My daughter submitted choices for her senior schedule in late January. This week, her GC called her in to tell her that there was a scheduling conflict and she’d have to change at least one class. The GC made a couple of suggestions (“Silver Screen” film class or the school’s equivalent of Home Ec) that weren’t really appropriate for her goal of admission to a great engineering school. She was given one day to pick a substitute. We went through the entire course catalog that night and came up with half a dozen year-long courses and another five or six semester classes that would interest her, benefit her, and not look as if she were choosing to slack off in her senior year.
D2 wanted to handle the meeting with the GC on her own. (Actually, I wasn’t even invited to weigh in by the GC, which I found odd considering I had to sign off on her original choices.) She came home very upset because – you guessed it – all of her choices were filled! She ended up with Drawing and Painting I and AP Government.
It’s my understanding that course selection is done at the school both by grade level and by class rank. So, as a senior in the top 3% of her class of over 450 kids, I see a problem (besides the obvious problem that it took four months to notify her of the conflict.) I offered to help, and D2 asked me to contact the GC and see if we could both meet with her to re-visit the options. I called and left a message on her voicemail on Wednesday morning and have not heard back.
Would anyone like to weigh in on any options going forward? I’ve considered pressing the matter to try and get her added into one of her preferred classes; asking about wait-listing a course or courses; etc., but I can’t do any of it if the woman won’t call me back!
We also select courses in January and our school notifies students of scheduling conflicts about 3 days before school starts in the fall, which makes it really hard on kids moving in or out of classes with substantial summer assignments. Our kids are required to submit several alternate course choices for this contingency.
I would send an email and also call back.
As far as the courses go, when my daughter wasn’t able to be scheduled into any elective, yes, any elective, she ended up having to drop down from the music group she had auditioned into and enrolled in AP stats as her elective. Try thinking out of the box a little and maybe you can come up with something acceptable. Also remind the GC of her status as a senior for scheduling priority.
In my experience, there are some counselors who will bend over backwards to be helpful, but also many people who will push the first solution they find even if it isn’t a very good one. You and your daughter likely have much greater motivation to solve this problem in the best possible way and I would try to attend the meeting because you might have a good idea about this that doesn’t occur to either of them.
As far as “waiting 4 months” to convey a scheduling conflict, as I pointed out, you are very lucky to get this information so early. Most likely there was no schedule to have a conflict until now because the school hadn’t built their schedule until they had all the course choices. I’m sure it takes a while to put together the master schedule. So I wouldn’t put any blame on the GC for that. I’m actually surprised that you have a schedule at this point, because ours is created over the summer once the school system has more information about total student enrollment, staffing, etc.
Remember that senior year course selection is not the only time you will be needing your GCs cooperation. Yes, there is a conflict now, but this is just one battle. There might be crazier glitches up ahead, or a last minute deadline for a scholarship or a piece of information that an elite school needs ASAP to make an admissions decision. You are going to want your GC to like your student and be willing to help your student throughout the senior year.
So, choose your words and attitude wisely. This GC may have pressure from administration that influences this whole course situation. And I imagine GC is working hard to please hundreds of students/parents??
I am not saying don’t keep working to get a better solution for your student. Just saying that you can be persistent without being a donkey about it. And others can chime in, but I don’t think that one class period of senior year is going to determine the fate of your child’s college admissions. Ad cons must know that a large student population at a HS means that there is going to be some juggling of courses and sometimes your student ends up with a course they don’t want. Maybe that is a source of a future college admissions essay? What I learned from a course I didn’t want to take?
Good luck to you and your child as you attempt to communicate with the GC.
Thank you both. I knew I was frustrated, and wanted to make sure it didn’t slide into confrontational. Her GC has been generally pretty good. That’s why I was surprised when D2 said she was impatient with her and wanted her to pick from some really odd and scattershot courses.
This school asks for one alternate course and generally releases schedules by May 1 so, yes, they might not have known until just before. I just thought it strange because seniors are usually scheduled first.
I will email this morning and see what can be done. Thanks for confirming that I should (politely) continue to pursue this, and for talking me down!
What course did she not get that she wanted? The GC may be trying to make sure she gets her core classes at least. Also there is nothing wrong with taking some electives like home ec or whatever she is interested in…everything doesn’t have to be a tough academic classs…if she is interested in photography or film go ahead and take them.
Definitely keep in mind that even if classes are full now, space may open up as students withdraw from the school or other students have to make changes to their schedules. It might be worth checking back a few times or asking to be on a wait list.
@bopper She originally wanted a Principles of Engineering class (which is not an AP class) to help narrow down her career options. Other possibilities were a Computer Programming course, since that’s another interest; AP Chemistry; Creative Writing; AP Music Theory – things that were useful or interesting. I do now have an appointment for next Thursday, and I plan to ask about getting onto a wait list for at least some of her preferred courses.
@NerdMom88 On a side note, some community colleges offer college credit for PLTW courses (like intro and principles of engineering). I don’t know the flexibility of changing courses at the high school. However, if the worst happens (knock on wood), then I suggest that you check out engineering courses at your local junior college or online options.
None of those were open? If she was willing to tackle AP chemistry, what about a different AP science? You mentioned Computer programming, can she sign up for AP computer science? Many students in our school take that without a prior programming class–it would be timeconsuming, though probably not as hard as AP Chem.
My GC decided it would be best not to tell me that I didn’t have a 5th hour, and that I would have to go to the office myself and find out what was wrong. Apparently, there was a scheduling conflict, and of course, my GC didn’t email me or anything, so I had to submit to an online physics course…
@mathyone, she had those courses plus about eight more on her list, and none was available. According to her, there was no other AP science open. (She’s already scheduled for AP Physics.) The only thing in the CS field was a basic intro course to the theory of CS, which both she and the GC thought was a waste of time.
@Keggin, I’m so sorry to hear that! At least D2 got notified. She tried an online science course several years ago and got burned badly, so I don’t think that’ll end up happening. I guess we’ll go in together next Thursday and see what she can get, and what she can wait list.
I thought I’d give you an update on how this was resolved. It actually was a suggestion by one of D2’s friends! We had an appointment with the counselor yesterday, and swapped Calc BC for Calc AB. It’s a compromise, but it allowed for her schedule to shuffle around and include the engineering course she originally wanted. I think it was the best of the possible solutions, since the options if she kept Calc BC were all pretty bad.
Thanks for being a sounding board and for your helpful advice.
Hmm. Personally I would think the calc BC would be the most important thing for a prospective engineer. I’m not convinced that non-calculus based high school engineering classes are really up to the standard of what she would take in college (or that the credit would be of use to her), and the BC seems to me more helpful. But, if she’s happier, I’m sure it will work out fine.
She’ll probably take calculus 1with her class of engineering majors anyway so I think the compromise was a good one. 