Is dd right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is APUSH considered to be such a top AP? I took it years ago it didn't seem that bad.

When you took it, there was a good deal less US history to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is silly. APUSH isn't a make or break class. It's just one class in a catalog of AP options. It isn't more important than AP Calc or AP Chem or AP Euro. It's just another AP class. There is no "must-have" AP class.

Sure APUSH alone is NBD. Consistently choosing APES over Bio, Chem or Physics, Stats over Calc and HUG over APUSH? There a pattern here. Not one that will matter for many colleges in the 100+ range. But 1-50– rigor matters. And 50-100? Maybe. That’s a mess. As pointed out, WM is in that bracket, with selectivity almost identical to UVA. The new USNWR DEI rankings mean ranking isn’t tightly correlated with selectivity right now. So, it may be possible to get into a school in the 40s, but not the 80s. Applying to Pitt in August might not be a bad decision.

If OP has a UMC unhooked girl, she does need to look at 75% SATs though for targets. 50% become reach-y.

[Anonymous]

It depends on her school.

Admissions officers compare you with other kids at the same school and they tend to look for the APs in 'core' fields (APUSH is one). So if most of the other students applying to the same school and she didn't, it will be a tick against her. On the other hand, maybe she took multivariate calc and they didn't, so it will be a tick in her favor. It's not all or nothing. And it depends on a comparison of what is more or less standard at your school. (At ours, APUSH is definitely 'standard' among those aspiring to top schools.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is silly. APUSH isn't a make or break class. It's just one class in a catalog of AP options. It isn't more important than AP Calc or AP Chem or AP Euro. It's just another AP class. There is no "must-have" AP class.

Sure APUSH alone is NBD. Consistently choosing APES over Bio, Chem or Physics, Stats over Calc and HUG over APUSH? There a pattern here. Not one that will matter for many colleges in the 100+ range. But 1-50– rigor matters. And 50-100? Maybe. That’s a mess. As pointed out, WM is in that bracket, with selectivity almost identical to UVA. The new USNWR DEI rankings mean ranking isn’t tightly correlated with selectivity right now. So, it may be possible to get into a school in the 40s, but not the 80s. Applying to Pitt in August might not be a bad decision.

If OP has a UMC unhooked girl, she does need to look at 75% SATs though for targets. 50% become reach-y.

You already said that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on her school.

Admissions officers compare you with other kids at the same school and they tend to look for the APs in 'core' fields (APUSH is one). So if most of the other students applying to the same school and she didn't, it will be a tick against her. On the other hand, maybe she took multivariate calc and they didn't, so it will be a tick in her favor. It's not all or nothing. And it depends on a comparison of what is more or less standard at your school. (At ours, APUSH is definitely 'standard' among those aspiring to top schools.)

Do they really look at every school's entire student body coursework while looking at applications? It seems so time consuming. Or do you just mean other applicants from the same school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She refused to take APUSH this year. She is now telling me colleges will look down on it and rule her out. She will have taken 7 APs total. She is unsure about major. Do you think she is correct? Not aiming for top 30 schools, top 50 maybe as reaches. Grades are excellent, SAT 1380 (she will likely retake once more)

No idea why you think your DD has any insight into this matter

Frankly, it sounds like maybe she's feeling pressure to attend a top-rank college, and she's (consciouslt or subconsciously) trying to sabotage herself and make excuses to get out of that pressure. I suggest investigating and working on that angle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for kids today. They take 9 AP classes and their parents still panic and fret about their futures. No wonder this generation is so anxious. Please take some deep breaths and relax, OP. Your kid is going to be just fine, if you let them be!

+1000

OP, you need to chill out. It seems your DD is more rational than you. Your kid will have 9 AP, sports, EC’s, a 1350 and you are panicking?

[Anonymous]

No one said to always choose the easier AP classes. HUG and APUSH aren’t even came year classes at our school. A kid who took world/euro (sorry, hug) and plenty of other APs the same year as US history isn’t going to get rejected bc of that one class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for kids today. They take 9 AP classes and their parents still panic and fret about their futures. No wonder this generation is so anxious. Please take some deep breaths and relax, OP. Your kid is going to be just fine, if you let them be!

+1000

OP, you need to chill out. It seems your DD is more rational than you. Your kid will have 9 AP, sports, EC’s, a 1350 and you are panicking?

I think the poster telling me my dd looks like a lazy no-good kid shooting way too high because of the "easy" APs she took really got to me. She's very independent, organized and hardworking, she also takes a class at a local college. Her thought was that she wanted challenging classes but also to do well in them, considering she also has sports and ECs and knew APUSH would create a hurdle to general success. At our school many kids just pack on the APs and get Cs in them, or do great in hard APs but do not do any sports/ECs. I trusted her judgment on this until she questioned it saying maybe schools will mind I didn't do APUSH. I think now I am afraid colleges will reject her based on what that poster thought of her: she's a lazy kid who doesn't push herself. To me she's just a well-balanced kid who knows herself, does very well, not stellar perfect, but very well, in everything she does and she does a lot. To me that is valuable but I guess colleges just want absolute perfect most everything from SAT scores to class rigor. I thought top 100 for sure she could get into places.

[Anonymous]

APUSH will not take her out of contention. That is so ridiculous. This obsession is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for kids today. They take 9 AP classes and their parents still panic and fret about their futures. No wonder this generation is so anxious. Please take some deep breaths and relax, OP. Your kid is going to be just fine, if you let them be!

+1000

OP, you need to chill out. It seems your DD is more rational than you. Your kid will have 9 AP, sports, EC’s, a 1350 and you are panicking?

I think the poster telling me my dd looks like a lazy no-good kid shooting way too high because of the "easy" APs she took really got to me. She's very independent, organized and hardworking, she also takes a class at a local college. Her thought was that she wanted challenging classes but also to do well in them, considering she also has sports and ECs and knew APUSH would create a hurdle to general success. At our school many kids just pack on the APs and get Cs in them, or do great in hard APs but do not do any sports/ECs. I trusted her judgment on this until she questioned it saying maybe schools will mind I didn't do APUSH. I think now I am afraid colleges will reject her based on what that poster thought of her: she's a lazy kid who doesn't push herself. To me she's just a well-balanced kid who knows herself, does very well, not stellar perfect, but very well, in everything she does and she does a lot. To me that is valuable but I guess colleges just want absolute perfect most everything from SAT scores to class rigor. I thought top 100 for sure she could get into places.

You keep saying this over & over despite posters telling you otherwise. So I think you’re manufacturing internal drama. Hopefully you don’t stress your kid out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on her school.

Admissions officers compare you with other kids at the same school and they tend to look for the APs in 'core' fields (APUSH is one). So if most of the other students applying to the same school and she didn't, it will be a tick against her. On the other hand, maybe she took multivariate calc and they didn't, so it will be a tick in her favor. It's not all or nothing. And it depends on a comparison of what is more or less standard at your school. (At ours, APUSH is definitely 'standard' among those aspiring to top schools.)

Do they really look at every school's entire student body coursework while looking at applications? It seems so time consuming. Or do you just mean other applicants from the same school?

They look at the School Profile to determine what classes are available to students and other facts such as class GPA average, range/percentile, average class SAT score, etc. Your child is compared to other kids who applied AND if they took advantage of classes offered (rigor) and their relative rank in their class based on their GPA band and SAT/ACT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

Agree. Getting in BC & Wake now is about like getting in Cornell 8 yrs ago.