on the off chance you're in Wisconsin (I didn't see a location on your profile).... https://www.kidsfromwi.org/ summer touring show throughout WI (with the occasional show in Illinois or Minnesota) Pretty high show quality, with decently large attendance (many shows have several thousand).

sorry for the late reply, here. For context, I have a BS CS, have worked in both startups and big-tech for 25 hears, and regularly hire and interview both new-grads and experienced CS folks. A few thoughts... - when starting out, where you go to school matters more than it probably should. This will be especially true if/when hiring tightens up. It's tough to get through the weeding out process at medium and larger tech co's as a NCG if you aren't coming from a known university that they hire from. Same is true for the internship opportunities - which DC should definitely, absolutely, plan to take advantage of once they get to that point. - ML/AI is especially math heavy. And the teams on the forefront of that tend to be, IME, a bit 'elitist' about academic background - so here again, location matters more than it probably should. - always, always consider cost of attending. That said, if there was a field where it'd be worth, IMO, taking on 40k of student debt to attend a top-10 university vs the unknown local U, this is probably it. For reference, summer internships at big tech for juniors (and sometimes sophomores) may roughly 30k for the summer and often end with a job offer for post-graduation. -IME, the 'BA in Math with CS focus' is not an equivalent degree to a BS in CS. It's a very solid option, but not the same. You mentioned Illinois was local to you. Some sort-of nearby Universities you might consider that are widely thought of as having top CS departments include: - Wisconsin (UW Madison) - Northwestern - Michigan

older son's experience was likewise not good. First-year students were not allowed to just look at the catalog and pick classes - they had to talk to the counselor and have them sign them up. The counselor was unclear on the requirements for his major and refused to submit the set of classes/schedule he wanted. Part of the issue is he arrived w/ all but 1 GE completed due to AP and DE courses, so I'm sure his schedule was a bit unusual but he was also really specific 'I want to take every intro dance class you have. There are no prerequisites, I can fit them in my schedule, I'm under the credit-hours limits for the term, and here is my plan showing I will do that and still graduate in 3 years'. Counselor was undeterred and signed him up for only 1. He ended up having to just contact the dean, who leaned on someone and fixed it. I was shocked. When I was an undergrad they just handed you the book and said 'you sign up via phone starting at 8AM tomorrow. good luck'. I'm sure that's also not great for many people.

IMO, this the way to go. 1) I highly recommend you start with an actual programming language (Python, Java, C if you're a glutton for punishment) not a scripting language. 2) IMO, learning to program requires feedback and interaction with a human. you will simply get much better at it with actual feedback. It's like learning to write essays - you need a human to tell you not just what's _not grammatically incorrect_ but rather what's done well, what's done poorly, and why. So..MOOC with someone who's available, AoPS, DE class...whatever you can find, as long as there's a person there to help.

came here just to say this. CVC now has multiple levels of HS chem. None are 'easy', but there's a huge range. And Connie is just the best. SO encouraging. I had a stem-ish kid (mostly mathish, tbh) who was convinced they despised chemistry (there were actual tears over 'you must take this'), who will be headed to college next year as a Chem/IntegratedSciences major. I blame congratulate the CVC class for that. 🙂

Just occurred to me..perhaps to compare it matters what the credits were? And one include pe, for example?

28 for ds2. 2 from 8th (alg2 and german1). 2 were de. 7 AP classes for 6 credits (I counted each Econ as 1/2). (Admitted at at MichSt and northwestern)

DS took the 'AdvHonorsChem' 2 years ago, and is taking OChem from Connie now. We went with graded both times, and totally recommend it. The opportunity to practice working fully independent from me was great, and Connie is a fantastic teacher. Grading is more than just if the final answer is correct, but includes a requirement that reasonable humans can understand how you got to that answer and that the process is correct. I've been pounding the table about that for years, but having someone else enforce it was transformational. I will also second the PPs note that the classes are excellent, but challenging, and a fair amount of hard work. 10/10 would recommend.

DS got into the Integrated Science Program @ Northwestern! You have to apply separately, after you're accepted to the university. He's super excited. (It's basically an honors stem major that combines physics, chem, and bio with a smidge of extra math. All very small classes)

That's unfortunate, but I'm not 100% shocked. Our older did 1-4, the younger 1-3. One and two where honestly easier for us because they sent home the answers so a parent could at least kinda help. From 3 on you had to send in the packets and over time it seems like the grad-students charged with grading and doing weekly chats with students have been less and less engaged. OTOH.....it worked pretty well for us. The kiddo who did through German 4 just took a placement test at his college, now almost 3 years after his last class with OSU, and scored into the second-half of year 2 of the college's sequence. Which was enough for him to test out of the language requirement, so he was happy. It's too bad to see a long-standing online option open to homeschoolers go away.

hooray! DS-TheYounger is doing the DanceOfJoy 🥳 over here. He applied ED to Northwestern, who announced today. He got in! Very excited. Next step is to apply to their IntegratedScience major (reports vary from 50% to 10% on the fraction of incoming freshmen who apply to that major who are accepted, so no idea how nervous to be). Either way, he's headed to NU and it'll either be Chem or IS&Chem.

+1 for Stats. Honestly...I wish we made all HS kids take it as part of their 'be a functioning adult' education. Knowing enough stats to be able to tell when someone is trying to pull one over on you (using mean when what you should care about is median), understand where 'polling margin of error' comes from, or make decent decisions in board games with dice should be considered a life skill, IMO.

Some of this might be class specific. AP HumanGeo is widely considered one of the easiest AP courses. The concepts required are trivial and the analysis they're looking for is pretty superficial. It is, in fact, mostly a vocabulary course. If you know the definitions and have a reasonable grasp of a handful of stats/stories for 2-3 representative countries, you'll do fine on the exam. we self-studied this w/ DS19 when he was a freshman. I think we had a pretty thorough course, including a broad set of primary sources, an actual text book, and decent amounts of writing. In the end, though, the thing that got him a 5 was a week with the Barrons book and a stack of flash cards.

My DS has a high ACT score but is mostly looking at universities that do not provide any merit-based scholarships. Does anyone have a source for outside (e.g. not through the university) merit-based scholarships based on test cores?

sure, but is single-variable calculus really the edge of understanding for someone with a BS in math? Didn't they see that (likely in HS, but at least) in the first 1/2 year of their first-year in college...so they've got another 1.5 years of lower-division and then 2 years of upper-division math beyond what's in CalcBC? Wouldn't anyone with a BS STEM degree have seen single and multi-variable calculus, stats, diff-EQ, and (if they went to school in the last 20 years) LinAlg, at least? Not to mention application of this in Calc-based Physics? That seems sufficient, no?

DS#1 is a MusicTheatre major currently. He took AP MusicTheory through PAH as a Senior, then tested out of first theory course in college and opted to take the advanced. He loves 'aural skills'. I don't get it, but apparently this is super fun. 🙂 I asked him for recommendations: "Teoria. Has infinite exercises for any type of scale. If you don't want to save your scores it's free. They paid version will be cheaper than a tutor. Musictheory.net - also free and very good 10 minutes a day. Doesn’t have to be more. Can’t be less. Just getting those things in your ear. And maybe it takes you the whole 10 minutes to do one scale on the first day. But as you go get faster. Also don’t worry about being right at first. Just put something in so you can see the answer. Then read the answer and listen to it again knowing what it is. Then move on. Don’t worry if you get only 10% right at first. You’ll get better. The important thing is hearing them and then being told what it is and then hearing it again. After a while you’ll be able to ID it. You’ll develop your own strategy. But coming at it from a theory perspective always helped me. Some people say “that sounds like a harmonic minor scale because that’s what it sounds like”. I say: “I know a harmonic minor scale has a lowered 3rd but a raised 7th because of theory.” Then I can play individual intervals in my head to check that. Then over time I get the feel but I can always double check it with my theory."

there is an optional report that looks like it allows you to update transcripts and such, and seems to exist for this purpose. I have no idea what the application committee gets, though. For all I know they get the whole copy of the original and also the updated, rather than a replacement, which would seem pretty confusing.

following up here.... We did a round of on campus visits to other contenders (Michigan, UWMadison, UnivChicago) as well as NU. He loved NU the most, by far. I think he tried to make an honest effort to like UW best. Mom would probably prefer that, for geography and academic calendar reasons...but it wasn't all that close. Campus, academics, location, handling of trangender student housing, etc all favored NU. He contacted the coordinator for the IntegratedScienceProgram major before we went, and they arranged for him to meet with a BioChem prof and then audit the ISP sophomore biochem class he was giving. It was ~20 students and he LOVED it. And so - he has just sent off the application for ED at Northwestern. The ISP major requires a separate application, due in a month, and it's also selective (among students who first get into NU). I think he has a decent chance there - his science and math backgrounds are pretty good - but who knows. He'll be thrilled to be 'just' a Chem major at NU as well, should be be allowed to do that. So, now we wait. (and he works on the ISP application. And scholarships). Thanks, everyone, for all your input.

noted. And thank you!!

Unfortunately, they're all different. DS is taking 2 classes at the local JC this year. Only one is using Canvas, which he's used before, but a version local to the college and it's subtly different. And even then, assignments are to be submitted via an alternative mechanism. PAH has its own site, which many classes use, but some don't and those that don't are all over the place. It is what it is. FWIW - I struggled with essentially this for in-person school in High School. The German teacher wrote assignments on a consistent corner of the board and left the notes there till they were due. The math teacher mostly just said them verbally. The chem teacher had them written on the back board when you came in and you were supposed to notice. History handed out a page at the start of each unit that had all the assignments listed on it for the unit. some wanted them placed in the basket as you walk in, some handed in on request. <shrug>. I think you just have to adapt. I find this kind of organization challenging, but it's not going away.

yeah....that aligns with most discussion I've seen on the topic, which mostly seems like bunk. 'legally binding'...really? If it is, then a contract you sign would specify exactly what happens if you break it, not just that you're not supposed ta. "We'll tell your school counselor and you'll get in trouble?" ok. I'm the school counselor, so....<shrug> It sounds like the schools colluding and a non-ED school then deciding to stop processing your application even though you didn't withdraw it is the only actually real consequence. And that might happen. Or maybe the threat of that happening is the only real deterrent. By the end of application season, older DS was getting offers in the mail that read roughly as 'blink once for yes you'll come to our uni, and twice for maybe you'll come to our uni", and then post-starting college gets letters in the mail that read like "disappointed in the place you picked? Not too late to come <here> starting now". To be clear...we've setup an on site for NWern, and assuming he's still excited for their program 4-6 weeks from now he'll probably apply ED and would do so expecting to attend if admitted. But the empty threat of 'you must' seems sketchy to me.

I would agree with this. There is, imo, tremendous value in an actual person with whom you can ask questions and have an interactive discussion. FWIW, I also think there is value in having an actual human who can give feedback on format, clarity, and process...even if you totally get the math. Math at this level is a language not just a set of axioms. When you solve a problem you are communicating a sequence of ideas, and understanding conventions and clarity for how to communicate that in a manner that other humans (including you-two-weeks-from-now) will understand takes practice and feedback. I will also add that these books are HARD. Not knowing how to solve some of the review, and especially the challenge, problems is just part of the deal. From my own education and practice, and having taught it twice, I think I'm pretty comfy with the topics in AoPS IntAlg. And yet, there are some problems I will be unable to solve. I look at the answer and think "oh. I see how you did that...and yes, that works. But I would _never have thought of that on my own'. I would not take this to mean, necessarily, that he's missing something or not understanding the material. They are, on purpose, hard problems and I wouldn't expect someone to just get them all. He'd probably still benefit from a human to work with, though.

just for understanding....what happens if you don't? What happens if you don't withdraw your application from other institutions if you get admitted someplace ED? What happens if you don't attend?

which suggests that a generally qualified candidate is actually more likely to get in if they apply ED? The student in question is above NW's 75th percentile in both ACT score and unweighted core-gpa. The question DS is asking is if he should apply ED to Northwestern (which he'd be totally excited to attend) because it maximizes his chances of getting in even though sucess would mean punting on Stanford (which he thinks is pretty unlikely). If the odds of admittance aren't any better, then there's no reason to do that. If they are better, he'll probably go that way to reduce the chances of not getting into either. Which I think he would find pretty disappointing.

DS is very interested in Northwestern. I think he'd prefer that over anything else, excepting Stanford which seems like a long-shot. Northwestern's ED acceptance rate is reportedly 25% vs 7% overall. Several of the competitive universities seem to have a similar trend where ED rates are higher. Is that just because the ED students are stronger than the general population, or is there an edge given to ED applicants because you've indicated a commitment to the institution? Put another way, is the same competitive applicant more likely to get in if applying ED vs regular decision at competitive institutions? DS's ACT scores and GPA are above the 75th percentile of reported admitted students, but I'm sure there are plenty of similar-looking-on-paper students who still don't get in.