Homework Help

[Darren]

Okay. this thread is pretty self-explanitory, especially with the start of school. It's a thread for homework or school. It doesn't matter what grade you're in or even if you're in college. It doesn't matter if you want to ask a question or for advice, answer a question, or even just rant about a certain teacher or subject. All of it can go here. If you're preparing for standardized testing for college, you can put that here as well.

Feel free to talk about anything here (as long as it's school related and [B]is within the guidelines of appropriate posting[/B])

Now, here's my problem: I'm applying to a few colleges in California (mainly the LA area) because that's where I want to live. I read that all UC colleges requires either the ACT + Writing or the SAT Reasoning [I]AND[/I] 2 SAT subject tests...
So... Is there any member of OB that has been accepted to a UC school? If so, what would you reccomend as far subject tests... And I know my scores aren't that high (my highest ACT being a 24 when UCLA only accepts about 24% from 24-27 range) but I'm hoping my GPA and extra-carriculars would help me out.
Also, there's the money issue. Out of state tuition is crazy!!! Do you think I should go to a junior college for a year, set up my residency, and then transfer?

That's all. Remember to have fun. (Or not, considering this is school we're talking about) And don't worry if you don't have an answer to my question. You can still ask for your own advice, but just for future reference: If this thread gets pretty long, try not to ignore the ones who posted earlier, but were skipped over.

[eleanor]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I'm still a senior in high school, but from what I've heard from most everybody (teachers, college students, etc.) is that SAT IIs aren't incredibly important. Colleges don't really care which subjects you choose to take them in, and if you break 600 on them you're fine. SAT IIs are usually used for placement purposes, and they're never going to make or break you when it comes to applications.

And just remember financial aid. A lot of people I know don't put any faith in it, but sometimes it works. lol

But anyways, I have a question. Do colleges care about AP exam scores? I've heard they do, and I've heard they couldn't give a rat's *** about them. [/font]

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"]But anyways, I have a question. Do colleges care about AP exam scores? I've heard they do, and I've heard they couldn't give a rat's *** about them. [/font][/QUOTE]

It depends, really. From my experience, if colleges accept the scores, then they'll most likely translate them into elective credit rather than credit for a specific course. An exception at my school is AP English Literature, which can be translated into credit for the basic freshman English course (which is much easier than AP English Lit, haha). I think they give actual credit for the AP Government exam, too. Again, though, it probably varies from school to school.

Anyway, uh, no specific homework trouble for me, except that I've had to go in to school a month early because we're working on a redesign for the ol' college newspaper. I should not be on campus a month before the quarter starts. This is unnatural. :|

[Yoshi]

AP exam scores definitely look good when applying,

as to using them after you get in... ...well there Shinmaru is correct. and at the better schools elective credit doesn't really even kick in unless you get a 4's or 5's depending on the subject. the exception is for AP languages, i think 3s or higher give you a good chance to pass out of college language requirements.

[eleanor]

[quote name='Shinmaru']It depends, really. From my experience, if colleges accept the scores, then they'll most likely translate them into elective credit rather than credit for a specific course. An exception at my school is AP English Literature, which can be translated into credit for the basic freshman English course (which is much easier than AP English Lit, haha). I think they give actual credit for the AP Government exam, too. Again, though, it probably varies from school to school.
[/QUOTE]

[font="trebuchet ms"] I honestly don't care whether I get credit, I'm actually only concerned about how it looks on my application. lol

I've heard from people that colleges care more about the grade you got in AP rather than your AP score, even to the point that AP scores aren't really important to them in the application review.[/font]

[Flagg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by [B]Darren[/B]
[SIZE="1"]Do you think I should go to a junior college for a year, set up my residency, and then transfer?[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

Yes I do

I plan to transfer to UCR

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='Darren;789042]Also, there's the money issue. Out of state tuition is crazy!!! Do you think I should go to a junior college for a year, set up my residency, and then transfer?[/QUOTE]That's a definite yes. It was never an issue for me since the University where I live has an excellent music program but still It's worth waiting on that residency since paying extra like that is not worth it.[QUOTE=Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"] I'm still a senior in high school, but from what I've heard from most everybody (teachers, college students, etc.) is that SAT IIs aren't incredibly important. Colleges don't really care which subjects you choose to take them in, and if you break 600 on them you're fine. SAT IIs are usually used for placement purposes, and they're never going to make or break you when it comes to applications.

And just remember financial aid. A lot of people I know don't put any faith in it, but sometimes it works. lol

But anyways, I have a question. Do colleges care about AP exam scores? I've heard they do, and I've heard they couldn't give a rat's *** about them. [/font][/QUOTE]I think it depends on what college you go to since even though it's been a while, nearly six years since I started College, I had yet to take those tests and even marked on my application indicating that I would and yet I got my acceptance letter before the actual test date. I also didn't take any AP/Honors classes when I was in High School and that didn't matter either.

I'm sure plenty of colleges are picky about it, but since the one I choose had an excellent program for what I wanted and they were not picky about it, that ended up not making any difference at all.

Also, you are correct, financial aid, is useful, even if filling out all the forms is a royal pain in the rear. It's still definately worth checking into.

[Funny Girl]

[COLOR="Magenta"]I'm only a Freshman and I take upper math. I take Algebra 2 and still don't some of it. My teacher only answers 3 questions on the homework and we had a lot. As for Biology, we had a sub and she wasn't very much help! I take Language/Compostion and was wondering whether I should switch to AP LA/Comp? I was really good at LA/Comp at my last school but I'm not so sure about this school. I know that some of my friends take it and that it's good for college and stuff. But is it worth it?[/COLOR]

[Darren]

[quote name='Hitsuzen'][COLOR="Magenta"]I'm only a Freshman and I take upper math. I take Algebra 2 and still don't some of it. My teacher only answers 3 questions on the homework and we had a lot. As for Biology, we had a sub and she wasn't very much help! I take Language/Compostion and was wondering whether I should switch to AP LA/Comp? I was really good at LA/Comp at my last school but I'm not so sure about this school. I know that some of my friends take it and that it's good for college and stuff. But is it worth it?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]
Well, is Language/Compositon a strong suit for you? I'm assuming it is since you did so well at your last school. If you have friends that take the class, then you should ask them what kind of homework you get and how strict the teacher is. (It always helps to know that you're not getting in over your head) And even if you don't do as well as you did at your old school, you're correct. AP classes usually look good on college applications, as most have already stated. Also, I don't know if your school works the same as mine, but AP classes count as a 5 point class, so even if I make a B in there, it still counts as an A... You should check into that, because it's always a plus if the class turns out to be very simple.

[Funny Girl]

[quote name='Darren']Well, is Language/Compositon a strong suit for you? I'm assuming it is since you did so well at your last school. If you have friends that take the class, then you should ask them what kind of homework you get and how strict the teacher is. (It always helps to know that you're not getting in over your head) And even if you don't do as well as you did at your old school, you're correct. AP classes usually look good on college applications, as most have already stated. Also, I don't know if your school works the same as mine, but AP classes count as a 5 point class, so even if I make a B in there, it still counts as an A... You should check into that, because it's always a plus if the class turns out to be very simple.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Magenta"]I think that it's a strong suit for me. Though I really hate it. I only thought that it might look good for college applications so I was seeing into it. I'm not sure about the teachers since there are so many of them that teach AP Language. I might stay in my LA/Comp class since I've made some friends in that class and even if I do switch, there may be a chance where I don't get the class or in the same class as my friends. I 'm not so sure about the point thing but I will go look into it.[/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[quote name='Hitsuzen'][COLOR="Magenta"] I take Language/Compostion and was wondering whether I should switch to AP LA/Comp? I was really good at LA/Comp at my last school but I'm not so sure about this school. I know that some of my friends take it and that it's good for college and stuff. But is it worth it?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[font="trebuchet ms"] Take AP Lang/Comp if you're good at timed writings. Because if you are, than you're probably good at doing the multiple choice for the AP Lang exam as well.

Honestly, I didn't really learn anything in AP Lang. After the first practice essay in class (which I got a 5 on, lol) I consistently got 8/9s on the rest. Writing is just one of those things that's hard to learn or improve significantly at.

And never assume that you'll do well in an AP class if you do well in a regular class, though. When I took regular precalculus rather than honors, I had a 98 with no studying whatsoever. Then I moved onto AP Calc and I had to put in hours of work each day to maintain a decent grade.

The only sure thing I can tell you is: don't ever pick classes based on your friends. [/font]

[quote name='Darren']AP classes usually look good on college applications, as most have already stated. Also, I don't know if your school works the same as mine, but AP classes count as a 5 point class, so even if I make a B in there, it still counts as an A... You should check into that, because it's always a plus if the class turns out to be very simple.[/QUOTE]

[font="trebuchet ms"] You also have to take into consideration that colleges don't look at AP/Honors points. Your weighted GPA means nothing to most colleges.[/font]

[Darren]

[quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"] You also have to take into consideration that colleges don't look at AP/Honors points. Your weighted GPA means nothing to most colleges.[/font][/QUOTE]
Well, yes, I know that. But I was only meaning that a 5 point class can help class ranking, and that is important to colleges. I know that I've been taking as many Honors, AP, and Distance Learning classes as I can so I can improve my ranking. And if the school's small enough (like mine is) it could be very easy to make it into the top 10% or top 5%.

[Funny Girl]

[quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"] Take AP Lang/Comp if you're good at timed writings. Because if you are, than you're probably good at doing the multiple choice for the AP Lang exam as well.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Magenta"]I know that I'm good at timed writing since I write really fast. But having it timed makes my handwriting suck and I make too many little mistakes. [/COLOR]

[QUOTE]And never assume that you'll do well in an AP class if you do well in a regular class, though.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Magenta"]I never had trouble in LA/Comp but it's just that I don't like it very much. It might be wrong if I took the AP class but it just means that I might dislike it even more. But seeing as how I'm a total space cadet in regular LA/Comp, there's probably no use in going higher than I already am.[/COLOR]

[QUOTE]The only sure thing I can tell you is: don't ever pick classes based on your friends. [/font][/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Magenta"]Oh, I'm not picking it just be with friends, since I probably won't be in the same class as them or the same day for that matter, I was just seeing if it would be the right thing to do to take a Honors class for college reasons. [/COLOR]