I think each homeschool should decide what counts as honors level for their individual homeschool. The criteria for honors designation can then be described in the homeschool profile (if one is submitted with the college applications). Fwiw, I didn't use the honors designation at all on my kids' transcripts. despite the fact that many of their courses used college textbooks. I did have a blurb in the homeschool profile that stated that none of the courses was designated as "honors" because I felt the designation was only meaningful in a traditional school setting when the choice of a less rigorous class was also available. Based on other parent reports on CC, I don't think the lack of an honors designation resulted in less merit awards at colleges that offer merit.

My daughter will be heading to RPI in the fall. Prior to her initial visit, I read up on RPI on CC. After reading all of the comments about Troy, I would have cancelled the tour if it wasn't for the fact that RPI was right on our way to visiting our son at Williams and we had some time to kill. I am glad I didn't cancel the tour because my daughter loved the campus and RPI shot to the top of her list. After visiting campus, my daughter, husband, and I walked downtown from campus and had lunch at one of the restaurants on the river. (I can't remember the name, but the local beer and food were very good , and it was very nice sitting on the outside deck overlooking the river. We didn't explore all of Troy, but the area that we visited downtown didn't feel unsafe - it just felt a little rundown and neglected. Some of the buildings could have used a fresh coat of paint, etc. Having said that, I wouldn't want my daughter walking downtown at night by herself, but I wouldn't want her doing that anywhere.

My kids enjoyed Lili Serbicki's AP English Language and AP English Literature classes. At the time they took their classes, Lili Serbicki taught with PAH. Now, she is at AIM Academy. Good luck with your search.

Wow, I had no idea this information was out there. I can go back every year to 2015 and run reports for my state. Each homeschooler's name, AP score, and AP ID is listed in the report. Is this a new feature this year? Or has this information been available for a number of years and I was just clueless?

Not everyone takes those tests, either, and many schools don't require the CSS. How is the CB able to provide this adversity score for every applicant? Is the ACT providing some of the data?

I saw David Coleman interviewed on CNN this morning. He said that the adversity score will be provided to colleges for students who take the SAT or ACT. How is the College Board able to provide data for students who have never taken the SAT? Why are students prohibited from seeing their adversity number? How are colleges using this adversity number?

The US News Rankings changed its methodology last year to include social mobility. In my opinion, this change is driving the CB's adversity score. The 2019 U.S. News rankings are out today, and the rankings powerhouse is boasting that it has changed its methodology to take social mobility into account.

It looks like some are viewing it as a diversity score: “The purpose is to get to race without using race,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce

Just based on the article linked in the OP, it looks like the colleges can get access to the diversity score even if the college has a policy of permitting the students to self-report scores and only send official reports once they are accepted and decide to enroll. Yale, a college that permits students to self-report test scores, was cited in the article: Yale University was one of the schools that tried using the adversity scores as it worked to increase socioeconomic diversity on its campus. Jeremiah Quinlan, the school's dean of undergraduate admissions, told the Wall Street Journal that Yale has nearly doubled the number of low-income students and those who are first in their families to attend college to about 20% of new students. "This (adversity score) is literally affecting every application we look at," Quinlan told the Journal. "It has been a part of the success story to help diversify our freshman class." So the College Board is sharing information with colleges about the applicants without the applicants' knowledge or consent. How can Yale claim to be "need-blind" when this adversity score was used in evaluating every applicant?

I will point a finger at some of the parents with current or hopeful athletes in my kids' sport. Some of these parents have completely lost their minds. These parents have forced their kids to play since the time they were able to hit a ball. They won't let their kids quit. The vast majority of these abusive parents are not interested in their kids turning pro or even a college scholarship - they are interested in admission to a T20 school. In my 15 years involved in the sport, I have seen many parent/child relationships damaged beyond repair.

My brother also had a sports scholarship at a big state U. In addition to the food monitoring, he was required to take the nutritional supplement creatine. I was shocked to see how much muscle mass he added on (and he was pretty big to begin with) when he came home for Thanksgiving his first semester. (I know studies say creatine is safe, but I would still worry about unknown long-term effects and would not be happy with not having a choice on whether or not to take it if one of my kids were in this situation.) My brother definitely felt like the coaches owned him, especially since he was attending on an athletic scholarship. While the NCAA has set a limit on the maximum hours an athlete can spend each week, that regulation (at least when my brother played) is a joke as teams are easily able to get around the limit by holding "voluntary" practices and "voluntary" work-out sessions, etc. The team definitely came before the academics and when there was a conflict between the two, my brother had to miss the class. My middle son went through the recruiting process a few years ago now. In my son's sport, the vast majority of the kids at my son's level play D1. My son determined early on in the recruiting process that even the level of time commitment needed at an Ivy (which is D1, but league restrictions make it less demanding than other D1 programs) was too much for him (Ivy coaches told him to plan on 4 hours a day). His friends (and their parents) were shocked that he elected to play for a D3 school, but it was the best choice for him. His college team spends 10 days in California each spring break, and all of the other matches when school is in session are on the weekends against opponents that are all in the same geographic area. HIs experience hasn't been perfect, though. The facilities at his D3 school pale in comparison to what he would have had at a D1, which has been frustrating for him at times. But, he has time to conduct research with a professor, and next year he will also add being a junior advisor to the mix. Had he chosen D1, he would not have had time to fit these activities in and would not be able to double major in two STEM fields. With a few exceptions, his friends who are playing for D1 teams are also having a great experience. None of them, however, are majoring in STEM fields.

I posted this on the "30 days and waiting" thread, but thought I should also post it here as I always enjoyed reading this thread when my kids were younger. My D was offered admission to 7 out of the 8 schools on her list. This was my third and last time through the process. My D applied to more schools than my other two combined, mainly because I wanted her to have options between a liberal arts school and a tech school if she changed her mind about what she wanted over the span of senior year. She was offered admissions to the following: Grinnell (with merit) Hamilton Williams Worcester Polytechnic Institute (with merit) Rochester Institute of Technology (with merit) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (with merit) Our state flagship (with merit) I am 99.9% sure what her decision is going to be, and will come back to update this post when it is 100%.

My D's waiting is over. Now she needs to make a final decision. I am 99.9% sure what her decision will be, but will be happy when she makes it official and we can move forward to the fun stuff - looking at dorm decor, something my boys had zero interest in doing. This was my third and last time through the process. My D applied to more schools than my other two combined, mainly because I wanted her to have options between a liberal arts school and a tech school if she changed her mind about what she wanted over the span of senior year. She was offered admissions to the following: Grinnell (with merit) Hamilton Williams Worcester Polytechnic Institute (with merit) Rochester Institute of Technology (with merit) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (with merit) Our state flagship (with merit) She was deferred then denied at MIT. Good luck to everyone still waiting!

My son advanced to the national round of the chemistry olympiad. I don't know if ChemWOOT was around then or not. He was taking AP Chemistry with ChemAdvantage the year he participated.

Good luck today. Something that i haven't seen mentioned here in addition to all the factors already mentioned that go into admission at these schools is choice of major. Colleges are looking for diversification within a major in addition to overall school diversity. I am going through the process with my daughter right now. She has very high stats, but being a female interested in math and computer science has been a plus. If you read the results on college confidential there are many schools that are offering substantially more merit money for females interested in computer science and math when compared to males with the same high stats. The overwhelming majority of students at my son's school majoring in math are males. A female applying who is interested in math would have better odds of being admitted when compared to a male with the same academic profile. When a college is building a class, so much of the process is beyond the applicant's control.

If you have a typical financial situation - don't own your own business, don't have investment properties, etc- the schools' net price calculators are said to be very accurate. If you are applying to a school that doesn't offer merit aid, in my opinion, you are not taking as much of a financial risk because your aid package will be the same whether you apply ED or Regular Decision (Obviously you won't be able to compare offers between schools) My son applied ED to Williams. The aid package came along with the acceptance Had the numbers not been in line with what we were expecting, we would have been able to decline the offer For my son ED was the right decision - The school was by far his top choice and since they don't offer merit aid, we knew that our cost of attendance was not going to be affected by applying ED Had his top choice been a school that offers merit aid, in my opinion, ED would have been more risky from a financial standpoint since merit aid is typically used to entice top students to attend the school

Larson has two free websites to support their textbooks: 1. CalcChat has worked out solutions to every odd numbered problem in the book. In addition, they have online tutors available to live chat with if additional help is needed. 2. CalcView has video lectures that cover the topics in each chapter. This approach was very successful in my house.

Fwiw, I agree 100% with this. My kids are at selective schools and did not have any dual enrollment classes on their transcripts because the classes would have interfered too much with their extracurriculars (research for my oldest and athletics for my middle kid) They had a handful of online classes between them on their transcripts: PA Homeschoolers, WTMA, and Eimacs, but I am not sure how much weight those grades carried with admissions offices because they were all completed at home. They did, however, have a lot of outside validation in the form of SAT, SAT II's, AIME, and AP scores to back up the grades that were stated on the transcript. I would choose the path that is going to provide your son with the best educational foundation. For us homeschoolers, I feel the test scores will carry far more weight than anything else and the adcoms are not going to care how your child went about learning the material, whether it be at home or DE.

This happened to my oldest 4 years ago. He included the awards in the mid-year report the schools wanted him to complete. As the guidance counselor, I did not mention them. Having said that, I don't think it would hurt to mention it as the guidance counselor, too.

My kids don't take AP exams for their 12th grade AP classes if their colleges won't award credit for the class. Luckily, my kids have all known where they would be heading to college before they needed to register for the AP exams. Thanks to the latest money grab by the College Board, most of next year's seniors won't have the option to wait and see.

Just a couple of thoughts...Your son won't have the math background necessary for AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism. If your son wants to take a calc-based physics course, imo, I would have him take AP Physics C- Mechanics. (Even that course, I think, is tough without having a calculus foundation going into the course, but it is doable.) Also keep in mind that the first semester of senior year can be crazy busy with college application essays for some kids, depending on how many schools the student has on the list. With that in mind, you may want to structure the year so the first semester is lighter than the second semester.

No, ED is not only for the families that can pay full freight. If the school is your child's top choice, and if the school's online calculator provides a number that you are comfortable paying, then applying ED may give your child a boost with admissions. If your child is accepted, but the cost of attendance turns out to be different than what the school's online calculator indicated, you would be able to get out of the ED contract.

Fwiw, I included science courses taken in middle school on the high school transcript. This approach was not ( has not been) a problem for any of my three kids.

It definitely is not necessary to hire an agency in order to secure an athletic scholarship. However, just like some families hire a college consultant to assist with the college application process, some families hire a sports agency to assist with athletic recruiting.