<p>Having read this thread with more attention than late last night, I believe that this is a perfect example of the many wrongs that seem to take place in Texas, especially in the areas where the race to the top (read top 7 to 10 percent rat race) has fueled the IB/AP nuttiness to the extreme. </p>
<p>Since there are things that the OP will not be able to change, it is best to focus on what can be done. It is a waste of time to fight the school board or try to change the block schedule. It is a waste of time to analyze the “interviews” in the paper about where the “top 10” ended up going because many factors come into play. </p>
<p>So here is my short list:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Build your application from the bottom up and ascertain the changes of grabbing one automatic spot at a Texas flagship. If not, build a list that does CORRESPOND to your national test scores. </p></li>
<li><p>Pay attention to the material posted on the web by the school, with a special interest to the counselors’ section. In the case of Rice, there is a wealth of data about the chances of students broken down by SAT/ACT scores and class rankings. I am really afraid that the scheduling of AP between Junior and Senior will have little to no impact on the decision. The easy to read scores will. </p></li>
<li><p>Do not pay attention to what is printed in the local papers. The stories about education are usually written by genius journalists (quite the oxymoron) who seek sensation first. Those folks have no clue about merit versus athtletic versus need-based aid and will routinely speak about full rides to Harvard or other Ivy League schools. It is better to speak to the recent graduates and find out how the process worked. And, based on the latter, go talk to the GC to compare to the non-inexistent school profile.</p></li>
<li><p>Do not let your child focus excessively on one or few schools at an EARLY stage. As an example, when I found this site TEN years ago, I was sure of my Texas-centric choices, only to find about a type of schools I NEVER had heard about. In the end, I turned down the obvious to attend a school that flew well below the horizon of my GC. I think you will find that most sophomores and junior change opinion about schools and majors quite often. </p></li>
<li><p>Do NOT attempt to build a curriculum based on one particular school. Do not fret over missing X numbers of AP or missing what some unattentive adcom might have shared without much thought or reason. All that is needed in the end is to have an application file that is accurate, true, and represents the applicants well in his or her context. </p></li>
<li><p>And this is the most important part … DO trust the system! It is hardly the crapshoot some love to portray. In the end, the way a student acted or performed through K-12 will usually find its just desserts. This might not be at a school that “everyone” knows but it will be at a school where the student will get the appropriate education and will be happy to transition to the next steps in life. </p></li>
<li><p>Relax! </p></li>
<li><p>Oh yes, do NOT buy in the AP mystique. Plenty of kids get admissions at the top schools without having take a boatload of AP. Some even do without a single one in districts that push dual credits or in schools that had the courage and intelligence to reject that entire IB/Ap boondoggle years ago. As a point of reference, the average AP number at Stanford is between 3 and 4. Not 12 or 14!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>PS Since your area was easy to identify based on the information shared, I believe that students from your HS do tend to go a bit farther than UNT or OSU. The automatic admissions in Texas should play a role, and school such as USC, SMU, and … Rice seem to have welcomed a few students. In fact, it seems that Rice just landed a sought-after swimmer from your area!</p>
<p>All that is left is AP math and AP physics, both of which would have started in the fall and gone the entire year equally 2 credits. >></p>
<p>She has already had 3 years of science and 4 of math, right? I’d bet the AP spots at the school go to seniors who need them before they go to juniors who are “ahead” for various reasons. Most kids aren’t able to double up on math or science classes earlier, so they need the 4th/5th (AP) for graduation/college. </p>
<p>If she is now taking orchestra and French III/AP, that alone counts for four courses. I think you’d also posted she is taking English and AP US - total of 6. What are her other two classes this year? </p>
<p>She will be fine as far as having the necessary requirements for admission course wise. Just make sure she keeps up her grades. Is she top 8% for auto admit to UT? A lot of kids in your area go to UT/A&M because they get merit money and honors college slots from those schools and get no financial aid from other schools because of family income. </p>
<p>That is the same thing that is common in VA. Families aren’t willing/able to pay 200K+ for a private school when their kids can go to UVA or WM (assuming they get in since there is no auto admit in VA like in TX). That auto admit makes a very nice backup for kids in TX, both financial and academic-wise.</p>
<p>I think APUSH is a semester and a half, so there was only 1 full semester available. AP Calculus AB would have been an option, or AP Statistics, but not an AP science as those are 2 semesters each. OP may have wanted to wait and take Calculus AB & BC in same year.</p>
<p>^Another school that doesn’t let you do BC with AB, that doesn’t help either! And APUSH at our school is two semesters. We do schedule a period every other day for AP Labs. Students usually line it up with gym (required every year in NYS) or Health (required one year) which also meet every other day.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth MIT says the average number of APs there is 5. </p>
<p>I really think the OP’s daughter’s schedule sounds just fine given the constraints of the school. Just put together a good list. Falling in love with a reach school isn’t unusual, but it can leave to heartache.</p>
<p>Imkh-- Your daughter sounds as if she’s a strong candidate for a great number of schools, including Rice. Don’t let the adcom shake you up. You haven’t mentioned if you’re full pay, but if you are that gives her an advantage. I concur with what Xiggi posted above. The REAL issues are GPA, test scores and the strength of her classes. </p>
<p>Regarding the dream school issue – I’ve seen numerous posts by college search veterans that claim there is more than one perfect school for a student. And they’re right! My DD has had one school on the top of her list since we visited last summer. No other school could compare. Until she found another dream school a few weeks ago. It’s going to work out.</p>
<p>Can I interrupt this thread with a question? Someone upthread mentioned that Algebra taken in middle school goes on the high school transcript. Is this true only if the class was given at a high school? Thanks.</p>
<p>"Someone upthread mentioned that Algebra taken in middle school goes on the high school transcript. Is this true only if the class was given at a high school? Thanks. "</p>
<p>It depends on your district, and your school. My “home” district offers this, but you need to petition for HS credit, and from what I’ve heard, they don’t make it easy. It also has to be taught in a manner the same as it would be in high school, and supposedly you have to prove that. </p>
<p>In the school my D is at now, it IS automatically considered for HS transcript and credit unless you opt out. But her school runs from grade 6-12, so perhaps that’s why. I’m not sure if the entire district does it this way, but we will not need to petition.</p>
<p>Argentineninetynine - it will depend on your district. In our district the top track eight graders take Algebra 1 and Biology and are warned it will be on their high school diploma. They even give the number grades the high school gives out instead of the letter grades that the middle school uses. Students (most of them) who take two years of language in middle school get placed into 2nd year classes at the high school, but don’t get credit, or if they do - it’s just a P. There’s no way of knowing what your district does without asking.</p>
<p>Quality isn’t an issue. The middle school teacher is by far a much more thorough and tougher teacher than her high school colleague. Guess I should check with the district…</p>
<p>Someone upthread mentioned that Algebra taken in middle school goes on the high school transcript. Is this true only if the class was given at a high school? Thanks. >>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>My kids took Algebra I in 8th grade at three different middle schools and both high schools involved put it on the transcripts. I don’t think it was included in the high school GPA though. It was the same with middle school foreign language.</p>
<p>I would think so. It’s one of the classes that colleges want to see you’ve covered at a minimum. Usually Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Cal & Cal (for most competitive)</p>
<p>I know many kids locally who got into Rice in 2012. Most of those I know were doing AP Calc in their senior year including my D.</p>
<p>CTY (John Hopkins) and EPGY (Stanford) offer any high school class anyone wants to take. EPGY classes are priced at 500 for three months with monthly increments while CTY classes seem to be priced at 800 for 3 months with 3 month increments.</p>
<p>I have been trying to get one of their math classes approved by the school district without much luck thus far. If you really don’t care about credit on the school transcript, then it should be easy to enroll starting tomorrow.</p>
<p>agent99, I don’t think it makes much difference. If they see Algebra 2 and Geometry they’ll assume you took Algebra 1 earlier. In our school those grades are not only on the high school transcript but are also factored into the GPA so it makes a difference if you do well or poorly in terms of your ultimate rank.</p>
<p>In our school system, Alg I is considered a high school course and is included on the HS transcript and factored into the GPA. Ditto HS foreign language courses taken in MS, geometry and Alg II. All of these were offered at the middle school. There used to be an option about whether to report/include these courses on the transcript, but that was eliminated about 10 yrs. ago.</p>
<p>S1 did not have Alg II on his HS transcript – the school system only gives credit if you take both semesters, and he only took one. Interestingly, Alg I does not count as an honors course if taken in MS, but Geometry does!</p>
<p>My D took Alg. 1 in 7th grade and Alg 2 and Spanish 1 in 8th grade. I don’t think any of them were on her high school transcript. But, they did allow her to take Spanish 2-5 and geometry, pre calc and calc in high school. Unfortunately, we had to move after her 9th grade year and the new school only had one year of calc, so there was no more math for her to take as a senior. She doubled up on the science during her senior year instead.</p>
<p>I was told by ad coms during D’s jr year that they look at the rigor of the class more than the number of classes. Since D could prove that she had taken the highest level of math as a junior, she would not be penalized for not having 4 years of math on her transcript.</p>
<p>And remember too…kids opinions change. DD visited a college when she was about 14 (a Texas school, not Rice). For three years she swore that was the ONLY school she was going to apply to. We took her to see other colleges anyway. When the beginning of her senior year came along, she did NOT any longer want to apply to this school. She had sent her SAT scores there. Just changed her mind, I guess.</p>
<p>It is really hard to fathom only taking 4 classes- even if they are AP. Kids here routinely take 6 or 7 classes a semester, regardless of whether they are AP level or not. How will these kids be prepared for the rigor of college with such a schedule?</p>
<p>These were my major complaints about the block system our home hs used to use:</p>
<p>1) Continuity - For example, a student might take math first semester freshman year… then not again until 2nd semester sophomore year. It seemed better to me to have continuous math. Ditto for English. </p>
<p>2) Music - The music leaders encouraged students to stay a full year. That meant 25% of the schedule, so impossible for 4 years for student wanting rigorous college prep. Instead my D went to the IB hs option that allowed her to do orchestra every semester (1 of 8 classes).</p>
<p>camom, ours take 5 classes each trimester, so 15 classes a year total, comparable to a semester system where kids take 14. The classes are an hour long and some run for two trimesters and some are one trimester. AP classes are all three timesters. I added it up once and the kids are actually in class more “minutes/hours” than a semester system and the AP classes get alot of time and the material is covered by the AP testing date. “Our” kids do very well on the AP tests even though we only have a few AP classes available. Fortunately, the school has the kids plan all 4 years in 8th grade so you lay it all out. Each year they have the opportunity to re-do the plan and switch things up, but it does take planning and it does take compromise. Band kids have it tough because they end up have to block out large “chunks” of potential class time if they want to march in the fall AND be in the concert band. I think we were the first if not one of the first to implement trimesters in our state and now it’s quite common. I worked with the kids when they were in 8th grade to get the college essential classes laid into the grid and then let them pick the filler classes. The state mandate for 4 years of math required some tweating, but statistic and AP Econ count as math. Each kid did tweak and change up at least one trimester. Since the state of Michigan requires 4 years of high school math (8th grade doesn’t count) so you work around that and of course everyone with kids that are potential UofM admits make sure that all those boxes, like foreign language, science, English are checked. Off the norm scheduling can be done. It just takes some forethought, planning and compromise. Each kid had one or two classes they wanted to take but couldn’t fit in. I would imagine block scheduling works similarly, in that the kids have longer chunks of time over shorter periods of time but it would take planning.</p>