Reply to Our Current Situation

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Our Current Situation - Not thrilled"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]First of all OP, this is extremely rude. There are so many students who have worked so hard and every bit as capable as your child (boy or girl? Who knows?) who do not have these acceptances. Second of all, what kind of high school are we talking about? GPAs vary so much and the top ranked college programs know that a 4.0 at one school—especially one that calls more than the top 1% the top 1%, that makes no sense—is very different than a more rigorous school. Your kid has great choices. Stop making him or her feel bad.[/quote]

Why are you and some of the rest such as--holes. OP is allowed to be disappointed. OP is allowed to vent. [b]These kids kill themselves for 4 years in the hopes that they'll get into dream schools. [/b]Your kids do it too. All kids do it. When that doesn't happen, some roll with it. Some are upset. And there is nothing bad about that. (And yes, parent feelings are valid. We are the ones watching them kill themselves).

If you don't have something constructive to say. If you can't empathize nicely. Then just shut the EF up. I'm sick of the piling on, nasty, judgmental responses to valid feelings on here. [/quote]

This is the problem.  Kids should not be "killing themselves" for something that rarely works out. 
Since this "killing" starts at age 13 in quite a few kids it is at least initially parent driven.  
Parents should know better. 
It's so warped. [/quote]

Agree!  My kids worked hard but they did not “kill themselves.”  Sleep and balance were important to us.[/quote]

Balance is key.  We found that decisions should not be 100% made on "aiming for elite universities/any universities".  Don't take AP Eng/AP FL/APUSH/APCalcBC/etc just to check a box---take courses that interest you and won't overwhelm you so you don't get any sleep.  Maintain rigor, but that doesn't have to mean 6 AP per year.  
My kid skipped APUSH/AP Eng and focused on STEM APs as a future engineer.  Only reason they would have taken the APUSH/AP eng was to get out of it in college.  Well, turns out their ultimate top 2 choices come April do NOT give AP credit for "core curriculum" classes---you gotta take them at the university.  So my kid was extremely happy with the decision to focus on STEM AP (4 each year Jr/Sr) and skip the others and then have time for 20-25 hour/week for their outside school EC.  My kid was happier, less stressed and got 5 hours of sleep each night (not 2-3 which would have happened if they added the other APs). Got into 2 T40 schools, got deferred/rejected at T10 and WL at T30.  Maybe the extra APs would have gotten them in, but I doubt it---fact is acceptance rates are less than 10%.  My kid had a more balanced HS experience because of this and is happy where they landed[/quote]

Good for your kid. Many people I know say that APUSH is their favorite course in high school. Even if they later go on to STEM or other majors and fields that have nothing to do with history. It is usually taught by a dynamic teacher who is passionate about the subject and doesn’t bound themselves by the curriculum. So it is remembered by the students far longer than other run-of-the-mill AP classes.[/quote]

I know it can be an amazing course. But for my kid, it would have meant an extra 10 hours per week of work, based on the teacher.  My kid didn't want to give up their EC that takes 20+ hours each week (some weeks it can be the entire weekend as well and other months it's an extra 10 hours per week).  They wanted to focus on their EC and "enjoy" HS a little bit (it was covid as well).  So I think they made the smart choice.  Yes, they could have done APUSH and would have gotten an A/A-, but it would not have been healthy. So we allowed them to choose to take honors history instead. 
My kid is not a History kid, and would have rather added AP Bio into the mix instead (and I'd argue that's as much work and possibly harder course)---they didn't add AP Bio because of balance once again.

Main point is that kids should pick courses they want to do along with "checking some boxes" (ie if you want to be a stem kid, then AP Calc is ideal and taking at least 1 AP core science would make college Science 101/102 much easier).  
Kids should not just take 6 APs each year, unless they truly want to do that [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics