I'm currently a senior in high school and I plan on taking 5 AP classes:
AP Studio Art
AP Art History
AP Language & Composition
AP Computer Science A
AP Calculus
I've taken 5 AP classes in a single year before, but a lot of those classes were on the easy side (AP Computer Science Principles, APUSH, and AP Research). This year, I really hope to get at least a 4 in studio art, art history, and Computer Science A because I am really interested in the course material. I'm not really worried about managing AP Lang because I did pretty decent in AP Lit last year.
However, I'm worried taking AP Calculus will leave me struggling to handle all my other classes. I'm not bad at math; I had an average of 95 for my honors precal class in junior year. However, I'm still undecided about what I want to study for college and I'm not even positive if AP Calculus will help me in the future.
Has anyone with average math skills taken it before? How did you manage and how much time would you say you spent outside of school on it? Do you guys think it is even worth me taking?
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Should I take AP Calculus AB?
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ED strategy for LACs (Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury)?
My daughter is interested in the top LACs (more detail below) and is trying to work out how she should approach deciding on one school to apply ED to.
A quick recap of her stats and our situation: 3.8UW GPA, 35 ACT (36 in Science, 35 in the other subjects), completed 5 APs so far (5s on World History, Japanese, and Lang, 4s on Microeconomics and APES) and currently enrolled in 4 more (Calc AB, Lit, Psych, and Gov). Biggest EC is that she founded her school's ACLU Club as a sophomore and has been president ever since. It's up to 30 members now, and they do voter registration drives, wrote a know-your-rights guide for students in the district, etc. She's also done a lot of work as a tech in theater, as well as Model UN, SAGA, and a couple other things. She also is the DM for her D&D club and makes her own cosplay - which might help her stand out a little. She is half-Japanese, and we live in Washington State. We're not rich, but we're comfortable paying full tuition, so financial aid won't be a consideration.
Over the summer she applied to several diversity fly-in programs. (There was another thread where it was discussed whether being half-Japanese really met the colleges' criteria for a minority - and whether trying to apply to these fly-in programs could actually hurt her if they thought she was trying to crowd in on a program that wasn't meant for her. Ultimately she decided to apply and was glad she did.) She only got into 1 (one which she had visited in the past and liked), but several others gave her nice consolation responses. A few waived her application fee and a subset of those arranged for a time for her to speak 1:1 with either a current student or someone from the admissions office. When they did this, they specified in their letters that they don't do this for all of the rejected applicants - they only do this for people they're genuinely interested in. (In fact, Williams went so far to say that the admissions rate for people they extend these benefits to have historically had 2x the admissions rate compared to other applicants.) The ones that did this were Williams (waived application fee and arranged for call with AO), Amherst (waived application fee), and Middlebury (waived application fee and arranged for call with AO). Grinnell didn't waive the application fee, but they arranged for her to speak with a current student (and they didn't say that this was something they only do for a handful of applicants). She got into the Haverford fly-in program which she'll be attending in a couple weeks.
In terms of her top school preferences, she's utterly torn. I think she's considering Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Middlebury as her top choices so far. Even though they are all quite different, there are things she likes about each school, and her personality is such that I do think she would be genuinely happy at any of these places. She's really interested in the tutorial program at Williams and likes the idea of an isolated campus. On the other hand, she also likes the consortium opportunities at Amherst and the fact that there's a little town nearby. (We visited Amherst but haven't been able to go to Williams or Middlebury.) She was interested in Bowdoin's friendly culture and strong Poli Sci and Env. Science programs, and the international nature of Middlebury. I asked her if she got into all 4, which would she pick, and she said she honestly didn't know.
So right now she's trying to work out which, if any, of these schools to apply ED to. As I said, I think she'd be deliriously happy at any of them, so I don't think there'd be a concern of regret over not being able to find out whether she would have gotten into the other schools. At this point, I think she'd like to pick the application path that will maximize her chances of getting in at one of these schools.
Williams and Amherst only have ED1 - no ED2 option, so we were thinking that she might want to apply to one of those first. The response from Williams/Amherst would be back in time for her to apply ED2 at either Middlebury or Bowdoin, so she'd have essentially 2 bites at the apple. I'm thinking that of the 4 schools, Bowdoin would be the lowest probability of getting in, since they just gave her a flat rejection to the diversity fly-in program whereas the other 3 expressed interest in her. (I could be reading too much into that though.)
So is this the right way to think about it? Williams or Amherst ED1 and Middlebury or Bowdoin ED2? And how much does ED really help at each of these schools anyway? I know that admit rates are much higher for ED than RD, but I've also heard that those stats are distorted by the fact that recruited athletes tend to get in ED.
Thoughts? And thanks in advance!
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Proof that the SAT of the early 1990’s was much harder
I was talking to a friend at work about how my son likes to mock how low my standardized test scores were (1260 SAT with 510V and 750M) back in 1993. He loves to talk smack to me as that is our father son dynamic (“I could have gotten that score in middle school”) about how students today are just smarter than their parents (but I have more wisdom) and that schools and college admissions are so much more competitive than “the old days” (I don’t disagree with that assessment). Thank goodness for the internet as there was still some proof out their that today’s SAT is definitely not an apples to apples comparison (Avg SAT score of class of 1992 was a 899). Thank you, internet for the link that made my son back up and say, “Ok, your old man SAT data has some validity to your claims”.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED351352.pdf
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Dallas cop mistakenly thinks she is home and kills a man
How do you not realize you are not in your apartment???
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/dallas/article217981370.html
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Advice for planning trip to Thailand?
We're going to take our 3 adult kids for a 2 week vacation to Thailand in January. We will fly into Chiang Mai, drive to Chiang Rai, fly to Phuket and fly home from Bangkok. We know this is a lot and agree that Bangkok may get short changed. And we're not looking for beach/down time in Phuket but, rather to see some of the sites and natural beauty. Planning is just beginning and I'm thinking we'll be in Chiang Mai for about 5 days, Chiang Rai for 2, Phuket for 3 and the rest in Bangkok. If others have been, I'd love to hear suggestions for lodging, activities, etc.
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Alumni Criticize RPI Finances and Leadership
See the following link to an Albany Times Union newspaper article:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Troubled-alumni-stop-donating-12512869.php
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**PITT CLASS OF 2023 DECISIONS THREAD**
Hey guys,
Haven't received my own admissions decision yet but decided to make this thread to see if anyone got any updates. (:
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Any parents with or know of a child in the bottom of their entering class at very selective college?
My daughter is a high school senior and in this pre-college prep program she's been involved in, she knows a few non-athlete '18s who were admitted into Penn, Brown, Northwestern and Stanford with 24-28 on the ACT and very few if any top honors courses. Looking at common data sets, they're in the bottom of their respective classes. What is campus life like for these kids? Based on high grad rates, I assume they'll earn a degree, so I was wondering if they fully catch up to their peers or does the college try to nudge them into easier majors? Does the college surround them with free tutoring and other support? Do the more advanced classmates associate with them? Thank you.
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*** Official Thread - BS/MD Results for Class of 2018 ***
This thread is to post the stats and feedback/reflection from students / parents to post the BS/MD Acceptance at the end of the cycle. Below is a post from a student of previous cycle to provide the sample format.
This is a very nice post from previous year's results thread. You can copy & paste & update with your details when you post. Thank you so much in advance to help future students / parents.
Important Note: Please post only results. If you have questions and discussion topics, please use the other thread which will have the year and BS/MD applicant in the title.
Sample Post:
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.3778 (W)
Class Rank: 1/421
ACT: 35
Subscores: Science (36), English (35), Reading (35), Math (34), Writing (10)
SAT Subject Tests:
Chemistry: 770
Math 2: 770
U.S. History: 760
AP's (at time of application)
U.S. History - 5
Chemistry - 5
U.S. Gov - 5
Language & Composition - 5
Statistics - 5
Biology - 4
Senior AP's: Physics C Mechanics, Calc BC, Literature & Composition, Psychology
Teacher Recs: Really great, well-rounded letter from APUSH teacher. Didn't see my AP Chemistry teacher's rec but she is known for writing amazing ones. Sent an English teacher rec and counselor rec to the schools that required them, and I assume they were both pretty good. Sent a letter from the director of the soup kitchen I volunteered at to a few select programs that had the options.
State: MI
Gender: F
Ethnicity: White, Native American
Income: 100-150k
Hooks: Nothing really! I stood out a little because I didn't do a lot of research or academic ECs & focused a lot of my time on community service instead
Major ECs:
- Varsity Cross Country: captain
- Varsity Track & Field
- Key Club: co-founder, president
- Student Council: vice-president
- National Honors Society: secretary
- Paid AP Chemistry Tutor
- Orientation Leader
- Interact
Community Service:
- Local food warehouse - 180 hours
- Local homeless shelter - 300 hours
- Teacher of religious education at my church - 300 hours
- Volunteering through ECs - 150 hours
- Local nursing home - 100 hours
- Hospital - 50 hours
Medically related activities:
Physician Shadowing - 120 hours
Research in psychiatry department at Wayne State University - 60 hours
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
1) Brown PLME - rejected ED - rejected RD
2) Northwestern HPME - interview - ACCEPTED
3) Pitt GAP - interview - ACCEPTED
4) Case PPSP - interview - declined interview
5) University of Rochester REMS - interview - ACCEPTED
6) George Washington - rejected pre-interview
7) Boston University - interview - ACCEPTED
8) Penn State - interview - rejected
9) University of Cincinnati DAP - interview - ACCEPTED
10) Virginia Commonwealth GAP - interview - ACCEPTED
11) UCONN SPiM - rejected pre-interview
12) Wayne State University - interview - declined interview
Applied to the following undergraduate:
1) University of Michigan - accepted
2) Harvard - waitlisted
3) Dartmouth - waitlisted
4) Yale - rejected
DECISION: Northwestern HPME
Scholarship / Aid: List if any merit / need based aid provided in UG and/or MD program
Reflection:
Where do I begin? This process was certainly a whirlwind!! I experienced so many mixed emotions throughout it and never in a million years would have dreamed that I would end up where I did.
My greatest advice, although cliche, is to be yourself and to take quality time to reflect and think introspectively. Dig deep, think carefully about why you're doing what you're doing (nobody enters this process willingly without a good reason) and go beyond the idea of a checklist of items that you must meet. Don't be afraid to be specific - it wasn't the hospital volunteering that impacted you but the patient you met in the lobby on the way in; it wasn't the complex chemicals that you worked with in the lab but the relationship you forged with your research mentor that influenced you. Tell the admissions people and interviewers that. Think carefully about what you love about yourself and how these can not only enable you to be a successful doctor but can enable you to LOVE medicine. Speak from the heart and everything will fall into place.
As far as interviews go (as I know that time is getting close!), have fun! The second I started treating my interviews as a conversation instead of an avenue of getting accepted into a medical program, everything changed drastically. Don't be afraid to laugh, ask questions that you truly care about, share a personal detail from your life here and there. Be a person to the interviewer and treat them as a person. They have seen you on paper and it's time to show them who you truly are!
Overall, I could not be more thankful for my experiences with the BS/MD programs. I met some of the most amazing people and learned so much about myself in the process.
Please don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions at all!!!
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Great British Baking Show
Airing right now in ET. 2 episodes tonight.
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Would you consider these essay topics too repetitive?
I have two essay prompts that I would love to write about, but I'm afraid the overall message is too similar. Do you think these can be good, or should I switch up the topic on one of them to avoid redundancy?
In my personal statement essay, I'm (most likely) writing about an activity I started when I was young, but did purely because of extrinsic motivation. I hated the activity but pursued it because the teacher gave us candy. I quit the activity after a year (and hardly improved, as expected), but stumbled across it again a few years later; this time with a burning passion. It's a large part of who I am now, and after picking it up again I improved at a stunning rate.
A major theme here is my realization of the importance of doing things out of the love and enjoyment for doing them, instead of doing things only for reaping results. (essentially extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation).
Then we have my second essay, the supplementary essay of "What is meaningful to you and why?".
For this prompt, what is meaningful to me is "fun". Enjoyment out of life as a whole and enjoyment in most things you do. (yes, it's critical and inevitable to sometimes suck-it-up and work on things you dislike in order to succeed, but as an overall thing).
I might write about a time where I stopped all my hobbies and everything I enjoyed doing, because when forcing myself to work on things I felt were important for future success (despite not liking the process itself), I had no free-time to pursue my actual interests. I was essentially letting work consume most of my present happiness for what I was thinking would result in achieving even greater "future happiness and success".
This showed me that it's important to enjoy the work you do. You can totally make it big-time without sacrificing your happiness, in fact you're so much more likely to become the next Jeff Bezos if you're not dreading the process. lol
So what's meaningful to me? Restate what I said in the previous paragraph.
The essays themselves would be extremely different along with the examples I might use, but again, I'm afraid the theme or overall message is too repetitive in that in both essays, I'm sort of talking about the value I place on enjoying the things you do.
Thoughts?
Thank you for reading this long thing <3
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National Hispanic Merit Finalists Class 2019
My son's friends are saying they have received notice that they are National Hispanic Merit Recipients. Have the Finalists been notified already? I thought the finalist come out in September?
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Prospects of getting scholarships.
What are the prospects of getting a full or 50% scholarship for undergraduate Engineering and BBA in Australia and Canada for Indian students?
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The Tennis Thread
Instead of me making a thread for every slam (and sometimes tournament), why not just have one thread?
Anyone watching Indian Wells? Staying up late tonight to watch Nadal/Federer QF!
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Are All of These W's Bad?
I made a previous post about withdrawing from Calculus 3 because it was not required for my majors I want to transfer to and I am currently performing poorly (Cognitive Science @ UCSD and CS TAG @ UCI), but would it be bad to have 3 consecutive semesters with a W in them? I've dropped Physics in Spring, DiffEQ in the Summer, and now I want to drop Calc 3 this fall. My only reasoning for dropping them was because I was struggling with each of these classes (I utilized many resources to help me), and they also are not required for my majors. I'm also worried if I explain my W's this way on the UC App that it'll look bad too :|
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AIME Scores
I'm a female who scored a 115.5 on the AMC 10 but only got a 1 on the AIME. should i still report the 1? Would it hurt my chances for MIT?
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Transferring twice in one year? Help!
Hello, So currently I am a Freshmen at a CC. I am taking 17 credits and I hope to maintain a 4.0.
I do not have the best home life and my parents are forcing me to apply to UMD in the Spring of 2019 and I am pretty sure Ill get in. The thing is, I want to apply as a transfer to other schools Fall fo 2019. If I dont listen to them, chances are they wont let me/wont help me with the schools I want to go to in the Fall of 2019.
So, if I do what they ask and Transfer in the Spring do you think it will hinder my chances of getting in somewhere Fall of 2019 at other Universities such as Barnard College?
Or should I just convince them to let me stay for one year.
I do want to get out of that house but I dont want it to hinder my chances of getting into the schools I want fall of 2019.
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Duke Kunshan University Class of 2023
Hey guys! It’s really early for this, but I wanted to make this discussion for prospective students at Duke Kunshan University in China. To learn more about DKU, visit dukekunshan.edu.cn
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Does USC factor in major for college admissions?
^^
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National Hispanic Scholar NHRP Class of 2019
I've been anxiously awaiting to see if my son would qualify for NHRP. I called the college board this morning and was told the cutoff for Texas was 1270, so I thought I would share that in case anyone else out there is wondering. Thankfully my son qualifies.
I thought it would be helpful to start a group fro those of us in the same boat for Class of 2019. I have only started looking into what scholarships are possibly available. Please join me in sharing score cutoffs for your state if you know them, and any scholarship information you may have. Thanks!
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