In 264 days, Brainy Bird will take his final walk as a student down the hallways of his high school. Well, this will be the case if things go as planned. Between hurricanes and pandemics, who knows when exactly the last day of school will be?
The past few months have been filled with set backs for Brainy Bird. The remote AP testing worked completely against him. He would have had all 5’s, except a 4 in Spanish if he had been able to take the full exams. Instead he had 4’s in everything, except for a 3 in Spanish. His SAT was cancelled again last Saturday. This led to the moment of realizing that his stretch goal of being accepted to MIT is not going to happen. Then we got the call from the school counselor that they cannot accommodate all of the classes that he planned to take his senior year.
His plans were to take – AP English 4, AP Calculus 2, AP Economics/Government, AP Statistics, AP Music Theory, Engineering 4 and Computer Science 4.
There was no way to make this work from a scheduling perspective. He had to give up either AP Music Theory, Computer Science 4 or AP Calculus 2 and replace it with AP Spanish 5 or AP Biology. I was away from the house when the counselor called. I got home to share this with Brainy Bird, and he thought that I had to be joking. The three classes that he is looking forward to are Music Theory, Computer Science and Calculus; he has to give one of them up? Moreover, he hates me for making him take four years of Spanish. The idea of taking a fifth year of it is ludicrous. Lastly, he took high school biology in eighth grade, so he would never have to take it in high school.
Once Brainy Bird got past the disbelief; he moped for a day. Then he got up on Monday morning, and he emailed his high school counselor with his decision to give up AP Music Theory. He needs the Computer Science 4 and Calculus 2 to get where he wants to go in college, and he wanted to be with his friends in Calculus that he has been with since 7th grade Algebra. Giving up Computer Science 4 was never a consideration.
He chose to be an office aid rather than taking AP Biology or AP Spanish 5. I 100% agree with his decision. At some point, every kid needs a break from things that they have zero interest in. This means that Brainy Bird will be 3 hours shy of being a junior in college when he starts next fall. The goal was to start as a junior.
Despite the setbacks, Brainy Bird’s spirits are visibly starting to lift. He has started doing a ton of research about other colleges, and he is finding that many of the public schools have things to offer him that MIT does not. There is a Computer Science Business degree program at Texas that would be an incredible fit for him. Indiana has a solid computer science program where he could complete his undergraduate and masters degree in five years or less, and it would likely be the most affordable out of state option. The University of Virginia is ranked first among the non-military public schools, and it is a great cultural fit for him. Georgia Tech has one of the best computer science programs in the nation, and he got an email earlier this week asking if accepted, if he would like to study in France his freshman year. Well yes!
He has also found other private schools that would be an amazing experience. He has applied to all the strong technical schools – RPI, RIT and Stevens. He has also applied to Vanderbilt and Northwestern. A kid that loves music pursuing an education in computer science would certainly find a special home at either of these highly selective institutions. He was waiting to take retake the SAT to apply to MIT, Cornell, Berkley, Penn and the University of Chicago. I am not sure what his plan is now. He is paying his own application fees, so he has to weight the low percentage of his chance of being accepted with the $75 application fee.
The next 264 days will be filled with highs and lows. There will be acceptance letters, and there will be rejection letters. Brainy Bird is ready for both. He is in the driver’s seat, and he is charting his own course. I have no doubt that this time next year he will be at a college that is the perfect fit for him with his future bright ahead.