RJM posted:I never considered Harvard and Yale might have won NCAA hockey national championships with skating valedictorians. They’re probably rarer than skating dancing bears. 🙂
I was a recruited football player at a top Ivy. It used to irk me to no end that the football program (and sometimes the basketball program) would get criticized for lowering academic standards when in fact the hockey program was much, much worse.
2019Dad posted:
From the Harvard Crimson article: "recruited athletes with an academic rating of 4 had an acceptance rate of 70.46 percent, nearly a thousand times greater than the 0.076 percent admit rate for non-athletes with the same academic rating." Being a recruited athlete is an astronomical advantage.
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Exactly right 2019Dad. Bottom line is you want to be an athlete coming through the "Admissions side door" of HA athletic recruiting than the Admissions front door with the rest of the world. In my HA recruiting experience, my son's baseball skills, and SATs mattered a lot more than his GPA. He challenged himself and took a bunch of AP courses (Math, Engineering, Science, Languages) because it interested him not because of a GPA boost or anything else. Given the grade inflation that is going on (if I had to choose) I'd put more emphasis on SATs/ACT classes as a recruited athlete.
As always, JMO.
Personal example. In total, my son took 4 AP classes, 2 his Jr year & 2 his Sr year. Plus 1-2 honors classes during Frosh/Soph years. This was good enough for many of the HA's but not all.
It may have been mentioned already but I'll reiterate....the D1 & Ivy HA's are completely different than D3 HA's. As a specific example, my son had pre reads done & cleared by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth & Brown. Now, there is never a guarantee at these schools (likely letter is as close as you get), but the coaches/admissions were confident he had the right scores. So...his grades/scores were good enough for the Ivy's, yet NOT good enough for Johns Hopkins (D3) and a few other HA D3's. Hopkins needed him to have a higher SAT score. The D1/Ivy's have more leeway than the D3's...this is just one of the differences between D1 & D3 recruiting.
I think the most important thing is to get the highest GPA & SAT/ACT score you can. It doesn't matter that you took 10 AP classes if your GPA is 3.5. The 3.5 is going to kill you.
The 3 questions in order, almost every coach first asked my son is this: 1) What is your GPA 2) What is your SAT 3) Did you take AP classes. Not how many AP classes...just did you take some.
My son could never have gotten into the schools he was looking at without baseball. This includes the D3's. In general, when it comes to D3's you have to be able to get in just like the regular student body, however, athletics do have a small amount of pull and you can be on the lower spectrum of admittance guidelines.
I hope this helps, I know my head was spinning when we went through this process. If you want to go the HA route without baseball, then that is a completely different story/path.
This is a great discussion.
Yes, this is a great discussion. The wealth of knowledge here is amazing. Many thanks.
I haven't seen it mentioned and if it was I missed it. Since we're just now starting the process ourselves ... we've been able to get a lot of information by searching on each school's common data set. That should give you an idea on where your student currently stacks up vs those admitted last year.
A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
Our school does not require the students to take the AP exams
Chasing90 posted:I haven't seen it mentioned and if it was I missed it. Since we're just now starting the process ourselves ... we've been able to get a lot of information by searching on each school's common data set. That should give you an idea on where your student currently stacks up vs those admitted last year.
Yes, common data sets are very helpful. You can see all kinds of information, including about need and non-need based aid and athletic awards, and make spreadsheets comparing different schools.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
My son's high school does not require them to take the AP exam but it's sort of assumed that they will.
Will say upfront that I gave this more of a glance than an in depth reading. The real answer is that colleges all use different admission standards. If you want to know how a school views your student your best bet is to talk to an admissions officer from the school you are interested in. They will let you know what is important to them. Don't be afraid to contact them, that's what they are there for.
Also, many high schools have access to a tool called Naviance. Naviance can be used to help you predict your students chances of getting into a particular school. It uses data from the actual students in your school so it equalizes the idea of one HS being more challenging than another. I would talk to your child's guidance consular and see if they can provide you access to Naviance. Some schools don't provide a login id to parents, or only provide ids to Jr's and Sr's. Check with your school and see if you can get access to this tool, its helpful to figure out your child's odds of getting into a particular school.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
At my sons' HS where I teach, AP tests are required for Juniors, recommended (not required) for Seniors.
Not at my sons’ school. In fact, my son took an AP Gov class but decided not to bother with the AP exam because the college he chose to go to won’t use it toward anything. Weird.
Lots of great thoughts here. I'll attempt to be additive based on my 2019's experience. He is going to play next year for a HA D1, but the journey to get there was windy and fascinating. He had deep conversations/interest/pre-reads etc. with Ivies, Patriot League, NESCAC and other HA D3s.
One significant takeaway - all of the factors (class rigor, grades, test scores, school profile) combine to form a body of evidence of demonstrated performance over time. Our son had a 34ACT, 4s and 5s on AP tests and an unweighted GPA of 3.6 taking a rigorous course load at a rigorous school. However, that 3.6 was a roller coaster with As, Bs, and Cs. What we learned was that the demonstrated pattern of performance ( which for our son was bright kid, highly variable student) was equally as important to colleges as the empirical stats - 34, 3.6.
The next takeaway was that there are no hard and fast rules across any of the school types. It basically came down to how much a coach might want a player to fill a particular role. We had 2 D3 coaches basically say "we want you but you have 2Cs and we can't support that". We had a NESCAC school explain that they have 3 bands - A, B and C - where A can get in without help, B can get in with support and Cs would not be admitted without the coach using his "once every few years" marker with admissions. Finally we had an Ivy coach say you will be fine, but it would almost be better if you had a 30 and a 3.9 because a kid with a 34 and a 3.6 looks like a slacker.
It seems that in terms of baseball recruiting and admissions, coaches are seeking the best possible players they can get in who will be able to handle the rigors of that particular institution. The last thing coaches might want is to burn a recruiting slot on a kid who might not flourish academically, unless that kid is really good. Unweighted GPA and test scores are valuable comparative metrics, but variability within a GPA or a mismatch between GPA and test scores can also tell an important story
ALF648 posted:Lots of great thoughts here. I'll attempt to be additive based on my 2019's experience. He is going to play next year for a HA D1, but the journey to get there was windy and fascinating. He had deep conversations/interest/pre-reads etc. with Ivies, Patriot League, NESCAC and other HA D3s.
One significant takeaway - all of the factors (class rigor, grades, test scores, school profile) combine to form a body of evidence of demonstrated performance over time. Our son had a 34ACT, 4s and 5s on AP tests and an unweighted GPA of 3.6 taking a rigorous course load at a rigorous school. However, that 3.6 was a roller coaster with As, Bs, and Cs. What we learned was that the demonstrated pattern of performance ( which for our son was bright kid, highly variable student) was equally as important to colleges as the empirical stats - 34, 3.6.
The next takeaway was that there are no hard and fast rules across any of the school types. It basically came down to how much a coach might want a player to fill a particular role. We had 2 D3 coaches basically say "we want you but you have 2Cs and we can't support that". We had a NESCAC school explain that they have 3 bands - A, B and C - where A can get in without help, B can get in with support and Cs would not be admitted without the coach using his "once every few years" marker with admissions. Finally we had an Ivy coach say you will be fine, but it would almost be better if you had a 30 and a 3.9 because a kid with a 34 and a 3.6 looks like a slacker.
It seems that in terms of baseball recruiting and admissions, coaches are seeking the best possible players they can get in who will be able to handle the rigors of that particular institution. The last thing coaches might want is to burn a recruiting slot on a kid who might not flourish academically, unless that kid is really good. Unweighted GPA and test scores are valuable comparative metrics, but variability within a GPA or a mismatch between GPA and test scores can also tell an important story
100%...this is spot on.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
No, it was not mandatory at our school. And funny enough it didn't even matter at the college he ended up picking.
Our school requires AP students to take the AP exam in order to receive credit for the course.
We were consistently told 6-8 AP classes for very high academic schools. We were also told (by an Ivy League Coach) no B minuses. My 2019 is going to a high academic next year and they wanted to see a hard senior schedule and they want senior grades for both semesters to know you're not slacking senior year, event after they accept you.
Midwest Mom posted:We were also told (by an Ivy League Coach) no B minuses.
This is like "what ACT or SAT score do you need?" -- it varies per kid, what high school he comes from, etc.. I've heard people say they were told "no C's" by Ivies and -- while I have no doubt that's what they were told -- it's not that cut-and-dried or, I should say, not necessarily generally applicable.
2019Dad posted:Midwest Mom posted:We were also told (by an Ivy League Coach) no B minuses.
This is like "what ACT or SAT score do you need?" -- it varies per kid, what high school he comes from, etc.. I've heard people say they were told "no C's" by Ivies and -- while I have no doubt that's what they were told -- it's not that cut-and-dried or, I should say, not necessarily generally applicable.
Of course, this is definitely not a black and white absolute statement. It was true of that school as well as several others. Also, now that I'm thinking about it, there IS a difference between Power 5 high academics (Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, etc.) which have more flexibility on grades and scores) than many of the non-Power 5 D1s and the D3s. I found the information and advice from others that I shared pretty accurate for my 2019 son and a few of his friends.
SoCal OG posted:Personal example. In total, my son took 4 AP classes, 2 his Jr year & 2 his Sr year. Plus 1-2 honors classes during Frosh/Soph years. This was good enough for many of the HA's but not all.
It may have been mentioned already but I'll reiterate....the D1 & Ivy HA's are completely different than D3 HA's. As a specific example, my son had pre reads done & cleared by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth & Brown. Now, there is never a guarantee at these schools (likely letter is as close as you get), but the coaches/admissions were confident he had the right scores. So...his grades/scores were good enough for the Ivy's, yet NOT good enough for Johns Hopkins (D3) and a few other HA D3's. Hopkins needed him to have a higher SAT score. The D1/Ivy's have more leeway than the D3's...this is just one of the differences between D1 & D3 recruiting.
I think the most important thing is to get the highest GPA & SAT/ACT score you can. It doesn't matter that you took 10 AP classes if your GPA is 3.5. The 3.5 is going to kill you.
The 3 questions in order, almost every coach first asked my son is this: 1) What is your GPA 2) What is your SAT 3) Did you take AP classes. Not how many AP classes...just did you take some.
My son could never have gotten into the schools he was looking at without baseball. This includes the D3's. In general, when it comes to D3's you have to be able to get in just like the regular student body, however, athletics do have a small amount of pull and you can be on the lower spectrum of admittance guidelines.
I hope this helps, I know my head was spinning when we went through this process. If you want to go the HA route without baseball, then that is a completely different story/path.
Good stuff here and from Alf below. I realized the same difference between Hopkins and Ivies recently. JHU coach told my boy that all-A's are expected in HS, though there are some kids that have a B or two. They also expects a lot of APs, 5 AP classes would indicate slacker, coach told the boy about a kid on the team who had 12 AP classes. For SAT / ACT, they do super - score though, so a kid can focus on a section or two and take the test a few times if he needs to. Seems like a kid needs an ACT of at least 34. On the other hand, I have seen kids get into Ivies with a 28 ACT and few if any APs. I know of a 22 ACT at Vandy, but the kid is a star.
Texas1836 posted:SoCal OG posted:Personal example. In total, my son took 4 AP classes, 2 his Jr year & 2 his Sr year. Plus 1-2 honors classes during Frosh/Soph years. This was good enough for many of the HA's but not all.
It may have been mentioned already but I'll reiterate....the D1 & Ivy HA's are completely different than D3 HA's. As a specific example, my son had pre reads done & cleared by Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth & Brown. Now, there is never a guarantee at these schools (likely letter is as close as you get), but the coaches/admissions were confident he had the right scores. So...his grades/scores were good enough for the Ivy's, yet NOT good enough for Johns Hopkins (D3) and a few other HA D3's. Hopkins needed him to have a higher SAT score. The D1/Ivy's have more leeway than the D3's...this is just one of the differences between D1 & D3 recruiting.
I think the most important thing is to get the highest GPA & SAT/ACT score you can. It doesn't matter that you took 10 AP classes if your GPA is 3.5. The 3.5 is going to kill you.
The 3 questions in order, almost every coach first asked my son is this: 1) What is your GPA 2) What is your SAT 3) Did you take AP classes. Not how many AP classes...just did you take some.
My son could never have gotten into the schools he was looking at without baseball. This includes the D3's. In general, when it comes to D3's you have to be able to get in just like the regular student body, however, athletics do have a small amount of pull and you can be on the lower spectrum of admittance guidelines.
I hope this helps, I know my head was spinning when we went through this process. If you want to go the HA route without baseball, then that is a completely different story/path.
Good stuff here and from Alf below. I realized the same difference between Hopkins and Ivies recently. JHU coach told my boy that all-A's are expected in HS, though there are some kids that have a B or two. They also expects a lot of APs, 5 AP classes would indicate slacker, coach told the boy about a kid on the team who had 12 AP classes. For SAT / ACT, they do super - score though, so a kid can focus on a section or two and take the test a few times if he needs to. Seems like a kid needs an ACT of at least 34. On the other hand, I have seen kids get into Ivies with a 28 ACT and few if any APs. I know of a 22 ACT at Vandy, but the kid is a star.
Yes, just to add a little more substance for anyone actually looking at Johns Hopkins or maybe some schools in the SCIAC. Hopkins said they needed a BARE MIN of 1400 on the SAT...and the last recruited class had an avg of about 1480. Whats really impressive is they usually field a pretty good team. With SAT scores like that its amazing they can find anyone who can actually catch or throw a ball. Kudos to those kids.
Replies here are all accurate. I was an athlete at an Ivy league school and I am still involved with the athletic programs at the school. I also have a son going through the process so I have witnessed first hand what is being discussed. D3 HA are more stringent in most cases. There are no hard and fast rules on what Ivys will accept... ie having no "Cs", taking more AP classes vs honors, needing high SATs over good grades, etc. Coaches will develop a story for each player that will help their cause with admissions. Obviously the better the scores, grades, class rigor, and baseball ability the higher the chances of admission. If any one of those areas are lacking, than the other areas need to be stronger to overcompensate. Composition of recruiting class also can help.
Glofisher's comments sparked an additional thought: players and parents must be prepared for a lot of "fluidity" as it relates to academic requirements in HA D1 specifically the Ivies. My impression is that the academic hurdle rate for any individual Ivy school can shift depending on A) where the school is in its recruiting cycle, B) how their committed class is shaping up from a baseball capability perspective.
For example, in November of my 2019's junior year 2 Ivies gave the same guidance " have a 3.0 and a 30 and limit Cs". As the spring and summer progressed, one of them moved to a 3.5 and 32 and the other stayed constant at a 30 and was OK with a few Cs as long as they happened in freshman/sophomore years. By mid summer the first Ivy had a no Cs policy.
My best guess is that the first school had comparable or better options at my son's position while the second did not yet have that better alternatives that they expected to commit.
Our experience was that coaches really are looking for baseball contribution first.
^^^Absolutely Alf648. You are constantly trying to prove and improve your position with the coach in the Ivy recruiting process. We had one Ivy school (after they offered) insist my son re-take the SAT just to help them out with other recruits. The coach is going to recommend the best baseball players he can get through admissions. Different candidates require various amounts of "coaches equity". As an Ivy recruit, you'd want to use up the least amount of "coaches equity", at least that was my experience.
As always, JMO.
Something I've always wondered is, do the kids that have lower scores & get assistance to get into a school, struggle with the coursework or do they receive enough tutoring that this isn't an issue? I'd think that if an instructor is teaching at a level of say a kid that made a 34 on an ACT it would be difficult for a kid that made a 25 to keep up & have a high GPA.
KLL,
Everybody and every school is different. In my recruiting experience visiting schools with my oldest son, I got a very real impression that every school (Traditional D1s, D1 Ivy, D1 Patriot, D3 NESCSAC schools) was going to do everything in their power to help my son be successful academically and remain eligible. This question and others like it were a significant part of my son's line of questioning.
The traditional D1s that we visited had mandatory study hall for freshmen and those upper classmen that were struggling. They also had designated tutors to help the baseball team. The D1 Ivy and D1 Patriot teams didn't require study halls, and didn't offer designated tutors for the baseball team. However, they had all the tutoring resources that any student had, and a Coach that could help with that process. As it turns out the Ivy that he attended had a weekly (Friday) freshmen academic review with the coach. Freshmen were required to meet with the coach to review grades and attendance. Once you proved to the coach you were not an academic risk, you no longer had to attend these meetings. The D3s were very similiar.
While these safeguards were discussed in our recruiting visits, it became very apparent (in reality) that it is always up to the student to do the work and raise his hand for academic help when needed.
As always, JMO.
"The D1 Ivy and D1 Patriot teams didn't require study halls, and didn't offer designated tutors for the baseball team."
I'll go further: Ivy rules do not permit athletes to receive any help over and above help available to all other students. So, no team oriented study halls; the coach is limited to monitoring his players academics and advising each where help can be found.
Additionally, at Ss Ivy, one-on-one outside (privately financed) tutors were PROHIBITED under the honor code unless expressly authorized.
But, there was abundant academic assistance - ranging from writing to specific subject (tutoring) help - but the kid needed to go get it. S never did; D (regular student) used the help extensively.
Ivys graduate something like 94% of their matriculating classes within 4 years and 96% within 6 years. (Look it up.) Kids don't flunk out - but their final major may not come close to their intro major. Engineers become econ, econ becomes poli sci, poli sci becomes sociology, etc. What we have seen in real life is that the degree from an IVY is the critical achievement - except for super specialized careers (e.g., engineering); I know history majors at McKinsey, and Lit majors at Goldmann Sachs (if that is the kid's cup of tea).
At the kids IVY, instruction was much more "sink or swim" than a smaller D3 LAC. Just about every kid sank for at least first half of first semester (we went back for freshman parent weekend and listened to the dean explain how he was inundated by parents calls when the first INTRO physics mid-term average was 19%; dean told parents to relax, it wasnt the school's first rodeo).
We were initially baffled by the educational philosophy - but over the years it became clear that it worked. It may have been painful and helped exacerbate the "impostor syndrome" many experience, but the results as expressed by the impressive four year graduation rate and the plentiful jobs/careers/opportunities speak for itself.
Related, over the Ss time (including his older teammates), not a single player became ineligible due to grades and all but three graduated in four years; two were drafted juniors who finished in five years; the remaining one left due to health reasons. Over the same period, two reserve seniors left the team in Ss freshman year; apart from the single health issue (a freshman when S was a senior), there was no further attrition.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
Yes on the exam here. $94 per exam.
smokeminside posted:A question for those folks whose kids are taking AP classes: does your school require your kids to also take the AP exam? I know it seems strange that a kid would want to take an AP course and not the exam, but I am curious. At my son's school, the exams are required, and the students must take the AP course for a grade.
Smoke,
Years ago, if you took an AP class AND exam and scored a 4 or 5 that you got credit hours in that class in our state university system thereby skipping over it freshmen year. It is strong motivation, but not clear on the policy today.
As you know, my oldest went to a private university out of state. That school did not recognize oldest son's AP classes/exams, so he did not get credit hours toward his degree. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that over 95% of his incoming freshmen class took numerous AP classes, so it was not an issue. The school did use the AP/Exams as a way to place students in their core classes. For example he had to take engineering calculus rather than business calculus. Contrast this with my middle son (same major) who also had a number of high school and AP classes that did count toward his college degree and he did not have to take these classes again which suited him just fine. He could have graduated early but decided to stay for a collaborative senior project and internship with his current employer.
a K9 posted:RJM posted:I never considered Harvard and Yale might have won NCAA hockey national championships with skating valedictorians. They’re probably rarer than skating dancing bears. 🙂
I was a recruited football player at a top Ivy. It used to irk me to no end that the football program (and sometimes the basketball program) would get criticized for lowering academic standards when in fact the hockey program was much, much worse.
I’m watching the Beanpot.** Harvard and BC are on. I just heard something I would have never guessed I would ever hear ...
“He originally committed to Nebraska-Omaha. It didn’t work out. So he transferred to Harvard.”
I realize athletes get exceptions. If a program is often a ranked program the exceptions are bigger. But Nebraska-Omaha to Harvard?
College hockey programs also tend not to list DOB. It’s not uncommon for freshman to be twenty or twenty one after playing a couple of years of Juniors.
** Traditional mid season collegiate city hockey tournament between BU, BC, Harvard and Northeastern.
Watched BC beat Harvard too and there are Crimson players who had formerly committed to Princeton, Maine and St Lawrence on the roster too, and those are just the ones I happen to know.
It is becoming more and more common in hockey to decommit and change because (1) many players are recruited in 8th/9th grade and (2) most hockey players are indeed 20-21 years old as freshman as they go play juniors after (sometimes during too) HS and as junior players they not only know more about what they might want from their college experience, the team/coach are also more known (ie chances to play, who else is coming, who else is there).
All the Ivys now take transfers (Princeton did not for awhile) and there are transfers from JUCOs on the baseball rosters as well as other schools like an Omaha Nebraska that may surprise you. If the student athlete did well at the previous school, and can handle the rigor of the Ivy, good for them!
I am a high school teacher and have a son that is going to be a freshman next year, so I have done a lot of research on this recently since he is in the process of picking courses.
I work for a 6A public high school in Texas - one that is generally listed in the top 100-150 public high schools in the nation. This ISD is highly academically and athletically competitive.
For our school district: we have recently changed some class ranking procedures to encourage more "well-rounded" kids. Only the 4 core classes count toward class rank, however all courses are reported to colleges as part of GPA for admission consideration. Our AP courses are graded on a 5.0 scale, Honors on a 4.5 scale, and On-Level classes on a 4.0 scale. This means (again for our district in particular) that an 80 in AP is slightly better for overall GPA than a 90 in Honors, which is slightly better than a 100 in On-Level. Every district is different, and you should make sure you know exactly how your district operates.
In my recent discussions with our counselors (I have spoken with 5 of them to get advice for my son on different things) some understandings I gathered - generally speaking - were: 1) Colleges weight your GPA/Class Rank 50% and SAT/ACT scores 50%. 2) Most colleges (especially public universities) do look at the level of classes you took. A student with a 4.0 that took all on-level courses might be considered equal to a student with a 3.7 that took all AP courses (not exact #'s but you get the idea). 3) Colleges are increasingly looking for "well rounded" students - those that are involved with sports, band, or clubs versus those who just take extremely rigorous courses but stay home and study all night, every night. This is a bit contradictory to the grade weights, and I imagine they have always looked for students active in other things, but it is getting pulled into consideration more and more. The Ivy League started this initiative a few years ago and it is spreading. 4) This percentage varies widely, but colleges have a certain number of admission based on grades/SAT, and save some percentage of admissions (maybe 25% or so depending on the school) for those students who have "special circumstances". These are the students who have faced some hardship. It is known by admission departments that some student even lie in their essays about their background - trying to make their lives seem much harder or more dramatic than the average student. Admission in this way can be hit or miss. 5) Being a sought after athlete does give an applicant a lot more wiggle room on grades/test scores - the better the athlete, the more willing they are to bend admission requirements, but every school does have a floor. Conversely, having very good grades can make a borderline athlete much more attractive to a coach.
Right now, I am just making sure my son and I are educated about exactly how our GPA/ranking system works and how that fits in to college admissions. For my son's case (based on our system) I am encouraging him to take as high a level courses as he can take while making good grades. It is kinda like the baseball - he will be what he is - I can encourage and even push him at times to try to reach his limits, but at the end of the day his limits will determine the height of his opportunities. I just make sure he works hard and gives himself the best chance to be near those limits. In my experience as a teacher most kids never come close to their own limits, and in my experience as an adult, most grown ups don't either, but it just seems the successful people I have met in life are the ones who are willing to push.
I hope at least some of that helps.
Thx North TX. Dad. Great post and welcome to the site!
Every situation is different, most schools are different and it’s like nailing jello to the wall. Work to be the best student, citizen and athlete you can be. That’s all you can do. When the rubber meets the road you can try to reverse engineer this stuff and think you have the answer, but what you have is one possible answer.
