<p>Another newbie here – hi, all!</p>
<p>Just a thought for PghMomof2 (and Angry Dad?): being NMSF will deal your S lots of extra cards to play. Have you looked at the various lists of scholarships offered to NMSF kids this year? I find U of Alabama especially compelling – the honors programs there sound remarkable (and free tuition, housing, etc. doesn’t hurt either!) Use the search feature on the U of A forum if you’re interested.</p>
<p>Best of luck – it’s going to get interesting soon!</p>
<p>Great point, Tessie. Alabama is definitely on the radar.</p>
<p>DS broke his ring finger on his dominant hand last night playing football in the neighborhood. Today he drove himself to his all day Math competition. I will take him for the xray after school on Monday. I spoke with a neighbor who is an orthopedist and he said that he would be fine until then (of course I splinted it with a drugstore “baseball splint”). It just goes to show you, its always something.</p>
<p>Seiclin - My junior D (math/sci kid) is taking AP Lit now and loves it! First time she has ever liked an English class (previously struggled to maintain A’s in Honors English classes)…I am glad she was willing to expose herself to a new discipline and expand her notions of what she might like to study. It has also helped her develop stronger critical reading & writing skills. I would rather her take a course that she really wants (or just on a whim) than play it safe. </p>
<p>Question for 2012 cc parents? Have your non-artsy, honors kids taken art, creative writing, design, music, etc…? Seems, sadly, to be missing in the program of study for the top ranked kids at our school.</p>
<p>Pathways, I am glad that your DD is enjoying AP Lit, my son loves his AP Language class (that he struggles to get B’s in) because he loves the teacher and has a lot of his friends in that class. He hates the subject. He has become a better reader and writer because of that class but I see no reason to subject him to another year of a class that he continually has to put in literal all-nighter’s to get the papers in on time. Because of AP English, his other grades have suffered. There is just not enough hours in the day for him to do all this work. Senior year will be a nightmare for all of us if he dosen’t loosen up on some of his academics. </p>
<p>On the other question, my non artsy honors kid took Band freshman year, since he has played the trumpet since he was in 4th grade (private lessons). He changed midyear into music appreciation for his fine arts credit because the time commitment to marching band (compulsory if you take band) was not doable (they practice for 3 hours most evenings and all day on Saturdays). Since freshman year he has not taken any non science or math electives since they are not offered as “honors” credit and it would hurt his class standing. He goes to a school where the top 100 kids are in a virtual arms race for class standing/rank. I wish he would have taken an art class, he used to enjoy creative outlets as a youngster but dosen’t get the opportunity much these days. He does love all sorts of geeky hobbies though…(magnet puzzles, Mythbusters, xbox live). He very rarely picks up the trumpet these days.</p>
<p>What a pain that they wouldn’t let your son do band if he didn’t do marching band! My boys were given a minor hard time because they wouldn’t do marching band but one did a fall sport so they were easier on him. Seriously, why lose a musician because they don’t have time to learn formations?!</p>
<p>Feeling a little stressed that I came off as a pushy parent to my 2014 son’s disadvantage this afternoon. He and his 2012 sister both interviewed for summer language study abroad programs. They interviewed me, too. Last weekend, with his sister, I felt I hit it off with the interviewer. Today I think I came on a little too strong. At one point I told them that he planned to apply for a year exchange program next year and the interviewer looked past me and asked him if that was HIS plan. Ugh! Of course if he doesn’t get this opportunity it will be my fault. Fortunately I was only in the interview room for the last five minutes.</p>
<p>“Fortunately I was only in the interview room for the last five minutes.” Sounds like this was the wrap up portion of the interview and you are, afterall, the parent of a 9th grader who may have some final information to add. Don’t sweat this… you are not too pushy (That would be emailing/calling/lobbying others to influence the decision!!)</p>
<p>I am so proud of D…so far, she’s managed to turn all those boarderline A/B’s straight A’s (waiting for one more grade–same teacher who hasn’t returned that last two tests) with an incredibly tough schedule (IB Candidate with AP’s). And she got up early this am to help with the Girl Scout Cookie Distribution…without complaint. Yea!</p>
<p>Wow, Mom2M, sounds like she’s really doing well. Pathways, DS’ school requires a year of fine arts, he’s taken studio art and enjoyed it (despite not being particularly talented at it - great teacher). Kids who are really artistically inclined take more (music or art), but otherwise not - no room in the schedule. It’s not class standing (the school doesn’t rank or weight), just a question of focus: the school limits to max of 6 classes, and DS would rather use that extra “slot” for a history elective, right now.</p>
<p>Our HS only has APLit not APLang. In English, the two tracks are either Eng1-Eng2-Eng3-Eng4 <em>or</em> HEng1-HEng2-HBritLit-APEngLit. There is talk of adding an APEngLang class that would be open only to juniors, replacing HEng3. The counselors discourage kids from moving between the two tracks, and very few kids do so. </p>
<p>The math department offers somewhat more flexibility in moving between regular and honors tracks. There are regular and honors classes for freshman-sophomores-juniors. Non-math-y juniors and seniors can take various “applied math” classes; honors kids choose either APCalc or APStat for seniors. A small but growing number of kids accelerate and take APCalc in junior year. APStat is an odd class because it is a combination of humanities-oriented kids who want an “easier” AP math class and math-y kids who’ve already taken APCalc (a few take the two concurrently). Perhaps the growing number of accelerated juniors will create demand for a CalcIII class, but there are no plans (or budget) to add it at this time. </p>
<p>The freshman social studies class is offered as both regular and honors. Right now sophomores choose between regular World History or HonorsWH or APEuro. Juniors choose between regular USH and APUSH. There is talk of adding a new APWH option, but I don’t know how it would fit into the curriculum. I assume that it would replace HWH, but I don’t know if it or APEuro would be just for sophomores or would also be available to juniors or seniors who wanted to double-up. Seniors usually take Govt and Econ, and these are offered only as regular or AP. </p>
<p>Our school offers regular & honors & AP classes in Bio and Chem. Honors and AP are a 2-year sequence (e.g., HChem first, then APChem). Physics is offered only as APPhysB. Psychology is offered as both a 1-semester regular class and year-long AP class, but I have never heard of a kid taking regular Psych and then following it with APPsych. There are a bunch of cool non-honors science classes too: Ecology, Marine Science, Anatomy&Physiology, and Geology. They make these classes really fun, with lots of hands-on work and field trips. </p>
<p>The foreign language sequences are regular classes at the lower level, honors in the penultimate year, and AP in the final year (4th year in most languages, 5th year for Spanish). </p>
<p>I don’t think freshmen are allowed to take any APs, not even electives like APMusicTheory or APArtHistory. Kids must take the non-honors introductory art class before taking any of the advanced/honors studio or AP arts. Everyone has to take one year of fine or performing arts, as a graduation requirement. </p>
<p>The state of CA requires one semester of health (non-honors only). Many kids take it in summer school or transfer credit from the community college. Also two years of (non-honors) PE, but many kids get around this by doing sports or marching band (which gives you art credit, too).</p>
<p>One problem with class our offerings is that kids in music, theater, and art have to take a bunch of non-honors/non-AP classes that prevent them from attaining tippy-top GPAs. Our school doesn’t report class rank, but they do give the top 2% a special award at graduation. The lack of “extra point classes” in music, theater, and art means those kids can’t compete. Kids that are interested in maximizing GPA are pushed out of the arts.</p>
<p>The highest possible GPA at our school is something like a 4.6~4.7, unless the kid does something weird (like self-studying the first couple of years of multiple languages and then taking all top-level AP classes – we had a kid that did that!)</p>
<p>Wish Ds HS would require a year of art and/or music (that makes such sense – I suspect it is a funding issue at the school)! She has stayed away from some great classes because they are non-honors (and in the class-rank arms race too costly), but for senior year I am strongly encouraging her to take whatever she likes for an elective (it’s between a 4th AP class or Art 1). She will also take Honors Physics (AP-level not offered) which is a better choice for her prospective major (chem).</p>
<p>We are both tired of class rank considerations driving course selection. While she could theoretically take 5 APs next year it would not be educationally sound for her. We wonder how prospective colleges will view her choices.</p>
<p>College Visits</p>
<p>For those of you who took your Ss or Ds to see colleges over the winter break: What did you do (info, sessions tours, meet with department chairs, athletic coaches, sit in on lectures, poke around campus on your own…etc)? What was most helpful to your juniors (and you)? and of course do-able in 1 day? </p>
<p>We are planning to visit two campuses during Feb vacation (road trip) and I need to make a game plan…(We are early in the selection process; I suspect our visits in the fall will serve a different purpose).</p>
<p>Pathways, I think that what you do depends a lot on your student and what he/she is comfortable doing. With child number 1, on our first visits, we did the information session and tour, and learned that for the most part, if you had looked at the Website little new information was given. As child one progressed through the process, she started going to classes and meeting with professors. She also had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to do. Child number two is just starting to get some ideas and isn’t really too interested just yet.</p>
<p>The early tours and info sessions will give your child an idea of what type of school he/she is interested in attending (size, location, setting, etc.). Have fun.</p>
<p>Our DS’s school requires each student to take 2 1/2 years of Art. It can be music, band, jazz, drawing, photography, painting, chorus, piano, guitar or dance. By the end of senior year each student must learn what art is, select a medium and express an original idea artistically.</p>
<p>Our HS requires one year of music or art or drama because that’s what’s in the UC a-g guidelines.</p>
<p>I hear (from an unofficial but knowledgeable source) that >40% of CA HS students graduate from a school that offers NO visual or performing arts! That number that will surely increase given the state’s financial woes. </p>
<p>UC does accept Community College transfer credit for VPA (it’s been official policy since 2002), so students can presumably become UC eligible that way. My source claims that the UC powers-that-be are debating whether continuing the VPA requirement unfairly disadvantages students from impoverished communities, and whether to further amend or drop the requirement.</p>
<p>UC Doorways guidelines does allow “honors designation” (and extra GPA points) for fine and performing arts classes that meet certain guidelines, described here: [University</a> of California - a-g Guide - Honors - VPA](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/a-gGuide/ag/a-g/honors.html#vpa]University”>http://www.ucop.edu/a-gGuide/ag/a-g/honors.html#vpa) Our school district doesn’t do this, but I know of one nearby district that does.</p>
<p>would like to know which colleges look in to sat essay writing section score and we are in california</p>
<p>Our local high school (that my daughter attended for 9th-10th) doesn’t have an art requirement. It says that it meets the state’s art competency requirements through modules in English in certain grades. Having had a child in one of those classes, I don’t believe it. :-)</p>
<p>The kids who cared most about GPA did a lot of crazy things just to boost their GPA (taking a course at the community college – which doesn’t count for GPA, then re-taking the equivalent AP course at the school where it does, etc.). My daughter had already taken 1.5 years of speech/competitive acting, which is an unweighted class. I don’t think that taking speech, art, graphic design, band, etc., was considered unusual, but most of the top ranked kids probably only did it in early grades before they could take AP electives. </p>
<p>My daughter’s current (boarding) school requires all students to take a year of fine arts, but fine arts is offered in the evening and the courses just meet one day a week. So, it doesn’t displace a “real” class in their case. Fine arts at her school can be ballroom dancing or mixed media or yoga or choir, or a bunch of different things. There’s no grade in the fine arts classes, no weighting of academic classes, and the school doesn’t rank students.</p>
<p>Welcome to the new poster!</p>
<p>Our private school requires two years of fine arts. It is a 5 day class and it is graded. My son is a math guy. He plays the violin and had a Strings/Orchestra class in his freshman and sophomore year. He dropped his arts class to take an extra science class this year, so no more violin.</p>
<p>Pathways - Our college visits so far have been tours and info sessions. </p>
<p>linisan - Sorry, I don’t know the answer to your question.</p>
<p>We always try to catch a guided tour; good or bad we’ve found that they always give us something to think about!</p>
<p>We do the info. sessions if convenient, but happily give them a pass if time is limited.</p>
<p>Our favorite parts of a college visit are 1.) Lurking! We try to eat a meal in the campus dining hall, or at least grab a coffee, and hang out. Watching and listening to the students going about a regular day (i.e. Mon. thru Thurs.!) is very revealing. And 2.) we really like to poke around the area surrounding campus – are there little shops and eateries? does the area seem safe? do the locals seem friendly? (are we in a corn field?)</p>
<p>We plan/hope to do departmental interviews during the “admitted student days” round of visits.</p>
<p>^^^We also did that with D1 when we visited schools. At the end, when D1 was trying to decide between 3 schools, she chose the one she felt most comfortable with the student body. There was one school that was her top choice, but when we sat at the student union (book store and coffee shop), everyone was studying. On the first beautiful day on campus, there was no one on the quad playing music or frisbee.</p>