Unless they've recently changed it, homeschoolers can join. You do have to register as a teacher. We didn't have any trouble joining, but we do always have our courses approved. I don't know if that's a requirement or not.

If you have 8 APs with 4s or 5s on all of them, you are a National AP Scholar. We told our kids that if they could accomplish this before they applied to college (i.e., by the end of 11th), they could do whatever they wanted their senior year. Of course there are some limitations -- they have to look busy and use the time well. So far, they've all done internships in 12th. So my current 10th grader did three in 9th, he's doing four this year, and he'll do four in 11th.

This is what we used. My dh, who has a PhD in math looked at everything, including AoPS, and liked it best. It covers the material thoroughly and has lots of interesting problems.

College is more than the courses -- it's also the people you are studying with and the opportunities you are exposed to. If the prestigious university draws the best students and faculty from all over the world, won't you have a richer experience?

Harvard, Princeton, and Yale also offer generous aid to families making above 100K, and they don't consider the value of your house at all.

Two of my sons have been finalists. You can pm me. Congratulations!

First of all, the AP courses are separate from the diploma program. We don't live in PA, so we haven't used the diploma program, but my kids have taken many AP courses. In my experience, the quality of the classes varies greatly with the instructor. Susan Richman's US History course is excellent, as are Debra Bell's English Lit and Howard Richman's Economics courses. I was not at all happy with Rachel Cahill's AP Government and the music theory class (I forget the teacher's name). The other courses we've taken -- Psychology and European History (we've actually tried both teachers for Euro) have been so-so.

It's not that God tricked us -- He created a universe that is mature, so it appears older than it is. The trees in the Garden of Eden were bearing fruit, and Adam and Eve were adults. It was a universe that was ready for life. I am YE. I believe the Bible is God's word and the account in Genesis is to be understood literally. And by the way, I do teach my kids about evolution. I don't use Apologia or any other homeschool science curriculum. My kids take biology 101 and 102 at the community college in 9th grade. They've all rejected evolution on their own by looking at the evidence. Ds 22 is about to graduate from Harvard with a minor in biology. He showed me a paper where his professor gave him an A and praised his thoughtful and well-written critique of an article attacking intelligent design.

He said he would only pay if the score was 2400. It was funny, because I forgot all about the offer, and when I checked the score, I said, "YOU GOT 2380!!!!!" and ds said "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" LOL My dh did give him a nice consolation prize, but not $2380. The amazing thing was that on the PSAT in October, his CR score was 68. On the SAT, one month later, it was 790. He brought it up mainly by cramming on vocabulary. There's nothing like motivation....

My kids have also applied to JHU, CMU, and the Ivies, and MIT is the only school we've encountered that has had a place to list AMC scores. We did use the Common App for the others, so that might make a difference.

MIT has a place on the application to write AMC/AIME scores, but they're not required. My oldest son had great scores so he listed them. My current senior applied to MIT, but since his AMC scores were just so-so, he left it blank. We'll know March 14 if he got in....

If all else fails, try money! My husband told our less-than-motivated but very bright son he'd give him $2400 if he got 2400. It was all or nothing... He got 2380!

I did my own adaptation of Omnibus I-III in 7th-9th grades, then APUSH in 10th and AP Euro in 11th. It's true that the AP loves "politically correct" topics, but there's also no way you can do well on it without a solid grasp of history. I really don't understand when people talk about "teaching to the test" for APs. What you need for these tests is a thorough understanding of the subject. Sure, you need to practice with the different types of questions and you need to put up with a little goofiness, but your child will know history very well by the end and you'll have something objective to show for it. And the politically correct stuff is easy enough to get. My ds wrote an essay this week from an old AP about how the role of women changed from 1795-1860. He just thought about everything he knew about that time period, made a list, and thought about how each item would affect women. It's not like we had to spend extra time on "Women's Studies" or something. If you know the history well, you will do well.

I don't know -- since I am working with twenty kids and they have passed the books around for three years now, I've gotten my money's worth. Parents like them because they explain everything very clearly. There's nothing really earth shattering in them though. You could do just as well by looking at sample projects that have made it to nationals. The performance and documentary books each come with a dvd that is useful, so if your child is interested in one of those categories it might be worth it.

I love NHD!!!! have been involved for four years now with my own kids and with a group of homeschoolers who I mentor. First you need to find out who coordinates your regional contest and find out if you've missed the deadline for this year and how competitive the local contest is. Check your state NHD website for that information. My area doesn't see a lot of participation locally, so in most categories you can walk in and win and move onto the state competition, which isn't held until April. It would be hard to start now, but it wouldn't be impossible. NHD is intense, but I love seeing kids rise to it. It is absolutely amazing! They do research with primary sources, interview historians (this year, kids in my group have interviewed a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and a Nobel Prize winning physicist!), put together a project, get feedback from the judges at the local contest, and improve their project for the state competition. It is a fun activity to do with a group. You can find sample projects at the NHD site or on state pages like this one: http://www.mdhc.org/...rojects/.�� When I first looked at sample projects, I was completely overwhelmed and thought that it was way beyond what we could do, but I've actually had several kids win at states and even place at nationals. Like I said, it is amazing to see what kids can do when they are motivated!

I agree that she should take some AP classes -- colleges expect to see them and the kids she is competing against for scholarships will have take them. Also, why do two years of advanced math? I'd suggest doing precalc in 10th, calc 1 in 11th, and AP calc BC in 12th. That is what most STEM kids will have. About band, there is no problem with having it on the transcript as long as the rest of her courses are solid. Several of me kids are in STEM majors, and they always had music on their transcripts all four years. For senior year, if she's done most of her requirements, you could look into an internship. You also definitely want to do some science or math classes at the CC before 12th grade so she can have recommendations.

Oh my goodness, my dd1 was never as moody as the time when she had to make a decision about college. Once she decided and mailed in the card, she was back to her happy self!

This is exactly right! We've always made our own transcript and none of our kids have had a diploma, but we had lots of objective measures to back up our grades: AP scores, SAT subject tests, PA Homeschoolers and CC courses. We've never had a problem and our first four have all been accepted at top schools, including Emory.

I agree. Susan Richman's APUSH is an outstanding course. One of my sons took the PAH US Govt and it was not worth the money. It would be a very easy test to self-study for.

We have always had to pay for both tests. Fortunately, we have school very close to us that gives them.

Yes! Having a national award that schools recognize is a great way to make your student stand out. My son who is curently a senior got second place in computer science at the Intel ISEF and was a Siemens finalist. He was accepted at Harvard early action. (He also had 2380 on the SAT, three 800s on subject tests, and 12 5s on APs.) We haven't tried the spelling bee, but my older kids did things like National History Day, Young Epidemology Scholars, and the USAMO and were admitted to top schools. Other kids do things like great volunteer activities or entrepreneurship. You just need something to make you stand out from the many kids with incredible scores. For us a "reach" school was a top ivy -- a school with such a low admissions rate that it's not a sure thing for anyone!

My kids learned passé simple. For fun reading material, look for comics -- Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, etc. My kids also enjoyed Le Petit Nicolas and Le Petit Prince at her age.

I haven't called yet because APs aren't on my school's radar until mid-January. I have six kids, though, and we've done French and German with all of them, so we've been working with these people for years. Could you try going directly to the AP French teacher? You could at least find out if there really is a shortage of "spots." Or maybe you could find an international school in some really nice part of France and make a little vacation of it =) ! The problem I expect to have this year is that my 10th grade ds is taking German and US History and they are given at the same time. So I'll need to find a school that's willing to give him one of the tests on the alternate test date. I'm planning to have him do German on the regular date and APUSH later since German is rarer and more complicated to give. We have lots of schools within an hour's drive -- hopefully one of them will be giving APUSH on the make-up day!

This teacher has a lot of good quizzes: http://www.tabney.com/

I have never heard of this. Our local school will only give an AP to homeschoolers if they are offering it anyway, and the only language AP they offer is Spanish. So my kids have taken French and German at another school (only 10 minutes away!) The recording equipment last year was VERY low tech -- they recorded on a cassette tape. My kids had to be shown how to use it! Why don't you try contacting the college board? Since you are in a special situation, being overseas where there aren't a lot of schools giving APs, maybe they'll intervene with the school. It's worth a try!