College courses are much more intense than HS courses and summer college courses are twice more intense. A normal summer course load would be 1-2, taking 3 is completely crazy.
Insane enough that going through with it may make her tank the start of her college career with bad grades and since it’d be post HS graduation the grades would be reported to the national clearinghouse and follow her forever. (A normal semester load for a full semester is 5×3 credit courses or 4×4 or a combination up to 15-16.)
She likely has 8 weeks between the end of HS and the beginning of college - she needs to find something else to do.
Hi @MYOS1634 !
Thank you for your thinking here. I was not aware of the national clearinghouse, that is really good info! We were leery of taking the college courses over the summer for the reasons you mention and we will pivot to other non-college options since she only wants to prepare for Calculus, Physics and German. My daughter likes Khan (and they have a great format) but really wants an instructor (and one who is adept at teaching and reliable) who can teach the concepts, then apply practice since that is how she learns best. Using Khan with a tutor may be the answer. Thank you!
She can love to learn and keep her mind open and all the things she’s excited about- and STILL have a fantastic summer learning to sail, scooping ice cream, or working as a receptionist at a dental office.
Honestly-- she’s likely to enjoy college LESS if she hasn’t had a true, non-academic break. Unlike HS, college classes start getting intense immediately. There is often little ramp-up time. And she doesn’t need to confirm the direction of her major the summer before she starts! Plenty of kids think they’re off to med school until they meet organic chemistry (so a few semesters of college science already under their belt) and then have to pivot. Plenty of kids think they’re doing engineering, Russian Lit, Econ or whatever until they take the “killer class” that every major has which makes them do a 180.
So to spend the summer self-studying and then working with a tutor is somewhat self-defeating.
It might be her choice- but you don’t have to facilitate/enable it. You can let her know that she might really enjoy and benefit from some non-academic time. And then if she arranges her own class/course/tutor/schedule- there it is. But if she’s counting on your to do the legwork- you can tell her to start working on her resume and get a job. That’s your legwork!
She sounds like a terrific person and student, but even terrific people and students can “believe” something which is not- in fact- correct.
If it were me, I’d want the summer off. Scooping ice cream or lifeguarding would be my speed. I am a big believer in the therapeutic value of downtime.
Having said that, if your D believes she will feel significantly more confident and prepared by taking a couple of courses over the summer (or that she’ll be anxious if she doesn’t), I’d support that.
BUT I might try to persuade her to just do one or two at most. It will be important for her to start her college career rested and refreshed. (There’s a reason that some of the schools that accept the most driven students also send out info on how to take a gap year with the enrollment contract. Burn out is real and not incompatible with intellectual curiosity and drive.)
Is auditing a class a possibility? She can get some in-person instruction but doesn’t have the stress of getting a grade. I would reach out to the institution where she would have taken the classes and the institution where she plans to enroll full-time in the fall to see what their policies are on auditing classes. At many universities, audited classes don’t show up on any transcript, but it seems as though it’s university-dependent.