Are we neighbors? I get where you’re coming from as we live in a similar area, where everyone seems to pursue stem, mostly engineering. Fortunately, I found a circle of like-minded friends so our dd and her friends were raised similarly, but the pressure is real. my son is pretty much the only one in his group who didn’t choose engineering. I recently posted about his experience trying to get into AP physics, which is heavily impacted… What a crazy experience that was!
As for the double accelerated math, my son is very much into math and it comes easily to him, but his middle school teacher strongly feels the double accelerated path is not the way to go for anyone, as she feels it rushes through and doesn’t allow the kids to establish strong foundations. She had him double up on math in eighth grade and he was still able to take BC calculus in 11th. If your kid is not going into STEM I would not have them do double accelerated math. I don’t know if this is true everywhere, but it’s also very difficult and a lot of people drop out. It’s more than enough to get to calculus in 12th grade if they are not doing stem. I like the way you phrased it… Maybe you can convince her that she will have more time for the things she really loves, like water polo, if she avoids the double accelerated track.


Choose activities she loves. If she enjoys it, she’s more likely to stick to it and put more effort into it and perhaps become a leader, or do really well in competitions, or whatever the desired outcome is. If she enjoys 4H, then do 4H. if there is an interest in law and public policy, as you said, something like debate or model United Nations, or We the people (if your school offers that) could be very interesting. by the way, my son has a strong interest in this area, too, so we do have some experience. if she’s interested in history, there are history competitions. Student government is another option. Definitely take AP history, government, and English. There will be a strong emphasis on writing skills. on that note, she could write for the school newspaper. Have her go to club rush and check out activities that sound interesting- she should go to the intro meetings to check them out and decide what she wants to do.


I don’t really see a need for a college counselor so early, but if you can easily afford it and if it makes you feel calmer, then sure. at most you would just need a brief consult in eighth grade, in my opinion. I will say this… A lot of the college counselors take advantage of people like you and scare people into hiring them. I have seen this in action in the bay area, and I’m sure other similar areas all over the country. Almost everyone we know did hire a counselor, but generally that started in 11th grade. we didn’t initially hire one with DD, but then I freaked out in October, thinking we were the only ones who didn’t, so I hired someone at the last minute. It only lasted two weeks- I fired her as it was a complete waste of time and money as my kids are strong writers.. If you’re going to hire someone then definitely start looking in the summer before 11th grade. I can see how that could be helpful since you don’t have experience with the system and California admissions are extremely competitive, assuming you want to try to stay in State in the UC system or private colleges, etc. There are MANY other options out there, however, especially out of state. I know the public schools in CA have very limited college counseling. Feel free to PM me if you’d like.