Attention: People that are looking for an alternative to the northern Dallas suburbs.

[Davidlewisville]

Northern Collin, Denton County and and Southern Cooke and Grayson County could be similar to the Southern Suburbs such as Ellis, Kaufman or Johnson County as well the growth will be more steady in these areas and I don't see Prosper get that big but it's growing fastest there currently it could be just like Forney east of Dallas that has grown fast.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Lucifairy

Most good students prefer AP/IB route as those are rigorous and preferred by good colleges. Another thing that makes HPISD or Plano ISD type districts is big pool of hard working and intelligent students.

Not always. Both my kids were outstanding high school students. Neither considered IB or AP for anything other than some AP classes for enhanced rigor. Pretending that AP advancement is as valuable as taking the real deal at university is bad logic across most classes.

[Soonhun]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Not always. Both my kids were outstanding high school students. Neither considered IB or AP for anything other than some AP classes for enhanced rigor. Pretending that AP advancement is as valuable as taking the real deal at university is bad logic across most classes.

I am still in college but has so far taken classes at three universities (and one community college). For me, the AP classes were much more difficult, and stricter, than anything I have taken in college. The only way I see AP classes as easier is that you are sort of forced to go, so you don't fall into that cycle of skipping one day and letting it accumulate.

Cannot speak for IB, but my friends who were in them really struggled through and they made them sound even harder than my classes at the time.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Parhe

I am still in college but has so far taken classes at three universities (and one community college). For me, the AP classes were much more difficult, and stricter, than anything I have taken in college. The only way I see AP classes as easier is that you are sort of forced to go, so you don't fall into that cycle of skipping one day and letting it accumulate.

Cannot speak for IB, but my friends who were in them really struggled through and they made them sound even harder than my classes at the time.

Hang on. I'm not claiming IB or AP are easy paths. I'm saying that IB and AP are not the only paths that really bright kids may select.

In my son's particular case dual-credits and perfect AP scores on the 3 tests he took proved to be total wastes of time in terms of advanced placement. He took or re-took every single course that he could have skipped save a single history class that was way out of his degree track. To be presides I'm talking about STEM classes exclusively but in every instance save the history hours my son claims the university course was very significantly more difficult that either the dual-credit from Brookhaven or the AP class.

[Lucifairy]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Not always. Both my kids were outstanding high school students. Neither considered IB or AP for anything other than some AP classes for enhanced rigor. Pretending that AP advancement is as valuable as taking the real deal at university is bad logic across most classes.

AP/IB rigor differs from school to school. In Plano ISD, International Honors/Pre-IB/Pre-AP courses are more difficult than most district's AP courses. Students with high aspirations rarely do community college courses, unless they have a schedule conflict. I don't know about the situation in your school, could be diffrent.

[Soonhun]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Hang on. I'm not claiming IB or AP are easy paths. I'm saying that IB and AP are not the only paths that really bright kids may select.

In my son's particular case dual-credits and perfect AP scores on the 3 tests he took proved to be total wastes of time in terms of advanced placement. He took or re-took every single course that he could have skipped save a single history class that was way out of his degree track. To be presides I'm talking about STEM classes exclusively but in every instance save the history hours my son claims the university course was very significantly more difficult that either the dual-credit from Brookhaven or the AP class.

Sorry for the wrong assumption. Anyway, yeah I can see what you mean. I took several classes again in college despite not having to because of my AP tests (stats, bio, chem, calc, us hist, & econ), mainly because I forgot so much stuff and felt weird getting credit when I took it so long ago. I still found the AP classes in HS to be more difficult, but that really differs between schools, teachers, and students. Then, there are some universities that do not take some tests no matter the score (or so I heard), in which cases, AP classes are serious wastes.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Parhe

Sorry for the wrong assumption. Anyway, yeah I can see what you mean. I took several classes again in college despite not having to because of my AP tests (stats, bio, chem, calc, us hist, & econ), mainly because I forgot so much stuff and felt weird getting credit when I took it so long ago. I still found the AP classes in HS to be more difficult, but that really differs between schools, teachers, and students. Then, there are some universities that do not take some tests no matter the score (or so I heard), in which cases, AP classes are serious wastes.

That was my mistake I didn't explain myself well at all.

It's my understanding that several schools won't take AP credits and other that will take them with severe restrictions. Some won't take dual-credit or CC hours under any circumstances. Heck some schools won't take TAMS hours - that's pretty crazy in my book. A running joke at TAMS is TAMS credits usually aren't good enough to count towards an undergraduate biology degree at Harvard but they are sometimes good enough for admission into Harvard Medical School or Harvard School of Public Health, the irony is thick.