AP scores

[Roadrunner]

13 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

I expect to have to make adjustments, to be honest. The kid I used to take to classes (and whose mom also took Miriam to some classes) is moving to Michigan, in fact... we're sad about that. On the other hand, we'd been friends with her and her family for 3 years now, so really you could say we've had a good run. School friends can move away eventually, too! 

And I do think the fact that I've figured out how to do Zoom classes for my kids will help the kids keep in touch. This wasn't really on my radar before, and now it is. 

Your biggest asset will be your location. If you are in NYC, once things open up, even one class a semester for social opportunities could work. We are rural, so a very different story here. 

[Roadrunner]

6 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

Honestly, that's why outside of homeschool/school groups are good-sports, dance, drama, youth orchestra, scouting, role playing games,  something. Because those groups don't drift as much as people change schools. Otherwise, there is a BIG surge at 6th grade and one at 9th :).  And yes, it also ends up being the situation that people who were great friends in elementary have nothing in common in middle and high school, so interest based groups is good there-it gives something to talk about. One thing my teen discovered this year is that without the common group, it was really hard to carry on a conversation, even with the same people. 

One problem we had here in the homeschool community, and why we doubled down on cheer at about age 12, was that those who kept homeschooling often outsourced to tutorials or university model schools that met a couple of days a week, and once they had that peer group, that also became the friend group. For my academic kid, that wasn't a good choice-if anything, the tutorials were more age stratified and limited than a school would have been. So, we moved from rec to club cheer and added college classes so that there was a classroom experience and other people to talk about academics with. 

BUt yes, the social needs become much more an issue with teens-both in being more important, and in being hard to meet because many parents feel less capable of managing academics so they send the kids back to school. And teens also need other adult mentors. School isn't the only place to find them, but it takes effort to make those connections outside of a school setting. 

What we found thought is sports and music don’t lead to friendships. I mean it’s a good way to engage in an activity they liked, and good way to be around kids, but there is no social interaction. And orchestra kids basically had their own clicks based on schools they went. Not that there was much time to interact anyway. 
I think, if I were to start this all over again, developing afterschool clubs, the sort high schools have, where kids bond based on interest is the key. Theatre seems to do that well here. 

[Not_a_Number]

11 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Your biggest asset will be your location. If you are in NYC, once things open up, even one class a semester for social opportunities could work. We are rural, so a very different story here. 

Oh, agreed. It was definitely something we thought about when we were moving... how to actually create social opportunities. Especially since DD8, unlike DD5, is not hyper-social. I kind of figure DD5 will grow up to be a social and emotionally astute kid whatever I do. I don't feel that way about DD8 -- she needs help and practice in this area. 

[Sneezyone]

4 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

Honestly, that's why outside of homeschool/school groups are good-sports, dance, drama, youth orchestra, scouting, role playing games,  something. Because those groups don't drift as much as people change schools. Otherwise, there is a BIG surge at 6th grade and one at 9th :).  And yes, it also ends up being the situation that people who were great friends in elementary have nothing in common in middle and high school, so interest based groups is good there-it gives something to talk about. One thing my teen discovered this year is that without the common group, it was really hard to carry on a conversation, even with the same people. 

One problem we had here in the homeschool community, and why we doubled down on cheer at about age 12, was that those who kept homeschooling often outsourced to tutorials or university model schools that met a couple of days a week, and once they had that peer group, that also became the friend group. For my academic kid, that wasn't a good choice-if anything, the tutorials were more age stratified and limited than a school would have been. So, we moved from rec to club cheer and added college classes so that there was a classroom experience and other people to talk about academics with. 

BUt yes, the social needs become much more an issue with teens-both in being more important, and in being hard to meet because many parents feel less capable of managing academics so they send the kids back to school. And teens also need other adult mentors. School isn't the only place to find them, but it takes effort to make those connections outside of a school setting. 

This is what we found/had in Hawaii, a combo of homeschooling and private schooling parents that valued education so DD didn’t feel like an outsider.  When we moved overseas, the only English-speaking kids were at the DoDEA school and they had a variety of academic orientations. Meh, it is what it is. We’re not normal and we make do.

[Not_a_Number]

15 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

Honestly, that's why outside of homeschool/school groups are good-sports, dance, drama, youth orchestra, scouting, role playing games,  something. Because those groups don't drift as much as people change schools.

For us, that hasn't worked well -- kids show up, kids do the activity, kids leave. We've tried to cultivate some of the parents, and we do have a kid who we were friends with who goes to Hebrew school with Miriam, but it was really hard to schedule any playdates at all, because they were SO overscheduled. The hazards of an urban area and ambitious parents... 

[Sneezyone]

7 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

What we found thought is sports and music don’t lead to friendships. I mean it’s a good way to engage in an activity they liked, and good way to be around kids, but there is no social interaction. And orchestra kids basically had their own clicks based on schools they went. Not that there was much time to interact anyway. 
I think, if I were to start this all over again, developing afterschool clubs, the sort high schools have, where kids bond based on interest is the key. Theatre seems to do that well here. 

Gym and cheer really are different. There’s something about bonding over your mutual hatred of a sadistic conditioning coach that forms lasting bonds. It’s not just the  practices but the competitions too.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Sneezyone said:

Gym and cheer really are different. There’s something about binding over your mutual hatred of a sadistic conditioning coach that forms lasting bonds.

Lol. Bonding through shared pain, oy. Actually, DD8 and a daughter of one of my husband's coworkers have bonded before over having parents that are pretty academically pushy 😉 . So maybe similar?? 😛 

[Sneezyone]

1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

Lol. Bonding through shared pain, oy. Actually, DD8 and a daughter of one of my husband's coworkers have bonded before over having parents that are pretty academically pushy 😉 . So maybe similar?? 😛 

Maybe. The advantage of gym/cheer tho (sister sports) is that the enemy isn’t you.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Dmmetler]

2 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

Gym and cheer really are different. There’s something about bonding over your mutual hatred of a sadistic conditioning coach that forms lasting bonds. It’s not just the  practices but the competitions too.

That's what we found, as well. There is just something about that environment that builds strong bonds. 

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Sneezyone said:

Maybe. The advantage if cheer tho is that the enemy isn’t you.

I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here, lol... both the kids I'm talking about are pretty driven themselves, so the parents definitely aren't the enemy or anything. But there was some bonding over some ways we'd gone overboard before 😉 . 

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Not_a_Number said:

I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here, lol... both the kids I'm talking about are pretty driven themselves, so the parents definitely aren't the enemy or anything. But there was some bonding over some ways we'd gone overboard before 😉 . 

Just to be clear, the kiddo I'm thinking about has been begging her parents to be homeschooled just like DD8 😉. They are both extremely academic kids. No one is torturing them. 

[Sneezyone]

4 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

That's what we found, as well. There is just something about that environment that builds strong bonds. 

Yep. DD is still SM friends with her L6/7 teammates. She’s also still very physically active. It’s been three years now since she quit gym and a year without cheer and I still hear her working out in her room. She has the nerve to bring me her ‘workout plans’ for review. Like I know a crunch from a burpee?! 🤣

Edited April 23, 2021 by Sneezyone

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

What we found thought is sports and music don’t lead to friendships. I mean it’s a good way to engage in an activity they liked, and good way to be around kids, but there is no social interaction.

For my DS, sport was the absolute game changer. The complete introvert who balked at attending park day every week because he had "already seen kids the other week" developed a solid circle of mixed age friends through martial arts when he started at age 14. 

[Roadrunner]

50 minutes ago, regentrude said:

For my DS, sport was the absolute game changer. The complete introvert who balked at attending park day every week because he had "already seen kids the other week" developed a solid circle of mixed age friends through martial arts when he started at age 14. 

You are lucky. 
We did a number of sports and usually kids would show up, practice, and then go home. It was fun, and we got to be around kids,  it nothing developed. It also didn’t help that most people segregated into their ethnic groups and we belonged to none. And it doesn’t help that my older boy is a definition of a nerd. 

[rzberrymom]

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.

[Arcadia]

8 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

We did a number of sports and usually kids would show up, practice, and then go home. It was fun, and we got to be around kids,  it nothing developed. It also didn’t help that most people segregated into their ethnic groups and we belonged to none. And it doesn’t help that my older boy is a definition of a nerd. 

Talking about memes break the ice. My kids doe sports at an Asian majority city so while we don’t face that much racial segregation, college applications and high school GPA are hot topics among the teens. 
 

@Not_a_Number if a person is a social butterfly and gifted, then won’t birds of a feather tend to flock together. I think it is easier to fly under the radar if a child is also a social butterfly. Their peers are more likely to notice the social butterfly aspect than the high academic achiever aspect.

[Arcadia]

2 minutes ago, rzberrymom said:

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...”

...

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).

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”

[rzberrymom]

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.

 

[Roadrunner]

39 minutes ago, rzberrymom said:

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.

We thought about applying to Cosmos camp but my DS is refusing to do anything over zoom. It’s good to know those programs are only targeting certain minorities. We know where not to waste energy. 

[lewelma]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

 if a person is a social butterfly and gifted, then won’t birds of a feather tend to flock together. I think it is easier to fly under the radar if a child is also a social butterfly. Their peers are more likely to notice the social butterfly aspect than the high academic achiever aspect.

My younger boy has an incredibly high EQ. He is both an empath and has striking charisma. Meaning he is both bringing in and exuding emotion in a nuanced way. We knew from when he was a very young boy (about 4), and people would come up to me almost every day to comment on his charisma. I even had a father once tell me "if both your kid and mine were drowning, I would push my kids out of the way to save yours." 😲  So yes, we knew from a very young age.

Being an empath was actually a massive negative when he was young, because he could see things that other people could not see and that as a young boy he was not in a position to understand, and it made him second guess his interactions. He actually headed into a phase of Social Anxiety disorder that we had to deal with very carefully for about 2 years from the age of 6 to 8.  His greatest gift was also a curse as a small child. 

But his charisma has led him to be the most popular kid anywhere he goes.  At camp every year, he has a huge following of kids.  The parents actually started calling it the "Brayden Bunch" because everywhere he went, he would have a triangle of around 20 kids behind him, walking, biking, talking. Where he went, the Brayden Bunch went.  I would meet a new parent, and simply say "I'm Brayden's mum" and they would always say the same thing "Oh, my kid loves Brayden." Yep, I know.

Into his high school years, he has kept up a steady stream of activities, both with younger kids and same age peers.  He must be with kids everyday from about 2 to 4 hours. This has definitely dug into his academic time, but I have come to believe that the socializing is more than just socializing, he actually has chosen different activities to help him deal with different issues.  This group for leadership, that group because of the difficult person, the other group because of the need for cooperation, different groups for different ages and types of interactions.  In the end, if I had to build an American transcript, I would definitely create a class or even 2 on leadership because he has spent so much of his time developing skill in his biggest area of talent. 

He is now considering jobs like: cultural geographer, professional mediator, mayor, or even MP. What I have come to understand is that the development of this skill which is critical to all endeavours is often dismissed as just being a social butterfly.  That there is no way that he can AP credit in leadership, or have anyone recognize that this work is academic (but without a formal course) and is equally if not more valuable than academics for his goals in life. It is incredibly frustrating that he can't be recognized for it in the terms of his class load.  But once I reoriented my mind to him developing his talent, I have cut his high school work back to 25 hours per week, to make room for this even more important effort. He needs the time to develop the skill that will be the most important for the type of work he will go into. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by lewelma

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Talking about memes break the ice. My kids doe sports at an Asian majority city so while we don’t face that much racial segregation, college applications and high school GPA are hot topics among the teens. 
 

@Not_a_Number if a person is a social butterfly and gifted, then won’t birds of a feather tend to flock together. I think it is easier to fly under the radar if a child is also a social butterfly. Their peers are more likely to notice the social butterfly aspect than the high academic achiever aspect.

Mine would rather talk about rabbits, of which he knows nothing about, then discuss GPAs or colleges. 😂 He will run after you to explain what he is learning in subjects though. We tried San Jose crowd once and it was enough. 

[Arcadia]

27 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Mine would rather talk about rabbits, of which he knows nothing about, then discuss GPAs or colleges. 😂 He will run after you to explain what he is learning in subjects though. We tried San Jose crowd once and it was enough. 

My teens were talking about Minecraft with the San Jose crowd 😂 The San Jose greater area’s 4H group is very into rabbits. They were very patient explaining to my teens during an event at Emma Prusch Farm. Sports is at a 67% Asian city. 

[Roadrunner]

1 minute ago, Arcadia said:

My teens were talking about Minecraft with the San Jose crowd 😂 The San Jose greater area’s 4H group is very into rabbits. They were very patient explaining to my teens during an event at Emma Prusch Farm. Sports is at a 67% Asian city. 

I think you are missing my point. 
Few activities we tried, kids (and especially parents) were out of this world competitive. Now maybe if we had gone to 4H, but we have that here as well. We thought driving was maybe worth it for some academic things, but we really didn’t fit in. 
We are going to try one more thing there for a different kid. Maybe this particular activity attracts a different crowd. 

[Arcadia]

11 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

We are going to try one more thing there for a different kid. Maybe this particular activity attracts a different crowd. 

Since you have told me which activity, that also attracts the “academic” parents. The kids are likely okay. Quite a few parents are aiming for that for the extracurriculars and LoRs portion of college applications. 
ETA: I do think that having lots of parents who came here via H1 visa does increase the competitive parents issue. It is already competitive for them to gain a H1 visa. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Arcadia

[SDMomof3]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Since you have told me which activity, that also attracts the “academic” parents. The kids are likely okay. Quite a few parents are aiming for that for the extracurriculars and LoRs portion of college applications. 
ETA: I do think that having lots of parents who came here via H1 visa does increase the competitive parents issue. It is already competitive for them to gain a H1 visa. 

Parents with H1 visas are definitely more competitive. Even in my Ds’s Boy Scout troop. They are very focused on Eagle Scout. 

[Arcadia]

1 minute ago, SDMomof3 said:

Parents with H1 visas are definitely more competitive. Even in my Ds’s Boy Scout troop. They are very focused on Eagle Scout. 

That is because they are told that Eagle Scout represents leadership under extracurriculars for college applications. That if their child is a scout and don’t achieve Eagle Scout rank/achievement, then that would not be good. 
 

I was a Girl Scout and then part of the Trefoil Guild. For my country of origin, public universities admit citizens and permanent residents based on exams results. My schoolmates won’t fighting for leadership positions in Scouts or Student Council or any other extracurriculars. 

[Roadrunner]

31 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

That is because they are told that Eagle Scout represents leadership under extracurriculars for college applications. That if their child is a scout and don’t achieve Eagle Scout rank/achievement, then that would not be good. 
 

I was a Girl Scout and then part of the Trefoil Guild. For my country of origin, public universities admit citizens and permanent residents based on exams results. My schoolmates won’t fighting for leadership positions in Scouts or Student Council or any other extracurriculars. 

Yes, this sort of thing is alien to our area. I am not sure what Eagle Scout is, but it seemed to me from our brief forays into the Bay Area culture that most activities weren’t children driven but parent driven, and you could just feel stress, tension, and somewhat unfriendliness. Or maybe we just didn’t fit in. Actually I know we didn’t fit in. 

[Not_a_Number]

38 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Yes, this sort of thing is alien to our area. I am not sure what Eagle Scout is, but it seemed to me from our brief forays into the Bay Area culture that most activities weren’t children driven but parent driven, and you could just feel stress, tension, and somewhat unfriendliness. Or maybe we just didn’t fit in. Actually I know we didn’t fit in. 

I think like with everything... you have to keep trying things and looking. 

[Arcadia]

34 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Yes, this sort of thing is alien to our area. I am not sure what Eagle Scout is, but it seemed to me from our brief forays into the Bay Area culture that most activities weren’t children driven but parent driven, and you could just feel stress, tension, and somewhat unfriendliness. 

The more competitive parents look down on all CSUs and most UCs, and think only UCB and UCLA are good enough. My social circle is less competitive while my husband’s colleagues are a mixed. 
 

Given that people tend to start small talk with which city you live in, it would be harder for someone outside the Bay Area to get to know the less competitive parents. I have wonderful supportive neighbors and ultra competitive neighbors who has kids in high school currently. I have a neighbor who would “stalk” what books I reserved at the neighborhood library 🤦🏻‍♀️

[daijobu]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Given that people tend to start small talk with which city you live in, it would be harder for someone outside the Bay Area to get to know the less competitive parents. I have wonderful supportive neighbors and ultra competitive neighbors who has kids in high school currently. I have a neighbor who would “stalk” what books I reserved at the neighborhood library 🤦🏻‍♀️

OMG, this happened to me too by another homeschooling dad.  Totally creeped me out, even though he meant it as a compliment.  It was years ago, but I still feel a little freaked out by it.  

[Sebastian (a lady)]

For those interested in digging into AP score distribution, Higher Ed Data Stories has lots of info pulled from the latest College Board data release. 

https://www.highereddatastories.com/2021/04/public-and-private-schools-and-ap-exams.html?m=1

[Arcadia]

8 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

For those interested in digging into AP score distribution, Higher Ed Data Stories has lots of info pulled from the latest College Board data release. 

https://www.highereddatastories.com/2021/04/public-and-private-schools-and-ap-exams.html?m=1

@rzberrymom

If we look at California's state report on https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020

and look at the "IN-STATE COLLEGES  RECEIVING THE GREATEST NUMBER OF AP SCORES
FOR STUDENTS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA" tab, the first 13 listed are state universities.  The score distributions are in the same Excel files.

"

COLLEGE CODE	COLLEGE NAME	TOTAL STUDENTS	TOTAL SCORES
				4837	UNIV CALIF LOS ANGELES	4,725	14,917
4833	UNIV CALIF BERKELEY	4,305	13,810
4836	U OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO	4,255	12,901
4859	UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA IRVINE	4,067	11,490
4834	UNIV CALIF DAVIS	3,355	8,773
4835	UNIV CALIF SANTA BARBARA	3,173	9,008
4860	UNIV CALIF SANTA CRUZ	2,468	6,191
4839	UC RIVERSIDE	2,462	6,238
4038	CALIF POLY STATE UNIV	2,171	5,817
4682	SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY	1,870	4,168
4082	CALIF ST POLYTECHNIC U POMONA	1,831	4,355
4589	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV	1,712	3,658
4389	CALIF ST UNIV LONG BEACH	1,604	3,786
4852	UNIV SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	1,322	3,990
4687	SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY	1,001	2,137
4707	CALIF STATE UNIV NORTHRIDGE	816	1,598
4399	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV LA	680	1,279
4671	CALIF ST UNIV SACRAMENTO	654	1,324
4312	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV FRESNO	640	1,314
5677	CALIF STATE UNIV SAN MARCOS	515	1,044
4704	STANFORD UNIVERSITY	480	1,385
4129	UNIV CALIFORNIA MERCED	465	1,057"

[Roadrunner]

17 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

@rzberrymom

If we look at California's state report on https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020

and look at the "IN-STATE COLLEGES  RECEIVING THE GREATEST NUMBER OF AP SCORES
FOR STUDENTS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA" tab, the first 13 listed are state universities.  The score distributions are in the same Excel files.

"

COLLEGE CODE	COLLEGE NAME	TOTAL STUDENTS	TOTAL SCORES
				4837	UNIV CALIF LOS ANGELES	4,725	14,917
4833	UNIV CALIF BERKELEY	4,305	13,810
4836	U OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO	4,255	12,901
4859	UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA IRVINE	4,067	11,490
4834	UNIV CALIF DAVIS	3,355	8,773
4835	UNIV CALIF SANTA BARBARA	3,173	9,008
4860	UNIV CALIF SANTA CRUZ	2,468	6,191
4839	UC RIVERSIDE	2,462	6,238
4038	CALIF POLY STATE UNIV	2,171	5,817
4682	SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY	1,870	4,168
4082	CALIF ST POLYTECHNIC U POMONA	1,831	4,355
4589	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV	1,712	3,658
4389	CALIF ST UNIV LONG BEACH	1,604	3,786
4852	UNIV SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	1,322	3,990
4687	SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY	1,001	2,137
4707	CALIF STATE UNIV NORTHRIDGE	816	1,598
4399	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV LA	680	1,279
4671	CALIF ST UNIV SACRAMENTO	654	1,324
4312	CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV FRESNO	640	1,314
5677	CALIF STATE UNIV SAN MARCOS	515	1,044
4704	STANFORD UNIVERSITY	480	1,385
4129	UNIV CALIFORNIA MERCED	465	1,057"

So am I reading it right that UCB received about 3 exam scores per student who applied? That seems so low considering PS kids take 10 of those classes in seems. 

[Arcadia]

15 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

So am I reading it right that UCB received about 3 exam scores per student who applied? That seems so low considering PS kids take 10 of those classes in seems. 

It is weird considering that AP score reports are cumulative and my local public high schools encourage their students to take 4 AP exams each for their junior and senior year.

[rzberrymom]

That does seem really low, but it sure gives me a bit of hope for the DE credits!

[Roadrunner]

32 minutes ago, rzberrymom said:

That does seem really low, but it sure gives me a bit of hope for the DE credits!

If you are applying to CA schools, DE credits are gold. 

[Roadrunner]

40 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

It is weird considering that AP score reports are cumulative and my local public high schools encourage their students to take 4 AP exams each for their junior and senior year.

Same here! It’s shocking really. 

[Arcadia]

12 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Same here! It’s shocking really. 

If you look at the National report, AP Spanish Language & Literature is most popular before high school with 5,589 students taking. The most popular exam was AP English Language with a total of 535,478 students.

ETA: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2020/National.xlsx summary report tab

Edited April 26, 2021 by Arcadia

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 4/21/2021 at 12:25 PM, Farrar said:

I'm not saying that GPA is all that matters. And I get that many homeschoolers would like to use a test-based strategy. There are schools that continue to encourage that, so if you target those schools, you still can. If your state schools like in California, have shifted to test blind, then obviously that's not an option there specifically. But I refuse to believe that increased holistic admissions where coursework is more heavily evaluated hurts homeschoolers. Especially not when I do not see that happening on the ground in admissions stories. Which, yeah, are anecdotal, but there's not much data for this. If there were a giant wave of high flying homeschoolers who suddenly had a much worse year than everyone else, I think we'd hear about it. The homeschoolers I know by and large had a good year in admissions.

@Farrar

One concern I have is that as test scores are de-emphasized or eliminated (test blind, elimination of Subject Tests), colleges will look for other "official" outside indicators rather than reviewing homeschool academic experiences holistically. 

So they may want to see grades from online providers, DE, AP scores, or charter school transcripts rather than the results of courses taught and graded at home.

There is a perception that instruction that is paid for is better and has high quality outcomes than instruction done at home. I saw one admissions rep recently compare "official" grades to work done with Mom and an encyclopedia set. Such a misconception of what many are doing in homeschooling (not to mention an underestimation of the potential benefits of an encyclopedia set).

I think there is also potential for a swing back to requirements for scores from specific tests from homeschooled applicants even as traditional students can apply test optional (University of Washington for example).

[Sebastian (a lady)]

15 hours ago, Arcadia said:

If you look at the National report, AP Spanish Language & Literature is most popular before high school with 5,589 students taking. The most popular exam was AP English Language with a total of 535,478 students.

ETA: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2020/National.xlsx summary report tab

Many districts allow students to meet world language graduation requirements by passing an AP exam. They can take the exam in 8th grade and free up a lot of room in their schedule. This is typically an option pursued by native or heritage speakers. 

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

@Farrar

One concern I have is that as test scores are de-emphasized or eliminated (test blind, elimination of Subject Tests), colleges will look for other "official" outside indicators rather than reviewing homeschool academic experiences holistically. 

So they may want to see grades from online providers, DE, AP scores, or charter school transcripts rather than the results of courses taught and graded at home.

There is a perception that instruction that is paid for is better and has high quality outcomes than instruction done at home. I saw one admissions rep recently compare "official" grades to work done with Mom and an encyclopedia set. Such a misconception of what many are doing in homeschooling (not to mention an underestimation of the potential benefits of an encyclopedia set).

I think there is also potential for a swing back to requirements for scores from specific tests from homeschooled applicants even as traditional students can apply test optional (University of Washington for example).

This is already a reality in CA. 
My state has destroyed homeschooling. 

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

Many districts allow students to meet world language graduation requirements by passing an AP exam. They can take the exam in 8th grade and free up a lot of room in their schedule. This is typically an option pursued by native or heritage speakers. 

Was looking at the CSU application guide for freshman 2021-2022. It becomes a repetitive data entry process if using AP credit for world language or mathematics.

”How to receive AP credit for Area C – Mathematics
1. Select the grade level and year the test was taken.
2. Add “APExam” and then the exam name under Course Name (e.g. For an AP Calculus exam, enter “AP Exam Calculus” as the Course Name).
3. Then enter grades of Pass. Enter this“ APExam” course title for three consecutive academic years to obtain the appropriate Mathematics credit.

COURSE VALIDATION
How to receive AP credit for Area F – Language other than English (LOTE)
1. Select the grade level and year the test was taken.
2. Add “APExam” and then the exam name under Course Name (e.g.For an AP Spanish Language exam,
enter “AP Exam Spanish Language” as the Course Name).
3. Then enter grades of Pass. Enter this“ APExam” course title for two consecutive academic years to obtain the appropriate LOTE credit.”

https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/Documents/freshman-application-guide-21-22.pdf

[gstharr]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:59 AM, rzberrymom said:

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.

If the research academies are like the one at UCSB, the problem is probably not the lack of AP scores, The programs are designed to give high schoolers a taste of college. With all those DE credits, the summer programs might not benefit her.

[rzberrymom]

1 hour ago, gstharr said:

If the research academies are like the one at UCSB, the problem is probably not the lack of AP scores, The programs are designed to give high schoolers a taste of college. With all those DE credits, the summer programs might not benefit her.

Huh, we didn’t even think of that!?! Thank you!!