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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I doubt that revamping the college counseling process is what BASIS needs to do help students crack the most highly competitive colleges. They could take common sense steps to ratchet up students' chances in other ways.

The most obvious problem is that BASIS crams too much AP work into 3 years of HS. We left after sophomore year for this reason. Our kid is taking 4 AP classes sr. year at a private (the norm at the private), plus doing an internship 15 hours/wk.  BASIS could do much more to support kids in developing serious ECs. When a kid is expected to take all AP exams by the end of jr. year, there isn't really enough time for high-powered ECs the family has to arrange off-campus.

BASIS could also stop wasting the language skills of kids who arrive with them in 4th grade. The policy of not permitting kids to study a modern language per the curriculum until 8th is dumb. We were in that situation and kept going with a language on our own. Our kid scored a 5 on AP for the language in 9th grade (took the exam at a different school; BASIS wouldn't work with us). She took a Cambridge Exam A-Level in the language this past November. We got the result a month ago, in time to include it with college applications. The BASIS DC position that if you care about languages, shut up and head to DCI isn't constructive.[/quote]

This.  It’s cramming AP at the expense of all else.  Not only is it unhealthy and puts too much pressure/stress on the kids but it is a very narrow focus.   It leaves not much time for other pursuits to be well rounded.

It also doesn’t help that the school is really lacking in extracurriculars and the facilities to support it both in sports and clubs.

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