My senior is taking 7 AP classes and will graduate with 17 total

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP courses don't impress me -- even burnout losers are enrolled in APs these days. Tell me your kid is banging out 4s and especially 5s on the actual exams -- that's impressive.

My Senior had only taken five AP exams by the end of Junior year, but had earned only 5s on all of the exams which included AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP English Language, AP Spanish, and AP US History. They took an additional three designated AP courses in Senior year, all in the Sciences, with the same results.

I personally think it is not important how many AP courses or exams a student takes, beyond some certain threshold (let's say five or six APs). What I think is more important is that the student score well on those AP Exams they do take (preferably 5s), and that those courses reflect either a strength in one area like the Humanities or the Sciences, or else (as in the example above) general overall strength in a number of areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

What do you recommend? Is there a "good enough " number of APs that in conjunction with good SAT scores and good GPA and decent ECs will help him with college admissions at a top 30 college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP courses don't impress me -- even burnout losers are enrolled in APs these days. Tell me your kid is banging out 4s and especially 5s on the actual exams -- that's impressive.

only 4s/5s for all 15. does that make the cut?

NP here. Not for me. I couldn't care less. I find the scholarly bragging by anyone to be vile and tasteless.

I've no skin in the game as my kid is in ES. But, seriously, you're disgusting.

Well, yes, just wait. I was not thirsty until I reached the desert either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

What do you recommend? Is there a "good enough " number of APs that in conjunction with good SAT scores and good GPA and decent ECs will help him with college admissions at a top 30 college?

Five or six, please see my previous post above your posted question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP courses don't impress me -- even burnout losers are enrolled in APs these days. Tell me your kid is banging out 4s and especially 5s on the actual exams -- that's impressive.

only 4s/5s for all 15. does that make the cut?

NP here. Not for me. I couldn't care less. I find the scholarly bragging by anyone to be vile and tasteless.

I've no skin in the game as my kid is in ES. But, seriously, you're disgusting.

Well, yes, just wait. I was not thirsty until I reached the desert either.

LOL. I like that. True so true...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP courses don't impress me -- even burnout losers are enrolled in APs these days. Tell me your kid is banging out 4s and especially 5s on the actual exams -- that's impressive.

only 4s/5s for all 15. does that make the cut?

NP here. Not for me. I couldn't care less. I find the scholarly bragging by anyone to be vile and tasteless.

I've no skin in the game as my kid is in ES. But, seriously, you're disgusting.

Well, yes, just wait. I was not thirsty until I reached the desert either.

LOL. I like that. True so true...

Thank you! A nice compliment always makes my day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP courses don't impress me -- even burnout losers are enrolled in APs these days. Tell me your kid is banging out 4s and especially 5s on the actual exams -- that's impressive.

only 4s/5s for all 15. does that make the cut?

NP here. Not for me. I couldn't care less. I find the scholarly bragging by anyone to be vile and tasteless.

I've no skin in the game as my kid is in ES. But, seriously, you're disgusting.

ignorance is bliss, pp. you will find out soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

What do you recommend? Is there a "good enough " number of APs that in conjunction with good SAT scores and good GPA and decent ECs will help him with college admissions at a top 30 college?

Five or six, please see my previous post above your posted question.

Thanks for your response. Since he is planning to take 6 AP exams in mostly non science subjects perhaps this is good enough as long as he earns 5s. We just wanted to avoid having him self study for AP exams on top of trying to do well in his demanding magnet courses. His cousins at top privates don't take AP exams because colleges recognize the rigor of their coursework. Perhaps I am naive in assuming colleges will be equally aware of the rigor of Blair's science and math magnet classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

What do you recommend? Is there a "good enough " number of APs that in conjunction with good SAT scores and good GPA and decent ECs will help him with college admissions at a top 30 college?

I am the pp you are responding to... Based on our experience of going thru the college app process 3 times, there's no such thing as "good enough" as far as top tier (even top 30 schools) schools are concerned. Unless you have hooks, you are "expected" to have excellent stats, excellent test scores, excellent EC...etc. Even with all that, nothing is certain. All being equal, having less APs than your classmates will look your DC not as strong as other kids. Again, for top tier schools, it may not matter. Where it matters, however, is consideration for merit scholarship from the next tier schools like UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

+100 It's all about how you rank within your cohort

It's been said a zillion times. If you want to win the race move to the middle of nowhere and your kid will have a sane schedule be valedictorian and have a much better shot of getting into an elite school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay that's ridiculous. And I have a kid at TJ, so I have an incredibly high threshold for iridiculous.

My kid graduated from TJ recently and there are good number of TJ students graduating with 15-18 APs and post APs.

That's BS, and there is no way your kid graduated from TJ recently, or you would understand that that is not how the curriculum works. TJ teaches a lot of classes at the AP level, but does not offer the class as an AP (Foundations of CS, 10th grade world history, Geosystems, Physics 1, Research Stats), And it adds in a lot of extra requirements to graduate that are not offered as APs-- research stats, CS, design tech, senior lab and pre-recs, Geosystems. TJ kids average 7 APs/post APs. Some do more. Some do fewer. But, assuming you truly max out what is possible given the graduation requirements (start in Calc freshman year, and place out of Foundations CS, and place into language 3, and take 3 years of summer school and take EPF as an 8th class) you can theoretically hit 16:

Summer before 9th: Research Stats
Freshman: 2 APs (Calc and AP CS because you placed out of Foundations). Plus IBET, PE, and Language 3. AND EPF as an 8th class
Summer: Chemistry
Sophomore: 4 (post Calc math, Chem or Bio, AP foreign Language, and one more), plus Humanities (2), and PE
Summer: 4th history (cannot be AP)
Junior: 5 (Post Calc math, AP Physics, APUSH and 2 more). Plus English and one Lab Pre-Rec
Senior: 4 (English, Government, post-Calc Math, and two more). Plus Geosystems and Senior Lab.

But, less than 10% of the freshman class goes into Calculus, FCPS kids only comes in with one year of MS language and start over or take Language II, and this only works on some tracks, because any of the engineering or tech tracks do not have APs or post AP (unlike CS, which does). It would shock me if more than a handful of kids a year hit 15. And those would be some miserable kids. I don't care how much you love to learn. The day only has so many hours, and everyone needs to sleep.

In real life, most kids take no APs in 9th, 1-2 APs in 10th (most kids I know have 1, unless they are in Calc. The kids in band and orchestra have none), 3-4 in 11th and 3ish in 12th. Again, the school says the average is 7.

The student you said didn't graduate from TJ recently:

9th: HN English, Math, Bio, D&T, FL3, PE, Elective
10th: HN English, HN World History, AP Calc BC, HN Chem, AP FL, AP CS, PE
11th: HN English, APUSH, AP Macro, AP Micro, Multivar (Post AP), Matrix Algebra (Post AP), AI 1 (Post AP), AI 2 (Post AP), DNA Science 1, DNA Science 2, AP Chem, AP Physics C
12th: AP Gov, AP English, Complex Analysis (Post AP), Differential Equation (Post AP), Geosystems, Parallel Computing 1 (Post AP), Organic Chem (Post AP), Social Science elective, Research Lab

AP = 10
Post AP = 8
AP and Post APs = 18. (Without summer schools).

There are many kids (15-20%) at TJ that have similarly rigorous schedules like the above (utilizing summer schools before 9th, before 10th and before 11th) so yes, the student you were certain did not exist does exist and there are many more.

You're counting APs and Post APs by semester, not years. Sure. If you count AP Micro/Marco as 2 instead of 1, and A1/2 as 2 instead of one year, and DNA science 1/2 as 2, and multivariable/linear as 2, and senior year math as 2, etc. you can get to 18. But normal people count high school classes by the year. And yes, it looks like a "normal" TJ load. Although a bit strange, because it looks like a CS track, but then DNA 1/2 without the AP Bio pre-rec? That's random.

You certainly seem like a real TJ parent if you are double counting APs and post APs so you can prove your kid took more APs than the base school OP's kid. Here's a hint: your kid learned the same amount of material, even if AP macro/micro is counted as one AP and not 2.

The above schedule is not "normal" or typical TJ load.

[Anonymous]

Not normal. Not normal at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ds is in an area magnet (Blair) and he took no AP exams in 9th grade, he intends to take 2 this year in 10th (NSL and Comp Science). He also intends to take World History and English Language in 11th grade and English literature and Spanish in 12th grade. That is a total of six. We are not pushing him to take AP exams in his math and science subjects (except for Comp Science which is the only one the magnet administration seems to encourage). Maybe I am wrong but I don't want him under more pressure than he is already. He is in very demanding classes and doing well touch wood. I will hope that a good college will take into consideration the fact that his magnet math and science classes are generally tougher than an AP class in the same subject

You are betting too much on "magnet" stuff. Colleges don't really care about that. Your DS will look less competitive than his friends. I say this as a parent of 3 magnet kids now in college.

What do you recommend? Is there a "good enough " number of APs that in conjunction with good SAT scores and good GPA and decent ECs will help him with college admissions at a top 30 college?

Five or six, please see my previous post above your posted question.

I disagree that there is any hard and fast rule of 5-6. It's all relative to what other kids at her school or with a similar profile are taking. That being said, 17 is way excessive.

[Anonymous]

This entire thread is terrifying and insane.