed to for international students.

Can we put the cliff nonsense to bed? After several years, the decrease will be a total of 15 percent.

You are wrong. First, by sub t20, I mean lower/“worse” ranked schools. Second, although I wasn’t discussing T20, some of those ARE need blind for international students as well. Eg, Dartmouth, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale. Brown will be starting next year. A couple SLACs as well.

How exactly am I wrong? It’s widely predicted than any decline in domestic applications at T20 schools will easily be made up in international applications, and somehow even those that offer aid to international students have large percentages of full pay internationals.

Agree w/this.

Unless govt starts significantly restricting international admissions, admissions processes /profiles etc are not going back…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it was bad last year too.

Your kid should take the classes they want because they are interested in them. My 2023 kid took 13 AP and 2 college math classes. Perfect grades and near perfect ACT. They were WL and rejected from what I am sure you are considering "top" schools. They enjoyed their HS classes and have no regrets. At a great school for their major and taking full advantage of all the opportunities there.

Can you name where they landed?

UMD which can be difficult admit as well.

Should have mentioned that they are a CS major so that made things harder. There were kids with this same profile non-CS and similar results.

With grade inflation and test optional you just never know what will happen but kids loading up on APs solely for college admissions is a mistake.