rzberrymom
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Posts posted by rzberrymom
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11 minutes ago, Arcadia said:
I feel so bad for your daughter. I was told LoRs matter. My guess is that the UCs within 5hrs of your house are looking for URMs.
We did look at some last year since they are online but we are Asian and our family income bracket is not low enough so we don’t fit the criteria.
e.g.
“For this reason, SIP has historically worked hard to provide opportunities for all students to participate in the program and we make an intentional effort to recruit students from historically excluded backgrounds. The SIP team remains steadfast in our commitment to battle racial inequalities in academia. We will continue to increase the diversity of students in our program.
About a third of 2020 SIP interns face societal obstacles to participation:
- Low income
- First-generation college aspirant
- Underrepresented racial ethnicity”
Ahhh, that will make her feel better, to know that it might not have just been her unwillingness to cram for a bunch of standardized tests.-
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Not on the sports topic, but my rising junior has been rejected from every single summer research program she applied to—after the latest one this morning, she said to me, “oh mama, I really think this could be because I have no AP tests...”
She has more DE than I can count (at both universities and community colleges), she has really good ECs, she had an amazing letter of recommendation from one of her college professors, she has programming skills.
The research programs weren’t even particularly elite. They were just local UC ones (within 5 hours of our house, since she was crossing her fingers that maybe they would switch to in-person).
Sometimes I do feel like we’re swimming up-stream.
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41 minutes ago, lewelma said:
The kicker is that university course work here is high level. They don't dumb it down. If you can't cut it, you fail out.
Germany does it like this too. And anyone can go for free, including international students: https://www.study.eu/article/study-in-germany-for-free-what-you-need-to-know
I’ve seriously thought of shipping my kids over there.
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Just now, Not_a_Number said:
And it's OK if they are not the same classes? Like, if they are past the required classes?
Of course. The requirements are wide open—way easier to fulfill that any elite private school, in my opinion.
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1 hour ago, Not_a_Number said:
Lol... if we were in high school in CA, there's no way we'd be eligible, since I can't imagine what the point of DD8 taking A-G math or science in high school would be.
Oh well 😛 .
She could easily take courses at a local university or community college to satisfy the A-G requirement. Lots of accelerated kids do that here.
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9 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:
Do they talk about tippy tops or public Us as well? I ask because CA certainty saw a huge jump in UC apps from minorities, and given they admit tens of thousands of kids, I totally could see the impact. But I don’t buy for a second that tippy tops with single digit acceptances and very few seats didn’t get enough applicants from minorities before. It’s all a big.... you know what.
The article just focused on the tippy top schools, since those are the schools that saw big overall gains in applicants this year. Harvard, Cornell, MIT, NYU, UC Berkeley, UCLA.
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19 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:
I just wanted to say that nothing prevented those universities from accepting a more diverse class before. It’s not like they lacked applicants from diverse backgrounds. 🙄
The article specifies that when universities dropped the tests, applications overall jumped but applications from minorities, low-income and first-gen students jumped WAY more. So so so many kids weren’t applying. They were taking themselves out of the running. I think it’s a huge window into understanding the nuances of what has been going on.
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4 hours ago, Arcadia said:
Summer after 11th is counted for UC
“1. Convert your grades to grade points.Convert the grades earned in all A-G courses completed between summer after 9th grade through summer after 11th grade to grade points: A=4 points, B=3 points, C=2 points, D=1 points. (Pluses and minuses don't count.)“
Thank you!!
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Just now, SDMomof3 said:
The summer before 10th is counted. The summer after 11th is not counted.
Where do you guys find this stuff! The technicalities are going to kill me in this state! 😂
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Which major? Anything to do with pre-med? That’s one place I’ve seen UCs not allowing AP credits for certain things (calculus, chemistry, etc.) I read somewhere that it’s because medical schools won’t accept AP credits and want to see a grade in a course.
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I don’t want to sound like a Debbie downer, but admissions offers at the UCs came out a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t seen any UC acceptances this year either here or at hs2coll.
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29 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:
But now the landscape has changed and we find ourselves 1) lobbying our present charter to make some changes at the high school level to be more accommodating, 2) entering the lottery at a more flexible charter that could work for high school
I signed DD up with what I thought was the perfect flexible charter (that would let us keep homeschooling just how we wanted), and they dramatically changed the rules literally 2 weeks before the start of school. Maybe because of pressure from the state? Maybe because of COVID? And with COVID flooding the charters with new students, there was no way to find her another spot. I wish I’d had a back-up plan. We’ve done our best, but no one is very happy about it.
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1 hour ago, Arcadia said:
They allow her to work before turning 18? My DS16 was recommended by his math teacher for math peer tutoring in 2019 but has to be at least 18 so he doesn’t qualify.
They didn’t have any age restrictions at her CC. She didn’t tell the professor her age at first though—they only found out when they went to do a background check on her and realized they couldn’t because of her age.
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All DE for my kiddo too. She really likes learning with older kids, and she’s also over-the-top extroverted so is super excited to get back into a social classroom. She’s focused on getting into an MCB major, so she’s heavy on science and math.
Math: Calculus 2, maybe Statistics if she can fit it in
Science: Organic Chemistry 1 & 2, Bio 1
Language Arts: English Comp/Research Methods (something like that)
History: World History
She has the foreign language requirement finished.
She does choir, and they’ll be doing an opera with a local company this year. And she does scouts, so hopefully they can go back to camping and backpacking. And she has a part-time job at her community college.
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5 minutes ago, mckittre said:
Any thoughts on where to go after the AOPS programming classes? My 6th grader is taking the intermediate python class now, and really enjoying it (though the workload is a lot for him -- these are his first online classes ever). He learned a little programming on his own before the classes, but the classes seem to have accelerated both his interest and skills, so it'd be nice to continue that momentum.
I asked a similar question a few weeks ago and someone recommended Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com/learn/overview
The only advice I have is that I would avoid the MOOCS if possible. The free classes seem so tempting, but there’s no support, there’s often huge gaps in the info they’re presenting, and your kid will end up hating programming. 😞
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1 hour ago, 8filltheheart said:
I dont believe that college will end up primarily online. I think the weaknesses of online learning have been highlighted. Lack f interactive classrooms, lack of in person labs, problems with online testing, etc are all suboptimal. They make them work, but no, they are not directly equivalent.
I agree. My husband is a professor at a STEM-focused university, and yesterday the president of the university pressured them tremendously to all go back to teaching in-person classes in the fall. The kids hated this experiment. They want to see the professor, ask questions in real time and in person, they hate pre-recorded segments of the class, they hated on-line tests, etc.
It was the exact opposite of what we expected. We’ve been thinking this would be the beginning of the end—why would the university need so many professors when they can just use pre-recorded lectures over and over and over. But, the kids revolted and don’t seem to want this remote future.
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24 minutes ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:
I’ve seen these described as “need conscious / need aware” (as opposed to “need blind”).
Thanks! This is the article I remember reading about buying a seat:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/your-money/college-admissions-wealth.html
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4 hours ago, madteaparty said:
They should just sell seats. So the price is transparent and it would free up seats for the merit kids. I mean, essentially it’s what’s happening, but I realize transparency is not in the school’s interest. Edit: sell seats to the big donors and put everyone qualified in a true lottery. So we can be spared the endless speculation as to why their kid had the special sauce.
Aren’t there universities that do this? I can’t remember what the term is, but basically, if you’re willing to pay the full price and are a good student, you’re very very likely in. A friend got her son into Carleton this way, after he was rejected everywhere else. (I’ll probably think of the term in the middle of the night—there was a nice long list of schools like this)
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2 hours ago, Farrar said:
You do admission by exception. If you're doing a PSA in California, then A-G approved is essentially not available to you. For the UC schools, it's like the process for admitting private or out of state students, so in that sense, you're fine. The UC's are pretty competitive, but they're absolutely open to PSA students and there are lots of success stories every year. @rzberrymom, are you on the CA Homeschool College Seekers group on Facebook? That group is a bit nuts (and I'm sure Laura and RA will forgive me for saying that) so don't get overwhelmed by the parents there. But there is a lot of good information there about very specific UC for homeschoolers stuff there.
Because the SAT is not an option, you're right that DE and AP classes do take on a greater importance. But they are not the only things you can do to increase your student's chance of acceptance at the UC's. And "greater importance" doesn't mean they're your only option or that you have to have an overwhelming slate of them in order for your student to show that they can be successful. All the things that other people are talking about here about solid coursework, outside honors, interesting activities, great letters of rec, etc. etc. are also at play for the UC's.
That would make me really nervous without being able to have any standardized test to back it up. But, I’m glad there’s some other way!
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2 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:
Also, UCs can no longer take SATs into account for admissions, but they can still look at them I believe to clear prerequisites. So I wonder if math and English A through G could still be validated through SATs. You used to be able to do that when “entrance by examination” was an option.
This is the language on that:
Nov. 24, 2020 update to May 21, 2020 release: Subsequent events have changed how the University of California will evaluate applications for Fall 2021 admissions. UC will not consider SAT or ACT test scores when making admissions decisions or awarding Regents and Chancellor’s scholarships. For students who choose to submit standardized test scores as part of their applications, the University may use them to determine eligibility for the California statewide admissions guarantee, as an alternative method of fulfilling minimum requirements for eligibility, or for course placement after they enroll.
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The SAT and ACT are gone. Not optional. You can still submit the scores to place out of classes, but they can’t use them for admissions decisions. Eventually, they say they’re going to try to create their own test.
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2 hours ago, Momto6inIN said:
I agree with @8filltheheart and @Farrar. I don't need anyone's validation of my homeschooling. My kids' educations all look different because they had the time to go after their passion and their individual vision for their future. Oldest DS is very motivated and academically competitive so he had a few APs and very challenging math course descriptions and a lot of programming experience. 2nd DS is focused on teambuilding and leadership and collaboration, so he had no APs but had a ton of experience in his ECs with leading and working as a group. Oldest DD hasn't yet clarified exactly what she wants to study in college yet, but chances are good it will be in a social work type field and so she has lots of time spent volunteering and working with kids. So far she doesn't have any APs, but she might decide to self study for the AP Psych exam.
They all have take the SAT to get into college here. Are CA schools moving into not accepting SAT/ACT scores at all? Or are they just making them optional?
I do have them all do a DE course during senior year, but that's more of a let's dip our toes gently into college level executive functioning skills thing rather than a validation thing. By the time they apply to college at the beginning of senior year, they don't have that DE on their transcript yet except as an "in progress" thing, so it's not really validation.
But, I’m not sure this works within the UC system. Maybe someone can tell me if I have this wrong? According to all the info I’ve read on their website, they have strict A-G requirements which can only be fulfilled by 1) classes from an approved course list from approved institutions (i.e. my little registered homeschool is not on that list), 2) an AP or IB exam, or 3) a college course. They also accept SAT subject tests, but now those are gone. So, there’s just no way that I can see to be admitted without fulfilling those requirements in one of those ways (or transfer by fulfilling a different list of courses from a community college).
And now the UC system has completely eliminated the SAT and ACT. Forever.
I don’t know what a homeschooler can do here other than chase APs and DE classes. This is definitely not the experience I imagined for a high schooler when we started homeschooling 10 years ago, but it’s the reality for us.
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2 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:
The SAT is not gone, just the subject tests.
The SAT is gone at the UC schools, so maybe that’s what the OP meant?
We’re also in CA and have gone with DE, both at a CC and a local university. I just couldn’t bear to teach to a test with my DD. For us, the upside of DE is that my DD is now planning to just transfer to a UC, saving us a load of money. The downside is that the grades are forever, and so you have to make sure that they’re really ready to tackle the class. We started with something very familiar to her and added more and more from there.
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Balancing rigor, box checking, and enjoyment when your child is an artist
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted · Edited by rzberrymom
My DD’s dual enrollment classes are all over the place (some in 8th grade, lots during the summers, etc.), so we made a subject-based transcript rather than going by year. It’s a little like this: https://www.servingdaytoday.com/2013/04/subject-transcript-instead-of-yearly.html#.YIRgsi1HahA
My kiddo sounds like yours. Very practical about DE—she feels like why slog through a year when it can be over and mastered in a quarter or semester.