Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the Fiske guide which I ordered, are there any college guides you can recommend? College Confidential seems unreal to me, who are all these kids with 12 APs? I want to find a liberal, not too hippy school where science is a focus, not an afterthought.

I, too, wonder who these kids are with 12 APs, 2000 hours of community service, a part-time job, cured baldness, etc. I know some pretty sharp kids, and none of them come close to taking 12 AP courses.

Mine took 10 and that is not unusual at his school. Definitely kids taking 12, especially if they are multilingual and taking a couple of AP languages. 10 was not that big a deal and DC got As/is getting As in all but one. Depends which ones you take of course. Mine is not a science type so didn't do AP bio, chem, etc. which makes it less stressful.

Yes. All AP classes aren't created equal. My son took 11 AP classes by the end of Sr. year and it wasn't that difficult, except maybe for AP Chem, AP Physics and AP Spanish Lit, which were a lot of work. AP government, AP European history, and AP stats were relatively easy.

That said, my daughter probably will only take maybe two AP classes before she finishes high school. That is appropriate for her, as she is strong in some subjects but struggles more in others. So in the end, I think it really depends on your kid and what they want and can handle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the Fiske guide which I ordered, are there any college guides you can recommend? College Confidential seems unreal to me, who are all these kids with 12 APs? I want to find a liberal, not too hippy school where science is a focus, not an afterthought.

I, too, wonder who these kids are with 12 APs, 2000 hours of community service, a part-time job, cured baldness, etc. I know some pretty sharp kids, and none of them come close to taking 12 AP courses.

Mine took 10 and that is not unusual at his school. Definitely kids taking 12, especially if they are multilingual and taking a couple of AP languages. 10 was not that big a deal and DC got As/is getting As in all but one. Depends which ones you take of course. Mine is not a science type so didn't do AP bio, chem, etc. which makes it less stressful.

Michigan, Wisconsin, U of Washington

I like the parents forum at CC. There are many voices of reason there. And within that forum are a couple of ongoing threads that are extremely helpful for parents of average and above average students (as opposed to way above average):

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767966-where-did-your-3-0-3-3-gpa-child-get-in.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767486-where-did-your-3-3-3-6-gpa-child-get-in.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/869995-the-3-3-to-3-6-gpa-parents-thread.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/931514-colleges-for-the-jewish-b-student.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other than the Fiske guide which I ordered, are there any college guides you can recommend? College Confidential seems unreal to me, who are all these kids with 12 APs? I want to find a liberal, not too hippy school where science is a focus, not an afterthought.

I, too, wonder who these kids are with 12 APs, 2000 hours of community service, a part-time job, cured baldness, etc. I know some pretty sharp kids, and none of them come close to taking 12 AP courses.

AP Frank of Walt Whitman HS in Besthesda took 12 APs. This was so unusual that someone wrote a book about him - The Overachievers.