Not all high school good grades are equal at selective universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Are you arguing that so many kids in AP Chem/History/French have a parent with a PhD in Chem/History/French that this is actually a significant problem in every AP Chem/History/French class? Please don't give me "this is the DC area" because I have kids in magnets here and I haven't seen the problem to the extent you're worried about.

Still waiting for an answer to this one. Where on earth does PP's sister teach, where such a huge percent of every class has PhD parents who are doing their kids' AP projects? Honestly, I doubt PP even has a sister who teaches.

[Anonymous]

You shouldn't doubt, previous poster. My kid at a DC private gets help in nearly every subject, either from me, my wife or a tutor. Including for AP exam prep, SAT prep, etc. Seems like I pay more for tutoring than the actual cost of tuition. I KNOW that most of the other kids do the same thing. In subjects that the parents don't have expertise in, the kid gets a tutor. It's not necessarily a PhD parent, but if you and spouse had different majors, you most likely can "cover" 2 or 3 of the 5 prime subjects. So the kid only needs a tutor for 2 subjects. Great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't doubt, previous poster. My kid at a DC private gets help in nearly every subject, either from me, my wife or a tutor. Including for AP exam prep, SAT prep, etc. Seems like I pay more for tutoring than the actual cost of tuition. I KNOW that most of the other kids do the same thing. In subjects that the parents don't have expertise in, the kid gets a tutor. It's not necessarily a PhD parent, but if you and spouse had different majors, you most likely can "cover" 2 or 3 of the 5 prime subjects. So the kid only needs a tutor for 2 subjects. Great!

Thanks... geez I can't believe other parents don't know this.

My brother paid $250/hr for a SAT and Calculus tutor. I went into the wrong business, I have a Masters in Math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't doubt, previous poster. My kid at a DC private gets help in nearly every subject, either from me, my wife or a tutor. Including for AP exam prep, SAT prep, etc. Seems like I pay more for tutoring than the actual cost of tuition. I KNOW that most of the other kids do the same thing. In subjects that the parents don't have expertise in, the kid gets a tutor. It's not necessarily a PhD parent, but if you and spouse had different majors, you most likely can "cover" 2 or 3 of the 5 prime subjects. So the kid only needs a tutor for 2 subjects. Great!

What is your plan for college? I think you may be setting your child up for failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't doubt, previous poster. My kid at a DC private gets help in nearly every subject, either from me, my wife or a tutor. Including for AP exam prep, SAT prep, etc. Seems like I pay more for tutoring than the actual cost of tuition. I KNOW that most of the other kids do the same thing. In subjects that the parents don't have expertise in, the kid gets a tutor. It's not necessarily a PhD parent, but if you and spouse had different majors, you most likely can "cover" 2 or 3 of the 5 prime subjects. So the kid only needs a tutor for 2 subjects. Great!

I'm the PP you're responding to, and I don't doubt that you have tutors or help your kid yourselves. We do that too! We've hired tutors and we've helped our kids study.

The issue is PP's claim that parents are doing kids' projects FOR them, also that this is so endemic that it has forced teachers to flip their classrooms (kids watch video lectures at night and do the projects in class). I think most responsible parents understand that there's a fine line between helping your kid study (tutors, you) and actually doing the work FOR him. And most parents understand that the latter is bad because it's dishonest (kid is graded on parent's work) and also because it sets your kid up for failure in college. I don't doubt that a handful of parents are writing their kids' papers, but I disagree with PP that the problem is so widespread that teachers are flipping their classrooms just to get away from these legions of parents. There might be good reasons to flip the classroom, but I disagree this is "the" reason.

[Anonymous]

17:37 again. Also, if simply hiring tutors is seen as the problem (and as I said, then I'm guilty too), then flipping the classroom is not going to change this. People will still hire tutors to prep Larla for test day.