Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

Tulane ED may be feasible, but only if she goes test optional. This year the average test scores of enrolled students was SAT 1448 and ACT 33. Some parents are really out of touch with the college admissions landscape.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she taking AP World? The usual suite is AP Gov, APUSH, APWorld. If she's missing one, she has to replace it with AP European History, or something similar.

The test score is too low.

People, GPAs are terribly inflated. If the test score is low, and APUSH is missed, etc, it's a sign the GPA isn't an accurate reflection of a student's academic strength. Don't get your hopes up too high at this point.

She did take AP World. Are you saying she has zero chances at any top 100 colleges? Don't be a dick just to be a dick.

Being a blunt realist is not being a dick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

Agree. Getting in BC & Wake now is about like getting in Cornell 8 yrs ago.

Where do the B students go? This all seems insane.

95% of colleges aren’t very selective. They go to all but the 50 or so National U or 25 or so SLAC that DCUM obsesses about. If they work hard, they do well and get a good job.

Anonymous wrote:APUSH is not necessary. Think big picture for overall rigor.

Blair CAP, a humanities program, does not even have kids taking APUSH. They take CAP’s honors U.S. History.

Many kids got into top 50 schools (some even top 20) from MCPS just going test optional this year. They took APs such as (gasp) AP Psych and not even AP Calc AB.

CAPs honors would be a magnet level class, so they wouldn't take APUSH, but I would imagine many take the APUSH exams.

My DC went to RMIB, and the US History class IB magnet students take is RMS US History, which is the a designated magnet level class, but pretty much all of these students take the APUSH exam.

But, to OP's post, I would not worry all that much. If they have lots of other AP classes, I can't omitting APUSH is that big of a deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she taking AP World? The usual suite is AP Gov, APUSH, APWorld. If she's missing one, she has to replace it with AP European History, or something similar.

The test score is too low.

People, GPAs are terribly inflated. If the test score is low, and APUSH is missed, etc, it's a sign the GPA isn't an accurate reflection of a student's academic strength. Don't get your hopes up too high at this point.

False. My kid got into 4 top 50 schools with 30 ACT, a 3.9 GPA and 3 AP classes.

Thank you for saying this. I posted up thread that I have seen many transcripts and students are getting into excellent colleges without top rigor. “Rigor” is a myth and it’s causing our kids so much stress. This may depend on school district and what the norm is, but in ours you do not need APs in all subject areas, you just don’t.

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into UMD with "the wrong"/"not enough" APs. He took AP Physics 1, Calc AB, US Gov, Psych, Music Theory and the easy CS. He had a 34 ACT and around 4.0 weighted (some B+ grades, a lot of A-). Maybe it helped that he was OOS (FCPS) and an arts major? I don't know. They offered him $50k over 4 years. He wasn't going to take an AP class that didn't interest him and not very many interested him.

yes, that helped. Definitely wouldn't get into STEM majors like CS and eng with that GPA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

Agree. Getting in BC & Wake now is about like getting in Cornell 8 yrs ago.

Where do the B students go? This all seems insane.

There are not many B students. Most kids have a combination of As and Bs. Yesterday’s “B” students level down and take regular or Honors classes where they can achieve A’s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for kids today. They take 9 AP classes and their parents still panic and fret about their futures. No wonder this generation is so anxious. Please take some deep breaths and relax, OP. Your kid is going to be just fine, if you let them be!

+1000

OP, you need to chill out. It seems your DD is more rational than you. Your kid will have 9 AP, sports, EC’s, a 1350 and you are panicking?

I think the poster telling me my dd looks like a lazy no-good kid shooting way too high because of the "easy" APs she took really got to me. She's very independent, organized and hardworking, she also takes a class at a local college. Her thought was that she wanted challenging classes but also to do well in them, considering she also has sports and ECs and knew APUSH would create a hurdle to general success. At our school many kids just pack on the APs and get Cs in them, or do great in hard APs but do not do any sports/ECs. I trusted her judgment on this until she questioned it saying maybe schools will mind I didn't do APUSH. I think now I am afraid colleges will reject her based on what that poster thought of her: she's a lazy kid who doesn't push herself. To me she's just a well-balanced kid who knows herself, does very well, not stellar perfect, but very well, in everything she does and she does a lot. To me that is valuable but I guess colleges just want absolute perfect most everything from SAT scores to class rigor. I thought top 100 for sure she could get into places.

Nobody is saying your kid is lazy and do nothing. People are saying the college admissions landscape is brutal right now. But it sounds like you and your kid found a balanced path through HS that worked and she knows what she wants. So, she will certainly also find a similarly balanced path through college and accomplishes her goals.

Honestly, current USNWR ranking are garbage. And PP is right. They don’t align well with selectivity. Focus less on “T50” or “T100” and more on schools that she likes (social and EC fits) that fit her academic profile (both in terms of strengths, and her GPA, rigor and test scores). If she has a balanced list of colleges she wants to attend, it’s very likely some with accept and some will reject and she’ll end up with a few good options for her. And if they work for her, the ranking, especially USNWR ranking, should be secondary— or tertiary. College #106 might be a better fit that College #63. And that’s fine. Unless you are focused on things like Pell grants, college #106 might even be a better school— all around and for her.

Also, don’t overlook SLACs. At least consider whether a smaller school would be a good fit. They often do well with kids who are undecided and want RCS/college community involvement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she taking AP World? The usual suite is AP Gov, APUSH, APWorld. If she's missing one, she has to replace it with AP European History, or something similar.

The test score is too low.

People, GPAs are terribly inflated. If the test score is low, and APUSH is missed, etc, it's a sign the GPA isn't an accurate reflection of a student's academic strength. Don't get your hopes up too high at this point.

No it’s not. It’s in the top 92% of SAT scores. Did you read the OP? Top 50 as reaches. And you don’t have to take the whole series of history APs.

Technically that would mean it's in the top 8% of SAT scores but I agree with you that her score is not low.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She refused to take APUSH this year. She is now telling me colleges will look down on it and rule her out. She will have taken 7 APs total. She is unsure about major. Do you think she is correct? Not aiming for top 30 schools, top 50 maybe as reaches. Grades are excellent, SAT 1380 (she will likely retake once more)

No idea why you think your DD has any insight into this matter

Frankly, it sounds like maybe she's feeling pressure to attend a top-rank college, and she's (consciouslt or subconsciously) trying to sabotage herself and make excuses to get out of that pressure. I suggest investigating and working on that angle.

This is a good point. College admissions are so high pressure on high performing kids— who have highest possible rigor, 1500/34+ and panic that they might get an A- or B+. Even the highest rigor with amazing grades and test scores are lottery applicants for many T25 schools. It may be easier for some kids to blame being rejected from a school with a sub 10% acceptance rate on not taking one course than it is to accept that even the strongest applicants have no guarantees.

It was just so much easier back in the day— when UNC was my safety (in state NC) and it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t get into Duke, Davison and Wake Forest (which I did). That was the college list. Now, all of these schools would be lottery given my stats back then. They were all lottery for my kids (although UNC was OOS for them) and they brought better scores and a lot more rigor to the table. Somethings gotta give here.

Rather than generalizations, it would be interesting to hear from parents of kids with OP’s kids profile (sounds like 1350-1400 SAT, 4.0UW, decent ECs, strong but not highest rigor? Is that right OP?)— who applied this cycle or last cycle— not in 2020. Where did they land? (And give the specific school— VT Arts and Sciences and VT Engineering have different admissions profiles).

OP— for your kid, I would consider an ED1, ED2 strategy that puts them at a high match/target (for UMC girl, 50% SATs/GPA). Try to apply to at least on rolling schools as soon as applications open. Apply EA where you can so you have an idea how admissions is going and whether you need to adjust in RD. Consider SLACs ranked below 20 or so, especially if you are full pay and your kid is undecided. And make sure she actually likes her likely and low target schools and would be okay attending them.

Good luck—

Anonymous wrote:APUSH will not take her out of contention. That is so ridiculous. This obsession is ridiculous.

Yes in top 100 she’ll be totally fine. Top 50 might be tougher but depends on if we are including SLACs, whether she does ED etc. I don’t think one AP is even make it break for any school except maybe UVA which I think has been very clear on this point and may use as a way to weed out apps from competitive in state HSs.

People here like to scare too much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on her school.

Admissions officers compare you with other kids at the same school and they tend to look for the APs in 'core' fields (APUSH is one). So if most of the other students applying to the same school and she didn't, it will be a tick against her. On the other hand, maybe she took multivariate calc and they didn't, so it will be a tick in her favor. It's not all or nothing. And it depends on a comparison of what is more or less standard at your school. (At ours, APUSH is definitely 'standard' among those aspiring to top schools.)

Do they really look at every school's entire student body coursework while looking at applications? It seems so time consuming. Or do you just mean other applicants from the same school?

Applicants from the same school are compared. AOs are assigned regions and should know what standard tracks are for a given school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for kids today. They take 9 AP classes and their parents still panic and fret about their futures. No wonder this generation is so anxious. Please take some deep breaths and relax, OP. Your kid is going to be just fine, if you let them be!

+1000

OP, you need to chill out. It seems your DD is more rational than you. Your kid will have 9 AP, sports, EC’s, a 1350 and you are panicking?

I think the poster telling me my dd looks like a lazy no-good kid shooting way too high because of the "easy" APs she took really got to me. She's very independent, organized and hardworking, she also takes a class at a local college. Her thought was that she wanted challenging classes but also to do well in them, considering she also has sports and ECs and knew APUSH would create a hurdle to general success. At our school many kids just pack on the APs and get Cs in them, or do great in hard APs but do not do any sports/ECs. I trusted her judgment on this until she questioned it saying maybe schools will mind I didn't do APUSH. I think now I am afraid colleges will reject her based on what that poster thought of her: she's a lazy kid who doesn't push herself. To me she's just a well-balanced kid who knows herself, does very well, not stellar perfect, but very well, in everything she does and she does a lot. To me that is valuable but I guess colleges just want absolute perfect most everything from SAT scores to class rigor. I thought top 100 for sure she could get into places.

You keep saying this over & over despite posters telling you otherwise. So I think you’re manufacturing internal drama. Hopefully you don’t stress your kid out.

+1 OP, this is an anonymous site where people can troll to their hearts content. I realize that puts all posts into question, but if you're going to let any get to you - consider the majority. I'm one of the first responders to this post and I honestly believe if that poster wasn't trolling they didn't fully read your OP and see your note regarding T50s.

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she taking AP World? The usual suite is AP Gov, APUSH, APWorld. If she's missing one, she has to replace it with AP European History, or something similar.

The test score is too low.

People, GPAs are terribly inflated. If the test score is low, and APUSH is missed, etc, it's a sign the GPA isn't an accurate reflection of a student's academic strength. Don't get your hopes up too high at this point.

False. My kid got into 4 top 50 schools with 30 ACT, a 3.9 GPA and 3 AP classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, off the top of my head, DD could likely get into South Carolina, Clemson, Indiana, Penn State, VT, JMU, Vermont, Boulder, Syracuse, Tennessee and many similar schools.

And if full pay, a bit more reachy: Tulane, Wake, UMiami, BC

No way, no how. Especially not Wake and BC. Maybe ED Tulane. Not sure about Miami. Not a school we looked at.

Agree. Getting in BC & Wake now is about like getting in Cornell 8 yrs ago.

Where do the B students go? This all seems insane.